Bluewater Rendezvous: The Eighth Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 8)

by Charles Dougherty

  "Yeah," Guido grumbled.

  "She got everything off his phone."

  "She? That same gal you use to hack into the Fed's computers?"

  "Yeah. Her. She's dumped all the data and destroyed the phone. Ain't nobody gonna trace it now."

  "Get anything interesting?"

  "Not yet. She's tracking stuff and running all that shit like she does. 'Data aggregation and correlation,' she calls it."

  "The fuck does that mean?" Guido asked.

  "Her way of sayin' she'll figure out who and where he's been calling most often. Then she'll watch those numbers and match 'em up against the ones Angela calls. She figures she can maybe backtrack to Angela that way."

  "What about calls to his phone?" Guido asked.

  "She kept his voicemail working. Anybody calls his number, they'll get his same old message."

  "And we can hear whatever message they leave him?" Guido asked.

  "Yeah. And if they don't leave no message, we still got their number. She can trace that back."

  "Okay. Good. Anything else?"

  "Yeah. She got the code for his office voicemail and all his email accounts. If Angela tries to get in touch with him, we got her covered, no sweat."

  "Call me when you get somethin'."

  "Yeah." The call dropped.

  Guido put the phone down and picked up his coffee, wishing he had more troops like Franco. In the old days, Franco would have been the heir apparent, but he lacked the polish that the organization demanded now. Guido shook his head at the thought of guys like Franco taking orders from Joe Bones.

  ****

  "I didn't think about clearing in," Angela said. "We have to do that at every island?"

  She sat across the cockpit table from Dani and Liz as they picked at a tray of cold cuts Liz had put out for supper.

  "Almost," Liz said. "We have to do it any time we leave one country and enter another. Most of these islands are sovereign nations."

  "Doesn't that leave a paper trail?"

  "It does, but it's private," Dani said, "in theory."

  "In theory? What about in the real world?" Angela asked.

  "In the real world, people do favors for friends and relatives. Some people can become friends for a fee. I'd assume your father has the connections to track us that way."

  "Shit!" Angela said. "Sorry." She shook her head in frustration.

  "He doesn't know you're aboard Vengeance, does he?" Dani asked.

  "No! You're right. Nothing ties me to you guys."

  "So you just need to keep being Carlotta Solanó," Liz said.

  "That reminds me," Dani said. "Where'd you get that passport?"

  "Um, Ralph arranged for me to meet this woman in St. Thomas. Two women, in fact, but the one in charge kind of looked like me. She gave it to me."

  "Do you still have your own passport?"

  "No. She took it. She said she'd travel with it to leave a false trail, and after I finished whatever I was up to, I should let Ralph know and she'd destroy it. Then I could report it as lost and get a replacement. Or she'd swap with me, if she could."

  "Smooth. Did you look at the passport she gave you?"

  "Just the first page — my name and all. Why?"

  "Carlotta Solanó's quite a traveler. I'll get it out of the drawer later. You should study the entrance and exit stamps and the dates in case anybody asks. You've been all over northern South America, with several extended stays in Brazil. Not to mention some time in Europe in the last year."

  "Okay. That's a good idea. Come to think of it, she gave me a micro SD card that she said had my 'legend' on it. I'll bet that's what she meant."

  "No doubt. Do you still have it?"

  "Yes. It's in my wallet. Why?"

  "You should plug it into the computer tonight and find out who you are. You know what a 'legend' is in this context?"

  "Like my life's history as Carlotta?"

  "Right," Dani said.

  "Sounds like something out of a spy novel," Angela said.

  "No kidding," Liz said. "What about John?"

  "I should try calling him again," Angela said, glancing at her wrist. "What time is it?"

  "It's early, still," Liz said, "but I meant what about his passport. If they're tracking you, you have to figure they'll be tracking him, too."

  "She gave me a passport for him, too. It's in my bag. She said his legend was on the chip, too."

