The Mystery on the Riverwalk Dock
K.D.Gray
The Mystery on the Riverwalk Dock
Copyright 2010 by Kim Gray
Smashwords Edition
ISBN: 978-1-4524-9598-9
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Cover Photography by the talented Nicole Mancini.
All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction, and as such all characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise - without the express prior permission of the author. To request permission: write to Riverwalkmystery@gmail.com.
DEDICATION
To Samantha: for all of the ways she inspired these stories.
CHAPTER 1
Nick Callaway
Saturday, October 16th
“Pull harder!” Jeffrey yelled.
“I’m pulling as hard as I can!” I grunted. The tip of my dad’s fishing pole bent nearly in half.
Jeffrey watched the struggle a little longer. Then he dismissed the whole thing. “Aw, it ain’t nothin’. It’s prolly just a snag!”
“It ain’t no snag!” I yelled. “It’s a fish. You’ll see!”
I tugged even harder, hoping my line wouldn’t break. It didn’t, but it was still hung up on something deep in the water.
“See, I told ya. It’s a snag. It’s prolly just some trash somebody threw off the bridge,” Jeffrey snickered.
“It ain’t trash! It’s a catfish! A GIANT catfish!” I huffed.
“You wish it was!” Jeffrey teased.
My fishing line danced a tight circle in the water near the drawbridge. I leaned back and pulled one last time, and that’s when it happened; the line went slack and swayed closer to the dock.
There was something on it. I could tell. Jeffrey watched the line come even closer.
I’m not exactly sure when Jeffrey became my best friend, but after that day on the Riverwalk dock, nothing will ever come between us. We even took a special oath and mixed our blood on it.
“See, I told you it wasn’t a snag!” I said, reeling faster.
The line dragged strangely through the water, swaying in an odd sort of way. I turned the handle a few more times, and then something popped to the surface.
“What’s that?” Jeffrey asked, leaning over the water.
I turned the handle faster. “It looks like a hairy squid.”
“But we don’t have any squid around here!” Jeffrey said, watching the long blond strands splay out on the surface.
And then it hit me, all at once. It must’ve hit Jeffrey too because he dropped his fishing pole and started screaming! Real loud! And sorta like a little girl. “It’s hair! Human hair! It’s a girl!”
Except, it wasn’t. Jeffrey hopped around on the dock screaming while I reeled the blond strands closer. I tried to see the hook, but the long hair drifted across the water and wrapped around the fishing line.
I reeled even faster. And then, I lifted the tangled glob and flopped it onto the dock. That’s when I saw it; it was hair alright but without a body attached. There wasn’t even a head, well, not a whole head, that is, just part of a scalp.
That’s when I started screaming too!
People came running from every which way. Old Man Henry arrived first. Nobody really knows a whole lot about Old Man Henry, but Mom said she’d heard he has something called flashbacks. She said he got ‘em in the war. She didn’t say which war it was or explain what flashbacks were. She just said it was probably best to stay away from him. All I can say is, considering the way he looks; it must’ve been some kinda war!
“Now, would you look at that?” the old man said, stumbling closer.
I didn’t know what to say.
Old Man Henry rubbed his unshaven chin and didn’t seem to notice my stare. “This ain’t the first time I’ve come up on body parts floating around in the water, ya know!”
He leaned over to get a better look. I stepped back, remembering what Mom had said. It was a mistake. Old Man Henry moved into position, stepping proudly over my catch, and waited for the others to arrive.
That made me mad. Real mad! I picked up my fishing pole and stepped a little closer. “Excuse me, Mister. YOU didn’t come up on THESE body parts.”
The old man looked confused.
I nodded my head. “That’s right! I did! I’m the one who hauled ‘em in! This is my fishing pole, and I’m the one who caught it!” I said pointing at the hook still stuck in the middle of the tangled hair.
Jeffrey stopped screaming. “Yeah, Mister, we’re the ones who found her!”
Old Man Henry chuckled a little. “Why, of course, you did, fellas. Why, I remember a time when we marched through the swamps, and dead bodies popped up all around us.”
Jeffrey and I looked at each other.
“Of course, none of those bodies had blond hair, just black hair, lots of jet-black hair, ya know.”
