by Connie Mann
Jesse had his head bent over The Painted Lady’s engine compartment, ribs screaming while he tried to see if his attackers had wreaked any havoc on the boat, when he heard footsteps on the dock. He knew who it was before he looked up. Her stride, her scent. And Bella’s nails clicking on the boards.
He looked up with a smile. “Hey there, beautiful. How are you?”
“Didn’t expect to see you here this early. And that’s Captain Beautiful to you.” Her own lips curved in a smile, but something seemed off. “Permission to come aboard, sir?”
“Aye, aye.” He studied her as she boarded nimbly, but she wouldn’t meet his eyes. He stood slowly as his ribs protested, and turned to her. “What’s wrong?”
Her head snapped in his direction. “Who said anything is wrong?”
“Every bit of your body language.”
“What, you’re a psychologist now?”
“Don’t evade, Sasha. What’s up?”
Her sharp gaze swept the marina, stopping for a moment at each of the boats moored in the slips, as though looking for something. Then she turned around and scanned the parking lot, crowded with pickup trucks pulling boat trailers of every size, description, and vintage.
He wanted to pull her close and wrap his arms around her, kiss a smile back on her face. But he didn’t think she’d appreciate the gesture. Certainly not in full view of everyone in the marina.
When she looked up at him, her eyes were troubled. “I saw something last night and I’m not sure what it means—if it’s something we should be worried about.”
The more she talked about the minisub, the wider his eyes got.
“I’ve heard of those. Seen pictures online. Even had one of our customers in Tampa ask about them once, but I’ve never seen one.”
“It was really cool looking. But why were they sneaking around in the middle of the night with it?”
“That’s an easier answer than you might think. My guess is someone is testing a prototype and doesn’t want anyone to see it before they’ve run it through its paces, so to speak.”
“That was my first thought, too. But in the dark? How much can you reasonably see? Why not launch it from some remote place and test it there?”
“Could be they were trying to see how it behaves at night.” He looked over at Bella, who had curled up on the deck. “What happened to Bella? Why the bandage?”
“She’s fine. Just a little scrape.”
Jesse’s radar twitched. “Right, but how did she get that little scrape?”
Again, Sasha looked around the marina before she answered. “When they went to load the minisub onto the trailer, Bella made a racket, which they took exception to.”
He carefully folded his arms over his chest. And waited.
Sasha glanced at him, fidgeted, checked the marina. Finally she said, “They tried to shoot her, with an arrow.”
For a moment he didn’t think he’d heard right. But one look at Sasha’s face and he knew he had. He bit back several choice words and stepped even closer. “Is she OK?”
“It just grazed her. She’s fine.”
He took her chin in his hand. “And did they hit you anywhere you’re not telling me?”
This time, she met his gaze squarely. “No. Bella and I hid under the docks until they left.”
Just thinking about someone stalking them in the dark with a bow and arrow made him want to smack something. Perhaps it was due to the pain meds, but it took him a minute to realize what she hadn’t said.
“They know you were out here.”
She tried for a careless shrug. “Yeah. Wouldn’t be hard to identify Bella or me.”
Now he scanned the marina, too, but no one seemed to be paying them the slightest bit of attention. “Did you get a license plate or anything on the truck? Description of the driver? Anything?”
She shook her head. “Believe me, I tried. They had all the lights off on the truck, trailer, and the little sub.” She took a deep breath. “And the guy with the bow had a stocking or something over his face.”
“So they were making sure no one could identify them.” That changed everything. Somebody just testing a prototype wouldn’t hide their faces. Someone was up to no good out here. “You need to be—”
Sasha hopped off the boat. “I know. I have to go.”
Before he could stop her, she and Bella were gone.
Either she wasn’t taking this seriously or, and this was more likely, she didn’t want to worry him, so she’d downplayed the whole thing. Well, his ribs might’ve felt like someone had taken a saw to them, but he wouldn’t let anything happen to her. Like it or not, he’d protect her. Whether she wanted protection or not.
