by Mac Fortner
I didn’t look her way. I just half waved.
“Hi Stacy,” Kailey said.
“Is he okay?” Stacy said.
“He just needs a drink.”
Chapter 15
Harold Chesterfield's private jet touched down at Key West International Airport at eleven-fifteen the next morning. A black Hummer Limousine was there to pick him up.
Aaron climbed out of the back seat and met Harold halfway to the limo with his hand extended. Harold walked past without even acknowledging him. This wasn’t going to be good, Aaron thought.
The two men settled into the back seat, and the driver sped away.
“Did you have a good flight?” Aaron asked.
“Why the hell is she still alive?”
“She found the bomb on the sub,” Aaron said. “Also, she has the jewels. If we kill her, we will never see them again. It’s a good thing the bomb didn’t go off.”
“What do you know about Cam Derringer?” Harold said.
“He’s a private eye and an attorney. He lost his license to practice five years ago but got them back through the FBI for helping them on a case. He lives on a five million dollar yacht with his girlfriend, Kailey. No last name.”
“Do you think he’s in this with Tracy?” Harold asked.
“No, I don’t think so. But she wants to be around him for some reason. I’m still looking into a connection.”
The limo pulled into the Galleon Resort on Front Street.
You’re checked in,” Aaron said. “We have two condo’s facing the harbor.”
“I’m going in to freshen up. You go look for Tracy again. We have to find her,” Harold said. “I couldn’t even bring any help due to the sensitive nature of the subject.”
“I’ll find her Harold. If nothing else I’ll follow Cam until she surfaces again.”
Harold entered his condo, tipped the bellboy, and closed the door behind him.
He walked to the balcony and slid the triple door until the wall had disappeared. “Very nice,” he said.
“Yes, it is,” a female voice behind him said.
He turned to see Tracy standing in the living room pointing a gun at him.
Harold smiled, “So,” he said. “This is how it’s going to be. After all these years of smuggling, stealing and killing together, now you want me to be your next victim.”
“I found the bomb on my sub,” Tracy said.
“I heard. I hope you don’t think I put it there.”
“I do.”
“Why would I do that? I’m very fond of you. You’re like a daughter to me.”
“You thought I was stealing fake diamonds,” Tracy said. “But I wasn’t. You were going to collect the insurance like we planned, but without having to share it with me.”
“Nonsense. I didn’t place the bomb on your sub. It must have been Aaron. Then he would have half instead of a third.”
“So would you. I think the two of you came up with that stupid plan together. It sounds like you.”
Harold looked at her for a minute, his eyes turning to steal.
“Who’s Cam Derringer to you?” he said.
“No one.”
“Liar.”
She pulled the hammer back on the gun and raised it toward his head.
“I can help you get whatever it is you want from him,” Harold said.
“Maybe,” Tracy said. “I’m not here to kill you, just yet that is. But if I find you had anything to do with the bomb, then BOOM.”
Harold flinched. He knew this crazy woman wouldn’t hesitate to kill him.
“Okay. What do you want in exchange for the jewels?” Harold said.
“I want you to kill Aaron,” she said.
“Done.
Chapter 16
Diane told her secretary she was leaving early since she didn’t have any afternoon appointments.
“I’ll see you in the morning,” she said to Heather. “Finish filing today's patients, and you’re free to go too.”
“Okay, Diane. Have a good evening. See you tomorrow.”
Diane called Cam on her way home. She felt like some company tonight.
“Hi Diane,” I said.
“Hey, Cam. Would you and Kailey like to come over for dinner around five-thirty?”
“Sure,” I said. “Of course, I’ll have to check with the boss.”
“Good, I’m going to call Jack too.”
“Alright,” I said. “I know when I’m licked.”
“You’re not licked, Cam. You’re just growing up.”
Diane turned into her driveway and pulled all the way to the back to make room for the other cars. She had some steaks she could marinate and the fixings for a salad. That should do just fine.
She opened her back door but never made it inside. A shock was delivered to the back of her neck from a Taser stick.
Jason caught her as she fell and carried her to her car. He opened the door and laid her on the seat. He went back and locked the door picking up her purse and groceries as he left.
~***~
Kailey and I sat in the hot tub and sipped our drinks. We were naked, as usual, and I was getting a little aroused.
“So,” she said, “What do you think of your new present?”
“I’m floored,” I said, “But I’m not going to let you buy it for me. If you remember, Chad deposited a million dollar check in my account last month. I’m very grateful to you for lighting the fire and pushing me toward it. But I’m going to pay for the plane myself.”
“But I wanted to give it to you,” she pouted. “While we were deciding which one to get, I made enough on interest to buy it. What am I ever going to do with all this money? If I knew it was going to be such a headache, I wouldn’t have taken as much.”
“Such a problem,” I said.
“Please,” she said and slid onto my lap.
“We’ll see,” I said to appease her.
“What’s that?” she said settling in.
“It’s a present I got for you.”
