Diamond Reef

by Douglas Pratt

  The kid reappeared with a very sleepy looking Abbie. He was holding a Glock 9 mm. The girl seemed to be trying to focus.

  "Abbie, can you see me?" I asked.

  She looked in my direction and nodded.

  "Do you remember me?" I asked. "I'm Chase. I gave you some ice cream last week."

  She nodded again. I glanced between the kid and the older guy, neither was making a move yet. They still didn't have the necklace, and they weren't about to lose it too soon.

  "Are you hurt, Abbie?" I asked.

  She shook her head.

  "Good. I'm going to take you home to your mommy."

  "Enough." The kid tightened his grip on Abbie. "Where's the necklace?"

  "I'm just guessing," I said, "you're the one who killed Harold Goddard, right?"

  "The necklace," he hissed sharply.

  "Stay calm," the man warned him.

  "What about Tristan?" I asked.

  "Look, Mr. Gordon," the man said, "we just want the necklace, and everyone can get back to their lives."

  "Tell me about Tristan," I prodded. "Which one of you killed him?"

  The kid shifted his eyes to the man.

  "Mistakes were made," the man admitted. "Let's get past this for now. We don't want anyone to get hurt."

  "I think I figured the bones out," I said. "Tristan was down for some easy money, but murder was a line he didn't want to cross. He had debts though, and the necklace was more than enough to buy his way out of those. Of course, that didn't sit well with you two, did it?"

  "Seriously," the kid snapped, "shut up."

  The M45 was still trained on the older man. His eyes were wider, and he was starting to think he had underestimated the situation.

  "Let the girl go," I urged. "She can start walking toward the trail."

  "The necklace," the man replied sternly. "He'll let her go when I have it in my hands."

  I smiled. Not a congenial one. I've been told I have an angry smile. While I've never seen it, I have heard it described as "scary."

  "When he gets his greasy hands off her, I'll tell you."

  The kid put the gun closer to Abbie's head.

  "You truly are a shitheel," I growled at the kid. "You seem to only be able to kill old men and little girls."

  The kid's eyes flared.

  "He's baiting you," the man warned.

  I shrugged. "Did you know Tristan well?" I asked the man.

  He didn't answer.

  "Guess not. He might have told you about us. Maybe you'd have thought twice about killing him."

  "Us?" the man questioned.

  I raised three fingers in the air. Then I did a silent countdown. Three. Two. One.

  The man dropped to the ground as the slug from Jay's barrel tore through his knee cap.

  The kid let go of Abbie and spun toward the woods. I shot him in the shoulder as soon as he turned the Glock away from Abbie. I rushed forward and swept her up in my arms before kicking the kid's gun away from him.

  The man howled in pain, and I grabbed a .38 semi-automatic from his belt.

  Abbie buried her head into my shoulder and had both of her hands over her ears. I carried her away from the two men writhing in the dirt.

  "Hello, sweetie," I whispered to her when she looked up.

  "Where's my mommy?" she begged.

  "I'll take you to her," I promised. "She's worried about you."

  Jay emerged from the trees. His face was dirty, and pieces of pine needles extruded from his hair. Abbie shook in my arms.

  "Don't worry," I told her. "He's my friend. His name is Jay."

  She straightened up in my arms to look at him.

  "I don't like it here," she said.

  "We'll get out of here," I told her. "I need to talk to Jay first."

  34

  After a short discussion where we considered, only for a moment, dropping the two of them into one of the canals bordering the wildlife management area, Jay strongly suggested we call the Palm Beach County Sheriff. Jay pointed out we might have a harder time explaining how Abbie was safely returned without dealing with law enforcement. Jay made the call while I split the two kidnappers up. Using some straps I cut from the tent, I tied both up. The older man, who turned out to be Tommy Evans according to his driver's license, wasn't going to be running anywhere. Neither of their escapes was of great concern for me. They wouldn't make a few feet with their injuries. I wanted to keep them separated, though. No point letting them make any plans or corroborating their stories.

