Touching the Sun: A Harry Beck Thriller (The Bahamas Series Book 1)

by Len Maynard

  The years seemed to slip away as we rediscovered each other’s bodies, remembering all the sensitive areas, all the erogenous zones that turned us on. We climaxed simultaneously – a feat I’d only ever achieved with Katy – and lay there, spent.

  Eventually she said, ‘That shouldn’t have happened. I’m going to regret it.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘No, seriously, Harry. So will you.’

  ‘I doubt it.’

  She shook her head. ‘Do you have a cigarette?’

  I rolled from the bed and found the pack in my shirt. I lit two and handed one to her, then I lay back beside her, stroking her hair and smoking my cigarette. The room, like the rest of the hotel, was non-smoking, but we’d just burst through so many taboos it hardly seemed to matter.

  We ground out our cigarettes in a saucer, and then she kissed me again. It was a kiss of such gentleness and tenderness it took my breath away. The moment, as we lay there, was perfect, absolutely perfect.

  So why I decided then to blow the moment to bits I’ll never know.

  40

  ‘We have to talk about your father,’ I said, all my good intentions to spare her the truth disappearing like snow in a furnace.

  ‘I’ve apologized for that.’

  ‘No, not the job, or the marriage thing. There’s something else.’

  ‘What?’

  I fished for the list on the nightstand where I’d dropped it earlier. I unfolded it and let her see it.

  ‘What is this?’

  ‘It’s part of the reason why Alan’s disappeared. It’s a list of names that have one thing in common; they have all purchased children for the purpose of sex. Children who have been taken from their homes and turned into sex slaves.’

  ‘That’s disgusting.’

  ‘Read the names,’ I said.

  She ran a slim finger down the list and stopped suddenly. ‘But my father’s name’s here.’

  ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I know…and I thought you needed to know too.’

  She said nothing for a moment, then dropped the list on the bed, sat up, and swung her feet to the floor.

  ‘Do you know something, Harry?’

  I looked at her expectantly.

  ‘You are the biggest piece of scum I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet.’ She started to pull her clothes on.

  ‘I thought you had a right to know,’ I said as I watched her button her shirt.

  ‘But you thought you’d fuck me first before dropping the bombshell. Christ! I can’t believe you suckered me.’ Tears pressed out from her eyes again. She wiped them away impatiently with the back of her hand. ‘No, I’m not going to cry again. I refuse to let you get to me like this.’ She pulled on her jeans and walked to the door. ‘Let me tell you one thing, Harry, before I leave. I love my father deeply, and I know him well, very well. Whatever you think you have there on that list, you’re wrong. You’re so wrong it’s almost laughable. He would never, ever be involved with something like that.’

  ‘So how did his name get on this list?’

  ‘I don’t know, and I don’t particularly care. But get this through your head…I never want to set eyes on you again. Ever.’

  She yanked opened the door and stepped outside. Without even looking back she slammed it behind her.

  I lay back against the pillow. Sometimes I didn’t like myself very much. In fact, sometimes I hated myself.

  With a sigh I got up and dressed. A moment later there was a knock at the door.

  Okay, I thought, she’s calmed down and has come back to talk about this reasonably.

  As I pulled it open a huge fist hurtled in behind it, connecting with my chin and lifting me off the floor. I tumbled backwards, landing in an undignified heap a yard away from the foot of the bed. I fought to stay conscious, although every instinct I possessed was screaming at me to close my eyes and sink into the beckoning black chasm of unconsciousness.

  A shadow passed in front of my vision. I blinked and looked up into the unsmiling, coffee-colored face of Jerry Carr.

  ‘Get up, Mr. Beck,’ he said.

  ‘Why? So you can knock me down again?’ I tried to look around him, still ridiculously hoping to see Katy in the doorway, but he was too big, too broad. Perhaps if she were here it might be an antidote to the tension I could see bunching in his shoulders.

  ‘Just get up, or I’ll pull you up.’

  His voice was educated, cultured, not what I was expecting.

  I struggled to my feet. ‘What’s all this about?’ I said, and he hit me again, this time in the stomach, knocking all the wind out of me. I thought I was going to vomit, and then I thought I was going to pass out. Maybe I’d do both. Anything to avoid being hit again. Jerry Carr had fists like club hammers, and they hurt.

