Sven fell back into the seat, laughing.
Nearly twenty minutes later, at the bottom of the hill switchbacks, they ran into the edge of the capital proper. He pulled over, parking behind a hardware and auto parts store.
“I’m noticing something different right away,” whispered T.J. as he watched the other two vehicles join them.
“Different? Different than what?” asked Tucker.
“I’m not seeing as many dogs and chickens as on the mainland. But man, there are tons of cathedrals here.”
“Big Spanish influence,” said Sven. “You should see the ones closer to the city center. Really does remind me of Madrid. Wide streets, lots of churches. Bells ringing all the time.”
“Not as many children here, either,” T.J. added.
Tucker had noticed the same thing. A few children dressed in their school uniforms moved in and around the long lines of traffic, sometimes holding hands in a line. But not nearly the ones they’d seen in Benin and Nigeria. “Maybe because of all the rescue operations.”
“Maybe they’ve already been sent elsewhere,” said Sven.
Tucker knelt in the shade. It was hot already, and although he had a sleeveless shirt under his short-sleeved wrinkle-free golf shirt, it was one layer too many.
He turned on his cell phone and scrolled over the pictures of the six men they were to find.
“Anybody got a preference what position to take? We got the Red Arrow, the Tradewinds, and the Capri.”
“I think I could use a little umbrella drink, so I vote we go to the Capri, Tuck.”
“That sit well with you guys? Who wants to take the employment agency or the Tradewinds?”
“We’ll take the Tradewinds,” requested Danny. “We got four, so it would be easier to hang out in the lobby or whatever they have.
“Okay, that leaves the Red Arrow for you guys,” he said to Coop.
DeWayne Huggles had a question. “Tucker, how the hell is this black man gonna go into the Red Arrow employment agency and go looking for a maid? Did anyone think about that?”
“Maybe you’re looking for a temporary job, Huggins,” said Cooper.
“Oh, you mean, like being a chauffeur. You see any big black limos hanging around taking rich folk out to dinner? You mean that kind of employment? No, sir. I don’t think so. That’s a bad idea.”
Tucker needed to calm Huggles down. “Maybe today you just watch, record who comes and goes. Look for something you think should be investigated. Look for bad guys or guys who look like they don’t belong.”
“That’s the problem, Tucker. We don’t belong. How the hell am I going to figure out who else doesn’t?”
“Did you take your meds, Huggles?” Coop interrupted.
Tucker was going to laugh until he saw Coop being entirely serious.
Their sharpshooter from Mississippi closed his eyes, “Dammit.” A few seconds later, he whispered, “Forgot.”
Tucker looked at Lt. Gridley. “Your call, sir. This is a call you get to make.”
Gridley stared down at his sandals. Anyone with any kind of military background would spot him for an officer. Even while dressed down and casual, he still was the best-pressed and cleanest of the bunch.
Time to show what you got, Gridley. You’ve got to earn their trust.
“He goes back and gets his meds. We don’t put the rest of the team in jeopardy because you forgot your meds.”
“Good call, L-T.” Tucker saw Gridley stand up straight and throw his chest out.
“Coop, you’ll take them back. And I’ll tell you what…you get to have the Jeep on the way home tonight, fair?” said Tucker.
“That’s a good trade.”
Tucker watched the three of them blend in with the slow-moving traffic north. He approached his Jeep as T.J. and Sven hopped in. He gave Jack a thumbs-up, and the foursome broke off, heading into downtown in the little blue import.
“What are the odds they got some George Strait at the Capri?” he asked T.J.
“Who’s George Strait?” asked Sven.
T.J. spoke to the side of Tucker’s face. “I’m not even going to dignify that question.”
Chapter 12
Just after lunchtime, Geri Tanner called Brandy and asked for a call back. Brandy was outside walking the garden when the call came in. Luckily, the phone didn’t wake the baby.
“Hey, Geri, what’s up?”
