The Elusive Smuggler

by Liz Turner

  “To what?” she snapped, dreading the answer.

  “To keep tabs on you and make sure no harm came to you.”

  “What?”

  “He offered a generous donation, I’m told, as it is a rather unusual request…”

  “Naturally,” Gabriella grumbled under her breath, shaking her head. “I should have known my father would never trust me.”

  “It’s not that he doesn’t trust you,” Nick soothed. “He didn’t trust the liner and everybody else on the cruise. He felt our security wasn’t good enough and couldn’t ensure your safety at all times.”

  “How did you get stuck with babysitting me?” Gabriella mumbled in a sulky voice.

  Nick snorted. “Well, that’s the fun part… I volunteered.”

  “You what?”

  “When they asked for a crew member to take on this assignment, I wasn’t even paying attention. But then I heard your name and before I knew it, my hand was bolt upright in the air.”

  Gabriella rolled her eyes disdainfully, though a small part of her was flattered and mildly intrigued by the bold and ambitious crew member willing to sacrifice an entire cruise to monitor her. Her lips curved into a slight smile and she lifted her green eyes to meet his.

  He grinned at her and then ruined the moment. “How else could I ask you to marry me unless I spent time with you?”

  “And so we spent the rest of the cruise together,” Gabriella said, staring out at the sea spanning around them. A dreamy haze filled her eyes. “He was a crew member, and I was a passenger, so we couldn’t really do much together. But all that time provided plenty of opportunity to get to know each other. We talked for hours every day about everything ranging from the temperature to our favorite memories.”

  Sarah smiled to herself as she thought of her captain as a junior crew member, boldly attempting to woo a feisty, wealthy woman like Gabriella.

  “It’s the conversation that’s the dangerous part,” Gabriella cautioned. “It’s how we connect as people and form bonds.”

  Sarah nodded slowly. “So you’re telling me I shouldn’t talk to Sebastian.”

  “I’m just telling you to be careful,” Gabriella said as she turned to leave, her hand gently touching her friend on the shoulder.

  Sarah sighed.

  Gabriella hadn’t made it more than a few feet away, though, before another passenger stopped her in her tracks.

  “Miss!” the lobster-colored woman cried in a raspy voice.

  Gabriella smiled professionally. “How can I help you, ma’am?”

  “We’re stopping at Cabo San Lucas tomorrow, right?”

  “Yes. You’re welcome to disembark and spend the day there. We’ll depart again at five.”

  “Where exactly is Cabo San Lucas?”

  “Los Cabos is in Mexico.” Gabriella maintained her smile, bracing herself for yet another question.

  “But I don’t know how to speak Mexican!” the woman protested, oblivious to Gabriella biting the inside of her lip again.

  Chapter 8

  The Confrontation

  “What do you mean he reported nothing unusual?” Gabriella asked her husband.

  Captain Nicolas poured himself more orange juice and studied his wife, seeing she was upset, but not knowing the actual reason. He proceeded with caution before devouring a mouthful of bacon. “Like I said, I read Derek’s report, and all was in order. Nothing out of the ordinary happened.”

  “That makes little sense,” Gabriella mumbled, her own plate untouched.

  “Okay.” Nick sighed. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on, or do I have to spend three weeks trying to figure it out?”

  Gabriella folded her arms and huffed as she stared out the window.

  “Just talk to me, love,” Nick pleaded, realizing the ‘three weeks’ part hadn’t been a wise move.

  “Okay,” Gabriella finally conceded. “But you will not like what I’m going to tell you.”

  Nick smiled at his beautiful wife. He remembered the day he’d first laid eyes on her. She’d been so lost and confused, and he’d felt compelled to help her, just as he did now.

  “I went against your orders, bypassed Derek, and found the dog myself,” Gabriella began.

  Nicolas blew out his breath and slumped back in his chair, his eyebrows raised.

