As Bright As The Stars (Vaquita Beach Book 2) Page 10
Megan stood back from the telescope, her eyes wide. “Look at that.”
They both stood up as three large, black boats came from the south, speeding toward the group of boats out on the water.
“I hope those aren’t reinforcements for the smugglers.”
Felicia bent to look into the telescope. She let out a gasp as she peered at the scene.
“It’s the Mexican Navy,” she said, her hand on top of her head. “This is surreal.”
They watched as the Navy boats surrounded the smaller fishing vessels, taking the smugglers on board and towing the pangas behind them as they headed south again. As the marine cavalry headed toward shore, they packed up the telescope.
“I am dying to find out what happened. Let’s go meet them on the beach.” Megan hurried down the stairs, Felicia right behind her as they grabbed the quads and headed out.
Their quad engines hummed as they headed toward the part of the beach that the boats had launched from. The trucks and trailers were parked along the cliff, and they hopped off the quads and headed toward the shoreline. Russell ran along behind, barking all the way.
As the boats pulled in, Megan spotted Kyle and James in the lead boat. Kyle was piloting the boat, and they were deep in conversation. As they neared the shore, James stood as he spotted Megan on shore. The instant the boat had run up on the sand, he hopped out and covered the distance between them in long strides.
He gathered her up in his arms, and she hugged him tightly.
“I can’t believe what you just did,” she said, as she caught her breath. He smelled like sea spray, and she never wanted to let him go.
“How do you know what I just did?” he asked as he looked from Megan to Felicia.
“Um—” Felicia started, and Megan shook her head and waved her off.
“I don’t know if I was supposed to or not, but we got out the telescope and spied on you guys.”
“Right. We did that,” Felicia said.
“And we’re really glad we did, because it was a sight to behold,” Megan said. “I really still can’t believe you just did that.”
“I couldn’t have done it without the south campos cavalry,” he said, with a laugh. They turned and watched all the other boats as they beached. There were at least ten, and among them she recognized Jimmy and Manuel, the camp owner. As the men hopped out of the boats, there was much backslapping and high-fives all around.
Felicia ran over to Kyle, wrapping him in a bear hug.
“Come on, Mom, stop.” He started to push her away, but she wouldn’t let go. He gave in and hugged her back, rolling his eyes at James.
“You were all so brave,” Megan said as the commotion died down. “I sure admire what you did,” she said, her eyes directed at James.
“Let’s get the boats out of the water, and have breakfast at my house, guys.” James grinned from ear to ear. “I’ll tell you all about it back at the house,” he said, squeezing Megan’s hand.
21
Felicia and Megan hopped up onto the quads, taking the beach trail back up to the house. As they rounded the corner, Megan stopped short, Felicia almost running into her from behind.
“What was that for?” Felicia said. “You almost knocked Russell off.”
The dog’s eyes were wide as he tried to grip the seat of the quad and not slide off into the sand.
“A red SUV is at James’s house.” She cut the motor of the quad as she looked further up the road. “I don’t trust that guy. There’s something off about him.”
“The guys are going to take a little while. We can’t just sit here.”
“Can you see him? He’s watching the boats load up through binoculars. Look. He’s out on the cliff.”
The man slowly lowered the binoculars as he looked toward the boats on the shoreline packing up to head toward land. Suddenly, the binoculars clattered to the ground. He turned and ran toward his car along the side of the house.
“Okay, that’s not normal,” Felicia agreed as they watched him jump into the SUV, the engine turning over immediately.
“We need to follow him and find out what he was doing there.” Megan started her quad and signaled for Felicia to follow her.
“What? Are you nuts? I can’t. I only have enough gas to get back to the house. And you shouldn’t go either.”
“I have to. I think he might have something to do with this.”
Felicia’s eyes darted from the boats on the beach to the SUV and settled on the dust coming from tires as Megan chased off after the red SUV.
“Okay, Russell. Let’s hope there’s nothing going on,” Felicia mumbled as the dust plumes rose from the road.
22
Megan drove the quad slowly behind the SUV as it tore down the road toward the highway. Her heart thumped wildly as she wondered what she was getting herself into. She knew the man wouldn’t recognize her, had never seen her, but she didn’t want to draw his attention. Just the thought of what she was doing was making her hands sweat already.
The car turned south on the main road toward the small town that served the south campos. The SUV didn’t slow as it neared the village, passing by the hardware store sandwiched between the two local restaurants, passing the small school for the local children and turning into the lot in front of the market, dirt flying.
One of the large restaurant signs gave good camouflage as she stopped and pulled out her phone, pretending to make a call and looking quickly in the other direction. Her trembling hands fumbled with the phone as she pretended to dial, accidentally hitting the contact for “Mom.”
Quickly pushing “end call”, she pretended to talk on the phone. That wouldn’t raise suspicion in the poblado, as the phone service off the road was spotty at best for most people, and this parking lot served as a makeshift phone booth for people to call people in the U.S.
