I squatted down to pet Rocky’s friend. “I’m not sure, but I think—”
“What?” Sasha and Jenny both asked.
“There was a third wee dog you found on that island, wasn’t there?”
“Yes, Lenny, Frankie’s dog,” Sasha said.
I really did not want to say anymore. I wanted to close my eyes and forget that I had seen these dogs before. But I knew I could not do that. Jenny would not want me to do that. My voice was barely audible. “Describe him if you don’t mind.”
“He’s a terrier,” Jenny said. “White with tan markings. You recognize them, don’t you?”
“Aye, I’m afraid I do.” I patted Rocky’s head as I stood up and faced Jenny. I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach. I felt as if I had punched her in the stomach.
“Whose are they?” Sasha asked, her voice raspy and emotional.
“Sharkey’s.”
A minute later I was outside on the porch calling Charlie. “We need to go back to Tara Island.”
“What? Why?”
I told him about the dogs. “Josh told Jenny either the dogs fell overboard or were dumped near the island where he was hiding out. That island is just a wee bit northeast of Tara Island.”
“I’m on my way.”
“You’ve a class to teach.”
“I’ll call the University and cancel it.”
“Okay, I’ll head over to Gael Island and rent a boat there. It will be faster than your coming all the way to Anamcara.”
“Good thinking.”
“Should you drop Josh at the University or ask Matt to come stay with him?” I asked.
“Josh should be fine on his own for a wee while.”
“Are we certain it will only be a wee while?”
“Good point. I’ll call Matt.”
“Charlie, do you think we should call the authorities now?”
“Soon. We need to scout out the island and see what’s going on. We don’t want them fleeing and taking Eddie hostage. Or Sam or Ella. We want to get them out alive.”
If they still were alive. And if they hadn’t already taken them on their ship. Our one hope—no money had been moved. And if this was a crime of greed, it would have been.
“I’ll bring weapons for both of us.”
“I was thinking perhaps you might bring a secret weapon.”
“What did you have in mind?”
“The Westside Wanderers.”
My suggestion was met with silence, which quickly progressed to understanding. “Brilliant, laddie. I will get on it immediately.”
I tried to quell Jenny’s fears, but from the look in her eyes, I had not succeeded. And she was not only worried about the future ownership of the dogs. Despite my telling her nothing, I could tell that she knew I was meeting Charlie and she knew it had to do with the case we were working on. And she knew we didn’t want her involved. While I packed an overnight bag, she packed me a lunch and some snacks. I would pick up more supplies on Gael Island.
As I hugged her good-bye, I told her, “The less you know, lassie, the safer—the better off you are.” It was the wrong thing to say. The fear in her eyes told me that. She followed me outside and, with Rocky at her side, watched me drive away.
My intuition had not led me astray. I now knew why it had brought me to the islands.
Chapter 22
Four hours later, Charlie was climbing aboard the boat I had rented on Gael Island. The first thing he handed me was a semi automatic pistol and a holster that I strapped under the soccer jersey that he’d brought along as well. The next thing he handed me was a Smith and Wesson five shot revolver that would fit nicely inside one of my soccer socks.
“None of the lads were willing to come?” I asked.
Charlie nodded toward a large van that was pulling into the parking lot. Six players climbed out. Despite the dismal tone of the situation, I smiled when I saw Sean O’Malley follow his brother out of the back seat.
Once on the boat, Charlie handed out a revolver to each of the players, showed them how to use them—at least point them—and told them how to safely stash them in their socks. Thanks to the slight drizzle, we could get away with wearing our sweat suits over our shorts and jerseys. Fortunately Archie Sinclair and Terry Malloy both had held a gun before. The others quickly mastered the art of retrieving and pointing a gun. Father O’Malley declined and said he had a far more powerful weapon at his disposal.
Once everyone was settled, Charlie started the engine and steered the boat into the mist in the direction of Tara Island, at a far more rapid speed than he had the last time we had made the journey.
