Hung Out to Dry

by Hadford Howell

  ***

  For Madley and his two-member crew, Operation ‘Fishhook’ was a routine assignment. They were experienced and professional sea dogs, so were accustomed to being at sea under such conditions, even if not in this part of the Caribbean Sea. Fifty’s mission, though sanctioned by their Barbadian superiors, would never appear officially ‘on the books’, i.e. it would never be recorded as having even taken place.

  Fifty was the Coast Guard’s newest and fastest Coast Guard vessel. The one hundred and ten-mile sea journey from Barbados to St Vincent was not expected to be smooth all the way. And it wasn’t, as the sea had been choppy from early that Friday morning, and would continue that way for most of their journey.

  ***

  The four casually dressed diplomats promptly met at 9:30 p.m. as arranged in the top car park at the back of the shopping complex in Welches, Christ Church.

  Surprisingly, their day’s endeavours had thrown up nothing new of value to their cause. Not being persons to waste their (or other people’s time), they quickly agreed to continue their efforts and work their sources over the weekend. If such efforts also drew a blank, they decided that they would each then send off their second dispatches on Barbados’ criminal situation to their respective HQs’ by mid-day Monday as earlier agreed.

  ***

  Colonel Burke had met Barbados’ Ambassador to Washington D.C., United States of America on a couple of occasions since her appointment eighteen months earlier. As a matter of fact, she had been a guest at his 2017 Christmas party when she was last back home. She’d received an invitation from Diane and himself after High Commissioner Tullock had asked if he could bring her along with himself and his wife Andrea.

  Colonel Burke had readily acceded to the High Commissioner’s request. He later found out that Tullock and Ambassador Carter had met while he was working back at the FCO in London while she was serving there as First Secretary at the Barbados High Commission. They had become firm friends during that period and had maintained contact with each other ever since as they had undertaken various postings around the world.

  Colonel Burke’s decision to call Ambassador Carter at her official residence on a Friday night was not unprecedented. She was pleasantly surprised to hear from him, and a little taken aback by what he’d then asked her to try and establish from either her US high-level sources or her Deputy’s security contacts.

  Before making the request, they switched to their officially secure Government phones for that sensitive part of their conversation. Ambassador Carter had agreed to his request and would try to get some answers back to him by the end of the weekend, by 9:00 a.m. on Monday at the latest.

  Wow, thought Ambassador Carter. She mused that sometimes she didn’t hear from any officials in Barbados for a few days at a time but today, suddenly she’d received two calls from different agencies. Some things, not all good, were taking place back home.

  Ambassador Carter called her Deputy Ambassador/First Secretary. Could they meet her at the Ambassador’s Residence at 10:00 a.m. tomorrow? They agreed to do so. Their discussion would revolve around how best to carry out the request that had been made of them by Colonel Burke. Some of the persons with security connections that had been invited to their Embassy’s last Independence reception at end-November were going to receive a call asking if they could meet up for a drink over the weekend.

  “So much for my restful weekend in Washington DC. I can’t wait to get down to Bim for a real break…” she murmured as she set herself up with a drink and some popcorn to watch her favourite TV show.

  At least she did not have any official engagements to attend to over this weekend. She hoped to still be able to ‘sleep in a little bit’ on Sunday morning.

  ***

  Also, around that time Pilessar sent a WhatsApp message to her budding Barbadian business partner.

  “Confirm, All American Pizza Man 1:30.”

  An hour later, there was a response.

  “Noted.”

  ***

  While some members of the England and West Indies cricket teams, support staff or management teams planned to have a quiet dinner at their hotel before getting a good night’s rest, some members from both sides were more adventurous. Team curfews of 11:00 p.m. and midnight respectively were in place, so this allowed those keen to explore Barbados’ nightlife the opportunity to visit St Lawrence Gap, Oistins or any of the popular south and west coast eating establishments during the course of the evening.