  “That’s not the worst of it.” Gabriella swallowed and continued. “I found packets of crystal meth stored in Figo’s drawer. Maximus freaked out again as soon as I opened that drawer. Pamela says that he worked in narcotics when he was on the force –”

  “Who worked on narcotics?”

  “Maximus! So, I think someone stashed drugs in Pamela’s bag. Figo removed the drugs and returned the bags. Maximus smelled where the drugs had been and went crazy.”

  “Let me get this straight—you’re telling me Figo confiscated illegal drugs from luggage?”

  “Yes!”

  “I don’t see the problem.”

  “What?”

  “He’s our head of security. If he finds illegal drugs, he will confiscate them.”

  “But he didn’t report them,” Gabriella countered, annoyed by her husband’s lack of understanding.

  “I trust that Derek will get around to doing that,” Nick said, cleaning his plate and pushing it aside.

  “What if there’s been other luggage that Figo’s searched and failed to inform you about?”

  “I won’t have you call into question Derek’s loyalty, and worse than that, his integrity!”

  “Can you just follow it up, please?”

  Nicolas stared her down for a while longer before nodding curtly. “Fine, I’ll pay him a visit, if that’s what you want.”

  “Thank you.” Gabriella pecked her husband gratefully on the cheek. “I’ll come with you, just to make sure you don’t forget any of the details.”

  Nicolas groaned but gave up the fight as his wife followed him out of their quarters.

  “Excuse me, Captain—what do I owe the pleasure of your visit this morning?” Derek said, allowing Gabriella and Nicolas into the office.

  “I read your report from yesterday and it’s been brought to my attention that a few details may be missing,” Nicolas said politely.

  Derek’s back stiffened. “What details are missing, exactly?”

  Nicolas exhaled. “Right, let’s get to the point then—have you found drugs in any of the luggage since the voyage began?”

  “No,” Derek answered calmly. “If I had, I would have put it in my report, Captain.”

  “Thank you,” the captain nodded and prepared to leave.

  “Wait a minute,” Gabriella objected, causing both men to sigh. “I know what I saw!”

  “And what exactly was that?” Derek asked.

  Gabriella narrowed her eyes as though the question was a subtle challenge. “If you didn’t encounter any drugs, then you shouldn’t have a problem unlocking your desk drawers,” she stated boldly.

  “Gabi, that’s an invasion of privacy,” Nick admonished.

  Gabriella shrugged. “That’s only a problem if you’re hiding something.”

  Derek directed his stare at Gabriella, his black eyes taking on the expression of being betrayed.

  “Derek, I apologize,” Nick spluttered.

  “No, as captain, you have every right to check up on me should you feel uncertain about the way I conduct things down here,” Derek said. He then ambled to his desk, removed a key from his wallet, and unlocked the drawer. After sliding it open, he stepped back for Nicolas to inspect.

  Gabriella poked around expectantly, shifting the paper lying on top. However, this time there were no packets of crystal meth lurking at the bottom of the drawer. She frowned and swore she saw Derek smirking. “What about the second drawer?” she asked, more harshly than she intended.

  “As you wish,” Derek said coldly.

  She hastily searched the second drawer, her stomach sinking when she realized she’d been thwarted. “I don’t
understand,” she said, her cheeks warm with embarrassment. “I know what I saw.”

  “Can you explain why you say one thing and my wife says another?” Nicolas asked embarrassed too.

  “Perhaps in her haste to free the dog, Gabriella didn’t know what she was looking at,” Derek suggested, shrugging his shoulders. “I found four or five bags of white powder that I thought were drugs. But upon closer investigation, it was just white sugar.”

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Neither did I, at first. It appears the old woman has quite the sweet tooth. She probably assumed we didn’t stock sugar onboard, so she brought her own,” Derek concluded.

  Gabriella stared at him in disbelief. “I know the difference between sugar and crystal meth!” she said indignantly, crossing her arms. “So where is it?”

  “I tossed it,” Derek replied. “Considering we have a no-food-brought-onboard policy, I thought it best to do so. And to avoid wasting the captain’s time, I left the small detail out of the report.”