When we got close to the island, he cut back on the throttle and we drifted into a small cove that was below the soccer field on the northeast end of the island. A five minute walk from the house, we figured. Our plan might just work. Our plan had to work.
After circling the island twice, we pulled up along three other boats. There was no sign of the Innisfree but they would not have wanted us to find it there. Through our binoculars, at various times we had spotted three different men, one of whom was Mok. We had also caught sight of Sam who was allowed to tend the garden and pick vegetables but only while being closely guarded. When all three Thai men appeared outside at the same time, we inferred that there had to be at least four of them.
There was no sign of Ella, Sharkey, or Sarai. They were no doubt being guarded inside, unless of course, Sarai was one of the bad guys. We prayed not, because she was the one person who could destroy our plan. Everything hinged on Mok’s not knowing that we suspected that Sharkey was missing.
“Do you remember where the trap door to the tunnel is?” I asked Charlie. “Sam pointed it out. See those bushes at the bottom of the hill?”
“Oh, aye, I remember now. So, when are we calling in the coast guard? Before or after we attempt to get to the tunnel access?”
“Before.”
I nodded. “Good answer.”
“Right before.”
Better than right after.
“So, what is the plan?” Father O’Malley joined us.
Charlie looked at me then back at Father O’Malley. “Follow our lead,” he said.
The priest shook his head. “I don’t think the lads are going to like that. You’ve armed them with foreign objects. They will want to know what they are expected to do with them, do you think?”
“Aye,” Charlie conceded, as he and I followed the priest to the group of befuddled soccer players. As we stood in front of the group, we explained the plan that we had both managed to conceive in our minds without having spoken of it.
Satisfied with our explanation of the situation, the team of six, followed us up the hill to the front door of Sharkey’s retreat where we were greeted by Mok and one of the other Thais.
Exuberant greetings were exchanged, at least on our side. “We did not expect to see you here!” Charlie said. “We thought your ship had sailed back to Thailand!”
Mok forced a strained smile and said, “Our ship no work good, need stay to repair, so we come here visit.”
“Oh! Wonderful!”
“And what you here for?” he asked, his arm gesturing toward our group of smiling old boys.
“We have a soccer match scheduled for today,” I explained. “We’re playing some of Eddie’s friends from the islands.”
“A match?”
“Aye,” Charlie said. “Did Eddie forget? I’m not surprised.”
“No, nor I,” I said. “Don’t tell me we came all this way and he forgot to gather the other team together.”
“He no here,” Mok said, the stress lines in his face appearing more pronounced. “Was here but no more.”
He carefully avoided looking at either of us as if we might be able to detect that he was lying.
“He’s not even here?” Father O’Malley stepped forward, joining us in our effort to appear earnest. “I will have to have a word with that lad. We’ve come all this way! And no
game?”
Charlie frowned and turned to face the players, then turned back to Mok. “We can still play. We can have a wee scrimmage among our own men. Or you and your friend can join us. Do you have other friends with you? And Sam could play as well. Are he and Ella here?”
Mok was so shocked that he did not know how to respond so simply nodded. His mouth hung open as we pushed our way past him into the house. Had he made even the slightest effort to stop us, he knew he would give us room for suspicion, a chance he was not willing to take. “Uh, yes. Three of us here. We play with you.”
That meant there were at least four of them, more likely five.
“Excellent!” Charlie said. “We can have a scrimmage. Tell your friends to suit up!”
So far the charade was working, I decided.
“And Sam?” I asked. “He plays as well.”
“Uh, yes, I think.” Mok took a couple steps backwards and called out toward the kitchen. “Sam!”
A moment later, the caretaker who looked as if he had not slept in weeks, emerged. A questioning look appeared on his face as he looked from Charlie to me.
Charlie stepped forward and said, “Good to see you, Sam.”
The caretaker glanced at Mok before speaking. “You too. Uh, what—what brings you here?”
“Soccer game,” I said. “It looks as if Eddie forgot he’d scheduled it. Just like him, eh? We show up and he’s not even here. But Mok has kindly obliged us. He and his friends have agreed to scrimmage with us. You can join us as well.”
