The Devil's Work

by Linda Ladd

  Novak wished he wasn’t. He wished he was back at the condo in a shower with a soft clean bed next on the agenda. “Thank the Army. They trained me. Food’s good. Thanks.”

  “I’m the best cook around, and that includes my wife. She tries, but she fails. She’s an attorney in Punta Gorda.”

  “Bet that law degree comes in handy.”

  “You bet it does.”

  Novak grinned and then cleaned up his plate. He stood and poured them both more coffee. He drank it while he listened to some bird shrilling its head off. He wasn’t a fan of birds. Somebody ought to shoot it so it would shut up. If that racket didn’t wake up the Osceola boys, nothing would. Yep, he was in a foul mood. After a few minutes, Eldon finished his breakfast and dumped his paper plate inside a covered trash can. He turned back and stared hard at Novak.

  “Alcina tell you why we’re helping her?”

  “She told me you’ve got a mutual friend, some doctor who knows Claire’s husband. I guess you’re helping for the same reason I intervened on that beach. It irks me when bullies pick on innocent people.”

  “Yeah, I get that. That doctor was a good friend to the tribe, lived out here and took care of us. She delivered my youngest kid. She asks us to protect her friends, we do it. Eloise is a good woman. She travels all over the world just to help people, and she never asks a thing in return. This time she felt she had to. I’m glad we could do something to repay her.”

  “Yeah, I heard she helped Alcina get up here.”

  “Looks like you and I are gonna end up allies in this thing, whatever it is.”

  “I hope so. I think you’re a good friend to have around here.”

  “Yeah, I am. I know my way around the Everglades and the towns surrounding it. I know the people who live there. I know their secrets most times.”

  “Don’t doubt it. Native Americans have lived out here forever, right?”

  “For hundreds of years. Nobody could run us out of these swamps. They tried hard enough, but we just went in deeper. We know every inch of that swamp. That’s why this place does well, especially with sport fishermen.”

  Novak didn’t ask him anything else. He had a feeling he’d get more details when Claire showed up. She was running this case, so Novak could wait. “This place open year-round, you said?”

  “Yeah, but it gets slow. We hold native dances here, and craft shows. You’re welcome to stay out here as long as you like. We figured the three of you might end up dead if we left you at the condo. Those guys are out to put you down, trust me on that.”

  “Yeah, I figured as much.”

  Eldon shrugged and started covering the food with aluminum foil, and then he placed it in airtight plastic containers and stuck them down into a big cooler.

  Novak watched a moment, but he needed to know a couple more things. He had walked straight into a bad situation, and he had to know where he could and could not step. “Last night, Alcina mentioned a dirty lawyer in Fort Myers by the name of Max Kellen. She indicated that he might be mobbed up. To be honest, she was pretty sketchy with the details. Now that we’re on the same team, how about filling me in on the particulars and who runs things over in Fort Myers?”

  “Yeah, Kellen’s a bad character. My wife has had dealings with him in court. She says he’s dirtier than that riverbank over there. She says he might be the mob in his neck of the woods, but she thinks others, higher-ups, call the shots for him. Don’t know who yet. The Skulls act as enforcers and like to bully people for him, but as we’ve already ascertained, the lot of them are as dumb as cypress knots.”

  “She said they steal babies out of Guatemala. That they took her little girl and murdered her husband. You know anything about that?”

  “That’s what she and Eloise both say. We’ve seen children taken around here, too, and more than seems reasonable for it to be coincidences. One kid was a tribe member who lived over in Chokoloskee. There was a pregnant woman who up and disappeared in Naples last winter, not one of us that time, though. I tend to believe there’s some kind of human trafficking going on. Maybe illegal adoptions, too.”

  Novak frowned. “Is ICE involved?”

  “They’re hereabouts, but they’ve got their hands full.”

  “Did they find those women who went missing?”

  “No, they never found any of them or any of the missing children. It’s a terrible thing.”

  “You think this Kellen guy is behind whoever took Alcina’s baby?”

  “Sounds like it. At least, it’s a starting place.”

  Novak nodded. “Illegal adoption sounds like what’s going on. I’ve spent a lot of time down in Central America, and it’s prevalent. Kids disappear from villages, just like Alcina described. Usually they just vanish off the street. I think they’ve got people down there watching for the right moment to snatch kids when nobody’s looking. Going into the house after Rosa and killing her daddy doesn’t fit. I figure something more is going on in this case.”

  “You think Rosa’s still alive, Novak?”

  “They’ve got no reason to kill the kids they take. They’re commodities to those people. They’d be more apt to kill the mothers and fathers. Maybe Alcina and Pedro should be moved out of state until we find Rosa.”

  “That’s what I’ve been thinking. Well, good luck convincing that young woman to leave. I tried, and she will not budge.”

  “You think they’re really safe out here?”

  “Safe as anywhere, I guess. You have a better place in mind?”

  “Not yet. Your condominium is out.” He paused. “Mind if I ask you a question, Osceola?”

  “Nope. Call me Eldon, now that we’re sharing food.”

  “Okay. What did your boys do with those men they took down last night?”

