by Caleb Wygal
“Okay. Perfect. Look, I just pulled into the marina a second ago. Those two guys just took off.”
“Why boss?”
“Never mind that. You’re going to see the guy’s Jeep parked right by the water as you come around the corner. They’re hurrying that way. You can’t let them get away!”
“I read you loud and clear boss,” the guy said and hung up.
Riddick stood. There wasn’t much he could do while the boat drifted. Those two clowns were on foot and there’s no way Riddick could catch up with them even if he tried. He had to depend on his guys. They’d let him down twice in a twenty-four hour period.
A third strike would come with severe consequences.
He tracked Darwin and Lucas as they passed from view behind the yacht club and reemerged a few seconds later.
Just then, he saw the black car he knew his guys would be driving appear around the corner of the village and move toward the parking lot. They had to stop Darwin and Lucas. Riddick was too close to the treasure to let it slip away now.
He stood and started waving his hands, trying to get the attention of the driver. Riddick thought he saw someone wave through the tinted windows. Riddick pointed madly from Darwin and Lucas to the Jeep. They were almost there. No more than fifteen feet away.
In the next moment, everything slowed down to Riddick. He saw Lucas pull his keys from his pocket and hit a button on the key fob to disarm the alarm. The black Charger’s wheels squealed on the blacktop. The brake lights on the Jeep blinked twice. Darwin and Lucas jerked at hearing the squealing tires.
Riddick looked on as the big, heavy car smashed into the front of the Jeep. Darwin and Lucas dived away to the ground to avoid being near the collision. Glass, aluminum, and metal shards exploded outwards as the momentum of the car pushed the bigger Jeep backward, over the concrete wheel stop, down the bank and into the water. The front half of the Charger followed it, submerging itself in water up to the door handles.
Riddick stood with his mouth hanging agape. He didn’t have these guys around for their brains. He had them around to clean up potentially messy situations in return for a decent salary and good weed. In their position, however, he didn’t see a better alternative other than just running over Darwin and Lucas.
People were starting to swarm out from the village at the sounds of the calamity. Several men who ran out from the restaurant on the water were the first to arrive. He tried to keep track of Lucas and Darwin, but they disappeared into the mob. He saw a few people with their phones out, some taking videos and pictures. Evidence, Riddick thought. Other onlookers had phones to their ears, presumably calling 911. Others were trying to get to the Charger to see if they could help the men trapped inside.
Riddick knew one thing. He didn’t want to be anywhere near here when the authorities arrived.
He piloted the yacht back to the dock and cut the engines. He hurried below, pulled the length of rope from the water, and looped it around a post. He went back in and below to his cabin. He grabbed a few things and exited the yacht.
He heard the call of the first sirens in the distance.
He had to make himself scarce, and fast.
29
Lucas spent a few seconds taking stock of himself, making sure all limbs were attached, that he had no broken bones or bleeding freely from anywhere. Satisfied he’d live another day, he looked at Darwin who was taking a similar inventory of himself a few feet away. He seemed fine except for a scrape on his forehead above his left eye.
Someone handed Darwin a tissue and he applied it to staunch the bleeding. Less than a minute after the crash, a dozen people were standing around the two, making sure they were okay. Lucas stood and looked over to the Charger half-emerged in the water. Several bystanders were there, trying to get to the men trapped inside. None of whom seemed to be moving.
There was no sign of Lucas’s Jeep.
There were now two things he loved that had been ripped away from him. His soon-to-be ex-wife and his Jeep. He loved that truck. It was his baby. He’d spent countless hours tinkering with it, making his own customizations, driving around town with the cabin cover off, cruising.
Now it was gone to the bottom of the harbor. He imagined his insurance company would pronounce it totaled and he’d have to start from scratch. He already had to pick up the broken pieces of his marriage. This was too much.
Lucas couldn’t make out any of the faces around him, trying to help. They were all blanks. His mind was a swirl of what just happened. He could have been killed.
Riddick.
He did this, Lucas told himself. The pirate may not have been the person behind the wheel of the Charger, but that car wouldn’t have been here if it weren’t for him.
Lucas wanted to go confront the pirate, although he knew that would be a mistake. At this point, he didn’t care about the legal consequences. He was aware enough of himself to recognize his safety.
He remembered Riddick had the pirate cutlasses on board his yacht. Lucas was unarmed.
A roar came from across the water. Not from the yacht. The sound came from the big speedboat.
Lucas saw Riddick’s black beard flap in the wind as he gunned the boat and zoomed out of the harbor.
• • •
Paramedics at the scene treated Darwin and Lucas. They put a thick piece of gauze over Darwin’s eye. Lucas had a cut on his knee that required only a Band-Aid to treat.
The mongoloid and Neanderthal in the car were unconscious. Both had several broken bones. The brains of the outfit had been sitting in the middle of the backseat, leaning forward with no seatbelt. At the moment of impact, he was flung head first into the windshield. He broke his neck and was pronounced dead at the scene.
