Chapter 25

Matt Wheeler sat on the bed in his hotel room, stunned beyond words. His greatest fear was coming true-–again. It was Missouri all over again.

"You’re telling me that against my wishes, Trixie has led you all into yet another catastrophe?" he said in a low tone.

"Dad – this one just kind of happened on us. And frankly, we hadn’t exactly come across anything really threatening - yet. I don’t know that we can even say that Trixie is at the center of what’s happened," Jim said, feeling the staunch need to defend his… well, his friend.

Shocked at what he and Mart had witnessed, they had run back to the tour boat intending to somehow persuade the park rangers to let them call for an emergency police escort back to the mainland. But they remembered that as of yet, the local police had no real idea of the lengths to which those responsible for the kidnapping were going to get their way. So the boys decided to ride the boat back and keep silent until they could reach their father who had not been answering his cell phone. The other passengers had begun to load up anyway. When the boat landed however, Mart and Jim were the first off, running as fast as they could up the pier, to the car and out of Mount Pleasant. Jim tried his father’s phone as soon as the car door had shut, imploring him to meet them back in the hotel. Matt had been in a meeting, but feeling the consistent vibration of his phone, had left the room where it took little for Matt to innately sense that something was desperately wrong after hearing the messages left by his son.

Now, trying to keep the panic from showing on his face, he sighed as he stood up and headed to the phone. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket and pulled a business card out. Picking up the phone and dialing, he turned around to take in the sight of his son, and Mart. Neither one could discern his true feelings from his almost emotionless face.

"Jerry – Matt." There was silence for a moment. "Look, I know we just had lunch together, but well – things are a bit amiss here. I was wondering if you could come over to my hotel. I can’t explain it, but I could use your help." After a short time, Matt said his thanks and set the phone back in the cradle.

"I have a friend coming over here. He’s just down the street so I want you guys to tell everything that you know about what’s going on, but wait until he gets here so you won’t have to repeat it."

Jim had wandered over to the window during this. He turned back to his father. "Dad - ."

Matt stopped him with a simple arm raised. "I know what you’re about to say Jim. And don’t."

"But…"

"No. It’s not your fault. Trixie seems to have trouble follow her like a lost puppy dog. And to be honest, I think I’m going to have to learn that it’s probably not her fault either. I wish that she weren’t so danger prone. But I can’t change who she is. What we have to concentrate on now is figuring out what to do next."

Which was the interminable hard part for Matt, Jim and Mart as they sat in silence waiting for Jerry Lawrence to show up. After what seemed like hours, but could only have been minutes, there was a solid knock on the door. Matt strode to the door and opened it. He started to speak but Jerry beat him to it.

"Never, ever answer your door without asking who it is."

Attempting to inject some humor into things, Matt replied "I can tell already that you’re the right man for this job, Jer. " He opened the door wider for him to come in. "Let me introduce you to my son Jim, and his friend Mart."

It took Jerry little to sense the tension in the room, and to notice the conspicuous absence of Matt’s daughter. He turned around to face Matt. "What’s going on," was his low voiced query.

"I’m going to let the boys explain – from the beginning," he added with a stern look at Mart and Jim who looked at each other.

Jim started from the day they had arrived in Charleston and their walk to the pier that had resulted in the ghostly apparition and ended with their disastrous trip to Fort Sumter.

"And you’ve told no one about these things?" Jerry asked.

"Regan heard a little about it yesterday."

Matt raised his eyebrows at this fact, making a mental note to confer with the red headed groom later. "What are your thoughts Jerry?"

"In my opinion, I think your girls are safe for now." Matt didn’t bother to correct him. Trixie was so much like a daughter to him anyway, and half of the time he wished he could discipline her like one. He simply figured that Jerry knew this as well. "Let’s assume that everything that has happened in Charleston lately has been committed by the same people for the purpose of stopping the gambling. I’ve suspected as much," he sighed. "We might question why the attacks on the others were so impersonal, and why this one is so personal, but in any case, you’d have no reason to change your support of the gambling venue if your girls are harmed. This way, he has leverage to hold over you."

