Campfire Secrets

by Kathi Daley

  Chapter 4

  Shortly after the sun set the following evening, the fog crawled toward the east, enveloping the area as it made its way toward the California coastline. It would remain to be seen if Montgomery Island would be shrouded in fog as we hoped, but according to the marine forecast, the fogbank was a large one, extending nearly fifty miles in each direction. Quinn, Carrie, and I had loaded up the boat we’d rented with the supplies we’d need earlier in the day. It was our plan to head out of the marina an hour or so before sunset. To the casual observer, we hoped it would appear as if our plan for the evening was a sunset dinner cruise, which in these parts was a popular way to bid farewell to another day.

  Of course, the reality was that no one would probably have paid a bit of attention to three women leaving the island on a boat even if we hadn’t come up with the cover of a sunset cruise. I guessed we’d been talking about our plan long enough that Carrie and I had had time to overthink things.

  “Are you sure about this?” Carrie asked as the three of us sat offshore of Montgomery Island, waiting for the tide to come in. “It’s not too late to back out.”

  “We’re sure,” Quinn answered with conviction. “All we need you to do is to wait with the boat. The fog is thick, so you won’t be able to see us once we enter the water, and the cell service on the island may be blocked, so we might not be able to check in, but we shouldn’t be gone more than ninety minutes.”

  “I can’t help but worry about guards or dogs. Or both,” Carrie said.

  “It will be fine,” Quinn responded, starting the engine and moving forward.

  Based on the tide tables, the high tide would occur within half an hour, so it was time to make our move and slowly approach. I could sense Carrie’s panic, so I took her hand in mine and gave it a squeeze. I had to admit that I was a lot more frightened and a lot less certain about our plan than Quinn was, but I’d gone over things numerous times in my mind, assigning variables to every possible scenario I could come up with, and, in the end, I’d decided that the potential reward was worth the risk. It wasn’t as if we were trying to penetrate the house. All we planned to do was sneak onto the island from the backside, make our way to the greenhouse, and look inside. While I was certain the house, as well as the buildings located on the west side of Montgomery Island, were well guarded, chances were that the greenhouse and fields on the east side of the island were not.

  After ten minutes of moving steadily into the fog, Quinn slowed the boat. “It’s starting to get shallow. According to the maps I was able to obtain, the closer to the shore we travel, the rockier it will get. I estimated that we’d need to anchor about a quarter of a mile out and swim in from there.”

  “Swim?” Carrie said. “I thought you were going to paddle.”

  “We were until we found out about the laser fence. According to my contact, the laser fence is designed to sound an alarm if the laser is broken. This particular fence, however, cannot penetrate water, so the plan is to swim in under the laser at high tide when the water breaks the lowest laser ray in one spot, look around, and then swim back out, using the same low spot we accessed on the way in. If we bring the boards, there’s no guarantee we’ll have anywhere to leave them once we arrive at the fence.”

  Carrie’s look of worry turned to panic. “Are you really sure about this? It sounds dangerous.”

  “I’m sure,” Quinn said. She looked at me. “How about it? Are you up for this?”

  I swallowed hard and nodded. A quarter of a mile was an easy swim. Not that I’d spent a lot of time in the water lately, but I was a strong swimmer, and the water was relatively calm tonight. “I’m sure.” I looked at Carrie. “Quinn and I have on full wetsuits. They will provide floatation, and we’re both strong swimmers.”

  After moving forward at a crawl for half a mile or so, Quinn cut the engine and dropped anchor. She glanced into the thick fog and then looked at her watch. “We should get ready.”

  We’d brought wet suits, fins, and diving packs that we’d filled with portable air canisters in the event we got into trouble, a waterproof camera, binoculars, and a dive computer. We’d synched the dive watches to the dive computer, which would allow us to not only keep track of the time but would also provide GPS data so we’d end up where we intended and weren’t thrown off course.

  Once we were suited up, Quinn and I slipped into the inky black water.

