Ransom at Sea (12 page)

“What is?” Lynn asked.

“The driver. It was the same man I saw talking to Mr. Holmes yesterday. The one we saw on the dock last night.”

“It's all right now,” Marcella said irritably as she pulled away from her niece.

“Yes, Auntie,” Rebecca replied.

“There's nothing like a good walk, I always say!” Marcella exclaimed as she went briskly across the road toward the trail.

“Aunt Marci, wait! Slow down!” Rebecca called out as she chased after her.

As Lynn and Emily crossed the road, Lynn was struck with a sensation she'd never felt before: it was not foreboding but rather a sense that something significant was happening. Perhaps it was the sudden awareness of the total quietude around them, or it might have been the fact that everyone within her view was disappearing simultaneously: As Marcella plunged between the trees followed by Rebecca, their three fellow passengers descended out of sight on the other side of the rise in the road. Out of the corner of her eye Lynn was aware that the driver of the sedan was passing through the doorway into the general store. She also noticed that the two young hikers had gone as well. It gave her the disquieting feeling that everyone had just been sucked from this dimension. She thought for a moment of telling Emily about this weird sensation, but decided against it.

She's had her own misgivings,
Lynn told herself,
I'm not going to make it worse by going all fanciful on her.

When they reached the opening of the path, Rebecca came running back to them.

“I'm sorry,” she said, slightly out of breath. “Aunt Marci seems to think we're on a forced march. I'll try to slow her down.”

“It's all right,” said Emily. “If you can't we'll all meet back at the boat for lunch.”

Rebecca took off down the path. Lynn called after her, “Don't worry. According to the map there's a campground a little over half a mile ahead. She can't really get lost.”

Before Lynn could get this out, Rebecca had disappeared around a bend in the path.

Emily and Lynn continued on at a leisurely pace. The path was about four feet wide, very flat and easy to walk. The trees were thick with leaves and the woods smelled pleasantly of musty bark and damp earth. Emily would occasionally stop by a particular tree or plant, examine it, and emit a “hmm,” and like any good tourist could not resist stopping and reading the helpful plaques describing the area's plant life.

After about twenty minutes they came upon a bench and decided to have a rest.

“Do you know much about plants?” Lynn asked.

“I remember a bit about them, very dimly, from my ancient past,” Emily said with a smile. Her right hand absently went to the gray bun at the back of her head and shifted it slightly. “When I was a girl at school they used to teach us about plants, the various kinds, the different types of leaves, which were poisonous and so on. Of course, back then people communed with nature on a more regular basis, so that kind of information was rather important. I don't know what they teach nowadays.”

Lynn wrinkled her nose. “Probably how to buy CTA fare cards.”

They fell silent. A warm breeze stirred some of the upper leaves of the trees, which caused a wet rustling sound. From somewhere farther up the path they could hear what sounded like the laughter of a pair of small children, muffled by the natural soundproofing so that it seemed it was reaching them through waves of cloth.

“I'm surprised we haven't caught up with Becky,” said Lynn. “I didn't think they'd get that far ahead of us.”

Emily's thin brows elevated slightly at Lynn's use of the familiar. “Given the speed with which Marcella was moving, I'd be surprised if her niece has caught up with her yet.” She paused, then said, “You like that young woman, don't you?”

Lynn flushed and looked away. “I don't know. Maybe I do. It's hard to tell how much is liking and how much is sympathy.”

Emily produced a vague shrug. “Sometimes one can grow out of the other.”

Lynn cleared her throat. “Do you want to go on now?”

“Certainly.”

They got up from the bench and continued along the path arm in arm. The sounds of children at play grew nearer as the woods began to thin out. The path then opened into a camping area, where the ground among the trees had been cleared somewhat. A handful of tents of various shapes and sizes were pitched at wide intervals. The noise they'd been hearing came from a little boy and girl who looked to be under the age of ten and were gamboling among the trees in a rowdy game of tag.

