Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Two hours they’d been at it and still nothing. No sign of Jonathan.
Every time Cap looked at Emma, his heart cracked a little more. She stood rigid beside the others, their eyes glued to the water as Chief Mertz instructed. Chief remained on his boat, overseeing the search.
The tri-county dive team worked methodically. The coast guard boat, police boat, and his charter boat ran overlapping grid patterns. It was the best response they could hope for, especially during a busy summer day in Door County when resources were often stretched thin.
Another hour passed.
Still nothing.
It bothered him more than he liked that they hadn’t recovered Jonathan yet.
He knew exactly where the man had gone under.
But the current here was strong and growing worse as the wind picked up.
It wouldn’t be long before the pop-up storm, suddenly showing on the radar, would force them off the water.
“Cap, how does the radar look?” Chief Mertz yelled from the deck of the police boat.
“We should probably call it.”
“No!” Emma yelled.
Her gaze locked on him, not the chief. Pleading. Raw.
“A storm is rolling in. It’s going to be nasty. We can’t stay out here. It’s not safe.”
“Cap’s right,” the chief added.
Emma swiped a tear from her cheek and folded her arms tightly across her chest.
Cap wanted nothing more than to go to her and wrap her in his arms and tell her everything would be okay, though that was a promise he couldn’t guarantee. But the darkening sky kept him on the upper deck so he could drive them to safety. Quickly.
“Cap, we’re going to pull up. I’m going to ride in on your boat,” the chief said.
Cap supposed the man didn’t want to leave his boat without police protection just in case the Colombians found them again.
Chief Mertz climbed aboard despite the treacherous wave action rocking both boats.
Over the radio, Cap heard the Coast Guard call it and quickly maneuvered their boat to head back to the station. Cap followed the police boat and the dive boat in tow.
He looked over his shoulder toward his passengers. “Take a seat. We’re going to move fast, and it’s going to be a rough ride.”
Hailey and Morgan went into the cabin. Emma hesitated, then met his eyes with a look that sliced straight through him, angry they’d called off the search.
The chief stepped toward her and motioned for her to go into the cabin. She followed his instruction, but not before she shot him one more displeased look.
Once Emma disappeared into the cabin, Chief Mertz climbed the ladder and stood next to him as he throttled up.
“I know you know how this is going to end,” the chief said to him.
“Yeah.”
“How well do you know these passengers?”
“I don’t. I was supposed to take a bachelor party today and ended up with the jilted bride and her bridesmaids.”
“How did Jonathan get here then?”
“He hired a boat to find us. Jumped off that one and left me no choice but to pick him up because the other boat took off.”
Chief Mertz arched a brow.
“Yeah, I knew this was going to be a crazy day from the get-go.”
“You’re losing your touch since leaving the force.”
Cap snorted. He missed the work sometimes, but not the constant grind of being a drug investigator.
The stress of the job was what he didn’t miss, though he did like the satisfaction he got cleaning up the streets.
However, it appeared every time he took a drug dealer off the street, six more showed up.
It was exhausting. Working in the outdoors was better.
Ever since he’d guided for his Uncle Lee in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, he knew outdoor work was for him.
“You know, you’re welcome back anytime. I’m guessing if these ladies had been on any other boat today, with any other charter captain, we’d be looking for more bodies.”
“I appreciate that, sir.”
The chief chuckled.
“What?”
“I’m not, sir, to you anymore.”
The wind and waves rocked the boat. Cap throttled back a bit. The speed of travel was too great for the wave action. Then he looked at the dark sky. The rain was about to let loose.
When they reached the Coast Guard station at the mouth of the canal, the personnel on the Coast Guard boat pulled up to their dock and signed off.
By the time he, the police boat, and the dive boat made it to the no-wake zone in the bay of Sturgeon Bay, sheets of rain pounded the windshield so heavily he could barely see. The night sky added to the darkness along with the storm clouds.
The police boat peeled off first, and he pulled up to the floating dock at the Sawyer Park boat launch. Chief Mertz jumped onto the dock and held the boat steady as he assisted the ladies onto the dock.
Investigator Pearson-Hawk loaded the ladies up in her squad. Everyone would regroup at the police station, even though the chief had done a fair amount of questioning while on the boat.
Chief Mertz joined Captain Dan Tomie in his squad, and they took off.
Cap motored away from the city dock and headed to his rented slip at the marina. To his surprise, his sister and brother waited in Cici’s vehicle and were parked next to his truck. He slid into the backseat of her truck to escape the rain.
Hunter leaned between the seats. “Tough day?”
“You could say that.”
“What the hell happened?” his brother asked.
“I can’t get into all the details now because I need to get to the police station, but of all the dumb luck, I booked a charter with a drug courier.”
“Yeah, that’s what Cici said when she called.”
Cici wouldn’t have known the situation if he hadn’t snuck a quick call to her to let her know what was happening. At the time, he wasn’t sure if he’d get out of the mess alive, and he needed to hear her voice, a family member’s voice.
“You didn’t tell anyone else, did you?” he asked his sister.
The offended look on her sickly pale face made him want to take back his words.
“No, I’m not stupid. I just called Hunter, thinking you might need us.”
“I’m sorry. It’s been a day.”
“I get it,” she replied.
“I need to get to the police station. Hopefully, it won’t take long.”