Obviously unsure how to answer, he glanced again in Mok’s direction.
“You to play too, Sam. But Eddie no here. Was but no more.”
Ah, I recognized an opportunity to inflict a wee bit of pressure on Mok which I did not allow to fall by the wayside. I asked, “Where did Eddie go? We haven’t heard from him in a while.”
Mok thought for a moment, then Sam jumped at the opportunity and said, “He was here but went to Ireland for a while to see his family. And he figured he would catch a Celtic-Rangers game while he was in Ireland.”
I did not have to look at Charlie to see how he would be reacting to that bit of news—the same way I was.
“We meet you on field then,” Mok said, explaining to his friends in Thai what was happening and then motioning for us to head down to the field. We filed through the door, but not before Charlie and I’d had a chance to assess the situation.
“They’re definitely here,” I said. ”If we didn’t know if before, we do now, thanks to Sam. I doubt he would have made two blatant errors in the same conversation unless it was on purpose and he was trying to tell us something.”
“I think you’ve got something there, Malcolm. Didn’t Eddie say his family had moved to Scotland years ago?”
“He did, and of course, we both know that any Celtic-Rangers game would be played in Scotland, not Ireland and—”
“There aren’t any games on the current schedule,” Charlie finished my thought.
“Precisely. I doubt Sam thought to tell us those things on his own. Which means, Eddie is here and somehow managed to tell him what to say to us if we called again or showed up.”
“Clever wee Irishman.”
“Indeed,” I said. “Sam’s pretty clever himself. In retrospect, I think he was trying to tell me something during our last phone conversation when he referred to my being a chemist rather than a physicist.”
“It was a deliberate attempt to tell you they were in trouble.”
“Aye, it was, and I missed the clue.”
“As would I have,” Charlie said.
“Do you think they’re in the tunnel,” I said quietly as we made our way to the field.
“Aye. Very likely. As soon as they saw us coming, they probably took Eddie and Ella into the tunnel. Sarai too if she’s here.”
“It appears that Sarai is one of the good guys,” I said.
“Aye, it does appear so,” Charlie agreed. “If she were on Mok’s side, she would have told him we’d been questioning her on Sharkey’s whereabouts and that we believed he was missing.”
“Precisely. And then he never would have bought our story about why we are here. As it is, do you think they suspect us?”
Charlie shrugged. “Only if Sarai told them we suspected that Eddie had disappeared.”
“And if that’s the case, we may have just escorted the Westside Wanderers into a hornet’s nest.”
“Aye, we may have done, but we do have a couple advantages.”
I took a deep breath, and asked, “And what would those be, Charlie?”
“The element of surprise. They don’t know we’re armed or that we know about the tunnel.”
“And?”
“And Father O’Malley’s connection to God.”
I exhaled and nodded. “Something we may very well be needing.”
Fifteen minutes later, Mok and his two friends and Sam showed up dressed for a match. We divided the group into two teams and hit the field. I had never played with a gun strapped to my chest or another stuffed in my soccer sock and I sincerely hoped I would never have to again. At one point about twenty minutes into the game, when our own Terry Malloy kicked me in the calf, I cried out, more from the terror of the gun somehow going off than from the pain.
“Sorry,” he said, cringing as he backed away, and I realized he could feel the gun with his soccer boot. If that happened again, with one of the Thais kicking any of our guys, it would be over.
I nodded toward Charlie and he nodded back, understanding what I was telling him. Fortunately we were on opposing teams and I managed to get the ball from Sean O’Malley with an intentional slip up on his part, and I headed for the goal. I got off a clean hard shot, unconcerned if it went into the goal or not. What it did do, was give Charlie a chance to go down, faking an injury.
Quickly I trotted over to him and helped him up. He played the part well, limping and moaning. “I twisted it. I think I need to ice it,” he said.