Old Man Henry looked over the river suspiciously. I tried to pull his attention back to the hair. “Mister, this ain’t a body. It’s just hair. Mostly,” I said, poking the hair with the end of the fishing pole. “The rest of her is still in the river. And we’re the ones who found THIS part!”
I said that just to make sure he wouldn’t forget it. He did anyway. “Whole river’s probably full of bodies. I’ve seen it before. Too many times. There’s probably even mines down there. Bombs, ya know.”
No, I didn’t know. But I didn’t ask either.
“Shouldn’t somebody call the police?” Jeffrey asked, nervously glancing between the hair and Old Man Henry.
Somebody already had. Sirens erupted and were coming closer. The old man fidgeted.
I fidgeted too. “Great, now my mom’s gonna hear that!” I said, knowing a siren screaming past my house would mean she’d come flying out the front door, down the street, and onto the docks to haul me home, insisting that I’d been the one to cause whatever went wrong. It’d happened before.
“Somebody must’ve called them already,” Jeffrey mumbled, standing on his tiptoes, watching for police cars.
And then, I remembered his screams. “The way you were screaming, we’re lucky someone didn’t call the National Guard!”
Jeffrey stuck his chin out. “I’m not the ONLY one who screamed, ya know. You did too!”
I stuck my chin out too. “Well, yeah! But I didn’t scream as loud as you did! And I didn’t scream like no little girl neither!”
That did it. Jeffrey got quiet. But only for a minute. “Well, they needed to be called anyway! After all, somebody had to report it. I just saved us some time, that‘s all!” he said, looking satisfied with himself.
The sirens came closer, and Jeffrey assumed his best take-charge stance.
I hate it when he does that. He knows it too. I’ve told him a bazillion times, but it’s never stopped him. It didn’t this time either.
I gripped my pole tightly to make sure everyone knew whose line was attached to the hair.
“What’s going on over there?” a man shouted from the corner.
Old Man Henry stood up straight and hollered back, “It’s human remains. Police are on their way!”
Then, it happened. The man rushed over, followed by several neighbors, their kids, and even a dog.
Before we knew it, two police cars, a fire truck, and about half the town had arrived. People pushed, shoved, and squeezed together trying to get a look at the chunk of head and long blond hair lying on the Riverwalk dock.
CHAPTER 2
Saturday, Midday, October 16th
Yeah, everyone wanted to see it – the long blond hair still attached to a small hunk of skull drying on the Riverwalk dock.
To tell the truth, it was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!
Somebody hollered, “Don’t touch it!”
And we didn’t, but the whole thing sorta made Jeffrey and me feel like we were part of the biggest news story to ever hit the town. We even tried to stay as close to the hair as we could while everyone swarmed around. But, it didn’t turn out that way. As more and more people arrived, Jeffrey and I got shoved to the edge of the dock and eventually onto the street.
That’s when Detective Wayne Simmons pulled up in his sleek grey detective car. He parked in the middle of the road and got out, leaving the light bar flashing, making it look like a real crime scene.
He adjusted his official police sunglasses and marched right past Jeffery and me, making his way through the crowd. Old Man Henry was standing over the hair, talking like he was the one who’d found it. To be honest, the whole thing sorta ticked me off because people were listening to the details he gave and even followed his finger when he pointed at the gates near the drawbridge.
“You see, the rest of the body’s right over there,” Old Man Henry said, jabbing his finger towards the water.
Detective Simmons nodded and placed a hand on his gun. He turned around and watched the growing crowd, and that’s when I noticed the nightstick and handcuffs swinging from his thick black belt.
I wondered if Detective Simmons planned to use them, but I couldn’t tell because his hat shaded most of his face. Still, his tight jaw told me he meant business. He flipped open a small notepad and wrote down every word Old Man Henry said.
Jeffrey and I moved closer to Detective Simmons’ car and listened to the police radio. The woman asked, “Got an ID yet?” That was the same question everybody else was asking, and the one everyone wanted Detective Simmons to answer. But Detective Simons wasn’t giving out any answers, and he made sure everyone knew it too.
