Read Online Follow the Evidence (A Mac Everett Mystery Book 2) by Nick Vellis - Free Book Online Page B

an eagle eye. He spots
things before anyone else sees ‘em, even with binoculars. He’s got a gift. He
spotted that kid’s strobe in the water, maybe ten miles out from our position
in a driving rain storm.”
    “Was there another boat?” I
insisted.
    “I don’t know. There…there could
have been,” Fox said. “When Marty first spotted the Wind Dancer she was
adrift something like three miles from the two people in the water. Marty
spotted the sloop and I put my binoculars on her. She was in bad shape, slashed
sails, listing to port and wallowing in the swell. For instant I thought I saw
something in the distance, but then it was gone.”
    “You reported this?”
    “Not right away. There were the two
people in the water. We were real busy. When it was all wrapped up I mentioned
it, but by then…”
    “By then it was long gone. I get
it. Can you tell me what you thought you saw?” I asked.
    Now who was grasping at straws?
    “It doesn’t make sense, but I
thought it was a go-fast, you know a cigarette boat. Naw it couldn’t have been
though, not in those seas.”
    “Why not,” I asked. My brainpower
on boats was limited to the bathtub.
    “Those things can be forty or fifty
footers with big horsepower. They can cut through heavy seas, but it was bad
out there.” Fox replied. Watching the movement of his eyes, I could see he was
thinking, evaluating a fleeting glimpse of something that might not have been
there.
    “Why do you say it was…?”
    “Could have been,” he corrected.
    “OK, why could it have been a
cigarette boat?”
    “Well it was more an impression of
how the object moved in the water. It was on plane and cutting through…wait,
I’m not sure I even saw it.”
    “This thing you didn’t see, what
color was it?” I asked. “Where was it going?”
    “Hard to say, it blended with
water. It was going near 90 degrees from the sloop.”
    “Would a boat like that show up on
your radar?”
    “No sir, the go-fasts are tough to
detect on radar except on flat calm seas or at close range. They‘ve got a low
profile; they’re fast, and seaworthy. I guess one could have been out there.
Wait, you’ve almost got me believing I saw…”
    “Believing that you saw something
Senior Chief, maybe you did or maybe you didn’t. I guess I’ll have to find
out.”
    I asked Fox to keep our talk on the
down low. We agreed there was no sense getting the brass fired up over what
could be a mirage. Our time together had eliminated Fox’s suspicions about me
and he’d recalled some vague, but potentially important details. It had been a
productive interview. I hoped eagle eye Webber would be as helpful.
    When Fox left me with a handshake
and a smile, I promised to keep him in the loop. I made some notes while I
waited for Petty Officer/Rescue Swimmer Marty Webber. I couldn’t shake the
feeling there was much more to this case than the official report had
concluded. The question was could I prove it?
    About twenty minutes later, there
was a knock at the door. I got up, opened the door, and came face to face with
a six foot two inch buff blond surfer dude. “I’m Mac Everett,” I said offering
my hand.
    “Petty Officer Martin Webber,
reporting as ordered,” he said. He didn’t take my hand.
    “Stand easy Petty Officer,” I said.
“I’m retired army, but relax. Come on in.”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Have a seat. May I call you Marty?
You talk to Senior Chief Fox?”
    “Yes, sir.”
    “Did Senior Chief Fox tell you it’s
OK to talk to me? Don’t say yes sir again or so help me I’ll land in the brig
or whatever the coasties call the slammer for beating the crap out of ya’.” The
kid was about to piss me off.
    “You could try, sir.”
    He was right. He had about twenty
years and thirty pounds on me.
    “Yeah, I guess I would have to try
at that. Can you help me out?”
    “What do you want to know, sir,” he
said.
    “Tell me about that day, the day
you found the Wind Dancer .”
    Webber