by Keene, Susan
He also wanted them in their Meade clothes. Today it was tan polo shirts with the company logo, dark brown khakis, and of course, they were armed.
Amy and I played with the dogs. Axel loved his belly rubbed, as did Sally. Of course, Digger and Chili had been the most spoiled dogs ever since birth.
I looked at the clock. “It’s after five. Are you ready to call it a day?”
“I’m torn,” she said. “If we stop now, I won’t be able to get the case off my mind. When will Ryan be home?”
“Thursday. If you are worried about me, don’t be. The men who come on at seven will be in the house. You know Ryan. He has it well fool proofed. I know Bobby and Randy who will be here tonight. Still, if they don’t know the correct passwords, I’m supposed to shoot them.”
It was the first time we laughed all day.
My phone rang. “Kate, Nathan is outside. I know this seems strange but if we don’t follow every one of Mr. Meade’s instructions, he’ll go ballistic.”
“Put him on,” I said. “Hi Nathan, what’s your password?”
“Babies with red hair,” he answered and came in. “I know you two ladies think Ryan has gone overboard,” he said as he closed the door behind him. “As Ryan explained it to me, it is discipline. One shortcut could get someone killed. It’s rare we watch one of our own.”
Digger jumped at his leg, Sally sat next to him and Amy put her hand on his arm. “We know, honey. I’m a better-safe-than-sorry-gal myself.”
“Are you ladies down for the night?”
I pointed to Amy. “She and I learned some sad and disturbing facts today. Your lady needs a couple of hours of fresh air in the garden. The last thing we want to do is think about this case all night.”
Amy gave me a hug. “Promise me you will not work on it any more today.”
“I promise. Bobby is bringing Chinese takeout. I’ll probably play hearts with them for a bit, take a hot bath and curl up with a book I’ve been trying to find time to read. Go home, don’t worry about me. I’ll see you in the morning, Amy. Bye Nathan.”
The evening remained uneventful. Bobby was the best Hearts player I had ever encountered, and I reminded myself never to get into a poker game with him.
I had great intentions of beginning a book, but once I took a long hot bath, I was ready for bed. With no hesitation what-so-ever, Axel jumped up on the end of the bed and stretched out horizontally. Chili took her usual spot under the covers.
CHAPTER 25
I dressed and took the dogs downstairs to go out for their morning ritual. The smell of fresh brewed coffee whiffed up at me as I descended the stairs.
The men had changed shifts, Danny took the dogs out and Roger poured me a cup of coffee. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I didn’t like coffee much. Instead, I loaded the hot brew with French Vanilla Crème and sipped it until Amy arrived.
She brought pastries for all of us. I took a glazed donut and headed for the Tomb. “I was sure I would be up all night thinking about the Tuckers and the Hamiltons, but I went right to sleep. How about you?” I asked.
“We worked on the garden until dark. It is so relaxing. Something about playing in the dirt soothes my soul.”
“I feel the same way about the ocean. When I was a kid, I sat on the beach and let the waves lap at my toes. One year, Mom taught summer school. I had more alone time and made an entire series of stories about what happened under the water. I scared myself so badly I didn’t go in the water for a month.”
She laughed and picked up the paper about Christine Hamilton. “Why do you think she moved to a tiny place such as Ashland, Texas?”
“I hope we find out today why she moved there. Did she have anything to do with the disappearance of the Tuckers and did she know Michael Mannes?”
Amy turned on her computer. “A better question is why did she meet us at the Tucker house? Where are you going to start? I don’t want to do the same searches you do.”
“I’m going with My Life.”
“Okay. Let’s see who’s the first to find anything.”
All you could hear in the room was dogs breathing and the tapping of computer keys. This went on until Amy pointed to her computer screen. “I found Christine Hamilton’s sister. Actually, I found Christine Ford’s sister. Her name is Janice Ford Johnston. She lives in Willow Lake, a suburb of Dallas and owns a scuba diving school. Divine Diving, Janice Johnston, and Dwayne Johnston, Certified Instructors.”
