The wait at the hospital wasn't that long in actuality, but time still seemed to drag. Murray paced, nervous, while Captain Scofield sat calmly and thought.
"Wearin' a hole in the floor ain't gonna help your chums come out any sooner," he said at last.
Murray stopped and looked over. "I know, but I don't feel like just sitting. It's too hard to stay still in a case like this."
"I'm sure they'll be just fine. If they'd been seriously hurt in the explosion, we probably would've known it long ago." Scofield leaned back, draping one arm over the top of the wicker chair.
"And Angelo and Giovanna went to check for messages at the inn," Murray continued. "Maybe they'll find out something else has gone wrong."
"That's starting to look highly possible," Scofield agreed. "But sit down, Chief. If we brainstorm a bit, we might be able to figure out at least some of what's going on here."
Curious, Murray stopped pacing and came over. "What do you mean, Captain? Do you have an idea?"
"Well, I haven't been ponderin' on any old random thoughts comin' into my head," Scofield said. "I've been thinking about my charters for the past week, trying to remember if any of them did anything strange."
Murray sat down, leaning forward on the edge of the seat. "And did they?"
"Like I said on the Arrivederci, I don't recollect any of them actually doing something suspicious," Scofield said. "But just plain strange, yeah, I can think of some that were pretty quirky. I had one couple that looked like they'd just stepped off Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. She was wearin' a fortune in jewelry and he had a dinner jacket and top hat."
"To go deep sea fishing?" Murray exclaimed incredulously.
"Apparently they thought it was more of a tour boat," Scofield replied. "So I humored them and took them around part of the length of the island. They seemed to have a good time and they paid well. I didn't think anything more about it. There's always some odd ducks in every tourist industry."
"I guess. But did anyone else act strange?" Murray wondered.
"There was one bloke claiming he'd never been on a boat before and he wanted me to show him everything, including the radio. But that happens every now and then and I was alright with giving him a tour. Now that I think of it, though, he certainly had the opportunity to lift my log book."
Now Murray looked hopeful. "Do you remember what he looked like? Or his name?"
"His name was something like Tom or Tim. Don't remember his last name. He was tall . . . light brown hair . . . probably about 18 . . . had a denim vest with a black long-sleeved shirt." Scofield shrugged. "Not really the number-one suspect for a crime."
"But that's exactly why he might be a good possibility," Murray said enthusiastically. "Maybe the criminal gang uses him because people wouldn't suspect him."
"That's good thinking," Scofield said in approval. "Too bad I don't have his full name and we could look him up."
"Do you remember anything else about him?" Murray asked. "How long he was going to be on Martigua, where he was staying, that kind of thing?"
"I remember he was one of my last charters before the expedition started," Scofield said. "I think he came onboard Thursday evening. He said he'd been on vacation for the past week and he wanted to fit in a few more things before he left. I don't believe he mentioned where he was staying. That information was probably in the file; I try to have local contact information in case there's a problem with the payment. There wasn't with his; he paid in cash."
Murray sighed. "So he's probably gone by now," he said morosely.
"Probably," Scofield agreed. "Unless he really is involved and he was just givin' me a line about leaving. Maybe they'd keep him hanging around to see what was happening."
"Somebody's definitely hanging around the island or that customs agent wouldn't have been hit," Murray worried. "Maybe it's the same person who set that explosion."
"Could be," Scofield said noncommittally. "It all depends on how big their operation is."
"And we still have no idea what it is they're trying to keep us from," Murray bemoaned.
"That's something we're going to have to find out," came Cody's voice from the corridor.
Murray hopped up. "Cody! Nick! Are you both okay?!"
"We checked out just fine," Cody smiled. "Any word about that customs agent?"
"None," Scofield grunted. "We'll have to move on and check in later."
"Meanwhile, I had an idea," Nick said, as they all headed for the doors. "Why not take a helicopter up past the point where the Arrivederci got? Maybe whatever it is that's not supposed to be seen is visible from the air."
"I suppose that's possible," Scofield mused, not looking convinced. "But then it seems like they might try shootin' down every aircraft that got close."
"Maybe not, since most aircrafts wouldn't know to look for anything," Cody said. "It might be something that only certain people would understand."
"Like a world-famous oceanographer," Nick put in.
"Right," Cody nodded.
"I think Nick's idea is a good one," Murray spoke up. "We should give it a try."
Scofield looked to them. "Do what you want, but don't come cryin' to me if you get blown out of the sky."