The newspaper people came, followed by weird old Mrs. Hatch. She’s what Mom calls “a piece of work.” Folks say she’s crazy and lives alone in a spooky old house with half a dozen wild cats. As far as I know, no one’s actually seen the cats, but from the looks of that wiry grey mess she calls hair, I’d say it wasn’t hard to guess where a few of them slept.
Last summer, Jeffrey and I tried to sneak a peek into the old lady’s windows. Unfortunately, we got caught. Old lady Hatch demanded we apologize for scaring what she called “the blue blazes” out of her. We didn’t know what she was talking about, but Mom told her “sufficient disciplinarian” actions would follow. And they did too. Jeffrey and I spent two weeks on restriction in the middle of summer! It’s a sentence we call “hard time.”
But there she was in her purple crocheted sweater and forty-seven wrist bangles, chatting it up with Old Man Henry. Now, that’s a troubling sight! It’s hard to know which one of those two is the craziest! One thing’s for sure, between his war stories and her voodoo warnings, facts were gonna get changed.
And they did.
Old Man Henry started it. “I’ve seen bodies rotting in the waters off Cambodia. In another week or so, the crabs’ll take care of what’s left of her, and there won’t be nothin’ left to talk about.”
Mrs. Hatch followed. “It’s a sign. An evil sign. An omen, even. The river spirits are awake! They’ve come after another maiden, and mark my words, they won’t stop haulin’ folks under the water until they’ve taken all they want.”
“What’s she talking about?” Jeffrey whispered.
Like I know? I was busy listening to the woman on Detective Simmons’ police radio.
Mom broke through the nervous crowd.
“’Scuse me, Mister. Are you finished with Nick? He needs to get right home!” she said, butting in front of two old ladies trying to get Detective Simmons’s attention.
Detective Simmons answered his radio, and the female voice announced a dive team had been dispatched.
“What’s that ETA?” Detective Simmons asked, holding his radio close to his mouth while ignoring Mom.
“Mom, please! Lemme stay. I wanna see the dive team. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life!” I pleaded.
Mom shook her head. “Nope! You’re going home. You’ll just get in the way.”
“Get in the way? How am I gonna get in the way? What about the other forty-seven people standing around on the dock? How come they’re not in the way? Why’s it always just me?”
Mom didn’t answer. She just assumed it was her job to get me out of the way so official police business could proceed without me asking a ton of questions.
Sometimes, I think mothers do stuff like this just to mess up their sons’ lives.
I tried one more time. “Please! Can’t I stay just until the boats get here? Please?”
Mothers are an unmovable force. “Nope. You’ve seen enough. You need to let these people do their work.”
How did they do it? How did mothers go home and dust the coffee table, knowing boats were being sent to search for a body in the river? A real body. The body of a blond girl. The body of a girl I’d found! This was worse than restriction! Much worse!
But Mom didn’t care. She dragged me home anyway. She even tried to make me go inside the house, but I refused.
“Can’t I just stay out here?” I begged, glancing back at the crowd gathered on the dock.
“Nope. You need to come inside and mind your own business!”
“Mind my own business? Mom, this is my business! I found her. Don’t you think I should know where she came from?”
Mom paused, holding the screen door open. “Nick, it’s police business now. But I guess you can stay on the porch. On the porch, I said! But I warn you, if you so much as think about taking one step off this porch, boy, you won’t hear the end of this any time soon! Do you hear me?”
Yeah, I heard her. And I knew better than to push her. But she didn’t say I couldn’t stand on the railing to get a better view. So, that’s what I did.
I spent the rest of afternoon teetering on the handrail on the front porch.
It wasn’t long before I saw Jeffrey getting dragged home by his mother. She had a firm grip on his arm and was hauling him down the street. Seeing as how Jeffrey’s my best friend, I had to do something. After all, he would’ve done the same for me.
“Jeffrey, come over later?” I screamed.
He looked helplessly to his mom, but she ignored him and continued her march. He glanced back and even tried to shrug.
So, I gave it another shot. “Oh, c’mon. We won’t get in any trouble. We’ll just stay on the porch and enjoy the nice fresh afternoon air. What do you say?”
Suddenly, Jeffrey’s mom stopped. She turned and marched poor Jeffrey right up to my house. Ignoring me, she stomped right past my lookout post and banged on the screen door, never losing hold of Jeffrey’s arm.