As the man stood outside the market, she slowly pulled up to the side of the building, quietly turning off the quad and hopped off, her back against the side wall. Inching slowly, she got close to the window and strained to hear the voices inside that were growing louder.
With sweating hands, she turned to look into the window, peeking just her head over the sill to see who was inside speaking. As she tried to keep her face low enough not to be seen, the tall man from the SUV poked his finger into the chest of another man, one that Megan did recognize.
The shorter man tried to back away, his hands held up in surrender. The man’s anger was rising along with his voice, his red cheeks puffed and spittle flying as he continued to yell at the shorter man.
The muffled argument was getting louder, but she couldn’t quite make out any words besides totuaba. She crouched down toward the ground, her fear growing and tears springing to her eyes. I should just get out of here, she thought, her muscles tense. She couldn’t bring herself to leave. If she left, no one would know that the man was involved with this somehow. James would never know.
Megan’s hand inched upward to slide the window open to hear what they were saying. She swallowed hard and pushed, opening the window a crack.
“I got the camera. I’ve destroyed the data card. There’s nothing to connect me to the smuggling now, but the other guys have been caught.” The man was pacing in the market, oblivious to the other customers who had fallen silent.
“You must have told him about my plans.” He stopped pacing, his finger in Manuel’s chest. “I told you if you got James involved, you’d be sorry.”
“I didn’t tell him anything, Senor. I swear.”
“You did tell him. You had to. Why else would he be out on the water acting like John Wayne and the cavalry?” His eyes were bulging and his hands flailed wildly in the air.
“Senor, you must believe me. I have kept your plans to myself and told no one,” Manuel stammered.
The man appeared to be considering what Manuel had said, and turned to look at the shocked customers standing still, watching the exchange. Blinking hard at the people in the market s
taring at him, he grabbed Manuel’s arm again and pulled him through the door, shoving him inside the SUV, the bag of groceries in his hand clattering to the ground.
Megan fell back around the corner again, her breath short with panic. She shielded her eyes as sand flew from the tires of the SUV and it sped back toward the highway, toward Playa Luna. She followed slowly, allowing the car to get a bit ahead of her. As it turned in to Manuel’s house in the campo, she sped by, her head turned the other way. I have to tell James, she thought as she pushed the throttle harder, speeding up.
Running up the stairs to James’s house, she heard the excited chatter of the men who had been out on the boats. As she rushed into the kitchen, she stood stock still as all the conversation stopped and all eyes were on her.
“Megan, what’s the matter? What’s happened? You’re white as a ghost.” James jumped out of his chair and rushed toward her.
Her voice caught in her throat and she grabbed the sleeve of his Hawaiian shirt, pulling him out toward the ocean. She still couldn’t speak, her breaths coming in fast gulps.
James held her shoulders firmly as he searched her face. “What’s happened? Calm down and breathe more slowly. You’re all right.”
As her nerves settled, she told him everything she had seen at the market, filling him in on the conversation she overheard. “He took Manuel, shoved him in the car and I rushed back over here.”
James took in a sharp breath. “Red SUV? That’s my editor, Keith.”
“He was here at your house first, watching you all through binoculars as you rounded up the smugglers. He dropped the binoculars and sped off.”
He searched her face, his eyes lingering on hers for a moment.
“What possessed you to follow him? That’s incredibly dangerous. What were you thinking?”
“I don’t know. I usually wouldn’t do anything. I just knew something wasn’t right, and was afraid you were in danger.”
He pulled her to him, hugging her tightly.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, pulling away and looking at him quizzically. “We’ve got to do something for Manuel.”
As he looked out over the water, he stood for a moment as the calm sea looked blustery.
“I really didn’t want to get involved. But now I have, I’ll finish it up.”
“I want to go with you.”
“No, not a chance. I don’t know what this man is capable of, and I can’t have you in danger. Just trust me.”
With a squeeze of her hand, he rushed in the house and motioned to Kyle and Jimmy for them to follow. Fighting her instinct to tag along, she headed over to her friend’s house to wait.
23
Megan was flooded with relief as James, Kyle and Jimmy pulled into Felicia’s driveway, seemingly all in one piece. The back-slapping and high-fives finally settled down, and they were happy to share that Keith was in police custody after what James called a “mild” altercation.
Megan pushed the button on the blender, the margarita mix and ice spinning loudly as she prepared a celebration. Pouring the icy drink into colorful glasses, she plopped a paper umbrella in each one.
“You’ve certainly earned this one,” she said to James as she handed him a glass.
Felicia pulled the nachos she’d made out of the oven, placing them on the table between Kyle and Jimmy. “No celebration would be complete without my world-famous nachos,” she laughed, sitting down beside Megan.
Kyle’s mouthful of nachos didn’t stop him from continuing his story. “You should have seen James when we went to Manuel’s house. He was tied up to a chair. Can you believe it?”
“Seriously, I swear it was like a TV show, even watching you guys with the smugglers on the water,” Felicia chimed in. “It was so exciting.”
Jimmy set his glass on the table. “We really weren’t sure what we were going to find, and with Manuel tied up, James just went into action.”
