by Matt Lincoln
“Hey, now, a fresh set of eyes couldn’t hurt,” Tessa pointed out, glancing up at me with a grin on her face before quickly turning her attention back to the journal.
“I guess not,” I said, sinking down onto the bed next to her in turn.
We sat there like that for some time, with Tessa going through the journal, trying to find something interesting in there.
Finally, she gave up and handed it back to me.
“Sorry, you were right,” she said apologetically, shaking her head. “I can’t make heads or tails of anything in there.”
“Yeah, I guess not,” I mumbled, reluctantly taking the journal back and placing it back in my suitcase, which I then sealed.
As much as I hadn’t liked handing the book over to her in the first place, I felt like a weight was back on my shoulders as I accepted it back from her. I hoped to find the real journal soon, un-redacted, if only so that I could put the continuous stress of this one behind me.
“We do know one thing, though,” Tessa said, laughing a little under her breath as she said this.
“What?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.
“This pirate guy was a real piece of work,” she said. “I mean, he really went off his rocker about halfway through there. It’s kind of crazy.”
“Literally crazy,” I agreed with a grim nod. “The question is, why? What happened during the earlier pages that made him go out of it so much? And what’s blacked out? At first, it seems like everything pertaining to the Dragon’s Rogue’s location is redacted, but then it’s every other sentence, and then almost every single sentence. It just doesn’t make a lot of sense.”
“No, it doesn’t,” Tessa agreed. “And most important, someone else knows the answer to these questions. Whoever sent you the journal, and whoever went through this one and removed all this stuff, they know. And we don’t even know if it’s the same person or not. It could be two people. Or more.”
“Yeah, I guess I hadn’t thought of that,” I said, blinking at this. I’d been so concerned with the journal itself and its contents—or, lack of contents, more aptly—that I hadn’t given a lot of thought to the fact that someone had done this on purpose. Of course, I’d vaguely understood this. But talking it through with Tessa crystalized the issue.
“The question is, who did you piss off?” she asked, shooting me a grin.
“Oh, I don’t know, just about everyone,” I laughed, shaking my head and looking down at my hands. “But honestly, I can’t think of anyone who would go to all these lengths just to mess with me. Sure, I’ve taken down more than my fair share of criminals—even a few crime syndicates. But I can’t think of anyone who holds that kind of grudge against me, except maybe for that Senator. He’s in prison now, though.”
I was referring to the Florida Senator who had gotten involved with the New York mob who had caused our funding issues I cleared up when I’d seen Tessa last.
“Yeah, I can’t see that being it,” Tessa said, rolling her eyes. “He didn’t strike me as all that bright, to be honest.”
“No, not particularly,” I chuckled. “So I guess what I’m saying is, whoever’s doing this probably isn’t doing it because of me. They have to have been looking for the Dragon’s Rogue, too, and then somehow found out that I was after it.”
“That’s the question: how did they find out?” Tessa asked darkly. “Who all knows about the Searcher’s Chance and all that? Just the people at MBLIS and your witnesses?”
“Just about,” I confirmed with a nod, scrunching up my brows as I tried to create a list in my head. Finally, shaking my head, “I can’t see anyone involved with the investigation being behind any of this. Not at all.”
“I was afraid you would say that,” Tessa sighed. “So, where would that leave us?”
“At square one,” I said apologetically. “As much as I hate to say it. I don’t even know where to begin to figure out who’s behind this. Getting this Martha woman to talk to us would be a good start, but she doesn’t seem all that inclined to do that.”
“No, she’s made that much clear,” Tessa said with a humorless laugh. “Though maybe her knitting friend will be able to smooth things over.”
She rolled her eyes at this thought, and we both burst out laughing.
“I don’t know, Paulina seems nice enough,” I managed as my voice wavered from the laughing. “And maybe showing up with her will catch Martha off guard.”
“I think that’s probably the best that we can hope for,” I chuckled, briefly imagining Paulina trying to fend off a group of gangbangers with her knitting needles and pushing the absurd image out of my mind with another laugh. “But when we get there, you have to promise to do everything I say when I say it.”
“Uh, okay,” Tessa said in a mocking tone, rolling her eyes.
I took her hand and looked her in the eyes to make sure she knew that I was serious.
“I mean it, Tessa,” I said, looking right into her sea-green eyes. “Whatever we’re dealing with here can be dangerous.”
“I understand,” she said, peering back into my own eyes and looking more than a bit concerned now. “You really think there was someone back there at the museum, don’t you?”
It was barely a question. She knew me well enough by then to be able to tell when I was really apprehensive and when I was just extra cautious.
“Yeah, I do,” I said quietly, not wanting to scare her too much. “But I know what I’m doing, and if you stick close to me and do what I tell you in the event of a crisis, everything will turn out fine.”
“I don’t doubt you for a second,” she said, grinning at me and moving her face closer to mine.
I leaned in and pressed my lips against hers, all concerns about the museum, Grendel’s journal, and the Hollands already forgotten.
13
Ethan
I woke up before Tessa the next morning, as the sun was rising, and headed downstairs to get some fresh air.
Apparently, even on vacation, I couldn’t sleep in. I could hear Holm berating me all the way from Miami.