  “You said you didn’t get much sleep that first night,” Nicolas whispered to Gabriella. “It’s possible your imagination ran away with you.”

  Gabriella pursed her lips sulkily.

  “Sorry for the misunderstanding,” Nicolas apologized to Derek again. “I think my wife takes her job a little too seriously sometimes.”

  Gabriella leveled a death stare at him.

  “I would like to request that from now on, Gabriella leave matters of security to me and my staff, just so we can avoid these kinds of misunderstandings,” Derek commented.

  “Gabriella needs to know what’s going on at all times,” said the captain. “I expect her to inform me of any complications, no matter how small. Perhaps in future, include even the smallest of details in your reports.”

  Derek Figo nodded politely, though Gabriella could tell he felt stung by the captain’s reprimand.

  “If you’ll excuse me, I have rounds that I need to tend to,” Derek informed, making his way to the door. “But please, search the rest of my office if you still don’t trust me,” he directed coldly at Gabriella.

  “You’ve upset him,” the captain said gravely.

  “I can’t believe you took his side!” Gabriella snapped.

  “My love, how little faith you have in your husband. Had I not spoken to the man myself, I would have doubted your suspicions. But something is definitely going on…”

  “Do you give me your blessing to continue investigating then?”

  “Would it make a difference if I said no?”

  Gabriella smiled sweetly and kissed her husband quickly on the lips before he could argue any further. “If you don’t leave now, you’ll be late getting to the bridge,” she said and then skipped out the door.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He saluted her with a naughty grin.

  ***

  Gabriella knocked on cabin D110. A familiar face, but not one she was expecting, popped around the cabin door.

  “Oh, I wasn’t expecting you!” the young girl said with a smile. “Mr. Maceral is out, if you’re looking for him. I’m just cleaning his room.”

  “Thank you, Leah,” Gabriella said as she stepped inside the room. “I’m doing an inspection of all our cleaning stewards this morning, so please go about your usual work and don’t mind me.”

  Leah smiled nervously. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Gabriella watched for a few seconds as Leah resumed her dusting more vigorously. If she kept that up all day, Gabriella worried she might strip the wall paint. “Where is Mr. Maceral?” she asked.

  “He went ashore today,” Leah answered vaguely, her attention fixed on whipping up every dust particle from the rug.

  Gabriella took advantage of Leah’s distraction and began subtly poking around, pretending she was just checking on her cleaning skills. She poked through a few drawers as discreetly as she could, but found nothing of interest.

  “I’m just checking that Mr. Maceral has enough wardrobe hangers,” Gabriella explained, deftly snooping through Mr. Maceral’s blazer pockets; he was the source of all of this and she knew it.

  Her search was rewarded when she drew out a passport from each blazer, totaling three. A glance at the variety of names informed Gabriella that the documents were definitely fake. Her fingers strayed across what appeared to be a scrap of paper. She unfolded it quickly, realizing in horror that the few scrawled words provided the drop point for the vanished crystal meth.

  She suddenly felt herself itching for sand between her toes.

  Chapter 9

  Cabo San Lucas

  Gabriella stepped out onto the Tender pier wearing jeans and a t-shirt, her eyes fixed on the small passport photograph of the man she was looking for. It wasn’t often that she ditched her uniform for casual clothes, but in this case, it helped her blend in with the tourists.

  She followed the buzz of excited tourists, all the while on the lookout for an elderly man in a suave suit. She hid her suspicious eyes behind a pair of sunglasses and wore an excited grin so she disappeared into the sea of gawking faces around her.

  Gabriella liked the Cabo San Lucas, but the atmosphere and style was still too Californian for her. She preferred the port stops farther along the Mexican coast where she would often disembark for a day and wonder through the streets, hearing the distant Mariachi trumpets summoning her to dance, eat, and breathe in the spicy air of Mexico.

  Gabriella broke away from the rest of the passengers splitting to join various tours and made her way downtown.