  I was guessing that Evans was likely the Tommy from Hometown Hardware, but at this point, he was refusing to talk to me, except to complain that I shot him in the knee and he'd never be able to walk again.

  The kid didn't have any identification. He wasn't talking either, and really, I didn't care anymore. Abbie was safe, and I still had a bit of a grudge against the kid for shooting me in the first place.

  "They're sending a chopper," Jay told me when he hung up. "It's going to take a while for them to get here." He walked over and stood between me and Evans, who was still moaning about his knee.

  "These guys picked a remote enough spot for a swap."

  "Might be the only thing halfway smart they did," he said, staring at Tommy Evans. "Too bad they didn't think about the hundreds of acres of coverage surrounding them."

  "How much trouble is this going to be?" I asked, holding onto Abbie's hand. The girl yawned and fidgeted around my feet.

  "It's going to be hairy," he admitted, "but I hope my badge will smooth over some of it."

  "I want to go home," she whined.

  I squatted on my hindquarters beside her. "I'm going to get you to your mommy. It's going to be a few minutes, though."

  The first deputies took almost an hour to reach us. Three side-by-side ATVs hummed through the trees. The light bars atop the roof lit up the campsite like it was the middle of the day. The buzz of the wildlife had been masked by the din of gas-powered motor noise. Overhead, the helicopter circled us a few times as they were waiting for confirmation the scene was secure enough to land.

  Before the sheriff deputies got close, we had already placed the rifle and my M45 on the ground. Jay held onto his M45 and held his badge aloft until the first deputies came into the clearing.

  "I'm a police officer," Jay shouted, waving his badge in the air as he tossed his pistol to the ground. Two deputies flanked us with their service weapons drawn.

  Abbie stirred as I lowered myself to my knees. She had fallen asleep on my shoulder after we talked to her mother on the phone. During the hour we waited for the sheriff's department to arrive, I called Kayla to give her the good news.

  "Kayla," I said into the phone. "I have Abbie."

  "She's with you?" she exclaimed, relieved.

  "Yes, she's safe," I assured her. "All she wants right now is her mommy."

  Her tears were audible through the phone. "Oh, thank you, Chase," she muttered. "Thank you, thank you."

  "I think she wants to talk to you," I said as I handed the phone to Abbie.

  "Mommy," the girl said.

  The girl talked to Kayla for several minutes before she handed the phone back to me. I couldn't make out what Kayla was saying, but I watched as the little round face nodded into the phone.

  "Thank you so much, Chase," she blubbered when I got back on the line. "I don't know what I would have done."

  "It's the least I can do. We may be a while, but I'll call you when I know where we end up. I expect the cops are going to want someone to talk to Abbie."

  "I'll be right here," she promised before we disconnected. "Please don't let her out of your sight."

  "I won't let go of her," I promised Kayla.

  The nearest deputy attempted to take Abbie from my arms. I resisted, saying, "She stays with me until her mother gets here."

  "We need to check her out," the older deputy told me. "Let me just give her a quick look."

  "Let him," Jay told me. "Just stay with her."
r />   The deputy and I exchanged glances, and he nodded his approval to Jay's suggestion. I followed him to one of the side-by-sides and gently laid the sleeping girl on the seat. My back was against the ATV as the officer, whose nameplate read Jepson, looked her over.

  "We have some paramedics on the way. She looks okay, but I'll have them check her out," he assured me.

  From the ATV, I could hear as Jay began explaining everything that occurred to the other detective. A decision was made that he should do most of the talking. His badge might smooth out any legal indiscretions committed today. Every four to five minutes, Abbie would shift positions restlessly.

  After he finished his initial statement to Deputy Jepson's partner, Jay walked over and stood next to me. He stared at Abbie's face.

  "She looks like Tristan," he stated quietly.

  I nodded. We both spent a few seconds quietly memorializing our brother.

  Breaking the silence, Jay said, "They are taking the two of them out on the chopper for medical attention. The feds have a guy coming out since the management area falls under federal land."

  "We certainly know how to complicate things," I commented in a hushed tone.

