The Devil's Work

by Linda Ladd

  Chapter 13

  As soon as Novak drove into the city of Naples, he headed to Lowdermilk Park. He parked the Jeep and grabbed his backpack, and then walked down to Lowdermilk Beach. The sand was deserted this late at night, and that was good. He didn’t want anybody to see him. He tried to see the Sarah out in the water but couldn’t spot her, so he pulled out his night-vision binoculars. She was supposed to be about a hundred yards offshore. People on the boat still were not answering their phones. The night was partly cloudy and windy. He finally saw the sailboat, a dark silhouette against the sky. Only lights on were at the waterline, but he had programmed them to click on at dusk. The boat should not be all dark. With that many people staying aboard, some lights inside should be burning.

  Novak already felt uneasy, but now a chill passed through him. He had thought Eldon’s concerns were over the top, but now he wasn’t so sure. There were supposed to be two armed guards out there, and they should be walking the deck. They weren’t. Massive foreboding assailed him. Something was definitely wrong.

  Zeroing in on the stern, he couldn’t see his Zodiac rubber boat. It should have been tied to the stern platform. Alarmed, he ran a few yards down the sand to get a better vantage point. Halfway there, he stopped midstride because he saw the Zodiac bobbing in the swells, maybe twenty yards from the breakers. It was dead in the water, and he could see no one inside. Something had gone wrong. Novak unzipped his backpack and pulled out his .45, a flashlight, and some extra mags and dropped all of it inside a waterproof bag. Then he took his Ka-Bar knife and attached it to his belt and left the backpack sitting on the beach. He kicked off his shoes and waded into the shallows fully dressed, and then dove through the crashing waves. He started swimming toward the rubber boat, but he kept his eyes on the Sweet Sarah. Nothing was moving out there: no lights, no motion, and no people.

  When he got to the Zodiac, he hoisted himself up over the side and landed on top of a corpse. Shocked, he scrambled off the body and felt for a pulse, but he already knew the man was dead. He got out the flashlight and shined it on the man’s face. As he feared, it was Eldon’s nephew, Jeff. There was an AR rifle lying next to him, fully loaded; he was covered with blood and so was the rifle. The kill wound on his neck was massive and catastrophic. Deep and ragged, it had completely severed the jugular. It looked like a direct hit by a large-caliber weapon that had practically blown away his throat. Whatever had gone down out on that boat, it had been brutal and vicious and a surprise. Now Novak was certain everybody on board was either dead or dying.

  Scrambling to the Zodiac’s stern, he fired up the motor and swerved the boat around and headed straight to the Sarah. Then he picked up the rifle, wiped it down, and laid it across his knees. He stuck the .45 in his front waistband. Novak knew who the attackers had been. He figured they were long gone. The body was in rigor mortis, so it had been a while, maybe not long after Jeff had laid anchor. Now that Max Kellen’s local operations were looking shaky, he was getting rid of witnesses as fast as he could find them. That meant Alcina and Pedro. It also meant Claire, but they had already gotten to her. If this was the way they tied up loose ends, Novak didn’t want to consider what they’d done to Claire.

  Within minutes, Novak was bumping up against the stern platform. He secured the Zodiac and then squatted down on the platform and listened. Not a sound except for the surf crashing on the beach, and the soft slap of waves against the hull. No lights had come on. His gut churned; his apprehension built. The people aboard this boat were dead, and he didn’t want to see them. He had to make a search, just in case somebody had been left alive. When he crept up the steps to the deck, he found Eldon’s other nephew sprawled near the helm. He had been shot in the head, too. The right half of it was lying a few feet away, a bloody mess of tissue, blood, and bone. It looked like a sniper had gotten him. Novak clamped his jaw. Nothing moved anywhere. Still, Novak’s battlefield experience told him he was not alone on the boat.