  "Okay," Dani said. "Sounds like Ralph's done a thorough job. Here's the thing, though. Once we pick him up, we'll come back here straight away and clear out. I'll show John as a guest under his new name. That way, if anybody traces him, the trail of John Welsh will come to a dead end in Antigua."

  "What about his entrance stamp?" Liz asked.

  "The authorities may notice that a John Welsh came in a day or two ago and never left. If so, they'll just figure it was a snafu," Dani said.

  "I meant on his new passport," Liz said.

  "Oh, damn. I don't know," Dani said. "I didn't think of that."

  "What's the problem?" Angela asked.

  "When we leave, the immigration officer will look for an entrance stamp into Antigua. They check that before they put an exit stamp in his passport," Liz explained.

  "Can you get that passport, please?" Dani asked.

  "Sure." Angela went below and returned in a moment, handing the passport to Dani.

  Dani flipped through it, stopping and breaking into a grin. She shook her head and said, "Okay, Ralph, I'm impressed." She turned the passport and held it so that Liz and Angela could see the entrance stamp.

  "So he came in day before yesterday on a private plane," Liz said. "Clever. What's the name?"

  "Jeffrey Wallace," Dani said. "You'd better read up on both legends, Angela. Let us know about nicknames, and anything else like that. We'd better keep calling you Carlotta, and we'll call him Jeff, just in case."

  "Okay. You almost sound like you've done this kind of thing before."

  "Call it vicarious experience," Dani said. "I know some people ... "

  "Okay. I'd better try to call him again, speaking of John, er ... Jeff."

  "Yes. I should have thought of it before, but block our caller i.d., Liz," Dani said.

  Liz turned on the phone. While she waited for it to power up, she said, "Don't leave a message on his voicemail, either, just in case. You didn't, before, did you?"

  "No," Angela said. "Thank goodness. You guys are freaking me out. You know that?"

  "Just trying to keep you flying under the radar," Dani said. "It's what Ralph wanted."

  "Speaking of that, Ralph told me how people can track cellphones. What about satellite phones?" She paused to hear the answer before she keyed in John's number.

  "No. Ours doesn't have GPS in it; it's an older one. Even if somebody gets the number and traces it, all they'll get is the footprint of the satellite we connected to," Dani said.

  "Isn't that the same thing?"

  "No. You can track down the location of a cellphone, even one too old to have GPS, within less than a mile. It's done by triangulating from the cell towers," Dani explained.

  "They don't use satellites?"

  "No. That's a popular misconception. Satellite phones use different technology from cellphones, and they're way more expensive."

  "So how close can they come, with this footprint thingy?"

  "They'll be able to tell we're in the area bounded by Venezuela, Mexico, the southern U.S. and the southwest North Atlantic. Pretty big area."

  "Why do you have a satellite phone instead of a cellphone, if they're so expensive?"

  "Cellphones won't work more than a few miles from a cell tower."

  "So?"

  "You see any towers nearby when we were out in open water today?"

  "Oh," Angela said. "I wasn't thinking."

  "You've got a lot on your mind."

  Dani and Liz went below and left Angela to make her call.

  Chapter 13

  Willy sat
on a driftwood log above the high-tide line on the beach at Deep Bay. With a full day to kill yesterday, he had spent a couple of hours scouting the area. Don Guido had been right; the only access was via one road. Any other approach involved breaking trail through the undergrowth that bordered the beach. He couldn't imagine Angela doing that. He'd left Joe Bones sitting in the SUV on the side of the road with the local man who often helped their drug shipments escape the notice of Antigua's customs service.

  Sipping at his take-out coffee, Willy glanced at his watch. It was ten after eight; Angela was late. He pulled out his cellphone and looked at it to make sure he had service. Surely Joe Bones would have called if they intercepted her. The beach was all but deserted. There were three couples scattered over the long expanse of white sand, and a few local kids playing some kind of noisy game of tag.