  “We just need to swim about a quarter of a mile straight ahead,” Quinn said to me. “The fog is thick, but not so thick as to limit immediate visibility. Just stay behind me. Keep your eyes on my fins. We’ll be fine.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I’m ready.”

  As Quinn and I swam steadily toward the shore, I had to wonder if Quinn really did do stuff like this all the time. She didn’t seem frightened. In fact, she seemed energized. I supposed on some level, I shared the rush that came from being part of a covert operation with her, but part of me was terrified. Of course, when I’d been with the FBI, I was a behind the scenes sort of operative while she was used to being on the front lines.

  The swim to the shoreline didn’t take long. When we arrived at the shallow water that bordered the island, we paused to locate the fence which really only appeared as a row of posts since the lasers weren’t visible to the naked eye and the low lying channel Quinn’s contact had told us about.

  “There,” Quinn pointed after she’d taken a few minutes to study the shoreline. “We need to swim under the fence there.”

  I looked toward a channel that had filled with the tide. I supposed I had to take it on faith that the fence was even on and that swimming beneath the water as we accessed the island would prevent the alarm from sounding. I supposed I was also taking it on faith that there weren’t additional alarms or traps set up that we didn’t know about.

  “Be sure to swim beneath the waterline as you cross the fence line,” Quinn warned. Move your pack around to the front so it won’t accidentally trip the alarm.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “I’ll go first. Stay close behind, and whatever you do, don’t surface until you are in the clear.”

  I took a deep breath and nodded. Quinn dipped down beneath the surface of the water. I followed. When I was a teen, I swam almost every day during the summer, but as an adult, I rarely found my way into the water. I just hoped I’d be able to hold my breath long enough to make it under the fence safely.

  The deepwater channel was dark and narrow, which only served to ignite every instinct I had to surface, but eventually, the water shallowed, and Quinn crawled out onto the shoreline. I followed.

  “We made it,” I said, breathing heavily.

  “Was there ever any doubt we would?” Quinn asked.

  “Honestly, yes.”

  Quinn looked at her watch. “We need to be back here in twenty minutes. Leave the fins and the packs here. We’ll take the camera and binoculars with us.”

  I slipped off my fins as well as my hood. I grabbed the supplies we’d need and followed Quinn as she made her way in the direction of the greenhouse. Part of me was amazed that we’d made it this far without sounding an alarm. At least I assumed we’d made it without sounding an alarm. The reality was that there might be a silent alarm that sent security in our direction the minute we’d traversed the fence line.

  As we neared the greenhouse, the structure came into view. The fog made it difficult to make out specifics, but it wasn’t so thick that it completely hid the shape of the building. Quinn and I made our way around to the door, which surprisingly was open. There were lights on inside the building, which made it risky to enter, but we’d come this far, and the only way I could see to check for Kadupul flowers and opium poppies was to go inside and look around.

  “If someone comes along, they’ll see us through the windows,” I said to Quinn.

  “Yeah,” she breathed. “This isn’t the best setup for a stealthy look around. The fog will make it difficult to see from much of a distance, but if
someone does approach, we’re toast.” She looked around the room. “The raised beds will provide some degree of protection. Stoop down and stay low as we search the place row by row. We know what we’re looking for, which should make the search a quick one.”

  “Even if we find both of these flowers in this greenhouse, do you think the presence of the flowers will be enough for Sam to get a search warrant?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. The Kadupul flower is pretty rare in these parts. I suppose that Sam can use that detail to demonstrate that there is a good likelihood that Veronica Smith was here before she died. The fact that she drowned under mysterious circumstances might get him the warrant he needs to take a closer look around.”

  “I hope so. If not, I’m not sure what our next move would be.”

  Quinn looked at her watch. “We’re running out of time. Let’s split up. You take the three rows along the back, and I’ll take the next three rows. Meet me outside when you’re done. And hurry. If we miss our high tide window, we’ll be stuck on this island until the next high tide.”

