Snatched (10 page)

Brian said, “I got a bad feeling about this.”

Ignoring him, Roni hopped onto the deck and peered through one of the portholes.

“See anything?” Brian asked.

Roni shook her head and rapped on the glass. “Anybody home?” she called out.

No answer.

“Come on,” Brian said. “Let’s get out of here.”

“Just a minute,” Roni said.

“What if Hoot shows up again?” Brian did not like this situation at all. He looked down at the fire. Why would Driftwood Doug leave a fire burning unattended?

“There’s nobody in here,” Roni said. She sounded disappointed. Brian was relieved.

“Then let’s
go
!” he said. Just then he heard a twig snap. For a second he froze. Then he turned around slowly and looked up.

Brian’s first impression was that an enormous bundle of sticks was walking toward him. Just as he realized that he was looking at a man carrying a load of firewood, the man dropped his load of branches and twigs with a crash, and Brian got his first close-up look at Driftwood Doug.

Driftwood Doug up close looked a lot like Driftwood Doug from far away, only hairier. His reddish-brown beard covered about two-thirds of his face and hung down over his throat. Dark brown hair exploded from his skull in a riot of coils and spikes. His blue eyes stood out like radioactive sapphires.

“Well, well,” said Driftwood Doug, crossing his arms.

“Are you the burglars Hoot told me about?” He was wearing his usual denim bib overalls over a red-checked flannel shirt.

“No,” said Brian.

“Yes,” said Roni.

Driftwood Doug looked from Brian to Roni, and back again. “Well? Are you or aren’t you?”

“We’re not burglars,” Brian said quickly.

“It was a misunderstanding,” Roni added. “We just wanted to talk to you.”

“Is that so,” said Driftwood Doug. He bent over and threw a few pieces of wood into the fire, sending a spray of sparks into the air. “Why would you want to talk to me?”

“We’re investigating the disappearance of Alicia Camden,” Roni said. “She was last seen in this area.”

Brian was impressed. He knew Roni must be as scared as he was, but she sounded fearless. He watched Driftwood Doug carefully, but the man didn’t seem surprised by Roni’s question.

“Alicia Camden?” He picked up a limb the size of a baseball bat and used it to stir the fire. “The girl who lives at Bloodwater House?”

“Yes,” Roni said, hopping down from the pontoon. “Have you seen her?”

“Do you mean here? On the island?”

Roni nodded.

Driftwood Doug’s sapphire eyes glittered. His shoulders tensed and his hand tightened around the limb. Brian thought, Uh-oh, he’s deciding how he’s going to kill us and where he’s going to hide our bodies. He braced himself to take off running.

Driftwood Doug threw the stick into the fire.

“That poor girl,” he said, shaking his head sorrowfully. His shoulders dropped a few inches and his body sagged. In a single instant he went from being a fearsome, hairy, club-wielding giant to a normal, worried man. “If not for me, this would never have happened. That poor, poor girl!”

Brian and Roni gaped at him. Was this a confession? Was Driftwood Doug
confessing
to them?

“Where is she?” Roni asked. “Where did you put her?”

“Put her? I didn’t put her anywhere. I haven’t seen her since last Friday.”

“But . . . you kidnapped her, right?” Roni reminded him.

“Kidnapped? Don’t be ridiculous!”

“Then what happened to her?” Brian asked.

“The same thing that happened to me,” said Driftwood Doug. “I once owned Bloodwater House, you know.”

“So you
are
Douglas Unger?”

“I
was
Douglas Unger. Until that house destroyed me. It was the Bloodwater Curse.”

“The
what
?” said Roni and Brian together.

Driftwood Doug looked from one to the other, then said, “Would you care for a cup of tea?”

“Sugar?” Driftwood Doug asked as he poured the hot tea. They were sitting around the fire, which Doug had used to heat water for the tea.

Roni said, “Yes, please.” She let the earthy aroma of the tea drift toward her while stirring in her sugar.

Brian sniffed his tea as if it were a science experiment. “You aren’t trying to poison us, are you?”

Driftwood Doug grinned. The smile changed his whole look. Suddenly a set of perfect white teeth showed through his beard, and his skin crinkled around his eyes.

