Coastal Cottage Calamity (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 2) (3 page)

Chapter Four

The morning turned
out to be a long day’s work of me getting nothing done. Miss Vivee was so
demanding. Even though she didn’t know the first thing about archaeology. You’d
think that she’d let me be in charge, seeing I was the expert.

But, she was
easier to deal with when Mac came up to the site. He arrived about an hour
after we did, and then he occupied some of the energy she had directed at me
all morning.

Dr. Macomber “Not
the Boyfriend” Whitson was Miss Vivee former sweetheart and current suitor. He
admitted to his age – ninety (guessing the same rules about age didn’t apply to
men). He was a spry old guy, about five seven, a firm build, with a shock of
white hair that he always tried to tame with his hand. He had a limp that was
given to him by Miss Vivee and her Lincoln car twenty years earlier when she’d
thought he was cheating on her. But that was an entirely different story.

Happy not to have
to babysit her anymore, I checked my knapsack for essentials and put it over my
head and across my shoulder. I pulled out my ground penetrating equipment from
the tent I’d set up near the end of the shoal. The island, being so close to
Yasamee, wouldn’t need the usual site set-up – mess tent, lab and sleeping
quarters – once my volunteers got in, we’d all just stay at the Maypop. I know
Renmar would appreciate the business. Right now Koryn and I were the only guests.

The computer and
leads were stored in a black box that was large enough to double as a table to
sit the computer on while doing tests. The antenna, used to detect the physical
and chemical changes in the ground, was encased in a red box and I maneuvered
it with a long handle attached to the end of it. I handed Koryn a trowel and a
brush and told her to follow me.

I sat Miss Vivee
right outside my tent when we first got there. Pushed up her umbrella and made
sure she was comfortable and out of the sunlight. Once Mac had gotten there I
put him with her. When I got ready to leave, I handed them bottles of cold water
from a battery operated refrigerator I kept in the tent and told them not to
get out in the sun. Koryn left with me leaving Mac to babysit Miss Vivee for a
while. He really couldn’t handle her when she made up her mind to do something,
but it was the best plan I could come up with if I wanted to get any work done.

Stallings Island’s
Native Americans made tempered pottery and shell mounds (instead of ones made
from dirt). And that was what most, if not all, of the archaeological
excavations in the past had been about. But mine was going to be different.

I lifted the computer
out of the black carrying case. It was square and looked more like a tackle box
than a laptop. I flipped the locks and pulled up the lid on the miniature
computer. The screen diminutive, only showed images in a gray scale.

I connected the
long cable leads to the bottom of the box that housed the monitor and then
attached the other end to the hand-held antenna that I would sweep over the
ground, sort of like a metal detector. It made noises as it powered up and
synced the radar with the imaging device.

My heart did a
little jump as it fired up. I so hoped to find something new. Something
different. I was more than eager to do something on my own and make a name for
myself. I took in a breath.

I hate when I feel
the need to excel just to prove . . .

I thought about my
mother. I guess it wasn’t really all her fault I was insecure at times. I had two
older siblings that hadn’t helped my feelings of doubt over the years. They
often teased me, as the baby of the family, it seemed to have started from day
one. But I’d show them, too. Eventually.

Maybe even this
time . . .

“I wanted to say
sorry about screaming the way I did yesterday, Logan. It’s just . . . well,”
Koryn spoke, her words bringing me back. I shook my thoughts away and tried to
focus on what she was saying. I glanced at her, nodded acknowledging that I was
listening and then looked back down at my machine. I snapped the survey wheel
onto the red box to make maneuvering the antenna over the ground easier.

“It’s okay,” I
said grabbing the chrome handle of the antenna. I started walking, rolling the
radar in front of me over the transect I had mapped out earlier.

“It’s not like me,”
Koryn continued. “But it just reminded me of when he . . . Cal.” She swallowed
hard. “When Cal used to hit me. And yell at me . . .” She bit her lip, looking
down she kicked a rock with the toe of her shoe.

I glanced up at
her, careful not to veer off the narrow section I was surveying. “It’s okay,
Koryn. Really. I understand.”

It was such a
sensitive topic to talk about and I wasn’t paying attention. With the radar, I
had to walk up and down an area, careful not to stray. It was sort of like
cutting grass, back and forth to make sure I didn’t miss any of the subsurface.
But I couldn’t concentrate on that and be sympathetic to her. I let out a
breath and switched it off. I looked at her and touched her arm with my hand.
“You know if you ever want to talk about anything. I’m all ears. And so is Miss
Vivee.”

“I know,” she
said. “And I appreciate everything that everyone at the Maypop has done for me,
but I’ve got to get my life back on track.”

I smiled at her.
“That’s good, right? You’re ready to do something?”

“I am,” she said.
“Sooo.” She dragged the word out, seemingly hesitant about her next words. “I’ll
probably be leaving soon.”

“Leaving?” I
raised an eyebrow. I figured that was safe conversation. No sympathy needed. I
turned the radar back on and started moving again. “You’re leaving Yasamee?” I
asked but didn’t move my eyes off the ground I was rolling across.

“Yeah. I found a
job in Nevada.”

“Have you told
Renmar yet?” I know, like Miss Vivee, Renmar had taken a liking to her.

“No. Not yet. I’ve
had enough of Renmar,” she said and lowered her eyes.

“Really?”

“I don’t mean that
in a mean way,” she said. “It’s just not who I am, following around behind
other people.”

I thought about it
and I realized that I’d never actually talked to Koryn about her life. What she
liked. What she didn’t like. What kind of person she was. I hadn’t wanted to
ask because of a past that included an abusive boyfriend.

