by Mac Fortner
A few minutes later, she heard glass break and then saw a light blink.
“Okay, the bomb is small, but he said to make sure it is confined in an area so innocent people won’t get killed. Are you sure this is what you want to blow up?” Amar said.
“Yep,” Buck said. “I think he has the other files hidden in there somewhere. This way we can test the bomb and destroy the files, and at the same time make sure Cam has no home to return to.”
“Very well,” Amar said. “This is supposed to work just like the one we have for Quantico. This will be a good test for us.”
Amar raised his cell phone and dialed the number. “Would you like to do the honors?” he asked Buck, holding the phone up.
“Don’t mind if I do,” he said, taking the phone.
Sheriff Buck pushed the green send button.
Three seconds later, Cam's boat rocked from the explosion.
Fifteen seconds after that, the nose came out of the water, and the fantail started to sink.
“Works just fine,” Sheriff Buck said. “We’ll pick up the real thing in three days.”
Sheriff Buck’s phone rang. It was forwarded to his cell from his office.
“Sheriff’s office. William Buck speaking,” he said.
“Sheriff, this is Stacy. Cam’s boat just blew up.”
Chapter 53
Special Agent Sanchez sat across the table from William Crane at the FBI office in Miami.
Two days earlier, the FBI had raided the Cranes house and seized all their records. They had watched Bill from the time he’d left, three weeks before, until the time he’d returned three days ago. They wanted to let him run free a few more days, but after seeing him dump the body of John Tripper in the ocean, they thought it time to bring him in.
They cleared his house of all records, clothes and personal items so Sheriff Buck would think he’d run.
Susan was being detained down the hall. For the time being, she was in a very lush guest suite of the FBI.
“Okay, Bill,” Sanchez said, “we have footage of you dropping Mr. Trapper off four days ago, along with Billie Daryl Dunn. We retrieved John Trapper five minutes after you left. There has been quite a collection of bodies down there. Right now, we have you and Billie Daryl for all the killings. I would like to tell you that you’ll spend the rest of your life in prison, but I think you’ll most likely die in the gas chamber.”
“I didn’t kill all those men,” he said, “They made me go with them to dump that body.”
“Who made you?”
“I need a lawyer.”
“No!” Sanchez said and beat his fist on the table.
Bill jumped back and almost fell out of his chair.
“Agent Anderson has information that you, William Buck and Amar Mustafa have plans to use a weapon of mass destruction. Is that right?”
“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.
“Let me read something to you. We call this an indictment, and it has your name on it.”
Sanchez opened his folder and read aloud.
“The indictment alleges that ‘between July 2011 and July 2015, the suspects,’ that’s you, Sanchez said, pointing at Bill, were conspiring to provide ‘material support and resources -- including property, services, funding, lodging, communications equipment, personnel and transportation -- knowing and intending that this support be used in preparation for and in carrying out a violation of law -- namely, a conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.’.
“The indictment also alleges that the suspects were ‘conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives) against persons and property within the United States’ during the same timeframe.
“Does that accurately describe what you were trying to do?” Sanchez asked.
“No, I don’t know anything about any bombs,” Bill lied.
“Too bad. I thought maybe we could work some kind of a deal if you had some information. Bill, the FBI’s number one priority is counterterrorism. We don’t much give a shit about the dead bodies. The police might, though, and we might be able to help you with that if you help us. The charge of murder carries a death penalty. To be exact, the indictment is not against a particular group or religion, it is against three specific individuals who, if convicted on charges of providing materials to support terrorists and to use weapons of mass destruction, can yield fifteen years in prison for the first and life for the second. Either is better than the death penalty you’re most definitely facing.”
“What do you want from me?”
“Where is the bomb and when will it be delivered?”
“What makes you think there is a bomb?”
“We have agents that have been watching you guys for years. We know.”
“I don’t know where the bomb is. I only found out there was one last week.”
“Who would know and how can we get the information?”
“There’s a girl. Her name is Jenny Jacobs. She is tied up right in the middle of all this. She can tell you what you need to know.”
Sanchez sighed, “Take him away and bring in Mrs. Crane.”
Chapter 54
My boat was finally secured to the dock and held up by additional airbags that completely encompassed the fantail. Water was still trickling out of the four-foot hole in the starboard side. From the dockside, where we were standing, the boat looked fine. Maybe a little weathered but nothing that couldn’t be fixed with a little TLC.
Finally, two State Policemen boarded the boat from the bow. They slid the broken patio table away from the door and entered through the sliding door.
In less than a minute, one of the men came back out at a run, holding his hand over his mouth. He bent over the rail and threw up three times. Sheriff Buck stepped onto the boat and waved for his deputy, Billie Daryl, to come and escort the man from the boat.
“Pussy,” he said. “Get him out of here before he contaminates the crime scene.”