“We’ll have to make it quick. We’ve got to be at Diane’s in an hour.”
“We’ll make it,” I whispered.
We left the boat forty-five minutes later. I called Jack on the way to see if he wanted us to pick him up. I figured that way he would have to leave when we did.
“Hey, Jack,’ I said. “Were on our way to Diane’s. Do you want us to swing by and get you?”
“Sure,” he said. “What’s the occasion?”
“Supper. Didn’t she call you?”
“No. I haven’t heard from her today.”
“She must have forgotten. She said she was going to call you. We’ll be there in ten minutes.”
“Okay,” Jack said. “I’ll give her a call. Maybe she found another date.”
“I doubt it, See you in a bit.”
When we arrived at Jack’s, he said Diane hadn’t answered her phone.
“She’s probably in the shower,” he said.
The three of us arrived at Diane’s house at 5:35. There was no car in her driveway. Jack looked up and down the street to see if she parked out there.
“I don’t see her car anywhere,” he said.
I knocked on the door and then tried the knob. It was locked. I tried calling her again. Still no answer. I used my key, and we entered her house.
“It doesn’t look like she’s been home from work yet,” I said. “Her coffee cup is still half full and sitting on the counter.”
We walked through the house, but there was no sign of her.
“I’m worried,” Kailey said. “This isn’t normal.”
I called Toby and asked if there were any traffic accidents in this area that might involve Diane. He checked the computer and said nothing showed up between her office and here.
“What kind of car does she have?” he asked. “I’ll have my guys keep a look out for her.”
“It’s a white 2016 Ford Edge,” I said and gave him the license plate number,
which is a vanity plate reading, ‘DOCSIN.’
“We’ll keep an eye out for her,” he said.
“Thanks.”
“By the way,” Toby said. “We pulled a set of fingerprints from the sub. We’re running them now.”
“Good, let me know what you find,” I said and then had a thought. “Why don’t you run the name, Tracy Alexander and see if they match her.”
“Will do,” he said.
We drove to Diane’s office. It was dark, and the door was locked, no sign of her car either. I tried calling her again. Still no answer.
“I don’t like this,” I said. “It’s not like her at all.”
“When you talked to her,” Jack said, “did she say anything about stopping anywhere?”
“No, not a word.”
“Let’s call Heather,” Kailey said. “Maybe she’ll know if Diane was going somewhere else.”
I called Heather. She had no idea. Diane didn’t say anything about stopping on the way home.
“Did Diane have any problems with any of her patients today?” I asked Heather.
“No. She didn’t mention any,” Heather said.
“Okay, thanks, Heather. If you hear from her, please call me.”
“I will, you do the same.”
We decided to split up and search for Diane or at least her vehicle.
Chapter 17
Tracy walked into the sheriff's station at 7 P.M. and asked for Sheriff Reynolds.
“Have a seat,” the duty officer said. “I’ll get him.”
“Sheriff, a miss Alexander is here to see you,” the officer said through the open office door.
Toby sat up straight and checked his notes.
“Tracy Alexander?” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Send her in.”
Tracy stepped into Toby’s office and took a seat across from his desk. She was wearing a white, sheer sundress, cut low and hemmed high. She crossed her legs as she sat. Toby couldn’t help but look.
“Miss Alexander, how can I help you?” he asked, his cheeks flushed.
“Well,” she said feigning innocence, “I feel kind of foolish, but I think there are some men following me.”
“Do you know who they are?”
“One of them is a man named Aaron Kingston. He’s been following me since I was in the Bahama’s. I went to a man named Cam Derringer to see if he could help me. Now I think mister Derringer is following me too.”
“I see. Why do you think these men would follow you?”
“I don’t know. But I’m scared. I’m traveling alone, and I feel vulnerable,” Tracy said.
Toby’s phone rang. “Excuse me a moment,” he said. “I’ve been waiting for this call,” and answered the phone.
“Sheriff, we don’t have a Tracy Alexander’s prints on file so I can’t try to match them.”
“Are you sure?” He said into the phone.
“Positive.”
“I’ll get them for you.”
“Do you want me to keep searching the database for a match?”
“Keep checking,” he said and hung up.
“Sorry about that,” he said. “Now, what do you want me to do, Miss Alexander?”
“I don’t know. Arrest them I guess,” she said.
Toby hit the intercom and told the Sargent to bring Tracy a glass of water. An excellent way to get her prints.
“I can’t arrest them for no reason. Do you have any proof?”
“I can’t prove it, but…..”
She was interrupted by the duty officer. “Here you go Miss,” he said and handed her the glass.
“Thanks,” she said, took a drink and set the glass on the table.
“Why did you go to Cam Derringer for help?” Toby asked.
“I heard he was….”
They were interrupted again by the deputy.
“Sheriff, there’s been a shooting in town. Just now. It sounds like the shooter got away. There's one man dead.”