  "The deputy offered to take her out in the chopper to meet her mother at the hospital. I explained that wasn't possible," he said.

  While we stood by the ATV waiting, the deputy Jay had been talking to approached us and covered her with his jacket. "Try to keep the mosquitoes off her," he commented. "Don't want to get her back to her mother covered in bites."

  "Thank you," I said.

  "I'm Detective Jackson," he introduced himself when we stepped away from the sleeping girl, leaving Jay to guard over her. Jackson was much older, nearing retirement, with thinning hair and a developing gut. He squinted through a pair of bifocals. "I want to get your story on all this."

  "It's long," I started. Beginning with the day Kayla walked into the Manta Club, I filled in all the details for him.

  When I finished, he asked, "You kept the necklace instead of turning it over to the West Palm PD?"

  "I wasn't sure what it was. It was at the bottom of the ocean. I didn't know for sure it was a part of this for sure until Abbie was kidnapped. I didn't want to risk her life for a shiny piece of jewelry."

  "But, you knew it was stolen when you spoke with the Goddards."

  "Things started happening too fast then. Abbie was kidnapped, and I wasn't ready to give it back until I knew it couldn't save her."

  "And when you got the demands for trading the diamonds for the girl, the two of you opted not to report it?"

  "I did call the police," I said, "he's over there."

  "He's out of his jurisdiction," Jackson squawked.

  "We made a judgment call," I answered. "Jay could get in unseen to provide cover. This didn't need an entire SWAT team swarming the woods. I was concerned for Abbie's safety."

  "I have to ask a question," he said. "Why didn't you two just kill them?"

  I lifted an eyebrow out of curiosity.

  He explained, "You were certain that Locke was involved in some bad shit. These guys probably killed him too. I thought you special forces guys might have a vendetta."

  "I don't know," I said. "If we had, we could have saved a lot of time."

  Jackson nodded. "And paperwork. If you fed them to the gators, I would be able to get off my shift on time and be in bed."

  "For the sake of the girl and her mom," I told the detective, "this whole affair needed to end, and killing two men in front of a three-year-old girl wasn't going to help that."

  "You still shot them in front of her," he stated.

  "Yeah, but we didn't kill them," I pointed out. "That has to count for something."

  Jackson glanced over at Jay, who was leaning against the ATV watching Abbie.

  "He's a hell of a shot to hit the man's kneecap." His tone was full of admiration.

  "The man's a natural," I commented.

  "I knew some snipers in the Army," Jackson replied. They were all a little off."

  "Jay's a bit different," I told him. "He doesn't enjoy it. Never did. He didn't get the rush of power that some guys feel. Our whole unit was like that. We could kill, but we weren't killers. Maybe that's why we didn't kill them. There wasn't a need to. Vengeance wasn't going to bring back Tristan. If it was the only way to save Abbie, that would be different."

  "Some deputies are on their way to retrieve Mrs. Locke. We'll bring her to the girl. You and Detective Delp are going to be held for more questioning. Don't plan to leave anytime soon."

  I nodded an understanding. He walked away to talk to a pair of deputies preparing to accompany the injured men on the helicopter.

  "What do you think?" I asked Jay.

  "It's going to be a long couple of days," he said. "If the feds are involved, then there's going to be some territorial pulling back and forth. We get to be the bone these dogs fight over."

  "Awesome," I mumbled under my breath.

  "When it's all said and done, though," he said, "they won't level any charges against us. Too much hassle. The media would have a field day over two war heroes who risked their lives to save a child. Media nightmare. I'll probably get in some trouble back home, but we'll see. My captain was in the Corps years before us, so he understands."

  "Sorry to drag you into it," I said.

  "Eh," he waved me off. "Don't offend me. You know the game."

  I motioned toward Detective Jackson. "He asked me why we didn't kill them."

  Jay just shrugged. That seemed like enough of an answer.

  35

  Hunter was more than happy when I was finally able to get back behind the bar. I felt like I owed him a few days off. He said something about heading to the beach when I said I could work.

