“But he’s out of control, you heard him.” With his reddened eyes and hair stiffened by drying ocean salt, Jack looked like Poseidon risen from the deep. “We have to do something. We have to geolocate, trace the call, whatever.”
“Sit down,” she ordered. “We need to focus, not panic.” She pulled her own phone from her jacket pocket, where it had been happily recording that whole time. “I want you to listen to the call and try to figure out what those sounds are in the background.”
“You recorded it?”
“Of course. What do you think I am, a rookie?” She handed him her phone, and went to stand next to Captain Sparrow at the controls. “Who’s the biggest gossip on the waterfront around here? Who knows everyone?”
“If you’re wondering about Hendrik, that’s no mystery. It’s probably Hendrik de Vries. He’s a South African globetrotter dude who comes here in the summer to play with his boats.”
“Celine’s boat is registered to an LLC called HV Holdings.” While they’d waited for Jack, she’d done some quickie research on the Swan Song.
“Yeah, that’s probably his.”
“What else do you know about him?” She gritted her teeth as they hit a whitecap. The wind was picking up out here; it felt like a storm to her, though it was probably nothing more than a gentle breeze to someone named Captain Sparrow.
“Filthy rich, obviously. Aging playboy. He and John Carmichael used to be sailing buddies until Carmichael aged out.”
“What business is he in, do you know? Where does his money come from?”
“You got me there, lady. The only thing I’ve heard is that you don’t want to mess with him. Owns a security firm that hires former black ops dudes only. He’s one of those master of the universe types who goes around screwing people over and getting away with it. Scary. If I’d known that was his boat…” He shook his head. “Probably would have dumped you two overboard.”
“Oh come on, Sparrow. Where’s your pirate spirit? Besides, what would be the point, when Jack already dumped himself overboard?”
He eyed her as if he really wouldn’t mind pitching her over the side, and would do so if he thought he could.
“Just take us back to Harbortown. We have some catfishing to do. Make that car-fishing.”
Neither of the two men laughed at her lame play on words. She rolled her eyes and focused on the horizon.
30
From Harbortown, they drove back to Vermont. Jack was starting to feel like they were just driving in circles.
“I’ve been thinking about that postcard, and how it sounded like it was written in code,” Tina said from behind the wheel. “Didn’t you say Celine called it ‘that fucking hospital’? Not to mention that someone set your car on fire here.”
“You think the hospital is involved.”
“No, but someone who works there is. Maybe someone connected with Mark Peterson’s old doctor, the one who keeps in touch with him. I found that strange too, by the way. I don’t think that’s normal procedure. I don’t think those are normal postcards. They’re using Peterson and this hospital as a way to pass messages that they don’t want anyone else to see. Cell phones can be monitored, emails can be hacked. Postcards are old-school technology.”
“When you say ‘they,’ you mean…”
“Adam and possibly the neuropharmacologist, Dr. Choudhoury. What if this smuggling operation isn’t about guns or fentanyl? What if it’s hard-to-get pharmaceuticals?”
Jack drummed his fingers on his thigh. His throat was still rough from his dunk in the harbor, and he would have killed for a shower. “Everyone keeps saying that Adam wants to help people. Maybe he’s doing it by smuggling in psychiatric medication to people who can’t afford it in this country.”
“Hmm, that’s a good point about Adam. Slash Seth slash Lloyd.”
She gave him that look that said, “we’re vibing now, clicking on all cylinders.” He loved that look.
“Is there any chance that Jessie’s working with him?” she asked.
And…there went the good vibes. “I don’t believe she would do that. She’s not a huge fan of psychiatric drugs. My parents put her on a bunch of them before they accepted she’s got her own unique place on the spectrum. Now she only takes something for anxiety.”
“Okay.” Tina didn’t question his assessment. “Then maybe she found out what he was doing and threatened to report him.”
He winced, since that was probably a worst-case scenario.
“She’s alive,” Tina reminded him. “We know that much from the phone call. That’s huge.”