"Makes sense," Matt mused. "The question is, where are they being held, and how can we get to them."

"Tell me what you remember about the boat that took them off," Jerry turned to Mart and Jim.

Mart spoke up first. "It was a speed boat. The kind you’d ski in, nothing really distinctive about it. There were numbers on the back passenger corner, but it was too far away to make out." As he said this, he looked at Jim for confirmation, who also shook his head to indicate that he had not seen the numbers.

"I guess one thing was distinctive. It was white, but had a dark blue waved line running around it. Other than that – I can’t really say anything more about it."

"Well, that’s not much. I’ll get some of my men on it at the city’s marinas, but if it’s a privately owned boat, we won’t have much luck. The other thing we have to consider is that if this kidnapping is related to the gambling, and other events, you should expect to receive some kind of communication from them soon."

Matt nodded, sitting dully back on the bed. "I suspect so." He paused. "Jer – I really need your help on this."

"You’ve got it," he smiled lightly. "Let em make some phone calls and we’ll get people started looking for that boat, and I also want to send someone out to Sumter to see if anyone there recalls anything. Then we’ll talk some more."

In just a few minutes, Jerry had set things in motion and was back with them. Noticing Matt’s darkened face, he said, "don’t go there."

"What?"

"The what ifs. What if I had hired them a bodyguard? What if I had skipped my meetings and had been with them? What if I had not taken them on this trip? There’s no point. Hindsight has perfect vision. Now all we can do is move on. I want you to tell me a few things. Who in town would have known the whereabouts of your children today?"

Matt looked slightly surprised at first but then his brown furrowed as he began to think about the question. "Aside from Regan and myself, and maybe the concierge I don’t know that I told many people. Perhaps just a few random people know that I even have my children with me and those would only be the people I’ve known for a while… old acquaintances."

"Name some, just off the top of your head."

"Brenda Matthews and I have spoken about them during this week, but I don’t think recently. Fred Hayes and I talked last night. His kids are coming in for the weekend and they mentioned the idea of meeting when they get into town. David Leigh and I have spoken about them a few times. Last night I think I recall mentioning where they’d be today, but he’d had so much to drink, I’d be surprised if he remembered his own name by that time."

"Has anyone shown a very strong interest in them that you know of?"

"No, not really. No more, in my opinion, than a business acquaintance getting reacquainted. "

"Well, we can’t be too careful. I’ll get in touch with them."

"David and I talked about having a drink this afternoon, but he mentioned that he might not be able to due to business matters. No to mention that I question if he’d remember our tentative plans."

Jerry absorbed this bit of information. "Well, in the meantime, if you can think of anyone else, let me know. Now, how about you two," he said, turning to Mart and Jim. Who knew that you would be out at Fort Sumter today?"

"I think the only person who knew was Yvette," Mart answered.

"The woman whose…" he paused, "husband you’re trying to help?"

"Yes." Hearing another person say it, Jim had to agree – it sounded funny.

"Well, I’ll check out her as well, but I think that is the least likely direction to take. She wants the gambling stopped as well, but it sounds as though these acts wouldn’t be her way of doing it."

"In the meantime, what can we do?" Jim asked.

"You can stay put," his father said sternly. "That’s all I need is four kidnappings on my hands."

Jerry tried to hide a smile. "Actually, what I do want you to do is make a fairly comprehensive list of everything that has happened since you have been here. Include places you have been, things you have seen and people you’ve met and spoken with, the gist of conversations you’ve had, anything at all that you have discussed about these matters between yourselves. Include everything you can think of, whether it seems relevant or not. That would help me a lot, and might even help should this all come to a head legally. I must stress the need for you to hurry with this though. The vote is tomorrow night and so time is of the essence."