“I’ll run her through CODIS and see what we get.” I pecked and hunted for a good ten minutes before the printer spit out the report. “Janice Johnston is fingerprinted because she was in the Navy and retired as a Commander. She has no criminal record, not so much as a speeding ticket. According to this, she is an only child. Do you get the impression we are being led in a big circle?”
Amy stood and stretched. “I’m only four months into this baby thing and I already can’t sit for long periods because of my belly. There must be a reason Christine came up with Janice Johnston in our search.?
“Maybe so. Personally, I think someone is yanking our chain. Someone with the clout to doctor files. If they are manipulating records, we may never connect Michael Mannes with anyone else. I wonder if I could blow up the picture of Michael that Ivy drew and send it to the Mexican police to see if they can identify him.”
Amy sat again. “I thought the only drawing of him was with a devil’s face.”
I got up, went to the safe and retrieved the original drawings. “Let’s get some magnifying glasses and look at these more closely. You know how it is when you have your mind set something is the way you think it is. It blocks out what might really be the truth.”
“Let’s take the dogs out and put these on the kitchen counter where we can look at them at the same time. Do you have another magnifier?”
“Ryan has one in the kitchen drawer to use on all those little words on labels we can no longer see with the naked eye. Grab the one on the desk over there by you.”
Once we had a cold drink. I got the first picture out of the packet and we began to go over it more closely.” It’s the house they lived in before they left on the trip.”
Amy leaned down closer and scoured the picture for anything we might have missed. “I didn’t realize before, but all of the shades are drawn. You can see the little knob you use to raise and lower them. Would you close everything up if you planned on coming back?”
I looked up at her. “They didn’t have to worry about that. They knew the house was sold and everything of value had been removed. There was no need to make it appear as though someone came and went like we all do when we go on vacation. At that point, I’d say even Ivy knew they were not coming back.”
The next picture was one of the Iguana Boat Rental office. There was no mistaking Reginald Saylor as the man we’d met on our trip. Ivy focused her art on the man and counter. The doomed boat could be seen through the window. There was no mistaking the sign on the schooner, Iguana Veloz. “That picture brings forth another question,” I said, “I assumed the picture was drawn when they arrived, yet, in this drawing, the boat they had not chosen until they arrived was tied to the dock outside the office window.”
Amy smiled at me. “Poetic license.”
“You mean maybe Ivy drew her rendition of things and not what actually happened?”
“Could be. She was a twelve-year-old kid. If you put three people in the rental office and let them study it for a half-an-hour, then took them off into separate rooms and questioned each one on what they saw, they would all describe it differently.”
The next dozen pictures were not too exciting, we combed every square inch; nothing. Then I saw it. On the first picture of the schooner anchored outside the lagoon entrance, an object appeared in the background we had not noticed before.
We each studied it. “We need a jeweler’s loupe,” she said. “Do you have one?”
“No, and right now I’m a prisoner in my own home. The guys are not
going to let me go out to buy one.”
She took her phone from her pocket. I listened to her end of the conversation. “Where are you today, honey? Really? That’s great. I need a jeweler’s loupe. Oh, Kate just showed me her phone search. It lists Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Harbor Freight, almost anywhere. I understand. Okay, I’ll tell them. Thanks, babe, I love you.”
“What did he say?”
“He said to tell one of the men outside to call Jacob. He has several of them. Someone from the office will bring it over.”
“Get off your feet. I’ll text Bobby to come to the door.”
Within the hour, we had a 30X loupe. I used it first. “It looks like a ship, far in the background. You can only see the top and part of the side. The rest is low in the water. Something is written on the side. I can pick out W L D T E R. You look while I find something to write on.”
I wrote down the letters I could make out. Amy had two more. O T.
Once the letters were put in the correct place, we had WO_ LD T_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Amy held the etching against the patio door. The light helped us pick out R _ _ _ _ _ _
Laid out, it read WO_ LD TR_ _ _ _ _ _ _.
