by Gary Jonas
Esther popped into the air above us. “There are more sharks down there, and that Great White just joined them.”
“The toothless Great White?” I asked.
“It still has plenty of teeth,” Esther said.
“We’re heading toward shore. Let us know if they follow.”
“I can pop back to shore to get help,” Esther said.
“Good idea,” I said. “Find the Coast Guard. Have them come get us.”
Kelly found a nylon rope floating in the debris. She tied it around me under my arms, then hooked it to her left ankle. “I’ll get us to safety,” she said.
“Esther can get help.”
“And bring them here how? Do you know our coordinates?”
“No, but we’re about fifty miles from shore. They can send out a helicopter. Yeah, I know the ocean is a big place, and that spotting us in the water would be like finding a beach ball in an area the size of New York, but we have Esther.”
“It’s all berries,” Esther said. “I can bounce back and forth from the helicopter to you and guide them in.”
Once Esther had been someplace, she could go there instantly. As she’d never been to the Coast Guard station, she’d have to find it first. But it would take most of a day for Kelly to swim us to shore.
“In case that doesn’t work, we need to start swimming,” Kelly said. “She’s attached to you, so she can always go to you.”
“All right,” I said. “Esther, go get help.”
She nodded. “Ab-so-lute-ly,” she said.
For the next seven hours Kelly and I swam toward land. I helped with the kicking as much as I could. Fortunately the sharks left us alone. Evidently, sharks aren’t all that interested in people, and as I kept my shoulder and right hand out of the water, my blood didn’t attract them.
I was more worried about jellyfish and other potential hazards.
Kelly could swim for hours without any trouble, but I grew tired. I needed water, and I needed rest. I didn’t have the benefit of magical engineering to keep me from feeling the effects of the elements. I got cold. My mind wandered. I lost track of time and felt like we’d been moving through the water forever, and worried we might be going the wrong way. Every now and then, Esther popped in to check on us. The Coast Guard was on the way, but it would be a while. A couple of times, I had Esther shoot into the sky to make sure we were heading toward the lights of Miami before she returned to the helicopter. When the sun broke over the horizon, I thought it was an illusion. The sky grew brighter by the minute, and Kelly kept swimming along like it was no big deal.
Kelly stopped swimming. “How are you holding up?” she asked.
“I’m cold, hungry, tired, hurting, and I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Man up,” she said. “Esther will be here with a ride back to civilization soon. You’ve been taking it easy for too long.”
“I kicked for a while, but I got tired. Blood loss will do that to people.”
“I don’t think your injuries are that severe, but I wasn’t only talking about the swim.”
“What are you saying?”
“No Iron Man competitions for you,” she said.
“Do I look like Tony Stark?”
“Who?”
I waved her off. “Bad joke. Never mind.”
“Whatever. As soon as we take care of Terrell, you need to get busy on a more rigorous exercise program. And I need to get you back into a dojo for training. You were terrible on the boat.”
“Hey,” I said. “The guy wrestles sharks for fun. He tossed your ass in the drink, too.”
“I was trying not to hurt Meghan and Bill, which complicated things. And he didn’t throw me in the water. I jumped to avoid the machete he used to behead Angela.”
“Are we back to the machete? You could have taken it.”
“You said to leave it.”
“I said we didn’t need it. I did not say to leave it.”
“You specifically said to leave it, Jonathan.”
“So now it’s my fault Angela is dead? Is that what you’re saying?”
“No. Terrell killed her before he cut off her head. He snapped her neck while I was busy with the others.”
We hadn’t talked about any of this while swimming. We were trying to survive. Now that there was a boat approaching, the events of last night moved front and center.
“We can’t do anything about it now,” I said.
“Just so you know, I’m going to cut off Terrell’s head.”
“I’m totally cool with that,” I said.
Finally, Esther popped in again. “Almost there,” she said, and I heard the helicopter in the distance.
“Awesome,” I said.
She smiled. “Back in a jiffy.”
This time she didn’t pop away. She rose up into the sky, keeping herself visible. She moved toward land and I lost sight of her, but soon the helicopter thundered overhead. Esther guided them to us and they lowered a hoist basket to bring us aboard.
They were good to us. Wrapped us in blankets, gave us sandwiches, and ultimately took us back to Miami. The official record didn’t mention anything about a ghost, of course. Far better to just say they found us and leave it at that.
CHAPTER TWENTY
The day was spent getting patched up at the hospital. Then, because we’d spent so many hours in the ocean, and electronics and salt water aren’t on the best of terms, I went to replace our phones. The customer service people helped download our contacts and info from the cloud, and by evening, we were back in business.
I met up with Kelly and Esther back at the hotel. Kelly was packing her suitcase.
“Everyone from the film crew is gone,” Kelly said.
“They went back to Hollywood,” I said.
“So what now?”
“We need to find out whether or not Bill, Meghan, and Terrell went to L.A. with them.”
“What about Angela?” Esther asked.
“I don’t know. I mean, her head is in the Atlantic. I suspect Terrell tossed the rest of the body overboard before going back to the marina. If they went back to the marina.” I sighed. “I guess that should be my first call.”
