Aruban Nights (Coastal Fury Book 19) Page 14

  “Yeah,” Tessa agreed, “but don’t get all mopey over that. I mean, look on the bright side. There are still two perfectly intact pieces! And the museum’s already agreed to let us come and have a close look. Like I said, I’m just waiting for an opportunity for the two of us to go together.”

  “I’ll try to find some free time ASAP then,” I replied as I stared, transfixed by the other two pieces, my mind alight with the possibilities of what locations they might be depicting. As I turned my phone sideways to examine one piece from a different angle, I suddenly realized that I actually recognized the shape of the lines.

  “This is South America,” I spoke out loud without meaning to.

  “Hm?” Tessa asked. “What are you talking about?”

  “The second piece,” I explained as I quickly closed out the picture and pulled up a world map on my phone. “The picture of it that you sent to me is sideways. This little divot here at the side, that’s the northern part of Venezuela. That’s not far from where I am right now.”

  “Are you serious?” Tessa gasped. “Ethan, oh my goodness! What are the odds? You have to go!”

  “What happened to waiting until we could go together?” I chuckled. I could tell how excited she was by the way the pitch of her voice shot up an octave.

  “That was for the museum!” she retorted. “This is different. If you’re already close by, then it would be a waste not to go, right?”

  “I don’t even know if I’ll have a chance to,” I replied reluctantly as I looked down at the picture again. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to go check it out. On the contrary, now that I knew how close I was to another potential treasure, I was burning to go and have a look. I couldn’t just goof off in the middle of a case, though.

  “I guess that’s true,” Tessa replied sadly. “Well, of course, your work needs to come first. If you don’t get a chance to check it out this time, we’ll figure something out later.”

  “That sounds good,” I replied, unable to keep myself from smiling at her kind encouragement.

  “Okay, I’ll let you get back to it,” she hummed. “You must be busy. Call me as soon as you get another free moment, though, okay? I want to talk more about the maps.”

  “As soon as I can,” I promised.

  “Bye, Ethan,” she said. I could tell just from the tone of her voice that she was smiling.

  “Bye,” I replied before ending the call. I took one last look at the photos before slipping my phone back into my pocket, my mind reeling. With everything that was going on with the case, the last thing I’d expected was to suddenly receive a call from Tessa like this.

  I made an effort to push thoughts about the Rogue away from my mind as I returned to where Holm was still sitting at the table. I needed to get my head back in the game and focus on the case, but try as I might, the images of the map pieces continued to linger in the back of my mind.

  14

  Ethan

  “I really hope none of them try anything stupid,” Linden muttered under his breath, the dopey smile plastered onto his face unwavering even as he spoke. “With all the people loitering around here, it’ll be a disaster if anyone starts shooting.”

  It was before dawn, and Linden, Holm, and I were at the Marina where the ship was set to dock. Even though the sun was only barely starting to rise, the docks were already packed with people. A different cruise ship had arrived just minutes ago and dispensed a horde of people into the marina. That wasn’t even including all the locals that were hovering around as well, either working on the boats or trying to hawk their wares to the tourists as they disembarked.

  Linden was absolutely right. With so many innocent civilians around, the last thing we wanted was to get into a gunfight.

  The three of us weren’t the only ones there, either. About a dozen undercover cops were present as well, all dressed in plain clothes, and most of them, like Linden, played the part of the clueless vacationer. Holm and I had dressed casually as well. This wasn’t our first time pretending to be hapless tourists, so by now, this kind of operation was second nature to us.

  We stood in the shade of a tall palm tree. Holm was holding a paper map and pretending to look at it while the two of us hung around, discreetly watching the water for the ship we were waiting for, The Diamond of the Seas.

  “We’ll just have to be quick and efficient,” I replied to Linden’s comment. “The faster we get everyone under control, the lower the chance they’ll be able to pull anything.”

  “I think that’s easier said than done,” Linden replied. “I just hope no one gets hurt.”

  I nodded in agreement as I pulled my phone out of my pocket, more to have something to make me look busy than anything else. Even though the ship wasn’t here, it was possible that the member of the Aruban gang that was meant to meet them might be. Three men standing around, not doing anything, would stick out like sore thumbs.

  “Oh, what was that phone call all about yesterday?” Holm suddenly asked as he looked down at my phone.

  “What?” I asked, confused for a moment about what he was referring to. “Oh, you mean with Tessa?”

  “Yeah,” he replied as he folded the map up and tucked it under his arm. “You said something about some maps, right? Then it started raining after that, and we left to go back to the hotel, and I completely forgot to ask you about it again.”

  “Right.” I grinned, just the memory of what happened yesterday stirring the feelings of joy and excitement that I’d felt at the news Tessa had given me. “You remember that treasure map that we found? The one that was under the floorboards in that shipwreck?”

  “Yes,” Holm replied. “You and Tessa went and dug it up in the Bahamas. What about it?”

  “Tessa and I always suspected that it might have just been a smaller piece of a much larger map,” I explained. “Well, we were right. Tessa found some more pieces of it.”

