The Legend of Fuller’s Island

by Jan Fields

  “We have the cane in the back of the car,” Annie said. “Maybe we can take it to your friend after we talk to Bob Maynard.”

  “Excellent idea,” Nora said.

  As they pulled into the parking lot at the boat rental, Bob Maynard walked out on the narrow porch of the building to scowl at them. As soon as Ian stepped out of the vehicle, Bob called, “I told you, I don’t have any boats to rent!”

  “We’re actually here for something else,” Ian said.

  Annie and Nora walked around from the passenger side of the vehicle. Bob Maynard tensed at the sight of them. “Nora,” he said with a nod.

  “Bob Maynard,” she said. “You want to tell me why you’re lying to folks? Including me?”

  The man’s face darkened in anger. “I don’t like being called a liar.”

  “Then don’t tell lies,” Nora said as she marched up on the porch and stared up into his face. “Why did you tell these folks that you only rented the boat to their friends one day when it was several? And why did you tell them their friends dropped the boat off at night when you had to go over to the island to retrieve it?”

  “What makes you think all that?” he growled back at her.

  “I don’t think it,” she said. “I know it.”

  “Nora,” Bob said, his voice dropping a bit. “You don’t know what kinda hornet’s nest you’re kicking.”

  “Well, I figure if I keep kicking it hard enough, something will come buzzing out,” she said. “Then I’ll know.”

  “Fat lot of good knowing will do you,” Bob said.

  “I’ve never known you to be a coward before,” Nora said.

  He snorted. “I’ve certainly known you to be a pain in the … .”

  She held up a hand. “We’re wandering off topic. What’s making you tell lies, Bob? What are you scared of?”

  “I’m not scared of anything … for me,” he said. “I have more to worry about than my own hide, Nora. You know I got my little sister’s kid to think about.”

  “Yes, I do,” Nora said, looking around. “Where is little Ellie? I haven’t seen her in a while. I should say hi.”

  “She’s not here right now,” Bob said. “She’s gone to visit with her daddy’s people down Florida way.”

  “Really?” Annie said, shocked. “When did she leave?”

  “Not that it’s any of your nosy business, but just an hour or so ago,” Bob said. “She’s been missing them real bad lately.”

  Annie glanced at Ian. It seemed unlikely that Ellie would suddenly decide to pay a visit to her relatives exactly when they got back from the island. She must have been caught helping them. She just hoped the teenager really was safe and sound with family.

  “Look, Bob,” Nora said. “I’m going to find out what’s going on with or without your help. I just thought we’d been friends long enough to make it with.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t help you, Nora, except to give you some advice. You need to decide what’s more important to you—family or some crazy tourists. Because you got more to lose than just you.”

  Nora’s eyes widened, and she launched herself at Bob. “How dare you threaten my mother!”

  Bob caught her by both arms. “I’m not threatening anyone, Nora. Not me.” He shook her slightly, but then let go of her as Ian closed the distance between them. Bob took his hands off Nora gently. “Not me.”

  Annie tugged at Nora’s arm. “I don’t think we’re going to get anywhere here, Nora. We should go do our next errand.”

  Nora reluctantly tore her stare away from Bob and let Annie lead her to the car.

  Bob shook his head as Annie and Nora climbed in the car. He looked at Ian, and for a moment, his gaze was stricken. “Look after her.”

  “I’ll do what I can,” Ian said. “You’re not helping much.”

  “It would help her the most if you could get her to stop,” Bob said. “If you could get both of them to stop.”

  “They’ll stop when we get our friends back,” Ian said. Then he lowered his voice. “Is your niece all right? Is she really with family?”

  “She’s not your concern,” Bob said, his voice turning cold again, and then he turned and walked into the building.

  With no way to pry more information from the man, Ian sighed and headed for the vehicle. Nora fumed for a while as they drove out of the dense swampy forest, but eventually calmed enough to give them directions to the school.

  Annie glanced at her watch. “School’s been over for a while hasn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Nora said. “But Jen handles after-school detention most of the time, so she’ll still be there.”

