Island Hideaway 51 - Everything changes

By Terrence Oblong

Fri, 24 Jan 2020

291 reads

A shot rang out. The gunman fell to the ground. From nowhere the Boatman emerged, brandishing a rifle.

"Sorry to leave it so late," he said. "I didn't do anything earlier for fear of harming the dodo."

Eddie ran over to the body, kicking away the gun which had fallen to the floor.

"He's dead," he said, eventually.

"No great loss," the Boatman said.

"You knew about the dodos?"

"Of course I know about the dodos. Why do you think I come all the way here twice a day, when the gods allow. For the profit I get selling you a pair of wellington boots every five years? I've been watching them for forty years now. The outside world must never know about them."

"You think that mankind will repeat it's mistakes," said Eddie.

"Will make new ones, I expect," the Boatman said. "But it'll be Dodo Armagedon Two anyways. I know I can trust you all, at least. I don't know what you're up to, but it's a big secret. The second biggest secret on this island. I take it you don't want to hang around for a police investigation."

"I'm off tonight," Mo said. "Never coming back."

"Nice to have met you miss. The dodos clearly like you, and they're good judges of character."

"I'm hoping to marry Brad Pitt."

"From Ocean's Eleven? Well good luck with that. He is a handsome fella."

"I'm Mo," Mo said, shaking the Boatman's hand.

"I'm the Boatman."

"I'm Eddie," said Eddie.

"I'm still the Boatman. "We'll have to dispose of the body," he added. "And the boat."

"What if he's not alone?" I said. "What if there's a gang?"

"No, he's always been alone. I watched his boat with thermal imaging binoculars, there was only one person on board. He's been coming here for weeks now, but catching dodos aint't easy. I reckon he was waiting 'til he caught one afore he told anyone else."

"Who is he?"

"A two bit criminal. I've seen him around, does a bit of smuggling. He probably used the island as a hideaway for his contraband. It's a pretty safe place to hide something, there's just you here and you're pretty easy to keep an eye on. He must have stumbled across the dodos at some point and realised what they were."

"Changing the subject," said Eddie. "You mentioned disposing of the body."

"I can do that," said the Boatman. "I knows the sea round here, there's good places to sink a body so's it'll stay sunk. I'll need your help with the boat, mind, I can sail it out to the middle of no-where so that any search is carried out in entirely the wrong place, but I'll need you to follow me and bring me back in your boat."

"Can't we use your boat?"

"People might recognise it. This way, if anyone sees anything, all they sees is a strange boat."

"Okay," said Eddie to the Boatman. "We'll be back in a while," he said to me.