Louis put up a hand. “Okay, there are things I can do that a cop can’t. But you think me waving my PI license in their faces is going to make those people let us search their island?”
“I didn’t plan on asking them.”
It took Louis a moment. “Wait a minute. You plan on just cruising out there, pulling in to some shady little inlet, and just taking a look?”
“Yeah.”
“That’s trespassing.”
“Actually in Florida, you can’t be charged with trespassing until you’ve been warned at least once. I didn’t see any signs posted anywhere out there, did you?”
When Louis started to answer, Landeta held up a hand. “Don’t answer that.”
Louis was shaking his head. Landeta leaned close over the table.
“Look, we just take a boat over there at night and pull in somewhere away from the restaurant. We take a camera, we look around a little, eavesdrop a little. Maybe we hear or see something we can take back to Horton. Like the name Mary Rubio.”
Louis was still shaking his head.
“We’ll be in and out in an hour.”
“No way, Mel. Count me out.”
Landeta leaned back in the booth. He paused then pulled out his cigarettes. He lit one and took a long drag, blowing the smoke out slowly.
“Look, they took me off the Yahweh thing over in Miami,” Landeta said. “I just want this one last chance to finish something.”
Louis wouldn’t look up, but he could feel the pull of Landeta’s eyes on him.
“Remember when Woods floated up? You remember what you told me? You told me I didn’t care about finding the other girls.”
“I was pissed,” Louis said. “I know you want to find them.”
“So do you. Let’s do it, damn it.”
Louis stared at the table. He couldn’t deny he felt a spark of interest. And more than that, a bizarre sense of excitement at the recklessness of it. But he was remembering the long night spent in Frank Woods’s tent, so stiff with irrational fears that he couldn’t move.
Louis looked at Landeta across the table. But he also knew that if they didn’t go out there, it was over. Frank Woods was dead. Horton would let the case fold up quietly with no official resolution, and eventually, Shelly Umber’s file would be sent down to that storage room to collect dust and mold like the five others.
Landeta was waiting.
“Okay,” Louis said. “When?”
“Tonight.” Landeta set a couple of dollars on the table and stood up. “We’ve got things to do. Let’s go.”
Louis slid out of the booth, and let out a long breath. Landeta heard it and turned.
“Look at it this way, Rocky,” he said. “We’re earning our keep. Aunt Shirl would’ve been proud.”
CHAPTER 38
The moon hung low over the water. The boat’s motor gave out a low gurgling as they headed out into the middle of the sound. The lights of Captiva were growing smaller, dimmer, and Louis watched them, his hand gripping the throttle, his head filling with things he didn’t want to think about.
Like what they were going to do. It was illegal, no matter what kind of a spin Landeta tried to put on it.
He looked up to the bow where Landeta sat, face turned up to the warm night breeze. Look around a little, eavesdrop a little. We’ll be in and out in an hour.
Louis tried hard to relax his hand on the throttle but it was no use. His whole body was one giant knot. He let out a long breath.
“What’s the matter?” Landeta asked.
“Nothing.”
“Bullshit. What is it?”
“Nothing, I said.”
Louis strained to watch the water ahead of them. He could barely see it in the thin light of the rising moon. He couldn’t see any land ahead.
“Mel, are you sure —-?”
“Yeah, just watch the channel markers. Keep the red ones to your left.”
Landeta had told him he could find the island, that he knew enough about navigation from his days working on the oyster boats. But it was so dark, so far away from anything. And they were depending on Landeta’s ability to read a map of the sound that they had gotten at Sutter’s Marina when they rented the boat.
A flashlight flicked on up at the bow. “Head her left,” Mel said. “About eleven o’clock. The guy at the marina said there was a light on the dock. Keep an eye out for it.”
The moon slipped behind a cloud, plunging them into darkness. Something splashed in the water and Louis jumped.
“It’s a fish, Kincaid. For crissake, it’s nothing to be afraid of,” Landeta said.
He knew it was a fish but his body didn’t. It had gone into some weird automatic response mode, the same way it had that night he spent in Frank’s tent.