  I put my hands up in a gesture of surrender. ‘Just tell me what you want,’ I said, still glancing around him; still no Katy. Christ! What did I expect? I’d just told her that her father was a pedophile. Did I really expect her to forgive me and come running back to my arms?

  What Jerry Carr said next drove all the thoughts of my argument with Katy from my mind.

  ‘They’ve taken Serena,’ he said, balling his fists, ready to strike again.

  ‘Who’s taken Serena?’

  For a second something flickered in the big man’s eyes. Uncertainty? Fear? I couldn’t pin it down. ‘The men who were looking for you. They arrived at the club fifteen minutes after you left. Cubans. One of them, the smaller one, kept me talking, and the big one blindsided me. They took Serena. Said if I wanted to see her alive again I had to bring you to them. You for her. That’s the deal. So get on your feet. We have an appointment.’

  ‘I don’t feel like travelling at the moment,’ I said.

  ‘You don’t have a choice,’ he said, and pulled a gun from the waistband of his pants. ‘I’m getting my sister back. Now, get on your feet!’

  I was looking for something smart to say; something to buy me a little more time. There was a noise that sounded like a baseball bat hitting a melon, and Jerry Carr’s eyes rolled in his head and he sank to his knees. He swayed there for a moment before pitching face first onto the carpet.

  Ray Burgess stood in the doorway, a fire extinguisher in his hands. ‘Is he dead?’ he said.

  I reached across and felt for a pulse in Jerry’s neck. It was there, strong and steady. ‘He’s alive.’

  ‘That’s a relief. I thought I’d killed him.’ He set the fire extinguisher down on the floor. ‘I saw Katy storming out of here in tears. I figured the reunion hadn’t gone well and you might need a shoulder to cry on.’

  ‘Perfect timing, Ray. Perfect timing. Now help me tie him up.’

  41

  We tied Jerry Carr to a chair. The bonds were not particularly tight, and I had a feeling that if he used all of his considerable strength he could have broken them; but Jerry looked defeated. He sat slumped in the chair, hopeless tears coursing down his cheeks.

  ‘I love that girl so much. She’s an angel…my angel. When she was just thirteen years old she was singing in concerts, and do you know what she did with all the money she earned from her singing? She put it into a fund to help put me through college. She believed in me. She thought I had the talent to go all the way, to become a concert pianist. She used to say I’d be the first black Arthur Rubenstein, and man, she used to sing her heart out at those concerts. How could they just take her like that?’

  ‘We’ll get her back,’ I said with a confidence I certainly didn’t feel. ‘Where were you meant to take me?’

  He sniffed, trying to stifle the tears. ‘A warehouse down by Freeport Harbor.’

  ‘I don’t understand why they just didn’t come here and take you themselves,’ Ray said. ‘They were here yesterday. They knew this was where you were staying. Why go through this performance?’

  ‘I think you’ll have to ask the person employing them that question,’ I said. ‘How did they know I was here in the first place? I cer
tainly haven’t advertised my presence.’

  ‘Well, you haven’t exactly made a secret of it either,’ Ray said. ‘Reynolds knew you were here, after all.’

  I walked across to the window and stared out. From there I could see the ocean, and I longed to be out on it. I yearned for the freedom of that empty expanse of blue. I was beginning to wonder if I’d ever experience that peace and quiet, that solitude again.

  ‘You’ve got to help me,’ Jerry Carr said. ‘You have to help Serena. She doesn’t deserve this.’

  ‘No,’ I said. ‘She doesn’t.’ I turned to Ray. ‘Untie him.’

  Ray was standing in the corner of the room, examining Jerry’s gun. He tossed it on the bed. ‘It’s fake,’ he said. ‘A replica.’

  ‘You’re not very good at this, are you?’ I said to Jerry.

  He lowered his head. ‘The gun isn’t mine. They gave it to me. I protect Serena the best I can. My size is usually enough. People have told me I look intimidating,’ he said. ‘But I’m a piano player, not a fighter. Never have been.’

