Page 69 of Camino Ghosts

“I understand, Mr. Martin. You have a valid objection, but I’m going to allow this gentleman to tell his story. Please.”

“You owned a boat near the canneries in Santa Rosa, right?”

“That’s right. I was a fisherman.”

“Did you ever take Lovely Jackson over to Dark Isle to visit the cemetery?”

It took a while for the question to register, but then he began nodding. “Yes, that’s right. We went over there all the time.”

“And what did you do over there?”

“Cut the grass, pulled weeds around the graves. Her people.”

“Did you go alone?”

The question vexed him and he didn’t answer.

“Did a boy named Carp go with you?”

“Oh yes, Carp. Good boy.”

“Where is Carp now?”

“Don’t know.”

“Do you remember his last name?”

“No,” he mumbled.

“How old were you when you took Lovely to her island?”

“Thirty, I guess.”

“And how long did this go on?”

“Oh, a long time. Many years. I liked her. She liked me. We liked to go over there together, alone.”

11.

The rebuttal began Wednesday morning when the Attorney General himself was sworn in as a witness. His presence was certainly not necessary but spoke volumes to the influence Tidal Breeze had in the state, or at least over the AG. The company, the Larney family, and its many employees, investors, and affiliated businesses were heavy contributors to his campaigns.

The gist of his brief testimony was that in Florida the law was clear, and had been on the books for over sixty years now. Because of nature and occasionally because of man-made projects, shorelines, reefs, even streams and tributaries change with time. Small islands disappear. Others are created. Still others merge and split. There were currently about eight hundred deserted islands in the waters off the coasts of Florida, and all of them were deemed, by law, to be property of the state.

In his learned opinion, Dark Isle belonged to the state of Florida.

When offered the chance to cross-examine such an important person, Steven toyed with the idea of exploring his closeness to Tidal Breeze. They could discuss the company’s behind-the-scenes efforts to secure the island before the Court ruled. While such questioning would be a lot of fun, it would be a sideshow, not productive, so Steven waved off the opportunity as if the AG didn’t matter at all.

If the appearance of the AG was designed to impress Judge Burch, there was no indication that it did. For the first time, His Honor seemed slightly impatient.

The next five witnesses added some color to the proceedings. All were working men who earned their money from the sea in various ways. All were natives of the area or had lived there for many years. All were middle-aged and white, and none of them really wanted to be there.

Skip Purdy went first. He was forty-five, a shrimper whose father had been a shrimper. He’d been fishing, for money and for pleasure, the waters around Camino Island and the Camino River since he was a kid. He knew all the islands well, including Dark Isle. No, he had never set foot on it, had no reason to, and knew no one who had. He had never seen any sign of life there—no human, no animal, nothing.

On cross-examination, Steven asked, “Mr. Purdy, you still run a shrimp boat, is that correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“And you should be out there today, right?”

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