Pursuing Chase

by C J Schnier

  Another moment passed before Raul broke the silence.

  “And did he succeed?”

  “No, you Acostas are formidable when you want to be.”

  “That we are, Captain,” he confirmed.

  “So, Raul, what should I do with him?”

  “He is no longer our concern. Do with him as you wish.” Raul hissed just before the line went dead.

  Kelly and Alonzo both looked up at me.

  “It looks like your pal Raul no longer cares about you Alonzo. That doesn’t bode well for you now does it?”

  Alonzo tried to say something, but instead, Kelly shoved the rag halfway down this throat.

  “What did I miss?” Andy called as he stepped into the cockpit.

  “A lot,” I replied. “But I finally got some of the information that we needed.”

  “Progress is progress. Here,” Andy said holding out the plate of food to Kelly.

  She grabbed the plate, ripped the aluminum foil off the top and bit into a monstrous cheeseburger.

  “Slow down girl, that was a twenty dollar burger!”

  Kelly shoved another huge bite into her mouth.

  Andy turned from watching Kelly and addressed me instead. “So what’s the deal here?”

  “Dickless wonder here wouldn’t say much, but his boss, Raul Acosta was a little more chatty. If Kelly and I can come up with two million dollars, they will leave us alone. She’s family, and as long as the business is repaid for its losses, they would prefer that she stay alive,” I explained, summarizing the conversation.

  “Two million huh? That shouldn’t be too hard.”

  “Sure, let me just write them a check,” I scoffed.

  “We don’t have the kind of money. Between the two of us, we probably have about thirty grand. That’s a pretty far fucking cry from two million,” said Kelly in between bites.

  “Don’t worry, I know some people. If you don’t mind getting your hands dirty, I bet we could get that kind of money,” he stated.

  “How dirty are we talking?” I asked, intrigued.

  “Chase! That sounds a lot like how we ended up in this mess to begin with.”

  “No drugs, no killing. Nothing like that. I’ll tell you more about it later. First, what are we going to do with this bozo?” Andy asked nodding towards Alonzo, the cartel hitman.

  The first inkling of a plan popped into my mind. “I think I have an idea, but we’re going to need Andre’s help. Can you watch this scumbag for a while, Andy?”

  “No problem.”

  “Good, now Kelly, can you come with me? We need to convince our driver to hand this prick over to the police. Get him locked up long enough that we can make a clean escape.”

  “Why me? I’ve never even met him.”

  “Because you’re prettier than I am,” I replied with a smirk.” Besides, I need you so I can explain just how much this guy needs to be locked up.”

  “Alright. Be careful Andy, he has a gun somewhere on this boat. It’s not on him, but it is around here somewhere,” Kelly warned.

  “Don’t worry about me,” Andy said, pulling his own gun from the back of his waistband, “I’ve got him covered.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Long dusky shadows cast from the setting sun had given the deserted area around the resort a sort of eerie feel. Occasionally a lone car would rumble by, headed down the road to one of the other resorts. Andre, true to his word, had stuck around waiting on us all day, but what we were asking of him now was above and beyond any obligations he may have had.

  “Hey, I didn’t sign on for this sort of shit man,” Andre told me as he made a show of glancing about and checking his mirrors. “I was just supposed to drive you guys around as needed.”

  “Look, we will pay you a thousand dollars,” Kelly told him.

  “We don’t want to kill the guy, we just want him out of our hair,” I added, attempting to soothe his worries.

  “And how am I supposed to do that? Call the police that is what they are for. I have a family to think of,” he pleaded.

  “C’mon, a thousand bucks and all you have to say is you caught him breaking in somewhere and turn him over to the police,” I prodded, trying to coax him into the idea.

  “No way. I don’t know what kind of shit you are into, but I can’t get involved.”

  “He’s a bad guy. Take it from me, I’ve spent a lifetime around bad men. He deserves to be locked up behind bars. If we could do it ourselves we would, but we have to get out of here fast,” Kelly said.

