Fallen Out: Jesse McDermitt Series, The Beginning

by Wayne Stinnett

  The alarm on my watch woke me a few hours later. The sun was just slipping below the invisible horizon and it was already quite dark under the cypress canopy. I could hear Billy stirring in his hammock. I climbed down, and by the last paltry light filtering through the trees, I made my way over to the canoes. I barely heard Billy as he dropped from the tree and didn’t hear his footsteps at all. Then he was suddenly standing right beside me, as though he was some kind of silent apparition. I opened a watertight box in my canoe and took out five MRE’s, handing four to Billy.

  “Stow all but one for later,” I whispered. “If we don’t find him before dawn, we’ll meet back here.”

  We sat on the bows of the two canoes, eating the cold food. We’d already decided that while we were out here, we’d run a cold camp. No fire. It got dark really fast and within minutes I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face.

  I felt around in the canoe and opened another watertight box and handed Billy one of the night vision headsets and a UHF radio. We donned the headsets and switched them on. Looking around, I could see everything clearly, though with a grainy, grayish green tint. We opened the fly rod cases and inspected and loaded the weapons. Outside of the M40 having a fiberglass stock and Billy’s Remington having a wood stock, they were identical.

  “I brought backup sidearms, if you want one,” I said.

  “Got my own,” he replied, opening a case and removing an old 1911 Colt .45 semiautomatic and thrust it in the back of his jeans. “What do we do if and when we find this man?”

  Billy was still having some misgivings. “If you find him, call me on the radio and I’ll do the same. We’ll rendezvous and give him a chance to give up.”

  “And if he doesn’t?”

  “I’ll kill him and feed him to the gators.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Yeah, Billy. Just like that.”

  He looked out over the swamp for a moment and then turned toward me and said simply, “Okay.”

  We shoved off, going in opposite directions. The state forest land covered almost 35,000 acres, but the wetland part on the west, the densest and least accessible part, was only a couple miles wide and six miles long. It was still a huge area to cover in canoes.

  I went south, paddling slowly through the dense forest. Both of us had explored these wetlands by canoe and kayak hundreds of times, so there was little chance of either of us getting lost. What I was hoping for was that Earl would be holed up on one of the thousands of tiny islands and would have a small fire going. A fire, that with the aid of the night vision goggles, would be visible for quite a distance.

  After more than three miles of paddling, I reached the southern part of the wetlands, where it narrowed and flowed into Big Cypress Swamp and Fakahatchee Strand. I was outside the state park boundaries and in Collier County.

  I picked up the small UHF and keyed the mic. “Billy,” I whispered. I heard only a click in return.

  “At the south end,” I said. “I’m turning and going up the east side now.”

  “Past Sears. I’m north of Oil Well Pad, heading south,” came his whispered reply, meaning he’d reached the northernmost part of the wetlands, where the abandoned sawmill town of Sears was located and had crossed over to the east side where an old oil well head was located. He’d covered a lot more ground than I had, but I figured he would.

  An hour after I started heading north, the radio clicked once. I picked it up and listened for a moment and then keyed the mic, “Was that you, Billy?”

  He replied in a faint whisper, “I see light.”

  “Where?” I whispered back.

  “South end of Butterfly,” he whispered, meaning Butterfly Island, right in the center of the forest. I’d passed the western side of it going south and should have seen it.

  “Meet me on the west side of Patterson Hammock,” I said and then put the radio down and started paddling. I was a mile away.

  When I got to within a half mile of Butterfly Island, I could see light filtering through the trees ahead. I struck out to the northeast, where I figured Billy would already be waiting. Twenty minutes later, the radio clicked again.

  I stopped paddling and whispered, “Go.”

  Billy whispered back, “You whites make too much noise. Look to your one o’clock.”

  Ahead about a hundred yards and just off to the right, I could see Billy sitting in his canoe. I paddled toward him as quietly as I could. Once alongside, he whispered, “He’s not alone.”

  “How many?

