Jekyll Island: A Paranormal Mystery (Taryn's Camera Book 5) (15 page)

Upset
and anxious, Taryn threw on a light jacket and long pants and headed out–this time in her car. It was almost midnight and most everyone would be up for the night. She’d never been to the beach after dark before, though, and wanted to see the water.

Mindful of alligators and other night critters Taryn chose a spot on Great Dune beach and spread out her blanket, her back resting on a hill of sand. The new hotel was going up not far from where she sat and she could see steel beams rising from the ground. During the day you could hear clanging and banging around as the workers rushed to finish their job. Now, however, it was quiet. It was just Taryn and the ocean.

The water looked black at night. The stretch of sand that acted as the beach was smaller now than it was during the day and she wondered how safe it was sitting in her location. The waves rolled in with gentle speed and lapped at her feet, coming close to touching but never quite reaching her. The full moon rose high above her, its light reflecting on the water and illuminating the beach.

“Well, it
is
a little eerie,” she said aloud and then grinned. She could almost imagine seeing a young Mary the Wanderer, strolling through the sand, her white gown billowing. The woman she’d met at Driftwood had shared Mary’s eyes and smile. Her cheekbones and chin. But she’d been very real.

Taryn was enjoying the serenity of the water, letting the pull of the moon calm her, when something caught her eye. About fifteen feet to her left there was a glimmer in the moonlight, something struggling in the sand. She watched it for a moment, at first thinking that a piece of garbage had flown over from the hotel. When the clouds parted and the beach grew lighter, however, she realized it wasn’t a grocery bag blowing in the wind, but a shell.

“Oh shit,” Taryn cried, jumping to her feet. “Damn it…”

She muttered to herself as she crossed the sand towards the baby sea turtle. Upon close inspection she could see that it was trapped in a hole, a plastic pop can ring tied around it. Taryn’s first instinct was to carefully lift it up and free it but then she remembered what she’d read and heard about the turtles. She wasn’t meant to touch them at all, she was supposed to call the Sea Turtle Center if there was a problem

Rummaging around in her knapsack while still keeping an eye on the little guy she fished for the brochure with the phone number. It rang twice before a man who was way too chirpy for that time of night answered. “Y’ello!” he called into the phone. “How can I help you?”

“Hi,” Taryn replied, kneeling down to get a better look at its predicament. Maybe if she could at least get the plastic off… “I’m on the beach and I found a baby sea turtle. I think it’s in trouble.”

The man’s voice turned serious then. “Give me your location and I’ll be there in fifteen minutes,” he promised.

Taryn rattled off her general whereabouts and then hung up. “Well, it’s just you and me little guy, at least for a few minutes.”

The turtle looked up at her and moved its tiny head up and down.

“Please don’t die on my watch,” Taryn pleaded.

Settling in next to the hole, Taryn made herself at home while she waited. She knew she wasn’t supposed to touch him but if a wave came or he got more wrapped up she was going to do whatever she had to do.

Left alone with the turtle, Taryn sighed. It was always something.

A noise came then, the slight sound of laughter behind her. She started to rise to her feet, the words, “Well that was fast” on her lips. Something made her stop, though, and she fell back to the ground. Taryn was protected by a dune to her back but could now clearly hear the sounds of several men joking and laughing with one another.

“Probably just some guys looking for fun,” she assured the turtle. “They won’t bother us.” A black-crowned night heron screeched just then and Taryn jumped.

“Geeze, I’m getting skittish,” she laughed nervously. Being a female alone on the sand, though, made her nervous. Suppose the other men had been drinking or doing something illegal?

One of them laughed and then Taryn heard the sound of metal.
They were at the hotel site, then,
she thought to herself. Maybe they’d forgotten something. She strained her ears harder as she listened to their laughter.

“Just don’t drop it for Christ’s sake,” one of them muttered. His voice was raspy, like maybe he smoked a lot.

“Did anyone even look at it?” another one laughed. He sounded younger than the other one. “How the hell do we even know what’s in here?”

“We don’t,” a third man replied. “We don’t ask and they don’t tell. Just walk!”

Taryn slowly brought herself to her knees and peered over the tall sea grass. She was shielded from their view but realized with a start that they were only about ten feet away. They worked in the dark and Taryn watched in fascination as they lifted a box heavy enough that all three of them had to lift.

“One, two, three!” the smoker cried and they all raised the box high in the air. Straining from the effort, they carried it to a nearby truck and slid it onto the bed. “One more!”

Taryn watched again as they went back to the spot near her and lifted another one from the ground and carried it back to the truck.

“What they don’t know won’t hurt ‘em,” a skinny man in a baseball cap laughed.

“Hey, is this the turtle?” Taryn jumped and spun around. At the same time, she heard the men above her running across the grass and jumping into the truck. As it took off Taryn watched as the older gentleman walked towards her.

“Uh, yeah, this is it,” she pointed nervously.

The man appeared to be in his late sixties but walked with a lift in his step. He moved with little effort through the sand, a container that looked like a cooler in his hands.