  “More reason not to get involved. Don’t worry about the rest of the money, we’ll call it even” he said and rolled the window up in our faces.

  Andre put the car in gear and sped off, kicking up shell and pebbles as he left. We both watched as the Nissan disappeared around the corner at the end of the street.

  “Well, so much for that idea,” I said after a moment.

  Kelly sighed and motioned back towards the resort that was aglow in the sunset, “Let's go, we’ll have to try something else.”

  Sunset has always been my favorite time of day, there is something magical about the vagaries of a sunset. As we walked back through the resort and the marina however, I was too lost in thought to appreciate it.

  We had to deal with the Alonzo problem, and we had to do it soon. The cartel most likely knew where we were, and it wouldn’t be long before someone came looking for us. None of us had the stomach just to kill him. Murder wasn’t an option. Having Andre hand him over to the police would have solved the issue, but with him bugging out we were forced to get rid of Alonzo another way. I thought about it hard on the way back, but I could only come up with three other options.

  We could just let him go somewhere, preferably naked in the middle of nowhere, and hope that the cops grab him. But then an exceptionally dangerous man would be free and back on our trail. This seemed the least beneficial of our options.

  Our second choice was to turn him over to the police ourselves. We didn’t have to tell them the actual truth of how he came to be beaten and tied. But any officer would be able to poke holes in our story. All they had to do was pull the surveillance footage from the resort and see Andy and I sneaking down the docks or the hours we had spent spying on the marina. It would be hard to explain that away, and even harder to explain why we didn’t involve the police in the first place.

  The last option was too uncertain and too old school for me. We could maroon him on an island. It was hardly the death sentence that it had been in the golden years of piracy. Most of these islands saw visitors every day, or at least every couple of days. He would be back on our tail within a day. But the thought of leaving him to fend for himself on a tiny, desolate island did appeal to me.

  Still weighing our options, I boarded Paramour and went down below deck.

  “Well, Andre was a bust…” I said, stopping mid-sentence.

  Andy sat on the port settee cradling his head in his hands and groaning. Alonzo was gone.

  “Andy, are you alright?” I shouted, panic rising in my voice.

  “That yellow-bellied motherfucker somehow got free and hit me over the head when I had my back turned. I heard him going up the ladder before I blacked out,” he said through gritted teeth.

  “Kelly!” I yelled up to her as she started to follow me down the stairs. “Alonzo escaped!”

  “What?” She cried, fear making her voice husky. “Where is he?”

  “I don't know. He somehow got free and knocked Andy unconscious.”

  “Did he get Andy’s gun?” Kelly asked.

  Andy reached down beside himself and picked up the .45 he had brought. “No. I landed on it when I blacked out. I dunno what he hit me with, but it could have been his own gun, I never did find it.”

  “Shit! He’s probably armed then. He was hurt, I smashed that knee pretty good. He can’t be far.” I warned them.

  “Let’s get out of here then,” Kelly urged.

  “That’s a great idea
. Untie the lines, I’ll fire up the engine.”

  I guided Andy out of the way and turned the key in the ignition. The old Volvo rumbled to life instantly. I adjusted the throttle so that she was in idle and turned to head into the cockpit before stopping. Just to make sure, I went down to the forward cabin and checked both the head and the hanging locker to make sure the bastard wasn’t hiding on the boat again. Both were clear. How did the old saying go? Fool me once?

  “Well Andy, it looks like you get to go for a little boat ride. We’ll head over to your boat, and then I think all of us should get out of Dodge,” I said and headed up to the cockpit, leaving him below to nurse his wounds.

  “Last line, are you ready?” Kelly asked, holding a line in her hand on the dock and glancing back at the quiet resort.

  “Yeah let it go, let’s get out of here,” I said.

  She untied the line, tossing the end over the lifelines and ran back to the gate at midship. She gave Paramour a hefty shove away from the dock and stepped onboard. I put the transmission in forward and increased the throttle, heading into the setting sun until we cleared the point and then pointed the old boat south towards the canal and open water.