Geri’s voice was scratchy over the phone. It sounded like she’d been crying.
“This has been a heck of a day. The kids were all in school when you talked to Bryce—and—”
Brandy interrupted. “I’m so sorry, Geri, about all this. I hope you don’t think—”
“No, I understand. That was a tough call to make. I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. But I have to thank you. We went through Lynn’s things in her room, and she’s got some pretty disgusting pictures.”
“Pictures? Keira didn’t say anything about that.”
“I’ll bet not. Keira would have told us immediately. I have no doubt about that.”
“What kind of pictures, Geri?”
“It didn’t look like some of her friends, but I don’t know. Some were tied up; some in their underwear. It was hard to recognize anybody. One girl had a gag around her mouth. Stuff like that.”
“Oh my God.” Brandy didn’t know what to say.
“Bryce has a friend on the San Diego police force, and he says we definitely have to make a report and get that cell phone to find out who did this. They don’t want to spook whoever it is there at the school, so we can’t just show up and make her tell us and get some kid arrested, but we’re definitely going to bring in the police. I just don’t want to cause a big scene for her. It will hurt all the girls. But this boy is a real creep with some serious problems, and we’ve got to get her away from him.”
“I agree. But I’m relieved to hear that you’re getting the police involved. That’s what should be done. You have any idea who this kid is?”
“Nope. Not one picture of his face. Just pictures of girls. And they’re young, too.”
“Younger than Lynn?”
“I think so. One of them didn’t have a shirt on, and she was prepubescent. I’m guessing about twelve. Bryce’s friend was disturbed with all of it.”
“I can imagine. So what’s the next step?”
“Well, I wanted to ask you for a favor. I pick up Keira in a little bit. Shelby and Tori have a full day, like Lynn. But I was wondering if Keira could come over and stay with you for a little bit, maybe a couple of hours, until we get Lynn interviewed. I’m having my two other girls go home with one of their friends’ mother. They have no idea what’s going on. We’re not going to interview Keira just yet. Hoping we can get information and cooperation from Lynn, first.”
“You know, Libby Brownlee is a part-time marriage and family counselor. She’s Coop’s wife?”
“I don’t know her.”
“She’d be someone really good to be with Lynn when she’s interviewed.”
“They use a special social worker, child’s advocate here. But maybe for something in the future. Right now, I feel like I need some counseling. I just never—”
Geri broke off, crying.
“No problem, Geri. Oh, I’ll do anything to help out. Can you drop her by? Only wrinkle is I know she’s going to be mad.”
“She doesn’t know we know yet. I’d just play it like that. Say Bryce and I had an appointment and we had to rush her over to your house. We thought she’d like to play with the baby. That sound okay?”
“Anything you want, Geri. Oh, I’m so sorry about all of this.”
“Me too. Just what we get to do. On top of all this, Bryce is supposed to do a temporary deployment in about two weeks. Timing sucks.”
Brandy was heartbroken Geri would be alone with the four girls, having to deal with possible police action and interviews.
“You know, you can have any or all of them come stay with me any time.
Or maybe you want to take some time together, just the three of you, before he goes. I’ll happily take the three girls for a few days. It will give me something to do, and I think they’d be a big help.”
“Really? Well, I’ll talk to Bryce. I couldn’t ask you to do all that, Brandy.”
“Think about it.”
“I will. So I’ll be over in about a half hour. Remember, you don’t know anything.”
“I got it, but do you think Keira has told her about the conversation I had with her in your driveway?”
“I don’t think so, but I’m not sure. Keira’s been very quiet. Lynn took her cell phone with her to school, which she wasn’t supposed to do. We looked for it in her room and couldn’t find it.”
Brandy knew that little Keira, once she found out that her mother knew about her secret, would have one more reason not to trust her.
Right after she hung up, Joe Benson called to say that he had two retired friends he wanted to bring over, and if she was okay with it, there were a couple of things he wanted to work on in her yard. He also wanted one of his friends to look at the roof and the stairwell and help figure out if putting stairs on the outside would be feasible. His friend was a retired engineer.
