Mary: Conversation With Crayton

November 9th, 2008:


ME: Hello? May I speak with Mr. Crayton, please?

CRAYTON: What?

ME: This is Edmund Crayton?

CRAYTON: Speak.

ME: Excuse me. I'm Mary Stroud. I work for Cynthia Howland.

CRAYTON: (Pause) Well, well. Aren't we bold?

ME: No. That's why I'm calling.

CRAYTON: Hm?

ME: Mrs. Howland isn't paying me enough. I finally figured out what I'm up against, I know now that I can't win and I want to switch teams.

CRAYTON: Smart girl.

Me: I want fifteen million dollars, a new identity and a guarantee that I'll be left alone by you people. And don't act like fifteen million means anything to you. I've seen what you can do.

CRAYTON: Hm. You'll need to prove yourself.

Me: How?

CRAYTON: Young Howland. I want him.

Me: I don't know. No more over the phone, I want to meet. Archie's Diner, nine o'clock tonight.

CRAYTON: In the neighborhood, are we? Sure, why not? Nine o'clock. Don't be late.


I hung up the pay phone and looked at Josh, who had been sharing the receiver. He nodded. "It's the same voice I heard on the other side of the door back at that storage area in Atlanta. He was the one helping Hollis."

We exited the tourist kiosk by the large jetty across from the hotel and walked back to Keane's trailer. The sun had just set over Wardang Island off the coast and there was a blood-red tinge to the edge of the horizon.

By the time we made it to Keane's, she and Lachlan had been joined by a tall, fit, shirtless man in his late twenties, the three of them tipping back beers and sharing a laugh. Keane introduced the man as her semi-good-for-nothing mostly-ex-boyfriend Dylan, who spent his days as an underwater tour guide to the shipwrecks ringing Wardang Island. His muscles were cut and his skin was bronzed by the sun, Josh seeming to waver like a pale ghost next to him in the light of the bonfire.

Keane explained that Dylan was the classmate who had been beaten by Crayton's ranch hands when he was younger, and if we wanted another man to investigate the property he wouldn't mind getting a little payback, for a price. I told him in no uncertain terms that it was going to be terribly dangerous, but he shrugged off the warning and insisted on coming, if for nothing else to look out for Keane and keep her out of trouble. She responded by scowling and throwing her mostly-empty beer can at his head, the foam spattering all over his blond hair as he shrugged off the attack.

"I'm used to being wet anyway, so no worries," he said to me as he shook out his hair. "I'll just be happy to strut around on dry land for a bit, even if it is on Happy Farms."

Josh asked, "So you just swim around in scuba gear all day with tourists checking out wrecks?"

"Yep. There are underwater plaques next to them and you just swim from one to another. Pretty cool, really. At this point I could repeat them by heart if you wanted to know more about the boats, though I can't say any of 'em went down due to any great story. Mostly it was just dust from the farms blew out to sea and made it tough to make out where Wardang Island was in the old days." He chuckled, "'Course, the island is sacred to the Aborigines, so they probably had a good laugh when one of our ships busted up on their shores."

Lachlan fumbled with the beer cooler, nearly tipping it over as he went for another one, Keane scolding, "Easy, old man. We've got work tonight."

He nodded unsteadily, fishing around in the ice for one of the few remaining cans. "Aye, aye, ma'am," he said without sarcasm. He grimaced at the cold as he fumbled to get a grip. "Tough to find the damn things," he muttered.

I sat up straight, a thought popping into my head. "What if the Liberator isn't hidden on a different part of the coast? What if it isn't still on it's way, either? What if it's here now and we just can't see it?"

Josh looked puzzled. "Hurr... like, invisible? Can he do that?"

Ignoring him, I looked at Keane. "The cove by Happy Farms... how deep is it there?"

She nodded slowly, a smile spreading across her face. "I'll be damned. It's been there the whole time. He sank it. Just another underwater wreck near Wardang Island." Keane turned to Dylan, her eyes gleaming. "Get your gear. We're going diving tonight to find that blasted boat."