Amy put the picture back flat on the counter. “I feel as if I’m on Wheel of Fortune.”
“I hope you are good at it. I think the first word is WORLD.”
“I agree, but WORLD what?”
“Treasures,” Amy guessed.
“Let’s put that expensive hardware to work. We can contact the Coast Guard in the area and see if they can match the second word for us.”
Amy picked up the readout as it came out of the printer. “There are seventeen hundred-eighty-nine boats that begin with World. Only two happen to sail in our area of interest, World Dominator and World Travelers. World Travelers is owned by a company out of Dallas, Texas by the name of Divine Diving.”
“Janice and Dwayne Johnston own a company named Divine Diving in Dallas. I think we finally have something. We need to find out where it is housed and where it sailed in June of 2004. I don’t know about you, but I’m worn out. Nathan will be here any minute. Let’s tackle this in the morning.”
I stood and so did all four dogs. “That works for me. Ryan will be home tomorrow. Some sleep would be nice.”
Bobby called from the porch. “Kate, there is a tall guy out here. He looks familiar but he doesn’t have a password. Should I shoot him or let him in?”
Amy opened the door for Nathan.
The shift changed at seven and the new men came in for the night. I skipped the card game, took a hot shower, talked to Ryan, and went through the facts we uncovered earlier in the day.
I always gained more perspective when I could start at the beginning of my day and go through its events as though they were a movie. My revelation came around three a.m.
Since there were two of Ryan’s men, I would have to walk by to go into the Tomb. I slipped on my house shoes and bathrobe before I tiptoed downstairs.
Chili didn’t move, she stayed snuggled under the covers at the end of the bed. Axel walked beside me. Michael, the man whose turn it must have been to guard the house looked up at me. In a low voice he asked, “Everything copasetic, Mrs. Meade?”
I didn’t believe three-twenty in the morning the proper time to correct him, so I gave him an okay sign and kept walking.
There was no way I could sleep until I looked at the picture Ivy Tucker drew of the night the boat burned, and her conception of her surroundings while she floated until she nearly died.
I found the etching Amy and I had stopped with earlier in the day. It depicted a rolling sea full of dolphins playing in the water around the boat and osprey, who flew around hunting fish. In the back on the left side were two crafts. One sat too low in the water for me to read the name. The other had the name World Travelers painted on the side.
To my amazement, the same cabin cruiser showed in the picture of Ivy as she floated aimlessly with the ocean currents. I concluded it had to have seen the Iguana Veloz as it burned and most likely exploded. Or the boat’s name meant something to Ivy, and she wanted to preserve it. Amy had pointed out the pictures could contain items not apparent. Maybe the World Travelers’ cruiser was one of those items.
Why hadn’t we noticed the ships before yesterday? Once I saw them, I couldn’t un-see them. I studied the drawings with the named ships until they went out of view. I had to blink to bring them into focus once again.
The ship looked as though it was near the horizon yet the top third of the boat remained visible. The Tuckers’ boat showed detail. As it would, being the center of the drawing.
My conclusion? Whoever occupied the World Travelers had something to do with the death of Ivy Tucker two months ago, and the rest of the family fifteen years earlier.
When I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, I went back to bed. Axel dutifully came along and jumped onto the bed as I settled under the covers.
I wondered what Ryan would say about our new sleeping companion.
At first, I wondered how anyone, meaning me and Amy, could look at those pictures dozens of times and not the ship. It appeared in three of the drawings. Something my fifth-grade social studies teacher told our class popped into my mind.
I asked why the Native Americans didn’t see the explorers before they reached the shore. His answer went like this―In hundreds and hundreds of years, no one had ever approached the shore by ship. When you see nothing year after year, you don’t look any more. It is why some people don’t realize a building is being built until months, and maybe years after it is finished. People knew there was not a building in that spot, so they drove by it every day and never glanced in the direction of the construction. One day, someone asks if you have ever eaten at the restaurant? You look for it, and you could swear it was built the night before.