  “Seriously?!” Holm exclaimed, his eyes going wide with surprise. “That’s amazing. Heh, no wonder you looked like you’d seen a ghost when you came back to the table. I was wondering what Tessa might have said to have you looking like that.”

  “That’s not even the most amazing part,” I continued. “One of the pieces is a depiction of Northern Venezuela. It’s right near where we are right now!”

  “Wow,” Holm replied as he unfolded the map again and pretended to look at it. “Are you going to go?”

  “Maybe,” I replied wistfully. “Hopefully. If I get a chance after the case is wrapped up.”

  “Sorry for interrupting,” Linden suddenly cut in. He was staring at us with something like wonder in his expression. “Did I hear the two of you correctly? Did you say something about a treasure map? And a sunken ship? Are you being serious?”

  “Dead serious,” Holm replied gravely before glancing over to me. “This one doesn’t joke around when it comes to pirates.”

  “You’re making me sound crazy,” I replied flatly as Holm snickered. I rolled my eyes before looking back at Linden. “We are being serious, actually. It’s a long story.”

  “Well, we’ve got time,” he replied as I turned to look out over the clear water. There was still no sign of the Diamond. “I’d like to hear about it if you don’t mind.”

  To be honest, I loved telling people about the Rogue and my long history with its search, starting from my grandfather’s passing of the torch onto me all the way up to every last clue we’d found. Of course, to tell everything would take hours, so I settled for giving Linden the condensed version.

  “So… you think this ship is still out there somewhere?” he asked me when I’d finally finished explaining the story several minutes later.

  “I don’t know,” I replied. “I hope so. Even if it’s not, I’d at least like to know what happened to it. After it was stolen from my ancestor hundreds of years ago, it just completely disappeared. It’s a historical mystery.”

  “That is pretty strange,” Linden murmured as he tapped his chin with
his finger. “It’s not like an entire ship can just go missing. They’re pretty dang big.”

  “That’s the mystery.” I sighed as I thought about just how much time and effort had gone into the search, spanning multiple generations now.

  “I think my uncle might know something about it,” Linden stated.

  “About what?” I asked as I leaned against the palm tree in mock relaxation. In reality, I was intensely alert, scanning the crowd for anyone exhibiting suspicious behavior.

  “This ship you’re looking for,” he clarified. “The Dragon’s Rogue. He might know something about it.”

  “Really?” I asked, so surprised that for a moment, I almost dropped my relaxed facade. “Why do you think that?”

  “He knows a lot about nautical history,” he replied. “He and my dad were both part of the ARUMIL together. Uh, that’s the Royal Netherlands Marines. He’s not actually my uncle. He and my dad have been best friends since they served together, and he was always around when I was growing up.” I gave him a look, a nudge to focus on the important details, and he did so. “Anyway, Uncle Jacob always loved the ocean. He always said his favorite part of being in the ARUMIL was getting to spend all his time out at sea. After he retired, he started collecting stuff. Antique anchors, trinkets, even boring stuff like old paperwork written by ship captains. I can’t guarantee that he’ll know something about this ship of yours, but he knows more about old marine history than anyone else I know. I could help you get in touch with him if you’d like.”

  “That would be really great, actually,” I replied eagerly. The idea that this man might have some information about the Rogue had my heart racing, and even if he didn’t, he sounded like the kind of guy who’d be fun to have a drink with in any case. Anyone who knew that much about old ships and nautical history was my kind of person.

  “I’ll get you his contact information after we’re done here,” he replied as he looked back toward the water, pretending to look around at the shops lining the edge of the docks as she did so.

  “It’s coming,” he replied simply without doing anything to give away that he’d even noticed.

  I yawned and pretended to stretch, looking over my shoulder at the water as I did. Sure enough, a large cruise ship was slowly approaching the marina.

  “Why don’t we go buy something to drink?” I suggested as I nodded toward a man pushing a refrigerated cart toward the edge of the dock, likely in preparation for all the people who were bound to come off of the boat a few minutes from now.

  “Good idea,” Holm replied as the three of us walked slowly toward the cart. Doing so would put us much closer to the ship once it finally arrived. As we walked, I covertly peeked at the surrounding people, watching for any signs of unusual behavior. However, I really didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.

  I bought a single bottle of soda from the vendor but didn’t bother to open it. The ship was already pulling into the dock, and I doubted I’d have time to drink much of it before we had to move. Instead, I pulled out my phone again and pretended to be busy looking at it, all the while making sure to keep my eyes on the surrounding people.

  “Here they come,” Linden muttered when the ship doors finally opened. A steady stream of passengers began to disembark, eager to explore the stop in Aruba. In just a matter of seconds, civilians completely surrounded us. I tried to maintain the pretense of being a casual passerby, but it was quickly becoming difficult to observe people without making it obvious that I was looking.

  “See anything?” Linden asked me under his breath while pretending to wave at someone in the distance.

  “No,” I replied as I fiddled with my bottle of soda. “Wait.”

