Chapter Fifteen
Sierra wanted so much to sit in the prow of the little fishing boat and watch the thick deep green forests rolling past. This was her first time on a boat in years, and she wanted to enjoy the beauty around her.
But Beau insisted that she stay inside the small enclosure with him as he steered the boat.
The tinted glass would help conceal their identities.
That would make sense except that they hadn’t passed any other boats, let alone seen any people on the banks, since they’d left the cabin half an hour earlier.
“Where is everyone?” she asked. “It’s summer. I thought there would be lots of other boats. Tourists.”
“This part of the river isn’t that deep, and it’s too narrow for a tourist or even a local to let loose on a speedboat without worrying about running aground. It’ll open up soon, get much deeper and wider. That’s when you’ll see more boats.”
She stood on her tiptoes, trying to peer through the glass down at the water. “How deep is it right now?”
He looked at a cluster of instruments. “Twenty feet, give or take.”
“I’d think that was plenty deep for a speed boat.”
“In a different section of the lake, I’d agree with you. But unless you’re familiar with the hazards underneath the water, it would be foolish to do more than what we’re doing.”
“Going as slow as turtles?”
He laughed. “Not quite that slow. This past spring we had some torrential rains for several weeks. The river that comes down the mountain, feeding the lake, stirred everything up, moved hazards around. I haven’t been out here since then.
I’m being extra careful in case some of the debris under the water has shifted.
The locals are well aware of what can happen around here.
Tourists aren’t. But they’re warned at the boat ramps and the marina.
This year, part of that warning is to steer clear of this section for now until it’s fully investigated.
That takes time and money the town doesn’t always have in its budget. ”
She leaned against one of the windows again. “I know that people have died on this lake. How many have died this year so far?” When he didn’t answer, she turned around.
His jaw was clenched as he carefully steered toward the middle of this section of the lake.
“Too many,” he finally answered. “Normally, midsummer, we might have had one, maybe two disappearances or proven deaths. But in the beginning of this year a family of five from Chattanooga came to try out their new boat, even though it was wicked cold and not the usual time for being on the water. They wanted to get used to the boat before summer and figured the cold months would be good for that since there wouldn’t be many other boats around.
In spite of the warnings at the marina, and the maps that Billy gave them of the known hazards—”
“Billy?”
“Bobby, actually. Bobby Thompson. But I’ve heard the kids around here tease him so much calling him Billy Bob that I sometimes slip up myself. He’s the owner of the local marina, the guy who flies our medevac helicopter I told you about.”
“Oh, right. I met Mr. Thompson when I was trying to get the names of my brother’s friends. Why call him Billy Bob if his name is Bobby?”
“Billy Bob Thornton, the actor. Bobby looks a lot like him.”
“Ah. Okay. So he warned this family and what happened? They ignored him?”
“I don’t know if they purposely ignored him or got excited and forgot his warnings once they were out on the water without anyone else around to get in their way.
They were in one of the hazardous areas they should have avoided and going way too fast. The hull of their boat hit the top of a tree that was hidden under the water.
Peeled the boat apart like a can opener.
Threw everyone into the water.” He drew a deep breath and shook his head.
“The family had life jackets on at the marina. For whatever reason, comfort or something else, they took them off once they were out of Bobby’s sight.
None of them survived.” He tapped both of their life vests that they had on.
“You never know when an accident is going to happen. That’s why I insisted on these today. ”
She nodded, but it wasn’t the vests she was thinking about. It was the mixture of frustration and sadness in Beau’s expression that had her putting her hand on his on the wheel.
He tensed at her touch but didn’t pull away.
“You really do take every death personally, don’t you?” she said.
“Of course. My job is to—was to keep people safe, whether they live here or are tourists. Every preventable death is a failure we have to learn from, to try to prevent the next one. But when people don’t listen…” He shook his head again. “It’s…frustrating is all.”
She dropped her hand to her side. “It is beautiful here, so much wilder than I’d expected. You’d think there would be cabins all along the shores. Water views like this are usually in high demand in other places. Why am I not seeing any here?”
“Do you always ask this many questions?”
“When I’ve got nothing else to do. Are you going to answer me?”
He turned the wheel slightly, steering the boat farther out toward the middle again. The current must have been pushing them toward shore because he kept having to make corrections in their course.
“Water views cost a pretty penny here in Mystic Lake too, but only in areas that aren’t known to be full of underwater hazards.
Because of how this lake was formed, the debris beneath the surface is substantial in most of it.
That’s actually one way to know you might be in a dangerous area out here.
If you don’t see cabins or docks, take that as a sign to be cautious of underwater debris.
Another reason you don’t see as many homes out here is that the lake is landlocked.
In spite of how enormous it is, spanning for miles through the mountains, the only way to get to it is from our town.
As you well know, that’s an hour-long drive from the outskirts of Chattanooga.
One way in, one way out. Unless you fly by helicopter.
It can make people feel closed off, isolated. ”
He shrugged. “People who come here either love it or hate it, as far as actually living here goes. Personally, I’m glad that most of the visitors are temporary and don’t choose to stay long-term. I like living in a small town and not having glass office buildings and concrete everywhere you look.”
He glanced at her, his brows raising when he saw her looking at him. “Am I talking too much now?”
“It’s nice. What else can you tell me about this place?”
“Enough to put you to sleep with boredom. Is there something specific you want to know?”
“Actually, there is. I’ve never been on the water here before, in spite of all the time I’ve spent in town.
Would you show me where Esteban was supposedly killed?
I was told that his body, or whoever’s body was actually recovered, wasn’t far from where he went into the water.
But the company my family hired had been searching that area for months without finding anything.
There had been a storm right before they supposedly found him, and they said it must have done what you said earlier, moved debris around.
Including the skeletal remains they pulled out.
” She swallowed. “Remains I thought were my brother’s for a very long time. ”
Beau moved some gears and the sound of the engines cut out. Then a metallic grinding noise sounded from the back of the boat. A slight jerk had her grabbing his arm to keep from falling.
“Sorry about that,” he said, steadying her. “I should have warned you. I dropped anchor. This was actually my first planned destination today. We’re already here, where Jake Randolph, aka your brother, allegedly went overboard.”
She looked out the windows on all sides. “Doesn’t look like a spot that’s dangerous.”
“Most of the dangerous places around here don’t. Do you see any cabins or docks?”
She shook her head. “No. Just trees and muddy banks.”
“This is one of the most dangerous parts of Mystic Lake. There’s debris throughout this section. But there’s something very interesting about where we are right now. I’ll show you why.” He stepped the few feet to the open doorway.
“I thought we weren’t allowed out where someone could see us.”
“We’ll have to take some risks today or we won’t get any information. I don’t see anyone around and can’t think of any reason for them to be. It seems safe. But if you’re worried and don’t want to—”
“No, I do. If you think it’s safe, that’s all I need to hear.”
They headed out to the fishing area of the boat in the back, the only place that comfortably allowed them to move around because the boat was so small.
“Sit here,” he said, guiding her to one of the built-in seating areas along one side. “The accident report listed the GPS location from the boat that Jake Randolph and his friends rented right around here.”
“You memorized the GPS coordinates?”
“No, although I’ve been in this precise location before and remember it pretty well.
I programmed the coordinates from Randolph’s file into the boat’s GPS tracker before we left our dock.
His file is one of the ones that I put in my backpack at the station, before we headed down the road toward Chattanooga. ”
“Plan A.”
“Yes, the infamous, ill-fated plan A. With plan B being a bust too, I’m hoping plan C will go far better.”
“Plan C? Us, out here trolling for information?”