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

by Charles Dougherty

  "Linda? Oh, yeah. Linda Mason. She's his, um ... his secretary."

  "You must be tired," Liz said, cutting Dani off as she was about to speak. "Let's get you back to Vengeance and get you settled. We'll show you around Bequia tomorrow while we wait for your dad."

  "Mm, 'kay. Might as well," the girl said, yawning.

  Dani picked up Cynthia's carry-on bag and stomped off to the dinghy dock, leaving Cynthia and Liz in her wake. She flung the bag into the dinghy, jumped aboard, and had the engine started before Liz escorted the girl down the dock. When they got back to Vengeance, Liz took the girl below and settled her in one of the amidships staterooms.

  "Let me know if you need anything, Cynthia," she said. "Anything at all. Drink, snack, extra bedding, whatever."

  "I'm good, thanks, Liz," Cynthia said, closing the door as Liz left.

  "Charming girl," Dani sneered, as Liz joined her in the cockpit.

  "Give her a break, Dani. That's a miserable trip, and you know it."

  "Especially for a stoner."

  "Stoner?" Liz asked.

  "She's wrecked," Dani said.

  "Oh, she's just beat, I imagine," Liz said.

  "Spaced out, bloodshot eyes — she's been toking. You tell her about zero tolerance?"

  "No. Elaine would have covered that in the package she sent them."

  "Don't bet that little Miss Congeniality bothered to read it, even if her father shared it with her."

  "I'm going below to get a glass of wine. You need one, too. Want anything else?"

  "No, but the wine does sound good."

  Liz stepped below and returned in a moment with a bottle of chilled white table wine and two glasses. She filled one and handed it to Dani.

  When Liz had her own glass in hand, Dani said, "I have a bad feeling about this one."

  "Lighten up, Dani. You have a bad feeling about most charters. Sometimes I wonder why you're even in this business."

  "It's because of the boats, not the people," Dani said.

  "At least see what Cynthia's like after a night's rest before you write her off; two weeks could be a long time with your attitude."

  "Hmph," Dani grumbled. "She's — "

  The buzz of her phone interrupted her. She glanced at the screen. "That's odd. Sam sent me a text asking me to call him ASAP."

  "Sam?" Liz asked.

  "The model boat guy," Dani said, raising the phone to her ear. She listened for a few seconds, nodded her head, and said, "Thanks, Sam," before she disconnected the call.

  "What's up?" Liz said.

  "His nephew's a cop. Sam was showing him the model of Vengeance, and the nephew remarked that the drug squad from St. Vincent was planning a raid in Bequia later this evening. We're the target."

  "What?!"

  "The nephew heard the guy in charge of the drug squad calling his team together. He mentioned Vengeance by name, and told them they were headed for Bequia for a bust, that he'd been tipped by the regular dealer."

  "So do you think — "

  "No 'think' involved. Miss Cynthia bought herself a couple of ounces of weed on her way from St. Vincent."

  "What are we — "

  "Let's get under way. The best thing we can do is be gone when they get here. We can sort out the aftermath later, after we ditch her stash."

  ****

  "Where are we going?" Liz asked. "We don't have clearance papers to leave."

  "As far out to the west as we can get," Dani said. "I figure we might make it outside the limit before they find us."

  Vengeance was plowing through the long-period swells at almost ten knots, her diesel wide open and the Yankee jib drawing as she ran dead downwind in the 20-knot easterly trade winds.

  "Then what? Are you thinking we'll clear out at Union or somewhere? We'll still have to go back to Bequia to pick up Ed Savage."

  "We'll go back in the morning," Dani said. "After we make sure we're clean. Get in mid-morning, and drop the hook."

  "How do you plan to make sure we're clean?"

  "Take the helm. I'm going to wake up our little princess and put fear of God into her."

  "Dani, let me — "

  "No. This is a job for the iron fist, not the velvet glove."

  "Don't hurt her, Dani. She's just a kid."

  "An almost adult kid who could cost us our boat, Liz. Don't worry; I won't hurt her, much. Not unless she's more aggressive than she seemed."

  Dani went below, and moments later Liz heard a crash, followed by a scream of sheer terror. The scream ended abruptly with a resounding slap, and she heard Dani's voice.