“Well, Joe, I’m babysitting a six-year-old this afternoon. Her dad served with Tucker, so I’m doing them a favor. But I think it would be okay. I’ve got tons of food here.”
“I’ll have my wife get some sandwiches, and she can drop them by later on, so you don’t have to cook. Anything else you need?”
“Oh, gosh no. You’d be doing me a favor helping me to get rid of some of these casseroles.”
“Do you want her to bring Shannon over and perhaps Courtney? She’s five, you know. The two girls are about the same age.”
“That’s a terrific idea, Joe! Go ahead and ask her.”
“Okay, well, I’ll see you within the hour.”
It was going to be a full afternoon. But it would help keep her mind off how much she missed Tucker.
Geri walked down the driveway, holding Keira’s hand. She’d brought a small suitcase with a change of clothes and nightgown, in case they were late getting back.
Brandy knelt down to greet the child.
“I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again, Keira. Kimberly is about to wake up. You want to help me change her or maybe give her a bath?”
Keira wouldn’t make eye contact. She buried her head in her mother’s skirt. Geri’s eyes were puffy and red, and she hadn’t put on any makeup.
“Come on, sweetie. Mommy and daddy will be back before you know it. Come be a big help with Kimberly,” Brandy tried again.
“I don’t want to go,” Keira said meekly.
Brandy stood, gently brushing hair from her face, and then tapped the top of Keira’s head. “We’ll have fun, you’ll see. Do you have any favorite movies I can put on the TV?”
Keira turned around, still leaning against Geri’s legs, but delivering her answer like it was an order.
“Frozen.”
When Joe and his buddies arrived, they carried a large crated box that appeared heavy enough to need a 4th man. Struggling down the driveway, Joe asked for directions to the back of the house.
“What do you have there?” Brandy asked.
“You’ll see. Now, can I get to the back through a side gate, or do I have to come through the house?” he asked again, out of breath.
“You have to come through the house. The side yard doesn’t have a gate.”
“Well then, that’s another thing we’ll have to fix. You have to have a gate there,” he said, shaking his head. She cleared a path at the front door and allowed them to walk in front of Keira, through the living room, and then through the kitchen and out the back-sliding glass door to the overgrown yard there. Keira didn’t take her eyes off the movie or even seem to notice the men and their cargo.
Joe and his buddies set the large box against the backside of the house. With his hands on his hips, Joe surveyed the space.
“Honey, you don’t have a rear-fenced yard.”
“I know.”
“Why the devil did they build a fence with no gate but not have a fence to protect the backyard?”
“The neighbor told us that someone behind us used to use this property as a cut-off and used to drive through.”
“What? That’s completely ridiculous.”
“Apparently, he’d done it for many years. The owners had the fence built to stop him.”
“That’s not very neighborly,” said one of Joe’s friends.
“Oh, Brandy, this is Sy Woods. And Tom Nettles.”
As she was greeting them, she heard the baby crying. “Duty calls.”
Kimberly had hiked her shirt up over her shoulder and was waving her free arm back and forth, unhappy being uncovered. She was probably hungry too.
Brandy decided against interrupting Keira, so changed the baby and then brought her into the living room, taking up a seat next to her temporary charge.
Keira moved to the side, giving her more room on the couch, without removing her eyes from the big screen. The baby began to feed as Brandy watched the movie.
She knew it was going to be a long day.
She was only halfway there.
Chapter 13
The Capri was the type of bar that could have existed in nearly any country in the world. The first thing that hit Tucker when he walked through the beaded entrance was the smell of alcohol, which meant they didn’t wash the floors very often.