“Excuse us, Miss Alexander, we have to go,” Sheriff Reynolds said jumping up. “Come in and see me again tomorrow,” he said over his shoulder as he left the room.
The sheriff and deputy ran out of the building leaving Tracy sitting in the office. She smiled.
The sheriff and deputy arrived on the scene fifteen minutes later. The area was already taped off, and an ambulance was working its way through the crowded streets.
Toby was met at the perimeter by Officer McNab. He was escorted to Chief Leland who was inspecting the body.
“Hey Chief,” Toby said. “What do we have?”
“One shot to the head. He was dead before he hit the ground,” Leland said.
“Any witnesses?”
“Yeah, plenty, but no description other than a tall man in a ball cap. He ran off that way,” Leland said pointing west. “I’ve got some men heading in the direction, but it’s too late.”
“What about an I.D.?”
“His license says, Aaron Kingston.”
“Aaron Kingston? I’ve already heard that name today,” Toby said.
“Do you know who he is?” Leland asked.
“No, just a stalker for all I know, but I have someone I need to talk to.”
Toby stood and searched the crowd for anything or anyone suspicious. Things don’t quite add up yet, but they will.
“I’ll leave Deputy Harrison here for a few minutes to help with the witnesses,” Toby said. “Maybe something will come up.”
Harold Chesterfield dropped the ball cap into a trash can four blocks from the shooting and returned to the Galleon.
Toby called his office. “Is that young lady still in my office?” he asked.
“No, sir. She left right after you did.”
“Thanks.”
Chapter 18
I drove around the residential areas hoping to spot Diane’s car. It had been two hours now since I talked to her. The window was quickly closing on the odds we would find her. I called Toby again.
“Hey, Cam. Did you find her?” Toby said.
“No, nothing yet. I was wondering if you had enough men to cover Highway One north of here. Someone may have taken her and headed that way to another Key.”
“I’m sorry Cam, but we’ve had a murder in old town. We’re tapped out,” Toby said.
“Murder?” I said.
“Yeah, you might know him. Aaron Kingston.”
“Aaron. I do know him, and I think I might know who killed him.”
“If you’re talking about Tracy Alexander, she was in my office swearing out a complaint against you and Aaron for stalking her at the time of the shooting,” Toby said.
“How convenient. I’m not following her. She came to me because Aaron was following her.”
“Yeah, that’s what she said. She said you started following her after that.”
“No, but I don’t have time to argue right now. I have to find Diane,” I said.
“Good luck, but I’m going to have to talk to you later,” he said.
“I’ll be around,” I said and hung up.
I called Kailey and Jack. Neither one of them had seen her either.
I asked Kailey, “Did Diane say what that Jason’s last name was? The guy that weirded out on her in her office.”
“No, she didn’t. Do you think he might have taken her?”
“I don’t know, but I don’t have anything else right now. I’m going to call Heather again and see if she knows. Keep searching, I’ll check it out,” I said.
“Heather, it’s Cam again. Diane said she had an altercation a couple of days ago with one of her patients. His first name is Jason, but she didn’t give a last name. Do you know who he is?”
“Cam, I can’t give out any patient information. It’s the law,” Heather said.
“It may be a matter of life and death for Diane. I need that name,” I begged.
There was silence on the line while Heather was searching her soul.
Fields,” sh
e said. “Jason Fields. I can look up his address. I have the files on my computer.”
I waited for what seemed like an eternity.
“Here it is,” she said.
I wrote down the address.
“Thanks,” I said. “I owe you one.”
“Just find her, and we’re even.”
I put the address in my Garmin and arrived ten minutes later.
The house is small even for Key West standards. It must be three hundred thousand anyway. I didn’t see Diane’s car anywhere, but it could be in the garage. I decided to knock on the door. I would figure out what to say when the time came.
I knocked. I could hear a small dog barking, but it seemed no one was at home.
A neighbor lady came out onto her porch and watched me. I walked toward her, but she scurried back in and closed her door.
I guess the neighborhood busybody. I needed to talk to her.
Her door was answered by a younger man. Tall and slightly overweight.
“Can I help you?” he said in a slow conch draw.
“I hope so,” I said. “Have you or your mother seen Mister Fields today?”
“Who wants to know?” he said.
“Larry Collins,” I said. “I have some insurance business to discuss with him.”
“I haven’t seen him,” he said and turned to the house. “Mom, you seen Jason today?”
“No,” came a disembodied voice.
He turned and looked at me again. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “There you go.”
Jason watched Cam from his hiding place behind the curtains until he left.
He unlocked the door to the back bedroom where Diane lay, still unconscious from the ether he administered when she arrived.
“Diane, what have you done? Our time together was supposed to be a secret. Someone needs to be punished.”
He closed the door, locked it and left the house.
Chapter 19
Tracy returned to Harold's room at the Galleon Resort.
“Good job,” she said to him as he opened the door.
“Piece of cake,” he said.
“The gun,” she said holding out her hand.