“I hate to do this to you, but I need a favor. A really big one.” I explained about the loss of my uncle’s money, Sophia’s threat and the note, then told him my most excellent plan.
“Don’t you think you should step back and reconsider? The cops are pretty good at handling this kind of thing.”
“Sophia is crazy right now. I’m not letting the police negotiate the release of my best friend.”
“But you’re better at dealing with her, right?”
“Look, I can get the money needed to rescue Sophia and Boris’ sister. I understand she’s a little stressed out right now with her sister in Russian mob hands.”
“I thought you said she was crazy, not merely under a strain.”
“She is, but it’s understandable, given her circumstances.”
“So this woman, maybe crazed, maybe just having a bad day, is doing the same thing to you that is being done to her, and you think that’s reasonable?”
“Yes.”
Sammy thought for a minute. “Why me?”
“Because you’re a big guy.”
“You’re expecting trouble, physical confrontation.”
“Maybe.”
Sammy gestured to the people still milling around the chickee. “Look, I’ve got business here for the first time in years, well, since the Hardy’s came to town. I need the money.”
“I do too. Who knows how much she’ll ask, but she needs half a million to rescue her sister so I expect it to be that and maybe more for aggravation.”
I leaned forward and touched Sammy’s chest with my hand, looked up into his face and said. “Please.” I fluttered my eyelids at him.
Despicable behavior on my part, I knew, leading him to believe there was more to my reliance on him than just accompanying me on a crazy caper, but my friend’s life was at stake. I’d do anything to save her, even lie to a great looking guy who probably was responsible for saving my life.
He placed his two hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eye. “Okay. I guess I can get Grandfather and my cousin to run the show here. Give me a minute to arrange things.”
He informed his customers there would be a short delay before the next ride, then turned and ran up the path to the house. In less than five minutes he was back with Grandfather Egret and another Indian, younger than Sammy but similar in build and features. He introduced me to Willy Turtle. We shook hands.
Grandfather gave me a warm embrace, whispering in my ear a warning I knew I should heed. “Slow down and let your anger go before you take on this woman and her brother.”
I knew he was right, but I also knew my anger was what was propelling me into action, and I didn’t want to lose time while Madeleine suffered who knows what at her captors’ hands.
I still didn’t have my damaged Mustang back and was driving a small compact rental that wheezed when I pushed it over seventy. And I intended to push it today. Sammy slid into the passenger’s seat, and I took the wheel, spinning my tires as we left the parking area.
“I brought this just in case.” Sammy held up a huge machete, which in my eagerness to get going, I hadn’t noticed when he got into the car.
“Whoa.”
“And of course, this.” He pulled a Bowie knife out of a scabbard. The blade shone gleaming silver in the afternoon sunlight.
Double whoa.
“So she likes to dive? But what makes you think she went to Key Largo? Wouldn’t she hole up somewhere with Madeleine until she contacted you?”
“Darlene says she likes to dive to release tension. She’s stressed right now. A prisoner can only add to that. I’ll bet she needs something to bring her down, the way I fancy a Cosmo after a bad day at the shop.”
“Cold.”
“Shaken with ice.”
Sammy glanced at me. “What?”
“The drink.”
“No, I meant the woman must have ice water running through her veins to be diving while her sister’s being held captive and she herself is holding another woman for ransom.”
“Not ice water. More like ice cold vodka.”
“I don’t see how you’re going to find her. There must be over twenty dive boats there. Then there’s the possibility she’d rent a private boat.”
“I’ll have help on this one. I called Grandy. She and Max know everyone on the water down there. They’ll call around with the description. If Sophia and Boris are on a dive boat this afternoon, I’ll be there to greet them when they get off.” I pushed on the accelerator and the little car gave a gasp, balked, then jumped forward.
Slowing down to 55mph on the strip connecting the mainland with Key Largo made me grind my teeth in frustration. I tailgated the car ahead of me until I got to the first passing lane, then flew by at around seventy. So did the cars following me.
“Why do they post speed limits if no one obeys them?” Sammy gripped the door rest on his side so hard his knuckles were white. I thought it might crumble in his hand, and I’d be paying damages at the end of my rental contract. I didn’t care. I’d pay for the whole damn car to be replaced if I could just see Madeleine trip or stumble her way back to us.
The next passing lane came up and the car behind me and I jockeyed for position. I won.
Worse yet, the speed limit when we entered Kay Largo was 45, and I knew the local cops watched for out-of-area licenses to give visitors a “welcome to the Keys here’s your speeding ticket” greeting. I nosed in behind a truck going over 50, hoping the cops would choose him and ignore me. We made it to the marina, and I squealed into the parking area and chose a site a few cars down from Grandy and Max’s dockage. Grandy met us at the dock.
“She and her brother are on the Sea Raiders dive boat, due back in here in a few minutes.” Grandy pointed toward an empty slip.
I heard the afternoon horn of the dive boat from Penny Camp State Park as she entered the turn marked “Dangerous Curve,” right before the entrance to the state dock. I checked my watch. I must have set some kind of record for getting from my place to Key Largo. And no ticket. Another dive boat was traversing the waterway toward us. As she turned to enter her slip, I read the name on the side.
