Shadow of Death, page 20
“We can be fishermen,” Sean Masters offered. “Or bird-watchers. No, fishermen, I think.” He grimaced. “Hey, my grandfather talked about all the lodges they used to have out there—shacks where he and his cronies would hang out when they wanted to escape. Sometimes they were supposedly hunting alligators in season, but mostly, he said they sat around at night and shot up beer cans.”
Amy laughed. “Yep, I had family with a hunter in it, too.” She turned to Hunter and then to Mickey. “Then there’s the Lost City and the area surrounding it. But that’s been—”
“Lost City?” Hunter asked.
She nodded. “Supposedly, Confederate soldiers hid there during the Civil War but were discovered and killed by either local tribesmen or Union officers. Then, Al Capone supposedly had a still out there, and it’s been investigated by the Department of the Interior, archeologists, and others. Haunted, of course, or filled with skunk apes. But the Everglades is filled with hammocks and ponds, dry land and wet, for miles and miles and miles. Yes, this person—or persons—could be running a major operation somewhere, just like Al Capone.”
“So, that’s it. How do we get the manpower to cover that kind of distance?” Sean murmured.
“We don’t,” Hunter said. “We concentrate on one area. North of Alligator Alley and west of Route 27.”
“You mean...where we found the body displayed by the first horseman?” Amy asked.
Hunter nodded, turning to Mickey. “I’m willing to bet that whatever we’re looking for can be found in that area.”
Mickey rose, saying, “All right. We concentrate on that area. I’ll video with the heads of the local police—and we’ll bring the Highway Patrol in on it, too, so they know what’s going on. Of course, I’ll connect with all our FDLE people in areas near or touching, warn them what to be on the lookout for. Of course, I’ll head to the tribal offices in Hollywood so the Seminole council is warned. Ryan, Sean, I like your idea. Don’t go in as law enforcement.”
“Airboats,” Aidan said.
They all looked at him and waited.
Aidan shrugged. “The best way through the Everglades is via airboat, in my opinion, at least. My friend—our friend—Jimmy Osceola—owns an airboat, as do many members of my tribe, and other entrepreneurs. But I can talk to Jimmy. We can get a few airboats going by day, staffed by some who really know the territory and carrying a special kind of tourist.”
“I’ll approve it,” Mickey said after a minute. He nodded toward Aidan. “I’ll get people out from the Orlando office to go over the area again. All we’ve managed to come up with is a hand and a foot...”
“Sir, in defense of all those working out there, it’s not a lack of effort or expertise. Looking for anything out there is like looking for—” Aidan began.
“A needle in a haystack?” Ryan suggested.
“A needle in a stack of needles,” Aidan said. “But I do believe it will be important to search the area over again. And again.”
“That will be done,” Mickey promised. “And I understand. I’m not suggesting there was dereliction of duty on anyone’s part. All right, Aidan, we will enlist Jimmy Osceola. If he’s willing—he’s civilian and he already found bad things on a tour not long ago with the ‘red horse.’ But if he’s willing, his tour is a known one. We’ll get at least another two to four airboats out there with agents while we’ll also have agents with the forensic crews—which is near where the body was found with the first ‘white horse’—and where Hunter has suggested we should be looking. I like your idea of just looking like tourists, Aidan. But if, as you two seem to think, Hayden Harper is involved in this, she’s met both of you. Which would take you out of that segment of the play.”
“Mickey, please—” Amy began, but she didn’t have to say more.
“Not necessarily!” Ryan said. He smiled. “I can make them unidentifiable from a distance—even up close, really. Especially to someone who has seen them, spoken once or twice, but doesn’t really know them.”
Amy had seen Ryan change his own appearance so as not to be noted—and she had barely recognized him. She smiled.
Mickey shrugged. “Let’s see on that. But—”
“Hey, some people were cops before they came to FDLE. Some went to college in business, and some in criminology. I happened to have been a fine arts major before turning to criminology. I was a great Cyrano de Bergerac, did my own nose. And I am damned good with costuming and makeup if I do say so myself.”
“A little ego,” Sean said lightly, “but he’s telling the truth.”
