Read Online Soundkeeper by Michael Hervey - Free Book Online

shouldn’t have challenged her or her boat, but Hall knew the sea could be unforgiving. All it took was a misplaced step on a slippery deck or a rogue wave. A distracted moment could spell disaster.
    Hall tried to reach a suitable conclusion and remembered something from his training, a phrase he believed in the first time he heard it.
    “If something doesn’t look right, find out why.”
    Criminal Investigation, to his surprise, was his favorite course in the law enforcement training. The instructor was a retired sheriff from Georgia who thrilled them with stories about moonshiners and bloody family squabbles. Renowned for his interrogation techniques, he was also a frequent guest lecturer at the FBI training academy in Quantico. The old sheriff was Columbo and Andy Griffith woven together with peach flavored chewing tobacco. Hall found the procedures used to solve a crime weren’t all that different from the scientific process he used in the laboratory.
    What didn’t look right about Gale’s disappearance? He needed more information before he could answer that question. He needed to talk to Silas Pickens and his father and find out who had seen Gale last, and where. Hall wrote down a few questions in the notebook he kept in his boat and called for Belker before going inside.
    Just before he fell asleep again Hall remembered he hadn’t closed and locked the gate to the parking area on the other end of the island. The gate was supposed to be locked at sundown, and the refuge maintenance staff was off for the Memorial Day weekend. Hall had agreed to lock the gate to the parking lot while they were gone. He went outside and started his other government issued vehicle, a navy-blue pick up truck.
    Belker was too small to see over the dashboard, so he rode on Hall’s lap to get a better view. The driveway that led from the highway to the caretaker’s cottage was the main road on the island and was only a sand track covered with pine needles. Only official vehicles were allowed past the parking lot. Hall’s truck, tractors, and the biologists SUV’s were the only motorized vehicles that ever used the roads, but they were popular with visitors who used them for hiking or bicycle riding.
    Hall drove through the tunnel of spooky Spanish moss hanging from low tree limbs. Soon the forest surrendered to open marsh, and the road was only a few inches above sea level. Hall could see for miles in every direction.
    When he pulled into the parking lot his headlights played across a small sports car parked in the far end of the gravel lot, next to the trash dumpster. The windows were fogged over, and he waited a moment for the occupants to realize that they were no longer alone. When no one stirred he pulled closer and got out with his flashlight.
    As soon as he climbed out of his truck Hall heard a girl’s voice coming from the car. It was apparent from the pitch of her voice that her “no” wasn’t being heeded. Hall snatched open the driver’s door and shined his flashlight inside.
    The girl screamed and the young man cursed when the beam from the flashlight blinded him. He was on top of her in the passenger seat, and she had tears streaming down her face. Hall grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and yanked him out of the car. Stinking of liquor, the young man bowed up and tried to pull away.
    “Knock it off. I’m a police officer,” Hall said. “Refuge Enforcement Officer” took too long to get out. “What’s going on here?” Belker was at their feet, barking and snapping at the boy’s ankles.
    The young man, whose driver’s license showed him to be nineteen years old, did all of the talking. He and his date were just trying to talk, he insisted. The girl stayed quiet until Hall talked to her away from her companion. Hall learned the boy who had been assaulting her was only an acquaintance who had offered her a ride home. She was only fifteen. Hall frisked him for weapons and turned his attention back to the