“She’s home. You can go on in if you want,” I offered, trying to sound helpful.
Jeffrey looked uncomfortable with his shoulder tilted skyward, but his mom didn’t seem to notice.
And then, as if by magic, my mother’s voice became as sweet as honey. She opened the screen door and gave Jeffrey’s mom a big smile. “Hey, Trish. Some morning, huh? Town’s a mess. Things like this bring the weirdos out of hiding,” Mom said. She was acting like this kind of thing happened every day.
Which it didn’t. I had to set her straight. “When has anything like this happened before?”
Mom ignored me. She does that when she doesn’t want to hear what I have to say.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for the boys to be down there in the middle of that mess. Lord knows, I’ve had enough problems with Nick’s father already, and I don’t need this, too! I just know he’d twist things around, and somehow it’d end up my fault!” Mom explained.
Jeffrey’s mom nodded sympathetically. “You know it, girl. But I don’t think I can stand Jeffrey sitting around the house driving me crazy either. Do you mind if I leave him here with Nick for a few hours?”
Mom glanced at me quickly. “Nick’s not leaving the porch. It’s fine if Jeffrey wants to stay as long as you don’t mind if I snatch them both baldheaded if they so much as think about getting off the porch!”
I can’t believe my mother said that.
“Help yourself,” Jeffrey’s mom said laughing. “Maybe I could bring a casserole over later, and we can figure out how to make them wigs when they’re both as bald as cucumbers.”
I can’t believe Jeffrey’s mom said that. And worse, I can’t believe she thought it was funny.
Somehow, during our mothers’ laughter and further discussions about the consequences of our porch escape, Jeffrey secured his freedom and walked over to the railing, trying to reshape his shirt.
“So, what’s happening?” he asked.
“Get up here. You’ll see. The boats just got here a few minutes ago. That guy over there, see him? I think he’s in charge,” I said, pointing at a man dressed in a black scuba outfit.
“Where’d the fire truck go?”
“Oh, it left a while back,” I assured him, solid on the facts.
“Why?”
I rolled my eyes. “Because there wasn’t a fire, you dimwit!”
Jeffrey climbed on top of the railing.
Silently, we watched the boats leave the shore to begin their search for the blond-headed girl floating somewhere beneath the surface.
CHAPTER 3
Late Afternoon, Saturday, October 16th
Mom brought peanut butter sandwiches and root beer out around mid-afternoon; that meant Jeffrey and I had to surrender our posts long enough to eat. At least, that’s what Mom said. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she wouldn’t let us eat until we’d gone inside to wash our hands.
What’s up with that? Why can’t mothers understand watching the police recover a dead body is probably the coolest thing a guy’s likely to ever see? Besides, who cares about a few little germs, especially when something this cool was happening right outside?
But Mom didn’t wanna hear it. And there was no use in talking to her either. So, Jeffrey and I marched inside, washed our hands, and ran back outside as quick as we could.
It’s a good thing too, because the dive teams were bobbing in the water, while a larger boat sat anchored nearby. Detective Simmons divided his time between talking on his police radio and pacing back and forth along the docks.
It was late afternoon when an official looking white box van pulled up with “SBI Mobile Crime Lab Unit” painted on its side. It parked right beside Detective Simmons’ car, and two uniformed men got out. Wow, I thought, official state uniforms. Now, that’s what a guy needs. I decided right then that, whatever I grew up to be, there’d be a uniform involved.
Jeffrey and I climbed back onto the railings and leaned out to get a better view. The uniformed SBI investigators crouched low on the dock, and one of them opened a black bag to remove what looked like surgical instruments.
“No way!” Jeffrey gasped.
“You think they found something else?” I asked, standing on my tiptoes.
Shielding his eyes, Jeffrey leaned out as far as he could. “I don’t see anything else. I think they’re gonna do a DNA analysis right there on the dock!”
I looked harder. “I’ll bet they did find something when Mom made us go wash up!”
It was hard to tell because both men had their backs to us. It was driving me nuts! All we could see were the large SBI letters painted on the backs of their jackets. Still, having the State Bureau of Investigation checking out what I’d fished out of the river was more than just a little cool.
