Even with Aaron at her side hacking away at the bushes and providing her words of overly optimistic encouragement, Moni prepared herself for the worst with every step. Having Mariella in her life, for even this brief time, had been a gift from God. Like everything else she had cherished-her mother, what had once been a loving relationship with Darren-this too would crumble to dust in her fingers. The only thing that would remain was the voice of her father repeating the word “failure” inside her skull.
Thankfully, Aaron’s naive enthusiasm kept her from admitting defeat after five hours of searching.
“She must be somewhere around here,” Aaron said as he scanned the forest. The visibility measured less than 20 feet in most places because of all the foliage. “The rangers said her tracks and the teacher’s tracks led up to the canal and then went cold. She probably chased her in the canal for a while, caught the kid and then turned around. I bet the teacher knew enough to go south, but she could still get lost on her way to the trail.”
“And why didn’t she just use her cell phone?” Moni asked.
“She could have lost it, or the battery died, or the water shorted it. There are plenty of ways to waste one. I’ve trashed like five phones on research missions. Believe me, my dad lets me hear it every time.”
Moni squeezed his hand and nodded. The possibility existed, however slim, that Mariella and her teacher were out there. Judging from her experience in the mangroves the morning after the girl’s parents were murdered, Mariella could hide for hours on end. She wouldn’t let anyone find her until she felt like it.
“Please Mariella, come back!” Moni shouted into the woods. “If you hate school that much, I promise you’ll never have to go again.”
Aaron sent her a glance of admiration for that ploy. He probably wished that his parents had made him the same offer, Moni thought. She clasped her hand around his bicep as they strolled through the increasingly shadowy forest.
The harmony between them got interrupted by a rustling of leaves in a patch of slash pines ahead of them. Even knowing that bobcats, wild boars and snakes populated these woods, Moni disregarded her fears, and charged towards it shouting for Mariella. Aaron’s hesitation lasted only a split second before he followed her.
The sharp palm fronds swiftly parted. When Mariella poked her head out, Moni nearly spilled over onto her face. A grin spread across the girl’s lips that made her brown eyes light up. She sprang from the palms and hugged Moni around the waist with her head buried into her stomach. As Moni patted her on the back, and wiped away her tears, she found it remarkable that Mariella’s excitement at seeing her didn’t seem any more or less intense than it did when she had picked her up after a typical day at school. This kid had toughened up.
“You had me so worried, baby. Please don’t run off again.” As soon as the words left Moni’s mouth, she wondered what had happened to the carefully rehearsed chewing out she had reserved for the girl after she had once again put lives in danger by running away. Her relief at seeing Mariella alive put any such condemnation on the back burner. “Praise the Lord that you didn’t get hurt out here. You must have an angel looking out for you.”
Shrugging her shoulders, the girl offered a smirk. Moni scooped Mariella up in her arms, consulted the GPS map on her phone and headed back towards the trail.
“Wait a minute before you go hurrying off,” Aaron said as he jogged behind them.
Moni didn’t realize how fast she skipped through the forest until she saw that the young man who carried nothing but a small backpack trailed her even as she had the girl weighing her down. It reminded Moni of how robbers could carry huge televisions all by themselves when the alarms sounded.
“Come on, boy. Hustle it up,” Moni said with a playful grin. A few minutes ago, she thought she’d never smile again.
“Why are we running off? Mrs. Mint is still out here. If Mariella was hiding here, her teacher can’t be far away.”
Moni shifted the girl on her hip so she faced her. “Baby, have you seen Mrs. Mint?”
Biting her lips, Mariella shook her head. Her dour eyes met the darkening forest floor.
“Maybe her teacher couldn’t find her, or she could be hurt,” Aaron said. “We can’t leave her out here all night.”
Moni agreed with him, but only for a few seconds. Then she stared into Mariella’s pleading eyes, and felt the girl’s trembling fingers clutching at her jacket. She couldn’t spend another minute in these woods.
“You do whatever you want, but I’m taking her home now,” Moni said.
Aaron groaned and snapped off a branch in frustration. He followed her anyway.
Sneed bumped his way through the medics to become the first greeter for Moni and Mariella when they emerged back onto the trail. His nostrils flared with anger. To Moni, he seemed more like an actor who took great pleasure in playing the part of an obnoxious jerk.
“Here’s our hero, and she’s rescued the girl and not the teacher. I’m deeply shocked,” Sneed said as he scampered at Moni’s heel like a yapping dog. “Once again, everybody dies except the little girl, and the detective- and I use that title very loosely.”
Moni ignored him, along with the medics, and ramped up her pace towards the parking lot.
“The girl is totally freaking out. We’ve gotta get her out of here,” said Aaron, who apparently didn’t mind masking his true feelings when it meant backing Moni up in front of Sneed. “I’m sure the teacher is still out there. If you want, I’ll go back and help look for her.”
“That won’t be necessary, kid.” Sneed jutted his finger into Aaron’s chest. “You and that professor of yours have a date with the Lagoon Watcher in the county jail tonight.” He paused for a moment and watched Aaron squirm. “I can’t understand what the hell that old coot is jabbering about. I need some scientific mumbo-jumbo translators, and you and your buddy fit the bill.”
“I guess that’s better than the other thing that could happen to us in jail,” Aaron said. “I’ll see you ladies later. Call me.” He waved at Moni as he halted on Sneed’s leash.
Meanwhile, the lead detective reigned in Moni’s rope. “Hold up!” Sneed snorted. “Aren’t you going to hand her off to the medics? They need to check her out. Who knows what kinda crap she picked up in these woods.”
Moni took one glance over her shoulder at the two medics wheeling a pint-sized stretcher after her. The strides of her brisk trot grew longer.
“Thanks for the warm thoughts, honey, but my baby is fine. How many times do I gotta tell you there’s nothing wrong with her?”
Chapter 36
“I don’t choose who dies. I have nothing to do with it,” the Lagoon Watcher crowed from behind the table as he shook his cuffed wrists, which had a chain connected to his ankle restraints. “It’s all done at the molecular level-maybe even the sub-molecular level. We’re talking chemical and genetic manipulation. It’s like a virus, but fully sentient and intelligent.”
Harry Trainer nodded at his three interrogators as if he had just made a brilliant point that would make them throw open the door, strip off his orange jumpsuit and let him walk on home. Apparently, he didn’t notice Sneed’s dumbfounded gawk, Aaron’s amused smirk, and even his friend Swartzman shaking his head with a frown. The accused murderer had rambled on for a half hour without any of the three men getting more than a sentence or two in at a time. As Trainer recited the whole ecological history of the lagoon-practically from the Big Bang-Aaron had deja vu from his high school days when he just planted his head on his desk and dozed off.
No worries. All they had was a trail of dead bodies, a swarm of psychotic animals, sixteen missing explosives and a toxic lagoon. Meanwhile, this guy kept playing the Mr. Green card. Every time they asked him how he did it, he insistently denied responsibility. He blamed polluters and politicians for laying the foundation for what he called a “computerized bacteria invasion.”
Trainer’s hair looked frazzled and nearly electrified; he sported a bandage covering the cut an eight-year-old supposedly inflicted on him. With all that, and the gaunt cheeks tracing the outline of his jaw, he resembled just the kind of street-corner sign man that warns of tiny invaders.
“I haven’t got the foggiest idea what you’re yammering about,” Sneed said. “Don’t you dare screw with me, old man.” He cocked his head towards the suspect with such a menacing scowl that even the Lagoon Watcher took notice. Trainer straightened his back in his wooden chair. “I have enough evidence to lock you away until your final
