Chapter VII: The Man In Yellow
As the two F.B.I. agents drive down the isolated road, the skies gradually take on a more gloomy tinge. Dark clouds roll in as a light drizzle begins to gently fall, prompting Agent Aiden to turn on his wipers.
"I hope we have some luck at this one." says Aiden.
"Tell me about it. This'll be the seventh marina rental we've hit today. If we don't get any dice on this one, we're gonna be running out of sea side rental shops. You'd think someone would've noticed three college kids heading out on a rental boat." says Parkes as she sighs.
"Don't sweat it Jordy, we'll pick up a lead, we always do."
"It's not that, it's just…I dunno, I guess I just miss the adrenaline rush some of our cases used to have."
"What three kids who go missing at sea isn't enough excitement for you?" asks Aiden half jokingly.
"Look, I'm not trying to down play this at all. Three kids going missing is serious but, you know what I mean."
Aiden smiles wide as he peers out onto the road "Yea I know what you mean. You miss the big collar busts. Slammin down doors, draggin in bad guys. Van Sciver, Toombs…Morales."
Parkes wrinkles her forehead when her partner mentions the last name "Morales, they don't come any bigger than that. Now that was a goddamn challenge. That son of a bitch made my career. Spent six years and two different tasks forces tracking him, following the clues, sniffin out the leads."
"The thrill of the hunt." says Aiden in conformation.
"Damn right the thrill of the hunt, and what a thrill it was."
"Oh trust me I know, you didn't catch The Prophet Bomber all by your lonesome. I was right there too. We were tracking, following and sniffin together." says Aiden as both share a laugh.
"I know you were." responds Parkes as she affectionately brushes the back of Aiden's hand.
"Thick and thin partner." Aiden says with an equally affectionate gaze.
"Oh, our turn is coming up right here." says Parkes in order to get Aiden's attention back onto the road.
"Oh shit, right." he says as he makes a hard right onto another street.
A short time later, the two agents pull up to a small rental shop with a large yellow sign out front. The sign contains an odd looking symbol which can only be described as a three pronged glyph with a small circle in the center. One prong is straight, the second takes on a more pronounced curve and the third strongly resembles a question mark, all connected to the central circle. Aiden and Parkes pull up to the front of the shop and exit the vehicle.
"You sure this is the right place?" asks Aiden as he takes special notice of the sign and the odd symbol.
"Yup, Carcosa Pleasure Craft Rental. At least that's what it said on Google."
"So that's all this guy has, is one goddamned boat?" says Aiden brining to attention that there only seemed to be one water craft sitting on the dock in front of the shop, a small yellow yacht named The King's Catch.
Parkes starts to look in the windows of the shop, whilst her partner is drawn to the sign and the symbol. As he gets closer, he strangely starts to fixate on the pronged glyph, as if it were somehow calling to him. For a few moments Agent Aiden goes into a light trance as he continues to stare at the marking.
"Aiden, we gonna question this guy or what?" shouts Parkes as she breaks Aiden out of his trance.
"Uh, yea. Be right there." he says as he shakes off his fixation and joins his partner entering the shop.
The inside of the shop is a mix of displays and paraphernalia all related to sailing and diving. But strangely enough, everything, from the snorkels to the life vests, were all the color yellow. On one of the walls was a small plaque that read "Owned and Operated by H. Astur".
"Are you sensing a bit of a theme here?" asks Parkes as the pair look around.
"Well, either that or this guy has a serious banana and school bus fetish." says Aiden as he nears the front counter.
While Aiden inspects the front, Parkes glances out the front window and catches the sight of the small yellow boat, but this time she sees that someone is staring back from it's deck. Partially obscured by one of the sails, stands a large, but hunched over figure. Parkes narrows her gaze as the figure appears to be garbed in a filthy and tattered yellow robe. But most disturbingly, the apparition is wearing a pale featureless mask, adorned with what look like protrusions resembling horns of some kind. After just a brief moment, Aiden taps the little bell on the counter, which causes the female agent to look away in her partner's direction.
"Hello, anybody out front?" yells Aiden.
Parkes quickly looks back out the window, but the frightening specter has vanished "What the fuck?" she says to herself.
"Yo, anybody work here?" Aiden continues to yell, obviously trying to get someone's attention.
Just a second later, a very tall man dressed in an all yellow rain suit and hat, emerges from the back. He keeps his back towards the agents as he dons a yellow bandana over his face and nose, only leaving his eyes exposed. He turns around once his face covering is applied and walks methodically over to the front counter "Can I help you folks?" the man says in a rough voice.
Aiden looks up, slightly taken aback by the man's large stature before he speaks "Uh, hi. I'm Special Agent Josh Aiden, this is my partner Special Agent Parkes with the Federal Bureau. Just wondering if we might ask you some questions about a case we're working…Mr. Astur is it?" says Aiden as be looks over to the small plaque.