  "Shut up and listen to me, or I'll give you something to scream about. Where's your stash?"

  Liz cringed as she heard a sob, and then soft words, followed by another solid slap.

  She heard Cynthia's raised voice. "My father's a lawyer, and he'll — "

  "Don't even start that. He's nobody in St. Vincent. They won't even let him visit you in prison, and if you think I won't have you locked up after I get through kicking your ass, you're dreaming. Besides, I'm betting he doesn't know you're a doper, does he?"

  Liz heard a whimper, followed by Dani screaming, "Answer me, you little shit!"

  "N-no. Please, if you don't tell — "

  "Don't start trying to bargain with me. Hand over your stash, all of it, right now, or I'll make you hurt like you never imagined."

  A few seconds later, Dani appeared in the companionway, a Ziploc bag in her hand. She opened it and emptied the contents over the side of the boat, holding the bag downwind and well away from Vengeance as she shook the last bits out. She ripped the bag into two pieces and tossed it into the water.

  "Please," Cynthia sobbed, crawling through the companionway onto the bridge deck. "You don't know what he'll — "

  "I couldn't care less," Dani said, cutting her off. "You have no idea how close you came to getting us all locked up. Whoever you bought that grass from reported you to the cops. We could still lose our boat and go to jail, and believe me, you don't want to go to jail in St. Vincent. Especially if I'm your cellmate."

  "Why would — "

  "Get out of my sight. I don't want to look at you right now; I need to think and make some phone calls to see if I can get us out of this mess. Go!"

  Dani took the helm, and Liz moved to stand beside the distraught girl. "Come on below," Liz said, putting an arm around Cynthia's shoulders. "I'll make us some herbal tea, and we'll sort this out."

  ****

  Vengeance, still running before the wind under sail, was about 25 miles west of Bequia and the big island of St. Vincent. Dani had shut the diesel down after she checked the radar and saw that no vessels were following them.

  "You really scared her," Liz said, taking a seat beside Dani.

  "Good. She should be scared. We aren't out of this yet."

  "What's your plan?" Liz asked.

  "What's she doing?"

  "She's asleep. Once I got her calmed down and told her how serious the drug laws were down here, she started dozing off and spilled her tea. I got her settled in her berth and she was dead to the world in a minute or two. What are we going to do?"

  "We'll go back to Bequia, but not until I can find out what's going on."

  Liz chewed on her lower lip for a beat or two. "I'm not sure I understand."

  "Well, she did ask a reasonable question. Or was about to, when I cut her off. I can only think of one reason why the dealer would have tipped the cops."

  "You think he was trying to curry favor or something?"

  "That's a possibility, but it's more likely that they were planning a shakedown."

  "A shakedown? How would that work?"

  "Oh, it's a fairly common scheme down here," Dani said. "The dealer lines up a crooked cop and tips him when a tourist makes a buy. The cop busts the buyer, but he keeps the whole thing off the books and takes a payoff from the tourist to forget about it. The cop and the dealer split the money. Cynthia was a perfect mark — a spoiled rich
kid. They'd have locked us all up until her father showed, and then put the squeeze on him, big-time. Us, too, and they'd have impounded Vengeance in the bargain."

  "How are we going to keep them from doing that when we get back? If they're crooked, won't they just plant some marijuana on Vengeance and go ahead with their scheme?"

  "They probably would, but not all the cops are crooked. Phillip's got a long-standing relationship with the Chief Superintendent. We'll stay out of their waters until he can get in touch and let us know it's safe for us to go back. I just hope Cynthia wasn't holding out on me. We may still get searched. If she's got more drugs, we're screwed."

  "I don't think she has anything else, Dani. She was shaken up by this, worried about her father's reaction. She's already in trouble with him for sneaking off to meet a boy when she was supposed to be visiting a girlfriend and her parents at their vacation home in Miami Beach."

  Dani's face split in a grin. "Now, that makes me like her a little better. How'd he catch her?"

  "He tried to call the girlfriend's parent's place to tell Cynthia about his change in plans. When he got their voice mail, the message said to call them at their place in Atlanta, so he did. You can guess the rest."