“Will they be open?” Kelly asked.
I checked the time. It was nearly seven in the evening, and it was Saturday. “Not likely,” I said. I placed a call to the marina, got their after-hours recording, and hung up.
“That’s a no,” Kelly said.
“Bingo. Maybe I can get a ride over there. Uber or a taxi.”
“You can do that in the morning. You should get some rest.”
“I can at least call Jean or Ryan to see if Meghan and Bill were on the plane back to L.A.”
“I’ll handle it,” Kelly said.
“Do you have their numbers?”
She grinned. “I have Trudy’s number. Go get some sleep. You look like you’re ready to collapse.”
“I’m good,” I said, but the thought of lying down brought a wave of exhaustion over me. “But sleep will make me feel better.”
She nodded.
I put my hand on the door handle, then turned back. “Kelly?”
She looked over at me. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
She gave me another nod.
Esther moved toward me. “I’m going to stay here with Kelly,” she said.
“Sounds like a plan.” I left them there, staggered down the hall to my room, and didn’t even bother to kick off my shoes. I plopped on the bed without turning down the covers, and as soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out.
***
At breakfast, Kelly filled me in on her call to Trudy. Bill and Meghan didn’t make it to the plane, but they called to say they’d be on set Monday. The church crowd descended on the hotel restaurant to partake in the buffet. We had a table toward the back.
“Interesting,” I said. “I wonder if Terrell is going with them.”
“He could go anywhere he wants,” Kelly said.
&nbs
p; “If he finished the ritual.”
“You don’t even know what he’s after.”
“Sure I do. Immortality.”
“For what purpose?”
“To live forever.”
She rolled her eyes.
“It hasn’t been a good morning,” I said. “First I had to call Brenda to tell her about her cousin dying. Then I tried downloading the tracking app to my phone, but it’s giving me error messages and won’t install. I’ll try again later.”
“How did Brenda take it?” Kelly asked.
“About like you’d expect.”
“I wouldn’t know what to expect. I barely know her.”
“She cried.”
“And made you uncomfortable.”
I nodded. “I never know what to say to people when their loved ones die, but at the same time I know it doesn’t much matter what you say as long as you say something.”
At the table next to us, a well-dressed woman slapped her kid’s hand, and told him to behave. The kid laughed at her. He was maybe ten years old and looked uncomfortable in his Sunday best. “I don’t know what a have is, so I don’t know how to be one.” He pronounced “have” with a long A and I got the joke.
“Don’t make me spank you here in front of God and everyone.”
“If you spank me, you spank God,” the kid said.
“That’s nonsense.”
“God is everywhere, so if you hit me, you hit Him.”
The lady slapped his hand again.
“You hit God!” the kid said.
I tried to tune them out. I’d just hit a guy who thought he was a god. And I’d fought gods in the past. But Terrell wasn’t a god. He was just a guy who came back from the dead. Right? But people who come back tend to do it sooner. He’d been dead for more than a week. It didn’t seem possible that a mere hex bag could have had enough power to bring him back.
“You look like you’re lost in thought,” Kelly said. “Care to share?”
I shrugged and took a sip of coffee. “I don’t know. The whole Terrell thing just doesn’t make sense to me.”
“He’s mighty strong,” Kelly said.
“He’s not Terrell,” I said.
“I’m listening,” Kelly said. “Explain.”
“He didn’t recognize Angela. He said he was a god in a man’s body.”
“Delusions of grandeur. He wasn’t that strong.”
“Yet,” I said.
“You think he hasn’t finished the ritual.”
“I think there’s a lot more going on, and we need to figure out what it is. Who is he? Who summoned him? Was it Terrell’s blood in the hex bag?”
“Had to be, right? I mean, how else could he have come back, or whatever took his body, or…”
“I get it,” I said. “Hex bags are the purview of witches.”
“Angela is a witch. Or, was.”
“It wasn’t her,” I said.
“I know. Decapitation tends to erase all suspicion.”
“Excuse me,” the well-dressed woman said, leaning over to our table. “We’re trying to eat over here, and your voices carry.”
“So?” Kelly said.
“So talk of evil things like witches and decapitations are not appropriate topics for a Sunday morning.”
Kelly’s eyes narrowed, but I touched her hand to let her know I’d handle it. I smiled at the woman. “We’ll keep our voices down,” I said. “And you’ll stop slapping your kid in public. Cool?”
“How dare you!” she said. “You can’t tell me how to parent my children.”
“You’re not even my real mom,” the kid said.
She moved to slap the kid again, but I caught her hand. “No you don’t,” I said.
The kid smiled. “Take that, Molly!”
“Let’s all just calm down,” I said and let her go.
She fumed. “You’re going to burn in Hell,” she said.
“Cool. I’ll save you a seat.”
“Oh!” the kid said.
“I’m calling the manager,” the woman said.
Esther rose up through the table, making herself visible. She leaned toward the woman. “Boo!” she said.
The woman’s eyes shot wide open, and the color drained from her face. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came forth.
