If not the boat, what?
The road out of his estate was not an option. Even now he could hear sirens in the air. He walked slowly along, parallel to the beach, thinking hard.
There had to be some way.
Maybe he should just chance the boat. It would be more maneuverable than a sub, wouldn’t it?
The fact was he didn’t know. But he couldn’t think of a viable alternative.
Then, as he watched, the sub started to sink into the water. It turned and, its tower still visible, rapidly made its way back out to sea.
Maybe they had heard the sirens too, way out there. Or maybe they just assumed that things had gone badly and they had better retreat.
Whatever the reason, Lampert now had his window of opportunity.
Lady Lucky had a steel hull. It could take the pounding of the ocean. He had crossed the Atlantic in it before. Once he reached international waters he would feel much safer. It would take time for Landry and the others to talk to the police. Warrants would have to be issued. Police would have to be sent out. By that time Lampert could be very far away.
He heard the sounds behind him, turned, and saw what was coming.
Frantic, he started running flat out for his precious boat and the open seas.
Lampert looked as though he had seen Satan himself after him.
And in some ways, he had.
Puller had caught up to Mecho and the two men ran side by side.
Mecho did not look at him or say anything to him. His total focus was on the man up ahead.
Puller and Mecho ran like the combat warriors they were. Not the fleetest in the world, they ran with a practiced motion, a fluidity that got maximum results with a modest output of energy. When you were in combat you often had to run. Mobile targets tended to survive. Stationary targets tended to die.
But when you stopped running you usually had to fight. The latter took a lot more energy than the former. Better not to waste all of it on the running part.
They were still neck and neck as they gained on their quarry. But Puller snaked ahead at the last moment and tackled Lampert.
The man went down, the wind knocked from him.
Mecho reached down and lifted Lampert off the sand with a violent upward jerk of his arms.
Puller slowly rose and watched the two men.
Mecho looked at Lampert and Lampert looked back at him.
Mecho’s features were stone.
Lampert’s were fear mixed with curiosity.
“What the hell is your beef with me?” he finally shouted.
Mecho threw him back down on the sand, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the photo. He held it in front of Lampert’s face.
“Do you remember her?” Mecho asked, his voice strained.
Puller kept watching, and waiting. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do if Mecho decided to try to kill Lampert. The man was his prisoner, a potential witness against one of the biggest criminals in the world. Mecho was wounded, but then so was Puller. In a one-on-one all bets were off. Puller knew his skills and his limits and he wasn’t sure he could take the bigger man.
But then he might surprise himself.
The thing was, though, Puller didn’t want it to come to that.
Mecho was not his enemy.
Lampert stared dully at the photo.
“Uh, am I supposed to know this person?”
“Her name is Rada. You took her from a village in the Rila mountains in Bulgaria. Her and many others. That was my village.”
Lampert looked at Puller. “Is he serious? You think I’m going to remember someone like that?”
Puller stared stonily back at him. “Wrong answer, Pete.”
Mecho again lifted Lampert up off the sand, held him up with one arm, cocked his other arm back, and hit Lampert so hard that several of his teeth exploded out of his mouth. He flew backward five feet and landed in the sand. He hit so hard on his cuffed arms that he popped both shoulders out of their sockets.
Screaming and crying in pain, he tried to wriggle away.
“Shut up,” said Mecho.
“Oh God,” screamed Lampert. “Oh my God.”
“Shut up.”
Mecho kicked him in the gut.
“You don’t remember her? You don’t remember Rada?”
“Oh God.” Lampert was spitting chunks of teeth and bloody gums from his mouth and rolling all over the sand.
Puller knelt down next to him, cut his bindings, and with two firm, quick thrusts popped both shoulders back in place.
Lampert lay there crying quietly and gasping for air.
Mecho stared down at him, his hands balling and unballing. His huge chest heaved with every breath.
Puller rose and looked at him. “How is this going to play out?” he asked.
“He is coming back with me.”
“He’s in my custody. He’s wanted for crimes here.”
“He is coming back with me,” Mecho snarled.
“Mecho, we’ll make sure this scum never sees the light of day.”
“He took everything we had. I made a promise.”
Puller drew out his sidearm and pointed it at Mecho. He had no bullets left in it, but Mecho didn’t know that.
“The last thing in the world I want to do is hurt you, Mecho. But I’ve got a job to do and I plan on doing it. This guy was responsible for my aunt being murdered. He’s going to pay for that.” Mecho eyed the gun and then turned to look down at Lampert and held up the photo once more. “Tell me where she is. Tell me now.”
“I don’t know where she is,” Lampert sobbed through his broken and bloody mouth. “I swear to Jesus.”
Mecho grabbed him, jerked him up. “You do know. You will tell me.”
“I don’t. I don’t know, damn it.”
Lampert fell over on his side crying when Mecho let him go.
Mecho looked down at the photo and, as Puller watched, tears slid down the big man’s face. His body began to tremble.