“I’m fresh out of poison today,” he said.

“What is this?” Brian asked.

“Elixir of the gods,” said Driftwood Doug.

“I don’t think I’ve ever had elixir of the gods before,” said Brian.

“What is it really?” Roni asked.

Driftwood Doug took a big healthy gulp of the tea. “Have you ever heard of ginseng?”

Roni had heard of it. “You mean that stuff that gives you extra energy?”

“I know, I know.” Brian was waving his hand as if they were in school. “It’s a root, right?”

Roni remembered seeing the pile of dried roots on the table inside the houseboat. Those must have been ginseng roots.

Driftwood Doug nodded. “You are both right. Ginseng root is said to give one extra strength and vitality. It grows wild in the woods around here. I earn money in the fall by collecting and selling ginseng roots.”

Brian took a big swallow of his tea. He made a face, then took another sip.

Roni said, “Are you going to tell us about Alicia?” She tasted her tea. Not bad.

“The girl, yes,” said Driftwood Doug. “I saw her last Friday when I was hunting for chanterelles.”

“What are those?” Brian asked.

Roni had to teach him to not lead a suspect off the track when she started a line of questioning.

“Cantharellus cibarius,”
said Driftwood Doug, as if that explained something. “The most delectable of the wild mushrooms.”

Roni said, “Okay, you were looking for these cantrels—”

“Chanterelles,” he corrected her.

“These mushrooms, and then?”

Driftwood Doug was not to be hurried. “I’d had some luck finding chanterelles in the woods near Bloodwater House. I picked nearly five pounds there last August. Not to mention a nice patch of
Boletus edulis . . .
”

This guy is as bad as Mr. Nestor, Roni thought.

“ . . . and of course I’m always keeping an eye out for ginseng. That night the sun had set and I was cutting through the woods in the dark, heading back to where I’d stashed my canoe, when I heard shouting coming from the direction of the house. I stopped and listened, but I couldn’t make anything out. Then I heard a screech.”

“A screech?” Roni said.

“Like a shout of pain. Or maybe anger. I don’t know. I thought maybe someone had been hurt, so I started for the house. It’s the Curse, you know. Terrible things happen to people who live there. Anyway, I was almost to the fence when someone came running from the direction of the house and jumped the fence and took off through the woods. He ran past me, not twenty feet away.”

“Did you see who it was?”

“Like I said, it was getting dark and I couldn’t see much. It was a young man, I believe. Quite tall.”

Brian looked at Roni and silently moved his mouth. Roni could read his lips:
Maurice.
She nodded.

“He ran toward the river,” said Driftwood Doug. “So I crept up to the back fence. That was when I saw the girl. On her hands and knees on the patio near the pool. A man was standing over her.”

“Could you see who it was?” Roni asked.

“I believe it was Arnold Thorn.”

“Did he hit her?”

“When I saw him he was just standing there talking to her. Then he tried to grab her, like he wanted to help her stand up, but she knocked his hand aside and crawled away. The man followed her and tried to help her up again, but she wouldn’t let him. He just stood there looking at her for a while, then a woman’s voice called from the house and he ran back inside. As soon as he was gone, the girl got up. Her face was all bloody. She ran around the side of the house and that was the last I saw her. A few seconds later Arnold Thorn came back outside and started looking for her and calling her name.”

“Then what?”

“Then nothing. I left.”

“You didn’t do anything?” Brian asked.

“What should I have done?”

“Called the police.”

“I was trespassing. I didn’t want to get in trouble.” He stared into his tea. “I tried to warn him, you know. When Arnold Thorn first bought that house I tried to warn him of the Curse. He wouldn’t listen. He told me to get off his property. He called the police. I should have burned that house down after Ceci died. I should have burned it to the ground.” He stared off into the distance. “Before we bought that place, we were happy. A few months later all my investments went bad, Ceci died, and I gave it all up. I became Driftwood Doug.”

He looked up and suddenly his expression changed. Roni turned and saw two uniformed policemen coming quickly up the path.

