Murder in the Marsh by Ramsey Coutta

Author:Ramsey Coutta [Coutta, Ramsey]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-01-18T05:00:00+00:00

Twenty-Four

After recovering emotionally and physically as much as he could from the clash with the Sheriff, Daniel headed toward the patrol boat. Even if he wanted to, it would take longer than he had time for to extricate the Sheriff and take his body with him. The weather was worsening by the minute, and he still needed to try and rescue Claude. Just venturing out in to Bay Batiste would be a huge risk, but he couldn’t live with himself if he didn’t at least try.

Boarding the patrol boat, he discovered that fortunately the Sheriff had left the key in the ignition. Daniel turned the key and the engines roared to life. The vessel had a small covering over the pilot’s seat, which helped to deflect some of the rain, but not all of it. Daniel took stock of the nicely outfitted instrument panel. He turned on the weather instrumentation, which provided a radar image of the rain intensity in his area. It showed a mass of yellows, oranges and reds, indicating heavy rain in all directions. It also had radar, to detect other boats or structures, as well as GPS positioning. Before he untied the lines, he tried to contact Claude on the radio. He didn’t have much expectation of success, and the static confirmed these expectations. He also received no response when he tried to contact Rachel and Adele.

Having familiarized himself with the boat, Daniel found a life preserver and donned it. He then untied the lines and pulled away from the dock into Bayou Dulac. The rain fell heavily and the waters were rough, but he knew they would be more violent out in Bay Batiste. The wide-open expanse of the bay would provide plenty of room for the wind to swell much larger waves. Since the wind blew from the southeast to the northwest, the further west he went in the bay, the larger the waves would become. If he stayed near the shore on the eastern edge, he could avoid much of the larger swells. But he knew he would likely have to hazard going further out into the bay to find Claude.

The mouth of Bayou Dulac opened up into Bay Batiste. Daniel had to choose between advancing along the shore to the left or to the right. Visibility was extremely poor, but it looked liked going to the right meant feeling his way along a shore that gently rounded toward the northwest. To the left, the shore rounded down to the southwest and then possibly turned back to the northwest. If he went in that direction, he recalled from the map at the LeBlanc’s, he would then be left straddling a point that offered no protection from the wind and waves. He turned on his radar to see if it could offer any guidance. He was not adept at operating the instrument and could discern little concrete information from it. He decided to head to the right and hug the shore as it rounded up to the northwest.

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