Pier Pressure

by Rose Pressey

  “My client has been kidnapped,” I said. “At least I think she has.”

  “What is that supposed to mean, you think she’s been kidnapped?” Dorothy asked.

  “Someone left a note in her house. They said they have her and want money. The place is a mess. There’s something strange about this whole thing,” I said.

  Morton started the car. Jake had returned inside. That sinking feeling remained in the pit of my stomach. I hated leaving him like that. I supposed I was over being mad at him. Morton started to pull away from the curb. The cops looked over when Morton accidentally gunned the engine.

  “Easy does it, Morton,” I said, holding on tight.

  Abby looked my way as we pulled away from the curb. She gave me the good riddance look. I guess she was glad to see me go. Whatever. I had to keep my focus on the case and not let her distract me with her negativity.

  Chapter 11

  “How are those cataracts?” I yelled so that Morton would hear me.

  “Just had surgery last week. I can see like when I was twenty.” He swerved into the right lane.

  A car behind us honked.

  “Morton, didn’t I see a photo of you when you were in the Army at your house?”

  “Yes, I suppose you did,” he said, driving through a red light.

  I checked my seatbelt to make sure that it was secure. “And you were wearing glasses in the photo?”

  “What are you getting at, Maggie?” Dorothy turned in the seat so that she could see me. She scowled.

  “What I mean is his eyesight wasn’t all that great when he was twenty,” I said.

  Dorothy quirked an eyebrow. “Morton’s driving isn’t that bad.”

  I stared at Dorothy.

  “Just make sure your seatbelt is secure and hold on.” Dorothy shifted in the seat again.

  Morton was clueless that we were even talking about him. Our exit was coming up and I wasn’t looking forward to the merge off the highway. Though it was probably better off than barreling down the highway at sixty-five miles per hour. No cars were sideswiped as he cut across a couple lanes and merged off the exit.

  “Morton, do the turn signals work?” I called out.

  “Yes, dear,” he said.

  He didn’t take the hint. I supposed I would have to be more forthcoming. As we sat at the red light I tried to calm my nerves and also prepare for when the light turned green and Morton punched the gas. I looked to my left and noticed the car next to us. I thought for sure that it was Cora in the car.

  “Dorothy, is that Cora in the car next to us?”

  Dorothy pushed her eyeglasses up to her eyes and peered over toward the car. The woman turned to look at us. “Yes, that was definitely Cora.”

  A dark-haired man was behind the wheel. Was that who had kidnapped her? Cora quickly looked away. She had to have seen me.

  “We have to go after her,” I said.

  After the words left my lips I wondered if I’d regret saying that. Morton’s driving was already bad enough. Did I really want to be in the car with him when he was chasing a kidnapped woman? The light turned green and the car with Cora inside took off.

  “Morton, follow that car.” Dorothy pointed.

  Morton immediately punched the gas. My head slammed back against the leather seat. If I had to be in a car chase then this luxurious backseat was definitely the way to go.

  “Which car am I following?” Morton asked.

  Oh, dear.

  “The red one two cars ahead,” I said.

  The red car changed lanes to the left. Morton merged into the right lane.

  “Where are you going, Morton?” I asked.

  “Following that red car.” He gestured.

  There was no red car in the right lane. This was worse than I thought.

  “Maybe I should drive,” I said.

  “No way, dear,” Morton said. “I’m the only one who drives this car.”

  If we crashed he wouldn’t have any other option but to stop the car. I just didn’t want to lose Cora. Was the guy trying to lose us on purpose? How would he even know that we were following him?

  “You have to follow that red car in the left lane.” I leaned forward in the seat. “Do you see that car, Morton?”

  “Yes, I see it,” he said, switching lanes.

  I just hoped he kept his eyes on it now. I wished he’d let me drive. Maybe I should just let Cora go. I didn’t want to encourage bad driving from Morton. However, what if Cora needed our help? Morton pushed the gas and tried to catch up with the red car. Wouldn’t I feel stupid if it turned out not to be Cora. No, I couldn’t second-guess myself. I knew for sure that it was her.

  There was less traffic now. We’d gone away from the city. The area became less congested and more rural. The car had slowed down. There was one other car between us. I still didn’t know if the driver knew we were following him. I supposed Cora wouldn’t tell him if she knew.

  I should probably call Jake and tell him what had happened. Though I didn’t want to take my eyes off the road long enough to make the call. I didn’t want to be distracted. After all, I was a back seat driver now. The car made a left turn.

  “Morton, get ready to make a left turn,” I said.

  The area was covered with foliage and dense trees. I knew that we weren’t far from a swamp area. Why was the driver coming out here? Would they notice us? Surely they would see us behind them now. There were a few houses around, but it was an isolated area.

  “This is a bit spooky out here,” Dorothy said.

  “Yes, that was exactly what I was thinking,” I said.

  Morton made the turn and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t even have to hold on to the side of the car. My seatbelt locked a bit, but I could live with that. The road was made of dirt and unpaved. The car was a good distance ahead, but I wanted it that way so that the driver wouldn’t notice us. Though I was probably kidding myself in thinking that he hadn’t noticed us yet. Maybe that was why we were here. He could have brought us to this isolated area on purpose. The thought made my stomach turn and my anxiety spike.