  I stopped short as I spotted a group of people walking through the open doorway and across the short bridge that led from the ship onto the dock. A stocky, muscular man was guiding a group of young women off of the ship. He watched them like a hawk, glaring at them with a mean, aggressive expression and even roughly yanking one of the girls forward by the arm. He wasn’t doing anything overtly violent, but I’d dealt with enough trafficking victims during this job to recognize the faraway, dead-eyed look in those girls’ eyes. It was the same look that I’d seen on Gabby’s face the last time we’d spoken to her.

  “Ten o’clock,” I muttered to Holm and Linden. “Guy in the gray shirt walking with four girls.”

  “I see him,” Holm replied. “That’s not Austin Grimes, though.”

  “He must be a different trafficker then,” I replied. Now that I got a good look at his face, I realized that this wasn’t the man that Andre was connected to. Regardless, it was pretty obvious he was also involved.

  “How should we play this?” Linden asked.

  “Calm, but fast,” I replied as I kept my eyes trained fixedly on the man. “We move in, surround him, get him under control before he can do anything to hurt the women or any of the civilians.”

  “Got it,” Linden replied. A second later, the three of us moved into action, stepping rapidly toward the small group.

  We were upon them in an instant, just inches away from the victims being shepherded away from the ship. It was actually one of the victims who noticed us first. Her sad, blank eyes lit up with something I couldn’t name as she made eye contact with me. I couldn’t tell If it was hope or fear.

  I was just about to open my mouth to speak and get the man’s attention when something else caught my eye. A different man, shorter and wearing a blue tank top, stood just a few yards away. He kept looking around nervously, as though watching out for something, but I noticed that his gaze kept returning to the man and the four girls.

  “I think I see our Aruban gang member,” I hissed as I nodded toward the man. He turned and looked at me at the same moment that I spoke. He seemed to realize what was happening because a second later, his eyes went wide, and he began to back away quickly.

  “I’m going after him,” Linden announced before breaking into a run after the man. There was no point in worrying about being discreet now that the man had spotted us. Bearing that in mind, I turned back to the man in the gray shirt.

  “Hey!” I called out as I closed my hand around his arm. He spun around to face me, lifting his fist instinctively. I caught his arm before he could finish his punch, though.

  “What the hell is your problem?” he sneered at me as he attempted to yank his arm away. “Let go!”

  “My name is Agent Marston, and we know where you’re going,” I bluffed in an attempt to trick him. “We know what you were going to do to these women.”

  The man’s expression immediately morphed from one of anger into one of fear. His mouth fell open, and his face drained of all color as he gaped at Holm and me.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he stammered as he attempted to pull his arms loose again. “Let me go!”

  “So if I ask them,” I nodded toward the women, who were all frozen still, watching the interaction with stunned, frightened expressions, “they won’t tell me you’ve been holding them against their will, forcing them to be drug mules for you?”

  The man made a choking sound that was somewhere between a gasp and a cough as his gaze flitted between the girls and me. He opened his mouth to retort, but before he could talk, one of the girls did.

  “He’s hurting us!” she screeched, trembling from head to toe as he glared at the man. “Please help us!”

  “You little--!” the man growled as he lunged toward the girl. Holm stepped in front of her, but even if he hadn’t, the man wouldn’t have been able to do much with both of his arms still bound in my grasp.

  But to make sure, I flipped him over as he threw his weight toward the girl and knocked him to the ground. I yanked his hands behind his back, but as I was pulling the cuffs off my belt, one of the women suddenly screamed. I looked back up to see what was going on, but before I could get a look, something slammed into me from the side. A split second later, an ear-splitting pop sounded just behind
me as I hit the ground.

  As I scrambled to get back up and get my bearings, I realized that the thing that had slammed into me was Holm, who had tackled me to the side just in time to save me from being shot. A second man wearing a black hoodie despite the warm weather stood just behind us, a gun in his outstretched hand.

  Understandably, several people on the dock began to panic at the sound of the gunshot. Some people screamed, demanding to know what that sound had been and where it had come from. The majority, however, simply started to run, their survival instincts kicking in and guiding them far away from the source of the sound.

  The gunman turned his weapon toward Holm and me again, but before he could shoot, a man wearing cargo shorts tackled him to the ground from behind. It took me a moment to recognize him as one of the undercover officers that had come with us.

  The second suspect dropped the gun as he fell face-first onto the concrete floor of the dock, and Holm rushed to grab the gun and pull it safely out of the man’s grasp. Unfortunately, in all the commotion, the first suspect managed to get back to his feet and take off.

  I swore as I looked around in an attempt to find him. It was even harder now to see clearly because of the way that everyone on the dock was running around. Just to my left, I spotted another plainclothes officer grappling with yet another suspect, who I immediately recognized as the man we’d originally come here to find, Austin Grimes. I was about to go assist when I spotted the first suspect again, shoving civilians out of the way in his haste to flee.

  I broke into a sprint as I took off after him, weaving between and around people as I quickly closed the distance between us. He still hadn’t noticed me when I was just a scant foot behind him, so I doubled my efforts and ran even faster, throwing myself onto him bodily.

  We crashed to the ground hard, and I hissed with pain as the skin of my hand scraped against the dock. I would have thought that the strike would have been enough to incapacitate or at least daze him, but to my shock, he immediately flipped over and kicked me off.