  He stood up and scanned his surroundings one more time, but she wasn't here. He settled back on his log, glad he had been able to find a shady spot. He had noticed the temperature climbing as the sun got higher. He was beginning to perspire; he knew from yesterday's reconnaissance that there was more breeze out close to the water, but he wanted to stay in the shadows. He was less visible here. Besides, he didn't have any sunblock and he'd gotten severely burned in just a few minutes of walking on the glaring sand yesterday.

  He decided to give it until nine o'clock. Then he'd call Don Guido and figure out what to do. All he could think of was canvassing the hotels, starting nearby and working his way out. Maybe Don Guido had more information on this yacht she was supposed to charter.

  ****

  Franco Andretti was listening to Carmen Madrid spout technical gibberish. When she paused for breath, he said, "So let me see if I got this. The only voicemails he's gotten are from his office, right?"

  "Yes," Carmen said. A hacker for hire, she did a lot of work for these guys. No matter how many times she had explained things, they still acted like she spoke some alien tongue.

  "And same with emails?"

  "Yes, that's right. I checked on that cell number you gave me — Angela, I think you said?"

  "Yeah?" Franco's voice perked up. "She called him?"

  "No. She hasn't called anybody in the last two days. The last calls she made were from Miami. She called an airport shuttle a couple of days ago."

  "Nothing in St. Thomas?"

  "No. In fact, her phone's been off the network since that last call."

  "What's that mean? Nobody can call her?"

  "That's right. I mean, they'd get her voicemail, but nobody's called her. More than that, though, it means she might have taken the SIM chip out of the phone."

  "Why would she do that? What's a SIM chip?"

  "The SIM chip gives the phone its identity. If she wanted to be sure nobody could track her using the phone, she could remove it."

  "Shit. How many people know about that?"

  "Most people that grew up with cell phones," she said, rolling her eyes. She reminded herself that they paid well — $5,000 in cash every month just to have her on call. Plus whatever she charged them for projects like this. They never haggled or complained, and most stuff they wanted was trivial. She was a little conflicted after Franco told her what this was about. Her sympathy was with the girl, but this was business. Her feelings didn't enter into it. Besides, this project was more of a challenge than most of her work.

  "So, you got any more ideas?"

  "Yeah, a couple, I'll let you — "

  "Wait, Carmen. I need to give the boss something. Tell me something in plain English I can pass on to keep him happy, okay?"

  "Yeah. I found some calls to John Welsh's cellphone from an anomalous number, starting late yesterday."

  "What the fuck's an anoman ... anon ... "

  "Sorry. A number that's never called him before. They started late yesterday afternoon, and went on into the night."

  "So, you're thinkin' — "

  "Maybe she picked up a burner phone. But I'd think she'd leave a message of some kind."

  "Can you find out anything about that number?"

  "I'm working on it, Mr. Andretti. I'll call you as soon as I have something."

  "Thanks, Carmen. You find her, there'll be a nice bonus for you on top of whatever you charge us."

  "I appreciate the business, Mr. Andretti. I gotta get back to it now."

  "G'bye, Carmen," Franco said. He disconnected the call and hit the speed dial number for Don Guido.

  ****

  Liz and Dani sat in Vengeance's cockpit watching the people snorkeling on the wreck of the Andes. They had anchored in the mouth of Deep Bay, no more than 50 meters from the shallow wreck. They had picked the spot, at the outer edge of the other boats, because it made them less visible from the beach. Angela stood on the bowsprit with the binoculars, studying the people ashore. Although not deserted, the beach was far from crowded, and she didn't see John anywhere. Anxious, she hurried back to the cockpit.

  "Any sign of him?" Liz asked.

  Angela shook her head. "No. I don't know what to do. I wish I could have gotten through to him on the phone."

  "He must have his cellphone off," Dani said.

  "Not him. That's a sore spot with us. He's always available to his clients and the office. Let's go ashore."

  "I don't think that's a good idea," Dani said. "He was traveling here under his own name, right?"

  "Yes," Angela admitted. "But I — "

  "Your father might have had him followed. All Ralph's work will be for naught if you go traipsing up onto the beach and get nabbed by your father's goons."

