I remembered the experience as if it had only been days ago, and I shook as the memory flowed through me. This evening I only had to meet the kidnapper, give him the money, and get Madeleine back. Thank goodness I’d be on dry land tonight and not in the middle of some boat bouncing around on the water, waiting for the gates to close in on me.
Traffic at the Deer Mound lock was brisk at this time of the evening. Boats were coming off the lake. Few were entering it. Fishing was over for the day. When the restaurant was in operation, five o’clock was the hour when the guys who had been on the lake since early morning tied their boats up at the dock and kicked back on the wooden deck overlooking the canal, ordering the place’s famous bucket of beer and pound of shrimp. The stories began, becoming more exaggerated as buckets were emptied of bottles and refilled again. With the establishment closed now, the boats cruised past and headed for a fish camp some fifteen miles south on the canal. No shrimp there, but I’d gobbled down boiled peanuts, their specialty—one most northerners considered an acquired taste. I loved the Cajun ones.
I pulled into the parking area behind the restaurant. There were no other cars. Nappi and his men had left their vehicles on the road and walked down the winding sandy lane, taking cover in the vegetation alongside the buildings that stored boats. We expected the exchange to be in one of those buildings or in the closed restaurant, reasoning it was unlikely anyone would be around to interrupt us.
I turned off the engine and waited. My cell rang. The kidnapper guy.
“You know how to drive a boat?”
“I think so.” Although I sounded doubtful, the truth was I’d grown up on the sound in Connecticut and had been around boats of all sorts most of my life. I didn’t want the kidnapper to think I had any skills that might lead him to believe I was competent. Let him think I was just a silly blonde Yankee gal.
“See that boat approaching the lock?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. You can see your friend is aboard, right?”
From this distance and in the light from the setting sun, I could just make out someone with red hair. Madeleine. It had to be.
“If you walk around the restaurant to the canal side, you’ll see a boat tied up there. Get in it and start it up. Don’t hang up. I’ll let you know what to do.”
I hurried toward the canal. The craft there was an old pontoon boat, difficult to steer and slow. I got on board, found the key in the ignition, and started the engine. It caught on the third try. I slipped all lines except for the bow line, which I held onto, waiting for instructions. The other boat gathered speed and headed toward the lock.
“We’ll make the exchange in the privacy of the lock.”
No, no, no. Anything but that damp, cold lock. I couldn’t go there again. I just couldn’t.
“You toss the money to me once the gate is closed. I count it. Then your friend comes aboard your boat, and we head out onto the lake.”
“There’s not enough room for both boats in there.”
“We’ll make room.”
I knew several boats could go through the lock at one time, but usually they were the smaller bass boats, not one of those clunky, bulky pontoon boats. It would be a squeeze.
“Stay on your phone. I don’t want you getting in touch with anyone and calling for help.”
Whoever was piloting the boat Madeleine was on wore a hooded sweatshirt. I couldn’t make out his features, but he appeared to be a small man. As he came abreast of the gate, he reached out and grabbed the control that hung there and pushed the button, signaling the gate keeper. The gate began to rise. While his attention was directed toward the control, I heard a thump behind me. I steered away from the restaurant and toward the open waters of the canal. Oh, no. Something was wrong with the boat. But the sound didn’t repeat itself, and I sighed in relief. All I needed was for this boat to sink before I could get to Madeleine.
With Nappi and his men stranded on shore, it was up to me to argue the kidnapper into taking the lesser sum of money and answering a few questions. How was I supposed to do that?
The boat ahead nosed the far gate as I idled into the small area. Then the gate behind me started down. My heart began to race as the walls closed in on me. Our two vessels banged against each other and then into the walls.
“Cozy, huh?” The kidnapper turned toward me, his face hidden within the hoodie. All I could see were his teeth when he smiled. They weren’t good.
Madeleine’s hands were tied behind her, and she sat in the bottom of the boat. She looked scared, but defiant. Good old Madeleine. She was a trooper. I waved at her and smiled in encouragement.
“Get his thing over with, will you? I need a bath,” she said.
Yep, she was a trooper, all right, one with attitude.
“Money.” The man reached out and wiggled his fingers. “Throw it.”
The gate was now all the way down, and without the sun overhead, the lock was dark. I looked up at the mossy, wet walls and the steel doors that towered over me. We began to descend, the water making a low whooshing sound as it sought a lower level. I hesitated.
“I said, throw it!” he said.
I was frozen with fear. My hands and arms were paralyzed. I stood on the rocking deck of the boat like a cement statue.
“Damn it, Eve. Throw the money or I’ll take back that silk blouse I bought you for your birthday.” Madeleine sounded annoyed.
“You bought me that blouse I wanted?” Tears filled my eyes.
“Yes, but now I think it was a mistake. You can’t so much as rescue me from this boat, and you think you deserve a blouse?”
The walls around me faded and visions of a blue and green mottled silk Donna Karan blouse floated before me. I threw the satchel.
