I went to sleep. There was a zero chance that those city bozos would find us in this cove, in the middle of the night. When I opened my eyes, the sky was just beginning to lighten. I wanted to make coffee, but I would have to go through the master stateroom, and I knew I would awaken Blackhawk. So I closed my eyes for another half hour. When a waft of coffee came to me, I knew someone was up. It was Blackhawk. He brought a mug up to me.
We sat, facing out over the bow. We watched the sky brighten, changing colors, while we sipped the good coffee.
“How long do we wait?” Blackhawk said. “I’m not sure that those guys can even find us.”
I nodded. “Give it a few hours.”
“If they don’t show, what do we do with the girl?”
“I’ve been thinking about that. I think we should talk to our old friend Father Correa.”
“Good idea,” he said.
Elena’s head came over the edge, by the stairs. “I’m making pancakes,” she said.
Blackhawk gave her a thumbs up and her head disappeared. Later, when she called up to us, we went down to eat.
It was after-noon when the snout of a rental Sea Ray sport boat showed around the corner three hundred yards away. I was up top, and I crabbed across the top and slid down the stairs. We all watched it from the interior darkness. It came to a halt and sat as they studied us. We had planned for this. We put Ashley in the master stateroom. Elena gave her the phone with earbuds and put something on it to keep her attention.
Indigo pumped a round into the Mossberg and wrapped it in a towel. She stuck the Beretta into the waistband of her bikini in the small of her back. She and Elena went up top. They studiously ignored the boat. They sat in the chaise lounges and began lathering with sunscreen. Just two girls taking in the sun. I went to the back where I would be unseen, and untied the stern line on Swoop. I retied the bow line, snugging it up against Tiger Lily one step away, where we could jump on and with one jerk of the line, be free.
I came back through the master and Ashley was propped up on the bed, engrossed in her show. I joined Blackhawk in the lounge, standing back out of the light. If the shit hit the fan, Elena was to bail and grab Ashley and get them both into the over-sized shower. Indigo would hold the high ground.
They were cautious. There were five of them. The Sea Ray was supposed to hold seven but these five filled it up. The guy at the wheel was sporting a billed captain’s hat and binoculars. He had a white shirt and, although I couldn’t see, I bet he had slacks, dark socks and brown shoes. He looked like the guy I had dumped into the lake.
Captain’s hat was standing, giving us a good look. I was pretty sure they couldn’t see anyone except the girls on top. He slowly moved the boat forward. He knew this was the Tiger Lily, but he had no idea who was on board. I pumped a shell into the other Mossberg, and Blackhawk slid a round into the chamber of his Sig Sauer.
Slowly the boat came closer. Elena and Indigo stood up and watched them. The Mossberg was lying on the chaise lounge, next to Indigo’s hand. When the boat reached about twenty yards from us, Captain’s hat yelled. “Hello there.”
Elena and Indigo were silent.
“How are you ladies,” he said with a big ol’ smile.
“That’s far enough,” Indigo said.
Captain’s hat turned and said something to the man behind him. The man stood, holding on to the boat. He put one foot up on the seat. It was obvious he was going to board.
“Who all is on board?” Captain’s hat said.
“Who wants to know?” Elena said.
Captain’s hat lifted a pistol off the console and showed it. “We do,” he said. Now they were ten yards away, moving very slowly. Two of the other men stood.
Indigo reached down and brought up the Mossberg. She pointed it down and blew a big hole in the water in front of their bow. “Holy shit!” one of the men exclaimed. Indigo pumped a new round in and did it again.
Captain’s hat twisted the wheel and jammed the throttle. The 200HP Evinrude roared and the boat spun, almost throwing two of the men out. Captain’s hat had the throttle full open and they raced away.
Blackhawk and I went up top. Elena was laughing, hard. Indigo was in a stance, aiming the Beretta out over the water at the fleeing boat. She turned her head and looked at me. She winked.
“Well, now they know,” Blackhawk said.
“Now they know.”
