Stolen Child (Coastal Fury Book 13), Matt Lincoln [ebooks children's books free TXT] 📗

“These people are like, obsessed with this stuff though, right?” Birn asked. “Like you, but even more. It could be anything, then, right? There are other long lost pirate ships out there. If I’ve learned anything working with you, it’s that.”

“I wouldn’t say that anyone’s more obsessed than him,” Holm said, jutting a chocolate-covered thumb in my general direction.

“Alright, alright,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Point taken. But what he means is that they look for more than one ship, while I’ve only ever really intentionally looked for the Dragon’s Rogue and maybe the Searcher’s Chance. The rest of it all just kind of fell in my lap.”

“Yeah, because only you would have buried treasure falling right into your lap,” Holm said, rolling his eyes.

“Hey, you were with me when we found Lafitte’s ship,” I pointed out.

“Please,” he scoffed. “There’s no way I would’ve even ended up on that mission unless I was with you.”

“So you’re saying I’m a better agent than you,” I teased.

“No, I’m saying you’re a weirder one,” he corrected, and I had to give him that one as we all laughed.

“Birn’s point is, this could be any artifact that they’re looking for, right?” Muñoz asked. “Or do they only work on one project at once? This is the part of their file you’ve been working on, Marston.”

Everyone looked to me for confirmation, and I nodded.

“Yeah, I mean, they have to, right?” I asked. “We know that they found Lafitte’s ship sometime in the last year, then pawned it off on Clifton Beck, that gang leader from New Orleans, for some reason that really doesn’t make any sense yet. At the same time, they had that thug Joey working on the whole Dragon’s Rogue and Grendel’s journal thing in Virginia.”

“Wait, why doesn’t that make sense?” Muñoz asked, holding up a finger to stop me. “I thought they did that as a way of helping out with the whole Haitian zombie drug thing you guys were working on.”

“Yeah, but why did they want it in circulation in New Orleans?” I asked. “It wasn’t their drug. They weren’t making any money off of it, as far as we know, and we’ve looked deep into it. If they were directly involved, we would know it by now. And why’d they leave all that treasure on board for the gangbangers to just take instead of keeping it for themselves? None of it adds up.”

“Weren’t they tailing you in Haiti, too?” Birn asked.

“Someone was,” I confirmed with another nod, wiping some syrup off my own lip. “That’s how they knew I was looking for the Dragon’s Rogue in the first place.”

“This is gonna sound crazy, but hear me out,” Muñoz said, and I nodded yet again. “Do you think that maybe they left Lafitte’s ship there for you to find?”

I paused with my fork halfway to my mouth, gravy dripping off the biscuit and down onto one of the pancakes.

“I… I hadn’t thought of that,” I managed, blinking at her.

I really hadn’t, though now that she mentioned it, I wasn’t at all sure why. The Hollands had sent me the fake journal, after all, and they’d been constructing a fake Dragon’s Rogue for me to find, too. So why not Lafitte’s ship? Was it even the real deal? Could it be a fake, too? I hadn’t had much time to look at it or any of its contents before the FBI hauled it away. An expert like George, or maybe even Percy, would be able to tell for sure.

“You think that was a fake like the other one?” Holm asked in a hushed tone, reading my mind. I looked over and saw that he’d all but abandoned what was left of his own meal, as well.

“I… I don’t know,” I stammered, my mind and heart still racing in tandem at the possibility. “The FBI took everything, and Diane hasn’t been able to find anything out about it since.”

“I mean, it’s our case now, though, right?” Birn asked with a shrug. “That turned out to be a Holland case, even though we didn’t know it before.”

“Yeah, but Diane said they’re still cagey about it all,” I explained. This had been a sore spot over the last several weeks between Diane and me. I wouldn’t shut up about it, and she wouldn’t stop telling me that the FBI would get around to it when they got around to it. They just needed to finish their own evaluation of the artifacts first. When they did, we would be the first to know their findings.

“Cagey?!” Holm explained. “I swear, this is our case. They’ll do anything to keep this stuff from us. Don’t they care about actually catching the bad guys?”

“Of course they do,” Muñoz scolded. “And not all FBI agents are like Smith. Didn’t we just all have it out about this an hour ago? Aren’t you done yet?”

She had a point. Complaining about the FBI’s involvement with this case wasn’t going to get us anywhere.

“Hey, isn’t that woman agent you worked with in NOLA on that case?” Birn asked. “I mean, she was down there with you, there when you found the ship. It’d make sense if she was in on the whole thing.”

“And you said she was cagey about the Holland case, too, when you talked to her last,” Holm said excitedly, pointing his fork at me and sending droplets of chocolate all over the table between us. “I bet he’s right. She must be working on that!”

“I don’t know,” I said cautiously, shaking my head and not wanting to get my own hopes up. “I know they sent her back to teach some classes at the academy while she wound down from her undercover work.”

“But she’s not doing that anymore, right?” Holm asked, his eagerness unabated. “Otherwise, why would she be all weird about talking to you about it?”

“I don’t know,” I said again, a little sharper this time. “And I’ll let you know what she says