"Yes indeed, H. Astur and I'd be happy to answer anything I can."
Aiden smirks "It's funny, but I never figured a guy your size would be scared of a little thing like Covid." he says gesturing to the bandana.
Astur pauses in a momentary silence before he responds "Just taking my precautions is all. There could be more things out there than just viruses you know." he says in a slightly ominous tone.
"Right, well you do know that those masks really don't help anything. In fact…" Aiden starts to say before being immediately cut off by Parkes.
"Josh, I'm sure Mr. Astur doesn't wanna be lectured to." she says as she approaches the counter "You haven't by any chance seen these three young people have you sir? They were reported missing just a few days ago while attending a boating trip and we're just canvasing and rental places they may have gone to just before departing." Parkes says as she lays out three photos on the counter of Tommy, Jenny and Zack.
Astur looks down at the photos and starts to breathe in and out quite heavily. This causes both agents to glance at each other in confusion before the man speaks up "Yea, I may have."
"These three?" asks Parkes tapping on the photos.
"Sure, about four days ago. It was early in the morning, when this black gentleman came into the shop. He rented out one of my dinghy's, paid cash. When he boarded, I saw three young kids with him, looked a lot like them." Astur says pointing to the pictures.
"How old were the kids?" asks Aiden.
"Oh, about college age I guess."
"What about the man that rented out the boat, did he say his name?" asks Parkes.
"Didn't say his name, in fact he didn't say much of anything. But he did register in the log." says Astur as he pulls out a good size book out from behind the counter and flips through it "Let's see, four days ago would be the tenth, oh there it is." he says pointing to a particular entry in the book.
"Jackson Bell, huh." remarks Parkes reading the log entry.
"Yup, kind of a medium size fellow, maybe five foot nine or so. Short cropped hair, kind of a thick mustache, but pretty clean cut nonetheless." says Astur.
Parkes and Aiden give each other a telling stare "When this guy brought the boat back in, were the three kids with him?" asks Aiden.
"I didn't see anybody else when he returned the dinghy."
"Mr. Astur, where is this dinghy now?" asks Parkes.
"Oh she's out on another rental. In fact that particular boat has been rented out at least twice since then."
"Dammit, even it was some kind of crime scene, it's contaminated beyond use now." says Aiden with frustration.
"Sorry, I couldn't be more help. But I'll definitely ask around the marina, somebody else may have spotted something, you never know." says Astur.
"That would be a ton of help, thanks. Also here's my card." says Aiden as he hands the other man his Bureau contact "If you remember anything else about that day, anything at all, just gimme a ring, will ya?".
"Sure thing, hope you find em." says Astur.
As they begin to head out of the shop, an old radio on the wall suddenly blares to life, startling Parkes "Holy shit!" she says stammering back.
"Sorry about that, that old radio just has a mind of it's own." says Astur.
Parkes just smiles weakly as she goes to turn it off but is stopped by Aiden as he listens to the news broadcaster "Hold on Jordy."
"…It seems more bizarre news coming out of Tucker's Sound today as the Coast Guard launches a massive search for a pair of missing helicopter pilots that vanished while out on a training exercise earlier. Also no word from the Viagem, a Portuguese oil tanker that was reported overdue just yesterday. The crew and the fuel ship have been officially reported as missing…"
"Lotta strange stuff's been happening out there as of late, huh. Rotting fish and missing people. They say the ocean can be a cruel mistress." says Astur in the same ominous tone as before.
"Yea you can say that again." replies Aiden as he and Parkes continue to head for the exit.
"Oh one more thing!" shouts Astur just before the pair leave, resulting in Aiden turning around "Did you happen to see the yellow sign?"
Suddenly Aiden finds himself reverting back to the semi trance like state he was in when looking at the odd symbol. Astur's eyes briefly lose all color as they glaze over completely white, menacing and inhuman. Parkes notices her partner's state and taps him on the arm "Hey, what's with you?"
Astur's eyes return to normal and Aiden comes to once again "I'm sorry what was that?" he asks slightly dazed.
Astur shakes his head "It's ok, never mind, you must have a lot on your plate."
"Thank you Mr. Astur, we'll be in touch." says Parkes as she leads Aiden out of the shop.
"Have a good day Agents." says Astur.
"You ok? You runnin a low blood sugar or something?" asks Parkes once the two are outside.
"No, I'm good. Guess I just spaced out for a second, no big deal."
"Alright, I say we call Garcia, we may have a good match for this Jeffries guy." says Parkes as her and Aiden climb back into the car.
As he and Parkes continue to drive on he shoots her an anxious stare "You happen to get a weird feeling in there?"
"Well the guy must've have been almost seven feet tall and creepy as all fuck, so yea you could say that."
Aiden just nods "Yea but he was helpful. Anyway, you better put the call in to Garcia. Maybe get a B.O.L.O. out for Jeffries. We may have something solid here."