  ***

  The two men on bicycles had been watching the activity at this gas service station on the outskirts of St Michael off and on for a few nights now. It was shift change time, and no vehicles were in place wanting gas. Strangely enough, neither were they any customers in the service station’s convenience store. Only the male shift manager, two female gas attendants and two female shop assistants, one of whom was on cashier duty, were around.

  This was the two men’s moment to act and they seized their chance.

  Without a word between them, they rode up to the door of the store, dropped their bikes and pulled the masks that were already around their necks up over their faces. They entered the store and made plain to the startled cashier that they wanted all the cash in her register. She screamed. The other shop assistant cowered on the ground. The shift manager rushed out from his small office to see what was going on and was hit on the back of the head by the second robber who was waiting for him behind a stack of bread, biscuits and snacks. He fell to the floor and appeared to be unconscious.

  “Open it, now,” said the first robber.

  The cashier did as she was told. The robber pulled a bag from his pants pocket and threw it at the cashier.

  “Fill it,” he ordered.

  Fumbling, the crying cashier did as she was told.

  Just as the two robbers turned for the door, a couple entered the shop. The second robber had seen them enter and, hand shaking, had fired off a shot in the couple’s direction. The man pushed the woman with him to the floor, ducking at the same time.

  Grabbing the bag of cash, the first robber headed for the door. Everyone else in the shop stayed where they were, petrified and so watching as the two robbers tried to make their escape through the exit. The first robber made it, but the second robber’s route to the door was more treacherous. The two pep-bottle drinks his wild shot had hit had spilled onto the floor. This caused him to slip and fall over. His mask fell off, revealing his face to the security CCTV cameras covering the store’s entrance/exit point.

  Though the second robber quickly scrambled to his feet and was able to make his escape through the door, his image had been captured. His bicycle ride away from the scene was not an enjoyable one, for he knew that the law would at some point, catch up with him.

  That captured image subsequently gave RBPF officers something to work with. Once forwarded to Samuel and Margaret in the SIR at BIB HQ, identification of the second robber would be done by FRST. This would eventually lead to him giving up to RBPF officers details of his night’s accomplice. As Samuel and Margaret were now aware of all recently attempted or successful robberies by two persons, especially from the St Michael and Christ Church parishes, with CRG drawings and Ziegler’s description of the robbers (size, height, etc.) being cross-referenced and matched to CCTV images, capture was always inevitable.

  ***

  Fred enjoyed a session of passionate lovemaking with Charlee and was pleased that his phone had not rung during that special time with her, even though he was still ‘on duty’ for the EEC security project.

  After showering and dressing casually, Fred left his home at 11:55 p.m. and drove to the Worthing police station where he parked his BIB vehicle. He popped his head inside the reception area to speak with the RBPF officer standing behind the Incident Desk.

  “Good night, officer. Fred George, BIB. I’ve parked in your car park. I’m in the Gap for an hour or two.”

  “Fine by me, sir,” responded the RBPF officer w
aving Fred away. He knew who Fred was. His mind seemed to be elsewhere. Clearly night shifts don’t appeal to you, my friend, thought Fred.

  Nodding, Fred left the station. He crossed highway 7 and entered St Lawrence Gap. It was 12:20 a.m. and time to start his search for Sugar Roberts.

  ***

  Chapter Nineteen

  Out to Sea

  SATURDAY, 21 APRIL

  Halfway through their journey to St Vincent, Madley invited his two-man crew and JJ to share a meal with him. Offered were corn beef and biscuits, baked chicken, split pea rice and salad, washed down by as many cups of black coffee as they wanted. The meal had been prepared on the previous afternoon by Madley at his home.

  After eating, JJ was encouraged to get some rest. That was not the easiest thing to do, given the bumpiness of the ride to date, but he eventually got off and grabbed a couple of hours sleep before he rose again to someone shaking him.

  It was Madley.

  “We’re about two hours out, JJ. Thought you might want to collect your thoughts ahead of arrival. Care to join me on Fifty’s bridge?” he asked.