"Why don't you come along?" Nick returned. "We'll prove to you that we really do know what we're doing."
Scofield considered that. "I like to think I'm an open-minded soul. Alright, Mr. Ryder, I'll take you up on that."
"Good! You won't regret it," Nick promised.
"We hope," Cody couldn't help adding under his breath.
"Meanwhile, we need to start getting ready for our dinner date with Giovanna," Murray prompted.
"Oh yeah, that's right," Nick mused, as though he had completely forgotten about it. From the way Cody immediately flushed, he obviously hadn't. "We'll stop off back at the Arrivederci and freshen up before going to get her at the inn."
"We don't even know where we're going to take her," Cody exclaimed in a bit of panic.
Scofield regarded him with gentle amusement. "I can recommend some good restaurants," he offered. "But considering Miss Guirilini knows you're not familiar with the area, and she suggested the dinner in the first place, she might already have a suggestion in mind."
"That's a good point," Cody pounced, relieved at the thought. "I should have thought of that."
"Are you coming with us, Captain?" Murray asked.
Scofield looked to him in surprise. "I suspect Miss Guirilini's invitation was just for you lads," he said.
"Actually, it's hard to know, isn't it?" Nick realized. "We were all there when she made it. She could have meant the whole group of us, Angelo and you included."
Now Scofield's look of surprise was directed at Nick, in light of their prior conversation. "You sound like you're really trying to encourage me to go, Mr. Ryder."
"It's not that, exactly," Nick retorted. "It's that when we don't know what Giovanna intended, we don't want to do anything to hurt her feelings. And I'm not sure she would have extended the invitation if anyone was around she didn't want there."
"You make a lot of sense, Mr. Ryder," Scofield relented. "Alright, then. I'll plan on coming along, at least long enough to try to figure out what Miss Guirilini wanted."
"Yeah!" Murray said, perking up again. "It'll just be a fun evening out, a way to forget our troubles for a couple of hours."
"Hopefully our troubles will forget us," Cody sighed.
xxxx
As it turned out, Nick was apparently right about Giovanna's intentions. When the Riptide detectives, plus Captain Scofield and Tony, arrived at the inn, Giovanna didn't seem in the least taken aback.
"Oh good, you are all here," she smiled. "How did things go at the hospital?"
"Okay," Cody said. "Nick and I are both fine."
"I'm so glad," Giovanna smiled.
"And what about the man from the airport?" Angelo asked in concern.
"We called the hospital again right before we came out here," Nick reported. "He's still unconscious, but they think there's a good chance he'll make it."
"I hope so," Giovanna said. "He must know something that would help us.
"Well!" she continued, quickly switching the subject to something more pleasant, "I know the perfect place for us to all go to dinner. It's a nice little place along the coast called the Tropicana."
"That sounds like it walked right out of an I Love Lucy rerun," Nick commented.
Murray gave him a blank look. "Huh?"
"It's an old sitcom," Nick explained.
Amused, Giovanna said, "I'm sure it's just coincidence." She gestured to the doors. "Shall we go?"
"Lead on, Giovanna," Nick said with a grand gesture in return.
xxxx
The night was pleasant, with clear skies and a cool breeze wafting in from the ocean. And the Tropicana Restaurant was very much engrained in the culture of the island, being built to look like an elongated hut with a straw roof and featuring local tribal masks, glasses designed like pineapples, and a voodoo-inspired floorshow.
"The roof isn't really straw," Giovanna explained. "There's a much more sturdy substance underneath it."
"Well, that's good to know," said Cody.
"What about the voodoo show?" Nick wondered, watching as the sorcerer onstage appeared to make his subject levitate. "Is that for real?"
"That all depends on if you believe in voodoo," Giovanna replied in some amusement.
"It looks pretty much like a classic magician's show to me," Nick remarked as they all settled around a table.
"They've borrowed a lot of their act from Western magicians," Scofield said. "Or maybe the Western magicians borrowed it from them. Who's to say. And some of it's based more on the stereotypical Hollywood ideas of voodoo. They give the tourists what they expect to see, you know? But some of the rest of it, well, I can definitely tell you that's from their own traditions here and based more on what voodoo really is."
Cody picked up the menu, trying to concentrate. The activity onstage, however, was highly distracting. And it didn't help that the sorcerer seemed to keep glancing in their direction more than at any other table.
"Do you get the feeling he's really eyeing us up and down?" Cody finally said in a low tone to Nick.
