A Walk on the Water - Page 157/186

Patrick looked down at the men and said "That one there," pointing at the one that was pushing the wheelbarrow last night, "is one of the men that bound me and took Alannah," Patrick said with a worried look. "But the other . . . I have never seen him before."

Dominic was getting worried and angry Alannah has been missing for more than twenty four hours and nothing like this has ever happened before. He looked at one of the Port Authority policemen that had come with them, and with an aire of authority demanded, "Have either of you seen these men before? Did you see who they may have had dealings with?"

"That one there," he said pointing at the man Patrick recognized "had dealings with us," the young man said. "And then with two other men on one of the boats. They were going around asking a lot of questions."

"What sort of questions? And which boat?"

"Questions about Alannah, wanting to know if she was alone, and where she was now." He said, "They even offered a substanial reward, which is what has the town in an uproar, they offered gold, not paper money. They said that her father was looking for her and wanted to attend her wedding, which was strange because at first it seemed that they did not know that she was already married."

The other soldier with them, piped in, "They were turned away last evening as they tried to take a barrow full of fishnet to their boat . . ."

"We found it in the alley, along with these two, early this morning," the young man told him. "We were waiting for the coroner to get here before we did anything with the bodies."

"Order a house to house search," Dominic told the young men. "There was more than netting in that wheelbarrow, for now the rest of us will search the boats. Take me to the boat that these men had dealings with. Put the port on lockdown, no one goes in or out until Alannah is found. No exceptions."

"These two came from that boat," the young man pointed towards a vessel that looked more like a yacht than a standard boat seen at Port Lira. "The men aboard the boat have been told that they are not to leave, especially since their acquaintances have come up dead."

"Good job!" Dominic said as they headed for the dock and the boat in question.

The vessel in question was indeed a small yacht, it was in need of new paint and repair from what Dominic could see. The skylight had been blacked out, getting closer he could see some bullet holes in the hull. The six of them searched the yacht, yet they could find no evidence that Alannah had been on that yacht, they did find a small chest filled with gold doubloons, Dominic could only guess that was the gold being offered as a reward for finding Alannah.