Mare's Nest

by Larry Darter

  "You saw us turn off on the road to this hut?" I said.

  "No, I didn't," Jackie said. I missed the turn and drove right on past the road to this place. Once I realized there was no longer a dust cloud to follow, I realized you must have turned off. But, by then I'd passed several roads and didn't know which you had taken. I tried several, but they didn't seem to lead to anything. By process of elimination, I found the road leading here. It was the shortest road and led to a structure, so I hoped I'd found where Morton had taken you."

  "You're awesome," I said. "Thanks so much."

  "Where is Morton now?" Jackie said.

  "He went back to town to abduct you and bring you here," I said. "I was so frightened for you."

  "How did you free yourself?" Jackie said.

  "I'll tell you all about it later," I said. "By now Morton has discovered you're not at the hotel and that the Jeep is gone. He'll know that because he had been watching us or someone he knows was. He'll hurry back here."

  "So, let's get the hell out of here and call the police," Jackie said.

  "No, I have something else in mind for Morton," I said. "Let me have your gun. Then go get the Jeep and hide it in the trees somewhere. Make sure it is out of sight."

  Jackie seemed to think about it for a moment, but then she handed me the pistol butt first. "What are you going to do?" Jackie said.

  "I'm going to lay a trap for Morton out back," I said. "After you hide the Jeep, come back to the hut. Hide somewhere and keep watch so you can alert me if you see him returning. Once I have things organized, I'll come get you and explain the plan."

  "Okay," Jackie said. She jogged toward the Jeep.

  I closed the front door and hurried back to the kitchen bench. I retrieved the fishing line and then went out the back leaving the door standing open. My hands were full, so I tossed the hammer into the brush. I jogged down the footpath until I'd made three of the turns and came to a straightaway. I stopped there and put the gun on the ground. I tied the bright orange fishing line to the trunk of a tree on one side of the path. Then I spooled off more line while backing across the footpath to the other side. There I ran the line around another tree trunk and pulled it taut. I tied off the line in a secure knot the way my dad had taught me years before. I had a taut length of monofilament line stretched across the footpath. It was about 25 centimeters above the ground. It was the perfect height to trip someone up running full on up the footpath. The orange line was very visible in the sunlight. Perfect.

  I moved about a meter and a half up the footpath from the orange monofilament line. I tied the light blue fishing line to another tree. This time the line was at about one meter, seventy-five above ground level. I spooled out the line as I backed across the footpath. I looped the line around another tree at the same height. I pulled it taut and tied it off with secure knots. Now I had a second taut line suspended at what I reckoned was about chin high for a person of Morton's height. Unlike the orange line, the light blue line was near invisible. Well done.

  I ran back along the pathway to the hut, taking care to skip over the orange fishing line. It was then that I noticed the spade leaning against the back of the hut. Indeed, Morton had been doing some digging. I found Jackie at a front corner of the hut. From there she could see Morton's vehicle approaching when he returned.

  "It's all sorted," I said. "Now, here is the plan."

  I explained the plan fast but gave her all the details. "Don't forget, Jackie. The first line is bright orange and just beyond the third turn of the footpath. Be sure to skip over it and then duck right away, so you aren't caught by the second line. And then keep running straight away until I shout all clear."

  "I don't like the part about getting naked," Jackie said. "Why do I have to take my clothes off too?"

  "Because when you take off from the back door as Morton comes through the front, I want him to see a flash of a bare bum," I said. "That will motivate him to give chase. He'll think you're me."

  "But our bodies are nothing alike, and your hair is blond," Jackie said.

  "It won't matter," I said. "Morton will be so surprised I'm loose that only the flash of a naked female bum he will be expecting to see will register, and he will chase after you."

  "Assuming he doesn't shoot me in the back instead," Jackie said.

  "He won't," I said. "I explained that. He wants me alive for a reason, and he won't shoot. He will want to catch me. Besides, I doubt he will even have the gun out when he opens the front door. He won't have a clue I managed to free myself, and he won't expect you to be here."