Taryn watched as he gently pried the plastic off the baby and then lowered it into the container. “I’ll take him back to the hospital and let them check him out,” he promised. “Thanks for calling.”

“Can I come check on him later?” Taryn asked. Now that she wasn’t alone she didn’t feel as spooked, but she hadn’t yet recovered from what she’d just seen the men do.

“Sure!” he smiled, his teeth sparkling in the night. “Just come on over tomorrow and we’ll give you an update.”

Taryn walked back up to the parking lot with him. It was only after she was back in the safety of her house that she let herself accept the truth.

Just before she’d turned around she’d made definite eye contact with the man in the baseball cap. She wasn’t sure he could pick her out of a lineup, what with the moon behind her and the tall sea grass between them, but
she’d
be able to pick
him
out of anything.

“
You weren’t supposed to be here until tonight,” Taryn cried
, pleasant surprise filling her.

Matt stood on her front porch, a small rolling suitcase behind him. His midnight-black hair was soft and shiny, his dark skin smooth without a single line. He beamed at Taryn, his smile stretching from ear to ear as he reached out and engulfed her in an embrace. “I couldn’t wait,” he mumbled into her hair.

Taryn, who’d only just woken up when she heard the pounding on the door, was wearing a ratty T-shirt with her hair sticking out every which way from her head. She knew her breath was not nice.

“Come on in,” she said, trying to shield her mouth with her hand. “I’ll be right back.”

“Are you trying to hide your morning breath?” Matt laughed as she darted off into the bathroom.

“No!” Taryn cried as she frantically scrubbed at her teeth with one hand and pulled a brush through her tangled mess of hair with the other.

By the time she came back out Matt had made himself at home on her couch and was flipping through her pictures on her laptop. “These are fantastic,” he said, zooming in on the shots she’d taken off inside the hotel.

“Thanks,” Taryn answered, settling down beside him. She snuggled into his side and then took his arm and put it around her. “I’m glad you’re here.”

Matt leaned back against the couch, bringing Taryn with him. “Me too. I didn’t think I could last another day. And I’m digging your bedroom attire.”

Taryn, aware that her T-shirt was riding up her legs and bunching around her waist giggled, a rare sound for her. “I wore it just for you.”

“Hey, isn’t that my T-shirt from high school?”

Taryn nodded and snuggled in close. “Yep.”

“I’ve been missing that for, oh, fifteen years or something,” he mused.

“Yep.”

They might have found other ways to entertain themselves, but a few minutes later the housekeeper strolled through the front door.

“Oh!” she shrieked and jumped when she saw Matt and Taryn cuddled on the couch. “I’m sorry! I’ll come back.”

Taryn laughed at the way she tried to shield her eyes and look the other way. “It’s okay. I’ve got to get dressed and we’re going out. Please, don’t let us keep you. I know you want to get this done and go home.”

Carla grinned sheepishly and nodded at Matt. “It’s true. This is my easiest house. Taryn doesn’t do much of anything in here.”

“Is that so? Things must have changed from the packrat I know,” Matt teased her.

Matt continued to go through her photos when Taryn excused herself to get dressed. When she emerged a few minutes later, she found Carla mopping the kitchen floor, her earbuds stuffed in her ear and iPod on.

“Hey, I want to tell you about something that happened last night,” Taryn said as she slipped on her sandals.

“What’s up? And will you need your camera? I can put the battery back in if you want,” Matt gestured to where it was charging in the wall.

“Yeah, sure. Can’t leave Miss Dixie behind,” Taryn replied. “So last night I went for a walk on the beach and…”

When she finished Matt studied her and frowned. “I don’t know,” he said at last. “Sounds like something illegal was going on. You’re lucky they didn’t try to hurt you.”

“Oh, I was fine,” she admonished him but inside she agreed. She’d been nervous herself.

“Look, I’d just keep it to yourself, okay?” Matt looked worried for her sake. “I know I’m usually all about calling authorities and doing things by the book but I don’t like you being here alone and thinking something might happen.”

“Well, normally I’d be all about putting my nose into places where it doesn’t belong but on this point I agree with you,” Taryn said. “The last thing I need is more trouble.”

With both of them ready to leave the house Taryn threw her hand up in a wave towards Carla. “See you later Carla,” she bellowed.

The housekeeper didn’t look up.

“Bye Carla!” Taryn tried again.

This time Carla jerked her head up from the mop and fiddled with a button on her iPod. “Bye-bye girl,” she waved. “See you next week!”

Once they were settled into the golf cart and Taryn was whizzing down the road Matt chuckled to himself.

“What are you laughing about?” she asked.

“Your maid,” he answered. “You do realize that she didn’t have that iPod on, right?”

“What?” Taryn asked in confusion.

Matt shrugged. “No idea why. It hadn’t been on since she started working. She was just pretending not to hear you there at the end.”

Taryn pursed her lips and picked up the speed. Now she had something else to worry her.