“I dunno,” Jeffrey said like he was suddenly an expert on dead body investigations. “We were only gone a minute, and they would’ve had to get equipment and stuff to get the body out of the water.”
His attitude was getting on my nerves, especially since I knew he’d never seen a dead body before. “Maybe not! The scuba divers could’ve hauled the body to the surface and just plopped it in the boat. How long does that take?” I asked, watching the crime lab men stand up and take pictures of the hair and just about everything else on the dock.
“They don’t do stuff like that!” Jeffrey said, sounding like a Mr. Know-it-all.
“How do you know?” I asked, allowing a little edge to sneak into my voice. I hoped Jeffrey’d take the hint.
He didn’t. “Because I know!” he huffed.
His attitude had gone too far. Besides, I was the one who fished the human remains out of the river, and Jeffrey needed to remember that!
I started to say something, but then, the SBI crime lab’s guys went back to the truck and brought out a large clear plastic bag and rolls of bright yellow crime scene tape.
“Look! They’re taping the dock off, just like they do on TV! And look, they’re even collecting evidence!” I said, pointing.
“What’re they collecting, besides the hair?” Jeffrey asked, stretching higher on his toes.
“How do I know? I can’t see nothing but their backs and Detective Simmons’ car!” I said. I’d had enough and jumped off the railing and headed for the door.
“Where’re you going?” Jeffrey asked, teetering on the banister.
I tilted my head towards the screen door. “C’mon!”
Changing locations was a dangerous maneuver, especially considering the threat of baldness, but something had to be done. How else were we gonna find out what the Crime Lab guys were collecting?
The only real obstacle was the screen door. It had a certain little squeak that set off an alarm in Mom’s head, especially if it squeaked when she didn’t think it should. Most people can’t hear it, but Mom can every time. And I knew it too.
Cautiously, I leaned against the door listening. It was usually pretty easy to hear just about everything that went on inside my house, and today was no different.
The sound came. It was a glorious sound, sorta like the song of angels. Well, not really, but close enough, because it was a sound that guaranteed I could do just about anything I wanted.
Mom was on the phone. Better still, she was talking about my dad.
“No, he didn’t pay it early! Are you out of your mind? Getting child support out of him is like brushing a cat’s teeth. It can be done, but it isn’t pretty. Usually, it’s both painful and bloody, and somebody always gets clawed up!” Mom said.
Then, she laughed. My child support, or lack thereof, was an obsession with Mom. It took her to what she called the height of joy and the abyss of hell. She said so often, especially on the phone to her girlfriends. It could go on for hours. No little screen door slamming could stop it.
I opened the door and slipped inside. Quietly, Jeffrey followed me up the stairs.
My bedroom overlooks one of the few streets that runs inland from the docks. This means I can see almost everything and everyone who comes or goes along the riverfront from my window. But to get a full view, I climb out the window and onto a peak just above the kitchen. Climbing the roof is a skill Jeffrey and I’d perfected long ago.
Mom used to worry about it when we were younger. She’d stick her head out the window and scream, “Ya’ll get down off there! You’ll fall and break your neck!”
We never did.
Finally, Mom stopped screaming.
Maybe she figured it was safe. Or, maybe she got tired of screaming the same thing um-teen bazillion times. But whatever the reason, the roof lost its hazardous status and was now considered part of my bedroom. Unofficially, that is.
Jeffrey and I talked about all the really important stuff there. But, today, the roof was the only place we’d get the full story. We slid into position. Good thing too, because no sooner than we sat down, the Crime Lab men stuffed the hair and hunk of head into the plastic bag and zipped it closed. One of the men waved Old Man Henry away, but he didn’t go anywhere. He held his ground and continued to yammer even while the Crime Lab men were packing to leave. Unbelievably, he was still talking after they drove away.
“I’ll tell you what, if those Crime Lab guys wanna investigate a mystery, they need to load Old Man Henry in the back of that van and take him with them. Mom says he’s got a troubled soul. I don’t know what she means by that, but I’m pretty sure his DNA’s a mess!” I said, watching the truck turn a corner and disappear.
