Top of The Edge - Gotcha... Almost

The passenger in the back seat of Tuttle's car, Nadean Wycliffe was more than a little curious and decided to take advantage of how quiet it was as their car sped along at speeds of which Nadean was not at all familiar or very comfortable. "So... tell me something y'all. Who are you again? And exactly where are we going?" Smith shook his head and grumbled under his breath to Tuttle, "It was a huge mistake to bring her along." Tuttle remained quiet, but Nadean responded to Smith's objection, "Well that's just too bad Officer... is it Smith?"

"No, it's not officer Smith. It's Agent Smith."

"Well... Agent Smith, as I was saying, it's too bad you don't want me along. I suppose if you weren't in such a hurry, you could just stop the car and put me out by the side of the road.

"Miss Wycliffe, we will not be stopping the car to put you out by the side of the road. You're here and that's something we'll just have to contend with. However, take note that I am not at all inclined to answer a myriad of vacuous questions."

Tuttle couldn't help himself and just started laughing out loud before he commented to Smith. "You really are way too serious about this cloak and dagger stuff." Then he addressed Nadean. "Nadean Wycliffe, my name is Ben Tuttle. I'm a private investigator, and this fractious gentleman seated to my right is FBI Agent John Smith, also known as Bart by most of his closer associates. We are on our way to Kiawah Island where two young ladies, equestrians have been patrolling the beach. While we were helping Professor Michaels get better acquainted with the Charleston City Police, we overheard on their radio that a flare had been sent up in what appeared to be the area where the two ladies are patrolling."

"Patrolling? Patrolling for what?"

"Enemy craft, you know, Nazi U-boats and the like."

"Wait a minute, you're telling me that there are Nazi boats right off our coast that can be spotted by people patrolling the beach?"

Off the Road

During a moment of clarity between the fog patches, Officer Mueller with his better than 20/20 vision was able to spot something a good way up the road. It was there... and then it was gone.

"I think I just saw something turn off the road."

"You saw it too, huh?" Officer Williams replied to his partner's question. "I thought perhaps my eyes were playing tricks on me, because I don't see a thing now. Do you think it was a vehicle?"

"What else could it have been?"

"I don't know, but the fact that they're driving around out here with no lights is a bit suspicious to say the least. With this fog and lack of moon light, visibility out here is poor even with lights."

Danny slowed the patrol car to a near stop as they approached the spot where they presumed to have seen what now appears to have been a phantom car. Shining a spotlight into the woods Danny commented. "I don't get it. There's no road or trail or anything. How could someone turn off the road into this? All I can see are trees and underbrush. We're missing something."

"Pull over to the side Danny. Someone's coming up behind us."

As Tuttle approached, he slowed and finally stopped next to patrol car 37T. Smith rolled his window down and showed his badge as he asked, "What's going on? Did you see something?"

"We thought we did." Williams answered. "But now I'm not so sure."

Mueller now exasperated and shaking his head in disbelief said, "From about a mile or so back we saw what we think may have been a car with its lights off turn off the road somewhere right around here. But as you can see, there is no way anything could have made it across this ditch and then through this heavy underbrush, and even if something did, we would see signs of it. There would be tracks."

"Could you have made a mistake? It's really dark out here. Your eyes could be playing tricks on you." Tuttle said.

Williams, who was now out of the patrol car and walking along the side of the road shining his flashlight into the woods, responded to Tuttle's question. "We both saw it, but even if I hadn't seen it, I know beyond a doubt that if my partner says he saw something, you can bank on it. He has eagle-eye vision, and in the five years we've been partners, I've never known him to be wrong about anything that he says he's seen." Williams was now about a hundred feet in front of the patrol car. "I've got something here." Mueller pulled the patrol car up next to where Williams was standing. "What is it?"

"There are tracks that go off the road here, and into the ditch. From the looks of it, they used the ditch as their route out and away from here, and they're headed back the other way."

Tuttle pulled his car up even with the patrol car, and Smith said out the window to Mueller, "We'll leave this to you fellas. We're going to continue on to Kiawah Island beach."

When Ralph saw the flashing lights of the patrol car coming head-on towards them, he stopped and pulled to the side of the road. "I can't believe it... we're done for." Fortunately, Louise had been paying attention and knew exactly where they were and responded to Ralph's statement of despair. "One of McDaniel's Tomato Farm fields is just on the other side of these woods to the right of us. I think we can lose them if we cut through it over to Swanson Road"

"What?! Ralph retorted. "First of all, Louise there's a huge ditch to the right of us that I would have to cross to even get to the woods, and second the woods on the other side of this ditch are thick and impassable, or can you not see that?"

"I do see that, but I'm not saying we should cut across the ditch or attempt to drive through the woods. We can drive down into the ditch so that the two passenger side wheels will remain on the bank. Then gradually cross over so that the driver's side wheels will be on the opposite bank. That will put us in position to turn up the farm's irrigation ditch. It intersects with this one about 25 meters back. Then we can gradually work our way up into the field and get out of here."

"That's crazy! We'll get stuck for sure."

"We're kind of out of options Ralph. We can't simply continue driving in this direction. They'll stop us for sure. We can't take a chance on doubling back because we don't know what might be coming up behind us and I'm pretty sure that patrol car is a lot faster than this old heap."

"I'll take my chances that nothing is coming up behind us, and I think I can outrun that patrol car. So, I'm just going to turn around and head back the other way." As Ralph was turning the car around, his special guest passenger, Billy Cook growled and said through clenched teeth, "Do as she says and do it now!" Ralph froze momentarily as he looked into his rear-view mirror at his passenger incredulously. Then Louise angered by Ralph's hesitation screamed "Now Ralph!" Within seconds after Ralph had entered the ditch, his wheels began to spin out, but before he could take his foot off the accelerator, Louise yelled at him again. "Don't stop Ralph, we're still moving forward. Floor it!"

Ralph did as Louise commanded, he floored it, which enabled the car to continue slowly inching forward. Then a little faster and he started fishtailing, and finally his tires found solid dry ground. He made a left turn up the irrigation ditch and once again began spinning out, the flashing blue lights of the patrol car were rapidly approaching. He gunned it just as he did before, and fortunately once again his wheels found solid dry ground. Now he could put some distance between them and their pursuers. Louise looked back through the rear window of the car. The patrol car appeared to have stopped and the officers were now shining their lights into the woods, but before they began shining the lights in their direction, they were well away from the area. They had been able to avert yet another of this evening's near catastrophes.

"Do you think we can take the patrol car down into that ravine and follow where they went?" Mueller asked Williams.

"No. from the looks of it, they nearly got stuck themselves. We would for sure get stuck in the deep ruts they left. Whoever is driving that car is plum crazy... and lucky!"

Tuttle, Smith, and Nadean had not gone very far. They could still see the blue lights of the patrol car off in the distance behind them. Coming toward them now, they could see the headlights of an approaching vehicle.