After some small talk about the parties and what they saw, Cindy said, “This is up to you, but I want to take a leisurely cruise home, and leave today, if it’s okay with all of you. We can swim and stop here and there, have dinner, and whatever we feel like.”
Brett said he wanted whatever we feel like.
“If you feel like leaving today,” Bruce said, “I need to know to put shit away and not to drink, so if you could let me know by one or two.”
Brett looked at Nikki and said, “Let’s go!”
They all chimed in, “Let’s go!”
Bruce yelled for Lucinda. When she came to the table, Bruce told her about their plans and told her to make everyone waffles. Lucinda took the order and left.
Bruce said, “I’m going to lock up the jet skis and surf bike,” and both Brett and Brian said they’d help. After putting the jet skis and surf bikes in the garage, they checked out the fifteen hundred horsepower cats in the engine room.
By the time they finished, the waffles and fruit were ready. Bruce said that by around two o’clock there would be enough room for them to get out and go home on the inside because it was flat.
About halfway back, they dropped anchor for the night, eating and drinking before going to sleep. It was early, around seven in the morning, when Bruce pulled out to head for the marina.
CHAPTER 17
When they pulled into the end of the dock, they were tan, rested, and totally drunk. They tied up and said hello to everyone on the dock including Mark, then headed to their respective homes.
Brett went to his boat and Nikki went to her houseboat. Around nine o’clock there was a knock on the door. She got up and went to the door, unafraid because she thought her troubles were over.
When she opened the door, she was surprised to come face to face with three men. The one who did all the talking was dressed in a suit and weighed at best a hundred and fifty pounds. The other two looked like SWAT team members. They were heavy hitters that weighed two fifty to three hundred pounds in socks. Both men had crew cuts. All of them had Spanish accents and asked to see Glenn.
She told the talker that Glenn was dead.
They asked to see his apartment, and the well-dressed talker handed her a one hundred dollar bill.
“What’s this for?” Nikki asked.
“For a look-see,” he answered in English.
“Come back with the cops,” Nikki said, handing the money back to him.
“Okay, thank you,” the well-dressed one said, and they left.
Around two or three minutes later, there was another knock on the door. She could see it was the same guys, so she opened the door again, and asked, “Did you forget something?”
“We really must see Glenn’s apartment.” The two big men had guns with silencers on them. All three of them pushed their way in, pointed to the sofa, and said, “We are not going to hurt you if we don’t have to.”
The well-dressed one gave her three hundred dollars and told her to sit there and be quiet and make three hundred dollars. While he talked holding the silencer, the other two went upstairs with the spare key.
He sat across from her on the loveseat with a bottle of water and the silencer on his lap. They just sat there making small talk for thirty minutes. Then one of the no necks came down and said, “The place is clean; we went over it from top to bottom.”
The well-dressed man got up and told the no necks to stay there with her. “If she moves, knock her out.” He went upstairs and came back down with the other no neck ten or fifteen minutes later. “There is nothing up there,” the well-dressed one said. “What did the cops take?” he asked.
“Nothing that I know of,” she said. “He must have been living in the Bahamas.”
“No, he had been living in Cuba,” they said, “we found out, and that was months ago.” The well-dressed man, the boss, just looked at her for the longest time then threw two hundred more at her, and then they got up and finally left.
Once they were gone, Nikki went upstairs to look things over. The bed was tipped on its side and everything was messed up. All of the vents and dresser and cabinet were taken out. She had to hold back her rage. Luckily she had put the money under the dock.
In the morning after cleaning up, she went back to her office and called her attorney. Ken told her that he could only get two hundred thousand for what she had given him.
“I wouldn’t take two hundred thousand for that!” she protested.
There was a silence on the other end of the phone and then Ken said, “Well, Nikki, it happened already.”
“So you are saying that they already have them?” she asked.
“Yes, it’s done,” he replied.
“Then unwind the deal and give them back the two hundred thousand. Those goods are worth three times that,” Nikki said forcefully.
