Windward Secrets (16 page)

Moving around a huge boulder she saw Claire standing at the mouth of a cave.

Weighed down by her wet clothes, Diane slowly made her way to Claire. “You are nuts. I swear you’re certifiable.”

“Diane look what we found.” Pulling Diane by the arm she guided her into a cave as the waves lapped at their ankles.

“Did you know this was here?” Diane asked.

“No. If we had found this as kids, I’m sure I would have remembered.”

The opening was at least twenty feet tall allowing enough sunlight in to see where they were going. The ground raised out of the water and they no longer had to fight the waves. The cave widened to about thirty feet across. The light did not reach the whole way so they stopped and waited for their eyes to adjust. Claire grabbed Diane’s wrist. “Diane, what’s that, over there,” she said, pointing deeper into the cave.

“I can’t make it out. We need to go in farther.”

Holding hands they slowly proceeded and then stopped.

“Diane, are those cages?”

“I think so.”

Moving closer, they reached out to make sure they didn’t bump into anything. A few yards more and they touched cold steel. Their eyes adjusted somewhat to the partial darkness and they felt along the steel bars.

“These are like big, dog cages,” Diane said. “Why would anyone have dogs in here?”

Claire walked along the cages and tried the doors. They were unlocked and in each cage was a pile of tattered blankets. At the end of the cages were stacked cases of bottled water and waterproof packages of food.

“Diane, look at this. There’s food and water here. Any chance you brought your phone?”

“Really, Claire? How would you expect my phone to survive a dip in the ocean? It’s back at the blanket. Speaking of which we better get out of here before high tide.”

“The walls. Diane, look at the walls.”

“What about the walls?”

“Just try to remember the walls.”

The women hurried back to the cave entrance and started wading. The tide was coming in fast and in only a few seconds they were up to their chests in water. A few more waves and there was no more walking; they were swimming. The waves were coming hard. They dove under the breakers as they approached. Swimming under the water was better, but every time they came up for air they lost ground and had to swim harder.

“Try to grab a rock!” Claire yelled, to Diane.

Allowing the current to take them toward the rocks, they conserved energy but the waves rammed them hard into the rocks. They were exhausted and now being beaten against the rocks. All they could do was hang on and pray.

“Claire! Diane! Up here!”

Looking up, they saw Jill and Caroline with the beach blanket.

“We’re going to throw this down. See if you can reach it.”

Jill threw one end of the blanket down to Diane who grabbed for it but missed.

“Try again Diane, you can do it,” Caroline yelled.

The second time Diane caught a corner of the blanket and held on with all her might. Jill and Caroline pulled and slowly Diane started to rise up out of the water using her feet to push against the rock. When Diane was safely on the top of the rock, they threw the blanket to Claire.

“Your turn Claire,” Jill yelled, lowering the blanket down the side of the rock.

Claire reached as high as she could and caught the blanket. Following Diane’s example she crawled up the side of the rock and collapsed.

***

Climbing up the embankment was harder than going down. As they packed the remains of lunch into the bike baskets, a biker carrying a surfboard approached from the direction of the lighthouse.

Coming to a halt among them was Kevin O’Reilly.

“Hello ladies,” Kevin said. “Having a good day?”

“Hi, Kevin, how are you,” Diane replied, turning away from her bike and toward him. “I don’t believe you’ve met our friends. Caroline and Jill, this is Deputy Kevin O’Reilly. We met him at the bakery the day Chief Peterson stopped by the cottage.”

“Hi Kevin,” Caroline said. “I see you’re a surfer.”

“Yes. The waves have been good since the storm.” Looking at Claire and Diane he continued, “You’re wet. Have you been in the water? “

“Yes, unfortunately,” Claire admitted, sheepishly.

“I hope not down there. That’s a very dangerous beach,” Kevin added, with concern as he looked down towards the rocks.

Anxious not to let him know they had found the cave Diane interrupted. “Ah… we found that out. We waded out a little and got knocked down by a wave. Don’t have our sea legs,” she added, with a smile.

“Kevin, it must be hard to ride a bike and carry a surfboard at the same time,” Caroline commented, picking up on Diane’s diversion tactic.

Kevin glanced from one woman to the other suspiciously. “You just have to get it balanced right and it’s fine. You ladies better head home. The water was really cold today and the temperature is dropping.”

“Exactly what we plan to do,” Jill said, pushing her bike closer to the road and positioning herself on the seat.

“I’m going that way. I’ll ride with you,” Kevin said, without giving them a chance to object.

Kevin took the lead with the ladies following. Warily, they glanced at each other as they rode.

They could hear Ike barking as they approached Windward Cottage.

Kevin stopped at the end of the driveway and waited as they turned in and dismounted. “Sounds like your dog wants out,” Kevin said, with a nod toward the house.

“Poor guy, he’s had a long day,” Jill said, parking her bike and heading for the house.

Kevin hesitated and looked around. “Good idea to have a dog when you’re out this far from town. Don’t hesitate to call if you need anything.” Slowly he pushed off and rode toward Haworth.

“Do you think he knows about the cave and suspects we found it?” Diane asked, when they reached the porch.

“Hard to tell,” Claire replied. “He seems like a good kid and too sharp to be working for Chief Peterson.”

“What young man doesn’t want to be working at the beach,” Caroline said, watching Kevin slowly peddle down the road.

“What the heck’s wrong with Ike? He doesn’t usually act up like this when we’re away,” Jill asked, turning to unlock the door.

As soon as the door opened Ike burst out like he was spring loaded. Claire waited for the dog to rush to her, but instead he ran to the edge of the property as if he was going to follow Kevin. Stopping at the road he barked ferociously.

“For heaven’s sake what’s gotten into him?” Claire asked, shaking her head.

