We drove in silence to the Brookline Industrial Park, which was home to several seafood processing plants, boat works, and other businesses. It was a tough place with the fishermen and dockhands. They weren’t very trusting of police much less the FBI. Jumping out of the SUV and flashing our badges wasn’t going to get us very far.
“Keep it low key, guys.” I advised as we got out of the vehicle.
We were getting a lot of looks as dockhands crossed our paths and I looked for anyone that was more interested in us the anyone else. Halfway down the dock, I found him. He was a short man with a pencil mustache, wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. He wasn’t dressed like the fisherman with the typical white rubber boots. He was cleaner, with no fish scales, blood or stains on his clothes. He watched us intently and I had the sense that he wanted to talk to us, but he didn’t want anyone to know. He made eye contact with me and held it before slipping in between two warehouses.
“Stay here.” I said over my shoulder to Mac and Logan.
I walked casually in the direction I had seen the man disappear and then slipped between the buildings. The two buildings cast dark shadows and it took my eyes a minute to adjust. I put my hand on the butt of my gun just in case this was an ambush. I found the man leaning against the wall behind a stack of wooden pallets.
“You want to talk to me?”
“You’re here about that woman, aren’t you?” the man asked nervously.
“Yeah, I am, what can you tell me?”
“I don’t want to go to jail.”
“Is there some reason why you should?”
The man began to sweat, and he looked around nervously. I didn’t want to lose him. Right now, he was the closest thing I possibly had to Kay.
“Just tell me what you know and if you’re implicated, I’ll do what I can to help you.”
“Can you do that?”
“Yeah I can.”
“You with the FBI or something?”
“Yes, I am. You want to see my badge?”
“No, not here.”
He looked around nervously again. “This man came here late yesterday. He paid a lot of money to tow a barge offshore and leave it.”
“You a tugboat captain?”
He nodded.
Now I understood why he was so nervous. Tugboat captains are a very tight knit group and you don’t want a reputation of being a snitch or worse. If found out, he would be drummed out of his job and blackballed.
“And you saw a woman?” I pressed, trying to re from a ship sitting on the barge and I saw these two other guys drag her onto the barge and lock her in there.”
“You say drag, was she hurt?”
“I didn’t see any blood or nothing, but she couldn’t walk on her own.” He shook his head.
“Okay, can you tell me where you released the barge?”
“Yeah, I can give the coordinates.”
“Would you be willing to come to my office and help us find it on a map?”
“I can’t be seen talking to you.” His eyes shifted left and right while we talked.
“I understand. I typed the coordinates he recited into my phone.”
“Here’s my card. It has the address of my office so when you leave here come straight there.”
He shoved the card quickly in his pocket and left. I sent the coordinates to Jared and Stephanie back at the office and asked them to start mapping them. Then I walked back out to the SUV. Mac and Logan were waiting.
We all got in the SUV without a word and I drove out of the park and pulled over.
“You get anything?” Logan asked.
“Tugboat captain was paid to drop a barge offshore with a storage container aboard. He says there was a woman inside.”
Mac took out his phone “I’ll ask the Coast Guard to start searching. Do you have the coordinates?”
“Yeah, thirty-six degrees north by seventy-four degrees west.”
Mac repeated the coordinates. He listened and acknowledged whatever information was shared. “Those coordinates are nearly one hundred miles offshore.”
My heart sank. “We need to map the currents and see where she could have drifted to in the past twenty-four hours.”
“Well, the currents would be pushing her north and further out to sea.” Mac said matter-of-factly.
“If she is in a container, she’ll be protected from the sun though.” Logan offered.
“Hopefully, there is a way for air to get into that container.” Mac answered Logan’s optimism with a dose of reality.
I glanced over at him.
“Sorry.” Mac looked back down at his phone.
“We need to know what we are dealing with and how we can best help her.” I said.
“Well the temperatures shouldn’t be too bad, and she will have shelter from the wind, and she should be dry.” Mac offered. “Her biggest problem is drinking water.”
He was right; it was doubtful that Bannister had been thoughtful enough to give her any especially if he wanted to get rid of her. I was confused by the method he was using.
“What I don’t understand is, why this? Of all of the other instances where his opponents have come to a bad end, they all looked like accidents.” I glanced over at Mac and in the rearview mirror at Logan. “How do you explain this as an accident?”
“Maybe he is hoping she isn’t found, and no explanation will be needed.” Logan offered.
I nodded. That was probably true.
Mac’s phone rang. He listened more than he spoke. Then he clicked off. “They are sending the helicopter up to search.”
His face looks grim. “What’s the catch?” I demanded.
“There’s a storm brewing off the coast so they have to send the chopper up now because they may not be able to later. “
My grip on the steering wheel tightened. A storm might capsize the barge and the container would sink like a rock to the bottom of the ocean.
“Where are they sending the chopper from?”
“North River.” Mac named the large Coast Guard station in the southern portion of Gates Point.