“Okay. She’s here.” I ran down the dock with Sammy close behind me. The passengers from the afternoon dive began to leave the boat. It was a small operation, taking no more than ten people aboard for a trip. Sophia and Boris weren’t among the divers leaving.
I rushed past the divers and grabbed the crew member tying the lines. “I need to talk with the captain. It’s an emergency.”
He pointed toward the stern of the boat. I jumped on board, ran over to him, and breathless, described the two siblings. “I was told they were on this trip, but they never debarked. Where are they?”
He laughed. “Now there was a pair of kooks. They arranged for this afternoon’s dive trip, but made an odd request. We have a sister boat that goes out an hour later than we do. They arranged to go out with us, but come back on the other boat so they could dive longer. They seemed to know a lot about diving. I thought what the heck and charged them double. The other boat was diving a mile away from us, and I told them I couldn’t ferry them over, but they insisted they wanted to swim anyway. You can be sure I had them sign some waiver papers. I don’t need to be sued. I watched them as they swam for the other boat. They seemed to be having no problems. Hold it a minute, would you? I’m getting a message on my radio.”
The captain listened to the message, shaking his head all the while. He finally signed off and came back to me. “I was right when I called them kooks. They wouldn’t get back on board for the return trip. The boat is looking for them right now, but they went back down for a final dive, and now there’s no sign of them. We’ve called the authorities.”
I grabbed him by his shirt. “We’ve got to find them. They’re holding my friend for ransom. If they drown, we’ll never find her.”
The captain gave me a look that suggested I was as kooky as they were.
Sammy pulled
me off the captain, apologized, then took me back to Grandy and Max’s boat.
“I guess you could use that Cosmo right now.” Sammy had his arm around me as we sat together on the banquet bench in the galley.
“What?”
“To calm you, you know. Because you’re stressed.”
“Oh she’s more than stressed. She needs serious medication to get through this one.” Grandy rummaged around below the sink and pulled out a bottle of Scotch. She poured us all generous shots. Sammy, whom I’ve never seen drink, took his and held the glass awkwardly.
I tossed my shot down, then reached for Sammy’s glass and did the same with his.
“Don’t you think now is the time to call in the authorities on this kidnapping?” Sammy asked.
Grandy, as if reading Sammy’s mind, opened the fridge and withdrew a bottle of beer, handed it to him and nodded. He saluted her with the bottle and took a swallow.
“No, no, no. No authorities. What can they do? It’s up to the Coast Guard now.”
“If they can be found, the Coast Guard will find them.” Max gave my shoulder a comforting pat. “We just have to wait.”
Outside we could hear the sounds of late dive boats tying up and off-loading gear and passengers. As the wet, happy and exhausted divers made their way past our boat, I caught snippets of their conversations—comments about the weather, raves about what they’d seen on their dives, and their plans for the evening. All happy people, pleased to be in a warm tropical climate, enjoying what it offered. I envied them those feelings as I struggled to hang on to my reason. Anxiety for my friend threatened to overwhelm me. French, German, and Canadian accents mingled with American, but one stood out from the rest. It was Russian, and the voice belonged to Sophia. I jumped up from my seat, banging my knee on the table, and limped up the stairs, across the boat and onto the dock. She didn’t see me coming. She was past the boat, so when I grabbed her arm she spun around, surprised.
“You. What are you doing here? Trying to ruin my vacation time?”
“Vacation? How can you call it vacation when you’re holding Madeleine for ransom and your sister is being held hostage for money? What kind of woman are you? You’re doing to me what the Russian mob is doing to you.”
By now Max, Grandy, and Sammy stood by my side. Boris had gone ahead, then turned when he heard my voice and returned, taking up a fighting stance by his sister’s side.
“No. It is my sister who is being held. You are some crazy woman. First you promise money, then you take it back. Now you accuse us of holding your friend. You are, how do you Americans say, you are ‘certifiable.’ ” Boris took a step forward, and so did Sammy, dwarfing the stocky Russian by at least three inches. And one machete and Bowie knife.
“Where is she? Did you smuggle her down here? Why here? Except you needed some recreational diving. You’re a horror.” I was working myself up into a stroke.
Sammy placed his hand on my arm. “Let’s all just calm down. Are you saying you don’t know anything about Madeleine’s whereabouts?”
“Why would we? Your friend doesn’t have the money, does she?” Sophia asked.
“No, of course Madeleine doesn’t have the money. I have it.” I bristled at the absurdity of Sophia’s assumption.
“Good. It’s about time. Let’s go get it, and we can pay to get my sister back. The Russians are getting anxious, and they may decide to back out of the deal. If they do, it will be your fault.”
“Just a minute, Sophia. I’m still not certain what’s going on here. You threatened me, and then I got a kidnapping note. It has to have come from you.”
Sophia and Boris exchanged looks filled with disbelief and suspicion.
“I don’t understand. You say someone took your friend and they want money for her? Who would do that?” Sophia hesitated a moment. “Unless ….”
I grabbed Sophia’s arm. “What are you thinking? Tell me.”