"Maybe he recognizes Angelo," Nick shrugged. "We all know he's a celebrity."
"Maybe," Cody conceded. "I know I'm probably just paranoid, but after a day like today, it's hard not to be."
Nick nodded sympathetically. "I know the feeling."
Eventually they all decided on their orders. The floorshow broke for intermission around the time the food arrived, which was just fine with Cody. He would much rather eat without voodoo sorcerers staring him down, no matter what their intentions were.
"So," he said, "supposing that guy is for real. Would he be a renegade sorcerer or not?"
"They don't tend to advertise themselves," Scofield retorted. "You pretty much have to catch them at a secret ceremony."
"So that's how you saw one?" Nick pounced.
"You could say that," Scofield replied, sounding somewhat awkward.
Giovanna turned to him in amusement. "Now how did you manage that, Captain?"
Nick stared her down. Her reaction seemed an awful lot like flirting to him. But if Cody noticed, he didn't seem to be of the same mind.
Scofield looked pleased that she was interested. "I was taking a charter party back to the docks when this sudden storm came up. The boat crashed on the beach and some of the party ran off in terror, looking for a place to take shelter. Well, I couldn't very well leave them to it, so I chased after them with the rest of the party. They finally led us to this hut where these mysterious torches were burning. They tried to knock, but I heard the chanting and stopped them. When we looked through the window and saw what was going on inside, I knew we shouldn't stick around there. So we moved on and finally found a different hut to take shelter in. One of the people in the charter party wondered if the renegade priest had brought the storm up with his magic. I told her that all depended on if she believed that he had magic."
"That sounds pretty messed up," Nick said. "Why would he start the storm?"
Scofield shrugged. "Some of the locals don't like the tourist industry, even though Martigua practically runs on tourism. They feel like the island's been tainted by all the foreigners coming through and that they should get back to basics. They managed just fine for centuries without the tourists, they say. And they did, but times have changed now. Most people on Martigua embrace the tourist industry and don't want it to go away."
"Fascinating," Murray mused. "The classic conflict of tradition versus change. But even more interesting is what you saw that night."
"Murray, you don't really believe some guy chanted some stuff and caused a storm to kick up," Nick said in disbelief.
"I believe he could have believed he caused it," Murray replied. "It could have been a coincidence, true, but really, there's so much we don't know about the supernatural realm. Maybe voodoo really does work!"
"It works on a smaller scale, maybe, but only because of people's imaginations going wild," Nick said.
Cody nodded. "Like someone who gets hurt after a voodoo doll is used for evil. It's mind over matter. They're so worried about the voodoo that they inadvertently cause things to happen to them and then blame it on the voodoo."
"Aha, but what about the people who have been hurt or killed when they don't even believe in voodoo?" Murray pointed out. "That's where it really gets into gray territory."
"I heard some fake psychic in Los Angeles say once that everybody believes, even if just a little bit," Cody said. "And I guess he's probably right. Even if someone got hurt who didn't believe in it, maybe they'd kind of worry and wonder why it had happened, if they knew someone was trying to use voodoo on them."
"While this is all very interesting, I do not see how it is helping us get any closer to solving what is happening," Angelo sighed.
"Papa is right," Giovanna said. "Murray, did you and Captain Scofield come up with anything?"
"Well, not a whole lot," Murray admitted. "But we did come up with one possible suspect who could have taken the log book."
Scofield nodded and again described the boy. "Then again, even if he took it, that could be another coincidence," he said. "It might not have anything to do with the problems on the expedition."
"Perhaps," Angelo said slowly, "but I believe I remember seeing a young man such as you have described."
"That's right," quiet Tony spoke at last. "I remember him too. He came down to the Arrivederci and asked if we had any openings on the crew. I told him No and gave him the name of a ship that I knew was trying to put together a crew. He thanked me and left."
"And did he join the crew of that other ship?" Scofield asked.
Tony shook his head. "I spoke with the captain right before we pulled out to start our expedition. He said that no one like that had come by and that he wished they would have."
"I didn't think anything of it," Angelo sighed. "I thought he was probably another fan hoping to join one of our expeditions. That happens from time to time."
"And maybe that's all he was," Cody put in. "But I definitely think we should look more into that angle. Tony, did the kid give you his name?"
"No," said Tony. "He just asked about the crew and that was that."