31
They didn’t come back. We sat inside playing board games until dusk. Finally, everyone but me went swimming. I sat up top, watching. When the sun was down, Elena, with Indigo’s help, made what she called a Mexican bar. A counter filled with ground beef burros, tacos and enchiladas. Lawdy, lawdy it was good. Lawdy, lawdy it gave me gas.
Once again, we snugged all the blackout curtains, and the adults gathered up top when Ashley went to bed. Finally, one by one they trundled off to bed and I was left with the waning moon and a vast array of stars that would soon be hidden behind the bank of clouds that was coming in from the west. A breeze was up, bringing a front with it.
They knew where we were now, so I positioned my chair to face the entrance of the cove and stayed awake. I could hear the murmur of voices below. First Indigo and Elena, then Elena and Blackhawk, then finally silence.
I was dozing when I suddenly saw a twinkle of a light out at the entrance. It snapped me wide awake. The sky was completely covered, and it was dark as Hades. At first it had been just a twinkle, then it was gone. Then, there it was again, closer. This time it began to go on and off. Almost like Morris code. I picked up the Mossberg and went to the Captains chair in the cockpit. I waited.
It took twenty minutes for it to get close enough. I hit it with the hand-held 5-watt LED spotlight. It was so powerful I could light up the distant shore. It lit up the small skiff and the man in it. The man stood and raised his hands.
It was Eddie.
I took the light off of him and shone it back along the stern, so he could see to tie up. As he tied to us, I turned out the light. A moment later he came up the stairs. A moment after that Blackhawk followed. He carried three beers.
Eddie sat and nodded as Blackhawk handed him a beer. He took a long greedy drink.
“I was cleaning fish when I saw them boys come in. They all left, then about an hour later they showed up again and this time they took two boats. They filled one with camping stuff. I saw at least two automatic rifles. They took off together.”
“They came back here?”
“My old Betsy couldn’t keep up, but I came down here and did some fishing. They’re just around the corner. They left two guys and the camping stuff. The other three went back to the harbor. I fished their shore line, minding my own business. They were setting up a camp at the top of the point. You come out of here, they’ll call their friends. They’ll catch you on open water.”
“They hear you come in, just now?”
He shrugged. “Couldn’t paddle this far.”
“No way they’d put Eddie’s boat with us,” Blackhawk said.
“They saw him at the marina,” I said. “They could’ve put binoculars on him.”
“Different hat,” Eddie said. “They were busy setting up their camp. They didn’t even look at me. And it was getting dark. I went on down a ways and took a nap. Then I came here.”
I sipped the beer and thought. They sat quietly. Finally, Blackhawk said, “We go neutralize them, then I have Nacho meet us and we take the girl to Father Correa.”
I nodded. “Yeah,” I said. “Except the we is Indigo and me. Elena is still skittish, and she won’t want you leaving her alone.”
He didn’t say anything. Then he nodded.
I looked at Eddie. “You hang with us, and when Nacho picks us up, can you get the Lily back in her slip?”
“Sure.”
“I’ll go wake Indigo up,” I said, standing.
“Indigo’s already awake,” she said standing on the stairs. “Let’s get ready.” She climbed back d
own.
32
I put on cargo shorts because of the extra pockets. I had another pair for Indigo, but we had to cinch her middle with a short piece of mooring line. We each filled the pockets with shells for the two Mossbergs. We each took a pistol, and I hooked on a fillet knife. We slipped on two of my black tee shirts.
The girls had shared a couple of bottles of wine, so I dug the cork from the wastebasket. I burned it and Elena used the blackened part to camouflage our face and arms. Swoop had two paddles in the long locker where water skis could be kept. She was a wide and stable boat. Stable enough so we could stand up and paddle. We climbed aboard, freed the line and pushed away.
We silently made our way around the Tiger Lily and staying close to the shore, we moved toward the mouth of the cove. A while back, Blackhawk, Elena, Detective First Grade Boyce and I had spent an extended time out on the lake. Several days had been in this cove. I was very familiar with it.