  "Was there anybody on the beach that you couldn't get a good look at with the glasses?" Liz asked.

  "No," Angela said, blinking back tears. "What can we do now?"

  "Is there anybody in his office that you could call?" Dani asked.

  "His secretary, I guess. I mean, I've never met her, but I feel like I know her. I was thinking of that last night, but she wouldn't have been there then. This morning, I got worried about making so many calls from this number. You sure they can't trace it?"

  "Well, pretty sure," Dani said. "I'm no engineer, but one more call can't make much difference."

  "Okay."

  Dani passed her the phone. "Liz and I will get underway while you do that."

  "Underway to where?" Angela asked.

  "You said John was staying at a beach hotel near Jolly Harbour," Dani said. "You can't go nosing around ashore without the risk of somebody seeing you, but nobody knows Liz and me. I'll go start asking around the hotels. Do you have a picture of John, by chance?"

  "Yes. I'll get it after I call his office."

  ****

  "She hasn't heard from him since he left for the airport," Angela said, her brow furrowed. "He hasn't responded to any of his voicemails or emails, either. She said a couple of clients are pretty upset. The managing partner has the IT person working on dumping his backlog of messages so they can get someone to follow up."

  "He'll turn up," Liz said, with forced cheerfulness.

  "This is so unlike him," Angela said. "He's completely obsessed with making partner; he hasn't wanted to get married until he did. He's got this notion that I won't be happy with the money he's making now. It's so absurd, I ... " Her shoulders heaved as she put her face in her hands and sobbed.

  "We'll find him," Dani said.

  "There could be any number of explanations," Liz offered. "Phone service isn't as reliable down here, and neither is Internet service. That's why we have our own satellite system for voice and data aboard. Or he could have come down with something. Don't borrow trouble, as one of our friends says."

  Angela settled on the cockpit seat with a pinched look on her face as Dani steered Vengeance. For such a short trip, they didn't make sail, using the diesel engine instead. Within an hour after leaving Deep Bay, they dropped the anchor south of the entrance channel to Jolly Harbour.

  "I want to leave Vengeance out here," Dani said. "She'll be less visible to an
ybody on shore, just in case somebody's looking. Now, where was he supposed to stay?"

  "The Villas at Morris Bay," Angela said. "I'll go get that picture of him. I may have the address; I'll look."

  "Don't worry about the address," Dani said. She pointed to the southeast. "That's Morris Bay. You can't see the hotels because of the headland right here, but they're not far."

  Angela ducked below and emerged with a wallet-sized color photograph, which she handed to Dani. Dani and Liz studied it for a moment. "Nice-looking man," Liz offered.

  Angela nodded and sniffed. "Sorry I only have the one picture."

  "That's okay," Dani said. "Copy machines are everywhere."

  "I'm going to stay here with you," Liz said. She and Dani had made that decision while Angela was on the phone. "Just to make sure the anchor's holding, and in case you need anything," she added.

  Dani was already climbing into the dinghy. "Will you just go around and beach the dinghy?" Angela asked.

  "No." Dani shook her head. "I'll attract less attention if I take the dinghy to the marina and walk to the hotel. Besides, he had a full day here. He might have checked out some of the bars or restaurants. I can stop along the way back and ask about him, just in case he's not at the hotel."

  ****

  "No, I don't recall seeing him," the woman at the desk told Dani as she returned the picture. "He's good-lookin', too. I'd remember him."

  "Is there any chance he checked in while you weren't working?"

  The woman gave a rich, easy chuckle. "Don't I wish? No. The other lady, she sick. I been workin' both shifts for the las' three days. You say he had a reservation?"

  "That's what his fiancée told me. Arriving night before last, for two nights."

  The woman bent over her computer keyboard, tapping at the keys, her braided hair hiding her handsome face. "And what was his name, again?"

  "John Welsh," Dani said.

  "Yes. Here it is. He didn't show up; I see accounting already charged his card." She shook her head. "Too bad he didn't call. That's a lot of money for nothin'."