  “Just him and a young woman,” he replied. “I don’t think she’s there by choice. Don’t look directly at the fire. Lean over here and look to the right of the light and wait for the optics to adjust.”

  I leaned over his canoe, which put a cypress tree between me and the fire, blocking most of the light. The campsite came into sharp focus after a few seconds. It was Earl, alright. I checked my watch, it was almost 0100. Looking back at his camp, I saw the woman. I couldn’t see much of her as she had her back to me, doing something over the fire. Earl was sitting on a log a few feet away. There was a small tent behind him. While he might know the Louisiana bayous, it didn’t seem he was aware of the concentration of panthers in this area.

  “How do you want to play this?” Billy asked.

  I thought it over for a moment. For Billy’s sake, I wanted to give the man at least half a chance. If it were just me, I’d put the cross hairs on his forehead and pull the trigger from here.

  “What made you say she wasn’t out here by choice?”

  “Look closer,” he said. “She has a chain around her left ankle.”

  I watched, but still couldn’t see a chain. Then she stood up and carried what looked like a pan over toward Earl. She held the pan in one hand and a length of chain in the other that hung down and was shackled to her ankle.

  “Another captive,” I whispered. “Damn.”

  “So, how you want to do this?” Billy asked again.

  I thought about it again and said, “See that deadfall, just ahead of us. You paddle up there and use it to steady that Remington. I’m going to paddle over to the far side and come up behind him. I’ll turn on the infrared light on my headset and you’ll be able to see me clearly, but he won’t. I have a set of headphones for this radio and you can keep me informed of anything. When I’m close enough to see by the firelight, I’ll ditch the headset and wait a few minutes to let my eyes adjust. Then I’ll just walk into his camp, with my Sig and you can cover me.”

  “Guess that works as well as anything. Way out here, on a weeknight, he won’t be expecting anyone.”

  “It’ll take me a good thirty minutes to get around there,” I said as I pushed away from his canoe. I paddled in what I hoped was total silence and made it to the far side of Butterfly Island in twenty minutes.

  I switched on the tiny infrared light on the headset. It was all but invisible more than six inches away, but illuminated my path greatly and subdued the ambient light from the fire. Through Billy’s headset, it would be seen clearly as I crept quietly through the forest toward the camp. The ground was soft and spongy, but I had to go slow to avoid any dead twigs.

  “Stop,” Billy’s voice came over the earphones. “He’s looking around. Nod if you stepped on something.” I froze where I was. I hadn’t made the slightest sound and knew there was no way Earl could hear me.

  “He looks troubled,” Billy whispered. “I think the bugs might have stopped making noise. Just don’t move for a second and they’ll start again.”

  He was right, the chirping near me had stopped. Within a few seconds they started again. “Move slower,” Billy whispered. “Bugs sense pressure changes, not sound.”

  I started moving again, ever so slowly, taking several seconds to move one leg forward and take a single step. I could hear Earl now, talking to the woman, but couldn’t make out what he was saying. Slowly, I kept moving forward, keeping a large tree between me and the fire.

  After what s
eemed like a really long time, I was close enough to hear him. “Yeah, we’re gonna have us a party tonight, bitch. Just as soon as I finish eating.”

  I was close enough now. I switched the infrared light off and on three times then removed the headset and placed it on the ground at my feet.

  “Don’t rush,” Billy whispered. “Give your eyes a couple of minutes to adjust. I have him covered and I can see you and her both. You’re in the shadows and there’s no way he can see you.”

  I nodded in the darkness. Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the near darkness. Only the light from the small fire illuminated the night. What had appeared to be a roaring bonfire in the night vision optics, was actually a very small fire, mostly coals and very little flame.

  Earl was eating something straight out of the pan using his fingers and when he finished, just tossed the pan to the side, picked up a beer can and took a long pull.

  “Get over here, bitch,” he growled. “Time you earned your keep again.”

  I took four quick steps, coming out from the shadows, leading with my Sig. “You’re gonna have to wait, Earl. If you so much as move a muscle, I’ll shoot you.” Earl froze. He’d been taken completely by surprise and I could tell from his expression that he was thinking about it.

