Chapter 06

I should take the high road here and not put in print how much I enjoyed seeing the aghast look on Daphne's face. Someone had just hung up on a BLAKE! The world was about to fly off its axis. But I am not much for the high road. So, there it is.

In her defense, Daphne recovered quickly. "He really, really didn't want to talk about Captain Cutler."

I love it when the pieces begin to come together. Now, I got to say the words that Fred wanted to hear. "Now, our next step is to find the ghost."

"Exactly!" Up went that finger again. "If everyone is up to it, we should head out to Rocky Point Beach and do some sleuthing." I had long since given up trying to get Fred to quit talking like a character from a Mickey Spillane novel. I was even picking up some of the lingo myself.

We switched from Fred's sedan to a Blake Land Rover, picked up Scooby Doo, and headed out to the beach. The sun was just setting as we got there. I surveyed the horizon with binoculars. At my height, the horizon is about 2.5 miles away and the phosphorescent plume was exactly where the report said it would be.

Daphne had phoned ahead and a key for one of the Blake speedboats was waiting for us at the marina. We made our way out to the plume and Daphne cut the engine. There was no sound except for the sloshing of the current against the side of the boat and Scooby's stomach gurgling.

"Scooby didn't you just eat?" I whispered.

"Rye don't feel roe good." Then he proved he had just eaten by hurling it over the side.

Fred kept to a whisper as well. "Is everyone else okay?"

We all nodded and Daphne handed out more binoculars. We each took a direction and scanned the water. I wasn't really sure what we were looking for. It would be one thing looking for a glow in dark water. But the water all around us was glowing.

Shaggy saw it first. "Guys, like, look at this."

We all turned his way.

I didn't see anything. "What are we looking for?"

"Nothing." His answer immediately annoyed me but he explained "Look for the dark spot that isn't glowing."

With that instruction, we were all able to see it.

Daphne whispered. "I'll move us closer to there using the trolling motors."

We moved silently but the small electric motors were slow.

Fred whispered urgently. "Stop!"

Daphne throttled back. It was just a few seconds before we were moving with the current.

Shaggy, Scooby, and I followed as Fred moved next to Daphne and dropped his voice even further. "There's a slight glow in the dark spot."

We all turned our binoculars toward it.

I worked the focus ring and squinted trying to see. "The dark spot might be a 42-foot Silverton or it might not. And the glow might be Captain Cutler or it might not. I can't make it out. It's too dark and too far."

"Ideas?" Fred looked around at all of us.

"Run away?" Shaggy's vote was unsurprising.

"Rye recond!" The vote was going as expected.

"Crank the engines up, charge in there, and grab the ghost!" I would later learn that Daphne would always be the most aggressive of us.

"Can we follow them and track them to where they dock and confirm that it is Captain Cutler's yacht?" I was not making a suggestion. I was asking a question.

Daphne nodded. "I can do that."

"That's the plan, then. Daph, wait until he fires up his engines to mask the sound of ours and then pursue."

"Maybe I should have been annoyed that Fred was repeating my plan, but I was jazzed that it had been chosen over Daphne's."

We waited and watched. We could see that the glowing object was fading as the plankton lost their photoluminescence with time. They were moving about in their boat and then the glow was gone. A minute later, their engine started up.

Daphne reved our motor to life and we followed.

The object of our pursuit turned on no running lights, and once they left the glowing waters of the algal bloom, they were impossible to see. Fred, Shaggy, and I scanned the blackness with our binoculars and shouted directions back to Daphne when we glimpsed anything. She finally had to throttle down so we could try and navigate by ear.

Shaggy pointed just port of the prow. "I think I heard something from that direction."

He was pointing directly at the tip of Rocky Point. Daphne gunned it and I spotted a silhouette flash in front of a dockside light on the shore. I pointed the same direction as Shaggy to confirm. The other boat had gained a significant distance on us and rounded the point minutes before we got there. We had to stay away from land to avoid running aground.

We continued to follow parallel to the rocky cliffs which towered over the water but saw nothing. After another few moments, Daphne throttled back again and we listened.

Nothing. Our prey had disappeared.

Fred threw out another plan. "Can we follow slowly along and shine our flashlights into the different inlets until we find where he they hid their boat?"

Daphne shook her head. "The shore here is nothing but rocky crags. There's a hundred inlets along here large enough to hide a boat that size. It would take forever."

We sat in silence as the boat drifted along in the current.

"Like, do you think they saw us?"

Fred leaned against the rail. "Or heard us."

"Or relled rus."

Shaggy scratched Scooby behind the ears. It was the first time that I had seen him treat his dog like a dog. "I doubt they have a smeller like you, old buddy. But who knows?"

Daphne was keeping one eye on the single light we could see on shore, making sure that the boat didn't drift too close. "We have to figure out a way to find that ghost."

Maybe I was a little more cocky than was warranted since my last plan had been a dud, but things were beginning to come together in my mind. "I think I have an idea."