  “Well, they didn’t kill them, if that’s what you’re worried about. We aren’t murderers. They left them out on a median on the busiest intersection in Fort Myers, naked and bound and gagged. They’ll be found soon enough, I’ll wager, if they haven’t been already. They’ll never see their Harleys again, either. My brother and his boys loaded them on a semi and hauled them down to Miami to a chop shop. Don’t worry, you can trust him, too.”

  Novak laughed. “I’m beginning to like your family.”

  “We have our good points. All right, enough talk. I’ve got to go now and get out to my main job.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Professional bass fisherman is my day job when a tournament’s going on.”

  Novak was impressed. “That’s a tough gig, man. You must be damn good with a rod and reel.”

  “My grandpa taught me to fish these swamps when I was a bare five years old. I know every good hole and every fish and every trick in the book out there in the grasses. I’ll show you my trophies someday if either of us lives long enough to be buddies.”

  “Hope it happens. Thank you again for the breakfast. So where do we go from here?”

  “Well, you wait right here and do nothing until we figure out what comes next. My boys are gonna have your back. Jake’ll take care of your needs if he ever drags his butt out of that tent. That pretty young wife of his keeps him in bed way too long every damn day, but can’t say that I blame him. I’d still be in bed with my darlin’ wife if I didn’t have to check in at the tournament by six a.m.”

  With that, he gathered his gear and strode off toward the airboats. Novak glanced at his watch. It seemed he better get used to waiting around and doing nothing. He should have slept in like everybody else. He poured himself a third cup of coffee and took a turn around the camp. Several people heard him walk past their chickees and peered out from under tent flaps but ducked quickly back inside when they saw him. Nobody came out.

  There was another field of mowed grass near the booths, and he figured that’s where they had those native dance festivals. Another area
looked like it was a small zoo or alligator house. It smelled like it. That’s where he encountered the Guatemalan boy. Pedro was sitting cross-legged on the ground and gazing at a fenced-in pond with about thirty gators lying unmoving in the mud. Novak walked over to him.

  The kid spun around when he heard footsteps and then jumped to his feet. “Oh, you scared me. Thank you for saving me and my sister. I thought I was going to drown until you came. I couldn’t make him let me go.” His words came out in a rush and were heavily accented. His English was poorer than his older sister’s.

  “He’s bigger than you are, Pedro. You’re just a kid. I’m bigger than him, that’s why I could put him down.”

  “I’m not a kid. I’m twelve years old,” Pedro said. He sounded indignant.

  “Yeah, you were brave to put up that fight.” Truth was, Pedro looked about nine or ten, skinny and slight and not very tall. He was a cute kid, not as beautiful as his sister, but he would be a handsome young man given time. “How are you feelin’ this morning, Pedro? I suspect you swallowed a lot of salt water last night.”

  “Okay. Better than Alcina. She cries and cries every night but tries to be brave in the daytime. She misses Rosa so much. She’s worried that somebody’s hurting her. Me, too, I’m scared. You think they’re hurting her? She’s just a little baby. She can’t even walk or talk and she doesn’t have any of her toys. I brought her one, though. It’s a little white fuzzy lamb.”

  Novak remembered his own life after 9/11, all the nights spent pacing and weeping in drunken despair. He had feared he’d never get over the loss of his family, and he never had. He had only learned to accept it, haunted by misty memories and awful nightmares. “I don’t think they’ll hurt her, and that’s the truth. We’ll find her.”

  “Rosa’s sweet and she likes to throw us kisses.” Pedro got choked up and turned away. When he sat back down, Novak took a seat beside him and let him compose himself.

  “We’ll get her back. Like I said, they aren’t going to hurt her. You know that, right?” That was probably the truth. A healthy, happy baby was a lucrative asset in their business. They would not endanger Rosa, but Alcina and Pedro were different stories. They wanted them both dead, no question about it. Novak wished they could go to the police, that would help, but Eldon knew the ropes down here. Novak would listen to him, and he would take his advice.

  “They said your name is Novak, no?”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Will Novak.”

  “You know what? Back there at that condo? I watched you run out on the beach every night. I hid in the shadows behind the pool so you wouldn’t see me. Why do you do that? You know, just run off by yourself like that?”

  “I run to keep fit. It gives me stamina. I never saw you, or your sister, either, and I was looking for you.”

  “We stayed in the first building down on the bottom floor. It’s apartment A101. We were scared to go outside, except late at night sometimes. The doctor told us not to until that woman named Claire came. Alcina said you might not be a good man, so we hid from you, too. We were scared of you, but now we’re not.”

  “So that guy didn’t hurt you much last night?”

  Pedro held up his arm and showed him some bruises. “He told me I was going to die, and he was going to hold me under until I drowned and then the fish would nibble all night on my eyeballs and skin until I was just bones. I tried hard to make him let me go, but he was too strong.”

  “That kind of man picks on people who’re smaller, and a bunch of them attack at once because they’re cowards. They aren’t used to facing somebody bigger than they are.”

  “You’re way bigger. You’re way bigger than anybody I know.”

