“Anyway, I don’t know how this will go. With budget cuts, my teaching job here is on the line, so I applied to the North Heron school system when I saw they had openings for a science teacher. Plus, I’m ready to leave this townhouse, although it’s bittersweet. Moving away from the last place Karen lived is hard, but staying here is hard, too.” She shrugged and added, “I feel like I need a change of scenery. I’ve got to go to Baytown with Suzette anyway to talk to Mr. Martinez. It’s what Karen asked of me in her letter. To inform him about Suzette and take her to meet him. Then whatever he decides to do about wanting to be in her life will be up to him.”
“And what if he wants more?”
“Well, we’ll have to figure out co-parenting. People do it all the time in divorces. Or even just when they never get married to begin with.” She sighed again. “But I have to honor Karen’s last wishes.”
A week later, after the movers loaded her belongings, she hugged her parents goodbye, buckled Suzette in her infant car seat, and climbed behind the wheel. Sucking in a deep breath, she let it out slowly. With the baby monitor mirrors she’d set up in the car, she could see Suzette’s bright-eyed face from the back-facing carrier in the back seat.
“Okay, baby girl. Are you ready for an adventure?”
The response was a gummy grin, and as she drove down the street, she whispered, “And are you ready to meet your daddy?”
The same gummy grin was the only response.
5
BAYTOWN
Jose looked around the table in the VMP conference room. Their staff meeting was more crowded than usual. Not only were most of the officers sitting around the table, but Colt Hudson, Sheriff of North Heron County, was present, as well. He brought along several of his detectives, Hunter Simmons and Sam Shackley. Jose was friends with all of them from having worked with them before and from the active American Legion they belonged to.
Having other law enforcement personnel at some of their meetings wasn't unusual. While the Virginia Marine Police had jurisdiction on the water, with the crimes that traversed both water and land, the sheriff's department shared their resources as well as jurisdiction.
Today’s topic was one that had been building over the past few months. Boat thefts. It wasn’t unusual for an occasional boat to be reported stolen, but often upon investigation, some of those were when the owner had not secured the vessel, and it had drifted away with the tide only to be found later. Occasionally, when a boat was stolen, usually a single miscreant acted alone and impulsively.
But recently, it appeared the area was plagued with a possible boat theft ring.
“What makes this difficult,” VMP Chief Ryan Coates said, “is that we’re not looking at any one type of boat being reported missing. There have been speedboats, fishing boats, single engine… nothing that would tie in the perpetrators as searching for a particular type of boat.”
“It also doesn’t help that we’re not finding the boats reported stolen,” Callan added. “So other than checking at the last place it was docked, we don’t have a lot of evidence to investigate.”
“The reported thefts have come in from a variety of places,” Sam said, looking down at his tablet. “Personal docks outside of homes. A garage in Easton. An empty lot next to the owner in Seaside.”
“But so far, none from a dock or harbor that has security cameras,” Colt stated, his gaze moving around the table.
Joseph nodded. “And that would indicate they know where the cameras are, or at least, see them. More owners are installing security cameras around their docks, but the last one reported stolen had no such security.”
“We may be dealing with a professional boat theft ring,” Sam surmised.
“And that just means they’ll be a lot harder to catch,” Andy grumbled.
Jose usually remained quiet at the larger integrated staff meeting unless asked a question. Not that he didn’t have opinions, thoughts, or ideas, but he preferred to use the time to mentally correlate the information coming in.
Ryan looked his way. “Jose? Thoughts?”
He rubbed his chin as he stared down at his tablet, studying the images of stolen boats before lifting his gaze to the others. “With the randomness of the types of vessels being stolen, we have to consider the possibility of copycat thefts. We could have a professional thief who has targeted certain boats, and since the local newspapers have reported what’s happening, someone else could be capitalizing on the situation.”
The others nodded, but he took a little pleasure in the possibility of being correct. It was one thing to go after an organized, professional theft ring, but it was a lot more difficult if local copycat assholes were also using the opportunity to steal a boat.
The meeting continued, and more ideas were bounced around, but Jose’s mind had already moved to how they could encourage the locals to better monitor and secure their vessels. Having grown up around boats, he knew the importance of watercraft to the livelihood of many who use them daily. And he wasn’t discounting those who had spent a great deal of money on pleasure craft only to have them stolen from the docks at the back of their houses.
Standing quickly as the meeting concluded, he shook the hands of Colt, Hunter, and Sam before heading out to the dock. Once aboard the vessel, he readied it to go out on patrol. Today, Andy was steering, and he stood on the bow with Jared, letting the breeze hit his face as they moved out into the water. The water was choppy, but with the clear skies above, the waves only added to the beauty of the bay.
“Is Billie out today?” he asked.
Jared nodded. “She said she was going to be testing the water at Winslow Inlet.”
Jared’s fiancée Billie worked for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, and a part of her duties was to analyze the water quality around the bay.
“I don’t suppose she’d—”
Jared threw up his hand and shook his head. “I know what you’re going to say, and believe me, with the news about the boat thefts hitting the news, she’s already been looking.”
Jose chuckled, knowing Billie’s tenacity as well as Jared’s protectiveness. “And how are you handling that?”
“Hell, you know Billie. She’s going to do what she wants to do and what she thinks is right regardless of what I say.”
“That’s true, but you found a smart, protective woman who will be cautious.”
The crinkles at the sides of Jared’s eyes deepened as he smiled. “You’re right about that. I got lucky as fuck that I met her, and even luckier than fuck that I didn’t screw things up too badly.”
Now laughing aloud, Jose shook his head. When Jared met Billie, fireworks exploded, and they weren’t the fun kind. They’d fussed and fumed and fought until they fell in love. While it wasn’t exactly the way Jose wanted a relationship to start, he couldn’t deny that it worked for Jared and Billie.
Just then, the dispatcher radioed the location of a stalled boat in the bay.
Andy steered the vessel toward the west, farther out into the deeper water. They soon came upon the stalled twenty-two-foot pleasure craft. He looked over his shoulder and said, “Radio for Bryce if he’s available.” Bryce had been a mechanic in the Navy and, of all of them, was the best at diagnosing and possibly offering a quick fix for a boat to make it back to the harbor without having to be towed. And since Bryce was on the larger VMP vessel this morning, it would make sense for them to come in case towing was necessary.