  "No wonder she didn't want him to know about the weed, then."

  "Are you going to tell him? She's really worried about that."

  "I'm not sure we'll have a choice. It depends on how things play out back in Bequia. If we manage to get clear, I guess there's no reason to add to her problems. Sounds like she's in enough trouble already. Maybe she'll learn something about the risks of dabbling in drugs."

  Liz looked at her wrist watch. "It'll be sunrise before too long. Should I make us some coffee?"

  "Sure. I don't think we'll be going to bed any time soon. Maybe if we're lucky, we can squeeze in a nap this afternoon before her father comes."

  Liz stood up and stepped toward the companionway.

  "Hey, Liz?" Dani said.

  "Yes?"

  "Bring the sat phone when you come back. I'll call Phillip after we have a cup of coffee. He'll be up soon anyway. May as well give him time to think about this before the Chief Super gets to work."

  Chapter 4

  "What did he say?" Liz asked, putting a plate of sliced fruit on the cockpit table.

  "He agrees that it's probably a shakedown; he says there's been a resurgence of that sort of thing recently. Thanks for the fruit."

  "You're welcome. So he'll call his friend?"

  "Yes. He'll be back in touch. He thought we should stay lost for the time being, though."

  "Hmm. Think we'll be able to get back in time to meet Ed Savage?"

  Dani shrugged. "I hope so. Otherwise, we'll have to tell him what's going on. We should probably prepare Cynthia for that, just in case."

  "Prepare me for what?" Cynthia asked, rubbing her eyes as she stepped through the companionway.

  "Have some fruit," Liz said. "And there's coffee, if you want."

  "No coffee, thanks. But the fruit looks yummy. What's going on? Where are we, anyway?"

  "We're about 20 miles from Bequia," Dani said, "waiting for things to settle down."

  "I feel like a fool. I thought weed was okay down here, with the Rastas and all."

  "Yes, well, there's certainly enough misinformation in the media to give you that impression," Liz said.

  "Cynthia?" Dani asked.

  "Yes?" Cynthia dropped her fork and began twisting her napkin, cowering as she turned to face Dani.

  "Sorry I was so rough on you last night. I didn't think we had time for any drawn-out discussion after my friend tipped me to the raid."

  "Okay, I didn't know; Liz explained ... "

  "She told me," Dani said. "Look, I was your age not so long ago; we all make mistakes. It's part of growing up. I did a lot of stuff that I didn't want my parents to know about."

  Cynthia put down the napkin. Her face relaxed a bit, and she forced a smile. "Like what?"

  "There'll be time for that later," Dani said. "Right now, we need to deal with the fallout from this drug thing."

  "Okay. I'm really sorry; I'm blown away by the dealer calling the cops. Why would he do that?"

  Dani explained the shakedown theory and the gravity of being caught with drugs on a yacht in most of the island countries.

  "Liz told me about that last night. I had no idea they were more strict than the U.S., or that I could get you guys in trouble. But this sucks. It's my own fault, but I'm going to be in so much trouble with my father. I mean, like, I already am. I — "

  "I shared that with Dani," Liz interrupted.

  "We may have a problem keeping him out of this," Dani said. "It depends on how we come out with the authorities."

  "You mean you might not tell him?" Cynthia said, her voice softening as she raised her eyebrows.

  "Only if we have to," Dani said. "It sounds like you're in enough trouble already."

  "Oh! Thank you," the girl said, jumping to her feet and wrapping Dani in a hug. "Thank you, thank you."

  Dani extricated herself from the hug and said, "No promises, Cynthia. Like I said, it depends on how we come out. We need to get this sorted out in a hurry if we're going to get back to Bequia and pick up your father this evening. Otherwise, he's probably going to have to know."

  "So you think you can fix this with the cops?"

  "I grew up in the islands; I have lots of friends in different places. That's how I got tipped off last night."

  "I thought you were American. How'd you come to grow up down here?"

  "Well," Dani said, "the short version is that my mother's American and my father's French. From Martinique, originally, but he lives in Paris now. When I was a little younger than you are, they split up. I ended up farmed out to some of my father's friends and relatives down here in the summers. He was still living in Martinique then, but he traveled all the time on business."

