~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Chapter Two~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trent and Carlos scoured the Marina, searching for Mr.
Halloran, but neither found a trace of the man.
"How could he just disappear so quickly?" Trent asked,
leaning back against the ‘Vette.
"Maybe Ole’ Red got him," Carlos teased.
Trent shook his head, momentarily amused. "I want to drive
around and see if we can spot him. Then we ought to head back
to Thunder Karate and do some research."
Carlos looked at Trent in dismay. "Research?"
* * *
Trent popped up to his office and found Jen still filling
out paperwork.
"Still at it, huh?" he asked, glancing through his messages.
Jen pointed at a large pile of books on the corner of
Trent’s desk. "Every book that even mentions Hutton’s Bay from
the library."
Trent looked at Jen in amazement.
"Don’t thank me," Jen asserted. "Tandy wanted to help,
so I sent her to the library with Tommy."
"Thank you, anyway," Trent said. "This will save us a lot
of time."
"You and Carlos," Jen clarified, scribbling her name on a
form.
"Yes, Carlos and me," Trent agreed.
"What about Carlos?" the dark-haired young man, appearing
behind Trent, asked.
"Carlos," Trent began, picking up half of the books, "gets
to look through these." He handed the books to Carlos. Carlos
groaned, but he sat down in an empty chair and opened his first
book.
Trent sat down behind his desk and picked up the top book
in the pile. "And it’s home to work we go."
* * *
A couple of hours later, Trent tossed his book aside.
"Did you find anything?" he asked, rubbing his eyes. He
and Carlos were alone in the office; Jen had finished her
paperwork and gone home.
"Only that Hutton’s Bay and Marina used to be a haven for
smugglers," Carlos shared. "Very popular."
Trent groaned inwardly. That was nothing different than
he had found, except that Red’s ship was called The Jolly
Redger. A perfect name for the arrogant smuggler’s boat. He
had another idea.
"How do you feel about a change of scenery?" he asked.
Carlos looked interested. "What are we waiting for?"
* * *
Trent parked the ‘Vette next to Hutton’s bait shop. He’d
decided to come back after he had dropped Carlos off at the
Dallas Hall of Records. Whatever records Carlos couldn’t find,
a flash of his badge would surely get located.
Trent wanted to doublecheck the bay area to see if Mr.
Halloran had returned or left any clue to his whereabouts. His
sudden disappearance had Trent spooked, despite what he’d let
on to Carlos. Trent knew there were no such things as ghosts,
but he couldn’t convince himself that something bad had happened
to Mr. Halloran, or would, if he didn’t find him.
Trent wandered around the outside of the decrepit bait
shop, wondering if Halloran had found a way inside. If Halloran
was hiding in there, Trent was determined to take him back to
Thunder Karate for safety.
All of the windows were boarded shut. The door was rusted
closed, and the rest of the building looked solid.
"You’re obviously not in there," Trent whispered. So where
could Halloran have gone? Trent looked around the marina. He
and Carlos had checked the area earlier, and there hadn’t been
any other convenient places to hide.
Trent walked down to the edge of the water and stared out
at the evening sky. This crazy case of his just kept getting
crazier by the minute. First, he had a client who had been
cursed by a pirate, and second, his client had disappeared!
Trent glanced at the cliffs to the right of the pier.
Spotting a small ledge that he hadn’t noticed earlier, he
wondered if it lead to a cave.
Maybe Halloran’s hiding there, Trent thought as he hurried
towards the ledge. He covered the distance quickly and stood at
the edge, wondering if his feet would fit on the six-inch rock
ledge. If not, he’d be taking a short dive into a lot of cold
water!
He placed his left foot onto the ledge. He was just about
to step on all the way when he heard a noise back by the marina.
"Hey!" Someone yelled. A man in his early thirties came
running towards him, and Trent stepped off the ledge and back
onto solid ground.
"You shouldn’t be on that!" the man admonished, stopping
a few feet from Trent. He had short, red hair and a red
mustache. He looked only a few years older than Trent, and he
wore jeans and a blue windbreaker.
"I’m sorry," Trent apologized. "I was looking for someone.
An old man, Mr. Halloran."
