“Jerk.” I aimed a light punch at his abs.
He blocked it with a swift move. “You’ll have do better than that.”
“You definitely deserve worse. I could’ve slept another five minutes!”
Naomi pushed past us into the room. “Save your punches for Kyle. He deserves them.”
“What happened?” I asked, registering her bedraggled appearance and red eyes and nose. “Oh no. Have you been crying?” My fists clenched. “What did Kyle do?!”
“No, I haven’t been crying,” she snarled. “And by the way, you should never ask someone if they’ve been crying, because if they have been crying—which I wasn’t—it’ll only embarrass them and make them cry more.” She paused, held up a finger, then turned her head to deliver a mighty sneeze into her elbow.
Now the red eyes made sense. “So noted. But my question stands: what did Kyle do to deserve punches?”
“He forgot that some of us have human immune systems.” Naomi pulled a tissue from a pocket and wiped her nose. “All I can say is, we were working an op that required us to hide for nearly an hour in a water-filled ditch. Cold water.”
I gave her a wince of sympathy. “Yeah, I gotta say, I don’t miss getting colds.”
“Well, I haven’t gotten this one yet,” she declared then spoiled it by blowing her nose. “I’ll be fine by morning. Lots of vitamin C and fluids. Works every time.”
Before I could question her confidence, Pierce strode in, with Marcus a second behind him carrying a tube of rolled paper.
Pierce took up a position where he could see everyone. Playing the part of the security chief and definitely not the actual Tribe leader. No sirree.
Marcus went to the table and unrolled a detailed map of Mudsucke
r Swamp and the surrounding area. He glanced up as Rosario entered. “Close the door, will you, Dante? We’re all here now.” He waited for the latch to click then addressed the room. “Everyone here has been briefed on the situation with the drowned hunter who reanimated in Angel’s morgue. At her suggestion, tomorrow morning we’re going to the swamp with three goals: to search for the other accident victim, to locate any possibly infected alligators, and to avoid drawing attention.” He lifted his chin toward Rosario. “Marla will hopefully give us an edge in finding the body. I’ve figured out some details that should help as well.”
He gestured for everyone to gather around the table then angled the map so we could see it. “That’s Bayou Pauvre on the right side of the map. The blue dot marks the inlet where the overturned boat was found wedged between a couple of cypress knees.” He traced his finger up along the bayou until it reached a red dot several inches away. “Here’s where Mr. Horton’s body was found. Search and Rescue is operating under the assumption the boat hit a submerged log and overturned in this immediate area, then drifted nearly a mile with the current before getting stuck in this inlet.” He dragged his finger back downstream to the blue dot. “It makes a degree of sense because, when someone drowns, they tend to sink right where it happened. Plus, the direction of the current supports it. But, at the estimated time of the accident, the tide was coming in which would all but cancel out the current. Moreover, winds were from the south last night, so I don’t believe it’s possible for the boat to drift so far.”
Naomi turned away to sneeze then peered at the map. “If all that is true, where do we find the second body?”
“We’re going to search the area where the boat was found.” Marcus tapped the blue dot. “The real accident site. With the tide, the wind direction, and how this waterway curves, the only way for the boat to get stuck in the inlet is if the accident happened very close by. The boat didn’t move. The victim did.”
“Because the gator dragged Douglas Horton to where he was found,” I said. “And Search and Rescue would never consider that a possibility.”
“Especially because that’s not normal behavior for an alligator,” Marcus agreed. “But of course we’re not dealing with normal alligators.”
Brian rubbed his jaw. “We already know from the bite marks there was more than one alligator. How do we know the second body didn’t get dragged off, too?”
Marcus spread his hands. “We don’t. But the accident site is the most logical place to start. I expect when Search and Rescue continues to come up dry, they’ll look at the issue with the wind and tides and realize their error. However, my intel says that hasn’t been discussed yet. We should have a good chunk of the morning to search without interference. That said, I want to be there on scene and ready to search the instant there’s enough light.”
“I’m making arrangements for boats and gear,” Pierce said. “We’ll put in at the Tribe training ground. It’s west of Mudsucker and quite a bit farther from the accident site than the public boat launch, but it avoids unwanted attention. Not to mention, Angel can show us where she killed Judd Siler.”
“Um. I’ll try,” I said with a heaping load of uncertainty.
He smiled winningly. “I have all the faith in the world in you.”
“This is no time for jokes, Pierce.”
Naomi sniffled again. “Do we have a cover story? Or are we just going to meander around the swamp and pretend to also be looking for the dead guy?”
Pierce shook his head. “That could draw attention we don’t want. Easiest cover story is we’re hunters.”
I frowned. “Turkey is the only thing in season right now.”
“Then we’ll be turkey hunting,” he replied with a glare.
Marcus grimaced. “But no one in their right mind would hunt turkeys from a boat.”