  Vegetation surrounded the sides of the road, like palm trees and a swamp to the right. Straight ahead was the beach, although it couldn’t be seen yet because of the dense landscape. I assumed the car wouldn’t drive all the way to the beach since cars weren’t allowed out there. Though I suppose the driver wouldn’t let that stop him if he really wanted to go there.

  Morton pulled the car to a stop and shoved it into park. We didn’t want to turn down the driveway where they had gone. We would have to get out and walk. My anxiety spiked again wondering if they would be hiding somewhere and waiting for us. It was like a game of cat and mouse. We were definitely the mice.

  “What do you think they’re doing up there?” Dorothy asked.

  “Probably something they’re not supposed to do,” Morton answered.

  “We need to get to Cora,” Dorothy said.

  The problem was we couldn’t let the man see us. It wasn’t as if we could walk right up and tell him to let Cora go. Though it was tempting to try it that way. I would have to do this the safest way possible.

  I released a deep breath and opened the car door. “You all can stay here and I’ll go check it out.”

  “There is no way that I’m going to let that happen,” Dorothy said.

  “We can’t let you go alone, Maggie,” Morton said, taking the keys from the ignition.

  After we took a few steps down the road, something rustled in the nearby vegetation. It felt as if the air had been sucked from my lungs. When I looked over I saw the eyes. It wasn’t a person. This was much worse. There was an alligator in the water. It had direct access to us. I was pretty sure that it was watching us. Morton and Dorothy hadn’t noticed the creature yet. I had to tell them. Though I had no idea if we should stay put or run for our lives.

  The creature’s eyes and head were visible sticking up from the murky swamp water. I glanced around at the g
rassy bushes surrounding the swamp. There could be more hanging around. For all I knew we could be surrounded by them. I hoped that wasn’t the case, but he probably had friends. His focus was definitely directed at us. He was thinking about dinner. We’d just delivered it to him.

  “Dorothy, you need to stop walking,” I whispered.

  Dorothy frowned. “What is wrong now?”

  “There’s an alligator over there and I’m pretty sure that it wants us to be its dinner.”

  Dorothy’s eyes widened. She stealthily reached for Morton’s arm. He still didn’t realize what we were talking about. I had the feeling Morton was just coming along for the ride.

  “What do we do now?” I asked. “Should we run?”

  “I don’t know what to do,” Dorothy said.

  “How can you live in Florida and not know what to do with an alligator?”

  “It’s never come up,” she said.

  “Okay, we should run now. I think he’s going to make a move soon. How fast can Morton run?”

  “Morton, run back to the car,” Dorothy said.

  “Hurry,” I yelled so he could hear me.

  Morton made eye contact and then took off in a sprint. My mouth dropped open. Morton paused and ran back. He grabbed Dorothy’s hand and pulled her with him.

  “Hey, what about me?” Oh, right. I was younger and could fend for myself. I rushed toward the car. We jumped inside and locked the doors. I wasn’t sure why we’d locked the doors—it wasn’t as if the alligator could open them and climb inside with us. Nevertheless, it felt safer this way. This had definitely changed our plans just a bit. Actually, I didn’t know what to do next.

  “Are you trying to get me killed?” Dorothy asked.

  “Of course not. How was I supposed to know there was an alligator here?” I asked.

  “Well, it is a swamp. And there is that sign over there.” Morton pointed.

  I looked over and spotted the sign that read BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS.

  I quirked an eyebrow. “Well, I didn’t see that before I got out of the car.”

  “What will we do next?” Dorothy asked.

  “I think it’s time that I call Jake,” I said, pulling my phone out.

  I wasn’t looking forward to explaining this situation. I had thought I’d be able to catch up with Cora on my own. I’d have called Jake and told him that the missing client case was solved. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked out that way.

  After a couple rings, Jake answered. “Did you make it home okay?”

  “Not exactly,” I said.

  “What happened, Maggie? I don’t like the sound of your voice.”

  “We’re currently in a car by a swamp. An alligator just chased us. Okay, it didn’t actually chase us, but I sensed that it was going to soon.”

  My answer was met with silence.

  “Are you there?” I asked. The cell coverage in this area was spotty.

  “Maggie, can you explain how you left here with Morton and Dorothy and you were headed home, yet you call thirty minutes later and you’re in a swamp being chased by an alligator?”

  Now that he explained it back to me it did sound kind of ridiculous.

  I chuckled nervously. “It does sound kind of crazy, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s easy to explain. I saw Cora and we followed her.”

  “You saw her? Where?” His voice was full of shock.

  “We were at the red light and when I looked over she was in the car next to us.”

  “Are you sure it was her?” He sounded skeptical.

  “I’m positive.”

  “So then what happened?” he asked.

  “We followed the car of course.”

  “And that’s how you ended up in a swamp?” Jake asked.

  “Exactly, they drove back here, but they turned on a different road. We didn’t want to follow them back there because I sensed that maybe they had brought us back to this area on purpose.”

  “So she saw you?” he asked.