Coming from the bright mid-afternoon light into the dark and dank hole that was the bar hurt his eyes. The name, painted on corrugated metal, with a pink flamingo wearing a necktie, was a total misnomer. There wasn’t much that reminded Tucker of Capri, of the Caribbean, or Florida, where flamingos lived in the wild and weren’t tended in multi-million-dollar landscaped gardens.
It was just a bar, and a dirty one at that.
The floor was sticky as he made his way to a table in the corner covered with dirty glasses. Sven and T.J. pulled up two chairs around the table and stared back at him.
Tucker grinned. “I’m thinking no country music.”
“You’d be one hundred percent correct,” T.J. agreed.
“Doesn’t look much like the Capri I remember,” mumbled Sven, looking over his shoulder at the multicultural array of bodies hugging up to the bar like baby piglets getting suckled.
A tiny dance floor with blinking colored lights was empty, but Tucker spotted several scantily clad ladies hanging on customers in the periphery and figured they were probably the only ones who danced.
A woman washing down the next table asked, “You want some-ting?” in a heavily accented African dialect Tucker didn’t recognize.
“You have beer?” asked T.J.
“Yes. Bottles.”
Before they could ask what their choices were, she left, returned a few seconds later, and placed three unlabeled brown bottles on the table, opening them one at a time. They were not chilled.
T.J. examined it before he placed it to his mouth. “Beer?”
“Yes. Boss beer. Only kind.” Her dark coffee-colored skin was covered in a fine sweaty mist. She had red nail polish, chipped, and deep purple lipstick on her full lips. “That’s nine Euros.”
Tucker gave her a ten-dollar U.S. bill and another five on top of it. Her eyes flickered slightly as she grabbed it off the table.
“Tanks.”
They watched her head for the bar and whisper something to a rather rotund man with a thin moustache and an earring in his left ear. He wore several ornate rings and gold chains. His light-colored silk or rayon shirt stuck to his sweaty body. The waitress disappeared behind a doorway.
Sven examined his bottle like it contained ant poison. He looked to T.J. to get some encouragement. “How bad is it?”
T.J. had drained half of the bottle and set it before them. “I’m trying to figure out what they fermented here. It definitely wasn’t hops or barley.�
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Tucker didn’t want to taste his now.
“Oh, I think there’s enough alcohol to kill whatever it has, but it’s got a taste that’s hard to place. Go ahead, Tuck. I think it’s harmless, but probably very high in alcohol.”
Tucker timidly sipped the bottle, after wiping the top off with his shirt. It wasn’t sweet but had a honey-like aftertaste. He could feel the first few swallows travel down his parched insides, and it reminded him he’d better get something in his belly.
As his eyes became more accustomed to the darkness, he noticed a dusty collection of what looked like Voodoo dolls displayed above the lighted mirror behind the bartender. He counted over thirty, and there were no two alike. Some were made from straw, some from rags and yarn. Some had painted faces, and nearly all of them had hair. Upon closer inspection, the hair didn’t look like yarn, but human or animal hair.
A chill slipped down his spine.
“Sven, you know anything about Voodoo?”
“Only what you told me when we were on the mainland.” He turned to face the bar, following Tucker’s gaze.
“Well, that’s kind of creepy,” whispered T.J. “Looks like some kind of admonition or something. Not very welcoming.”
“Did you see the hair?” Tucker asked.
T.J. took a second look. “Like I said, creepy. I really didn’t need to see that.”
Tucker was aware they had attracted the attention of the bartender, who now waddled over to their table.
“Ah, the Americans have landed. We are all now saved! Praise be to God!” His English was good, and he appeared comfortable speaking it. “You wish that I bring you another beer?”
“Boss beer?” Tucker asked.
“Yes. Yes. Boss beer. Very, very good beer.” He placed his palm to the middle of his chest. “I am Diego, the boss, and I make it. All natural. No preservatives.”
Tucker didn’t think there would be any. But he foraged his question. “What’s it made from?”
“Maize, corn, you know, corn on the cob?”
“You make beer from corn. I didn’t know that could be done,” said T.J.
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