To my surprise, Paulina was sitting behind the front desk when I descended the staircase, clicking away with her knitting needles as she created some kind of shawl or blanket.
“Good morning, Mr. Marston,” she said cheerily, beaming up at me as I approached the front door.
“Good morning to you,” I told her with a friendly nod. “And Ethan is fine, really.”
“Ethan it is, then,” she said, giving me a toothy smile. “What brings you up so early?”
“Oh, I’m just used to it, I guess,” I said with a shrug, running a hand through my hair. “Are you still coming with us to the museum this morning?”
“Oh yes, I’m looking forward to it,” Paulina said eagerly. “I’ve meant to catch up with Martha. You know, I always thought that her grandson would be a good match for my granddaughter. I’ll have to talk to her about that…”
The old woman’s voice trailed off as she seemed to think about this prospect very seriously.
“Right, well, I think I’m going to get some fresh air before breakfast,” I told her, and she nodded absent-mindedly to me as I exited the bed-and-breakfast and headed down the front lawn to take a walk.
The air was crisp and refreshing, and a thin fog settled along the sidewalk in front of me. I couldn’t see or hear the ocean, but I could smell and taste the salt in the air, and there were seagulls calling in the distance, so I knew that the water couldn’t be too far away.
If it weren’t for all my concerns about the museum, Grendel’s journal, and the Hollands, it would’ve been the perfect morning. It was still pretty good, though, I decided. I was with Tessa, and I was by the ocean. What more could a man ask for?
I really thought that the universe was taunting me for even having that thought in the first place as my phone buzzed, and I pulled it out of my pocket to see that Holm was calling me.
He didn’t usually get up this early in the mor
ning, so I knew that it must be important.
“What? What is it?” I asked hurriedly, without even taking a second to say ‘hello.’
“Well, hello to you, too, partner,” Holm said in a tone of mock hurt, though I could hear real tiredness in his tone.
“You’re never up this early,” I said flatly. “So what’s going on? Something with the Holland case?”
“Okay, I’m going to preface this by asking you to please not freak out,” Holm said, and that only served to freak me out more, of course.
“Holm, what the hell happened?” I asked, stopping in my tracks in the middle of the sidewalk as fog billowed around my ankles.
“Okay, okay, so last night…” he started to explain, but I cut him off, my tone angry.
“Last night?” I repeated, aghast. “If something happened last night, why didn’t you call me then? I made you promise to update me whenever something happens!”
“Okay, well, sue me if, between all the police reports and talking to the FBI and dealing with three different forensics teams all night, I didn’t stop and have a chance to call you,” my partner responded defensively. “I didn’t even have time to eat dinner, let alone get any sleep!”
“Now you really have to tell me what’s going on,” I said darkly, abandoning all of my annoyance at Holm because I was just worried now. “What are you talking about? What happened?”
“Well, I’m trying to tell you, if you’ll just stop interrupting,” Holm chuckled.
“Yes, yes, I’m done,” I said hastily. “What is it?”
“Well, last night, a guy broke into the office,” Holm said, and I could almost see him wince all the way in Miami.
“The MBLIS office?!” I cried, and a nearby squirrel who had been chomping away on a walnut fixed its beady little eyes on me in alarm, abandoned its prize, and scampered away.
“What other office would I be talking about?” Holm asked. “But yeah, the MBLIS office. Well, he didn’t quite break in, really, but almost.”
“Explain,” I said shortly.
“Right,” Holm continued. “So Diane and I were in the office late, just going over the Holland case…”
“Was there anything new after I texted you?” I asked, interrupting him again despite my promise. “Nothing since the FBI confirmed it was them at the Atlanta airport?”
“No, nothing before this happened,” Holm said, sounding a little exasperated at my latest interruption, though he didn’t say anything about it. “But anyway, so we were just sitting there, and then someone knocked on the door. Diane opened it, and there was a package just sitting there. No address or return address or anything. It was just sitting at the door, and no one was in the hallway.”
“Oh, God, Holm, you didn’t open it, did you?” I asked, thinking that whatever was inside could’ve been laced with poison or contain some kind of explosive.
“I did,” Holm said quickly. “I know I probably shouldn’t have, but Diane wasn’t opening it, and it was really light and only sounded like a piece of paper was inside, so I just went with it. And clearly, I’m still alive, so it was fine.”
“Is Diane still alive?” I asked, flummoxed by this rash decision on my partner’s part, though I wasn’t exactly surprised. I supposed that Holm’s rashness balanced out my own caution, and that was why we made a good team, but still. There were limits.
“Yes, of course, don’t you think I would’ve led with that?” Holm asked.
“Well, you didn’t lead with this,” I pointed out.
“Fair enough,” he sighed. “So I opened the box, and there was just a note in it that said ‘watch out.’”
“Watch out?” I repeated, more than a little skeptically. “Holm, are you messing with me?” It just sounded too much like something out of a bad cop show.
“No, I’m not, I swear,” he said quickly. “I would tell you if I was.”
“Alright, then,” I sighed, deciding to take this at face value for now and confirm it with Diane later. “So that’s it? There was just a note that said watch out? It wasn’t signed or anything?”