  Stepping over the young man’s body, he ventured a quick peek into the open hatch that led below to the main living area. It was pitch black down there. Alcina and Pedro could be afraid and hiding somewhere, but he knew that was unlikely. He inched down the steps, stopping at each one to listen. Nothing happened. Not a sound. At the bottom, he crouched beside the galley counter. The door to the master cabin was closed, but all the other cabin doors were open. He waited, overcome with dread, not wanting to find more bodies. Kellen’s men had not risked coming aboard just to take Alcina and Pedro prisoner. Whoever did this were not Skulls; whoever did this were better trained, maybe Mafia hitmen sent in by Kellen’s boss. They had surprised the people on the boat, shot down the guards before they could engage. Their objective was the two witnesses.

  Novak sensed movement behind him but too late. He froze as a gun barrel pressed hard against the back of his head. He knew better than to move. The gun on him was held as steady as an iron bar. He was caught flat footed, which was stupid and careless and would probably get him killed. He didn’t react for a few seconds, but he had to, so he lunged down hard to his right and knocked the man’s gun arm up. The shot went off and hit the ceiling, but he twisted enough to get his assailant down, still pushing the gun out to the side. Novak held him down and twisted his wrist until the weapon dropped to the floor. That’s when the other guy kneed him in the groin and came at him like a banshee.

  At that point Novak realized he was scrapping with a female who was jabbing at his eyes with deadly fingernails. He jerked the woman around and held her back against his chest, his arm tight around her throat. Fearing it was Alcina, terrified out of her skull, he let go and shoved her down to the floor and then hit the cabin’s light switch. But it was Lori Garner who sprawled at his feet, looking as stunned to see him as he was to see her. Anger shot through him, and he got his voice back first.

  “What the hell, attacking me like that, Lori? I could’ve killed you just now.”

  Spitting mad, Lori scrambled to her feet and shoved him hard in the chest with both palms. It didn’t budge him. She didn’t have the weight to push him around, but she was breathless and she was furious. She bent down and scooped up the weapon he’d just forced out of her hand. She let him have it. “Why the hell did you sneak down here like that, Novak? It’s a good thing I didn’t just plug you in the back and ask questions later.”

  “What the hell are you even doing here? I could’ve killed you. You’re damn lucky I didn’t. Where’s Alcina and Pedro? Are they okay?”

  Lori holstered her weapon and stared up at him with her hands on her hips. “They took them, I guess. Your boat was deserted when I got here except for the dead guy in the stern. Who is he, anyway? And who are Alcina and Pedro?”

  “They’re the Guatemalans we’re protecting.”

  “Well, you’re not doing a very good job of that, dude.”

  Novak frowned. She was right. He should never have left them on the boat with the two young men. It had been stupid. Eldon had been right to worry. “I found two dead guys. One was floating in the Zodiac. You saw the other one.”

  With that, their annoyance faded and took their adrenaline rushes down with it. They stared silently at each other. “What’s this about, Novak? Who killed those guys?”

  “I thought they’d be safe out here. I don’t know how they found the boat. I just hope those two kids aren’t dead. If they came out here to murder them, their bodies should be here. Have you searched the boat?”

  “Well, no. I just got here myself, not thirty minutes ago, and haven’t had time to. To be honest, I was looking for your corpse since I already found one dead guy aboard.”

  “I thought I told you to meet me at the condo. How did you even find the Sarah?”

  “Because I did go to the condo first and guess who wasn’t there? You. So I picked the lock and checked to make sure you weren’t inside, you know, dead or something. Then I saw your iPad and brought up the boat�
�s GPS. So I drove down here, checked in the Edgewater Beach Hotel just up the beach and walked down the sand until I saw the boat.” She paused a second then went on. “I thought it was weird for you to anchor here instead of at a marina, so I got antsy, thinking your ass was dead or you were in trouble, since that’s what usually happens to you. The Sarah looked dark as the grave, and I knew something was up. So I came out here and checked it out. You know I don’t like waiting around for you to show up. You should’ve picked up my calls.”

  “How’d you get out to the boat?”

  “Well, how do you think? I swam out here.” She searched his face. “Do you think the Guatemalans are dead?”