Puller looked out to sea, where Lampert’s yacht was visible. All that money. Based simply on misery. Based simply on greed. Based simply on destroying people’s lives for cash.
He glanced back at Mecho and holstered his weapon. He gave a long sigh. What he was about to do flouted every rule in the book that had guided him for most of his adult life.
“How were you planning on getting him out of here?” he asked.
Mecho glanced up at him. “Why?”
“Just curious.”
“I have a friend. He pilots a cargo ship. He will take us back home. No questions asked.” “Where and when?”
“Tonight. From Port Panama City.”
Lampert had stopped crying and was listening intently to this.
Through his busted mouth he stammered, “You… you can’t be serious. You’re not going to let him take me to… to Bulgaria.”
Puller glanced down at him. “Why not? You’ve been there. Had a good trip, right? Got everything-correction, everyone-you needed, right?”
“You can’t.”
“You sure about this friend, Mecho?”
“I am sure.”
“What will happen to Lampert back in Bulgaria?”
“We have justice, just like you do here.”
“Do you have the death penalty?”
“We have worse.”
“Worse? Like what?”
“He’ll get to live. In a part of Bulgaria that no one would ever choose to live. He will get to live there for the rest of his life. And he will be busy every minute of every day of every year until he drops from being worked to death. We Bulgarians are relentless when it comes to people who hurt us.”
Lampert struggled to sit up, blood pouring from his mouth. “For God’s sake, Puller, you can’t let this happen. You’re a cop. You’ve got a duty. You can’t let this guy take me. He’s a foreigner. He’ll be kidnapping an American citizen. I’m a taxpayer. I pay your damn salary. You work for me.”
Puller
ignored this and said, “And your friend is doing this for free? Why?”
“Not exactly for free. I promised him something, but I don’t know how to get it. I’m not even sure what it is.”
Mecho described his friend’s request. Puller smiled and glanced at Lampert. “That’s okay. I know what it is.”
Mecho looked surprised but also hopeful. “So you can get this thing?’
“I can get this thing,” said Puller.
CHAPTER 96
Panama City, Florida, was known to generations of college students who invaded the town for spring break.
Port Panama City was a port with easy access to the Gulf along a nearly nine-mile-long channel.
Ocean liners disgorged tourists.
Cargo ships brought products to America through here and took American-made products to the rest of the world.
It was a busy place, even at night.
Puller stood on the dock holding a box and eyeing the Cyrillic writing on the side of the steel-hulled cargo ship as cranes lifted metal containers onto the ship, stacking them on top of each other.
As he continued to watch, a large wooden box was carried on board. There were two men carrying one end and one man carrying the other.
The one man was Mecho. He was cleaned up from his fighting, his wounds bandaged and mostly hidden under his clothes.
For those who looked closely, and no one did, the wooden crate had two holes for air drilled in it.
Inside the box was Peter J. Lampert. He was bound, gagged, and drugged.
He would wake up in about six hours.
By then the cargo ship would be well out in the Gulf. It would make its way around the southernmost tip of Florida and then begin the long trek across the Atlantic. The cargo ship would plow along at an average speed of ten knots. Seventy-six hundred nautical miles and a month later it would arrive in Bulgaria.
Once Lampert touched Bulgarian soil he would never leave it.
The crate secured on board, Mecho came back down the gangplank followed by a heavyset man who looked strong as a bull.
His thick-veined neck was the size of an average man’s thigh. His sleeves were rolled up and revealed forearms knotted with cords of muscles. He wore a skipper’s cap, and a cigar stuck out from his mouth at an angle.
They reached Puller and stopped.
Mecho introduced the man as his friend and the cargo ship’s captain.
The captain looked at Puller appraisingly. “Mecho tells me you have something for me.” Puller held out the box. “Ten bottles.”
The captain lifted the top of the box and looked inside it.
His smile was wide and immediate.
Puller handed him the box and the captain thanked him and carried it back on board ship. Mecho looked at Puller.
“So what is this thirty-year Macallan?”
“It’s a scotch. Actually a very good scotch.” “And it is thirty years old?”
“So they say.”
“Where did you get it?”
“Let’s just say that it was another opportunity for Peter Lampert to make restitution.”
Mecho’s jaw slackened in surprise. “You took it from his house? Weren’t the police around?” “They weren’t watching me too closely.” Mecho put out his hand and Puller shook it.
“I thank you for all that you have done.”
“I hope you find your sister.”
Mecho nodded slowly. “I will never stop looking.”
“But you can stop looking for Lampert.” Mecho smiled grimly. “I will always know right where he is.”
Mecho turned and walked up the gangplank. Halfway up he turned and waved back at Puller. Puller returned the wave.
A few moments later Mecho was gone.
An hour after that, the ship was gone too and Lampert had begun his long journey to his final resting place.
“Good riddance,” Puller muttered as he walked back to his car.
CHAPTER 97
When Julie Carson opened her eyes the first thing she saw was the bright light overhead. The second thing she saw was Puller sitting next to her hospital bed.