  “Thanks. I’ve nothing better to do, Anyway, I want to firm up SVG’s geography in my head,” JJ answered while rubbing his eyes.

  Ten minutes later, they sat on retractable stools, at times awkwardly, on Fifty’s bridge. JJ had by now reached into the special backpack he had brought with him containing his waterproof pouch in which were a couple of papers, photographs of Power and maps of St Vincent and each of the Grenadine islands. The backpack contained one of BIB’s newer operational mini-laptops JJ would use during the mission to communicate with Colonel Burke.

  “You really need the map, JJ? I’ve a good idea that you already have all you need to know sorted in your head, plus where you might want to go when we deliver you on shore to link you up with your Vincie buddies,” opined Madley.

  JJ nodded in agreement before adding, “You’re right, but I always like to be prepared. There’s never any harm in being so.”

  JJ poured over the map of St Vincent, aware that finding Power would not be easy, but had to done.

  ***

  Fred found Sugar Roberts inside P’s Disco, one of his usual hang outs, though he was not in either of his favourite spots in the club, propping up the bar or sitting at a table in the far corner of the dining area. In either place, Roberts normally managed to get someone to buy him a drink or a meal, often both and sometimes more than once.

  Tonight, Fred found Roberts on the dancefloor. It was why he had not spotted Roberts sooner after arriving at P’s Disco.

  Fred headed to the bar and ordered himself a grapefruit juice, keeping his eyes on Roberts. Of course, Roberts did not know Fred wanted to speak with him. Fred remembered that Roberts liked a strong rum and coke, so ordered one for him and took both this and his own drink before going to sit at a recently vacated table. All the while he kept sight of Roberts, in case he left the club suddenly for some reason.

  DJ Price had worked the crowd into a Calypso/Soca frenzy with the best up-tempo Trinidad and Tobago’s 2018 Carnival tunes, so much so that when he decided to lower the tempo, he did so with the classic and raunchy Club version of Ralph MacDonald You Need More Calypso. The dance floor gradually started to clear of exhausted party people, enabling him to signal his twelve to fifteen-minute ‘mellow mood’ session’s start so as to allow the ‘lovers in the house’ an opportunity to hold each other tight.

  As Roberts headed to the bar, Fred cut him off and invited him over to his table. Roberts came, reluctantly at first, but on reaching the table asked, “That for me?” to which Fred answered, “Yes.”

  “Can I have something to eat too please?”

  “Be my guest. Choose what you want from the menu.”

  “Thanks, man. You having anything?”

  “Maybe, but let’s get your order in and have a chat.”

  “Right, a large cheeseburger with chips will do nicely.”

  Fred caught the eye of one of the club’s waitresses who came over to take Robert’s order. Fred ordered a fish-cutter with salad so as not to look too out of place when Roberts’ food order came.

  Fifty minutes later, Fred paid the bill in cash for their food orders and Roberts’ three drinks. Answers to the questions asked by Colonel Burke were in and would be presented to him in a few hours.

  Fred wanted to get back home to Charlee. She would be fast asleep, but he believed that once he woke her to let her know that he was back home, then round three of their lovemaking might start. Luckily, neither of them had too early a start in the morning. His meeting was not until 9.00 a.m. and Charlee did not have to be on duty until noon.

  ***

  An hour later, one of Fifty’s two crew members joined Madley and JJ on the bridge. He said to JJ, “Time for you to get into this, sir,” handing JJ a waterproof suit.

  “Not sure how close we’ll be able to get you to the shore, so you’ll probably have to do some swimming, at least some wading, in which case this will help.”

  “Thanks, sailor,” responded JJ.

  He took the waterproof suit and threw it over his shoulder, before folding up the map and returning it to the waterproof pouch which was then placed in special backpack he had brought along. It would accompany JJ ashore and its contents would become important as his assignment developed.

  ***

  Colonel Burke had long realised the importance of having ‘friends from across the water’. Leading up to JJ’s sea journey, he was able to confirm the importance of this adage.