“My SUV is at your house. I’ll wait for you. We can have a beer when you get done and destress.”
“I’ll stay, too,” Cici said.
“Sounds good, but you kind of look like hell. Maybe you should go home and get some rest.”
She managed a weak giggle. “Nice, real nice.”
Cap hopped out of his sister’s truck and climbed into his. Five minutes later, he pulled into the parking lot at the police station. He dodged the raindrops as he ran to the side door of City Hall, the one leading directly into the police department. Chief Mertz met him at the door to let him in.
“Any word on Preston?” Cap asked.
He’d been worried sick about the kid.
“Captain Tomie called the hospital. He’s in rough shape. They’re treating him for a brain bleed. We’ll check on him again in the morning,” Chief replied.
Cap followed the chief to the small conference room, where Emma, Hailey, and Morgan sat with Investigator Pearson-Hawk and Captain Tomie, who were crowded around the rectangular table. He and Chief Mertz sat. This room wasn’t meant for seven people, more like four or five.
They ran through their story again for the police command staff, repeating exactly what they’d told the chief on the boat.
Across the table, he caught Emma’s yawn.
Her exhaustion didn’t surprise him. She’d had quite a long day and an emotional rollercoaster ride.
So had he, but he was more accustomed to this sort of thing.
Or, at least used to be. Making matters worse, the storm had suspended the search for Jonathan’s body and for Carly.
The storm that had rolled in quickly, was supposed to roll out just as fast, but now the forecast said it would linger until late tomorrow morning.
Within an hour, the ladies and he had repeated their consistent stories so many times, there was no point repeating them again.
“We’re finished here. We’ll resume the search for Jonathan once the storm blows over,” Chief Mertz said.
“What about Carly?” Emma asked.
“Yeah,” Morgan and Hailey repeated in unison.
The chief fixed his gaze on Emma. “I suspect Emma will be hearing from the men unless they find the drugs in the meantime, but that is highly unlikely. With this storm and wind, that bag could be anywhere by now. The Michigan shore, the Wisconsin shore, or the bottom of Lake Michigan. Who knows for sure, but most likely, contact will be made.”
Fear flashed through Emma’s dark eyes. He was aware that she knew from prior conversations contact through her was likely, but the chief’s solemn tone let them all know the reality of the assumption.
Investigator Pearson-Hawk stood. “It’s late. We can try to find a hotel room here in Sturgeon Bay for you tonight, but since it’s full-swing tourism mode here, that may be difficult. But I can make a few calls if you’d like.”
“I just want to go home,” Morgan said.
“Me too, so if you can just get us back to my car at the boat ramp, I’ll drive us home,” added Hailey.
“Chief, do you think that’s a good idea?” Cap blurted before he thought better of it, hoping he hadn’t overstepped.
Who was he to tell the chief what to do? He was just a charter captain, no longer an investigator.
But he worried about Emma. The others would probably be okay, but it wouldn’t surprise him if the Colombians came after Emma.
One, for contact with Jonathan in the event he survived.
Two, if the man didn’t survive, she was the last person who’d had hands on their bag of drugs. Either way, Emma was in danger.
“Markie, take the ladies back to their vehicle,” Chief Mertz said.
“Yes, sir.”
“All but Emma,” he added, “I think she should stay here. Close in case we need her and where we can keep a watchful eye on her.”
Emma swallowed audibly.
Cap supposed she had figured out that the chief may need her to identify Jonathan’s body. He could do it instead of putting her through that.
“She can stay in my spare room,” Cap offered, hardly believing his own ears as to what he’d just said.
Where in the hell had that offer come from? He was no longer a protective service employee, and he certainly didn’t need this kind of trouble. This kind of stress is exactly why he’d left his job and started a new career.
“Emma, is that okay with you? Or, you can stay with me and my wife, Natasha? We’ve plenty of room.”
Emma bounced her gaze between him and the chief.
“Either is fine,” she replied, holding Cap’s gaze.
“It’s settled then. My house,” Cap stated.
Markie’s eyes glinted enough that it drew his attention. His former co-worker was onto him. Why wouldn’t she be? She was a trained observer.
“Okay then, let’s wrap this up, get some rest, and reconnect in the morning. You don’t have a charter in the morning, do you?” the chief asked.
“Shit. Yes. In five hours, to be exact.”
It was too late to cancel with his clients now.
“Change of plans then. Emma, you can stay with Natasha and me.”
“No!”
The chief’s head snapped in Cap’s direction.
Markie’s eyes flashed in amusement again.
He really needed to get himself in check, but he felt an overwhelming need to watch over—protect Emma.
“Hunter’s here. I’ll see if he and Cici can take the charter out tomorrow.”
“I thought Cici was sick,” Markie stated.
Markie would know that because she and Cici were good friends.
“She is, but she and Hunter met me at the marina when I docked tonight, and she looked a little better.”
That was an embellishment, but under the circumstances, he knew his sister would come through for him.
Cap pulled his phone from his pocket and tapped the screen.
Cici answered on the first ring and, after informing them of the current situation, she and Hunter agreed to do the charter, but because of the late hour, they also bailed on waiting for him to come home and have a beer with them.
Instead, they’d go back to Cici’s place and get what little sleep they could.
With as anxious as he felt, his siblings would probably fare better than him with sleep tonight.
Along with his protective instincts, the stress of his former job was back.