There was no reason to think the two goons on shore would be looking for us, but the cloud cover made us lucky. We were both carefully slipping the paddles in and out of the water silently. Every few minutes I took my bearings. It was really dark. After a long, slow trek, I suddenly saw a flicker of light at the top of the ridge. We stopped and looked at it.
“Campfire,” Indigo said unnecessarily. Thirty yards ahead, I saw a dark lump on the shoreline. Their boat. I slipped my paddle in and pushed toward the shoreline. I carefully set the paddle down and stepped to the bow. I picked up the line and when the hull nudged the shore I stepped off. I held the boat while Indigo gathered the shotguns. She stepped off, set the shotguns down, and we both pulled the boat up, halfway onto the shore. I found a scrub sage and tied her off.
Indigo handed me a shotgun. We started up. She silently moved off about twenty yards. You never go up at an enemy in single file. It was dark and slow. Every step had the possibility of dislodging a rock. The ground was very rugged, and the creosote and cactus tugged at almost every step. We moved very slowly, carefully, setting our feet gently. And in the end, it didn’t matter. Halfway up, we could hear their voices. They were arguing about the Phoenix Suns. One voice higher pitched and insistent, the other lower, gravely and slightly slurred. The noise allowed us to move faster. Whenever one of them was talking, we moved. We slowly crested the hill. They were sitting on either side of a fire in the kind of camp chairs that folded and were sold in a bag. I hated them. The chairs, not the guys. Oh, I might have hated them too, but right now I was pretty ambivalent. They were passing a bottle back and forth. This told me they were only here to make the call if the Tiger Lily pulled out of the cove.
I turned and looked for Indigo. She stepped out from behind a Palo Verde tree that had a branch broken and split off. The limb was lying on the ground, still attached to the trunk. The guys would be night blind, staring at the fire the way they were. Indigo looked over at me, waiting for me to take the lead.
I stepped into the firelight, the Mossberg casually pointed at a spot in between them.
“Which one of you guys do they call Machine Gun Kelly?” I said.
They froze. The one on my left had the bottle to his lips. He didn’t move it. I could see the guy on the right thinking about making a move, then Indigo stepped out. Now there was no move to be had.
“Finish your drink,” I said. The guy took the bottle from his lips. “Set it on the ground. Stand up and put your hands behind your head. Both of you.” I waved the Mossberg. They stood and put their hands on their heads. Indigo moved behind them, took their hands, and in a not-so-gentle move, pulled their hands down behind their backs. She zip-tied them. One around the wrists, then another up through the middle. She pulled them snug and they both grunted when she did it. She frisked them. Each had a pistol. One a Smith and Wesson .32, the other a Colt Python. They didn’t have the ARs. They did have phones, and the drinker had a pocket knife. Indigo pocketed the pistols.
To the side was a bundle that held a pop-up tent. They hadn’t put it up. They were supposed to be watching all night. The tent was only if it rained. It hadn’t rained all month. They had a cheap blue cooler. I looked in. It was full of beer. No food. They hadn’t expected to be here long enough to get hungry.
Indigo fiddled with each of the phones, then handed them to me. “I sent the last five numbers they called to my phone,” she said.
I nodded. I turned and threw each phone as far as I could. A moment later we heard two satisfying splashes. I threw the knife. It splashed. She picked up the whiskey bottle and poured it out. She started to throw it. I stopped her.
“Wait! I don’t want broken glass in the lake.”
Her eyebrows went up. “Phones and knives are okay. You think there’s no glass in that lake?”
“Not that I put there,” I said. “We’ll carry it back.”
One of the guys thought I was funny and snorted. Indigo smacked him in the mouth with the bottle. Blood spurted as he bent over with a strangled sound.
“Oh jeez, oh jeez,” he moaned. He spit blood on the ground. He rose up. Blood was all over his chin and down the front of his shirt. I could see his front teeth were broken.
“You goddam bitch,” he screamed at Indigo. Big mistake.
She punched him. It was a snap punch. A good one. The kind that comes straight from the shoulder with the weight of the body behind it. The kind where the fist twists slightly just at impact. It caught the guy on his nose and he sat down with a thud. Broken nose, broken teeth. Wasn’t his day.