  "Okay, okay," Jackie said. She started pulling the surfer tee off over her head. Next came the jeans and then the bra. She slipped her undies off, and we were both starkers. I didn't feel so alone anymore. "This is like being at a freaking nudist colony," Jackie said.

  "Stop grumbling," I said. "Besides, nudists don't call them colonies any longer. I'm going to my hide position beside the footpath. You keep watching here until you see Morton driving up. Then go stand in the back doorway with your arse facing the front until he opens the door. Then scream and run like hell."

  "Got it," Jackie said, not looking at me. It seemed she had gone shy. I took off for the footpath.

  It seemed like no more than five minutes had passed when I heard the ute approaching. The engine noise rose and fell as it negotiated the rough track leading to the hut. Later, in hindsight, it would seem fortunate that Morton returned when he did. Sitting beside the trail, I was starting to feel guilty. I was putting Jackie at great risk for one reason. I wanted to get the money back. I was about to run back to the hut and make a run for the Jeep with Jackie when I heard Morton approaching in the ute. It was spilt milk now. The plan was in motion.

  I heard the engine of the ute switch off. Then moments later I heard Jackie scream and Morton cursing. Next minute I saw Jackie's naked bum whiz past me on the footpath. Then I saw Morton. He vaulted the low orange fishing line. He looked as if he was starting to laugh when the near invisible second fishing line caught him. It caught him beneath the chin. What happened next was a textbook illustration of Newton's first law of motion. "An object in motion stays in motion. It continues with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."

  When Morton hit the fishing line, both his feet shot straight out in front of him. Both legs went parallel to the ground. He then fell hard to the ground on his back. I even heard the whoosh of air rush from his lungs when he hit. He dropped the gun he was holding when he hit the ground, and it landed on the footpath about a meter away from him. The moment his feet went out from under him, I sprang from hiding. I took up a two-handed shooting position on the footpath in front of him. I started to walk to him to pick up the fallen pistol, but as I took the first step, Morton raised up on his elbows. He looked disoriented and was struggling for breath. But, his eyes darted towards the pistol on the ground.

  "Don't," I said. "I'll shoot you if you try it." We locked eyes for a moment. Then Morton lunged for the weapon. I shot him, twice. Once in the chest and once in the head. He fell back, his open eyes staring at the sky. Time seemed to stop for a moment. The sound of the shots rang in my ears. Then I realized Jackie was standing beside me.

  "You killed him," Jackie said.

  "I did," I said. "Morton intended to kill us, both of us. And I reckoned he planned to do worse to us than that before he did. Besides, he didn't leave me any choice. He tried to pick up his weapon."

  "Now what?" Jackie said.

  "First, I'm going to put my clothes back on," I said. "Then I have some digging to do."

  "We're going to bury him?" Jackie said.

  "No, I'm digging something up he buried," I said. "Then we will call the police. Let's get dressed and I'll explain everything."

  "At least he died happy I guess," Jackie said.

  I turned to look at her. She had an impish grin on her lips. "Why do you say that?" I said.

  "Well, he did get one more l
ook at you in all your naked glory as he died," Jackie said. "Even as a woman, a straight chick at that, I have to admit you're pretty hot with your clothes off."

  We both laughed. Likely not appropriate under the circumstances. But I attributed it a bit of gallows humor motivated by the extreme stress we'd been under. We walked back to the hut, retrieved our clothes, and got dressed. While we did that, I told Jackie about the money. I told her how there was a quarter-million more of it than the police knew about and why. Then I told her about the fresh spaded dirt I'd seen off the side of the footpath.

  Chapter 27

  AS I TOSSED ANOTHER spade full of dirt aside, Jackie spoke up again. "What if he buried a body here?"

  "A body?" I said.

  "Yes, maybe he killed the person the shack belongs to."

  "Your imagination is running amuck, Jackie. Besides this is too small for a grave. I'm sure he only buried the money here."