  She stepped into one of the ‘less touristy’ bars. It was still relatively early in the day, but there were quite a few people milling around. A group of locals called out to her in Spanish, followed by some rowdy jeering. While Gabriella’s Spanish improved with every visit, she pretended not to understand their provocative complements, and walked towards them with oblivious confidence. “Excuse me,” she said with a toothy smile, “I’m from the cruise.” She pointed towards the marina. “I’ve lost my father! He came ashore without his passport.” She laughed easily, aware that the men were watching her every move. “Have you seen him around here?” She held up the small photograph for the men to study.

  They broiled at her in Spanish, but Gabriella shook her head and looked confused.

  One man gently pulled her away from the leering males. “We saw the old man,” he explained with a heavy Spanish accent. “He was looking for someone.”

  “Did he say who?”

  The man tugged at her elbow to move her farther away from the group. “He was looking for the man that tells me a delightful girl like you is not really his daughter…”

  Gabriella dropped her smile and lowered her voice. “Look, I met him on the cruise and I’m worried he’s getting himself into some kind of trouble.”

  “He’s the guy who causes the trouble,” the man hissed, his eyes looking around shiftily. “Unfortunately, a man like him will make wonderful business around here.”

  “I think we’re on the same page then, señor,” Gabriella said. “I know exactly the trouble he’s offering Los Cabos.”

  The man nodded. “I sent him to Amigos. It’s a few blocks from here. But senora, I don’t think it’s safe for you to go there alone.”

  “Will you come with me then?” Gabriella asked, realizing she might get herself into a tight spot if what she thought was happening was happening.

  The man studied her for a few seconds, his brown eyes untrusting.

  Gabriella leveled him with a serious stare. “I want to stop this man, señor.”

  The man nodded towards the doorway and Gabriella followed him outside. The group erupted with whistles and jeers that Gabriella continued ignoring.

  “I suspect your Spanish is fairly good, senora?” The man raised an eyebrow at her as he spoke in Spanish to ask the question.

  “What makes you say that?” Gabriella replied in English as they rounded another corner, turning into a quiet street.

  He continued in
Spanish. “You controlled yourself inside the bar very well, but I saw the annoyance in your eyes, which told me you knew exactly what they were saying.”

  “How observant of you, señor,” Gabriella answered in Spanish. “Well, I suspect you’re not just an ordinary citizen hanging around a bar in the middle of the day for no reason…?”

  The man studied her in silence.

  “In fact,” Gabriella continued, “I have a feeling you’re working for the police. You seem to know way too much about a complete stranger who just entered your territory.”

  The man’s eyes widened in alarm and he pulled a finger to his lips, signaling her to be silent. “You’re right,” he said, switching back to English again to reduce the risk of being overheard. “I’m working an undercover case. There have been street rumors that California is trying to set up buyers for American crystal meth.”

  Gabriella remained silent for a few steps. “The old man smuggled crystal meth onboard my ship inside another passenger’s luggage, and he plans to find his buyer around here.”

  “It’s a plausible theory.”

  “It’s not a theory. I found this.” Gabriella handed him the note, growing more anxious as she realized how small their window of opportunity was to catch Ronnie delivering drugs.

  Another question, was how did Ronnie get the crystal meth back if it had been locked in Derek’s drawer the whole time?

  “You can call me Antonio. That’s my undercover name. And that’s the bar your guy would have gone into.” He pointed across the street to a shady looking joint.

  Gabriella grimaced. “Looks the part. And my name is Gabriella. Now, what’s the plan?”

  “This bar practically belongs to Luka’s gang and is a front for the drugs they hustle. I’ll pay a casual visit and see if I can persuade Ronnie to talk,” Antonio stated, his black eyes focused on the bar across the road. “He looks easy enough to flip.”

  “How can I help?”

  “You, señora, can wait outside where it’s safe. If Luka and his boys lay their shifty eyes on you, there will be trouble.”