  “Okay,” I stepped up the pace, moving as quickly as I could, given the need to crouch down and stay low. After Quinn and I split up, things moved along quickly, and I managed to confirm that the rows I searched contained neither flower we were looking for. I hoped Quinn had been more successful. I paused as I made my way toward the door, looking around one more time. The greenhouse contained a lot of interesting plants, but none seemed to be the sort to provide food or serve as a cash crop. I wondered why Gavin Montgomery even bothered.

  As I slipped out of the greenhouse into the darkness, I could hear voices coming in our direction. I stuck my head back inside. “Someone’s coming,” I said, probably louder than I should have.

  Quinn headed toward the door and slipped outside just as the image of two people walking toward us penetrated the fog.

  “Is anyone there?” the voice of a woman called out.

  I could hear Quinn breathing as we crouched behind a tree that was barely large enough to hide one person, let alone two. I held my breath as one of the women stepped toward us. She appeared to look right at me before she turned back toward her friend.

  “No one’s here,” the woman who I was certain had seen me said to her friend. “You know how voices carry out here. The voices you heard were probably coming from staff housing. Let’s just get what we need and get back. It creeps me out to be walking around with the fog so thick.”

  The woman who seemed to be covering for us for some reason stepped into the well-lit building, providing a clear view through the window. Quinn put her hand over my mouth at the exact moment I let out an involuntary gasp. After a few seconds, I nodded to let her know it was okay to remove her hand. Quinn lifted her camera and took a photo.

  Oh my God, I mouthed, although I didn’t utter a sound.

  Quinn squeezed my hand as the women completed their task and then left.

  “We need to go,” Quinn said as soon as the women disappeared from sight.

  “But…”

  “Now,” she added, grabbing my hand. “Our window to make it under the fence is waning, so run.”

  I did as Quinn said, and ran as fast as I could, given the fact that I was still wearing a full-length wetsuit and my feet were bare other than the booties that came with the wetsuit. When we arrived at the spot where we needed to swim out, I could see that the water was receding quickly. I grabbed my fins, hood, and backpack and entered the water. I could hear Quinn behind me as I struggled to stay low enough to avoid the laser now that the water was not nearly as deep as it had been. In the end, I had to pull myself through with my hands rather than risk kicking my legs. It wasn’t until I was well clear of the fence that I paused and allowed myself to catch my breath.

  “Was that Peggy?” I was finally able to voice once Quinn emerged behind me, and we were both treading water while we pulled on our hoods and fins for the swim back.

  “It looked like her, but keep in mind that it’s been twenty-five years, and we didn’t get a good look at either woman.”

  “She saw me,” I said. “I know she did. She looked right at me, but instead of sounding the alarm, she covered for us with her friend.”

  “I know. I saw her, as well. But there are other reasons for the woman to have covered for us. We can’t just assume, based on a quick glance, that the woman we saw was our missing friend.”

  “But you got a photo,” I stated.

  “I did,” she confirmed. She lowered her leg after positioning her fins. “Now, let’s get out of here. I’m sure Carrie is frantic by now.”

  The swim back out to the boat was a lot less tense for me than the swim to the island, although I had to admit my mind was racing. Could the woman we saw actually have been the friend I was certain had been dead for all these years? She hadn’t appeared to be under any sort of duress. In fact, she looked healthy and happy. Of course, if she had been trapped on the island for all this time, then it did make sense that she would have found a way to make the best of it.

  “I’ve been so worried,” Carrie called over the side of the boat as Quinn slipped off her fins and handed them up to her.

  “It took a little longer than we hoped, but we made it through fine,” Quinn replied as she climbed the ladder.

  I slipped off my fins, passed them up, and then followed Quinn up the ladder.

  “So did you find the flowers you need to prove Veronica was on the island?” Carrie asked.

  I glanced at Quinn. We’d never compared notes.

  “I didn’t,” Quinn said.

  “Me either,” I seconded.

  “So, what does that mean?” Carrie asked as Quinn began raising the anchor.