Esther spun toward the kid. “Be good or I’ll bump you off, you little brat.”
The kid blinked a few times. “Are you a real ghost?” he said.
“And how,” Esther said.
“Awesome!”
“What in the name of Jesus!” the woman said.
Esther raised her arms high, then shot into the air to hover over the table. She threw her hands toward the woman, pointing at her. “The power of Christ compels you to take your kid and vamoose!”
The woman scooted her chair back, and nearly fell over backward as she got up. The kid stared at Esther, a big grin on his face.
“Xander, we’re leaving!” the woman said.
“That is the coolest thing ever,” the kid said. “A real ghost!”
Esther dropped down to get in the kid’s face. “Be good or I’ll haunt you!”
“Coolness,” the kid said.
The woman moved around the table, keeping her distance from Esther, and grabbed the kid. “Come on, Xander!”
“But—” the kid said.
Esther let herself fade away. “They didn’t pay their bill.”
Kelly leaned back in her chair, arms folded, and shook her head. Patrons at a few of the other tables looked over at us.
“Hologram,” I said. “We were with the movie effects crew.”
They nodded and went back to eating.
“Are you done?” Kelly asked.
“With breakfast?”
“With being an asshole.”
“No, I’m never done being an asshole.”
“That was fun,” Esther said. “But I need to work on being more scary to kids.”
“The kid said she wasn’t his real mom.”
“So?” Kelly said.
“Terrell isn’t the real Terrell.”
“And?”
“What if he’s not the only one?”
“The only Terrell?”
“No. What if he’s not the only one who’s been replaced?”
“Who are you thinking?”
“I don’t know. Bill? Meghan?”
“Because they were on the boat?”
“I know it’s a long shot, but neither of them have an assistant at the moment.”
“So?”
“So all movie stars have assistants. Can’t have a star go grocery shopping or to pick up the dry cleaning. Seems odd that both stars would be flying solo on the movie. Bill fired his guy for getting into a fight with Terrell, and Meghan told me her assistant was sick.”
“They’re not here,” Kelly said. “That means they probably aren’t involved.”
“I think maybe the assistants were left behind for a reason. So Terrell would have easier access. What are the odds that both stars would be sans assistants?”
“No clue. So maybe Terrell controlled Bill and Meghan, and they really are just movie stars,” Kelly said.
“Movie stars with shark teeth,” I said.
“All right, they were pretty strong, but that could have all been from Terrell controlling them.”
“Or it could be that they’re involved in whatever the hell is going on. Let’s check the marina,” I said. “We need to know if they brought the boat back.” I tossed cash on the table to cover our meal, and I tossed more cash on the other table to cover the lady and her kid.
I silently thanked the annoying kid for sending me down another path.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
The marina was hopping that Sunday morning. People were having picnics on the beach, and taking their boats out on the water for some fishing or water skiing or just lazing around. Kelly and I walked down the docks, and the speedboat floated in its slip as if eve
rything was right with the world.
“Shall we?” I said, and stepped aboard.
Kelly and Esther followed me.
The boat had been cleaned. There were no signs of blood from Angela’s murder. Everything looked to be in its place. I looked in the cabinets and found life jackets and the flare gun. I sniffed the gun. It, too, had been cleaned.
“Nothing amiss,” I said turning a circle on the boat.
“They did a good job washing this place up. Angela bled all over the deck.”
“You wouldn’t even know it was the same boat,” I said.
“Maybe it’s not. You didn’t get the name?”
I shook my head. “I never asked Angela about it, and didn’t notice when we pulled up to it at sea.”
“It’s the same boat,” Esther said.
“All right. Search for anything that might help us. I’ll go talk to people on the other boats around here to see if they noticed anything.”
Kelly nodded and began a more thorough search. I went to the various boats in the slips. Most were empty, but a houseboat on the next dock caught my attention. People laughed and drank, enjoying a lunch party. As I approached, I counted twelve people aboard. The partygoers ranged in age from ten to ninety, so I guessed it was a family get-together.
A heavy-set man stood alone on the dock smoking a cigar. He wore Bermuda shorts and a Hawaiian shirt. His feet were so hairy I thought he might be a tall hobbit, and he wore scuffed sandals.
“How’s it going?” I asked as I neared the boat.
He puffed on his cigar. “Could be worse. I could be back in Detroit.”
I’d seen pictures of Detroit recently, so he was definitely right about that. “Pretty bad up there?”
“Oh, yeah. Media doesn’t like to cover the homeless problem. It’s worse than you know, but that ain’t why you came over here. What can I do for you?”
“I hate to bother you, but I’m with a film crew and I’m trying to locate the actors who were using our speedboat this morning. Did you happen to notice when they brought the boat in?”
“Shooting a movie, eh?”
“Well, we wrapped principle photography for Florida on Friday, and two of the actors missed their flight back to L.A. I tried their phones, but they aren’t answering, and it’s my ass if they aren’t on set tomorrow.”
“Sorry, pal. I didn’t see anything, but this ain’t my boat. My niece’s husband owns it. My sister and I are just visiting. She ain’t seen her grandkids since Christmas.”