“No, it wasn’t signed, and it didn’t match Chester's or Ashley Hollands’ handwriting, either,” Holm said. “Though we’re having a couple of handwriting experts look at it to make sure. I guess one of them could’ve tried to change it up just for the note. I wouldn’t put it past them.”
“Neither would I,” I said darkly, thinking that I wouldn’t put much past the Hollands, based on what little we did know about the couple. “So that was it? The note? You’ve got three forensics teams and the FBI looking at a note? For all that you know, it could’ve just been a few kids playing a prank on you.”
“It does sound like something like that, doesn’t it?” Holm asked with a small chuckle that didn’t have much humor in it. “Like something they saw on TV. But yeah, what happened next confirmed that wasn’t it.”
“There’s more?” I asked, thinking that my eyes just might bug out of my head. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Holm. You need to lead with the most important parts from now on.”
“Well, I’m just trying to tell the story in order,” he said in an almost patronizing tone, and he laughed. “But yeah, there’s more.”
“Stop joking around and tell me what happened,” I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and shutting my eyes tightly.
A nearby early morning dog walker stopped to give me a puzzled look but continued on past me.
“Right, so there was a guy hiding in the stairwell,” Holm said quickly, clearly wanting to get it all out before I had a chance to interrupt again. “He had a gun, and he tried to shoot us, but we fended him off, and he ran.”
“Are you serious?!” I cried, and the dog walker nearly jumped out of his skin.
I mouthed sorry to him and pointed to the phone pressed to my ear. He gave me another strange look and continued on his way.
“Are you serious?” I repeated, whispering now, though still in an intense tone. “You should’ve called me, Holm. I don’t care what else you had going on.”
“Okay, okay, sorry,” he said, though he didn’t sound sorry at all.
“Did you catch the guy? What’d he say?” I asked.
“No, that’s the worst part,” Holm sighed. “We didn’t catch him. And believe me, we’ve looked everywhere. The guy’s long gone. The police are still scoping out the whole city, and Diane let Birn and Muñoz leave desk duty to help them for the day. But nothing.”
“Do you have a description at least?” I asked, my stomach sinking at this news.
“No, he was wearing a ski mask,” Holm explained. “He was white, and male, and average height. And Diane thinks he had brown eyes. I’m not sure one way or the other on that. That’s pretty much all we know.”
“Alright, well, that’s better than nothing, I guess,” I said, shaking my head. “Were Bonnie and Clyde able to get anything off the note?”
Bonnie and Clyde were MBLIS’s trusty lab techs, and they could always be trusted to find something on any given piece of evidence if it was there to be found in the first place.
“They’re working on it, but no,” Holm said. “No prints or anything yet. The Miami Police Department and the FBI also have forensics teams working on it.”
“Okay… okay…” I said, turning around on my heels and trying to decide what to do. “Okay, I can be back pretty quick, I think. I’m out for a walk right now, but I’ll just head back to the bed-and-breakfast and get Tessa, and we’ll drive to the airport… that shouldn’t take more than an hour or two. Then I’ll be on the next flight to Miami.”
“No, no, no,” Holm said quickly. “This is what I was afraid of…”
“I knew you were avoiding calling me!” I said accusingly.
“No, I wasn’t, I swear!” he cried back. “I called you the first chance I got. Well, the first chance I got that wasn’t in the middle of the night. But still, I was afraid to call. There’s no reason for you to come back. Diane said so already,
and she told me to tell you not to hop on a flight just yet, okay?”
“No, not okay,” I said angrily. “You guys were attacked! We need all hands on deck there. You can’t deny that.”
“We do have all hands on deck, minus you,” Holm argued. “We’ll have everyone except you back by this afternoon, and there’s not a lot to go off of. The FBI is here, and the police department has like half their force working on this. We’ve got it handled, Marston. We’re fine.”
“Are you kidding me?” I asked. “This is exactly the kind of scenario I should come home for!”
“Look, Marston, don’t come back,” Holm said, a little impatiently now. “We’re fine. Stay there for a couple of days and then come back. We can use you then. You’ll just be sitting around twiddling your thumbs and doing pointless police interviews over and over again like the rest of us. It wouldn’t do anyone any good.”
I took a deep breath and held it as I considered this for a moment.
“Fine,” I breathed at long last, hating myself as I said it. “But the second anything else happens, you’d better call me. Even if it is the middle of the night.”
“Deal,” Holm said, before clicking away and leaving me to stroll back to the bed-and-breakfast in the fog, considering whether I had made the right decision.
14
Ethan
I walked around some more until it was time for breakfast, trying to clear my head, and mostly failing in that endeavor.
Tessa and I were already in Walldale, and there was no denying that something strange was going on here with the museum, especially after our experience the night before. I’d be lying to myself if I said I wasn’t dying to figure out what was up.
But at the same time, Holm and Diane had been attacked in the middle of what was probably the biggest case in MBLIS history. I didn’t want to miss that, and I was also protective of my colleagues. The idea that they could be hurt and I wouldn’t be there to help them was killing me, and it already killed me that I wasn’t there to help them the night before.