  He and Rt. Hon. Algernon ‘Toby’ Walker MP, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and The Grenadines had known each other since they were in their mid-twenties. They had met while studying together at City University in London. Once they had graduated with master’s degrees and before returning to their respective Caribbean countries, they’d become firm friends.

  Now, nearly three decades later, that friendship remained firmly in tack.

  With the prior permission of Motby, Colonel Burke had called Prime Minister Walker to request that his Royal St Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force (RSVGPF) provide appropriate assistance to his most senior BIB operative who needed to quietly visit St. Vincent and the Grenadines within the next twenty-four hours. There was a need to pursue and recapture a most dangerous Barbadian criminal.

  Walker had readily agreed to the request. To ensure that the Heads of Government were on the same page, Motby had later spoken with Walker on their secure telephone lines to officially sign off on JJ’s visit.

  Walker had then spoken with Commissioner Aubrey Gaynor of the RSVGPF. He in turn planned to brief and instruct Chief Inspector Terry ‘TG’ Gomez, Head of RSVGPF’s nine-member RTF Respose Task Force to make himself and his unit available to support JJ’s visit. If necessary, Gomez was authorised to also call on a small detachment of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Defence Force (SVGDF) to support any rural search that might be necessary to help apprehend the Barbadian criminal. The Vincentian Government did not want to have the Barbadian criminal loose on their turf for too long.

  It was two hours into JJ’s sea journey when Commissioner Gaynor had briefed Gomez about JJ’s pending visit. They were to collect, transport, house, feed and generally support JJ in tracking down and recapturing Power. Once Power was caught, Vincentian authorities would inform their Barbadian equivalents. A RBPF officer would quickly but quietly be flown over to St Vincent (on either one of the BDF’s available C26 aircraft) to collect and return Power to Barbados to face justice. JJ would of course return to Barbados with Power and the RBPF officer.

  ***

  Madley reduced Fifty’s speed to better navigate the supposedly shallow waters. The rocks in the water were picked out by Fifty’s spotlights. Madley wanted to get JJ as close to the shoreline as he could without damaging Fifty. Satisfied that he had gotten as close as he could, JJ was advised that he would have to wade the final twenty yards or so to the beach. Meanwhile, the vessel was manoeuvred
to enable either of its two crewmen to pick out what they were looking for, a flashing fluorescent light onshore.

  There.

  “Time to go, JJ,” Madley ordered on seeing the light.

  JJ knew what that meant. He said goodbye and thanked Madley and his two-man crew for bringing him safely to St Vincent. JJ had already placed his special backpack containing his wet gear under his waterproof suit, so now slipped overboard on Fifty’s starboard side. He swam then waded ashore in relatively calm water towards Layou Bay. Out of the semi-darkness, two burly men appeared and approached him. JJ was not alarmed, for they were his Vincie reception team. They helped JJ out of the water.

  Madley waited until he was certain JJ was on firm land. He did not need to know who the two men were as he was aware that JJ would be met on his arrival and so there was no reason for him to hang around. The fluorescent light, again flashing from onshore, confirmed that all was well.

  It was the signal Madley wanted to see. He immediately swung Fifty back towards the open Caribbean Sea and gradually opened the vessel’s throttles to start the return journey to Barbados. As he did so, he instructed one of his crew members to go below and radio back to BDF HQ that they had ‘delivered the package’.

  The seaman did as he was told.

  “Roger that. Safe return,” came the immediate response. The communication link was then severed.

  There would be no further radio communication as Fifty made its way back to Barbados. Operation ‘Fishhook’ was fully up and running. The sea journey from Barbados to St Vincent was completed (Phase 1), and so the effort to locate, apprehend and recapture Power (Phase Two) was underway. Fifty’s return to Barbados (Phase Three) was also underway. Power’s subsequent return journey to Barbados (Phase Four) should see him end up in the safe and welcoming arms of HMP Dodds.