  “Pistol in his pants,” Billy shouted, no longer bothering to use the UHF. “Left side, cross draw.”

  “Use your left hand, Earl. Real slow. Pull that pistol out and toss it on the ground. You’re covered by a high powered rifle.”

  When Billy shouted, he looked toward the sound and I took two more steps. “You!” he growled. “How the fuck?”

  “I’m not gonna say it again, Earl. Toss that pistol now, or I’ll blow your damn head off.”

  I could see in his eyes that he was calculating his chances. Then resignation came over his face and he moved his left hand very slowly to his side and pulled a Beretta semiautomatic from his waist band with his thumb and forefinger. Holding it up, he tossed it away.

  Unfortunately for Earl, he tossed it near the woman. In a flash, she snatched it up from the ground, leveled it at Hailey, thumbed the hammer and before I could shout no, she fired. The first round spun Earl half way around where he sat. She fired again and caught him in the neck, blood spraying behind him, as he fell backward off the log. She stepped forward, firing over and over, into Earl’s lifeless body. I ran toward the woman, as she continued pulling the trigger, until the slide locked to the rear.

  I could hear Billy splashing through the water, coming toward us, as the woman fell to her knees. She tossed the gun aside and hung her head into her hands, sobbing. I hurried over to where Earl lay on the ground, his lifeless eyes staring up at the cypress canopy. Billy went to the woman, kneeling down and taking her in his arms, talking to her, telling her she was alright and we’d get her out safely.

  I holstered my Sig and walked over to where Billy was helping the woman to her feet. “Are you gonna arrest me?” she managed to croak out between sobs.

  We’re not the law,” I said. “You’re safe now. What’s your name?”

  “You’re not the police?”

  “No ma’am,” Billy said. “Just a couple guys who heard noise and came to see what was going on.”

  Between sobs, she said, “I’m Regina Castillo.”

  “That’s good, Miss Castillo,” Billy said. “Now, with your permission, I’d like to take that chain off your leg. Will that be alright with you?”

  She nodded, then looked at the dead man on the ground. “He has the key.”

  I went over to the body, searched his pockets and found a key ring. I handed it to Billy, who seemed to have begun to build a trust with the young woman. Up close, she was older than I first thought, maybe late twenties.

  Billy bent down and gently tried several keys from the key ring until he finally unsnapped the padlock that secured the chain to her ankle and stood up.

  “There ya go, Miss Castillo,” he said. “Is there anything here that belongs to you that you want to take with you? We’re going to take you to safety now.”

  “Who, who are you guys?” she asked. Looking at me she said, “You called that man by name.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “Billy lied. We came out here looking for that man, but we aren’t the law. We served in the Marines together.”

  “Is he…. dead?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Billy said. “Are you going to be okay? Is there anything you need to bring with you?”

  “No,” she said. “He took everything I had. Kept my money and credit cards and threw everything else away.”

  “Then let’s get out of here,” Billy said. “Jesse, I’ll take Miss Castillo in my canoe, while you tend to things here. Once we get around to where your canoe is, we’ll pick up our gear and get out of here.”

  I nodded. “Are you sure there’s nothing here that belongs to you, ma’am? Anything at all that might tie you to this place?”

  That seemed to frighten her for a second, the thought that we might be more of the same. “What Jesse means is, you were never here. You don’t know anything about how that man died. Hunting accidents happen all the time.” He grinned and looked at me, “Right Kemosabe?”

  I nodded, “Absolutely, Tonto.”

  She laughed then and it sounded good. “No, there’s absolutely nothing here that’s mine.”

  “Good,” I said. “You go with Billy, he’ll bring you around to where my canoe is. Our camp is only a mile from here. We’ll get our stuff and it’s less than half a mile from there to where our truck is. We’ll have you back in civilization by dawn. Where do you live, anyway?”