“Let’s see what you can do. But I want every agent out there on high alert—in or out of costume. These murders are...heinous to the nth degree,” Mickey said. “No one is unarmed but be careful lest being armed means someone using your own weapon against you. None of you is a fool, so I’m just talking to make it all fresh in your minds. Let’s get on this. Ryan, let’s see what you can do. I’ll have someone here get Special Agent Gleason’s left hand up to the lab in Orlando. I’ll see to it that FDLE, local police, and feds are aware of everything we believe might be going on. We’ve had an APB out on Hayden Harper—I’ll add a warning to it.”
“And on Don Blake. Hayden Harper was the one who suggested to Carey Allen she take Don Blake with her on one of her adventures—as in she steered them to the caves where Carey went into the muck and Don mysteriously disappeared,” Hunter said. He leaned forward. “I don’t think we should put Amy and me together as tourists on a boat—being apart, we might pull something off. Together, I think we might be spotted—or if we were able to encounter someone, they could be watching.”
“I get what you’re saying,” Aidan told him. “I’ll pair up with Amy.”
Mickey frowned. “Aidan, you’re not a trained agent—”
“Mickey, please, you have the power to maneuver whatever paperwork is needed to allow me to do this. Please. They’re turning my ancestral lands into a nightmare alley. I’m begging you. I can pull this off. Oh, yes, I’ve completed all the firearms training necessarily. I can hit a crocodile straight in the eye—not that I would, endangered species as they are—but I could.”
He was half smiling and half deadly serious. Mickey looked at him a long while before nodding at long last.
“I want to see what Ryan comes up with for Amy. Then we’ll make the final plan.”
Mickey left the room. Amy found that Hunter, Ryan, and Sean were all looking at her.
“You sure you want to do this?” Ryan asked her.
She turned to Aidan. “Are you sure you want to do this?”
He shrugged and smiled at her. “I don’t think even Ryan with all of his magical prowess can make me look like a white man—”
“Hey, man, you’ve got green eyes!” Ryan said. “There was a white man in there somewhere.”
Aidan laughed softly. “Yeah, I like to think I’m the best of what America can be—a cool mix of many things. But let’s face it—”
“It’s not going to matter what you look like. They don’t know you,” Ryan reminded him. “Amy is the one we need to change up.”
“True,” Hunter murmured, studying Amy.
She was surprised he’d opted out of being with her, though his reasoning was sound. Apart, they might pull off being average tourists, bird-watchers, hikers, or nature lovers. She knew she feared for him as he feared for her—the main reason teams weren’t usually composed of those who were couples.
He smiled at her suddenly, knowing exactly what she was thinking.
“Oh, don’t kid yourself,” he told her. “I’ll be around. I’ll be close.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “So... I’m assuming we begin this in the morning. Ryan, I’ll get some hair dye. Blond or brunette?”
“Dark, really dark!” Ryan said. “And you don’t need to get anything. I keep a good stash of stuff to change with, though I usually just opt for a different style of clothing or cap. Can you wear contacts? Have you ever worn them before?”
“I can wear contacts,” Amy assured him.
“How’s your Spanish?” he asked her.
“Not bad—or too bad, anyway,” Amy told him. “Hey, this is Florida! Half my friends are Hispanic or half-Hispanic—Patrick Garcia, José McKinnon. Of course, I have an American accent, but a lot of my friends have Hispanic parents but were born in the States themselves and have American accents when they speak Spanish, too.” She leaned back, grinning. “This might be fun.”
Hunter groaned.
“You won’t need to head out to pick anything up, either,” Ryan said. “I have everything we’re going to need in my two-by-two office!”
Ryan wasn’t lying. He had black hair dye, and she applied it in the bathroom. Hunter winced when he saw her, and winced again when Ryan gave her a short swing bob cut. He had “costume” contacts in many colors and she opted for an amber color.
Aidan had left them to contact friends and family members and secure airboats, while also making sure he warned them all as well. Mickey would contact the council, but Aidan would make sure the threat was known to be extremely serious.
By the time her hair was dried and Ryan had applied more makeup to her face than she’d worn in her life, she didn’t recognize herself.
Hunter pursed his lips, shook his head, and shrugged.
“Kid,” he told Ryan, “the theater missed out.”