The others shrugged and walked into the house. Claire gave a whistle and Ike charged toward her. After a fast welcome he went into his sniffing routine on the steps and porch. “Come on, buddy. We need to go inside.” Ike looked back at Kevin disappearing down the road and then followed Claire into the house.

***

“But you promised,” Claire exclaimed, wrapped in her bathrobe and toweling her hair.

“That was before you pulled that stunt on the rocks,” Jill declared, rocking vigorously.

Caroline leaned against the porch railing. “Well, we do have to eat, and we’re all too tired to cook.”

Jill glared at Caroline. “Whose side are you on? She nearly drowned herself and Diane.”

“Caroline’s right Jill, we do have to eat,” Diane said, from the rocker on the other side of Claire. “I’m not very happy with Claire right now either, but I need a hot meal.”

Defeated, Jill gave in. “Okay, then let’s go because I’m beat and want to get to bed early.”

Claire turned to Caroline. “Before we go, will you please get the pictures of the girls?”

Caroline entered the house and returned with backpack a/k/a filing cabinet. Pulling out the stack of articles with the pictures attached she handed them to Claire who studied them, and then handed them one-by-one to Diane. “The walls Diane. What do you think?”

Diane studied each picture. “They look like the walls in the cave.”

Caroline and Jill looked at each other. “What are you talking about?”

“We found a cave in the rocks. There were large steel cages, bottled water, and food. I think the girls were taken to that cave,” Claire explained.

Jill narrowed her brow. “But Claire, they couldn’t have carried the girls down there without being noticed and you couldn’t get a boat in there.”

“Not a boat,” Diane said. “But certainly a dingy.”

“A dingy? From where?” Caroline asked.

“From a larger boat sitting off shore,” Claire answered.

Caroline’s face suddenly lost all its color. “Did you find anything else?”

Claire shook her head. “We couldn’t see well and the tide was coming in so we had to get out.”

“Do you think that’s where he abused the girls and then hid their bodies?” Jill asked, nervously.

Diane looked at Claire and then back at Jill and Caroline.

“We have no way of knowing,” she said, shaking her head slowly.

Looking defeated, Jill placed her elbows on her thighs and supported her forehead with her hands. “Go get dressed Claire. We’ll lock up and wait for you in the car.”

***

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Claire announced, sliding into the back seat beside Caroline.

Jill turned from the front passenger’s seat to look at Claire. “You’ve got to be kidding. What plan? No more of your hair-brained ideas.”

“Okay,” Claire said. “Then I’ll do it myself.”

Diane gripped the steering wheel tighter and exhaled. “Do what Claire?”

“Check out the boats at the marina. I want to find Swift Runner? That’s all. Then we can have a nice dinner and just watch to see if Wendell happens to show up and go for a boat ride.”

“Oh, let’s just do it. It can’t take that long,” Caroline suggested, as Diane pulled into the parking lot at the marina.

Claire gave Caroline the thumbs up sign and continued, “Diane and I will start at the far end of the docks and work toward the middle. Caroline, you and Jill start at this end and work your way toward us. Just walk up and down the docks and look at the names of the boats. If anyone gets curious pretend you’re interested in chartering a boat. If you see Swift Runner just get a good look at it. Whoever sees it first will go into the restaurant and that will be the sign that we found her.”

“Well, that can’t be too dangerous,” Jill sighed.

The teams split up and started walking the lengths of the docks reading the names of boats. There were a few people on boats who nodded or said hello. One particular boat caught Claire’s eye. The Sea Nymph was long and sleek and, unlike the other boats, it was made of gleaming dark wood with neatly wrapped, white, canvas sails. As she stepped to the edge of the dock for a closer look, a man she hadn’t noticed said, “Good evening, ladies.”

“What a beautiful boat,” Claire said.

“I thank ye lassie,” the man responded.

“Are you Scottish,” Diane asked, hearing his accent.

“Aye! That I am.”

The man stood and braced himself against the brass railing that ran the perimeter of the boat’s deck. He was tall and solidly built. His face was darkly tanned and wrinkled from years of exposure to the weather. His hair was black with streaks of gray. His eyes were deep pools of dark amber and he had a salt and pepper beard. He looked exactly like a storybook sailor.

“Angus Querry at your service,” he said, with a mock bow.

Still interested in his boat Claire continued, “Your boat is very different from the others. The wood is gorgeous. The others look so modern.”

“Aye, she’s an old beauty. This is a Molich Danmark. Forty years young she is. I restored her myself.”

“She’s immaculate. How do you keep her so shiny?”

“Seventeen layers of varnish will do that.”

“How long have you been sailing,” Diane asked, now interested in both the man and the boat.
              “Since a boy off the Isle of Skye where I grew up.”

Claire glanced across the docks to see Jill and Caroline watching them. Caroline gave a slight nod toward a very, large yacht in front of which she and Jill where standing. Without a word they walked back the dock toward the restaurant.

“Did you sail from Scotland to here?” Diane asked.

“Not directly. I go wherever the wind carries me. Been around the world twice.”

“You have the most beautiful boat in the marina,” Claire said, then pointing toward Swift Runner she asked, “What kind of boat is that?”

“Now, that’s a real fancy one, a Millennium 140 Superyacht. That type is for sailors who have lots of money and like speed. Don’t see too many of those around.”

“Well, The Sea Nymph is much prettier,” Claire said.

The sailor smiled. “Ach, you’d be a true lover of beauty then lassie.”

Diane decided it was time to head in for dinner. “Thank you for your time. Your boat is lovely and it’s been very nice talking to you. Safe voyage.”

“My pleasure,” Angus said, returning his gaze to Claire, he smiled and touched his forehead in a salute.