Jeffrey agreed. “And you know what? It wouldn’t hurt to take that crazy old Mrs. Hatch with ‘em. But I don’t know if anyone down in those labs is gonna live long enough to unwind that mystery!” Jeffrey said, shaking his head.
I thought about what the Crime Lab guys were leaving behind.
“How long you think the docks are off limits?” I asked.
Jeffrey studied the crime scene tape draped over the pilings. “Ain’t no tellin’, but you know your mom ain’t gonna let you go back over there for a good while or not until they take the tape down.”
Moms are good about stuff like that. As soon as they find out where the cool stuff is, it’s off limits, or at least until they forget about it.
Jeffrey and I considered our fate for a few moments.
I broke the silence. “Hey, you wanna spend the night? We could sleep out here on the roof!”
“You think your mom’s gonna let you do that?” Jeffrey asked.
“It ain’t like we’re going off the porch, is it?”
Jeffrey and I watched the sun drop low in the sky, casting strange shadows over the river. The green and red lights on top of the gates under the drawbridge threw colored streaks onto the black river. All of it seemed creepy, especially knowing the girl was still down there.
Yeah, it was weird to think about. She was down there, all alone, in the cold black water and missing part of her head.
CHAPTER 4
Sunday, October 17th
“What’s this business about evil river spirits?” I asked Mom as she slid two plates onto the dinner table.
I figured she’d know. After all, don’t moms know just about everything there is to know? Mine did or at least, that’s what she always says.
I’ve never believed her, but I didn’t have anyone else to ask. And ever since Mrs. Hatch said those things about the river spirits and the dead girl being sucked into the river, I’ve been thinking about it constantly. I even dreamed about it. I imagined her blond hair floating around her face, sorta like a mermaid I‘d seen on TV. It was hard to believe something like this was really happening here.
“What’re you talking about?”
“Mrs. Hatch said they’re back, and they’ve come after another maiden. She said more people are gonna get sucked into the river. She said the river spirits will keep on taking people until they’re satisfied!” I explained, squirting a huge glob of ketchup onto my plate.
“Is that so?” Mom asked, taking a seat beside me.
“Yep!” I nodded. “What do you think she meant by that?
Mom stabbed a piece of chicken-fried steak with her fork and gave me a sideways glance. “Nick, let’s just say, that woman’s a few cards short of a full deck!”
I stirred a French fry in the ketchup. “She sorta looked like she knew something, the way she talked and all,” I mumbled.
Mom gave me a long look. “Well, I did hear a story a long time ago. It could just be one of those urban legends. It’s hard to know for sure. And it’s been a while since I’ve heard it,” Mom said, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling.
I sat and waited for the story. It didn’t come. “Mom! What did you hear?”
She stuffed another piece of steak into her mouth. “Well, I’m not sure I remember all of it.”
I dropped the French fry. “Well, what part do you remember?”
Honestly, mom can be a lot of work! It was like pulling teeth. That’s what she always says when I won’t tell her a whole story.
Mom shook her head and then stared at the ceiling like the full story was written there.
“Um, well, let’s see now. I think I heard something about a girl who went missing around nineteen hundred and something. Yeah, I believe someone said she was beautiful and from some well-off family from somewhere. I can’t really remember exactly, but I think they said someone found her right off the Riverwalk docks, floating in the water. They never found out what happened because the only suspects met with, let’s just say, unfortunate endings.”
I sat up straight in my chair. “What kind of unfortunate endings?”
Mom shook her head. “I’m not really sure. I didn’t pay close attention because we were moving in, and I was trying to get you registered for school.”
“Mom, think! Think hard! This is important!”
Mom put her fork down and took a deep breath. “I think they said the girl’s mother went insane. And I believe the girl’s boyfriend might’ve gotten killed in some way or another. I think I heard the only person who could’ve known anything killed himself.”
“Killed himself? Are you kidding?” I gasped.
“I’m really not sure. It could’ve been just some story somebody made up for Halloween, for all I know,” Mom said, reaching for the pepper.
“But it happened in the same place, right?”
“I think so,” she nodded.
“Do you remember who told you?”
