Under Full Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller: The 7th Novel in the Series - Mystery and Adventure in Florida and the Caribbean (Connie Barrera Thrillers)

by Charles Dougherty

  "Not likely, no. So, he had reasons for wanting to disappear. Could be he set the wife and her boyfriend up as a diversion, or they could have decided to kill him. It's hard to say. The investigators already discovered that she didn't know they were broke. She tried to move some money into the boyfriend's account even before she started the ball rolling on having Canaday declared deceased. That means her motive's intact. The insurance policy she took out on him is damning, too. But who knows?"

  "Did you tell them about the Boushel story?"

  "Not yet. I wanted to get the info on the match to you and see if there was anything new on his whereabouts."

  "No, but the lawyer who identified him as Boushel was found dead late last night."

  "Think Canaday did it?"

  "Maybe, but he was tortured. I don't see Canaday's motive for that, unless we're missing something. Killing, yes; torture, no."

  "Hmm. Could be missing something, or it could be that some of his creditors are on his trail already."

  "This Oscar Jefferson, you mean? Does he operate that way?"

  "Hard to say," Luke said. "It could be Jefferson, or it could be one of Jefferson's investors. They operate that way, for sure. You said the two guys who boarded you said their boss was doing a favor for somebody in Miami, right?"

  "Right," Connie said. "But that covers a lot of people."

  "Yeah," Luke said, "and none of them are the kind you want to be mixed up with. You two be careful."

  "Always," Paul said. "We always are. We need to get this information to the commissioner. We'll be in touch. Thanks for your help."

  "My pleasure," Luke said. "I'd better call my friends up in Lauderdale and let 'em know Canaday may still be alive, whatever name he's using these days."

  23

  “Windsong's not in Marigot any longer," Cedric Jones said. "I sent two men down to follow up with Mrs. Canaday and that Holsclaw fellow, but they aren't there. The boat's nowhere to be found. I've had the marine units check all the anchorages. They left without clearing customs."

  "They may have been expecting trouble," Paul said. He filled Cedric in on what he and Connie had learned from Luke Pantene. "Luke was going to call his friend in Lauderdale back and tell him what we learned about Canaday, or whoever he is. He's expecting that somebody from the Fort Lauderdale PD or Broward County will want to talk to Canaday's wife and Holsclaw."

  Connie listened without comment, staring off to the west. She was looking at the open water and studying the boats sailing out of Rodney Bay.

  "They're going to have to get in line," Cedric said. "I think we'll want to detain Mrs. Canaday and Mr. Holsclaw at this point. They filed a false report with the Coast Guard, if nothing else."

  "Right," Paul said. "I wonder if she knew the Canaday identity was false?"

  "I look forward to asking her," Cedric said. "Wouldn't it be interesting to know about the transition he made from Joel Andersen to Steven Canaday?"

  "It would," Paul said. "It's a safe bet that the police in Fort Lauderdale are trying to get background on Canaday. I'm sure they'll run with the Andersen thing as soon as Luke gives it to them."

  "I'd best go," Cedric said. "As strange as it may seem, I have other cases calling for my attention. I'll call you when we find Windsong."

  "Thanks," Paul said. "If I hear any more from Luke, I'll be in touch."

  He disconnected the call and put the phone down. "Should I fix us some lunch?" he asked Connie.

  She shrugged, her brow wrinkled as she shook her head.

  "You're not hungry?"

  "No. You go ahead. I'll get something later."

  "What's wrong?"

  "This stinks!" She smacked the cockpit table with the flat of her hand. "Those people are out there sailing for the pure fun of it, and we're sitting here playing cops and robbers."

  Paul reached for her, and she shied away, glaring at him.

  "Did I do something wrong?" he asked, looking her in the eye.

  Her lips were squeezed together, her mouth a white line across her tanned face. She shook her head and sighed. "No, not really," she said, "but ... "

  "But what?" Paul asked.

  A tear rolled down her cheek and she reached for his hand, choking back a sob.

  "Talk to me, Connie."

  "It's stupid," she said.

  "Not if you're upset, it's not. Tell me what's the matter."