"How many people are on the crew, anyway?" Nick wondered. "It's possible that one of the bad guys snuck in and you didn't know it. We can't just go on the idea that maybe the kid was the one and there isn't anyone suspicious onboard because he didn't get in."
Angelo's expression clouded. "I suppose you are right, Nick the Pilot, but I hate to subject the crew to an investigation. They are all honest and hard-working, as far as I can tell."
"But Papa, people can hide their true nature," Giovanna protested. "We know that now, all too well." Sadness flickered in her eyes, but then it was gone and she looked to the detectives. "You should investigate them. Everyone is required to go through a background check before joining the crew, but just because they all passed doesn't mean they're all our friends."
Cody nodded grimly. "Can we get a list of all the crew members? Maybe Murray can feed it into a computer and come up with something that didn't get into the background checks."
"I will get you the list when we are back on the Arrivederci, Cody the Mustache," Angelo said in resignation. "But I hope you will not find anything."
"So do I, Angelo, but it's a possibility we really can't ignore." Cody chased some of the last of his delicious dish with the fork. "Have you noticed any of them acting a little strange?"
"No, not at all," Angelo defended.
"Of course, most of them are local people and they are very superstitious," Giovanna said.
"So they probably all believe in voodoo too, huh?" Nick said.
"Most likely," Giovanna said. "Even some of the people who converted to Christianity years ago still cling to the old ways as well."
Cody shook his head. "I never really understood how some people think they can have it both ways, but I guess it would be pretty hard to just forget about everything you were taught most of your life."
"You got that right, Mr. Allen," Scofield said. "Of course, on the other hand, some others have abandoned voodoo all the way in favor of Christianity. And still others don't believe in anything."
"Maybe there's some fanatic among the crew who doesn't think the waters around Martigua should be exploited," Nick suggested. "What's going wrong might not have anything to do with crooks trying to hide something."
"Or it could be both," Cody said. "The criminals might recruit some of the fanatics, telling them they each want something out of the deal."
"Only the fanatics wouldn't want the criminals to have their way, either," Murray said. "But I guess they might pretend to go along for a while."
"And then plan to get rid of the crooks after they all get rid of us," Cody finished.
"Real nice people," Nick added.
"Of course, this is all speculation," Scofield said. "It could be that none of it's true."
"You're right, Captain," Cody acknowledged. "We're just talking like it is."
"That can be dangerous," Scofield cautioned. "Be careful you don't start believin' in it. You might end up convicting someone without proof."
"We'll approach it with an open mind," Cody promised. "We don't want to zero in on anyone who might not be guilty."
"Unfortunately, though, sometimes that just happens," Nick put in. "Sometimes the people we're looking at don't help their cases along any, either."
By now they were all about finished with dinner. They had become so deeply involved in the conversation that they had barely paid attention when the floorshow started up again. But just as they pushed their chairs back, the sorcerer's voice boomed across the restaurant with words that made them all pay attention.
"For my next and most spectacular miracle yet, I will need a volunteer from the audience. Ah, you, sir!"
All eyes in the establishment immediately turned to Cody. Stunned, he looked up at the stage. The sorcerer was indeed pointing at him. "Me?" he said in disbelief. "Wait a minute, I didn't . . ."
"Yes, you, Mr. Allen!"
That startled Cody into acceptance.
"How did he know your name, Cody?!" Murray exclaimed.
Cody started to get up from his chair. "That's what I'm going to find out."
Nick started to stand as well. "Hey, maybe this isn't a good idea," he protested. "You don't know what this guy wants you to do. Maybe he's gonna roast you alive or something."
Cody shot him a look of amusement. "What, are you saying you believe in voodoo? Come on, I have to go up now. Anyway, if I don't, it'll make a scene." He pushed the chair back and stepped away from the table.
"I still don't like this," Nick said, following Cody to the next table. But then, seeing he couldn't stop his friend, he decided instead that he would try sneaking backstage.
"Nick!" Giovanna hissed when Nick changed directions. "What are you doing?!"
Scofield just folded his arms and smirked. "Well, he's got spunk, I'll give him that."
As Cody arrived onstage, the sorcerer grabbed his wrist and raised his arm in the air. "Mr. Cody Allen, my temporary assistant!" he announced, to widespread applause in the audience.
Turning, he started to lead Cody to a box standing upright on the floor. When he opened the door to usher Cody inside, he whispered, "Meet me backstage after the show. I must speak with you about the Arrivederci and Captain Jack Scofield."
Before Cody could reply, he was pushed inside and the door slammed shut.
