Chapter 19
NINETEEN
Choppy water roiled the boat along with Ferd’s stomach. She held tightly to the rail. “Seems like we needed a bigger boat.”
Duke held the tiller at the back to steer the outboard where to go. Compared to Bailey’s, this boat was a speck on the water.
“It’s the only watercraft available to the Piper’s Ridge PD.
Hopefully, we won’t have to be at these coordinates for long.
” He dug inside a duffel bag and handed her a pair of binoculars.
“Start looking along the water for anything that doesn’t look right.
There are no markers or buoys placed out here. No one swims on Red Lake.”
Why? How deep was it?
She resisted releasing the side of the boat for as long as possible.
The speed alone made her feel like she’d be tossed to the waves and plummet to her death.
The front of the boat popping up a few inches randomly didn’t help either.
Bracing her feet against the wooden bench seat, she lined the binoculars to her eyes and adjusted the dial.
Gray, frothy water for what seemed like miles. It’s not. You just hate this. He didn’t mean to do it. She gripped the side of the boat again. “I don’t see anything yet.”
“I didn’t think you’d hate the water this much. You jumped right in when it came to looking on Bailey’s boat.”
She didn’t look back at Duke to see his face, though knowing what his expression was would help her answer his question. “That boat was stuck in the mud on the shore. It wasn’t going anywhere.”
“Ah.” He slowed the boat slightly, evening out the ride a little. “Better?”
Her stomach clenched harder. She had to get better at holding in her emotions if she ever wanted to be a good cop. People who could read her could use her. “Thanks.”
She looked through the binoculars again, then squinted. She handed them to Duke. When he reached for them, he released whatever was making the boat skim across the water, and it lurched to a stop, bobbing on the waves and giving her an instant head rush.
“What did you see?” He held them to his face.
“A short, white box. It kind of looked like one of those foam coolers you can get at the gas station?”
“There it is. I see what you mean.” He looked down at his watch. “That matches up with the coordinates we’re looking for.” He set them down, and the boat lurched back into motion, almost knocking her off her seat. “Hold on.”
She gritted her teeth and watched the little box get bigger until it was alongside the boat. It wasn’t foam, but plastic. Duke put on a pair of latex gloves and turned the box until the side with the latch faced them. A lock barred them from looking inside.
“Wonder what it is?” She leaned over the side and examined what she could see of it. “I can’t see the bottom of the container. This thing must go way deeper than anyone would guess by just seeing it floating. From the surface, it looks like trash.”
“And while there are a lot of people around here who would absolutely pick up what they think is trash in the middle of the lake, they would give it one try, then abandon it.” He tugged on the handle near the lid until the boat swayed.
Ferd screamed and hit her knees on the floor. This boat couldn’t go down.
“Sorry. I was just trying to see what was making it so buoyant. Does it have something attached to its sides? I can’t tell.”
Her fingers refused to release the rail. She took a deep breath, then focused. “I’ll lean this way, on the opposite side, to give you more leverage. It should steady the boat from rocking a little.” And hopefully keep her sanity.
He gave her a nod of agreement, and she leaned with her back above the water over the other side of the boat. It still rocked, but not nearly as bad while he fought with the heavy box.
“Nope. Not happening. But I saw it had some type of extra sealed flotation tubes along the side, about a foot below the surface, like pool noodles or air pockets. Whatever this is, it was meant to hold a lot of something heavy.”
He’d barely said the words before her own thought came out. “Like the drugs in the hull of a boat?”
Duke straightened and offered a hand to help her from her awkward position. She took it and sent a thank you to the Lord for keeping her out of the water.
“I think that’s a safe assumption. He had these coordinates in his nav system. The point saved is that box, that we can’t access without a pair of bolt cutters.”
“Weird that we found no keys on him and no keys in the boat.” The dull gray lock hung in place, taunting them.
Duke rummaged through a box near the outboard.
“Ah-ha!” He produced a pair of bolt cutters.
“I would’ve been disappointed in my fellow officers if they didn’t have one of these stored in here.
” He maneuvered far too comfortably back to the center of the boat where he’d lined up with the box and with one quick pinch of the long handles, the lock popped.
“Do we need a warrant to look in here? Is it his? I don’t want to destroy evidence we might need for the case.”
Duke gave a nod. “It’s in the middle of a public lake with nothing on it to denote who it belongs to. We’re good.” He slipped the lock off the latch and set it beside her on the bench. “Bag that before we go?”
She appreciated that he’d said it in the form of a question, not an order. While he outranked her by a wide margin, he’d never treated her like a rookie. “Yeah, I got it.”
He opened the lid and leaned forward. “It’s deep.
Even from here I can see residue on the bottom.
Let’s just say if we had a drug-sniffing dog on this boat, it would likely be alerting right now.
We need a team out here. Then we’ll need to find a way to watch this area when someone comes to look for the drugs that won’t be here. ”
She laughed without humor. “Can I volunteer to not be the one?”