“I can’t, I thought you would be happy. Besides I can’t do anything about it now. It’s done. So stop by and get your money,” he responded.
“Undo the deal or get more money!” she demanded.
“I told you I can’t, so get your money,” and with that, Ken hung up.
Nikki just sat there and looked at the phone then finally hung up. “He screwed me! I bet he sold the emeralds for more and a lot more. So she got in her car and went to Ken’s office. He was in so his secretary let her in to see him.
He handed her the two hundred thousand in an envelope, and said, “That’s what I got less my cut.”
“So you got two hundred and twenty thousand in total. Trust me, said the elephant as he tapped danced amongst the chickens!” she said.
“That’s funny, but that’s all I got,” he stated.
Nikki turned on her heel and left. Once in her car, she thought that taking the two hundred thousand was like giving a breath mint to a grizzly bear that’s eating you. It was just another day in the Florida Keys, a tropical paradise, but far from normal.
Nikki drove home, but in the twenty minute drive she never stopped talking to herself about Ken, and how he probably screwed her in this deal. The more she talked to herself, the madder she got.
At the dock there were people milling around and working on their boats, so Nikki said hi to everyone and calmed down a little. She went to her office and hadn’t been there more than ten, or fifteen, minutes when Brett came in. After a few moments he asked, “What’s wrong?”
“It’s something Ken did when we were gone,” Nikki replied.
“I told you to watch him!” Brett said.
“He’s an attorney! It’s in his nature to lie, cheat, and steal. I’ll take care of Ken so let’s drop it and have some fun,” stated Nikki.
With that Brett left and headed to his boat to do some work. Nikki finished her work and got up to lock the door to her office. She sat at the desk to count the money that Ken gave her for the gems. She would put some of the money under the dock and keep fifty thousand.
Brett and Brian were working on the Cat, so Nikki walked down to see how they were. Brett was very busy and into his work, so she decided to see what Mark was doing. She found him sitting on Don’s boat and took a seat with the two of them. Mark was healing quickly and getting tan from spending so much time lying around. “How are ya feeling?” Nikki asked him.
“Okay,” he said. Mark, who had lost about twenty pounds, was looking good. After thirty minutes of small talk she moved on.
Nikki went home to make Brett and herself some dinner. When Brett got home she greeted him, freshly showered, with an Absolute on the rocks. He gave her a kiss and went in to take a shower himself. Brett then made his second drink, and said he was very tired from the events of the last few days. He told Nikki he wanted to sleep on his boat tonight, to get caught up, and she understood. They had dinner and drinks and kissed goodnight.
The next morning Nikki started the coffee while she showered, and then put on her clothes for the day. There was a knock on the door, and she could see through the peep-hole that it was Bruce. When she
opened the door he walked past her into the house with a full head of steam, screaming and cursing about Brett and Lucinda.
Nikki said, “Calm down! What is going on?”
Bruce looked at her for a second and said, “You mean you really don’t know?”
“Know what?” she asked.
“They’re gone. Brett, Brian and Lucinda left during the night,” Bruce informed her. With that Nikki ran to the dock and looked to where Brett’s boat had been parked.
“It’s gone” she whispered. She stood there for a minute or two, just staring at the empty slip. Tears ran down her cheeks. She returned to her office where she said to Bruce, “He didn’t even say goodbye. He didn’t leave a note or anything. He just snuck out.”
“Sorry, I thought you knew he left and took Lucinda. She left the boat we were preparing for the owner last night around ten o’clock. She went to the apartment to wash up and get some clothes. This morning when I woke up, she wasn’t in bed. That’s when I found out she was gone. Do you want a Bloody Mary?” asked Bruce.
“Sure,” she replied.
Bruce sat on the sofa and Nikki on the love seat. They both had their Bloody Marys in hand, and Nikki gripped a box of Kleenex. She took turns drinking and sobbing. Bruce eventually said, “What a surprise, Brett and Lucinda, plus Brian; who would’ve thought?” Bruce finished his drink and walked to the door. He turned and asked Nikki, “Are you going to be alright?” She nodded her head, and he left mumbling under his breath, “Who would’ve thought?”