Sasha waited over an hour before she could say what she’d come to say. Every time she opened her mouth, someone else popped into the shop or the phone rang. Finally the last of the customers walked out, and she followed Pop into his office and closed the door. He looked up in surprise, then settled in his sagging desk chair.
“What’s wrong, Sasha?”
She’d never thought of herself as all that easy to read, but twice in the space of an hour she’d given her emotions away. She sat in the seat opposite the desk and tried to ask the question the right way, instead of just blurting it out.
“Look, Pop, I know you want me to stop looking for Tony.”
When he opened his mouth, she held up a hand to stop him. “I know all the reasons. I don’t agree with you, but I get it.” She paused, watched his face. “I found the burned ashes of the police report.” Pop’s eyes widened, but other than that, he didn’t react. “Did you burn them?”
He nodded once. Looked away. “Sometimes, the past needs to stay in the past. For everyone’s sake.”
Sasha studied him. “What are you afraid of, Pop?”
He started as though she’d slapped him, then he narrowed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
“I’m afraid of exactly what I told you before, Sasha. Mama has been through enough. You weren’t here then, to see her waste away, hiding in her room crying day and night. I almost lost her, too. I won’t risk that again. Why is that so hard to understand?”
“It’s not hard to understand.” She paused. “If it were true.”
His palm came down on the desk and made her jump. “Now I’m a liar?”
Sasha’s frustration slipped its leash, and she hopped from her chair and leaned over the desk. “I’ve never thought you were a liar. But I think there is a whole lot of this story that you know—or that you suspect—that you won’t say.” She stopped as another thought struck. “You know who took Tony?” she whispered.
She watched all the color drain from Pop’s face, and then his whole body seemed to fold in on itself as he let out a huge sigh. “I don’t think he was kidnapped. I think he’s dead. There is no other explanation that makes sense.”
“A whole lot of this doesn’t make any sense at all.” She studied his face, tried to see beyond the fatigue to what he was really thinking, but he’d put up a wall she couldn’t penetrate. “Pop, what if he’s not dead? What if someone took him?”
“If that’s true, then what? We show up now that he’s a man and turn his world upside down?”
“Don’t you want to know for sure?” Sasha didn’t understand his thinking at all.
“I am satisfied with the police report that says suspected drowning.” He pierced her with a look that could always get her to spill her secrets years ago. “Tell Mama you’ve tried and come up with nothing—which is true.”
“I can’t. There are too many holes in the whole scenario, too many other possible answers. The police quit looking much too soon.”
“Because I told them to.”
Sasha’s mouth dropped open, and it took a stunned moment before she found words. “He was your son. Weren’t you at least curious, never mind completely desperate, to find out exactly what happened?”
“He was gone. There was nothing left to know. Besides, curiosity kil
led the cat.” He stood. “Go, Sasha. It’s done. Don’t bring it up again.”
Sasha stood frozen, unable to move. She studied his shuttered expression and wondered if she’d ever known him at all. The Pop she grew up with would have moved heaven and earth if something had happened to her or one of her sisters.
She walked to the door and glanced over her shoulder to see him sitting with his head in his hands, just like people said he did the day Tony disappeared.
As she walked out, the pieces of the puzzle suddenly clicked into place. Fear and frustration propelled her to the end of the dock where she paced, heart pounding, as she tried to settle her racing thoughts. Time lost all meaning as one thought repeated over and over in her mind, settled deep in her heart. He knows. He knows who killed Tony. Or who took him. It was the only explanation that made any sense.
Why wasn’t he telling? Why wasn’t he screaming from the rooftops for justice? What—or who—had kept him silent all these years?
She didn’t know. But she was going to find out.
Chapter 17
Sasha hurried into the screened porch and saw Blaze in a rocker, petting Bella.
“There you are. Will you keep an eye on Mama and Bella while I take a quick ride?”