Buck entered the boat, and the other man exited, getting on his cell phone to call in a CSI team. He then leaned into the boat and said something to Sheriff Buck who exited the cabin.
Buck yelled in the State Trooper’s face, “Get the hell off this boat and don’t come back. This is my crime scene.”
The trooper back-peddled from the giant sheriff, tripping over the tumbled patio table and falling on the broken glass.
Sheriff Buck looked down at him and pointed to the dock. The trooper got up and stepped off the boat, onto the dock. He pulled his phone out and made another call.
Buck waved him off in disgust. “Idiots,” he said.
He looked at me and waved me forward. “Cam, I hate for you to see this, but do you mind taking a look at what’s left of this guy and telling me if you know him?”
I could feel the bile rising in my throat. I swallowed hard.
“I guess I can, but I don’t promise I’ll fare any better than that trooper did.”
“Wait here a minute,” he said and stepped back inside. When he returned, he said, “Okay, I covered everything except his face. It’s not in too bad of shape.”
Buck stepped back in. I reluctantly followed. I felt sick to my stomach as soon as I saw the interior of the boat. Everything was destroyed. It was even worse than I had imagined.
My furniture, which was in the front of the boat that I thought might be dry was soaked and mostly blown apart. The refrigerator was lying on its side next to the stove that was on its back and held in place by the propane gas line. My pictures were who knows where. Probably under all the debris.
“Over here,” Buck said.
I stepped over what was left of my belongings and looked down at the bloody face of a man I had never seen before. Other than the blood, his face didn’t look too bad. I then noticed that his body didn’t seem long enough for a full-grown man. After staring for a moment, I realized that another blanket was covering something five feet away, a shoe protruding from beneath the blanket. The other half of the
man.
No wonder the trooper got sick. At least it was covered before I entered.
“I’ve never seen him before,” I said, turning my stare away from the bedroom and back out to the destroyed living quarters.
“I wonder what he was doing here?” Buck said, raising the blanket to take another look.
“I don’t have the slightest idea.”
“Did you have some kind of a bomb in here?” Buck said.
“No. Why would I have a bomb on my boat?”
“Just asking,” Buck said.
I was wondering why Buck would think I might have a bomb. It then occurred to me that with all the insurance scams going around he might think I was trying to pull one, and then he asked, “Are you insured?”
“Yes, I am. Are you insinuating that I might have blown up my boat for the insurance?”
“No, not at all. I was just hoping you were, for your sake.”
I started to look around for anything I might salvage when Buck stopped me.
“Sorry, Cam, you can’t touch anything until our investigation is over. Why don’t you go to Diane’s and spend the night there and we’ll meet here again tomorrow morning at eleven? I’ll post a man here to guard your boat.”
So, I left. What else could I do? On the way out, I stopped at Stacy’s boat. She was sitting on the patio.
“Sorry again, Cam,” she said.
“Not your fault. Don’t worry about it.”
“But still…” and then she began to cry again.
I hugged her. I don’t know if it was to comfort her or me, but we both felt better afterward.
Chapter 55
“Hello, Susan,” Sanchez said as she was escorted into the room.
“I want a lawyer before you ask any questions,” she said.
“No, you don’t.”
She looked at him in disbelief.
“And why not?” she snapped.
“Because you’re implicated in running a large insurance scam,” he hesitated for effect, “and murder.”
She looked shocked. “Murder. Who was I supposed to have murdered?”
“John Trapper,” Sanchez said.
“You’re crazy.”
“Bill and Billie Daryl did it, and since you were in the scam with the two of them, you’re just as guilty.”
“Bill wouldn’t kill anyone,” Susan snapped.
“Uh-huh,” Sanchez said, smiling.
Susan looked down in acquiescence.
“What do you want to know?” she said softly.
“Where is the bomb and when are they going to use it?”
Susan looked back up in surprise. “Bomb, what bomb?”
“Don’t act like you don’t know.”
“I don’t. I thought you wanted to know about the insurance fraud, the boat thefts. I don’t know anything about any bomb,” she insisted.
“Sheriff Buck and a few others are planning on using a weapon of mass destruction against the United States. They are using the money from your boat insurance scams to fund it. That puts you right in the middle. You’ve been funding the al-Qaeda,” Sanchez said, pointing at Susan accusatorily.
“You don’t have any proof of this.”
“But we do. We have a lot of proof, and if we don’t start getting some answers, we’re going to see you and Bill rot in prison until you die in the gas chamber.”
Susan gulped nervously.
“If I tell you everything I know, what will you do for me?”
“Depends on what you know.”
“I have records on every boat Buck stole or repossessed and some of the drug deals he made along with them.”
“How did you come about obtaining that information?”
“First, what kind of deal can we make?”
“Still depends. What about the bomb?”
Susan banged her fist on the table and now yelled, “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT A BOMB.”
~*~
Sanchez left the interrogation room feeling defeated. He called special agent Anderson in Key West.