“Maybe the Russians decided to put pressure on you by taking your friend, huh?” Sophia looked pleased with herself for figuring that one out. And she could be right.
I was so overwhelmed by all this, I struggled to stay upright on my Jimmy Choos. I stepped back and reached out for one of the pilings to hold onto. “I never thought of that.” I began to cry. Everything was so confusing, and I was no closer to finding out where Madeleine was. Max handed me one of his handkerchiefs, red and blue and about the size of a table cloth.
Sophia pulled me toward her and began walking. “Hey. No time for crying. We need to get the money.”
“Are those the two?” A man’s voice came from behind me. I shook off Sophia, wiped my nose and saw the captain of the dive boat accompanied by someone dressed in a Coast Guard uniform.
The captain nodded. “They’re the ones.”
The uniformed man strode up to Sophia and Boris. “You two will have to come with us.” He gestured to other Coast Guard personnel who surrounded the pair.
“Why?” Boris resumed his pugilistic stance.
“Come now or we’ll handcuff you. We have a few questions to ask you, like why you left the second dive boat and how you got back here.”
“We got a ride from him.” Boris pointed to a man who had just finished tying up his boat.
“We didn’t like the second dive boat. Too old. It didn’t look safe, so we swam toward shore, and he came along.” Sophia seemed matter-of-fact about the incident.
“You can’t just swim off. There are rules, you know.” The Coast Guard official appeared shocked at her utter disregard for dive regulations.
“We can. We swim very well, and we could have made it here without any boat. Who says we can’t swim here?” Sophia stood toe to toe with the Coast Guard officer.
“I think both of you and your ride need to come with me.”
“Me? I didn’t do anything but offer them transportation to shore.” The man who had given them a ride appeared to be reconsidering his generosity.
“Not until we find Madeleine.” I pushed between the Coast Guard men and the siblings.
“You mean someone else is lost?” The Coast Guard captain looked about to take action to retrieve whoever had been left out on the water.
“Yes. Her name is Madeleine and I’m certain these two took her or they know who did.”
“She’s still at sea?”
“Yes. I mean, I don’t know where she is.”
By the time we sorted it all out in the harbormaster’s office, the sun was going down and I pined for another few fingers of Scotch. Sophia and Boris played the “I don’t speak much English so I didn’t understand the rules” card. The Coast Guard bought it. I let it go because I didn’t want them taken away. I reneged on my contention that Madeleine was also lost. I lied and said the worry over my Russian friends being lost at sea had confused me. There was no way I was going to let the Coast Guard take Boris and Sophia into custody. I needed to talk with them.
Max, Grandy, and Sammy seemed to think Sophia and Boris were telling the truth. I was not convinced, but I’d go along with it if I could get some information out of them. It was just possible, as Sophia had said, that the Russians took Madeleine thinking they could get their money from me. What bothered me most was that I hadn’t heard from the kidnappers. Their note indicated they’d be in touch, but there were no messages on my cell, which seemed the likely place for them to make contact. Could they have put another note on the shop door? Kind of a stupid way to make a ransom demand.
As we left the harbormaster’s office, I again checked my cell. No voicemail, no texts. What was going on? As if my touch had somehow activated it, it rang. I was so shocked, I dropped the phone. Sammy picked it up and handed it to me.
“Hello?”
It was Madeleine.
“Okay, here’s the deal. This guy says he’s working for the mob and they want half a million in cash for my safe return.” Her voice sounded fine, calm, almost normal.
“Are you all right?” I asked.
; “I’m fine, but I think this guy wants to get rid of me.”
I turned to Sammy. “She says she thinks the guy wants to kill her.”
“No, I did not say that. I said I think he wants to get rid of me, as in unload me into your hands. Or someone’s. He says I’m too much trouble. I don’t think he’s ever done this kidnapping thing before. He’s not real good at it.”
“What did you do to him, Madeleine?”
“Oh, so now it’s my fault I got kidnapped?” Her tone was snappish.
“Of course not, but you must have done something for him to want to get rid of you.”
“I sort of hit him in the eye when he tried to grab me. It was an accident. My elbow got in the way of his head somehow and …. Well, he’s going to have a real shiner, I’ll bet. I can’t really tell because he’s got a mask over his face. Then when he pushed me into the car, I stepped back on his foot. He was wearing flip flops. I’m certain I broke one of his toes. It’s terribly swollen now.” She paused for breath.
“There’s more?’
“I bit him.”
“That’s it?’
“I didn’t mean to bite him. I kind of turned fast and our faces made contact, his ear in my mouth, so I pulled away and took off part of his ear.”
“Don’t lie to me. You meant to bite him.”
There were some rustling noises on the phone and another voice came on.
“Please pay up. I can’t stand one more hour with this woman. Every time I get near her, something happens. To me.” The man sounded distraught.
“I’ve got bad news for you,” I said.
“No money?” he asked.
“No you’ll get your money, but it will take a day or so.” I thought I heard crying on the line.
“Madeleine, are you crying?”
“Not me. Just get the money, would you? And get me out of here. He keeps licking his lips and muttering to himself. I think he’s thinking of biting me back. I could contract rabies.”
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