  "What are you going to do with the money?"

  I stopped digging and leaned on the spade. "I'm turning over $750,000 of it to the police. They already know about it."

  "But, you said there was another $250,000 that the police don't know about."

  "Right, I haven't mentioned that to the authorities," I said.

  "So, what are you going to do with the extra money."

  "I'm keeping it," I said.

  "But, isn't that stealing?"

  "One could look at that way," I said. "But I prefer not to look at it that way. The owners of the money are all dead. It would only go to the State of Hawaii if I turned it over to the authorities."

  "Let me see if I understand it then," Jackie said. "It belongs to the State of Hawaii, but you're keeping it. That still sounds like stealing to me."

  "Look, Jackie," I said. "Douglas Shaw had great affection for me. I'm certain that if he were alive and had an opinion, he'd much rather I got the money than the State of Hawaii. After all the state is getting his entire estate on top of the $750,000."

  "But you said he was a filthy predator and that you would never have slept with him," Jackie said.

  "What does that have to do with anything?" I said.

  "I'm not so sure he would have wanted you to have the money," Jackie said, "that's all."

  "You're starting to annoy, Jackie," I said. "Can't we chat about something else."

  "Like what? We are digging up the money after all."

  "Well, how about this," I said. "Since you brought it up earlier, it has to be said. You look very hot naked as well."

  Jackie grinned. "I'll take that as a compliment, even coming from another woman."

  "Well, it's true," I said.

  Jackie's grin faded, and she turned serious. "You aren't gay are you?"

  "For fuck's sake," I said. "No one ever asked me that in my entire life until I arrived in Hawaii. Now you're the second person to ask me. No, I'm not gay. Not that there is anything wrong with it."

  Jackie's grin returned. "All right then. I only wanted to be sure you weren't hitting on me. I prefer men and don't want you to feel that I am leading you on."

  "For fuck's sake!" I said. "Are you trying to wind me up?"

  Jackie laughed. "Yes, I was messing with you. Guilty as charged. And thanks for the compliment. There's nothing wrong with one woman complimenting another."

  "True enough," I said. I started digging again. After removing another half meter of the earth, the spade struck something with the sound of metal on metal.

  Jackie and I both got on our knees beside the hole I'd dug. We used our hands to pull more dirt from the hole, and we found a cache of green metal ammunition boxes. We pulled them out of the ground, one by one. There were eight of them. I flipped the latch on one of the boxes and pulled open the lid. The box was lined with a black plastic refuse bag. I opened the bag, and we saw that the box contained stacks of banded one hundred dollar bills.

  "We found it," I said.

  "I've never seen so much money at one time," Jackie said.

  "Now that we've found it, there is something else we need to chat about," I said.

  "What?"

  I want to make you a proposal, but feel free to refuse it if you aren't interested," I said.

  "Okay, let's hear the proposal," Jackie said. "But, remember I'm straight."

  "You should be a stand up comic instead of wasting your life flying helicopters," I said.

  "Okay, T. J., okay," Jackie said. "I'll shut up. Tell me what you're thinking."

  "All right," I said. "How would you feel about a business partnership?"

  "A partnership?" Jackie said. "You don't fly helicopters."

  "No," I said. "But if we formed a partnership each of us might be able to steer business to the other. If I heard of anyone looking for helicopter transportation, I'd refer them to you. If you heard of anyone looking for a private investigator, you'd refer them to me."

  "And you'd expect us to split all the profits?"

  "No, that wouldn't be fair," I said. "I don't have enough to invest in your aviation company at the moment to make it a fifty-fifty arrangement. But, this is my proposal. I'd put $100,000 into the company account. You can determine what percent of your assets that represented. I'd receive that percentage of the profits as a return on my investment."

  "And I could use the $100,000 for operations?" Jackie said.

  "Yes, of course. You could use it as you please."