On the far left side of the campground was a narrow, heavily rutted dirt road. The hiking path continued in a more or less straight line along the right border of the clearing, then continued into the woods through an archway formed by a pair of drooping trees. Lynn and Emily followed the path. As they neared the far edge of the grounds, there loomed to their right, partially obscured from view by a particularly dense knot of trees, a ramshackle wooden structure that housed communal showers and toilets.

“Typical of Americans,” Lynn said with a cluck of her tongue. “Roughing it with all the comforts of home.”

Emily started to laugh but was cut short when Rebecca came hurrying toward them through the natural archway. She was even more out of breath than before, and perspiring heavily.

“Have you seen her?” she gasped as she reached them.

“What?” replied the startled Lynn. “You mean your aunt?”

Rebecca nodded. “She got away from me.”

“How?”

“We stopped here to use the bathrooms. We both went in, but—I don't know if she was finished first or if she just … when I came out of the stall, she was gone! I figured she'd gone on, and I ran and ran that way.…” She pointed toward the arch. “But I couldn't find her. I'd gone a long way … and it didn't seem possible that she could've gotten that far ahead of me, so I thought she must've gone back instead of going on!”

“I'm afraid she didn't do that,” said Emily. “She would've passed us, and we haven't seen anyone.”

“Don't worry,” said Lynn, “there's people all around out here. We'll find her.”

“I'm going back to the boat,” said Rebecca, “to see if she went back there! It's the one place around here that she'd be familiar with.” She went away from them not running but walking very fast, and was quickly swallowed up by the woods.

Emily watched her with eyes narrowed with concern. “You should go with her. I don't think she should be alone.”

“Are you kidding?” said Lynn. “I'm not leaving you alone in the woods!”

“I'm perfectly capable of making it back to the boat on my own.”

“That's beside the point! I wouldn't leave anyone alone in the woods.”

“Very well. But I do think we should go back.”

They followed Rebecca as quickly as they could. The timbre of Emily's voice when she'd said “You should go with her” disturbed Lynn, bringing back to her the unease she'd felt as they'd entered the woods.

“Are you all right?” Lynn asked when they finally emerged from the woods.

“Quite all right,” Emily replied, though she did seem a trifle winded.

They crossed the road, and as they reached the other side the captain and Samantha came over the crest of the hill, strolling hand in hand. Emily and Lynn stopped and waited for them.

“Ladies,” said the captain, a row of straight furrows cutting across his forehead, “is something wrong?”

“It's Miss Hemsley,” said Lynn. “She seems to have gotten lost.”

Samantha said, “Oh, my.” She'd tried to sound sympathetic but couldn't manage to erase the note of inevitability from her voice.

“How long has it been since she was seen?” the captain asked.

“Within the last half hour, I think,” said Lynn.

“Don't be concerned. She can't have gotten very far away, and there's enough people around here that she'll be safe. She's probably just lost and wondering around. We'll find her.”

“Shouldn't we—”

Lynn's question was interrupted when Rebecca appeared from behind the general store and sped in their direction.

“She's not on the boat,” she said. “I checked her cabin and all the decks. I kept calling her name. She wasn't there.”

“Had anyone seen her?” Emily asked.

She shook her head. “The only one there was Mrs. O'Malley, and she hasn't seen anyone—she's been busy in the galley making lunch. And Miss DuPree was on the deck, but she was asleep.”

“David and Hoke weren't on board?” the captain asked, the furrows growing deeper.

“I couldn't find them. What should we do?”

“Fan out and look for her,” said Lynn.

“No,” the captain said with calm authority. “I don't think that's a good idea. We don't want anyone else to get lost. Why don't you ladies go back to the ship—”

“No!” Rebecca exclaimed.

The captain was shaking his head. “Samantha and I know the trails. We'll look for her and ask the campers and other hikers—someone's bound to have seen her.”

“No! I'm coming with you! I have to! She may not—” Rebecca broke off and choked back a sob. “She might not recognize you, and it would scare her.…”

The captain glanced at his wife, who shrugged with resignation.

