“No, nothing like that,” I assured him, and he relaxed his shoulders as if he’d been carrying some extra tension there on the issue. “Charlie didn’t so much as touch his shoulder, it doesn’t sound like. The guy just kind of freaked out and then stayed on the water, and then in the caves, trying to figure out what to do next. When we found them, he was even telling Mikey that he was going to find a way to sneak him back to Atlanta without anyone knowing about it.”
“That… sounds like a terrible plan,” Holm said, scrunching up his face in confusion. “Did he really think he wouldn’t get caught?”
“I think he knew that he would probably get caught, but that things would definitely be bad for him if he killed the kid,” I sighed, shaking my head. “I think he realized pretty quickly how much of a mistake he’d made, and then he just hid out and tried to work out some scheme to get himself out of it.”
“Sounds pretty weird to me,” Holm said with a shrug. “The whole thing seems weird to me, but whatever.”
“It was a weird case,” I laughed. “We have a knack for getting those, though.”
“We sure do,” Holm sighed, shaking his head.
“Hey,” I heard Nina’s voice behind me, and I nearly jumped in surprise as I swiveled around in my seat to face her. She was standing behind me with her hands behind her back.
“Hey,” I said, glancing back over at where the man she had been talking to now stood, speaking with Detective Lance from Durham. “Is that your supervisor?”
“Sure is,” Nina said, giving me a sly smile and pulling out a chair to sit down next to me. Then, she set a small black telescope on the table between us, and a small, yellowed old note on a frayed half-page, guarded up in a protective seal.
“What is this?” I asked, staring down at the items and shaking my head in confusion.
“Something we found on Lafitte’s ship,” she said. “I just got cleared to give it to you. Read the note. We think it was from the Dragon’s Rogue originally.”
I stared at her, unable to believe my ears. Then I gingerly reached down and pulled the note up so that I could read it.
Thought you might like this, the note read, in all too familiar handwriting. A reminder of old times.
“That’s… that’s Grendel’s handwriting,” I stammered, recognizing it instantly from the journal. “This was on Lafitte’s ship?”
Nina nodded.
“We don’t know if the Hollands put it there or what,” she said. “Maybe one of your experts can inquire about its authenticity. I’m sorry I couldn’t give it to you until now. Bureaucracy has its drawbacks, as I’m sure you know. As for the ship itself, we’re still not through with it, but we’re going to invite you out to see it as soon as we can. I need to finish up with this case in Durham first, though.”
“I… I understand,” I managed, gently picking up the telescope and balancing it in my hands, then. “Nina, this is amazing, thank you.”
“No, thank you,” she said, grinning and meeting my eyes. “We did it, Marston. We found him.”
“Yeah,” I said, unable to stop a smile from spreading across my own face then. “Yeah, we did it.”
Epilogue
“Wow,” Charlie breathed when I was finished, for once not complaining that I had ended my tale too soon. “For a minute there, I actually thought you might not find that kid.”
“Yeah, me too,” I admitted, wincing at the memory as I finished off my third and final drink for the night. “I’d never been more glad to be wrong.”
The alcohol settled in my stomach, warming me up. I’d needed a fair amount to get through that story. Just the memory of the race against the clock to find Mikey tied my stomach into knots.
“Man, that’s always a nail biter,” Mike said, letting out a low whistle. “Couldn’t have turned out better, though.”
“No. No, it couldn’t,” I agreed with a chuckle. “We got very, very lucky that night, and so did Mikey.”
“Well, what happened next?” Ty asked, characteristically jumping straight to the next thing without taking a moment to enjoy what we’d just finished. “Was Mikey okay? Did his parents start getting along better?”
“Oh, yeah, things turned out alright for them,” I assured my audience. “Last I heard, he goes to see Jackson and his stepmom on summers and alternating holidays. The parents didn’t even have to litigate after all was said and done. They were just all glad to have their son back safe and sound.”
“How was he psychologically, though?” Mac asked, getting at the heart of the issue as she was apt to do. “That’s a lot to go through for a little kid, even if he wasn’t abused.”
“Good question,” I said, nodding to her. “Last I heard, he still sees Dr. Osborne sometimes, but he’s an otherwise well-adjusted kid. He just has a great story to tell, is all.”
Mac nodded thoughtfully, seeming satisfied with this answer.
“Did Mr. Samuels get his boat back?” Jeff asked, grinning at the memory of the old man.
“Oh, yes,” I chuckled. “I returned it to him the next day. He was a little chagrined at the damage, but he mainly seemed excited that one of his boats had been through such an exciting adventure. He said it was just proof that Lucy was the best boat he ever had! The nephew just rolled his eyes.”
Everyone laughed at this, and I mean everyone. The other customers were all gone by then, and every bar girl was now standing around the booth, listening to the end of my story. I think they’d been there since around when Nina and I figured out that Justin was missing at the station.
“What about Justin?” Charlie asked. “Did you ever find him?”
“Oh, yeah. Holm and I weren’t on that part of the case, but Nina and the detectives from Durham found him the night
