When Aaron woke up the next morning, it took him a minute to remember what had happened the night before. It might have taken longer if he hadn't spent the night on The Last Chance. He had gone back to the apartment as soon as Detective Curtis had cleared him in Leon's murder, but he couldn't bring himself to stay there, knowing that his two best friends were in the hands of a psychopath. So he had grabbed a change of clothes and a few other essentials, like his switch-blade, his toothbrush and, and the old-west style razor he had inherited from J.T., and went back to the marina and slept on the boat.
After he got dressed, he walked out of the main cabin with a cup of semi-crappy coffee from the galley and looked out over the bay, something he did nearly every morning when he and Theresa were out fishing, his mind turned to the task ahead of him. Taking a deep breath, Aaron swore to himself what he had sworn to the so-called Apostle the night before: He was going to find Theresa and Ian and he was going to make this bastard pay.
"Did you sleep well?" a voice behind him said. Turning, he saw Detective Evans standing on the dock wearing civilian clothes and carrying a small duffle bag.
"I guess so, considering the circumstances," he said as he crossed the deck.
"Permission to come aboard, sir?" she said with a smile.
Aaron smiled. "Permission granted," he said, offering her his hand. As she stepped on board Aaron found himself staring into her eyes again. This time, however, he pulled away. "So where are Bates and the rest of the team?"
"They're getting the gear out of the van. Are Abby and Shea here yet?"
"Not yet, but they should be here any minute. I don't suppose Bates has changed his mind about letting them come?"
"If he has, he hasn't said anything to me about it. You don't think they'll make trouble do you?"
"I'd be very surprised if they don't. Telling a mother she can't help find her daughter? If that's not grounds for troublemaking, I don't what is."
April nodded in agreement. Then she pointed down the dock. "Here they come."
Aaron turned and saw five people, four men and one woman dressed in civilian clothes, coming down the docks toward The Last Chance.
"You Aaron Thomas?" the first man, a short-haired, muscular man in his mid-thirties, asked as they reached the boat.
"That's right. You're Kevin Palmer?"
The man nodded and introduced the rest of the team: Dennis McAllister, a man with short-black hair in his early thirties, Calvin Williams, a black man in his mid-forties with slightly graying hair, his partner Rachel Martinelli, who was in her late twenties with shoulder length black hair, and last but not least was Brian Mitchell, the blonde-haired ex-EMT who was also in his late twenties.
"Where's Bates?" Aaron asked after he had finished exchanging handshakes.
"He got stopped in the parking lot by two women," Brian said. "He said he needed to talk to them and then sent us on ahead."
"What did these women look like?" April asked.
"The older one had red hair and the younger one had brown hair."
"That's got to be Shea and Abby. I bet Bates is up there telling them they can't come with us."
"I agree with him," Dennis said. "They'd only make this situation worse."
"Maybe," Aaron said as he hopped off of the boat, "but since Shea Allen's paying me half-a-million dollars to bring the two of them to the Island, I've got to go up there and argue on their behalf. You guys start loading the gear. I'll be back."
Sure enough, Detective Bates was having a rather heated argument with Shea Allen while Abby Mills tried to play mediator. When she saw him coming, Abby hurried over, leaving the other two to fight it out.
"Thank God you're here," she said when she reached him. "I'm afraid that this is going to get physical any minute now."
"Well, we don't need that. I'll see what I can do." He then called out to them, and they finally stopped fighting. "Ok, now that I have your attention, let's see if we can't resolve this in a more civilized fashion."
Shea spoke first. "Aaron, you said that there wouldn't be any problems with the detectives. But this idiot is telling me that I can't even help look for my own child."
"I'm going to ignore the name calling," Detective Bates said. "But as I have explained, too many civilians will complicate things."
"Alright cool it," Aaron said before Shea could respond. He then turned to his friend. "You know where I stand on this."
"Yes, you have five hundred thousand reasons to want them to come with us."
"Yeah, but it's more than that. We're going to need someone who knows their way around that Island, and I don't think you're going to find anyone more qualified—or more willing—to help us."
Detective Bates looked like he was about to argue, but decided at the last minute not to say what he was thinking. With a resigned sigh, he said, "Alright. But you'll be working from whatever command center we set up, guiding our movements around the Island. Is that clear?"
"We can live with that," Abby said before Shea could protest further. Detective Bates simply nodded and started down toward the docks.
"Thank you," Shea said. "Is Theresa getting the boat ready to sail?"
"You didn't hear? The bastard's got Theresa and another friend of mine, Ian Ryan. He's taken them both to the Island."
"I'm sorry," Abby said after a minute.
Aaron nodded. "It looks like I'm as invested in this as you two are, for better or worse."
"Are we going to stand around here talking all day, or are we going to get going," Shea said as she pushed past them and hurried down the dock.
Ten minutes later, The Last Chance pulled out of the harbor and began to slowly make its way toward Harper's Island.