  "I just ... this was supposed to be a trip for us, for a change, and now you've gotten sucked into this whole cop routine, Paul. I know it's what you do, but ... never mind. I'm sorry."

  "No," Paul said. "Wait. Don't apologize; you're right. This isn't my war to fight. I fell right into my old habits. I'm sorry. Luke and Cedric don't need me in the middle of this. I'm done. Let me call Luke and ask him to get in touch with Cedric directly, okay?"

  "You don't mind? I know how much you like a challenge. You've got the bit between your teeth now."

  "I don't mind. I forget I'm retired, sometimes."

  "I know, and I feel small for reminding you, but I was so looking forward to hanging out with you until the next charter. We haven't had much time for us, lately, and then this Boushel or whoever he is turned up on our desert island and ruined things."

  "You want to go back up to Isla de Aves? Just the two of us?" Paul asked. "We could leave this evening."

  "No, not there. Let's go hide out in the Grenadines. Maybe the Tobago Cays, or Petit Martinique. That could be fun, with a bunch of easy legs to sail and no push to get to Grenada for the pickup."

  "Sounds good to me. We've got almost two weeks. I could use an easy trip, too. Let me call Luke and Cedric and get myself out of this. You want to leave today?"

  "No, let's don't rush. Make your calls, and then we can go ashore and play tourists. We can have a nice lunch out for a change, and maybe walk over to the market or something."

  "Okay. That's a good idea. I could stand to pick up a few things at the big grocery store."

  "Make your calls, cookie. I'm going below and get pretty for my lunch date."

  "Have you found Canaday's wife and Holsclaw?" Jefferson asked.

  "Yeah. Found 'em and questioned 'em. Waste of damn time," the man on the phone said.

  "I'll be the judge of that; I'm paying the bills. Spare me the editorial comments and tell me what your people learned."

  "They didn't know shit about anything," the man said.

  "What about Canaday? They know where he is?"

  "No. They thought he was dead until he showed up in St. Lucia, on the boat that belongs to the Barrera woman and the ex-cop."

  "Why'd they think he was dead?"

  "He came up on deck one night while he was supposed to be asleep and caught his wife doing Holsclaw. Holsclaw knocked him out with something they called a winch handle, and then threw his ass overboard. It took 'em a few days to figure out what to do. They were gonna go to Dominica and just pretend there was no such person as Steven Canaday, but then she realized his name and passport info was on the paperwork from when they left the B.V.I. She had to give that to the authorities in Dominica, so she showed them his and Holsclaw's passports and pretended he was still with them. The customs and immigration people only looked at the paperwork, so she got away with it, but they had to figure out a way to get him off the paperwork."

  "You think they faked his falling overboard?" Jefferson asked.

  "Yeah. They decided that would be a good thing to do anyway, because then they could get him declared dead. That would leave her with everything, because it was all in joint accounts."

  "Okay, they went to St. Lucia and filed a false report," Jefferson said. "Then what?"

  "She tried to get some money from one of the accounts and discovered Canaday had cleaned it out before they left the states."

  Jefferson chuckled. "And?"

  "And then she called her lawyer and started that process we heard about with the probate court in Broward County. Her lawyer found out Canaday had cleared out everything
they owned; left her broke. And she claimed she didn't know about that insurance policy on his life."

  "The $10 million?" Jefferson asked.

  "Yeah, that one."

  "Canaday did that to make her look guilty," Jefferson said.

  "Maybe. You think he was planning to skip out all along?"

  "That's my bet, yeah," Jefferson said. "What else did you get out of them?"

  "In the middle of all that, she saw Canaday go into the Port Authority office with Barrera and her husband."

  "How the hell did he do that? You think he set the whole thing up with Barrera to pick him up?" Jefferson asked.

  "That's the way it had to be, Oscar. Otherwise, the chances of them finding him out there in the middle of the ocean woulda been zilch, don't you think? But the woman and Holsclaw had no idea how he set it up on the fly with Barrera. Neither do we, unless she and Russo were shadowing them all along. That's possible, I guess."

  "Did you find out if Holsclaw or Marian Canaday knew them? Russo and Barrera?"