I stood beside him so he could put his arm across my shoulder and together we hobbled from the soccer field toward the house. As expected, Mok trotted after us.
“Where you go?”
“We need to get some ice on this right away,” I said, noticing that our players had taken advantage of the break, to sit down on the grass and catch their breaths, despite it only being midway into the first half.
“I get the ice. Bring it here,” he said as he hurried up the path.
Charlie and I looked at each other. “That’s okay,” I said. “It would be better if he could sit with his ankle raised on a chair.”
“But easier to bring ice here,” Mok said.
“It’s no problem,” Charlie said. ”Malcolm is a strong lad. And if you’d give us a hand, we’ll be up the path in no time.”
Mok’s face tightened but he could not very well object, so he escorted us, lending his shoulder to Charlie’s other arm. Once Charlie was sitting with his ankle propped on a kitchen chair, Mok was busy fetching ice from the freezer. I quickly headed for the back of the house, calling out to him that I was going to use the bathroom. I glanced back over my shoulder and while I saw fear in his eyes, he was not so concerned that he stopped me. If he had, I would have known that they were holding Sharkey and the others inside the house instead of in the tunnel.
I scurried down the corridor of bedrooms and bathrooms, noting that all doors were open. Then I went into the closest bathroom, waited a minute, flushed the toilet, ran the sink water, and headed back to the kitchen. By then, Charlie had a dishtowel filled with ice wrapped around his ankle. I stood at the opposite end of the kitchen so that it was impossible for Mok to keep an eye on both of us at the same time.
I gave Charlie a quick nod and he took the towel from his ankle. “I think I need a little more ice in here,” he said, “if you don’t mind.”
I hurried over and relieved him of the makeshift ice pack while Mok fetched more cubes from the freezer. It was then that I took my
opportunity and pummeled him on the back of the head with the ice pack. But he didn’t go down. He moaned, then turned quickly, his fist meeting my chin. I swung back, but admittedly, despite my height and size advantage, I was not used to fist fights. Apparently he was.
Charlie leaped from his chair and joined in against the scrappy little fellow. We quickly had him knocked out, gagged, and tied up, but not without war wounds of our own.
“What now?” I asked.
“We punt,” Charlie said
I groaned and Charlie laughed. “You take the low road and I’ll take the high road and we’ll meet in the middle.”
I nodded. At least we had a plan. Somewhat. I headed out the door and in case anyone was watching, I limped along slowly as if I too was hurting. When I reached the bottom of the hill, I bent down beside the bushes that contained the trap door to the bottom of the tunnel, pretending to tie my shoe laces. Glancing up and noting that none of the Thai players were watching me, I dipped into the bushes, located the trap door, yanked it open and climbed inside. Using a tiny flashlight that Charlie had given me, I made my way as quietly as I could along the tunnel.
I stopped when I heard voices. Unfortunately I didn’t speak a word of Thai, but what I did realize was that there were two of them standing guard, if indeed Sharkey and Sarai and Ella were inside the tunnel. I waited a couple minutes longer before continuing, my flashlight now inside my pocket. There was a light on beyond me so it wasn’t completely dark. I pulled the gun out of my sock and had it in hand as I inched my way toward the voices. If my sense of time was accurate, it would only be another couple minutes before Charlie hit the wall above the hidden door to access the tunnel from the house.
Again I stopped when I heard some English. Ella, I decided. No gags. Probably not necessary with the soundproof tunnel. And the threat of something happening to Sam was enough to keep them quiet. And vice versa. A moment later I smiled at the sound of the familiar lilt. Sharkey. I could not yet make out any words, but the accent was unmistakable.
Another fifteen steps and two curves closer I heard what sounded like a boat and then the whirring of a helicopter. Charlie was a man of his word. He had indeed called in the cavalry. Suddenly the two guards were speaking loudly in Thai. Then there were scurrying sounds inside the tunnel. Clearly they were distracted and frantic. Time to make my move. Charlie had determined the same thing and the door from the house burst open, catching the two off guard.
Saving Sharkey Page 26