“Thanks,” Ryan told him. “I like to think I can use everything life gave me in the best way possible. And I guess all of us who go into law enforcement are here for the same reason.”
“Catch the bad guys?” Sean asked.
“Protect the innocent,” Ryan said. “You know what I mean. I know you do.” He looked at Hunter and indicated Sean. “This guy’s dad invented a technical thing for airplane engines and made enough to feed the planet. Sean doesn’t have to work a day. He does this because he wants to. And I know you guys—it’s the same.”
Aidan had come into the conference room. He looked at Amy, shaking his head. “Wow!”
“Thank you,” Ryan said.
“You’re a beautiful redhead, but we know the redhead,” Aidan said lightly. “This brunette...wow. She’s regal and...hot!”
“Hey,” Hunter protested teasingly.
“Not to worry. Yuck. She’s like my sister,” Aidan assured them. “Okay, so, I was talking to a few of my cousins—” he began.
“How many cousins do you have?” Ryan asked.
Aidan grinned. “A lot. My name is Aidan Cypress, but I’m a member of the Bear Clan. We are a matrilineal society, which means I am Bear Clan through my mom, as are many of my cousins—close and distant,” he told them. “We’re set with Jimmy Osceola and my cousins Billie and Linc. But I talked to my dad, too.”
“He’s super,” Amy murmured. She’d met Aidan’s father several times through the years and he was one of the nicest and wisest people she had ever known. Retired now, he’d been with the Seminole police.
“And he had a suggestion. Amy, you know Florida and our history—including that of the Everglades—as few others do. He said you should appear to be a guide. We can do up a small group of agents—as tourists—and you can take them off one of the paths that leads from Route 27 toward the water—where the body was found in the ‘white horse’ case—and where Special Agent Gleason’s foot and hand were recently found.”
“And I could be in that group,” Hunter said.
“And so could we,” Sean agreed.
“Or,” Hunter murmured, “we could be groups arriving in separate airboats. We’d have watchers on the boats, and the group around you.”
“I’m game for whatever you think will work,” Amy said.
“And you might have become a brunette for nothing. We could do all this, and the crazy puppet master might kill someone again in Colorado,” Hunter said.
“But we might be right,” Amy said.
“We might be,” he agreed. He rose from where they were sitting in the conference room. “All right. It’s been a long today. Tomorrow will be longer—but with mosquitos. Anyone for dinner and an early night right after?”
“Sure. And I know a great place. The Field,” Aidan said.
“An Irish pub,” Sean told Hunter.
“I do love it!” Amy said.
“And, hey, everyone is Irish on St. Patrick’s Day,” Aidan said, grinning.
“It’s not St. Patrick’s Day,” Amy reminded him.
“So? We’ll pretend.”
They agreed, checked out with Mickey, and headed to dinner.
As they sat at a table, enjoying the good food and live Irish music, Amy glanced over at Hunter. He smiled back at her.
Maybe the intensity of their work made times like this all the sweeter. They went with their waitress’s suggestions and ordered the corned beef and cabbage one and all.
“This place is great,” Hunter assured Aidan. “Food, music—and company.”
“It’s a favorite.” He laughed. “One of my clan cousins is a host over at the hotel and casino, walking distance from here. Sometimes we have a great lunch there, and sometimes he comes over here and meets me to get some Irish on.” He laughed. “Another all-American creation! He’s Irish, Cuban, and Seminole. To be a tribal Seminole, you have to have at least a quarter of our blood in you.”
“What a perfect Floridian, as well as American,” Hunter said, lifting his glass to Aidan.
The band came on to play a version of “Danny Boy” made famous by the band Black 47. They were good, and everyone at the table enjoyed them along with the rest of those eating inside and outside the restaurant. But when the song ended, it was time to go. And the easy conversation they’d enjoyed while eating ended. They were somber as they said good-night.
But when they reached the hotel room, Hunter quickly drew Amy into his arms. “Please tell me you’re not too, too tired. I mean, wow. So, I admit I’m much fonder of the woman I know, but, hmm. This is like being absolutely enflamed and inspired by two women in one.”
Amy laughed and ran her fingers down his cheek.
“Wait!” she protested. “Does that mean you’re really looking for a brunette?”