Although it was far from the detective jobs that Trixie would have assigned them, they agreed, secretly glancing at each other to signify that their work outside the hotel was far from over.

Jerry stood up and Matt walked him to the door. "Matt, I meant what I said. Take caution. Don’t open this door unless it is someone you trust. And I’d add to be cautious about who you trust right now. You have my cell number. I’ll be in touch periodically throughout the evening. I suggest that you have dinner up here and make yourself scarce. We don’t know who is watching or what they want from you. If you get a ransom note, contact me immediately and handle it carefully. In fact, if you get any note that you’re not expecting, don’t touch it. Call me immediately and I’ll be over to check it out."

Matt nodded, letting his weariness show more plainly than ever. Jerry looked at his face one last time. "We’ll find them. I’ll be in touch." And he was gone.

Jim and Mart stood up. "We’ll get started on that deposition dad."

Matt gave a heavy sigh and nodded. "Good idea. I need a little while alone. I don’t know what I’m going to tell your mother," he added almost in introspection. "I’ll call you when it’s time to order dinner."

He watched them move down the hall towards their room, and quietly shut the door as soon as he heard the soft click of theirs.

 

Chapter 26

Sitting in the speedboat, more angry than frightened at this point, Trixie looked at Honey out of the corner of her eye. Honey merely sat, stunned. The man had not once turned around and Trixie’s eyes now swept around the little boat looking for anything that might help them out of this predicament. She could see nothing that looked remotely useful however. Glancing up as the boat gave a rather sharp turn, she recognized the restaurant they had dined at their first night in town. We’re heading up the Ashley River, she thought, and began to take in their surroundings more carefully as the boat slowed down and came to dock at a small landing well beyond the outskirts of the main part of the city. There did not appear to be anyone around – only one other boat docked on the other side of the dock. The man stepped off the boat and onto the dock. There, he pulled out the pistol once again and motioned for the girls to get up.

Walking rather slowly, Honey did so, warily keeping an eye on the man and his gun. She heard the sounds of Trixie behind her doing the same thing. She turned around just in time to see Trixie trip and grasp the chrome rail with her bound hands to prevent herself from falling. The man reached down and roughly hauled her up by her arm and shoved her towards the other boat. This boat was larger and had a cabin beneath the controls and after shoving the two girls inside, he pulled the door shut. They heard a locking mechanism engage with finality.

Within moments, the sounds of the boat starting, and the feeling of movement was detected. From the direction they had turned, Trixie guessed that they were headed back down the Ashley towards the harbor and the vast Atlantic Ocean beyond that. She slumped back on the seat she was on and looked at Honey. "Why didn’t we think of this?"

"Of what?" Honey mumbled.

"Maybe they thought he prized his possessions more than anything, like many people. Maybe they thought he would bend at the slightest amount of pressure. But I guess they thought of it before we did.’

"What?" Honey repeated.

"What he prizes most in this world. You."

"All this time I’ve been worried about Daddy."

"And rightly so. Don’t blame yourself."

"Daddy’s probably blaming himself for not sending an armed guard with us everywhere."

"We had no way of knowing, Honey. All the attacks have been rather impersonal, wouldn’t you say?"

"Maybe," she mused trying to find a more comfortable position for her tied wrists. "Maybe not."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I think you rather said it first. Perhaps what the man from the ballpark prized most was his team and being there, maybe even the stadium itself. Some people are fanatical about sports. Maybe we don’t even have all the facts. He could have been a benefactor to the team. And the bridge – we don’t really know about that. It may have seemed an impersonal attack, but we don’t have all the facts about that one either. And the yacht accident – we do know that the boat was one of that mans prized possessions. He apparently loved it more than anything else on the earth. Now here we are."

"Exactly. Here we are. But what about the horses? Anyone who knows your father would know that he wouldn’t kowtow to pressure by harming his animals"

"Well, we know that. Maybe these people aren’t as smart as they think. Or maybe they didn’t do their homework. Maybe they’re even just getting desperate and would resort to something like this to get what they want."