Nikki went to her bed to lie down. She could smell Brett on the sheets. He was everywhere, and his clothes were everywhere, too. She had known it wouldn’t last. Brett was twelve or thirteen years younger than her.
Nikki must have fallen asleep, because the next thing she saw was a shimmering, big clip, 9 mm under her nose. It was the South American man, the well-spoken one in the suit.
In perfect English the man said, “If you cry out or even whimper, I will blow the back of your head all over your pillow. Do you understand?” She nodded. “Where’s the twenty million? Where’s Glenn’s money?” the man then asked.
“I told you I don’t know what he did and sure as hell don’t know about any money,” she explained.
“You have two days to find it. If you don’t call me in two days with the money, you better hide ‘cause I’ll come back and kill you.” Nikki started to respond, but the man screamed, “Shut up! What do you owe on this place?”
“About two million,” Nikki replied.
The man thought for a second then said, “Okay, if you find me the money I’ll pay the place off for you.” He started out the door, looked back and said, “See you in two days.”
Nikki sat on her bed for a few minutes, and with all thought of Brett and Lucinda gone, she said to the atmosphere, “Pay off the marina, my ass! Whoop-dee-doo! If he kills me, he’ll never find the money! He’s full of shit! If he gets the money, he’ll still kill me and save two million dollars.”
She decided to go on the dock to visit some of the guests and see what they were up to. She first ran into Mark, Don, and the new girl Rita who rented Mercedes’ apartment. She was extremely easy on the eyes, a Cuban with long black hair and olive skin. Not to mention she spent a few nights with Mercedes; she was through and through a dancer.
They talked for a while and enjoyed the sun. Talk eventually got around to Dave and Mercedes and their overdose.
Nikki mustered some fake tears and said, “Mercedes was my best friend, and I don’t care that she was a pole dancer or hooked sometimes.” She threw in the hooker part to see if Rita had any tells about that sentence, but Rita didn’t have any response to it.
Nikki started talking to Rita, asking how she was doing in her new place and if she’d found work. Rita said she went back to pole dancing because the money was very good. She made an easy two thousand a week, just pole dancing, and getting customers to buy her drinks.
“Were you and Mercedes friends at work and in private?” Nikki asked. Rita looked right into Nikki’s eyes and said, “Yes, we were.”
,As they walked back to her apartment, Nikki said, “Someday you’ll have to come by for dinner and drinks.” Looking right into Nikki’s eyes again Rita said, “I would like that. I would like that a lot.”
They then parted at Rita’s apartment. Nikki went to call her attorney for an appointment, hoping to make it that afternoon, or the next day at the latest. He was in the office and could see her that day. Nikki spent the morning on the dock, and went back to shower and change around one for her appointment with Ken.
She arrived about five minutes early, but he had her come in anyway and closed the door to the outer office. Nikki took a seat and began to tell him about the Columbian man and what had transpired over the last week.
Ken burst out, “Nikki! That’s Armando Reyes. They’re liars, and he’s going to kill you! He has more money than God. It’s not about the money. He just likes to hurt people. Especially women! Nikki, I know this guy very well, and you can bet on two things. One, it’s not the money, and two, he’s going to kill you whether he gets the money, or not.”
After they talked a little more about Armando, Nikki left for the marina. She just couldn’t seem to think of a way out of this deal. When she got home, she made sure everything was okay at the dock, then made dinner. She felt herself missing Brett for a few minutes, then fell asleep. Around three o’clock the next morning, Nikki snapped awake with a plan to take care of the problem. No, this plan could take care of both problems.
As eight a.m. rolled around, she got up and started her day. At one o’clock she called the Trac phone Armando left with her. Armando told her he would be at her apartment between midnight and four a.m. He hung up without another word. She spent the rest of the day preparing for his arrival.