  "We questioned them about that. They didn't know them; first they saw of them was when Canaday's wife saw him going into the police station with the two of them. We figure Canaday must have arranged for Barrera and Russo to follow them; maybe they even had a tracker on Canaday's boat. Or maybe even on him. Had to be a setup of some kind, or they'd never have found him."

  "That's the way it looks to me. What did the wife do after she saw Canaday go into the Port Authority office?"

  "She pushed Holsclaw to kill him. Holsclaw called a guy in Miami looking for some help. The guy put him in — "

  "Wait a second," Jefferson interrupted. "Who was the guy in Miami?"

  "Somebody named Kilgore. Dick Kilgore. First Holsclaw tried to get hold of some guy named Pinkie Schultz, but Schultz wasn't around. Kilgore had replaced Schultz. Holsclaw knew both of them."

  "Okay," Jefferson said. "Go ahead."

  "Kilgore put him in touch with somebody in St. Lucia that owed him a favor, and the guy in St. Lucia sent the two hitters to meet Holsclaw in some dive bar near Rodney Bay. Holsclaw told them Canaday was staying on Barrera's boat, and told 'em to kill him."

  "And they struck out and got arrested," Jefferson said.

  "Yeah. Holsclaw called this Kilgore back when he didn't get word that Canaday was dead, and Kilgore gave him a ration of shit. He was mad because he didn't know it was Canaday that Holsclaw wanted hit. He told Holsclaw that Canaday was 'toxic.' Kilgore wanted no part of it after he found out who the victim was supposed to be. Kilgore, or somebody, arranged to have the two hitters killed so they couldn't talk."

  "I'll be damned," Jefferson said. "So the word's out that I want Canaday alive and answering my questions."

  "What do you want us to do now, Oscar? Question Barrera and her old man?"

  "Not yet. I gotta think about this for a little bit. You find out any more on Barrera and this cartel thing?"

  "No. I got some people working on it. Should know more by morning."

  "All right. Stay on that. How'd your boys leave Holsclaw and Canaday's wife?"

  "They made it look like she and Holsclaw got into a hellacious fight. If anybody finds them, they'll think Holsclaw killed her and then himself."

  "That's tragic," Jefferson said, a sneer in his voice. "Where did this terrible thing happen?"

  "Off the southeast corner of St. Lucia, a few miles out to sea. They put a hole in the boat below the water line, like it musta hit something. Maybe one of those abandoned shipping containers you hear about that float just under the surface, or something. The boat was taking on water when they left it. It may be sunk by now, I guess."

  "When our team questioned Victor Murphy, he didn't know who Steven Canaday was," the man on the SpecCorp secure cellphone told Montalba. "At least not by that name. He knew the guy, though."

  "I suspected that," Montalba said. "How did he come to identify the man as Patrick Boushel?"

  "Canaday called on Murphy a couple of months ago and set it all up, using the Boushel name. The original plan was slightly different. He was planning to fake falling overboard much closer to St. Lucia. He was going to call Murphy before he jumped, and he planned to use a commercial satellite tracker to summon a local boat to pick him up. Then he was going to retrieve the documents and some money from Murphy and disappear. He'd deposited a quarter of a million dollars in an escrow account with Murphy."

  "I guess his plans changed?" Montalba asked.

  "Substantially. His wife and her boyfriend tried to kill him. They knocked him out and tossed him over the side. He didn't have the tracker or any other means to communicate. They might have succeeded in doing away with him except for Barrera and her husband finding him. He pretended to have amnesia and conned them into bringing him to St. Lucia, somehow. Murphy didn't know the particulars."

  "You don't suppose he recruited Barrera and her husband, made them part of his scheme?" Montalba asked.

  "That could be," the man on the phone said. "We could interrogate her and her husband if you wish. By the way, we did a careful study of Boushel's mug shot from when the police were trying to identify him. It's a match for Canaday's passport photo from the man overboard report, allowing for the time lapse and some changes in his haircut and facial hair."

  "That's not a surprise," Montalba said. "Where is this Canaday, or Boushel now?"