  Novak didn’t answer. He wasn’t sure about anything right now. Taking those kids didn’t make sense. Whatever Kellen had in mind for them, it wasn’t good. “Yes, unless he’s holding them hostage. Why he’d do that, I don’t know. They’ve got Claire, too.”

  “Claire, as in your partner, Claire? Oh my God, Novak, who are these guys? How did they get her?”

  Novak related the story and then looked away from the serious questions in her eyes.

  “Oh, c’mon, Novak, it’s not your fault they got her, if that’s what that look on your face is all about. Leaving her in the car was the right thing to do.”

  Novak felt ridiculously relieved that she wasn’t blaming him. It ate constantly at his gut that he had let something this horrible happen to her and now to those dead young men outside.

  “If they wanted Claire dead, she would’ve been dead in the front seat of that car, and you know it. They took her for a reason, just like they took your two clients for a reason. I’d guess they want some kind of leverage. Who knows? What about Claire’s husband? Does he know she’s gone?”

  “Yeah. He’s holding on, but truth is, he’s in bad shape. He’s out searching the Everglades for her right now. It looks to me like they took her out there planning to shoot her and dispose of her body, but she got away. It’s Claire, so that’s not surprising.”

  “You’re telling me that your partner is lost somewhere in the Everglades? The alligator-infested swamp, that Everglades? Oh my God Novak, can this get any worse?”

  “Yes, it can.”

  Lori didn’t respond because they both knew exactly how it could get worse.

  “I need to call Eldon Osceola and let him know what happened. Those two dead boys are his nephews, goddamnit. Oh God, I should have stayed out here and protected them myself, and this never would’ve happened. I thought they’d be okay out here. I swear I thought nothing would happen to them on the boat.”

  “Be glad you didn’t stay here. You’d be dead, too. That guy on the platform looked like he got hit with a sniper rifle.”

  Novak went back up top and put in the call to Eldon. Eldon listened silently, and then he cursed. After that, he got so choked up he couldn’t talk and muttered that he’d send somebody to retrieve the bodies. Novak told him where to meet him, and they hung up. Now things were getting out of hand. They were up against something much harder to take down than any local criminals. He didn’t know who or why, but they were out there killing anybody who got in their way. Now Lori was involved, too, and Novak wished he hadn’t sent her that message asking her to come to Fort Myers. This was like her, just showing up out of the blue. On the other hand, she was a damn good soldier and a good person to have his back. He was glad she was here, but they were in deep shit now.

  “Next time maybe you should give me a call back before you show up so we aren’t as likely to gun each other down.”

  “Yeah, Novak? Well, maybe you should answer your freakin’ phone once in a while, or at least check your emails.”

  Novak hadn’t had time to think about emails. “We need to wait here until Eldon comes for those boys.”

  Lori had served two tours overseas. She had experienced battle. “I’m going to get some blankets and cover them up. You go up there and lay them out with the kind of respect they deserve. We need to mop up all that blood and gore so their uncle doesn’t have to see it.”

  Novak nodded. This boat was a crime scene, and they shouldn’t touch anything, but Novak was going to let Eldon decide if he wanted to bring in the cops. He climbed the steps to the stern as Lori went in search of blankets. Preparing those two kids wasn’t going to lessen their uncle’s shock at seeing their heads blown half off. He laid out the two young men under the stern canopy and then raised anchor and headed for the marina where Eldon was to meet him. It made his stomach churn to think those two young and vital men with everything to live for had been gunned down. As for Alcina and Pedro, wherever they were, they’d be lucky to be alive. Truth was, they were probably already dead, their bodies weighted and dropped to the ocean bottom.

  Novak tried to get that picture out of his head, but he couldn’t. He sat in the helm seat and waited for Lori to come up. He was alone out there, but the two corpses were lying right in front of him. He shut his eyes so he wouldn’t have to look at them. A moment later, when he looked again, Pedro was standing over the bodies, but he was looking at Novak. At first, Novak thought his guilt was imagining the boy because he desperately wanted him to be there. Then Pedro took a step toward him. Novak shot to his feet, and Pedro ran to him. Novak lifted him up and held him so tight that the boy struggled to breathe.