The kidnapper grabbed it from the floor where it landed and opened it. He began to rummage through the bills inside, then looked up. “Hey, there’s no more than twenty thousand or so in here. The rest is newspaper. No deal. You cheated me.”
A hand touched my shoulder. Nappi stood there, a grim look on his face. “Take it. It’s all yours. Your bosses will only kill you when you hand the ransom over to them. They’ll think you screwed it up, or worse, that you took the rest. You can have all that’s there for some information.”
The kidnapper looked up in shock. “Where the hell did you come from?”
“I’m a stowaway. That’s all you need to know.”
The water level in the lock had reached its low point, and the gate began to open toward the lake.
“Your decision. That money now, and I guarantee your safety.”
“It’s a no brainer, you dolt. Take it. You can eat something fancier than peanut butter every night.” Madeleine had gotten to her feet and was moving toward him.
“I like peanut butter,” he said.
“I don’t.” She threw herself at him, stomping her foot on his.
He let out a scream of pain. “That’s the foot you broke. Get off me.” He pushed her away and she fell into the water, into that black, black water.
I hesitated for only a second, then dove in after her, swallowed up in the inky depths of water so cold I almost gasped it into my lungs. I could see nothing. All I could do was feel around with my hands and plunge deeper into the coldness. My hand touched something. It felt like seaweed. Probably some water plant. Ugh. Or perhaps it was … hair. Madeleine’s hair. I grabbed a handful and pulled, rising as I tugged. We broke the surface in time to see the bass boat charging through the gate and heading toward the open waters of the lake.
Madeleine sputtered. “I held my breath. I knew you’d save me. I knew it.”
“So do I get the blouse?”
The boat was gone, the kidnapper was gone, and of course, the money was gone. I didn’t care. I held my friend in my arms, thankful to have her back. Nappi was relieved to see Madeleine and me alive, yet I knew he was disappointed not to be able to question the man who had kidnapped her.
“Now what?” I sipped a
brandy in my living room while Madeleine ate her way through two orders of take-out ribs from the Biscuit.
Nappi scowled his way through another Scotch. “I can’t believe the Russians would hire someone so inept to do their work.”
“I don’t know. I thought that lock exchange bit was kind of clever,” I said. Clever, yes, but it almost killed both of us. I shivered, remembering the black water closing in as I searched for Madeleine.
Madeleine wiped sauce from her mouth. “And it worked.”
There was a knock at the door. When I opened it, Sophia, Boris, and Darlene stood there. They were all bundled in coats against the cold front that had rolled in during the evening hours.
“You didn’t keep in touch.” Sophia looked furious. “I tried your cell, and it was busy, then you didn’t answer, so we had to come. I see you paid the money and got your little friend back.”
“Where does that leave our sister?” Boris looked at Nappi and nodded. “I am Boris Nankovitch and here is my sister and a friend. Our sister is still out there, held by the bad men. They do not get in touch.”
Boris and Nappi shook hands. Sophia and Darlene nodded.
“Why don’t we all sit down and see what we can do. I’ll make coffee.” I headed toward the kitchen.
“You don’t have vodka?” Sophia slid into the armchair near the sofa. I couldn’t tell if her look of dislike was because of her sister’s dilemma or because I hadn’t offered them vodka.
“No vodka. Only Scotch. Look, let me explain what happened.”
“There’s no explaining now. We know you do not care about us and our sister,” Boris said. He looked as if he might just leave, but then added, “I might try some of the Scotch.”
I poured him several fingers in a glass.
“He held it up to the light and examined it, then tossed it down in one gulp. “Good, yes, but not as good as vodka.”
Darlene wandered over to the dining table. “We didn’t stop for supper on the way here. Those ribs look good.”
“I don’t have enough to share.” Madeleine picked up her plate and went to eat in the kitchen.
Darlene plopped herself down on the couch, giving Nappi a friendly look. “Name’s Darlene.”
“I know.” Nappi gave her his mob look.
She scooted away from him. He ignored her.
“Madeleine has a right to eat her ribs. She’s been through hell.” I filled everyone in on the stolen money and the rescue operation.
“Since they only got twenty thousand or so, I’m sure they will get in touch with us for money for my sister.” Boris seemed certain of this, even though I calculated it had been several days since the Russians had made contact with them. And the Russians had only contacted me through the peanut butter guy.
Nappi had been quiet while I recounted the evening’s events. Now he rose from his seat. “When they contact you, you tell them to deal with Nappi Napolitani. I am a family man also, and I’ve been at it for longer than they have.”
Sophia jumped out of her chair. “What do you say? They wish only to deal with us.”
“Sometimes they seem to like dealing with me. Although I still don’t understand why they sent the guy they did.”
I gave a shudder at the thought of Madeleine’s having to spend two days with that guy.
Sophia ignored me and locked eyes with Nappi. “You cannot bargain with Russian thugs. They are tough. They will make you pay for such insolence. They will make us pay.”
“We Americans use the phrase, ‘jerk around.’ They’ve jerked your family and Eve around enough. Eve has gone out of her way to find money for you. I have been generous too. Now this will stop. I will handle this. No arguments.” Nappi shook his finger at them. “And now, everyone will leave. Eve and her friend need rest.”