  “Get down below until we get out of the cut. If he wants to risk taking pot shots at us, I’d prefer that you’re protected,” I ordered.

  “Someone should check on Andy anyways,” she said and scurried down below.

  Several minutes later we had cleared the entrance markers to the channel. Never had I wished that I lived on a fast power boat so much in my life. My mind, fighting off panic and paranoia, two emotions that would do me no good to entertain. I had been waiting for a shot to ring out the entire time. Once we had made our turn east in the deeper waters though, I knew we were safe. At least for the moment.

  “It’s safe, we’re clear of the channel,” I shouted down into the cabin, straining to be heard over the engine. “How’s Andy doing?”

  “Nothing some Motrin won’t cure,” he yelled back to me with a forced grin.

  “One of you do me a favor and flip on the navigation lights before you come up,” I requested.

  “I got it,” Kelly said, and a moment later I could see the soft glow of the red and green lights coming front the bow.

  What had taken us only fifteen minutes to travel by car took us nearly two hours on the boat. It was a quiet trip. Andy stayed down below nursing his head. Once she finished dressing his wound, Kelly left him to come back topside. I could see the stress of the last couple of days on her face as she sat next to me and processed all that had happened. I tried to go to her and comfort her, but she pushed me away, preferring to sit in silence and mull it over alone.

  Moving up and down the coast of Freeport was easy. What the charts referred to as the Grand Lucayan Water Way was a deep stretch of water that ran along the coast of the island. As long you stayed two miles offshore there was nothing to hit except cruise ships and fishermen.

  The cruise ships were easy to avoid. They appeared as slow-moving walls of lights and music. From a quarter-mile away they were gigantic, dwarfing our little sailboat. We gave them a wide berth though just to be safe. They might move slow around the island, but they were capable of astonishing speeds when on the open sea.

  Fishermen, on the other hand, seemed to have no regard for anyone. They tore up and down the coast in every kind of craft imaginable. Their crafts ranged from ancient and worn open wooden boats to modern high-tech yachts, crisscrossing wakes with one another, and cutting each other off as they fought for position on their way back into shore to deposit their catch for the day.

  Boat traffic had thankfully died out by the time I turned into the cut that led to where we had left Andy’s boat Romulus. Boating at night was much more difficult, and few skippers bothered navigating through the dark around these islands.

  The fancy private marina was still half empty, and we had no problem finding a free slip next to Romulus to dock Paramour. Andy and I were both relieved that the marina office was dark, a sure sign that Terrance had already left for the day. At least that was one headache we wouldn’t have to deal with.

  “Damn Andy, is that your boat?” Kelly asked in awe, giving Romulus an appreciative look. Both boats looked gorgeous, even in the yellow artificial lights of the marina.

  “Sure is,” Andy said beaming. “Come aboard, let me give you the tour. Are you coming, Chase?”

  “I’ll be along in a minute, I’m going to fill up the water tanks and make sure Paramour is ready to get underway. I’d like to get underway tonight if possible. I don’t want to give that sleazy son-of-a-bitch time to find us.”

  “Roger that,” Andy replied and then led Kelly to his boat.

  The water tanks didn’t take long to fill, and we had enough fuel to at least get us to Bimini, Miami if we could get some cooperative winds. I checked everything I could and was satisfied that the boat was fine, I just hoped that Alonzo hadn't slapped another GPS tracker on the old girl. I doubted that he had, he had thought I was stranded or dead, and he had Paramour. Maybe once we got away from Freeport, we would finally be free of him.

  Content that Paramour was ready for sea, I checked Kelly’s secret stash and was relieved to find our money still there. I took a handful of bills and went one slip over to Andy’s boat, letting myself aboard. Both were laughing at a joke he had just finished, and Kelly was fawning over the size of the interior. She was most impressed by the standup shower that was separate from the rest of the head.