  The school was a single-story building that looked a bit like a spider with long-legged hallways heading off the main building in all directions. Nora bypassed the main entrance and walked along the sidewalk to the end of one of the wings. They found the door propped open with a rock. “The kids do that,” Nora said. “It lets them sneak out and smoke if Jen takes a bathroom break during detention.”

  “Does that happen often?” Annie asked.

  “Not since Jen figured out what was going on,” Nora said. “But teenaged hope springs eternal.”

  As they walked down the hall, a sudden rush of teenagers poured out of a room and practically ran them over. “Detention must be over,” Ian said as he pulled Annie safely to one side. As soon as the stampede passed, they walked into the large classroom. A round-faced young woman with olive skin and long straight black hair looked toward them, blinking brown eyes behind over-large glasses.

  “Jen,” Nora said, “I have some people I want you to meet.” She quickly introduced Ian and Annie. Then added, “I have a huge favor to ask.”

  “Sure,” Jen said, squinting slightly at her friend. “What can I do for you?”

  “First,” Nora said, “what’s with the owl imitation? You look about half-blind.”

  Jen sighed. “My contacts were bothering my eyes, and I left my glasses at Andrew’s place. So I had to wear these and they’re old—really old—so not exactly the right prescription any more.”

  “Well, don’t forget to collect your glasses before he leaves for the Keys. And I hope you can still see a little.” Nora gestured toward Ian who held the cane in one hand. “I need you to test some stuff on this cane and let me know if it’s blood. Can you do that?”

  “Sure, that wouldn’t be hard,” Jen said, gesturing for them to follow her to a long black lab table near her desk. The whole room was full of identical tables, but this one held a microscope and a variety of tubes, jars, and small boxes. She held out her hand for the cane, and Ian handed it over.

  She peered at the dark stains on the head of the cane. “Looks like it could be blood.” She scraped some off with the tip of a lab scalpel, and then scraped it onto a test tube. She searched in one of several boxes until she found a small stopper-topped tube. As she worked, she talked, “It’s basic chemistry. I’m testing for hemoglobin by the formation of crystals in chemical reaction. Blood has loads of iron in the hemoglobin and that reacts with pyridine to produce lovely red feathery crystals of pyridine ferroprotoporphyrin.”

  “Much as I love a good chemistry lesson,” Nora said, “I mostly just want to know if it’s blood.”

  Jen looked at her and shook her head as if deeply saddened by her friend’s lack of interest in the science behind what she was doing. “It’s blood,” she said.

  “Human?” Nora asked.

  “Now that’s a different test and not one I’m set up here to do. We don’t do anything quite that complex in high school biology.” She looked closer at the head of the cane. “There’s a good bit of sample here. Let me scrape some more off and take it home where I have more reagents. I can call you as soon as I know. Would that be OK?”

  “Sounds great,” Nora said.

  “So, is this for some newspaper story?” Jen asked.

  “Could be,” Nora said. “You haven’t heard anything weird about Fuller’s Island lately,
have you?”

  Jen looked surprised. “Actually I have. I heard a couple of kids talking about it the other day. They’d gone over a couple weeks ago and said they had heard a pack of dogs on the island. Scared them half to death, apparently. I thought maybe they had imagined it since that island is seriously creepy.”

  “I saw a video online,” Annie said. “It was supposedly taken on the island, and it definitely sounded like there were dogs on the island.”

  “But we saw no sign of dogs this morning,” Ian said.

  “Dogs that appear and disappear?” Nora said. “I’m liking this story more every minute.”

  “You’ll have to tell me how it turns out,” Jen said. “I’ll call you for sure after I run the test. I need to get home now and grade a pile of tests. That should depress me.”

  “Be brave,” Nora said, thumping her friend lightly on the back. “I’ll wait for your call.” She headed out into the hall with Ian and Annie, leaving Jen behind to stuff papers into her briefcase.