  ‘You pack a mighty punch though,’ I said, rubbing my aching chin. ‘So how come you never made it to the concert platform? Why are you slumming it in night clubs when you could be at Carnegie Hall?’

  ‘Arthritis in the hands. It hit me in my third year at Julliard. Every time I had a recital I had to have a bucket of ice next to the piano. Every chance I had I’d plunge my hands into the ice to kill the pain. I realized then that I could never make it to the level Serena wanted for me. I’d never make a living on the concert stage. A couple of forty-five minute sets a night is about all I can manage before my fingers start to burn.’ Ray had finished untying him. He stood and stretched his arms and legs. Then he lunged at me, catching me off guard. His heavily muscled arm was around my throat, constricting my windpipe.

  ‘Oh, crap,’ Ray said.

  ‘I’ll break his neck, I swear,’ Jerry said.

  ‘Okay, okay,’ Ray said. ‘Calm down.’

  Meanwhile my face felt as if it would explode, as my air was cut off by Jerry’s forearm. I felt my head start to spin and lights were flashing in front of my eyes. I let my body sag, making him support my entire weight. It made the choking worse for a second, but when I heard him grunt with the effort of holding me up I drove my elbow into his stomach. The air gushed out of him in a rush, and he relaxed his grip on my throat. I hit him again and managed to break free.

  My first instinct was to turn and smash him in the mouth, but I knew he wasn’t thinking straight. He was driven by the desperate need to save his sister, and I couldn’t really blame him. I pushed him in the chest and he sat down heavily on the bed, blowing hard.

  ‘Right,’ I said. ‘We’re going to get Serena back, okay?’ I wasn’t sure he was hearing me. ‘Jerry!’ He looked up at me with a dazed expression on his face. ‘We’re going to get her back. Understand?’

  He nodded his head slowly.

  ‘Good. Now listen, we’ll play this as if everything’s gone according to plan. You’ll take me, at gunpoint, to the warehouse and hand me over to the Cubans. Then you take Serena and get the hell out of there.’

  ‘And you really expect the Cubans to let Jerry and his little sister walk away?’ Ray said to me.

  ‘Why wouldn’t they? It’s me they want.’

  ‘Oh, grow up, Harry,’ he said tiredly. ‘They’re not just going to let them stroll out of there. They’re material witnesses. They’ve seen their faces.’

  ‘So what’s your plan?’ I said.

  ‘I don’t have one. I’m just pointing out the flaws in yours.’

  ‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘That helps a bunch.’

  ‘But there is a way out of this.’

  ‘Enlighten me.’

  ‘I tried earlier, but you blew that suggestion out of the water.’

  ‘I’m not involving Reynolds.’

  ‘Harry, it’s the only way. This isn’t just about you and Alan anymore. Innocent people are at risk. The longer this goes on, more and more people are going to get hurt; or worse, killed. Speak to Reynolds. Tell him what’s happened to Serena. Let the police hit the warehouse and clean up this mess.’

  I shook my head, not to dismiss Ray’s suggestion, but to clear away the cobwebs. So far in this whole affair I’d been reacting to things being hurled at me. I had no plan, no strategy. I was letting other people call the shots, and in doing so was running around in ever decreasing circles. I was no closer to finding Alan; no closer to making the world a safer place for those I cared about. With the Cubans off the streets I had one less thing to worry over. Ray was right. Reynolds was my only real option. I went to the phone and asked the operator to put me through to the police station.

  ‘Mr. Beck,’ Reynolds said. ‘I’d just about given up on you. I have a lot of questions. Are you going to come here or shall I come to you at the hotel?’

  ‘There’s been a development. I need your help,’ I said.

  There was a long pause on the other end of the line. Finally, Reynolds said, ‘Interesting. That’s the last thing I expected you to say. Would you care to tell me what this development is?’

  I took a deep breath, a very deep breath, and told him.

  42

  I could almost hear Hector Reynolds thinking on the other end of the line; weighing up his options, working out which course of action would provide him with the most advantageous outcome. I heard him take a breath. ‘Well, obviously Ms. Carr’s safety has to be paramount,’ he said. ‘How long do we have before you’re due at the warehouse?’