"Then that’s to our advantage. They don’t know us. Or the lengths your father will go to find us."

Back in the hotel, Mart and Jim were putting the finishing touches on the deposition.

"He didn’t really think that we would sit around waiting for them to give us some answers, right?" Mart asked.

"Oh, I’d say that is what he wanted us to think he expected. I think anyone sane would be out doing all they could. Which is my intent after we finish this."

"What will your dad say?"

"I plan to include both he and Regan in the plans."

"Have you forgotten, we were supposed to meet Yvette for dinner tonight?"

"No. I called her and asked her to come here. I’m hoping we can somehow use whatever she can tell us about him to find Jeremy. I can’t believe I’m saying this but I think our best shot is to rely on his ghost to show us where the girls have been taken."

"I can’t believe you just said that either," Mart answered with a wry smile. "But, if you can believe James, so can I."

The two shared rather sad smiles and went back to work. Before long, they heard a knock at the door.

"Yes?"

"It’s me." Jim recognized Matt’s voice and opened the door. Behind Matt stood Regan looking rather like he had just finished being raked over the coals. Both men walked in and sat down at the table.

"We were supposed to meet Yvette for dinner tonight," Jim said, "but I called and asked her to come over here instead. I didn’t explain why."

"Do you really think she can give us some insight as to what this is all about and how to find her husband?" Matt asked wryly.

"I hope so. Until we get some solid information from your friend, I think this is all we have to go on. And what could it hurt?"

"True."

"She should be here shortly. We can fill her in over dinner and if she gives us any usable information, I say we act on it."

While Matt took up the phone and called to room service to order a variety of items for dinner, Regan joined the conversation.

"What kind of information are you hoping to get from her?"

"Well, we talked to someone last night who knows a lot about the paranormal. He didn’t say so outright, but it sounds as if we can find out some of Jeremy’s favorite places we might be able to find him. Perhaps he can lead us to the answers or even to the girls."

Almost as soon as Matt hung up the phone with room service, instructing them to simply leave the trays outside the door, his cell phone rang. It was Jerry. The two men talked for a few minutes and Matt’s face had brightened a little by the time he ended the call.

"What is it dad?"

"Well, not so much, but it’s encouraging. They found a boat matching the description of the one you two saw from Fort Sumter. It wasn’t at any of the marinas but one of the water patrol boats happened to spot it tied up at a private dock. There was no information on who owned it available, but they did dust for prints and found Trixie’s on one of the chrome railings." He sighed. "From there, the trail seems to have grown cold. Someone at Fort Sumter remembered seeing a boat matching the description of the one they found hovering in the water sometime before the kidnapping happened, but said his attention was drawn away by something else and he can’t recall ever seeing it again after that. Right now they are checking out the dock – who owns it and such and trying to track down anyone who was on the waterway from hours before the kidnapping happened, to hours afterwards. So we’re still in a holding pattern as far as that’s concerned."

"Has he checked out any of the people you said knew where we’d be today?" Mart asked.

"He said he was working on that personally and that all he knew for sure was that Brenda has an alibi. But of course that doesn’t discount that someone might be working for her. I just don’t think it could be though. In fact, none of the people I mentioned as having known seem right to me."

There was silence in the room for a few seconds while each man tried to gather his thoughts. Then came a knock on the door. "I’ll get it," mumbled Jim.

"Who is it?" he called out, while looking through the peephole.

"Yvette."

He could see that it was and opened the door to admit her. She waltzed in and plunked her handbag on the table and landed not so softly on the last remaining chair. After glancing around at the faces and counting heads.

"What in the world is the matter? Why the glum faces? And where are Sherlock and Dr. Watson?"

"Missing."

"Missing, did you say? What do you mean missing?"

"They were kidnapped today from Fort Sumter. We assume to coerce my father into voting against the gambling proposal." Jim said.