  “It means that unless there’s a second greenhouse somewhere, Veronica probably wasn’t on Montgomery Island before she died,” I said. “That doesn’t mean she was never there, but she sure as heck didn’t pick up the flower petal or the seeds from that greenhouse.”

  “So, the mission was a bust?” Carrie asked.

  “Not necessarily,” I said. “Just as Quinn and I were finishing up, two women arrived. I swear one of them looked like Peggy.”

  Carrie’s eyes widened. “Peggy? Are you sure?”

  “Actually, no,” I said. “I only got a glimpse of the woman, and a lot of time has passed. Peggy, had she lived, would be forty-one now, and this woman looked to be around that same age. She had blond hair, and her features were similar to Peggy’s, but I really can’t say for certain. Quinn got a photo. Maybe once we take a second look, we’ll be able to decide one way or the other.”

  “If Peggy has been on that island all these years, doesn’t it seem like she would have found a way off by now?” Carrie asked.

  I lifted a shoulder. “It’s not an easy place to gain access to if you are uninvited, and I imagine it wouldn’t be an easy place to leave if the person who took you there doesn’t want you to leave. I guess at this point, all we can do is plead our case and hope that Sam can get a warrant, and can take a look around and get our answers once and for all.

  Chapter 5

  I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to pull myself out of bed in time to make my morning run with Ryder after staying up most of the night with Carrie and Quinn, discussing the woman we’d seen on the island, so I texted him before drifting off to sleep to let him know that I’d stayed up late with Carrie and Quinn and would probably just sleep in. He texted back and let me know that he would probably just go into work early. He also asked if I wanted to get together for lunch, providing, of course, that he didn’t have an emergency of some sort to deal with. I told him I’d call him later.

  Of course, in the end, I didn’t end up sleeping nearly as long as I’d hoped to. The idea that the woman on the island could be Peggy had left my head spinning.

  After we’d gotten home, Quinn had downloaded the photo she’d taken to the computer. The image had been captured through a window, and the angle of the shot only provided a pro
file view. It was to be expected that a forty-one-year-old woman would look a lot different than her sixteen-year-old self, but there were small things that brought Peggy to mind when we considered the image on the computer screen. In the end, we couldn’t decide if the woman in the photo was Peggy, or if she was simply someone who shared similar physical characteristics with Peggy, but it did appear that the woman had seen Quinn and me hiding behind the tree and let us go. If not Peggy, then who? I figured the best thing to do at this point was to fill Sam in, which I intended to do once I was able to contact him and make an appointment for us to get together.

  “Morning,” Quinn said, joining me on the deck where I’d settled in with a mug of coffee. “I didn’t expect anyone else to be up yet.” She glanced at her phone. “We just went to bed about four hours ago.”

  “I couldn’t sleep,” I said. “I’m sure I’ll be tired later, but right now, I actually feel pretty wound up.”

  Quinn tucked her legs up under her body as she settled into one of the patio chairs. “Yeah, me too. Besides, I’m used to sleeping in spurts if there’s something going on.” She took a sip of her coffee. “It’s a gorgeous day. Might even be a good day to go surfing.”

  While I appreciated the fact that Quinn seemed to be adept at compartmentalizing, it wasn’t a skill I was quite as proficient at. “Actually, I’ve been sitting out here thinking we need to tell Sam what we know. We didn’t want to involve him until we knew something, but now that we have something to share, I think we should share it.”

  Quinn sipped from her mug again before answering. “I guess we can call him, or we can simply head into town and see if he’s in his office.”

  “Let’s text him and let him know we want to talk to him. That way, we won’t waste a trip. I told Ryder I’d meet him for lunch, but it’s only eight o’clock now, so maybe we can meet Sam in an hour or two.”

  Quinn picked her phone up off the table. “I’ll text him.”

  Sam texted Quinn back right away, letting her know that he was planning to head into town about nine. We arranged to meet him in his office at nine-thirty, which gave me time to have a second cup of coffee, shower, and dress for the day.