"That guy’s just a crazy sea salt," the man said.
For some reason, Trent felt compelled to defend the man.
"He was afraid someone wanted to harm him," he told the
man. "I’m Trent Malloy." He offered his hand.
The man ignored it.
"Gil Ramsay," the man answered. "I own this place now.
Bought it out of probate, from when Ole’ Man Hutton was arrested
twenty years ago for his involvement with smuggling. Nothing
goes on here now. I just like to have the place, so I can take
my kids boating in the summer."
Trent didn’t know what to say.
Mr. Ramsay filled the silence. "I’m sorry for yelling
about the ledge, but I didn’t know how else to get your
attention. It’s kind of slippery, and I didn’t want you to end
up in the water with a concussion or something."
"That’s okay," Trent answered. "I shouldn’t have been up
there." He had another question for Mr. Ramsay. "Is there
anything back there, on the other side of the ledge? A cave or
something, maybe?"
"I used to climb back there all the time when I was a kid,"
Mr. Ramsay told Trent. "I always hoped there was some sort of
hidden cove, but no such luck. There’s nothing back there."
Trent was disappointed, but he still had a question.
"Have you seen Mr. Halloran lately?" he asked. "Anytime in
the last few hours or so?"
"Nope," Mr. Ramsay asnwered. "I’ve been out of town for
the last few days. Just got back in time to see you starting
on the ledge."
"Thank you for your time, Mr. Ramsay," Trent said, as the
two men headed back towards the ‘Vette.
* * *
Trent met Carlos outside the Hall of Records, and they
drove back to Thunder Karate.
"Did you find anything helpful?" Trent asked as they sped
through a green light.
"Just a couple of things," Carlos said. "First, the last
people connected with smuggling at Hutton’s Bay are Old Man
Hutton and a man named Lars Gymai." Carlos pronounced the name
with difficulty. "They were both arrested in 1977 because of a
smuggling operation. Gymai was smuggling, and Hutton was
covering up for him. Hutton died a year later while in jail,
and Gymai was released after five years for good behavior.
Gymai hasn’t been heard from since."
"Good. And the other thing?"
"There’s someone else who knew about Ole’ Red," Carlos
baited.
"Who?" Trent asked, curious.
"A man named Samuel Rygali," Carlos continued. "It seems
that his father worked with Red while he was just a child, and
Rygali disappeared for thirty years after Red’s own disappearance.
But Rygali resurfaced, and now, he’s right here in Dallas."
"Here in Dallas?" Trent asked suspiciously. "He may have
something to gain from tormenting the men who betrayed Red."
"That’s exactly what I thought," Carlos added. "So I
called and had Walker run a check on him. The man was arrested
a long time ago for impersonating an officer. He was also an
expert boatsman. Won a bunch of races down in Florida a few
years back."
"He could be the man terrorizing Mr. Halloran," Trent
surmised, glad to have a non-supernatural explanation for the
ghost. "But that still doesn’t tell us where Halloran is. Do
you have an address?"
* * *
Trent and Carlos sneaked around the back of the large,
Victorian house, home of Samuel Rygali. There was a car in the
driveway, and the house was dark.
"I feel like a criminal," Carlos complained.
"We’re not going to break in," Trent told his friend. "We
just need to see if Mr. Rygali is home."
Carlos touched the hood of the car. It was cold.
"He hasn’t been anywhere in this car for a while," Carlos
informed Trent. "This car hasn’t been driven in the last few
hours."
"That’s good," Trent agreed. "But he may have another car.
He could be with Mr. Halloran even as we speak."
"Or he could be sleeping," Carlos countered.
"Well, we’ll find out soon enough, won’t we?" Trent answered.
He stood up on his tiptoes, and he could just see through the
first floor windows.
To his surprise, he saw a faint movement inside, and he
watched as the dark shadow moved toward the living room mantle.
It picked something off the mantle, studied it, and then threw
it towards the window!
The object crashed through the glass and landed a few feet
from Trent and Carlos, who had ducked below the window,
anticipating someone looking out after the object. When no one
appeared, Trent and Carlos went over to the object.
Trent picked up a small, replica pirate ship. The name
carved on the side was The Jolly Redger!
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