She looked at the other guy, but he was shaking his head violently. He wasn’t having any.
“Where’s Lindy?” I said.
He looked at me blankly.
“The blonde girl. The girl’s mother?”
He just looked at me. Indigo took a step toward him. He backed away, holding out the palm of his hand to ward her off. “Hold on, hold on.”
“Where’s Lindy?”
“I don’t know. Newman has her stashed somewhere while we get the girl.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.” Indigo stepped again and he almost fell down. “No, really, I don’t know. Newman went back to Vegas to be with his wife while we get the girl.”
“What do you do when you get the girl?” Indigo asked.
“I don’t know. Ted’s in charge, I’m just supposed to call him if you guys move the boat.”
“Ted the one that went into the water off my dock?”
The guy nodded.
“So, where do they have the girl’s mother?”
“Shut up, Lenny!” the other guy mumbled through his broken mouth. Indigo swung backhanded, catching him on the back of the head with the bottle, and he went face first into the rock and cactus. He didn’t move.
“Shit,” Lenny said. “If they find out I’m talking to you guys, they’ll kill me.”
I pointed the Mossberg at him, “Your choice. Later or now.”
His face was sick in the firelight. After a moment he said, “Newman keeps a house in Troon.”
“That’s where Lindy is?”
He shrugged. “Don’t know her name, but that’s the only place I know of.”
I looked at Indigo. “Do you believe him?”
“Honest to God,” the guy whined.
“She looked at me. “Yeah, I think I do. What do we do with them?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. We’ll scuttle the boat. It’ll take them half a day to walk out.”
“Why don’t we just kill them?” she said, raising the Mossberg.
The guy’s eyes grew very wide. “Oh, no no no,” he moaned.
She grinned and leaned toward him, “I’m just joshing ya.” The guy was about to wet himself. Tough guy with little girls.
“Let’s get back,” I said. I turned, and we started back down the slope. This time we didn’t care about noise. She stood beside Swoop as I untied their boat. I pushed it out a little, so it was floating. I untied Swoop’s bow line and we pushed it out. We stepped on
board and this time I fired the motor. I put her in gear and angled her toward the other boat.
When we reached her I said, “Grab the line.”
She leaned off the bow and got the other boat’s line in her hand. “Hold on,” I said. I gently moved the throttle and we slid out away from the shore. When we were far enough, I put us in neutral. I stood and picked up the Mossberg. I came around and climbed up on the bench seat. I leaned down and pointed the tip of the Mossberg’s barrel about two inches off the bottom. I blew a hole in it. The noise was deafening, and it rolled across the lake.
My ears were ringing. Indigo stuck a finger in hers and wiggled it. “Shit, Jackson! You won’t throw a bottle into the lake, but you’ll dump a whole fucking boat.”
33
The cloud cover had broken slightly, so there was a little more visibility when we nudged up to the Tiger Lily. Elena, Blackhawk and Eddie were waiting. Blackhawk was up top, Elena on the bow, and Eddie at the stern waiting to tie us off. He had given his skiff more line and had shoved it out of the way. Indigo clambered up the stern and handed Swoop’s bow line to Eddie. He tied it off. I lifted the motor until it locked into place. She would trail behind now.
As I came on board, Elena came through the sliding doors to the stern. It was crowded, so Indigo slipped out of the oversized cargo shorts and went up the stairs.
“I heard a shot,” Elena said.
I could hear Indigo laugh. “Jackson killed a boat,” she said. “Limited out.”
Elena was looking at me. It wasn’t funny.
“Eddie was right. There were two of them. We neutralized them. It will be several hours before they find anyone to help them.”
“They’re alive?” she said.
“Jackson wouldn’t let me kill them,” Indigo said from above.
“That isn’t funny,” Elena said.
To change the subject, I looked up at Blackhawk. He was outlined against the dark sky. “Did you get a hold of Nacho?”
They Called Her Indigo Page 12