He gripped her hand.
“I made it,” she said groggily.
“Never any doubt on my part. Docs say you’ll be good as new in no time.”
“Never got shot while wearing the uniform. Only while hanging out with you.”
“Seems to be an occupational hazard with me.”
She sat up a bit. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I don’t think I’m going on vacation with you anymore.”
“Completely understandable.”
“What happened to Landry?”
“In custody. Talking her head off. Bullock was thinking of retiring, but after this big bust he might run for governor.”
“So he’s getting all the credit?”
“Not something I care about, General.”
She squeezed his hand. “Julie. Off the clock now.”
“Julie,” he said.
“Diaz?”
“Colombians have already picked up her remains. She died a hero. They’ll see to that.”
“And Mecho.”
“He made it through with a few dings, like me.”
She focused on his bandaged arm and leg. “Oh, God, John, I just remembered you were wounded too.”
“Just a few more scars to add to the package.” “Please tell me they caught Lampert. The last thing I remember is seeing him running away with his hands cuffed.”
Puller hesitated. “If I tell you the truth will you swear that you’ll never tell another soul? Even if you’re called on to testify?”
She sat up a little more and looked at him squarely. “What?”
“Maybe I should just let it alone. I don’t want you to have to perjure yourself.”
“What are you talking about?”
Puller looked at the med lines going into a single unit inserted near her collarbone.
“Morph drip for the pain.”
“I think so, yes.”
“Morph messes with your memory.”
“It can. But we were talking about Lampert.” “We were?”
“John!”
“He decided to take a little trip abroad.”
“He got away? On his yacht?”
“To Bulgaria. Understand he’ll be making it his permanent home.”
“How is that possible? Didn’t the police arrest him?”
“The police were a little tardy. We took Lam- pert’s tender to an isolated spot down the beach. From there, it was easy to put him in a truck and take him away. As far as the police know he got clean away. At least that’s what I told them when they asked.”
Carson stared at him for a long moment and then said, “I think I feel the morph erasing my short-term memory.”
“I can understand that.”
“When can I get out of here?”
“A few days.”
“Will you come to visit me?”
“I’ve been living here,” he said, pointing to a chair next to the bed with a pillow and blanket over it.
She smiled tenderly at this. “Diego and Mateo?”
“Back with their abuela. And they’re living in my aunt’s house. The other prisoners are being processed and will be returned to wherever they came from. That includes Lampert’s household staff.”
“Rojas?”
Puller shook his head. “No. Not today. But his time will come.”
Carson looked overly agitated by this and Puller put a calming hand on her arm. A few minutes later the morphine kicked in and her eyes closed.
Puller went outside and called his brother at USDB. He filled Robert Puller in on nearly all that had happened, only leaving out the fate of Lampert in Bulgaria.
“Damn, John,” said his brother. “You need another month of R and R to get over the last few days of R and R.”
“Actually, I think I’m ready to get back in the rank and file.”
“What are you goin
g to tell the Old Man?” “Not sure yet.”
“You going to tell him that his sister is dead?” Puller thought about that and finally said, “No. I’m not.”
“I agree with you.”
Puller had given Sadie the dog to Diego and Mateo. The two boys and the little dog had instantly bonded. Puller figured they would be good friends for many years. And he hoped that living in a nicer neighborhood well away from the gangs would be a big plus in their lives. And Bullock had promised to keep an eye on them.
There was a lot of paperwork and face time with Bullock, the state police, and the Feds. They said this would intensify the hunt for Stiven Rojas, but that the man had proven very elusive in the past.
“Keep trying,” Puller told them before walking out of the last debrief.
Carson was released from the hospital two days later, bandaged, bruised, and tired.
But alive. Very much alive.
That morning she and Puller flew back home on a private jet sent down by the Army.
“Gulf Five,” said Puller. “Never been on wings like this.”
“Stick with a rising general and she’ll take you places,” Carson told him as the steward poured out two glasses of champagne for them.
Puller drove to his apartment after promising to have dinner with Carson that night at her place. A friend of his had taken care of AWOL while he’d been gone, but he let the cat out for a good long time and then played with him for an even longer time.
The next day he drove to Pennsylvania carrying a small package. He parked near a field of green grass, climbed out, and walked to the middle of the field. He opened the top of the urn and took his time sprinkling his aunt’s ashes across the Pennsylvania countryside, just as she had wanted. He closed the empty urn, looked to the sky, and said, “Goodbye, Aunt Betsy. For what it’s worth, a long time ago, you meant the world to a little boy. And the man he became will never forget you.”
Puller knew what he had to do next. In fact, it was past time to do it.
He drove back to Virginia, showered, put on his dress blues, and headed to the VA hospital.
He walked down the sterile corridors, his frame tall and ramrod straight.
He heard his father before he got close to the room.
The same nurse as before confronted him in the hall.
“He’s been a bear the last few days. Been screaming for you nonstop. Thank God you’re here.”
The Forgotten (john puller) Page 38