Crystal Blue (Buck Reilly Adventure Series Book 3) by John Cunningham (novels for beginners txt) 📕

now stood outside his car, speaking into his radio and looking at us.

“Approval for my water landings has been revoked—”

A siren sounded in the distance, behind us. I swung around to see a flashing light on a small police cabin cruiser as it rounded the western tip of the bay and turned toward shore.

Crap!

I lunged for the line that held the Beast’s tail. When I stood up, I saw that Crystal had jumped into the open hatch.

“What are you doing?” I said.

“Going with you. We need to find my husband!”

I tossed her the loose rope and stood on the edge of the dock, pressing against the Beast’s fuselage to push her off. As the big plane began to gain momentum, I dove toward the hatch, caught hold—

My right foot slipped. My legs fell into the water. My right hand caught the bottom of the hatch—

“Buck!” Crystal grabbed my arm and pulled.

She gave me enough leverage to reach up and yank myself out of the water and on board. I scurried into the nose and released the line that held us to the dock. There goes another good rope, dammit.

I spotted the policeman from the shore now running down the dock before I pulled the hatch shut. I was more worried about the police on the cabin cruiser, since they could disrupt our take-off. That could cause us to crash or if they were really foolish, crash into us.

Before Crystal even finished buckling up I had both engines running. Reverse power to the starboard side combined with forward thrust to the port side spun the old aquatic hull out toward the open sea.

The police cabin cruiser swerved to try and impede our takeoff. I adjusted our course to the west, but a ferry coming in from the USVI forced me back toward the cruiser. Our speed was impacted by the changes in direction—and the cruiser was now dead ahead, its red light flashing atop its bridge.

“Buck, what are you—Buck! That boat!”

My grip was so tight on the wheel my fingers ached.

The police cruiser wasn’t budging!

“Buck!”

I glanced at the speed indicator. We were still shy of takeoff speed.

“Dammit, girl, go-go-go!”

At seventy miles per hour we closed the gap quickly. I couldn’t risk changing course at this speed. With only about forty feet to spare, the police finally hit the gas and tried to get out of our way.

The Beast broke free from the water—

And the police cruiser cleared the float under our port wing by a hair. Well, maybe a foot, but it was way too close for comfort.

Crystal had both hands over her eyes as I banked to port and saw two policemen in the cabin cruiser shaking their fists at me.

Adios, boys!

WE WERE HALFWAY TO St. John before Crystal spoke.

“I got a package delivered to me at Foxy’s—it must have come off a boat, so I have no idea who delivered it.” She reached into the pocket of her shorts and pulled out a Rolex watch. “It’s John’s. I gave it to him for our fifth anniversary, just last year.”

My stomach dropped. “Was there a note?”

She unfolded a piece of crumpled paper as if doing it pained her fingers, then passed it to me.

YOU CANCLE THE SHOW OR THE

NEXT BUNDEL WILL HAVE HIS HEAD

Black magic marker. Blocky capital letters. Cancel and bundle both misspelled.

“Maybe you should cancel, Crystal. Not the most convincing threat, but that could be because they want to throw us off, in which case they’re serious and it’s not worth risking John’s life. I have to say, I’m not at all sure his fate depends on this concert, but…”

“I agree—to both sides of your argument.” Her voice was a whisper. “Guess I’ll cancel—how can I continue if there’s a chance they might kill him?” A bitter laugh. “Here we are trying to support women, help adoptees, expand choice, and what? Extremists would kill us for trying?” Her voice rose to a near scream.

“Crystal—”

“Is our world that fucking twisted?”

I was pretty sure she’d once faced an unplanned pregnancy herself, but her emotion was so real I just couldn’t buy her involvement in John’s disappearance, kidnapping, murder, whatever the hell it was. Stud Mahoney bugged the hell out of me, but my mind was compartmentalizing the two events. At least I knew this wasn’t rational.

“So what did Special Agent Booth want with you?” I said.

She turned to look out the side window.

“To ask about the threats we’d received.”

Screw it.

“And what about Stud?”

She turned to face me, her eyes scanning mine.

“You know, don’t you?”

I held her gaze.

“I told him all about my past with Mike—that’s how I knew Stud.” She pressed her fist against her lips. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. It’s just that I didn’t…I couldn’t…hell, I should have.” A tear dropped down her cheek. “We were together just as his star was rising, and when it rose big-time, he changed. I moved out when he was in Spain filming a movie. He was crushed—he tried everything to get me back. That’s when I went to D.C. and met John.”

“Rebound?”

She bit her fist. “I don’t like to be alone… but I don’t… I mean I love John.”

“Did he know?” I said.

“Not until after we were married. And when we came up with the idea for Adoption AID, John contacted Mike and asked him to participate. I was so angry at him. And now they’re both missing and I can’t help but think it’s my fault.” The tears started up. “But I don’t understand why!”

My throat had gone dry.

“Are you going to leave me too, Buck?”

Determination pulsed through my veins. Whether the Adoption AID concert went ahead or not wasn’t my concern, but I decided once again that I’d do everything possible to help Crystal find her husband.

And her ex-boyfriend.

“Let’s wait until we land, see what we can find out before you make your decision, okay? Maybe we can use the concert to draw out the kidnappers—we have no assurance they’ll