“We have nothing as far as to when or where the bomb will be delivered,” Sanchez said.
“We’re working on it,” Anderson replied.
Chapter 56
When I left Stacy, I took a taxi to the auto storage warehouse and retrieved my Mercedes. I tipped the valet and drove down to the docks. I wanted to retrace some of the moves I had made recently, to see if I could discover what I had missed.
I saw Dan talking on his cell phone in the Harbor Masters office. When he saw me coming, he said something and hung up.
“Cam, I was just talking to Diane. I’m sorry about your boat. Any idea what happened yet?”
“No. Some guy blew a hole in my boat and cut himself in half while he was at it. I’ve never seen him before.”
“Shit,” Dan said, looking at the ground. “What the hell?”
“Yeah, shit,” I said.
“Well, what brings you down here? You need somewhere to live awhile? I’ve got room.”
“Thanks anyway, I’m going to stay with Diane.”
“Lucky.”
“Funny, I don’t feel lucky. Anyway, I just came to retrace some of my steps. Anything new with the Tiger in slip 24?”
“There has been some activity. They go out about twice a day. I never see anyone disembark, though.”
“Have you seen anyone board?”
Just that lady, Jenny. She’s the one who asked me if I had any information about it. She said she was thinking about buying it.”
“How often does she visit?”
“Every couple of days. She always has a case when she goes on board but not when she leaves,” Dan said, his mind drifting as he looked toward the boat.
“That’s strange,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s what I thought.”
“Thanks, Dan. Will you call me if you see her again?”
“You bet. Sorry again about your boat.”
“Thanks again. See you later,” I told him and started to leave.
“Oh, by the way,” he said, “Dave’s back at Schooners. Seems he got drunk and went fishing with Crazy Wanda. They were gone for a week. His wife is about to kill him.”
“You don’t say. It’s a wonder that a week with Crazy Wanda didn’t kill him,” I said, laughing.
I left and drove to Diane’s house with the intention of getting the picture of Jenny and taking it to Dave, to see if that was the woman he saw Jack with the night he disappeared.
I pulled into Diane’s driveway and saw her sitting on the front porch swing, drinking a beer.
“That looks good,” I said, pointing at the beer.
“Yeah, I needed it after seeing that arm thrown onto the dock. So, who was the guy?”
“Don’t know. I’ve never seen him before.”
Diane got up and went in the house. I took a seat on the swing. I knew she was getting me a Wild Turkey. She did.
“Here ya’ go,” she said and sat next to me.
“What now?” she asked.
“Well, Dave’s back at Schooners. I thought I would take the picture of Jenny to him to see if she’s the girl.”
“Are you sure you want to know?”
“Only if I’m wrong.”
“I hope you are. I like her.”
“Yeah, me too.”
We sat and talked for a while. I realized how tired I was. The activities of the day had finally caught up to me.
Diane woke me gently. She had already set my empty glass on the table next to the swing.
“Come on, Cam. Let’s go to bed. We’ll see Dave tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” I said sleepily.
Chapter 57
Amar eased the fifty-two-foot Tiger away from the dock and turned toward the bay. The moon gave him enough light to find his way in the darkness. He looked up, illuminated by the moon, taking in the stars shining like diamonds.
“Soon, all of this will not matter,” he told Kasim.
/> “It will matter—just not to us.”
“And not to three thousand spineless soldiers.”
“Yes, not to them,” Kasim said.
The boat slipped into the darkness and turned north toward Miami. This was to be the Tiger’s last visit to Key West.
“We will have a pleasant trip to Miami,” Amar said.
“The seas are calm, and the wind is soft. The gods are on our side,” Kasim said.
~*~
Captain Lacy of the United States Coast Guard watched the fifty-two-foot Tiger run quietly up the coast with its running lights off. This usually meant they didn’t want to be spotted; probably moving something illegal, although sometimes it was just a drunk or high millionaire with a boat full of teenage girls out for a no clothes tour of the coast.
Either way, Captain Lacy thought, he had better check it out. He hoped it was the latter of the two choices.
The Captain gave the order to intercept the Tiger. The Coast Guard boat turned and sped in the direction of Amar.
Kasim saw the large boat approaching on the radar screen.
“Amar,” he said softly. “There is a boat approaching at three o’clock. One mile out. Probably Coast Guard.”
“Get out the guns. We cannot let them destroy our mission.”
Half a mile out from the Tiger, the Captain saw a boat on his starboard side moving in the same direction but also closing the gap between them.
He raised his megaphone and hit the switch after a blast from his horns.
“This is the United States Coast Guard. Turn your boat away immediately.”
The boat kept coming.
“Prepare to fire a shot across the bow of the aggressor,” Captain Lacy barked.
The guns were turned in the direction of the oncoming boat. It turned slightly and pulled ahead of the coast guard. Once in front, it cut its speed and idled its engines.