  “Coral Springs,” she said. “Where are we anyway? He put me in the trunk of my car and we drove for hours.”

  “This is a state park,” I said. “We’re just outside Fort Myers. Do you know where your car is?”

  “That animal burned it,” she said as we walked her toward Billy’s canoe. “He kidnapped me while I was getting gas, um, four days ago, I think. My husband’s probably worried to death.”

  “You can call him from my house,” Billy said. “My wife’s about the same size, you can borrow some clean clothes, get cleaned up and rest a little, before your husband gets there. Or would you prefer to go to the police?”

  She stopped and looked back at Earl’s camp. “No,” she said to me. “If you can make this nightmare disappear, we can leave the police out of it.”

  “I can do that,” I said.

  I turned and went back to the camp, while they sloshed through the water to Billy’s canoe. I searched Earl’s pockets, but didn’t find much. I pocketed three credit cards and a small wad of cash to give to the woman. I stripped his clothes off, wadded them up and tossed them on the fire. I went to the tent and looked inside. There was a single sleeping bag and a nearly empty cooler. I took the water and beer, poured them out then crushed the cans and bottles, before tossing them in the fire. Throwing a couple more pieces of dead wood on, it began blazing. I tore down the tent, rolled it up with the sleeping bag still inside and tossed it on the fire. When it was roaring good, I up-ended the cooler and put it on the fire, before adding even more wood. Within a few hours there’d be nothing left of any of it, not even the aluminum cans.

  With all the plastic and nylon, the fire was soon very hot. I went over to Earl’s body and taking it by the arms, I dragged it over near the canoe and wedged it between two cypress trees, then piled some dead palm fronds around it. I picked up my night vision head set, put it on and looked out over the water. Several pairs of flickering red eyes looked back. Within an hour, the gators would take care of Earl. Anything left, the panthers would carry off. By dawn, there wouldn’t be anything left.

  Keeping my back to the fire, I walked around the camp, looking for anything else through the night vision. I picked up the chain and lock and flung them both out into the water, then returned to my canoe. Several gators had moved in closer and one was swimming straight toward the body. Maybe it wouldn’t even tak
e until dawn.

  Putting one foot in the canoe, I shoved off. Within minutes, I was a hundred feet from shore and looking off to my left, I saw Billy and the woman in his canoe heading toward me. As they pulled alongside, several splashes could be heard from shore. The gators would make short work of their grizzly task.

  “What’s that?” Regina asked.

  “You don’t want to know,” Billy replied. “Let’s get you out of here, Miss Castillo.”

  Epilogue

  Billy and I got Regina Castillo to his house before sunrise. After spending ten minutes on the phone with her husband and convincing him she was safe, she hung up and told us that she’d told her husband she’d been abducted but managed to get away. Billy’s wife, Hanna, gave her some clean clothes and showed her to the bathroom, so she could get cleaned up.

  I took Billy outside and said, “I’m going home. Tell Regina that I never existed, okay. She wandered out of the swamp and found you and Hanna sitting on the porch. Whoever snatched her, left her to die and she never saw his face.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Jesse. Don’t worry. Just leave the keys to the truck in it, nobody’ll bother it.”

  I took his outstretched forearm in mine then leaned in and embraced my old friend. “Come down to Marathon, we’ll go fishing.”

  “I’ll do that,” he said as I walked toward the truck.

  By noon, I was tied up at Dockside again, like nothing had ever happened. Jimmy was able to rework the schedule and we managed to get all our charters in for the week. Even those that had to reschedule were happy with the outcome.

  Summer wore on and before we knew it, fall had arrived again. Billy never did come down, but with a wife, four kids, a job, and his four wheeling hobby, I wasn’t counting on it.

  In early September, I finally got around to changing my driver’s license. I was sitting in the DMV office, waiting for my number to be called, looking out at a clear blue sky. There was a commotion in one of the offices behind the counter and several of the clerks crowded around the door. I walked over to see what the commotion was about and they were watching a small TV in the office. On the screen I could see there was a news report covering a high rise fire.