Police questioned Darwin and Lucas at length. Having not committed any crimes, they were both released on their own recognizance, but were told they may need to make themselves available for further questioning in the future. Lucas then spent half an hour on the phone with the insurance company explaining his situation, taking care of the details that went with having a vehicle struck in a parking lot and then submerged in water. That wasn’t fun.
Two big tow trucks came and extricated the Charger from the water after an ambulance took the two remaining cronies. A van from the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office came and zipped up the ringleader in a body bag before taking him away.
Good riddance, Lucas thought.
The Jeep took more doing. Someone managed to dive in the water and hook a winch from a tow truck around part of the drive train under Lucas’s Jeep. Placing the hook on the front bumper would have been easier; however there was no more front bumper. Its shattered remains floated away in the current.
Lucas watched with sadness as the thick cable of the winch retracted, slowly pulling the Jeep up from the depths of the harbor and onto a flatbed truck. Water poured out of the exposed engine compartment and through the door as it reemerged from the dark water. Lucas climbed up on the truck’s bed and extracted what he could from the Jeep that wasn’t already ruined. There wasn’t much. Everything he was able to salvage in a duffel bag full of soaked clothes. The Blackbeard figurine he purchased from Alethia in Bath was destroyed. Darwin had the same situation with his belongings. Fortunately, he took his backpack with his notes about the journal, tablet, and tools for digging and excavating with him when they separated back in Bath.
After all the curious onlookers and medics left, one of the police officers asked Darwin and Lucas if they needed a ride to anywhere. The two looked at each other with blank expressions on their faces.
“I wouldn’t know where to go,” Darwin said. “What do you think, Lucas?”
They needed to get to where the treasure was. In reality, he didn’t think the friendly cop would take him on a two-hour trip. The problem for Darwin and Lucas was that Riddick could probably get there in less than an hour with the speedboat. Riddick’s problem was that there was no way he could know where the treasure was. Lucas had
n’t told Darwin where to go for just this reason. He didn’t want any possibility of Riddick knowing.
The thought gave Lucas some comfort. He hoped he would never see the pirate impersonator again.
Lucas didn’t think they needed to hurry, although he still didn’t want to waste any time should the pirate somehow figure it out.
The sun was beginning to set across the Harbor River over Dafuskie Island. Considering what they’d just gone through, Lucas thought it was a beautiful thing. Breath taking. Peaceful. His heart rate finally slowed. The ringing in his ears went away.
Lucas looked at his watch. 7:17. There was still time. He said to the officer, “You know, there’s one place you can take us.”
The police cruiser deposited Darwin and Lucas at the diner beside the library.
Darwin had a confused look on his face as he looked at the restaurant’s façade. “What are we doing here?”
Lucas smiled. “When entering a new location for the first time, it is best to try to find allies quickly.”
Still puzzled, Darwin asked, “What is that supposed to mean?”
“I met someone while I was waiting for you all to get here who might be able to help.”
“Oh, great.” Darwin’s tone dripped with sarcasm. “I want to remind you that we just got out of a car of someone who offered to do just that.”
“I know. Their uniform limited them. We couldn’t expect them to take us where we need to go.”
“And where is that?”
“Edisto Island.”
“Never heard of it.”
Lucas placed a hand on Darwin’s shoulder, guiding him towards the door. “I didn’t expect you to.”
• • •
Lynn was still there. Her shift wasn’t supposed to end for another fifteen minutes. She looked more tired than she did a few hours previous. The day for her was winding down. Lucas figured she had already mentally prepared her evening. He was about to throw a wrench into those plans.
She stood behind the register, cashing out some disorganized teenagers, a nubby pencil stuck behind her left ear. The bright red hair had lost a bit of its luster. That could be because of the receding light outside.
After the kids received their change and walked away, she saw Lucas and Darwin standing there, bandages and all. Despite being tired, she smiled from ear to ear.
“Welcome back,” she said. She looked up at Darwin. A blot of blood had seeped through the piece of gauze. “How can I help you . . . guys?”
Lucas said, “We’d like to have dinner. Been a long day.”
She cocked a head to the side. “Lunch and dinner with us? Not even our most dedicated customers eat here more than a couple times a week. We’re honored. Here, let me get you two some dinner menus.”
Darwin didn’t have much experience with women, although he knew when someone was flirting. He scratched his head. What was Lucas up to?
She led them to a booth over by the wall under a retro sign advertising delicious, fresh-brewed coffee anytime. Sounded good to Lucas.
They sat and Lucas scooted over on his bench to sit next to the wall. Darwin sat in the middle on his side, which he took up most of.
“You know, earlier when you asked what time I was getting off tonight,” the red-headed waitress said, “I thought you might come back.”
Darwin could do nothing but stare at the two of them. Here they were with no car, nowhere to stay, it was getting late, and Lucas was wanting to play footsie with a waitress. Just as he started to get angry and speak his mind, Lucas said, “Hey Lynn. You get off here in a minute, right?”
“Yeah,” she answered.
“Mind if we buy you dinner?”
Darwin wondered where the “we” part came from. He’d never seen this woman before.