  “Yeah. I get that a lot.”

  Then they were quiet, watching the alligators starting to stir. After a while, the Osceola boys started emerging from tents and heading out to the cook fire. “How about you tell me what happened the night they took Rosa? Think you can?”

  Pedro hesitated for a long time and then he said, “They killed Luis when he tried to stop them. They shot him two times. I saw them.”

  “Luis was Alcina’s husband, that right?”

  He nodded. “She misses him a lot, too. They shot Luis in the stomach first and then right here in his face.” He pointed at his left cheek, and his eyes looked horrified by the memory.

  “Were they the same ones that hurt you last night?”

  He shook his head. “No, they came up from Guatemala City. They have come to our village before but late at night, and in the morning, a child is always gone. It happened three times. Other villagers have seen them, too. They say they sneak into your house and take your little kids out into the jungle. We went to see Dr. Eloise, and she said they bring those kids here and sell them for money.” His eyes got wide, as if he couldn’t believe it. “You think they sold Rosa? She’s scared of strangers. She cries if she doesn’t know them. I bet she cries all the time now, just like Alcina.”

  Novak didn’t want to answer that, not truthfully, anyhow. “I think that’s their plan, but we’re not going to let them. We’re going to find her first and make them pay for taking her. I promise you that we’ll keep looking until we find her.”

  Novak hoped that’s the way it turned out, because that’s what he planned to do. An infant in the hands of those lowlife thugs wasn’t something he liked to think about. Still, the baby was valuable to their bottom line, and he knew that most illegal adoption rings hired nurses and nannies to care for the children they took. Still, Novak felt as if he was going into this case in the dark, knowing little about his enemy or his allies or the motives or the mob connections, and none of that was good. Claire needed to get on the stick and show up and fill him in, and the sooner, the better. The longer they waited, the farther away that poor little baby was going to get.

  Chapter 4

  Claire Morgan Black showed up with her husband early the next morning, driving into the Safari’s white-shell-paved parking lot in a black Lincoln. Wearing his new green Pa-hay-Okee Safari alligator T-shirt and aviator sunshades, Novak walked out of the museum to meet them. He had washed up in the bathrooms and spent the second night on the floor of the gift shop armed with a Glock 9 that Eldon had lent him and slept a hell of a lot better than he had atop that chickee.

  Claire was the first one out of the car when it stopped at the bottom of the steps, looking as tall and blond and athletic as ever. Though she was in her second trimester, she barely showed a baby bump under her baggy black T-shirt. She was five feet nine inches, fit, and a natural blonde. She was beautiful but didn’t seem to know it, and her big blue eyes never missed anything, anywhere, anytime, and they didn’t this time, either. Her first words proved it.

  “What happened to your head, Novak? And what the hell are you wearing?” Then she laughed at the fighting alligators on the front of his shirt.

  “Hello to you, too.” Novak gave her a big hug as Black parked the car and got out.

  “Really, what’s with the bandage? You okay?”

  “Ran into a baseball bat. This shirt was a gift, sort of.”

  Claire laughed. “I want to know everything that’s happened. Tell me.”

  She was looking around the camp and taking in every detail. Claire was tough and a bit mouthy when perturbed but as kind and loyal and devoted a friend as anyone could ask for. On the other hand, she was often too determined to solve a crime, and that made her a bit reckless, which in turn made Novak nervous. Most of the time, she was a damn good investigator and got the job done, no matter what.

  Today, as they walked down to meet Black, she looked happy and eager and better than ever. Her face was a little flushed, but most likely that was the excitement of starting a new case. The general consensus of anybody who knew these two newlyweds was that they made one spectacular couple. Claire had always called her husband by his last name for reasons only she
knew, and Nicholas Black was a man to be reckoned with on his own. He had a worldwide reputation for work in both clinical and forensic psychiatry and had authored several best-selling books on serial killers. He was almost as wealthy as Jeff Bezos, not that it meant anything to his wife. They had met on a case where she tried her level best to prove he was a murderer but came up short for once. They’d been together but hadn’t married until recently because Claire had dragged her feet while Black wouldn’t take no for an answer.

  At the moment, Black didn’t look as thrilled about the whole thing as Claire did, probably since his wife was going to have a baby but was still prepared to jump with both feet into some pretty ugly stuff. Truth be told, Black looked as if he wanted Claire ten thousand miles away from Florida. All things considered, together they were like lightning in a bottle and perfect for each other.

  Nor was Novak surprised that Black was concerned. The man worried about Claire’s job because she had a terrifying and inexplicable ability to land herself in trouble, usually through no fault of her own. Now that they were married and she was pregnant, Black would double down on his protectiveness, and Claire would double down on continuing to do what she loved. As for Novak, he was just happy to have her back home and looking so excited and healthy and ready to go. She knew her stuff and didn’t put up with much crap, same as Novak.

  This case dealt with some awful people, but Claire was too smart a woman to do anything to hurt her baby. She’d back off when the going got dangerous. Novak knew that. Black knew it, too, but her husband was also aware that taking care and good intentions could not always keep Claire out of harm’s way.