  “So where to now, Nancy Drew?” Nora asked Annie. Then she turned to grin at Ian. “Which I suppose makes you Ned Nickerson?”

  “I’m afraid I didn’t read those books as a boy,” Ian said.

  “Ah, so more likely you’re Frank Hardy,” Nora said. “Still, what shall we sleuth next?”

  “We’ve run out of ideas until we get on the island tomorrow,” Ian said.

  “In that case, drop me at the office,” Nora told them. “I’ve got some other newspaper work to finish up before I head home.”

  “That sounds good,” Ian said.

  As they drove back to the office, Annie asked for a suggestion of where they might pick up some supper. “I’d like to bring something back for everyone besides pizza.”

  “The Chinese restaurant across the street here is really good,” Nora said. “I think it’s the Golden Dragon right now. It’s changed owners three times since I moved back to town, but it’s got the right folks now. The food is delicious.”

  They pulled into the parking lot for the newspaper. Ian and Annie got out of the car to walk Nora to the newspaper door. “An escort?” Nora asked.

  “I’ve learned to be careful once the women around me start kicking hornets’ nests,” Ian told her. “It’s best to keep an eye on them.”

  “I promise to be careful,” Nora said.

  Once she was safely inside, Ian and Annie crossed the near empty street and walked into the small Chinese restaurant. From the tiny scattering of small closely grouped tables, it was clear the place did mostly a take-out business. They walked to the counter and stared up at the picture menu mounted close to the ceiling. The restaurant appeared to offer the same packed menu of items common to Chinese restaurants everywhere.

  Ian ordered a little of a lot of different things so he’d be sure to have something everyone would like. The young Chinese girl who took their order spoke clear crisp English, but then called out to the people in the kitchen in Chinese. The flurry of activity following the girl’s words was fascinating to watch, and they got all their food with amazing speed.

  Loaded up with bags and cartons, Annie and Ian headed back out into the cooling evening. “The smell of all this is making my stomach growl,” Annie complained. “I can’t promise all the egg rolls are going to make it back to the inn.”

  Ian laughed. He turned his head at an odd scraping sound coming from the narrow alley between the Chinese restaurant and a cluster of shops next to it. Something about the sound made him pause, reaching out for Annie even as he peered toward the gloom of the alley. He realized he couldn’t quite reach her as Annie stepped into the street. Ian sprinted toward Annie as a small car rocketed out of the alley straight at them.

  Dropping the bags he was holding, Ian grabbed Annie, using his momentum to carry her along as he dove for a high concrete planter that ran parallel to the road. They made it into the planter as the car scraped along the concrete side and ran over most of their dinner bags.

  Ian sat up, gently pulling Annie with him. “Are you OK?”

  Annie nodded, panting slightly with alarm. “Maybe some bruises.” She looked at Ian with wide eyes. “That didn’t really feel like an accident.”

  “No,” Ian said. “I think we’ve finally kicked the nest enough to bring out the hornets.”

  16

  Father’s plan was a simple one. We would set up a camp some distance from the closest outbuilding of my great- grandfather’s mansion. We would spend the night in tents, draped in mosquito netting like explorers of the dark continent. In the morning, our fears would be shown as the silly imaginings they were, and we would be free of them forever. It was a simple plan and should have been a good one. Everyone knows there is no such things as curses or ghosts—two-legged or four. It was a simple plan—and very simply wrong.

  —Steven Fuller, 1925

  Though Annie had lost a lot of her appetite in the near accident, they returned to the restaurant to replace the food scattered all over the parking lot. The girl from behind the counter greeted them at the door as the rest of her family chattered rapidly behind her.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “We’re fine,” Annie said. “Though that driver was certainly a little reckless. Did you happen to recognize the car?”

  “No, I’m sorry,” the girl said. “I don’t pay much attention to cars. I don’t drive.” She turned and spoke to the rest of the people in rapid Chinese. Several shook their heads as they turned to file back toward the kitchen now that the show was over.