  Over the last 24 hours, I had been questioned and moved. After being questioned by Detective Jackson in the woods, Jay and I were held for questioning by two agents of the F.B.I. and a short, angry U.S. Fish & Wildlife Officer who refused to relinquish his chance to interfere.

  Kayla showed up an hour after Detective Jackson said he sent for her. A deputy drove her in on another side-by-side ATV. She grabbed the sleeping girl up in her arms and kissed her until Abbie woke up. After five minutes or more of the mother and daughter reunion, she finally let go of Abbie and hugged Jay and me around our necks. The reunion didn't last long before the Locke girls were taken from the campsite, and we were left talking to the cops there. We endured the hours of interrogation both at the scene and later when we were transported to the sheriff's station. When the questions seemed to be repeating themselves for the fifth time, we were finally released around ten the next morning.

  We hadn't heard a word from Kayla since then. The police may have her and Abbie tied up, or perhaps, the woman just took her daughter and ran back to her mother's house. I hoped the latter was the case. I'd check in with her in a few days if she didn't reach out.

  When the detectives finally released us, Jay made a point to remind Detective Charles it was my actions that retrieved the stolen necklace, and the insurance company should consider the fact.

  "Will it even matter?" I asked him in the car.

  "The insurance companies are often happy to pay a finder's fee as opposed to the whole amount."

  "It would only seem fair if we split it."

  He shook his head. "I'm a cop. They don't tend to look too fondly on cops getting rewards for doing their jobs."

  "If there is anything," I decided, "Let's just give it to Kayla. She could use the leg up."

  Still somewhat dazed, I was jerked back to reality when I heard my name. Kristy stood at the server station, waiting for me to finish a couple of Walk-Me-Downs for a pair of young kids. They were legal, but only barely, Kristy told me. Not a surprise.

  "I heard you were on the news this morning," she said as I handed her the two blue concoctions.

  "I'm not surprised," I answered. Two news crews attempted to get a statement from me when we left the p
recinct this morning. I hadn't seen the coverage, but Missy already popped in to tell me there was some footage of me leaving the police department. Luckily, my name hadn't been mentioned.

  With any luck, the news cycle would forget about me as soon as the next big thing happened.

  "I want to hear what happened," she cooed at me. "We could grab a drink after work."

  I smiled at her and stuck two paper straws in the blue cocktails without answering.

  She returned my smile, and I guessed it took shooting someone to register as interesting to her.

  I filled a bowl with the bar mix we serve. It was mostly a variety of peanuts and cereal bits. The mixture often made up my dinner if I was too busy to stop and eat a proper meal. I've thrived on handfuls of it chased by olives or maraschino cherries.

  The full bowl of mix replaced Miller Lite's empty bowl on the backside of the bar. He was nursing the one beer and munching his way through the bar mix. Some days I'd be annoyed, but today I took it in stride.

  Instead of being annoyed, I moved over to talk to Bombay Sapphire and tonic. She was a statuesque brunette in a neatly pressed jacket and blouse. I was guessing lawyer on the bartender's occupational roulette table.

  "How's the drink?" I asked.

  She glanced up from her phone, surprised she wasn't alone. She took a look at the few cubes of ice and mangled lime.

  "I guess I'll have another."

  When I returned to her, I found Jay sitting next to her. He was staying a few days in case the feds wanted to ask more questions. He was more than willing to take advantage of the few days off.

  "Jay," I greeted him. "Beer?"

  "Yeah, something on draft."

  He started talking with Bombay Sapphire, and after I dropped a Twisted Trunk Finn McCool in front of him, I left him to the presumed lawyer. Given his persistence, Jay would end up having dinner with her, or worse yet, she might end up being Mrs. Bombay Sapphire Delp.

  When I saw Wilson Peterson walk in, I flagged him down.

  "You dining alone?" I asked.

  "Yeah, just a drink," he said, pulling a stool away from the bar.

  "Before you sit down, come with me." Even I heard the ominous tone, but I didn't correct it.