  “Oh hey, Chase, I was just telling Kelly here about when I first found you, rowing back to Florida in search of a Greyhound station,” he said with a chuckle.

  “I couldn’t have asked to be picked up by a better person, Andy. I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

  “That makes two of us. If you hadn’t been there to pick up Chase, who knows what would have happened to me,” Kelly added.

  “Just doing what any good person would do,” he responded.

  “I think it was above and beyond that Andy. Here, I want you to have this,” I said holding out a wad of $100 bills.

  “I can’t take that,” he refused.

  “Sure you can. I owe you dockage, cab fare, and apparently a twenty-dollar cheeseburger.”

  Andy paused for a moment and then reached out and took the money. “Alright, it's Kelly who is the one that owes me for the burger though. But it just doesn’t feel right taking money from you when you’ve got such a large debt to fill.”

  “Speaking of that, what did you have in mind for helping us get rid of that?” I asked.

  “Well, I’m not exactly sure. You’d never guess a country boy like me would know a few big wigs in South Florida. Judges and politicians and what not. There’s always some crooked stuff going on down there. I stay out of it myself, but if I ask around, someone might have something that needs doing,” he said.

  “I just want to be clear, no murder or drugs or anything like that,” I reminded him.

  “Oh, like I said earlier, nothing like that. These guys all have too much money, and all they want is power. They’ll spend a fortune to get more or to remove a rival. Political sabotage I think it’s called. But we won’t have any details until we get there.”

  “Well let’s go then,” Kelly suggested.

  “Yeah we should get out of here,” Andy agreed. “We can buddy boat back to Florida if you want. It’s always more fun with someone else than alone.”

  “Andy, you know you don’t have to do this. You’ve already done so much for us, why would you continue to stay involved?”

  “You seem like good people caught in a sticky situation. Besides, I was bored out there by myself. I’ll get y'all back to Florida and introduce you. But from there you’re on your own. I don’t get involved in that political shit,” he said.

  “Thank you, man. I’m serious.”

  “Think nothing of it. You know what sucks though?” he asked.

  “What’s that?”

  “It�
��s going to be a long trip, and I’m running dangerously low on beer.”

  Chapter Twenty One

  Entering and leaving strange harbors at night is not something I like to do. Neither do I like leaving for a passage without first checking the weather forecast. Yet here I was, leaving a strange port at night to make a passage with no weather information. Just once I would like to go when I feel it is time, not when someone else dictates that I must throw caution into the wind.

  Being on the run from the cartel was much worse than when I worked pushing barges on the Mississippi River. At least then we could override the office’s pressure to keep moving when there was bad weather. Now our survival depended on not only our ability to keep moving but also the whims of the weather.

  Ninety nautical miles separated Freeport from Ft. Lauderdale and the entire trip would be in deep water. The only tricky parts were dodging the shipping traffic and crossing the Gulf Stream. The winds had been holding out of the east, I just hoped that they stayed that way and didn’t start coming out of the north. Any northerly winds and we would be in for a rough and dangerous ride.

  Romulus galloped over the small swell a half-mile ahead of us. Paramour, despite the advantage of her freshly painted and smooth bottom, struggled to stay with her. I suspected Andy kept his sails trimmed so as to lose enough speed to keep us close, though it must have been fatiguing. Aboard Paramour I had Kelly to take the wheel so that I could get some shuteye. He was all alone.

  By the time the sun came up, Andy and I had both been awake for nearly twenty-four hours. Precious little sleep had come my way, Andy had gotten even less than that. Under perfect conditions, this passage would take us about fifteen hours. Conditions, however, were not quite ideal and our speed suffered. He was in for a long and exhausting day.

  Downwind sailing is the most comfortable point of sail, but it is also the hottest and often the slowest. Most landlubbers don’t realize that modern sailboats sail faster upwind than they do with it. Andy had radioed over earlier that his anemometer at the top of his mast read that the winds had been holding at about 12 knots. We could only manage to do about 4.2 knots.