She looked at Lucas for a long moment, glanced at Darwin, and let out a deep breath. “Sure. Why not? I have nothing else going on tonight.” She stopped. Seemed to think of something else. “Look, you’re not going to try to kidnap me or anything? You’re not a couple of weirdo’s looking to get your rocks off on some diner waitress are you?”
Lucas held out a hand and laughed. “No, nothing like that at all. I assure you. I do want to ask you a question though.”
“What’s that?”
Lucas shook his head. “That’ll take some explaining. Nothing kinky I assure you. That’s why we wanted to have dinner with you. So there’d be time to explain.”
She wore a skeptical expression. “Okay. Give me a minute. What do you want to drink?”
Darwin ordered a Coke. Coffee for Lucas. He had the feeling it was going to be a long night.
• • •
She left to get their drinks. Darwin tried to keep his composure. He’d been double-crossed, lied to, and nearly killed, and now Lucas seemed to have his own agenda.
“What are we doing here, Lucas?” he asked through clenched teeth. “Come on. We need to get on the road or find a hotel or something, and here you are, trying to hook up with some waitress. What gives?”
“No, I’m not. Look, you say we need to get on the road. How are we going to do that? We have no car.”
“We could rent one. Doesn’t your insurance company provide a rental in case of a wreck?”
“They don’t. That’s what took so long on the phone. Besides, what if some idiot finds us and crashes it into a harbor again? We might need to put some serious miles on a car between now and when we’re done. That gets expensive with a rental. Don’t think the insurance company would pay for an extensive trip anyway.”
“So what?” Darwin’s volume started to rise. “You’re going to try to woo this girl and borrow her car? What if we end up wrecking it? What then genius?”
“Do you know what type of car she drives?” Lucas asked, to which Darwin shook his head. “I saw her digging around in it outside earlier. It’s a white Toyota Corolla. The thing is maybe twenty-five years old. Can’t be worth much.”
“So what are you saying? Try to talk her into taking us to—where was it—Edisto Island? And if something happens, you just buy her a new car?”
“Something like that.”
Darwin looked at him in disbelief. “I can’t believe you. If you have the cash to buy her a new car, why not just spring for the rental?”
“Because we’re talking a difference of thousands of dollars.” Lucas paused. “Also, consider this: how did Riddick’s guys track me to that library at that time?”
“Well, he knew what library you were going to be at,” Darwin answered. “Simple.”
Lucas wagged a finger. “No. Not so simple. Have you paid attention to the types of cars on the road around here?” Darwin shook his head. “Right. A four-door Jeep looks like it’s a popular ride on the island. How many black Jeeps such as mine do you think there are here in Hilton Head? Ten? Twenty?”
Darwin conceded the point. “Yeah, although they knew you were going to be there at some point today.”
“They did. I agree. But, what if there was another identical one here? How would they have known which was which? They arrived after I got there and were waiting on me.”
“Dunno.”
“Let me put this out there. You said on the way over here that Riddick told you he’s a treasure hunter. Right?”
“Yeah.”
“OK. We also know he has a lot of money, right?”
“We do.”
“Do you know anything about treasure hunters such as Riddick?”
“Can’t say I do.”
“Many are honest. But some, some are modern-day pirates. Ruthless. Will stop at nothing to find treasure, even resorting to violence, sabotage, treasure. Whatever.”
“Riddick certainly looks the part of a pirate.”
“Exactly. Remember, he’s shown flashes of anger towards us in the past two days,” Lucas said. “This lost treasure of Blackbeard has got to be his personal holy grail.”
“I’ll agree with that.”
“He showed us
back there at the harbor and yesterday out in Rose Bay that he’d resort to violence to get his way. Hell, Darwin, we could have been killed back there.”
“He did. So what are you saying? How does this tie back to those guys knowing your Jeep and you not wanting to get a rental?”
“What if Riddick has connections with the police and is able to track my license plate number? He could have gotten that at several points before we left Bath.”
“Right, now that Jeep is sitting in a salvage yard somewhere,” Darwin said. He saw Lucas flinch at the thought. “I’m sorry. What I’m saying is that we no longer have a license plate number for him to track.”
“We don’t. We would if we rented a car.”
“Huh. Good point,” Darwin said and scratched the hair on his chin. “How would he know what we rented?”
“Well, if, if he has connections with the police department, who is to say he doesn’t have similar ties in with credit monitoring services, or a network of shady informants within various government agencies? Those who sold information for the right price? What if he can track our transactions every time we swipe our credit or debit card? We sign our name to a rental, and then he could conceivably track that back to a license plate number and make and model of the car.”
“Come on Lucas. That’s stretching it.”
Lucas shook his head. “Call me paranoid. Call me overly cautious. Whatever. I think at this point, with the stakes so high, we can’t afford to have our names and whereabouts out there. You saw what happened back there. Darwin, we’re in danger.”
His big friend seemed to have simmered down. He knew what was supposed to have been a fun excursion had turned into something much more serious. “Why not just quit?” he asked.
“And what? Go into hiding? Riddick knows we’re on to something. Do you think he’d stop until he got the treasure?”
“No, I don’t,” Darwin admitted.
“Do you want to the treasure to fall into his hands?”
