And then she turned to look at Dane. “You told him we were hooking up?” Her flinty stare took him aback, and he found himself at a loss for words. She folded her arms and moved closer until they were almost touching.
“No, I didn’t say that. Really.”
Her eyes softened and she broke into laughter. “Come on, Maddock.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him close. “I know Bones better than that.”
He looked down into her emerald eyes and remembered all too well their time as a couple. Funny how time could erase the bad memories and leave him wondering how he had ever let this picture of perfection get away. “It’s good to see you.” He wondered if his words sounded as lame to her as they did to him.
Bones cleared his throat, drawing their attention to him. “So Kaylin, what brings you here?”
Blushing, she pulled away from Dane. “Actually, I feel kind of bad coming to you guys like this after not having stayed in touch, but there’s no one else who can help me.” She shot Dane a pleading glance and continued. “I’m pretty sure I’m in danger, and…” she bit her lip “…I sort of have a mystery I need help solving.”
“You’re freakin’ kidding me.” Bones took a step back and raised his hands. “If you tell me we’ve got to fish the Holy Grail out of a volcano or some crap like that, I’m retiring.” He smiled to assure her he was joking.
Kaylin grinned. “No, it’s nothing like that, but I do need your help.” She looked at Dane again, and he knew that, no matter what it was she needed him for, there was no way he could refuse.
“Well,” he began, “why don’t you come aboard and tell us all about it?”
Chapter 5
They sat on the deck of Sea Foam, watching the sun set and enjoying cold drinks after a long day. After a few minutes of awkward starts and stops to the conversation, they settled into an easy give-and-take. He and Bones filled Kaylin in on their exploits since the last time they had seen one another, and she, in turn, told them about her current faculty position at Charleston University, where she taught Fine Arts, and about her boyfriend Thomas, who was also a faculty member at the university.
Not wanting to seem like he was engaging in one-upsmanship, Dane did not mention his girlfriend, archaeologist Jade Ihara, but Bones being Bones, her name came up almost immediately.
“So, Maddock, have you told Jade that you’re hanging out with your ex?” Mischief glinted in his dark eyes as he grinned at Dane.
“Jade? Is that your girlfriend?” Kaylin’s expression was one of polite interest, though her voice sounded hollow. “Tell me about her.”
“She’s also a college professor and an archaeologist. I met her on our last little ‘adventure.’”
“You do seem to have a knack for that, don’t you?” Kaylin’s coquettish smile brought back good memories.
“It sure seems that way, doesn’t it?” Dane laughed. “I guess I can’t really call her my girlfriend. We don’t have any sort of commitment, what with her working about six thousand miles away.”
“You never change, Maddock. You know that? There’s always a reason not to get too close.” Seeming to realize she’d revealed something a bit too personal, Kaylin blushed and took a long drink, while an uneasy silence fell over the group.
“That’s me,” Dane added lamely, trying to ease the sudden tension. “So, are you going to tell us about this thing you need help with?”
Kaylin’s face fell. “My boyfriend, Thomas, is missing in the Amazon.” She dug into the small backpack she had brought with her, took out a picture, and handed it to Dane. “He left this picture with a friend of ours. It’s supposed to be a clue, the only thing we need in order find him.”
Dane held the picture up in order to best catch what remained of the fading daylight. Bones pulled his chair closer in order to get a better look.
“This isn’t the original,” Kaylin said. “I left that with the police. I took my own picture of it before handing it over to the authorities, and I had a print made on the way down here.”
It was a painting of a lean, angular man with a beard and a handlebar mustache seated in a Victorian-style armchair. His close-set eyes seemed to burn into Dane. It was a busy image by the standards of the time. The man held a book in his left hand, and a painting of a steamship hung prominently in the background over his right shoulder. A seascape, a dark island looming in the midst of a stormy sea, hung on the wall over his left. Exotic plants in amphorae framed the image.
“That dude looks familiar.” Bones took the picture and gave it a closer look before handing it back to Dane. “Not sure where I’ve seen him before, but I know he’s somebody famous.”
“It’s Percy Fawcett,” Dane said, passing the picture around so everyone could have a look. “He was probably the most famous explorer of the early twentieth century. He disappeared in the Amazon looking for the lost city of Z.” His stomach was doing somersaults. As a young man, he had been fascinated by stories of the famed explorer, and the man had always been something of a hero to him. He had a bad feeling about the direction this conversation was about to take.
“I’m sorry, Kay. If the only clue your boyfriend left you is a picture of Percy Fawcett, that isn’t going to be enough to go on. Not even close. People have been trying to find him ever since he disappeared. That trail has been cold for almost a century.”
“There’s a message in this picture,” Kaylin insisted. “And there was a code written on the back. Here!” She handed him another picture.
“Numbers and letters. It’s not longitude and latitude. We can’t punch it into a GPS.” Dane truly did want to help her, but he didn’t see how they had anything at all to help them even know where to start.
“But, the friend I mentioned, the one to whom Thomas entrusted this, was kidnapped, maybe even killed.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, but how do you know that picture is the reason…” Dane began.
“He warned me and then they took him! They wanted me too, but I got away. They searched my apartment. Maddock, you know I’m not a drama queen, and I wouldn’t come to you unless I really needed your help.”
The need in her eyes took him back to another time and place, and he shook his head to return himself to the present.
“Okay, I understand. So you want us to go to the Amazon to find your boyfriend? I don’t know that we’re the best men for that job. It’s not our specialty.”
“I want you to help me solve this mystery, wherever it might lead. That is your specialty. Don’t deny it.” Her eyes bored into him. “I also need someone who can keep me safe.” Her voice fell with the admission. “Whoever these people are, they probably don’t know I’ve given the picture to the police. Even if they do, they might want to make sure I can’t tell anyone else what I’ve seen.”
Dane rubbed his chin, feeling the stubble that had cropped up over the course of the day. He felt for her, truly he did, but was he really the right man for the job? And frankly, if it was Kaylin lost in the Amazon, he’d go after her in a heartbeat, but to risk life and limb for her boyfriend? It was… weird.
“You could stay with us,” Corey suggested, “and have the authorities search for your boyfriend. You’d be safe here, and there must be people who are better trained for an Amazon rescue.”
“It’s not that simple. When Thomas first turned up missing, everyone’s attitude, the police, the university, was he’d probably just been delayed, because that’s fairly normal down there. Now that it’s been a while and still no word from him, I’m getting subtle hints that he’s probably not coming back. No one really wants to help. If he’s going to come out alive, I’ve got to make it happen.”