“Cal.”

That was the first
time she’d ever mentioned his name. She had left Atlanta to get away from him.
But I should’ve known that there had to be other things in her past that were
safe to talk about. I should have tried. I glanced over at her. Now she was
leaving, apparently not very happy with the things that were going on around
her. Not much time to get to know more about her now.

“When are you
leaving?”

“In a few days. I
just got the offer yesterday.”

“I didn’t know you
were looking for a job,” I said and turned to head back down the next section
of dirt. “I thought you were happy here. Staying at the Maypop. Working at the
Jellybean Café.”

“I am. But I can’t
keep running all my life. I need to settle down.”

“But just not
here?” I asked.

“No. I’m a big
city kind of girl.”

Now that I would
have never guessed. Koryn Razner was quiet and seemed to me a little
introverted. Her haphazardly cut hair was always falling out of her ponytail
into her face and she’d recently sliced off more hair to make bangs that were
too long. She was constantly pushing or blowing them out of her face. She never
had much to say although she did have a warm genuine smile that she didn’t mind
sharing. She had a small frame, and even with all the sunshine in Georgia she
was pale. I looked at her, the best word to describe her I thought was “meek.”

“So. What kind of
job is it?” I asked making another turn. She was walking sideways now,
following me as I went back and forth over the area.

“It’s in a
research and development lab.”

“R & D?
Really?” I stopped and looked up from the hand held machine. “A science lab?
You never said anything about being into science.”

“I know.” She
lowered her head and nodded. “I majored in chemistry in school.”

“You did?”

“Yep.” She nodded.
“And I used to teach. Like Gemma. But not second graders.”

“Like high school?”

“Yep. High school.”

A smile appeared
across my face and I nudged her with my shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me? What
a coincidence. I knew I liked you for some reason.” I looked at her. “We’re
just alike, huh?”

“Yep,” she said. “We’re
both into science.”

I heard Mac’s
voice attempt a feeble shout and turned to look at him waving at us. “Vivee
said come and eat,” he said.

“I’m just getting
a good start,” I said turning back to look at Koryn. I took in a breath and
sighed. “You know what?” I took the trowel and brush from Koryn and stuffed it
into my knapsack. “Just tell Miss Vivee I’m not hungry and I wanted to get a
little more work in before we left for the day.”

“Okay,” Koryn
said. “But you know she’ll be upset.”

“I doubt it,” I
said. “It’ll be more egg salad for her. No matter how much she claims she doesn’t
like it, I think it’s the sole source of energy for the ATP reactions in her body.”

Koryn didn’t say
anything.

“It’s a joke,” I
said. “ATP. The body’s way of extracting energy from food.”

“Oh yeah.” She
chuckled. She blew a breath up to clear her eyes of her bangs. “Okay,” she
said. “See you back at the tent.”

Guess that wasn’t as
funny as I thought. Maybe I didn’t have it right. ATP to ADP . . .

I tried to
remember how energy needed by the body was converted from food as I watched Koryn
head off toward Mac. Once there, they spoke for a moment and then Mac glanced at
me and gave a wave before they turned to leave.

“Good,” I said
aloud to myself. “Now maybe I can get some work done.”

I walked over to
the computer and pulled up the images that I had taken so far. Squatting down
in front of the box and examining the results, I quickly forgot all about my
science joke not being funny. The images showed a differentiated subsurface
boundary. Directly below the surface there was evidence of a water table. Water
running underneath the ground.

Whoa . . .

I squatted in
front of the big black box the computer was on, pulling it in closer I studied
the images. I couldn’t remember reading anything about a well of water beneath
the surface. Studying a few images, I mapped out the direction it was flowing
and discarding my methodical sweeping and tried to trace the flowing water. I’d
run the antenna along the ground and check the images, then adjusted my course until
I found the source.

Under a canopy of
trees and the middle of a tangle of shrubs, there appeared to be a small
manmade creek. Shallow, it had water running into it from the underground
stream I’d followed. There was a scattering of different size rocks. And there
were fish. Live fish swimming around in the creek. I knew
that
wasn’t on
the report I’d got from the Conservancy.

With excitement I
whipped out my iPhone 6 and took pictures. I grabbed a plastic bag from my
knapsack, rolled up my pants leg and waded out into the water. I had to try
several times to scoop up a couple of the pesky intruders with enough water so
they’d survive me taking them up on land. I wanted to get pictures up close and
personal. Clicking away, I snapped eyes, gills, fins and mouth.

I’m definitely
going to have to get a zoologist down here
.

I hadn’t even thought
I’d needed one. I pulled in a breath.
Oh, this feels good
. Finding
something that no one else knew about.

Then in the midst
of my photography session I heard a scream.

I jumped up and
looked around.

I know that
scream.

Then it came
again.

Miss Vivee and Mac
was all I could think of. That was Koryn signature scream. I knew it well after
her closet incident.

I tore a hole in
the plastic bag and slung the wiggling fish back into the stream. I rushed back,
leaving my equipment. Had something happened? My heart was racing and my throat
had become dry. Every nerve ending I had was tingling.

Lord, I hope Miss
Vivee’s okay.

Maybe she had a
heat stroke.

I shouldn’t have
brought her. I shouldn’t have left her. I’m never bringing her out to this
island again. Lord, just let her be okay.

As I got closer I
saw the three of them, Miss Vivee, Mac and Koryn standing in the middle of the
shoal halfway between the island and the coast of the mainland.

Thank God.

But it appeared
they were looking down at a heap of something. Something on the ground. As I
got nearer I saw that it was a body.