Mom shook her head. “I don’t. We were new in town, and it could’ve been anyone. Now look, it’s probably just a silly story that went around, and Mrs. Hatch has told it over and over. You know how it is; if you tell a story enough times, you start to believe it yourself. It doesn’t mean it’s true.”
Mom got up and poured water into the coffee maker.
“That doesn’t mean it’s NOT true either. For all we know, people could’ve been finding dead girls off the Riverwalk docks for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years!”
“Nick, finish your dinner,” Mom said, scooping coffee into the basket.
“But what if the river spirits want me next?” I asked, hoping she would see the urgency of my situation.
“I’ll tell you what, they’d get one whiff of those sneakers and change their minds. Now, you’ve got school tomorrow, so let’s get going on your homework.”
Isn’t that the way it is with moms? A guy’s life could be in danger, and all they wanna talk about is what his sneakers smell like and make sure his homework’s done before he gets hauled to the bottom of the river.
CHAPTER 5
Monday, October 18th
I told Jeffrey the story Mom, more or less, told me. I added a few details of my own because I knew she’d left out some good ones. I figured it pretty much evened things up. Besides, my story was better.
“Same place? Right off the Riverwalk dock?” Jeffrey asked.
“Yep. Same place. About every hundred years or so,” I nodded as the school bus bounced over the drawbridge.
“Holy smokes! Look!” Jeffrey said, pointing out the window.
There they were! Boats were searching the river! There were three of them in all, and they were crisscrossing the river, dragging large fishing rigs behind them. At first, I wasn’t sure what they were doing, but then, one of them pulled up their line, and the biggest fishing hook I’d ever seen popped out of the water.
“They’re dragging the river! They’re looking for her!” Jeffrey said, standing up.
He smashed his face against the window to get a better look.
“Sit back down!” the bus driver hollered, giving Jeffrey the evil eye in the rear view mirror.
Hesitantly, Jeffrey lowered himself back into his seat, but he never took his eyes off the river. The bus turned left onto my street and screeched to a stop.
“C’mon!” Jeffrey said, punching me in the arm as the accordion doors shuddered open.
The bus driver shot us a dirty look as we stumbled out, but I didn’t care. What could he do? It’s not like he’s a teacher or something.
Jeffrey and I knew we’d get in trouble for not going straight home, but it was worth it to watch the boats drag the river. After all, they might fish the rest of the girl’s body out of the river any minute, and we wanted to be there to see it.
We darted across the street and headed straight for the small pathway that ran beside the drawbridge. Stopping at the Bridge Tender’s office, Jeffrey hollered, “Hey, Mr. Macky! What’s going on?”
The old man waved, even though he didn’t know us that well. We took it as a welcome sign and stepped into the office.
“So, have they caught anything on those big fishing hooks yet?” Jeffrey asked.
Mr. Macky chuckled. “Those ain’t fishing hooks.”
Jeffrey moved closer to the big glass windows. I followed, careful not to touch anything.
“They’re gaffs,” Mr. Macky explained. “Those boats are outfitted for hauling stuff up from the bottom of the river. You boys sure you wanna see this?” he asked, raising a bushy eyebrow.
“Are you kidding me? Of course, we wanna see this!” Jeffrey said, glued to the window.
So did I. I’d never seen anything like this before and couldn’t wait to see more. The boats moved up and down the river all afternoon and occasionally stopped to pull up something tangled in their lines. Once, it was an old fashioned TV antenna. Another time, it was an old tire. But every time they stopped, I held my breath.
“There just ain’t no tellin’ what all’s down there,” Mr. Macky said, shaking his head. “Humans are a filthy bunch. Got no respect for the river!”
“How long are they gonna drag the river?” I asked.
Mr. Macky glanced out the window and then reached for a toothpick. “Till the sun goes down or until they find what they’re looking for, I reckon.”
“Can we stay and watch till they find her?” Jeffrey pleaded.
“Long as you don’t touch anything. And as long as it’s okay with your folks,” Mr. Macky said, jabbing the toothpick into his mouth.
Jeffrey and I looked at each other, doubtful. Then, we lied. Well, actually, I lied, and Jeffrey backed me up. That’s what best friends do.
“Our moms said it’s okay,” I said, careful to avoid his eyes.