“All right,” he said. “Why don't we head the way you came first?”

“Shouldn't we notify the local sheriff?” Emily asked.

He gave her a deprecating smile. “I don't think there's any need for that. We'll find her.”

Emily and Lynn watched as the other three crossed the road and started down the trail. With his wide, loping stride, the captain managed to appear unhurried even though he was moving fairly rapidly. Samantha, almost as tall as her husband, easily kept pace with him, while Rebecca had to walk briskly to keep up.

“The captain is a very strong presence,” Emily remarked. “He should be able to keep Rebecca from panicking.”

“I guess,” Lynn said doubtfully.

Emily considered her for a moment. “We're almost back to the boat now. You really can go with them if you like.”

Lynn shook her head. “Becky's aunt would probably be more afraid if a mob came after her in the woods.”

Emily slipped her hand back through Lynn's arm and they started toward the general store. They hadn't gone more than a few feet before they heard Bertram Driscoll calling.

“Miss Charters!”

They stopped and turned around. Driscoll was coming toward them down the roadside path he'd taken with Jackson Brock and Muriel Langstrom.

“How're you doing?” he asked as he reached them. “You heading for the boat?”

“Yes,” said Emily. “Where are your companions?”

To Emily's and Lynn's surprise, Driscoll turned deep red and looked to the ground, apparently trying to hide his smile.

“Uh … you mean Brock and old Muriel? Well … I don't know.”

“What do you mean, you don't know?” Lynn asked. She really didn't like the look on his face, or his forced coyness.

He made a show of shuffling his feet. “Well, me and Jackson, I'm afraid we've been naughty boys. But, I mean, after all, we didn't ask her to come along with us.”

“What did you do?” Emily asked.

The redness deepened. “We ditched her.”

“What!” Lynn exclaimed sharply.

“We let her take the lead, and she was yakking and yakking, and when we came to a fork in the path, she went one way and we went the other!” His grin had broadened. He was obviously very pleased with himself. “She didn't even notice, at least not that I know. Of course, when we'd gotten far enough away from her, ol' Jackson started feeling sorry for her and went back to get her. But I was too fed up with the whole thing. I decided to come back on my own.”

“That was not just naughty,” Emily said after a rather pointed pause, “it was a very dangerous thing to do, leaving someone alone in the woods like that.”

“Oh, come on, Miss Charters! The trails are clearly marked. Nobody could get lost out there.”

“Somebody has,” said Lynn.

This brought Driscoll up short. “Huh?”

“Marcella Hemsley has disappeared. The captain and his wife and Rebecca are searching the woods for her right now.”

“Well, yeah, but Miss Hemsley—bless her heart—she's not exactly all there. Muriel's got her wits about her.”

“That may be,” said Emily, “but anyone can become confused when they're frightened or upset, which is most likely exactly the result your prank has caused Muriel. Really, Mr. Driscoll, I can't imagine what you were thinking!”

This was the closest Emily came to scolding anyone, and it had its effect: Driscoll's smile was replaced by an abject frown. “When you're right, you're right. I'll go back, too. We didn't get that far. I'm sure Jackson caught up with her and everything's all right. But I'll go back.”

Emily and Lynn stared at him without speaking. Looking even more abashed, he added, “And apologize.”

“I think that would be best,” said Emily.

Driscoll turned away and headed back in the direction from which he'd come.

“You have a very good influence on me,” Lynn said as she and Emily continued to the boat.

“How so?'

“If you hadn't been here, I'm afraid I would've been a lot less ladylike with that man.”

“It really was too cruel of him. Both he and Mr. Brock.”

As they crossed the lot to Friendly's General Store, Lynn said, “The car's gone.”

“Hmm.”

They followed the walkway around to the back of the store, then went down the dock to the boat. The sun shimmered blindingly off the water, and Lynn put a palm across her brow to shield her eyes as they went up the boarding plank.