  “Yes, I think she did. That doesn’t mean she told the guy who I was though. I think he figured out we were following him.”

  “Morton was driving?”

  I sighed. “Yes.”

  “Well, that explains that. Can you give me a description of the car?” Jake asked.

  I told him about the car.

  “I’ll put out a BOLO on the car. In the meantime, maybe you should get out of there.”

  “You want to come check out this area, don’t you?” I asked.

  “I’m a detective working this case,” he said.

  I was well aware of that. I had to take my chances with the alligator. I had to go down to that street and take a look. I just couldn’t tell Jake about my new plan.

  “Yes, I’ll head home,” I said.

  “You’re not going to do that, are you?” Jake asked.

  I sighed. “I figured since I’m here I really should take a look down the road.” I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I didn’t.

  “Promise me you won’t do that,” he said.

  I crossed my fingers. “I promise.”

  Later I made the trip back to the beach house. Unfortunately, after going up to the house, I realized no one was there. I’d looked in every window. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try again though.

  Chapter 12

  The next day, I went into the office and started hunting down the car that I’d seen Cora in. I’d wanted to look for her last night, but Dorothy had convinced me that I should wait until daybreak.

  As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon this morning I’d gone for a quick run along the beach. It had helped clear my mind and allowed me to focus on what I knew about the case so far. I’d stepped into my office with a fresh insight on what I needed to do next. Jake was working on finding Cora still, and of course that was my priority too.

  I grabbed my purse and was headed across the room to leave when a noise sounded at the door. Dorothy hadn’t arrived yet. I assumed it wasn’t her because she always just walked right on in. The sound was too loud to be a seagull. Unless Dorothy had fed them a lot of extra breadcrumbs. I walked over to the door and wrapped my hand around the knob. Just as I twisted to open the door it burst open and I tumbled backward onto the floor.

  “Maggie, what are you doing on the floor?” Dorothy placed her hands on her hips.

  I glared at her. “You knocked me down when you opened the door. What are you doing out there? What was the noise?”

  She frowned. “I didn’t make a noise.”

  I jumped up from the floor and peeked outside. No one was there and nothing seemed unusual. Was I losing it? I knew I’d heard something.

  “Are you sure that wasn’t you?” I asked.

  Dorothy shook her head. “You’ve been out in the sun too much already this morning.”

  I picked my bag up from the floor.

  “Oh, are we leaving already? You weren’t going without me, were you?” Dorothy quirked an eyebrow.

  I studied her face for a moment. “No, of course not.”

  Dorothy marched toward the door. “So where are we headed? What did you find out?”

  “I got info on that license plate. I’m going over to check it out.”

  Dorothy walked out the door. “You mean we’re going to check it out.”

  I locked the door behind us and headed toward my car. I scanned the area again to see if I noticed anything that would have made that noise. It spooked me somewhat. Still, nothing seemed out of place, so I climbed behind the wheel. Dorothy already had her knitting needles out when I got in. “So where are we headed?” she asked.

  I started the car. “It’s over by the South Beach. An apartment there.”

  “Oh, I hope this trip is better than the last one to South Beach.”

  I pulled the car out of the parking lot and headed toward the highway. A short time later we pulled up to the address. It was a small building with probably no more than six apartments. It reminded me of my place—tiny apartments
with a minimal amount of lawn space, lots of palm trees surrounding the place. There was no parking lot, only parking along the street. I pulled the car up behind another black car and cut the engine. Luckily, I had found a spot. I didn’t want to park so close that we would be noticed, but I wanted to be close in case we needed to get out of there right away.

  “So how do you think this will go when we arrive?” Dorothy asked.

  “Well, with any luck it will go well,” I said.

  “You know what I mean. What’s the plan?” Dorothy asked.

  “We’ll just have to wing it and see how that goes,” I said as I made a left turn.

  “All right, but I don’t like doing that,” she said around a sigh. “It’ll be fine,” I said.

  “Is this the place?” Dorothy asked.

  “This is it,” I said.

  Dorothy and I stared at the building.

  “Now what do we do?” she asked.

  I tapped my fingers against the steering wheel. “I suppose we should see if anyone is there.”

  There was only one thing we could do now that we had located the apartment. We had to snoop around. I turned off the ignition.

  “Okay, so what’s the plan?” Dorothy asked as she placed her needles back into her bag.

  “We’ll go up there and knock on the door.”

  “That could be dangerous, Maggie.”

  “I’m not sure if this guy knows who I am. I can make up something.”

  “Like what?” Dorothy asked with a quirked eyebrow.

  “I can pretend that I’m looking for someone else. I’ll make up a fake name,” I said.

  “Well, that sounds like a better plan than some that you’ve come up with.” Dorothy opened the car door. “Only slightly better.”

  Dorothy never hesitated to say what was on her mind. We got out of the car and headed up to the front door. A man walked down the sidewalk past us, but he never looked up at us. No one paid attention to us and that was a good thing. Of course I was nervous as we approached the apartment. I told myself that I had everything under control. I’d been doing this for a while now, but it always made me a bit nervous.

  Dorothy and I stepped up to the door. I paused for a moment, but then knocked. We waited, but no one came to the door.