  I glanced back at Jerry, sitting on the bed, still staring into space, looking into his own personal hell. ‘What time are we expected at the warehouse?’

  He jerked back to reality. ‘Eight o’clock. They said to be there at eight.’

  I checked my watch. ‘We’re due there in two hours.’

  ‘It doesn’t give us much time,’ Reynolds said. ‘Still, it should be enough for me to get this organized. Give me thirty minutes and I’ll call you back. Where can I reach you?’

  ‘I’ll call you,’ I said.

  I thought I heard him chuckle quietly. ‘As you wish, Mr. Beck. Thirty minutes.’

  ‘Well?’ Ray said as I cradled the receiver.

  ‘I think he’s going to help. He needs half an hour to organize things. I’m ringing him back.’

  The mini bar was calling again. I felt a need for something alcoholic, but knew I had to keep a clear head for what was to come, so I ignored the mini bar’s siren song and made us all some coffee instead.

  When I called Reynolds back he picked up the phone on the first ring. ‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I’ve run your story by Assistant Commissioner Brooks and he’s given it the green light. We have the resources of the entire department to draw on.’

  ‘Good,’ I said. ‘That’s good.’

  ‘So what I suggest is this. I will get a squad of armed officers down to the warehouse. You carry out the plan the Cubans outlined to Mr. Carr. Once we’ve confirmed that Ms. Carr is alive and well, our officers will enter the building and effect a rescue.’

  He made it all sound so simple. I wasn’t so sure. ‘What’s to stop them from shooting Serena, or us for that matter, when your men burst in?’

  ‘There won’t be any bursting in, Mr. Beck. We’re not in a Hollywood movie. My men are trained for exactly this kind of situation. They are equipped with state of the art digital listening equipment and thermal imaging cameras. We will be able to see and hear what’s going on in the warehouse almost as clearly as you. We already have a schematic of the building, and have pin-pointed the various entrance and exit points. You will be covered at all times. We won’t let anything bad happen to you.’

  ‘I’m reassured,’ I said, though I felt anything but.

  ‘And please don’t worry if you don’t see my men when you arrive at the warehouse. They are trained to be invisible. We don’t want to alert the Cubans to our presence.’

  ‘So we go ahead
with the plan…’

  ‘…and let us worry about the rest.’

  ‘Very well,’ I said.

  ‘And, Mr. Beck, when this is all over and we have liberated Ms. Carr and locked away the bad men, we talk. Agreed? As I said earlier, I have questions for you. Lots and lots of questions.’

  ‘Agreed,’ I said, and hung up. I turned to the others and told them the plan.

  ‘You’re happy with this?’ Ray said.

  ‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But I don’t think we have a choice.’

  ‘Reynolds can be a pain in the ass,’ Ray said. ‘I’ve had dealings with him in the past. But he’s very up front and as straight as they come. He won’t let you down.’

  ‘You may be right. But I’m not going in there without some kind of insurance.’ I went over to my bag and took out the two pistols I’d brought with me from The Lady. The Beretta I slipped into my pocket. The other gun, a Smith and Wesson automatic, I weighed in my hand. ‘Have you ever used one of these?’ I said to Jerry Carr. He shook his head. I handed it to him. ‘Be careful. This one’s real.’ I sat down on the bed next to him and showed him how to use it.

  ‘Do you want me to come with you, to watch your back?’

  ‘No, Ray. Thanks for the offer, but I’m not involving you in this any more than I have already.’

  The relief was there in his eyes. ‘So what now?’ he said.

  ‘Well, Jerry and I are going to kill some time. You? You have a hotel to run.’

  He smiled. ‘Yeah, I suppose I do.’

  43

  The Cubans had chosen their spot well. The warehouse stood in an isolated plot in Freeport’s industrial area. A chain-link fence topped with razor wire surrounded the building, a rectangular, steel-walled building the size of an aircraft hangar. Surrounding cover was minimal; a few low buildings to the left of the plot, behind us another warehouse, blank-walled and windowless. The area was deserted. At that time of the evening, with the sun falling from the sky and with twilight painting everything a dull grey, it felt like we’d entered a ghost town.