“They did? Are you sure?” Mr. Macky asked, pulling the toothpick out and raising an eyebrow.
Jeffrey nodded dramatically. “Yep! We asked ‘em!”
“Well, alright then. But my shift’s over at 7:00, and they should be pretty much done by then. So, I guess you boys can stay till then,” he said, returning to his bridge tender work.
We stayed most of Mr. Macky’s shift, watching the boats come and go, hauling in whatever they’d snagged along the way. I thought about how much trouble Jeffrey and I’d get in for staying so long, but that’d come later. Right now, the most important thing was to sit in the Bridge Tender’s office and wait for the boats to pull her in.
But, turns out, it didn’t happen that way. The clock above Mr. Macky’s head said 5:30, and the boats started heading in.
“Well, it looks like that’s it for the day,” Mr. Macky said, adjusting his ball cap.
“But they didn’t find anything!” I protested.
“That’s the way it is most times. Bodies don’t just float around in the middle of the river, you know. Not usually. Most times, the current takes them downstream, unless they get hung up on something.”
Mr. Macky reached for a new toothpick.
“How many times have you seen this before?” Jeffrey asked, watching the men pull the boats ashore.
“Oh, many times. Way too many times. Only occasionally do they get lucky and find something. More times than not, they don’t,” Mr. Macky added thoughtfully.
“You think they’ll try again tomorrow?” I asked, hoping Mr. Macky would let us come back.
“Maybe. All depends.”
Mr. Macky chewed on his new toothpick.
“Depends on what?” I asked.
“Depends on what they think. Police business. There just ain’t no tellin’ what they’ll do,” he said, taking the toothpick out of his mouth to examine it.
When he was satisfied with the frayed end, he thought a moment and then added, “You boys probably need to be heading home since there ain’t nothing else to see tonight.”
I didn’t wanna go. Not really. Neither did Jeffrey, but Mr. Macky acted like he’d had enough of us for one day and wanted to get back to whatever he did in his bridge tender office. Jeffrey and I thanked him the best we could before heading down the narrow path beside the drawbridge.
It was dark, but I could still see the river flowing under the bridge as we made our way home. The water’s movement made me wonder where the girl’s body was now or even how she got in the river in the first place. Glancing upstream, I saw a few docks jutting out from the big houses along the shoreline and thought any one of them might’ve been the place she’d fallen in.
I looked at the other side of the river and knew she couldn’t have fallen there. There wasn’t anything over there but a great big marsh where even boats couldn’t go. Then again, she might’ve floated downstream from a whole ‘nother town. It was hard to know for sure.
The only thing that’s for sure is last Saturday morning the girl was somewhere near the gates by the drawbridge, the ones with the red and green lights. Were they a sign? The lights, I mean. Were they the omen crazy Old Mrs. Hatch talked about? I watched the colored lights dance across the water as we stepped off the bridge.
But why hadn’t they found her?
Jeffrey and I walked along quietly in the dark.
About halfway home, he said it first. “We’re gonna get it!”
I knew what he meant. “Yeah, probably. We could say we had to stay after school,” I offered, going through possible excuses.
“For what? You think they’re gonna believe that?” Jeffrey asked, pulling my best story apart.
I tried again.
“Umm. We could say we volunteered for the Green Team and picked up trash around the school!”
Jeffrey shook his head. “Mom’s never gonna believe that. I don’t even pick up stuff in my room.”
He was right. I knew I could do better. “Okay, we could say I got sick. Yeah, that’s it. We could say I got sick, and you had to help me home. If we run real hard, I could get hot and sweaty and sorta look like I have a fever. Yeah! And then, maybe we could stay home tomorrow and watch ‘em drag the river again. I’ll bet they find her tomorrow!”
“You think that’ll work?” Jeffrey asked, squinting his eyes.
“Hey, it’s worth a shot. It’s better than just walking in with some lame excuse and listening to a lecture.”
Jeffrey nodded. “You’re right about that!”
So, that’s what we did. Since we were already late, we headed for the park and did several laps. My face was hot and damp, and I even pinched my cheeks a few times before heading home. I checked to make sure my hair stuck to my forehead before opening the door. I moaned loudly and gripped my stomach when I stumbled in.