  "To be honest, I could use a cash injection like that right now," Jackie said. "My business has been off for a while, and fuel prices have been through the roof. I've had no idea how I was going to afford to pay for the 2200 hour engine overhaul on my bird that is due in six weeks. But why would you want to go partners with me when you live in LA?"

  "I'm planning to stay in Hawaii," I said. "I'm going to get licensed as a PI in Hawaii and start my own shop here."

  "You are? That's great. I was already dreading you going back to the mainland. I think we'd make great friends. And I could help you with other cases when I'm not flying."

  "Exactly," I said. "And, I was hoping that you might consider letting me have office space at your place for a while. Until I start getting clients, I can't afford to lease space of my own, and it seems you have the room for another desk."

  "For sure, no problem," Jackie said. "I'd like that. I wouldn't even charge you rent."

  "Oh no," I said. "I'd contribute to your monthly lease payments. That's only fair. Do you feel your other pilots would be all right with the arrangement?"

  "Other pilots? What other pilots?"

  "When we met you said you were the owner and chief pilot," I said.

  Jackie laughed. "Chief pilot and only pilot, since dad retired. I tell prospective clients that to impress them."

  I laughed at that. "I see, it's a marketing ploy."

  "Exactly," Jackie said.

  "Sounds like we can work a deal then," I said.

  "Of course," Jackie said. "I'm glad you mentioned it. I'm excited about the idea."

  "Oh, and one other thing," I said. "For helping bring Adam Morton to justice, and helping to recover the money, I'm giving you $25,000 of the money as a reward."

  "Oh no, that's too much," Jackie said. "You can pay for the flying hours here, and that's plenty. You've been my first paying client in almost two weeks. I'll even give you another five percent discount for paying cash."

  "No, I insist you take the $25,000," I said. "You've earned it. Also, I don't want you to think I'm taking this money because I'm some terrible greedy person. I want to relocate to Hawaii for some personal reasons, and I'm not flush with cash at the moment. I need a stake, and I can put this money to better use than the state would."

  "Well, thanks, T. J., you're so generous," Jackie said.

  "It isn't generosity, actually," I said. "It's only fairness. Like I said, you earned a bonus. You said you thought we'd become great friends. It seems to me we've already made a good start on that. And I'm always up for sharing my good fortune with my mates."r />
  "Okay, T. J. you have to stop," Jackie said. "You'll get me all teary."

  "Ahkay, no worries," I said. "Let's get this money into the hut. It's getting dark."

  It took four trips to carry all the cans into the hut. There was no electricity, but we found a gas lantern that Morton had been using. We removed the money from the ammunition cans and counted it. We put $750,000 back into the backpack it had come from. There was $240,000 and change left over. I'd spent a few hundred on expenses before Morton took the money off me and it seemed he had spent some too. Still, I was happy enough for the haul we'd made. I found a nylon stuff sack that Morton had been using for dirty laundry and emptied it. I put the extra cash in it.

  Afterward, we stacked the empty ammunition cans in a corner. Jackie found a torch in the hut and we returned to the hole. I tossed some refuse from the hut into the hole, and then we refilled it. If someone found the hole and excavated it, I wanted them to see it as only a refuse dump. We walked about 100 meters further up the footpath, and I tossed the spade into the bush. Then we returned to the hut.

  "Time to call the police?" Jackie said.

  "No, not from here," I said. "We'll go back to the hotel and call them from there. When they arrive, we'll tell them the story and turn over the $750,000. We'll tell how to find this place and Morton's body. With luck, the police will allow us to go to the station to give our formal statements in the morning. That will give me the chance for a catch up with the Honolulu police detective that's been on the case. He might want to come to Lanai tomorrow to wrap up his end of the investigation."

  "Works for me," Jackie said. "I'll carry the backpack. Let's go get the Jeep."

  I grabbed the torch, and extinguished the lantern. We walked to the Jeep and Jackie drove us back to the hotel. After arriving, we went to our respective rooms and tidied up. Once Jackie had returned to my room, I rang the police.