Sophia and Darlene buttoned their coats as a cold wind hit them upon stepping out the door. Sophia drew on a pair of black leather gloves. Boris fumbled in his coat pockets for a moment, then withdrew his hands. He saw me watching him.
“I guess I forgot my gloves. I wasn’t expecting this cold. We Russians think Florida is always warm.”
I smiled. “This has been an odd winter. These cold fronts seem to roll through every month.”
I found Boris more approachable than Sophia. I wondered what their sister was like. And I wondered if Boris really forgot his gloves or remembered there was only one of them in his pocket. Had I found him out? Did he know I suspected the glove I grabbed off the ninja who attacked Jerry and me might be one missing from his pocket?
Nappi saw the look on my face when I turned from the door.
“What do you know?”
I wanted to let my suspicions about Boris simmer a while, but I did have something else on my mind.
“I’m wondering if I’ve been taken for a complete idiot. Sophia and Boris have been so in my face with the kidnapping of their sister I forgot about the other bag of money, the one Winston was dropping off for his bosses, his one last job before he retired. I am also wondering who took the money from the bank account. I have been too busy to bug the lawyer.”
“I’ve been wondering about that also. Perhaps Madeleine was not taken by the Russians but by family members.”
“You mean family as in ‘Family,’ right?”
“Yes. They wouldn’t send people down here to do their work. As you can tell from my men, we don’t fit in well with the cowboys and ranchers of the Okeechobee Basin. We can’t pass for bass fishermen or tourists driving through from the coasts. Put a short-sleeved palm tree print shirt on us and the result would scream ‘mob guy trying to fit in.’ ”
I laughed at the image and agreed. “They would use someone already here and in their organization, or they’d hire someone with peanut butter on his breath.”
“Any candidates leap to mind?”
“Well, Sammy and I did spend a night in the swamps, courtesy of the Hardy brothers. Then their place burned, and we don’t see them anymore. A message, do you think? Aren’t they the kind of men the family would hire to do their work down here?”
Nappi looked thoughtful. “Maybe.”
I remembered talking to Sammy about the Hardys. He said they transported people into and out of the swamp. Exactly what did he mean by that? I wondered if he would be less cryptic in his explanation of their work if I shared what I was thinking about their associates. He didn’t like the brothers before we spent the night in the swamp. I wanted to know if he felt as I did: that the Hardys were around, but hiding out, not only afraid of the law because of what they did to us, but also scared of what would happen to them if they didn’t find that money. Why hadn’t I talked with him before? Because you were being whipped right and left by Sophia and her demands, you dummy, I said to myself.
“I need to pay a visit to someone who did me a favor. I never said thanks because I’ve been so tied up, but I’m sure he’ll understand.”
“You’ll want to do this alone.”
“Yes. Will you stay here and keep an eye on Madeleine?”
“It’s late and you’re tired. This will keep until tomorrow.”
“No it won’t. It was a really big favor.”
Chapter 16
When I pulled into the airboat parking lot, I could see a light in Grandfather’s house. I moved along the path to his place, certain he would be there waiting for me. And he’d forgive my not checking in with him about the store when he heard of Madeleine’s return. Who was I kidding? He probably already knew of Madeleine’s rescue and of my role in it.
I smelled the tobacco from his pipe. As I got closer I could make out his figure in the old rocker on the porch. Its creak, creak on the floorboards was the only sound in the cold night.
“Grandfather. Isn’t it a little chilly to be sitting out here?”
“It clears my head from my work in your shop.”
“I’m sorry. Too much inside work for your taste?”
“No. Too many women.”
“I thought yo
u liked that about this job.”
“I like the women, but I can’t stand the scent of them. Too much phony fragrance. My nose got tired. I could hardly wait until I left and came home to light up my pipe and smell the good clean aroma of tobacco.”
“I thought you might appreciate these.” I handed him a box.
He opened it and sniffed at the contents. “Oh. Chocolates. My favorites, dark with coconut.” He selected one and offered me the box.
“No. They’re for you. Don’t let Sammy eat too many. I’d pay you for your hours at the store, but I know you wouldn’t take it. You’ve been truly kind.”
He smacked on his candy with gusto, took another and popped it into his mouth. When he finished with it, he closed the box and set it on the floor within reach.
“I knew something was happening, and that it was important. Why wouldn’t I help?” He paused, and I could just make out the whites of his eyes as they fixed on me. “I understand Madeleine is safe.”
“Yes, she is.”
“Did I hear someone mention my name?” Sammy stepped out onto the porch, his tall angular frame backlit by the kerosene lantern on the kitchen table when he opened the door.
Grandfather scooted the chocolate box under his chair with his foot. “Eve came for a visit and to thank me for helping all those ladies find the best clothes for themselves.”
“She also brought you chocolates. I can smell them. Don’t worry. I won’t take them.”
I smiled to myself. Sammy was like his grandfather in so many ways. Nothing got by him.
Dead in the Water Page 15