Around eight o’clock, that evening, there was a knock at the door. Not expecting Armando until after midnight, to Nikki’s surprise, when she opened the door, there he stood. He wore a custom made dark blue suit, white shirt, and tie, and of course the silenced big clip nine in his right hand.
“Oh, you’re early. Come in,” Nikki said. He came inside and she asked him if he would like a drink. She was making herself one, but Armando declined, “Just 7-Up if you have it.” She brought their drinks.
“Where’s my money?” Armando asked.
“I don’t have it, but I know where it will be tomorrow at eight,” she said hoping he couldn’t hear the loud thumping of her heart.
He held up his hands with no words and then she said, “Ken’s office.”
Armando looked very surprised and was silent a long moment. “Okay,” he said, “I’ll meet you at Ken’s at eight o’clock tomorrow night.” He got up and left without touching his 7-Up.
Nikki could hardly sleep all night, thinking about her plan, or lack of a plan. The next night Nikki arrived at Ken’s office an hour early. She parked at the other end of the strip mall next to a Publix grocery store. She walked to his office and waited. A little while later, she saw a new black 600 Mercedes drive around the block four times before pulling up in front of Ken’s office. Armando was on the phone and Nikki walked up with her soft drink in hand.
When she got to the car, Armando saw her and rolled down the window. She removed the plastic top from her soft drink and tossed the liquid—gasoline, not cola—in the car all over Armando. The pungent smell of gasoline filled the air between them.
For a split second a look of surprise fell over Armando’s face then the look turned instantly to fear. He realized that Nikki was going to light the gas and he was about to burn to death. With one swift movement she lit a wooden match and threw it in the car.
Armando started to scream and get out of the car, but it was too late. He just kept kicking and screaming as he burned to death.
As Nikki walked back toward her car, she called 911 and reported the fire. She said she saw Ken going back into his office from the car. When she was on the phone makin
g the anonymous call, Armando’s nine millimeter shells kept exploding from the fire. Nikki got back in her car and drove to the dock.
She made herself a drink and waited to be seen by the guests. The first person to come along was Rita, who had her own drink, so they walked down the dock together. Nobody was out on the dock, so she and Rita walked to an empty slip and sat on the dock box to talk. About half an hour into the conversation, Rita said to Nikki, “You know Mercedes never could keep a secret.”
Nikki turned to face Rita directly and asked, “What do you mean she could never keep a secret?”
“I think you know what secret I’m talking about,” Rita replied as they walked back to Nikki’s to mix another drink in silence.
Back at her apartment, Nikki took Rita’s drink from her, gave her a kiss then said, “Thank you.” As they walked to the sofa, Nikki continued talking. “I suppose you want her half of the money?”
“And how much do you suppose that will be?” inquired Rita.
“Two million dollars, of course, which is less the fifteen thousand she had already spent,” explained Nikki.
“Where is the money now?” she asked.
“It’s under the dock with mine, where it’s safe from the cops,” Nikki replied.
“Get me my two million, and I leave now, never to be seen again,” Rita exclaimed.
“I can’t get it for a month or two. We’re being watched.” Nikki calmly took a sip of her drink.
“You mean I can’t get my money for two months!? Well, in that case I might as well tell you now, because it’s too late for you, and it won’t change a thing. I wasn’t talking about any money! Mercedes never spoke about any four million dollars, she only told me a secret about you two making love together. Now I know that you killed Dave and Mercedes, and possibly Glenn, all for that money! And now I know where you hid it!” Rita confessed.
Nikki just stood there with her mouth open, holding her drink, as she listened silently to Rita. After a while she finally replied, “Well, I guess we’re partners, then. You’ll take Mercedes’ place. If you don’t mind, I’m very tired tonight, let me beg off for some other night and get some sleep.” Rita said goodbye and gave Nikki a quick kiss before leaving the apartment. Nikki stayed in that night and thought about the conversation, and how she had allowed herself to be tricked by Rita into fessing up about the money. She poured herself a succession of drinks and by the time she went to bed, she was pretty drunk.
Smugglers 4 - South Beach Heat Page 15