  One younger man paused at the kitchen doorway and turned to Annie and Ian. “I don’t know who drives the car,” he said, his English clear but slightly accented. “But I think I’ve seen it around. It’s not the usual kind of car for around here. Expensive, you know?”

  Ian nodded. “Thanks for the help.”

  The young man nodded. “I’m glad you weren’t hurt.”

  He walked on into the kitchen, and Ian made the same food order as before. Again, the food was delivered quickly. This time, Ian insisted that Annie stay inside the restaurant with the food while he fetched the car. “I really don’t want to buy it all again,” he said when he saw her preparing to protest against his protectiveness.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll wait.” Annie was beginning to feel a little stiff and sore from the flying tackle into the planter. She suspected a long hot bath was in her future.

  Annie didn’t end up dipping into the egg rolls on the way back to the inn, though the knots in her stomach from the near miss were beginning to loosen by the time they arrived. They found Mary Beth, Stella, and Charles in the inn’s dining room sipping tea with the double dining-room doors thrown open.

  “You’re back,” Mary Beth said, hopping up. “And you brought presents!”

  “Dinner,” Annie said, holding up a bag. “And it smells wonderful.”

  “Excellent,” Charles said. “We can eat it here. And you can tell us all about your afternoon of sleuthing. I have tried very hard to get more information from my sister, but she has turned into a veritable clam. A very grumpy clam at that. I was also not able to find a boat for us. I don’t seem to have been of much use at all.”

  “Thanks for trying,” Annie said.

  Ian and Annie began unloading the bags onto the table. “I totally forgot about drinks,” Ian said. “It’s a good thing you have tea.”

  “I’m growing rather fond of Southern sweet tea,” Stella said. “Though I suspect it isn’t good for me.”

  Charles placed a hand over one of Stella’s. “I hope that isn’t the only Southern thing you’re growing fond of.”

  Stella deftly slipped her hand free. “I suspect it isn’t the only Southern thing that wouldn’t be at all good for me.”

  Charles chuckled. “Living dangerously makes everything more fun, my dear.”

  “If you two are done,” Mary Beth said, turning pointedly to Annie and Ian, “I want to hear about the sleuthing. And I’d like to know
why your clothes look like you and Ian were rolling around in the bushes.”

  “We were,” Ian said.

  Mary Beth raised her eyebrows nearly to the top of her head.

  “Not like that,” Annie said. “Someone tried to run us over.”

  “Oh! An attempt on your lives!” Charles exclaimed. “How exciting! I feel like I’ve come home to star in a crime drama.”

  “Are you hurt?” Stella asked after giving Charles a reproving look.

  “Only my dignity,” Annie said. “But we should really tell you about everything in order.” She went through their visit to the boat rental and what Bob Maynard had said about Ellie.

  “I don’t believe that for a second,” Mary Beth said fiercely.

  “Neither did I,” Annie admitted. “I just hope Ellie is OK where she is. With everything that’s happened, this whole situation just looks worse and worse.”

  Ian gently took her hand and squeezed it. Then he told the others about their visit to the school, and the discovery that Jim’s cane definitely had blood on it. “But we don’t know that it’s Jim’s blood,” Ian said. “At this point, we don’t even know that it’s human blood. So it’s too soon to panic.”

  “Too late,” Mary Beth said. “I’m feeling a little panicky about this whole thing, especially after someone tried to run you and Annie over. Did you call the police?”

  “And tell them what?” Ian asked. “A small dark car driven by no one we could see almost hit us? Judging by our last visit to the police department, the chief is going to mark us down as hysterical tourists making a big thing out of a near accident.”

  “It didn’t sound accidental,” Mary Beth said.

  “It wasn’t,” Ian agreed. “But that doesn’t mean we’ll convince the chief.”

  “Especially if he’s in on this conspiracy,” Stella said.

  “Oh, I doubt the police chief is trying to cover up something criminal,” Charles said, shaking his head.

  “Would you have believed your sister was?” Stella asked.

  Charles didn’t answer, but Annie could tell the question hit home.