As we went back to our Segways, Kevin said he was glad the descriptions of the man with Sam matched. “Is that what you saw when you were holding the horse statue?”
“I really only saw them shaking hands.” I shrugged. “The other man was wearing some kind of ring with an unusual design. I couldn’t tell you what right now, but I’d know it if I saw it again. I know that’s not very helpful.”
“It’s all we’ve got right now. You’ve managed to track Sam this far, which is more than the police could do.”
We roamed the trails for another few hours, but it was getting late. We hadn’t seen many horses and couldn’t find the group Tom had told us about. We were about to turn back when we both noticed a Segway parked in a heavy thicket.
Thrilled that we’d found it, I got off of my scooter quickly, but Kevin held me back. “Let’s take it easy here. We don’t know what’s going on.”
It was very quiet at this far end of the island. There was only one Segway and no sign of Sam or his friend. Kevin searched through the thicket and further up along the path, but found nothing.
“It could belong to someone else,” I suggested, looking around, probably not as efficiently as him.
“There doesn’t seem to be any sign of a struggle or any problem. Just to be on the safe side, let’s call in the serial number and see if it matches up to what the outfitter in Corolla has listed for Sam.”
It was a good idea, but of course, there was no cell phone signal. We tried his phone and mine. Both spent all their time searching for service.
“It’s no use. We can’t find out like this.” Kevin put his cell phone away.
“There’s another way.”
“I know what you mean, Dae. I don’t know if it’s a good idea. There’s no way of knowing what you might see.”
I took off one glove and approached the scooter. I agreed with Kevin that the Segway might show me something I wouldn’t like to see. On the other hand, it might reveal something important. We were too far from Tom Watts’s trailer to go back and see if he had some adequate form of communication. And I had to be back in Duck for the town meeting or the chief would get kind of riled.
“This might be the only way to know where Sam is. I think that’s important enough to take a chance. If I fall on the ground again, just leave me there. I’ll get up eventually.”
He came to stand behind me and slid his arms around my waist. “How about if we prepare for that problem and I won’t let you fall. Be careful, Dae. If there’s something you see that doesn’t look right, get out.”
“Do you think something has happened to Sam?”
“I don’t know. I’ve had a bad feeling about this since we saw his office at the museum. And finding only one Segway isn’t a good sign.”
“You could’ve said something.”
“I’m not intuitive.” He shrugged. “I’d rather let you lead the way.”
“As long as you’re my backup, that’s fine.” I smiled at him and we briefly kissed before I put out my hand and grasped the handle on the scooter.
Running. Lungs burning. Fear, terrible fear. Blackness. Nothing.
I pulled away from it, gasping, but in better control than I had been with Adelaide’s dress.
“All right?” Kevin asked, his arms around me. “What did you see?”
“I’m fine.” I moved away from him, staring back at the scooter. “Sam was here. Someone was chasing him. He thought his life was in danger. He ran until he couldn’t run anymore. That’s all I could see. I think something terrible happened to him out here. We have to tell someone.”
“All right. We’ll have to go back to the trailer and call for help. If the cell phones won’t work there, I noticed a ham radio antenna. We could use that.”
“That means calling the Corolla police.” I grabbed my scooter. “Chief Michaels isn’t going to like this.”
“Dae O’Donnell.” Corolla Police Chief Walt Peabody got off his ATV and walked toward us, removing his sunglasses as he came. He was a lean, hard man whose pale gray uniform matched the frigid gray of his eyes. In the lifetime I had known him, first as an officer (he gave me my first speeding ticket) and then as the chief, I had never seen him smile. “You can’t cause enough trouble in Duck. You have to come down here.”
Sam and Max weren’t the only ones in Duck and Corolla with competition issues. Chief Michaels and Chief Peabody never had a good word for each other. They could be equally as uncivil with residents they felt overstepped their bounds.
“Chief, I’m not here to cause any trouble. I’m sure you know that Sam is missing—”
“Yeah. We’ve had an APB out on him since we searched his home and office. We’re doing so in an effort to assist the Duck police. You didn’t have to come up here and check on us.”
“I wasn’t,” I said flatly. “I came up to help find Sam. I think he might be in trouble.” I told him what I knew of Sam’s disappearance without divulging information I’d gathered from his personal effects. I didn’t think Chief Peabody would believe me.
“That’s real nice of you, Mayor. But we can take care of our own. And I’m sure you know that calling us out like this isn’t a good idea unless you know something pertinent to finding Sam.”
I glanced at Kevin and the answer came to me. “We have reason to suspect that Sam has met with foul play.”
Chief Peabody looked at Kevin too. “Is this your lawyer, Mayor? Is he helping you look for Sam?”
“I’m Kevin Brickman.” He stepped forward and shook hands with the chief. “I own the Blue Whale Inn.”
“I heard about you.” The chief squinted at him, the sun in his eyes. “Helping her meddle in police affairs isn’t a good idea.”
“Mayor O’Donnell does have some pertinent information.” Kevin told him about the man with Sam.
“How did you figure out Sam was out here at all?” the chief asked.
“We talked to the outfitter,” I answered. “Then we spoke with Mr. Watts here, and he told us the same thing.”
The chief turned his cold gray eyes on Tom Watts. “So what do you know about this? And why haven’t you reported it to the police?”
“I didn’t know the police were interested,” Tom said. “News doesn’t make it this far out very quickly. I’ve been here for the last two weeks. I told Dae that I saw Sam with the man she described. That’s it. They said they were going to see the horses.”
“I think we found Sam’s Segway about half a mile from here,” I added.
“What makes you think it belongs to Sam?” Chief Peabody questioned.
“I don’t know for sure.” I shrugged. “But there is an abandoned Segway over there and it might belong to Sam. It shouldn’t be hard to check out the identification number and find out. I can call if you want me to.”
The chief’s face hardened into an even more disapproving expression, if that were possible. “I think we can handle this from here, Mayor. No offense, but it’s best for civilians like yourself and Mr. Brickman to mind your own business. We don’t need any of your hocus-pocus down here in Corolla to maintain the law. Have a nice day.”
Chapter 10
It was getting late, and there was no way to argue with Chief Peabody without telling him about the hocus-pocus that had led me here. He called in some reinforcements and took Tom off to one side, maybe to ask for more details. Maybe not.
“We should be getting back,” Kevin said. “I think he has the idea anyway.”
“You could’ve told him you were with the FBI before. Maybe that would’ve made it sound more convincing.”
“Former FBI agents aren’t usually best buddies with the police. It’s not something I advertise.”