  "That's so cool," Cynthia said, her face bright. "Did you spend — "

  Her question was interrupted by the ringing of the satellite phone.

  "Excuse me," Dani said, as she picked up the phone and looked at the screen.

  "Hi, Phillip," she said.

  ****

  Festus forced his face into a calm mask; he wouldn't reveal his anxiety to the Dragon Lady. Her dwarf bodyguard, Li Wong, had picked Festus up from the bar where he spent his idle time. Wong was a sneaky bastard. Festus hadn't known he was there until Wong nudged his elbow, making him spill beer down the front of his shirt.

  He had jumped to his feet, ready for a brawl, and looked down to see the little shit grinning up at him, a straight razor poised against the inside of Festus's thigh. He had seen Wong kill a man that way once, the victim bleeding out, dying almost before he knew the dwarf had cut his artery.

  "What?" Festus had growled.

  Wong folded the razor and gestured with his head for Festus to follow him. Now Wong was behind him as Festus sat in front of the Dragon Lady's desk. Festus wasn't sure which made him more nervous: the woman's reptilian gaze, or the dwarf's silent presence, looming close but out of sight.

  "You are an embarrassment," the woman said.

  Festus waited, silent.

  "Are you not going to attempt some explanation?" she asked, hissing as she emphasized 'some,' the sibilance reinforcing her snake-like image.

  "What you want me to 'splain, ma'am?"

  "You wasted my time, and the time of my minions."

  "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't know what 'minions' is."

  "The police officers who are in my pay, you buffoon."

  "Ma'am, I still don't know how I've upset you." He flinched as he felt the icy edge of the razor come to rest, touching the crease where his right ear met the side of his head.

  She shifted her gaze, looking over his shoulder, and smiled as she shook her head. "Not yet, little one. But soon, perhaps. I think not his ear, though. Maybe something more personal, something that won't be visible in public."

 
He felt the razor lift and heard a snort of laughter from Wong. "I just passed along what I saw," Festus said.

  "You really don't know, do you?" She shook her head again, her face a smooth mask. "I won't let Wong cut you until you understand how you have failed. Tell him, Wong."

  "There was no such yacht," Wong said, his voice a high-pitched snarl in Festus's ear. Those were the first words Wong had spoken during the entire encounter.

  "But I saw it, ma'am. I followed the girl on the ferry after I — "

  Pain exploded in his head and he fell from the chair, rolling onto his side as the dwarf kicked him again and again. Before he lost consciousness, he wondered how the little devil had kicked him in the head while he was sitting in the chair. Could the bastard fly?

  ****

  "Take him away," Chen said, smiling at the pleasure on Wong's scrunched-up face as he panted from his exertion. "But keep him alive. Find out who told him about the girl. Take that person as well. Keep them separated, and don't mess them up. We may need to use them before this is over."

  Li Wong nodded and began to drag the heavier man from her office.

  "And Wong?"

  He stopped and turned to face her, bowing slightly and waiting.

  "Come back when you are finished. I want you."

  She smiled at his effort to suppress his grin until he was out of her office. She always wanted him after she saw him hurt someone; it never failed to excite her.

  ****

  Cynthia sat in a corner of the cockpit, listening without comment as Dani told Liz about Phillip's conversation with the Chief Superintendent of St. Vincent's police force. When Dani had finished summarizing what he had said, Cynthia cleared her throat. Dani looked her in the eye, smiled, and nodded her head.

  "Is this Phillip a lawyer of some kind?" she asked.

  Liz grinned as Dani stifled a laugh.

  "Sorry, Cynthia," Dani said. "That's a reasonable question, but the idea of Phillip as a lawyer just hit my funny bone. I can't imagine a less likely person as a lawyer."

  "That's true," Liz added, "but I can't think of anybody I'd rather have on my side in a confrontation with the police anywhere down here."

  Cynthia's brow wrinkled in a puzzled frown.

  "He's a former business partner of my father's," Dani said. "He's been down in the islands forever. Before he went in business with Papa, he was some kind of agent for the U.S. government. He was an Army officer, too. He knows everybody in law enforcement and the military in the islands and Central America."