Before Blaze could question her, Sasha heard shuffling down the hallway, and a minute later Pop appeared, Mama leaning heavily on his arm.
“Is everything OK? Where are you going?” Sasha asked. Mama’s pale face sent alarm skittering down her spine.
Pop held the screen door open. “The doctor wants to see her. Do some blood work, check on the dosage for her meds.” Sasha went to Mama’s other side and helped her down the steps and into the car. “We won’t be long,” he continued.
Sasha leaned in, kissed Mama’s cheek, and buckled her seat belt. “Love you.”
Once they were gone, she climbed back up to the porch.
“Where are you going?” Blaze demanded. “And don’t give me some lame half answer.”
Sasha leaned against the doorjamb and studied Blaze’s determined expression.
“I’m going to go check out a hunch. Want to come along?”
“What kind of hunch?”
“I’ll tell you on the way.” She crouched down and scratched Bella behind the ears. “I need you to stay here, girl. Keep an eye on the place for me.”
Bella whined in protest but collapsed on the floor, head on her paws, a pitiful expression on her face.
“You little stinker,” Sasha said, giving her an extra pat on the head. “But you’re still staying here.”
Once they left the marina, Blaze didn’t waste any time. “So where are we going?”
“Do you know who Captain Alby is?”
Blaze scrunched her face, thinking. “No idea.”
“He used to be a boat captain, and he and Pop were friends way back when. After his wife died, his mind went and he lived in the local assisted-living place.”
“Wait. I heard Pop talking about him. He just died, like, the other day.”
Sasha nodded as she turned off the paved road and onto a dirt path.
“Right. In his sleep. Jesse and I had gone to see him the day before. He didn’t make much sense, unfortunately, but he kept shouting about finding the fridge.”
Blaze scanned the trees all around, the way the path kept narrowing the deeper into the woods they went. “What does that have to do with wherever we are?”
Sasha stopped at a fork in the path, studied the area in each direction, and finally turned toward the left. The tracks that way looked more recent. “Old Ned—you know, the appliance guy—used to dump the things he couldn’t fix out here somewhere.”
“Was Captain Alby friends with Pop when Tony disappeared?”
When Sasha nodded, Blaze said slowly, “So you’re thinking maybe Captain Alby knew something about Tony and it has to do with old appliances?”
“Maybe. Or maybe not. It’s a total long shot. I figured it couldn’t hurt to look.”
A branch swept over the Jeep’s open top, and Blaze ducked just in time.
“When’s the last time you were out here?”
Sasha grinned. “High school. We’d go four-wheeling and mudding out here.”
Blaze merely snorted as Sasha hit one pothole after another, the Jeep bouncing over the rough terrain. Suddenly they burst into a clearing, and Sasha grinned in triumph.
“Found it.”
Piles of rusted appliances littered the small area, victims of time and weather. Sasha and Blaze climbed out and walked closer to investigate.
“Watch for snakes,” Sasha warned, and Blaze rubbed her arms, eyes darting all around. “You can wait in the Jeep if you want.”
Blaze stepped closer until she practically stood on Sasha’s heels. “I’ll just stay with you.”
Sasha eyed the piles, shading her eyes with her hand. “Captain Alby kept talking about a fridge, so let’s focus on those. There aren’t that many.”
Blaze rolled her eyes, but kept pace as they climbed over and under the rusting hulks to peer inside every fridge. Most were missing their doors; others had them propped open. But several were closed. Sasha took a deep breath before she grabbed the handle of the first one. Would she find evidence of her brother? Maybe even his body?
Her heart pounded and her hands shook as she slowly pried the door open. Her breath whooshed out when the inside revealed nothing more than a nasty mildew growth. Behind her, Blaze let out her own relieved sigh.
By the time they’d worked their way to the last fridge on the back side of the last pile, they were both sweaty and swatting at mosquitos.