  “What happened to you? Where have you been? Are you okay?”

  “I was hiding. I was scared to come out when I heard somebody moving around down there. I didn’t know who it was. Then after a while, I heard your voice.” The boy tensed in his arms, and Novak jerked around to see what had frightened him.

  Lori was standing at the top of the steps, blankets over one arm, and her gun in the other. “Where did he come from? I just finished checking this boat out stem to stern.”

  “It’s okay, Pedro. She’s with me. Where were you hiding?”

  “I was in the life vest locker up front. Alcina put me there and stuffed those life vests back in on top of me. She said to stay in there, and not come out, no matter what.”

  “You’ve been in there all this time.”

  The kid nodded. “I was scared.”

  Novak hesitated. “Where’s Alcina?”

  That did it. Pedro started crying. “I don’t know. I think they took her with them. I heard guns firing and then I heard men come on the boat. They were yelling and running, and I was too scared to move. I thought she was hiding, too. I don’t know where she is.”

  “Was it the Skulls?”

  “I don’t think so. They came last night, after dark, very fast. They started shooting, but they were close and they killed Jeff when he tried to get us to the boat. Pooch tried to fight them and then he told us to run and hide. So we did.”

  “How’d they get Alcina?”

  “I guess they found her hiding place.”

  Novak pulled him close and held him there and let him cry. He stared over the kid’s head at Lori. She just shook her head. Then she turned and carefully covered the two dead men with blankets. He watched her and felt sick to his stomach.

  Chapter 14

  Somewhere in the foggy depths of her mind, Claire heard Max Kellen’s voice. Somehow she felt she needed to listen to him. He was telling her to wake up. She didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see him. She felt sick to her stomach and ached all over, but then everything came rushing back at her like wild rapids cascading down a mountain. Kellen had her. He’d injected her with something out on that muddy riverbank. She forced open her eyes, her hand going to her baby. Her other hand could not; it was handcuffed to the bed.

  Kellen was leaning over her bed. “No, you’re not dead, Claire. Not yet, anyhow.”

  Claire stared up at him. He smiled, as if she were an old friend he’d come to see. He looked different, too, no longer the obsequious attorney. Now he looked in control, self-satisfied, and confident. Something in his eyes
, that frigid look inside them, told her he would kill her if she made one wrong move.

  “So we meet once more, Mrs. Black. Yes, ma’am, I know your real name now. You did a good job in my office that day, but it didn’t work out quite the way you intended. I know you are Claire Morgan Black. You are the beloved wife of the famous Dr. Nicholas Black, who’s got lots of money to spend if he wants you back in one piece.”

  Claire tried to remember everything that had happened but struggled to remain calm. She remembered the three young men on that riverbank who’d been shot down in cold blood. Emotion burned her eyes. She did not want to cry; she did not want to give in to despair, but she was teetering at the edge. Those young men were dead because of her. Eldon would be heartbroken. All of this was her fault. Anger came swiftly, and she lashed out at Kellen. “You’re an animal. You murdered those men out on that riverbank. You didn’t have to do that. They were only trying to help me.”

  “Oh, but I did have to. Blame yourself. If it weren’t for you, they’d be alive.”

  Claire’s heart got all twisted up, and she felt sick. She looked away from Kellen while she pulled herself together. These people were murderers and baby merchants. They had her now, and they could take her baby, induce birth, or hold her captive until her child was born. They could do anything they wanted. Her heart skipped a beat, and she felt as if she couldn’t breathe. Inhaling deeply, she hardened her resolve. No matter what she had to do or what she had to say, they were not going to take her baby.

  Claire relaxed rigid muscles and tried to think. She had to look at the situation calmly and find a way out of it. She was in a bad fix right now, and she felt weak. Kellen wanted Black’s money enough to keep her alive. Maybe he wanted to flee the country now that things had gone wrong. She could identify Kellen so her chances of survival didn’t look so hot, even if Black paid the ransom.