She looked somewhat stunned and quickly gained her composure. "Well what are we all sittin’ around here waitin’ for? Let’s go find em’." She hopped up and headed for the door as if leading a charge.

"Well, that’s just it. We have no idea where they might be. We were hoping that we could go ahead with our original plan to try and find Jeremy, in the hopes that he might be able to lead us to them, or the people behind these things." Mart countered, drawing her back towards the others.

"Hmm," she murmured to herself. "Okay. I see what you’re saying. So – how are we going about this?"

"Well, the man we talked to last night on the ghost tour suggested that haunts like to return to places that were for some reason special to them. He mentioned places of their death, or just somewhere special to that person in life. He said that if he wanted to feel the presence of a haunt, he’d return to that place."

Yvette was silent for a few minutes. "I can think of the place Jeremy would go. It was a place he returned to again and again in life, haunted by it."

"Where was it,’ Matt asked, gently placing a hand on her shoulder.

"The beach where Kevin died."

A heavy silence descended on the group. It was Matt who broke it. "I don’t suppose you’d be able to take us there?"

"If it will help you find your lovely children, and eventually put Jeremy to rest, of course I will." She gave a sad smile. "We couldn’t save our child. Perhaps we can save yours".

He nodded his thanks at her. The quickly downed the food which had arrived and then quietly, the group made their way out of the door and into the hallway. "I think it would be best if we took your car," Matt said.

"That’s fine. I’m in the garage."

"Good, that way we can avoid going through the lobby incase anyone is keeping tabs on us."

In only a few short minutes they had unobtrusively pulled out of the parking garage onto Queen and were soon on Broad heading for the Ashley River. "Kevin died at the Folly Beach County Park," Yvette explained.

Jim grimaced at the thought of returning to the beach he had shared with Trixie only days earlier. Fortunately, he knew that the park was at the completely opposite end of the beach than they had been on. Close to half an hour later, they pulled up at a parking lot that sat in front of the closed gates to the park.

"We can park here and walk down the public access path. The beach itself isn’t off limits. Only the actual park." The made their way down the path, tromping through the sand and soon arrived on the waterfront. Yvette slowed her pace and then completely stopped, looking out toward the sea.

"It happened just in front of this house," she explained. "Beach is beach, but we always had that house sitting right there to remind us."

"If this is too painful for you…" Matt began.

"Nonsense. What’s a little pain when considering the big picture?"

Matt could only stare at the amazing woman, watching her as she closed her eyes and began to walk closer to the water directly in front of the beach house. Soon, she sat down on the soft sand. Amidst the sound of the waves crashing on the shore, Matt, Regan, Jim and Mart could here her speaking softly. In the punctuated spaces between each wave, her words were barely audible.

"Talk to me Jeremy… I feel your presence… I need your eyes… I need to see what you see… two young girls need your help. Help us Jeremy. This is the time to make yourself known."

The others hadn’t known exactly how they would accomplish calling up Jeremy from whatever world he was in, but if Yvette felt this was the best way to do it, they certainly would not interfere. They merely watched her. She kept murmuring the same phrases over and over, appearing to have tuned all else out but her communication with her departed husband. It seemed like forever, but the others knew it had been no longer than 10 minutes when they began to notice that the darkness was not as dark as it had been before. Simultaneously with Yvette, they looked towards the ocean.

There on the shadows created by moonlight on the waves, floated a glowing figure, familiar to this point only to Jim. It would have been hard under normal circumstances to accept such a sight, but its ethereal glow was almost unreal. It was there nonetheless and no one dared say anything. Yvette kept her misty eyes on the figure that seemed to be trying to gesture in some fashion. All they others could make out was the slight movements of his hands. And soon, as the figure slowly faded away, nothing at all.

Yvette slowly got up from her sitting position and turned to face the others. Her eyes held a misty sheen but her face was smiling.

"I know where they are."

To Be Continued

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