“Last one.” Sasha climbed on top of an old stove to reach the latch. She yanked, but it wouldn’t budge. One try. Two. Finally the seal let go, and Sasha tugged it open and used her shoulder to keep it from slamming shut while she looked inside.
She froze. What was that? Her hand shook as she reached down into the bottom and pulled out a large freezer bag. As she gazed at the contents, the words from the newspaper article ran through her mind. Blue shorts, blue-and-yellow tank top, tennis shoes. Sweet Jesus, these were the clothes Tony was wearing the day he disappeared.
From below, Blaze said, “What did you find?”
Before Sasha could answer, a loud crack sounded, right before something slammed into a rusting dishwasher not twenty feet away. It took Sasha a moment to catalog the sound. The second it registered, she shouted, “Duck!” and leaped down, taking Blaze with her.
The sound of metal hitting metal exploded all around them.
“What’s happening?” Blaze whispered, shaking.
Sasha tried to keep her voice steady. “Someone’s shooting at us. Stay down.”
They waited several minutes, then Sasha slowly eased up and peeked around the pile. Another shot rang out, too close for comfort.
She had to get them out of here. She looked back over her shoulder, picturing her Jeep and where the shooter had to be standing, based on where the shots hit.
“This way,” she whispered, and took Blaze’s hand as they melted back into the cover of the trees behind them. Sasha put a finger to her lips, and together they inched their way around to where they’d parked the Jeep. Heart pounding, Sasha peered around the side of a pine tree, scanning the area, looking for the shooter. She held herself perfectly still, watching, waiting. Finally she saw a flash of yellow heading back around behind the appliance pile. This was the best chance they were going to get.
She whispered in Blaze’s ear. “We’re going to make a run for the Jeep. Hop in and get down on the floorboard, OK?”
The moment Blaze nodded, Sasha gripped her hand again and they took off running. They opened their doors, and the Jeep roared to life almost before Blaze got all the way in. She was still pulling the door shut as Sasha raced back the way they’d come.
Several shots rang out, but they came from too far away to hit their mark. Sasha kept one eye on the rearview mirror as they raced back to the main road
, clouds of dust in their wake.
“We’re easy to follow,” Blaze commented, coughing against the dust.
“I know. But I’m heading for town, thinking nobody is dumb enough to start shooting there.”
Sasha didn’t slow until the shops of downtown Safe Harbor came into view. Then she looked over at Blaze. She’d stopped panting but still gripped her seat belt like a lifeline.
“You OK, kid?”
Blaze smiled, but it wobbled a bit at the edges. “Guess your hunch was right on.”
Sasha grinned, glad Blaze could smile. “I guess it was.”
“What did you find?” She nodded toward the floorboard, where Sasha had stashed the bag under the front seat.
“I’m pretty sure they’re Tony’s clothes.”
Blaze slumped back against the seat. “Was there any, like, blood or anything on them?”
“Not that I saw. It looks like someone took them off him. Let’s get home, then we can take a closer look.” She sped up again as they left town and turned toward the marina. “You did good today, kid. Nerves of steel.”
Blaze wrapped her arms around her middle. “I almost peed my pants, I was so scared. Somebody really shot at us.”
“They really did. Maybe, let’s not mention this to Pop and Mama.”
Blaze snorted. “Duh. I’m not stupid.”
“I’ve never once thought you were. You are incredibly smart.”
As they drove the rest of the way, Sasha tried to gather her jumbled thoughts. Could Tony still be alive?
Jesse breathed a sigh of relief when Sasha pulled her Jeep into the gravel lot next to her folks’ house. She had poked the hornet’s nest but good. Every instinct screamed that danger was closing in. Around Sasha.
He didn’t know how Tony’s disappearance, the upcoming race, and a minisub fit together, but he knew they did. Somehow. Which put Sasha right in the line of fire.
He walked over, surprised to see Blaze riding shotgun. Everything still creaked and groaned when he moved, but he felt better than he had this morning. Which wasn’t saying much.