He shook his head, his expression serious as he looked down at her. “No. It means I’d be madly in love with you as a redhead, a blonde, or a brunette! But—”
“Tomorrow I think I’ll be Scarlet Broussard, a brilliant historian and tour guide by day, a wicked party girl by night! So if you want, I can start being wicked party girl tonight!”
“Oh, I want. I want,” he assured her.
They made use of the time they had. Enjoying a long, steaming shower. Laughing as they nearly tripped after one of their embraces as they headed to the bed. Pausing to look at one another and know what it meant to be together, then laughing and teasing again. What started as soft caresses on one another’s flesh led to deeper and deeper intimacy, meshing together with the sensual urgency that seemed sweeter because of the comfort they shared more and more with the passing of time.
They dozed. She woke when he teased he wasn’t going to be with a brunette all that often, and they made love again.
They slept deeply at last.
And then the morning came.
* * *
It was good to see Jimmy Osceola again, Amy thought, even if she had trouble forgetting about his possible involvement in another case.
Or the same case, since whoever was behind it all seemed determined to follow through with four horsemen. But Jimmy quickly assured her that he wanted whatever was going on to be stopped.
From everything she knew about him, and through Aidan, she knew he was a good man. Instinct wasn’t evidence, but she was going to go with it for now.
“Some of this is our land, and some of this is park land,” Jimmy told her gravely. She knew he had to be sixty, but he was built tall and solidly without an ounce of fat and his face retained a startling youth. He was a strong but kind man, she knew, and he loved what he did. “So, I want whatever is going on stopped. And if it wasn’t close to home and personal, I’d still want it stopped because it’s so cruel and horrible.”
“You’re a good man, Jimmy,” Amy told him quietly. “Either that,” she added lightly, “or a glutton for punishment.”
He laughed at that. “You ready for this?”
“They’ll tease me to death later, but sure, I’m ready!”
Of course, it was impossible to give any kind of lecture while they were riding in the airboat alongside the embankment—the sound of the motor cut out any such possibility. But sitting in the boat, Amy saw Mickey did have others out in the vicinity.
Other airboats were out there—ahead of them and behind them. Eventually, Jimmy cut the motor and brought the airboat to an embankment, and showed them all how best to alight without sinking into the mucky land close to the water.
“So, here we are, deep in the Florida Everglades. The ecosystem covers much of the southern Florida peninsula and is one of the most unique systems in the world and thus in the continental United States,” Amy said. “But Florida! It was first inhabited by human beings about fourteen thousand years ago. But our tribes today are not those who originally lived here. As Europeans discovered and encroached upon the land, many original inhabitants died out or were absorbed by those who came this way after. As we all know, European settlers were not all kind to native populations. Ponce de León arrived in Florida in the year 1513 and gave the land its name—La Pascua Florida. It was Easter season, the festival of flowers to the Spanish, and the rich landscape apparently influenced Ponce de León. The land remained under Spanish rule from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century except for a brief time—1763 to 1783—when the British flag flew high over her. The land went back to the Spanish until 1821 when it became a territory of the United States. Pirates had been raging along the coast, but the Americans brought in Admiral David Porter from the Keys who fought them hard and long. But something was happening that was not so great when we look back. Native Americans were being forced from their homes to walk the Trail of Tears, which caused many Native Americans to flee, a number of them to the Everglades. Once, there were the Ais, the Calusa, the Apalachee, the Jeaga, the Mayaimi, the Potano, the Tequesta, the Timucua, the Tocobaga, and the Mikasuki. Seminole history really began with groups of Creek migrating south from Georgia and Alabama and possibly absorbing other tribes who had been here before. The first Seminole War began in 1816, soon after the Battle of New Orleans and while the area was still officially under Spain. Some called it Andrew Jackson’s War. The Second Seminole War began in 1835 and ended in 1842. There would be yet another, the Third Seminole War, which began in 1855. European Americans were determined to move the tribes out to reservations in Oklahoma, and up until 1858, they managed to move many Native Americans, starved and weary, to that state. But bands of Seminole refused to go, refused to sign a treaty. And who would blame them, since treaties had been broken time and again! Those who remained were truly the undefeated.”