“Oh, that’s hardly what happened.” James licked the salt from the side of the margarita glass, his eyes dancing with laughter. “I went over to Keith, told him to stay put, that the police were coming. He went nuts and tried to punch me. Nothing to do but hit him back.”
“And lay him out flat with one punch.” Kyle could hardly contain his laughter. “It was a good one,” he said, grabbing for more nachos.
“What did he want with Manuel, anyway?” Megan said, still not sure what had happened.
James put his glass down and turned toward her. “After you told me about what happened at the market, and that he had taken the camera, I started thinking. Manuel had told me that Keith approached him a little while ago and offered to fund a totuaba hatchery here at the campo. Manuel agreed, but was suspicious about it. The offer kind of came out of left field, and he was concerned that Keith’s stipulation was that he didn’t tell me about where the funding came from.”
“So he had told you about his connection with Keith, after all?” Felicia was trying to figure it all out as well.
“Yes, he did. I thought it was suspicious as well, so I didn’t mention it to Keith. But when he was so adamant that I kill my smuggling story, I talked to Manuel about it again. He told me that Keith had wanted 50% of the fish that were raised for his own. When Megan told me he was so upset that we were turning in the smugglers, I realized that he must have been funding that, too.”
“What? Why?” Megan exclaimed.
“I had shared my preliminary research with him awhile back. He was very interested in the price that these fish bladders are fetching if you can smuggle them over the border. Almost two million dollars for two hundred of them.”
“Whoa, are you kidding? You could catch that many in a month. Did you really say two million?” Kyle asked, his eyes wide. “That’s gross anyway. Who would want to pay that for a bladder?”
“It’s not like a regular bladder with urine in it. It’s their float bladder that fills up with gas. Keeps them buoyant. And I think that was just too much money for him to pass up. He admitted as much after he came to and we were waiting for the police. Asked me to keep it to myself, and he’d share the money with me.”
Jimmy set his glass down hard. “Wait a minute. Where was I for that offer?”
He smiled around the table, and he mocked a painful grimace as Megan kicked him under the table.
“What did he want with the camera?”
“I hadn’t noticed when I sent them, but it turns out that he was down here and on the boat the day I took the pictures. It was the only real evidence against him, and he wanted to make sure the police didn’t get them.”
“He was in the pictures? With the smugglers?” Felicia said.
James cleared his throat. “Yes, and they’re in the hands of the police now. He’s done for.”
“Well, it was all exciting. Never had so much fun in my life,” Kyle said as he stood up from the table. “So much excitement, I need to go take a nap.”
Felicia laughed and stood up, clearing the dishes from the table. “Absolutely. I’ll head home with you, my brave son.” She poked Kyle’s arm and pulled him to leave as he groaned and rolled his eyes.
“I’m out of here, too. Nicely done, James.” Whiskers hopped up to follow Jimmy as he closed the door with a nod of his head to James.
James reached for Megan’s hand and pulled her out onto the patio. They sat in silence briefly before he spoke.
“I can’t thank you enough for following Keith. I had no idea what was going on at that point. You were really brave. I’m really proud of you.”
Megan had never heard herself described as “brave” before, and it gave her shivers. Courageous in her work, maybe, but never brave. But as she thought about it, she had been brave before. Brave to open the girl’s home, brave to help them at all costs, brave to take a risk. And what she’d done today was just one step further, trying to help in any way she could. She’d stepped up to the task when she needed to, and finally realized that’s what she’d always done.
“I’m actually surprised you didn’t, but glad. I had no way of knowing what would happen, and I would have worried more if you’d been there.”
And Megan had been equally worried. It had surprised her, even, that beyond just worrying about him in general, as she worried about Kyle, she’d worried even more about James. Somewhere along the line, she’d become very attached, and wanted the best for him. And for her.
He stood and pulled her up beside him.
“Well, everything’s right as rain now. And going to be even better. I can tell.”
He lifted her chin and placed his warm lips on hers. Her eyes fell closed and she was lost in the moment—one of the best moments she could remember. And yes, she agreed, it would only get better.
24
The next ten days seemed to Megan to both meander and fly by at the same time. Annie and Daniel had insisted she stay through, taking care of the potential sale and sorry they couldn’t be at Cassie’s wedding.
“Take lots of pictures,” Annie had said. “And give them our best. We’ll celebrate later.”
James and Megan had fallen into a rhythm of meeting to watch the sunrise, and he continued to tell everyone around that she made better English tea than anyone he’d met from England. It made her smile every time he said it, and making it for him had become one of the things that made her most happy.
The afternoon before the wedding—which Megan had had no part in planning, although Cassie had come by almost daily to ask her opinion—Felicia and Megan sat under an umbrella on the beach. Felicia had her sunflower seeds and tea, and Megan had her kindle. They’d done this almost every day, between digging for clams, playing Scrabble at night with James and Kyle. The only productive thing they’d done was to put in the sink at Felicia’s house, and they’d managed to do it themselves without breaking it.