Brian saw the police at the same time Roni did. He recognized both of them—George Firth, a potbellied old-timer with the Bloodwater police, and Garth Spall, a brash young cop whom Brian had once overheard his mother describe as “Barney Fife in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body.”

This is perfect timing, Brian thought. Now Doug can tell the police what he saw. But when Brian turned back to the fire, Driftwood Doug was gone. Brian jumped up and looked around and saw Doug down at the shore pushing his canoe out onto the river.

The younger cop, Garth Spall, saw him, too. He grabbed Firth’s arm and pointed, then went crashing through the brush toward the canoe, holding his flopping gunbelt and shouting, “Stop! Stop! Police!”

Doug hopped into his canoe and began to paddle.

Spall reached the water’s edge and threw himself headlong at the canoe. He landed with a tremendous splash about five feet short of the canoe. Driftwood Doug pulled away, paddling furiously. Spall came up sputtering in the knee-deep water, fumbling with his sodden holster. “Stop or I’ll shoot!” He got his gun out just as Firth caught up with him and grabbed his arm.

“You can’t
shoot
him, Garth.”

“I was just going to throw a scare into him,” Spall said, lowering his gun. Driftwood Doug disappeared from sight along the shore.

“Well, you sure threw a scare into me!” said Firth. “We didn’t come here to
shoot
the man, Garth! Just ask him a few questions.”

“He ran. He must be guilty,” Garth said stubbornly.

“That doesn’t mean you’re supposed to
shoot
him!”

Garth Spall reholstered his gun and pushed out his lower lip like a little kid. “You don’t always have to tell me what to do.”

“Oh for . . . look, why don’t you head back to the bridge and see if you can catch sight of where he’s headed. He has to put into shore someplace. Meanwhile, I’ll talk to his accomplices here. And no shooting!”

The two cops waded back to shore. Garth shook himself like a dog, sending water droplets in every direction, then pounded off down the narrow path, his broad, wet shoulders parting the brush as he passed. Firth looked back at Brian and Roni, who were still standing next to the campfire holding their teacups.

“We aren’t accomplices,” Brian said.

“Is that a fact?” said Firth. He waddled up and took a closer look at Brian. “Aren’t you Annie Bain’s boy?”

Brian nodded.

The cop shook his head. “Well, I’m sure she’ll be happy to know we found you here on Wolf Spider Island keeping company with Mr. Douglas Unger.” He turned his attention to Roni. “And who might you be, young lady?”

Roni did not like being young-ladied. She pulled out her notebook and clicked her pen. “I’m P. Q. Delicata, reporter for the
Bloodwater Pump.
” She looked at the cop’s name badge. “What is your interest in Douglas Unger, Officer Firth? And why did your partner try to shoot him?”

“Whoa!” said Firth, holding up his palms. “Now just hold your horses, Miss P. Q. Delicata. Nobody shot at nobody. We came here to ask Mr. Unger some questions is all.”

“In connection with the Alicia Camden kidnapping?” Roni asked.

Firth narrowed his eyes. “I know you—you’re the girl trying to get into Bloodwater House yesterday!”

Just then, Firth’s belt radio erupted.

“I see him! I see him! Heading south on river! Am in pursuit!”

Firth grabbed his radio and shouted into it. “Garth, you moron, do not—I repeat—do NOT unholster your weapon!” He gave Roni and Brian an exasperated look. “I’ll deal with you two later.” He returned his radio to his belt clip and ran off down the path, his abdomen jiggling like a sack of Jell-O.

“I wonder if they’ll catch him,” Roni said as they trudged into Bloodwater.

“I doubt it,” said Brian. “I bet Doug knows every little backwater and inlet from here to Alma.”

“Good point. But I wonder why he ran. He sure didn’t sound like a kidnapper when we were talking to him.”

“Yeah, he made it sound more like it was either Maurice or Mr. Thorn that beat up Alicia.”

“But then why did he run?” Roni asked.

“Good question. Any ideas?”

“Yes. Let’s eat,” Roni said.

Brian stared at her. He never knew what she was going to say next.

“I think better if I have a little sustenance,” she explained.

“I thought you were on a diet.”

“Which I will temporarily abandon for the sake of this investigation.”