"I could go on, " Andy sternly said as he stared hard at

Dr. Faux, who was feeling faint. "Just so you know, I've mounted a joint investigation that includes the Virginia Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the attorney general's office, plus the FBI and IRS. There's been an outstanding warrant out against you for two days because the sheriff couldn't find you to serve you, and guess why that is?"

"I don't know, " Dr. Faux's voice squeaked as Fonny Boy ran his tongue over his poor-fitting braces and a rubber band shot across the conference table.

"Your only address is a post office box, and your home and office phones are answered by a machine, " Andy berated him. "And you've never allowed friends and family to take photographs of you, so the sheriff has no idea what you look like, and you were being held hostage on Tangier Island anyway, and no sheriff is going to try to find you on the Island, because the Islanders aren't likely to cooperate with anyone in uniform, especially if he's trying to serve a warrant. "

"That's your opinion, " Dr. Faux said, and his real nature began to show itself. "You'll have to prove everything you're saying and what the reasons are. A lot of people use post office boxes and are shy about having their picture taken. I was not a hostage and there are no hostages. "

"Listen, Doctor Faux, we need your help, " Hammer said, playing the good cop. "The last thing anybody wants is another civil war. The Islanders are citizens of this Commonwealth just the same as you and I, and to fight us is to fight themselves. It's like getting angry and shooting yourself in the leg. Any civil uproar on the Islanders' part will only prove self-destructive, and it is the contention of the Coast Guard that when you fired the flare gun three times out in the bateau, you weren't signaling distress but were making a blatant attempt to shoot down the helicopter. "

"Say what?" Dr. Faux exclaimed.

"I'll tell you what, " Hammer replied, changing to the role of bad cop now. "When an island declares war on its own government and takes down the state flag and commits a kidnapping, what is anybody supposed to think when suddenly one of these Islanders starts firing at a law-enforcement aircraft? Not to mention, aircraft are part of what the Islanders are upset about because of VASCAR. "

"Fonny Boy shot the flares, not me, and I'm not an Islander, " Dr. Faux quickly pointed the finger. "I told him not to do it. And he's the one who dropped the crab pot into the sanctuary, too, so he could find that pirate's ship. "

"Pirate's ship?" Andy asked.

Fonny Boy tuned in at this and gave Dr. Faux a menacing look.

"You hadn't orte do that! Doncha be talking about my picaroon ship!" Fonny Boy said in protest. "I knew you was not much count!"

"I count for quite a lot, " the dentist said huffily. "And you didn't find a ship. What happened, exactly, is a piece of old metal found you. "

"What are you, a magnet?" Andy sarcastically said to Fonny Boy. "I think it's about time someone told the damn truth around here. Let me see the piece of metal. "

"Yass!" Fonny Boy talked backward, scraping his handcuffs over the tabletop and protectively moving his hands toward a pocket.

"Don't make me pat you down for it!" Hammer helped Andy gang up on Fonny Boy.

"It's mine!" Fonny Boy refused to cooperate. "It fell out from the sky and landed on my leg as I was playing the juice harp. "

"Please, let me see the piece of metal, " Andy said, switching to good cop and getting up from his chair. "I promise I'm not going to keep it unless it's related to a crime or an accident investigation, okay?"

"That's it!" Fonny Boy was adamant, clutching the right side of his windbreaker, and feeling an unexpected hard lump near the broken zipper.

Curious, Andy dug into the pocket, worked his fingers through a hole and discovered" the key to the clinic in the lining.

"Ha!" the dentist blurted out. "The key he took when he locked me inside the clinic after hitting me in the nose for no reason!"

"I thought you said you weren't kidnapped. " Hammer caught him in a lie.

"I'm an innocent victim, " Dr. Faux said. "I demand to be released immediately and I fully intend to press charges! Those violent, untrustworthy people on the island held me against my will and probably are the ones who have framed me for fraud!"

"I've seen the teeth out there, " Andy said. "And all I have to do is look at Fonny Boy's teeth, too. How many fillings, root canals, crowns, and extractions has he performed on you, Fonny Boy?"

Fonny Boy couldn't recall or count that high. He squeezed a pocket of his jeans and felt the piece of metal. Realizing he was in big trouble because the dentist had just ratted on him, Fonny Boy thought it wise to give the trooper what he wanted. The metal probably wasn't worth much, anyway, and all that mattered was that Fonny Boy get out of here so he could return to the crab pot and find the sunken ship and the treasure.

Andy reverently held the old, irregular, rusting bit of iron, studying it in amazement as if it were a priceless antique.

"We need to carbon-date this, " he said to Hammer. "It could be very important. "

Twenty-seven

The day was running out on Andy, and there was still much to do. Next on his agenda was to pick up Moses Custer at the hospital and make sure he got home safely. Then he had that waterproof suitcase to deliver to Canal Street, where Captain Bonny-a. k. a. Major Trader-had agreed through e-mail to show up so he could get what was coming to him.

You'll get what's coming to you, all right, Andy thought as he packed an old, battered aluminum suitcase full of weights from his cramped, makeshift gym in the basement of his row house. How about getting your ass arrested for murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to murder, obstruction of justice, and whatever else I can think of, you son of a bitch?

Andy threw the suitcase, a disguise, and fishing gear into the trunk of his car and hurried downtown to the hospital.

"I'm sorry I took so long to get here, " he apologized as he walked into Moses Custer's room, a large private one the governor had ordered him moved to, even though Moses was on his way out.

"He's all ready to go, and it's about time you showed up, because we need the room, " said a nurse whose nametag read A. CARLESS.

"Do you pronounce your name Careless or Car-less?" Andy politely inquired of the woman, who was built like a wrestler and had eyes that looked in two directions at once.

"People pronounce it both ways, " she replied as she began to help Custer out of the bed and into a wheelchair.

"I don't need no wheelchair, " Custer nervously said. "Ouch! You just hit my mouth with your elbow! Hold on. My gown ain't closed in the back! Lord help me, Mr. Trooper! Please get this woman away from me! I'm more banged up now than when I got here!"

Moses Custer was a pitiful sight. His head was black and blue, one eye was swollen shut, and he was missing teeth, although it was unclear how much of it was related to the assault. One arm was in a cast that Nurse Carless managed to knock against the bedside table as she tried to force him from beneath the covers into the wheelchair that she had forgotten to secure with the brakes. Before Andy could intervene, she lifted Custer off the bed and set him down hard in the wheelchair, which took off on its own and crashed into a chest of drawers. Custer shrieked as the chair bounced backward and slammed into the bed, his bandaged right foot catching the handle of the bedpan on the floor and sending it flying as the chair spun uncontrollably and threw Moses out.

"Don't touch me!" he screamed as the nurse lifted him up by the front of his gown, thereby exposing his backside and other parts that were nobody's business but his own.