  "We're checking on that. He acquired a Canadian passport from the lawyer in the name Joseph Michael Adamson. He also had a couple of blank temporary travel documents, so he could have changed names on the fly, too. We're working the airlines and the ferry operators, as well as local charter companies. Of course, he may still be on the island, but we'll let the local police do that work. If they find him, our source there will let us know."

  "Good," Montalba said. "What else?"

  "You recall from the transcript we sent that our other client, our mutual acquaintance, wanted us to find and question Canaday's wife and her boyfriend?"

  "Yes. Have you done that already?"

  "Almost. That turned out to be interesting. After some difficulty, we located the boat. It was anchored in an out-of-the-way harbor on the south end of St. Lucia, a place called Vieux Fort. It was a good spot for a snatch; close to open water, no other yachts. The problem is, two other men got to them first."

  "What two men?" Montalba asked.

  "We're working on that. We have them; they're being questioned. All I know so far is that they work for Oscar Jefferson, and they've already reported their findings to him. I'll have to get back to you about what they learned. They took Canaday's yacht out into the ocean and interrogated the wife and boyfriend — claim they left them for dead and shot holes in the boat to sink it. They stole the dinghy and came back to Vieux Fort. That's where our operatives captured them. We haven't finished with them yet. I'll call you back when we know more."

  "Don't share this with our mutual friend, please."

  "He's the one who ordered the interrogation of the wife; we can't afford to disappoint him. You understand how important he is to our relationship with the U.S. government."

  "Come up with some reason for delaying the information by a few days, then," Montalba said. "If you give him this, it could be dangerous for him — fatal, even. Then where would your government contracting business be? Do I make myself clear?"

  "Clear as glass. Don't worry, we can handle it. We'll sandbag him."

  "I thought you could. Do you have anything else for me?"

  "Not unless you want us to question Barrera."

  "Not yet, but hold that thought. Find out what Jefferson's men learned from Canaday's wife and Holsclaw, first."

  "Very well. Call me if you need anything else that's not in the transcripts."

  "Thank you," Montalba said, disconnecting.

  24

  Paul and Connie were squaring away everything below deck, getting Diamantista II ready for an early morning departure when Paul's cellphone rang.

  "It's Cedric,
finally returning my call," he said, as he picked it up. "Good evening, Cedric."

  "Hello, Paul. I'm sorry to take so long getting back to you, but I have news."

  "Uh, okay," Paul said, rolling his eyes at Connie. "Let me put you on the speaker."

  "Hi, Cedric," Connie said, when Paul put the phone on the chart table. "We called earlier to let you know we're moving on in the morning."

  "Oh, I see ... "

  "We wanted to recover as much of our holiday as we could before we have to go back to work," Paul said. "I've spoken to Luke already about getting myself out of the middle of things; he's eager to work with you directly. I don't feel like I'm adding much value to the process."

  "I understand," Jones said, "but you shouldn't underestimate how helpful you've both been. You say you're leaving in the morning?"

  "Yes," Connie said. "We're headed down to the Grenadines to take it easy for a few days."

  "Well, have a grand time," Jones said. "I've enjoyed getting to know both of you. I hope you'll call me the next time you stop in St. Lucia."

  "We definitely will," Connie said. "You said you had news?"

  "Yes. We found Canaday in one of the security videos from the airport. He was boarding a LIAT flight to Martinique."

  "Was he using the Boushel identity?" Paul asked.

  "No. We're working through the records of the other passengers; we should be able to figure out what name he was using by the process of elimination. It shouldn't take too long; there were only seven passengers."

  "Interesting," Connie said. "The next time we're through here, maybe you can tell us all about it."

  "I hope so," Jones said.

  "If there's any way we can help, you know how to reach us," Paul said.

  "I'll try not to disturb you," Jones said. "You've done a great deal already. There is a possibility, though, that we may need your testimony at some point."

  "Of course, we'll do whatever you need, Cedric," Connie said.

  "You should give Luke Pantene a call," Paul said. "I filled him in on our relationship. He's expecting to hear from you. That was what I called about earlier. He's a good guy; you two will get on well, I'm sure."