It was the same with me and Amy. We didn’t expect to see anything else on the etchings and we didn’t. It’s true, at first, they were subtle, they now flashed like neon signs.
I slept late and jumped into the shower when I heard the men change shifts and Digger bark for Chili to come play. Within twenty minutes, I made it downstairs where a bagel with cream cheese and a latte waited for me on the outside table.
Amy joined me. “You’re in a good mood. You must have slept well.”
“On the contrary. I was up most of the night. I’ve concluded the World Travelers most likely saw the boat go down and said nothing to the authorities. Whoever captained that boat and the passengers killed the Tuckers, I am sure of it. I bet they picked up Michael Mannes and helped him escape.”
“Or murdered him too,” Amy said in a low voice. “Remember the saying, Honor Among Thieves? In this case honor among murderers. We need to find out where the boat was housed when it wasn’t on the water. I believe we will have our killers.”
I stood and looked out over the lawn. “Ever wonder why the FBI, Mexican Police, Coast Guard, and local police never figured this out? And, if Christine Hamilton did this for revenge for her son and husband, then who is the short, dark, Hispanic looking man who poisoned you, kidnapped Ray, poisoned Ryan’s men, and terrorized him and me while we were in Mexico?”
Amy snapped her fingers. “Come on guys and girls. Let’s go in and get some work done. I’m ready to find the bad guys.”
It isn’t exactly what we did. I fed the dogs and we got another cup of coffee before we headed for the office.
Ryan called. “Hi there, I miss you. When will you be home?”
“My plane arrives at three, but I need to go straight to the office. I should be home by six. Want me to pick up takeout?”
“I spoke with Nathan earlier and he said you have found an entire new avenue to explore in the Tucker case. Besides, I’ve been eating some pretty good food. The CEO had me to his house twice for dinner. How about Chinese?”
“Okay. See you at sixish. I’m hungry for General Chicken, egg rolls, and crab Rangoon.”
“I love you,
”
“Love you, too.”
“While you were lovey-dovey with Ryan, I found something. The Coast Guard doesn’t know where specific boats are stored, but the nearest port is listed when the boat is registered. For instance, if we had a boat at the Lake of the Ozarks, the name of the boat and Lake of the Ozarks would be on it.”
“I hope it isn’t somewhere like the Lake with its five hundred or more docks.”
Amy said, “Is your nose growing over there? I bet there is no more than three hundred.”
We worked in silence for ten minutes or so when I jumped up and screamed, “I found the boat.” It’s out of San Diego.”
“How many docks to you think there are in San Diego?” Amy asked.
“We only want the ones right on the water and big enough to accommodate a cruiser sixty-five to a hundred feet long.”
“I found three with the amenities. Amy, I’ll give you a choice, do you want to look up the numbers and call or fix lunch and take the dogs out?”
“I’ll call the marinas.”
I called lunch is ready and Amy answered, “Come here, this is too good to keep to myself.”
I went back to the office. “What is it?”
“World Travelers is docked at Seaside Marina. The owners are Janice and Dwayne Johnston.”
“It’s a small world,” I said. “Wonder what they saw?”
Amy typed something on her keyboard, and I waited. “Here is the phone number to the marina. Let’s call them and ask.”
“Do we know the exact date?”
“We can use the date the boat sank.”
She handed me a slip of paper with the phone number. “Here, you call. I hate when you stand behind me and whisper things I should say. You make the call and ask anything you want.”
Amy reached down to pet Sally, and Digger jumped at her leg, wanting equal attention.
I turned away so I could concentrate. After I finished the call, I turned back toward Amy who now had her foot on Sally, rubbing her and both little dogs in her lap.
Axel slept quietly on the other side of my desk.
“They said they had a ledger and logged the comings and goings of the vessels. He didn’t mind helping, but they switched to electronic records a few years back. He would have to go to the storage in the next building and find the book for 2005. He said it was lunch time and there were people everywhere wanting gas, asking directions, and getting lost. He said he could get the information to me by five. Nice guy.”
