by Beth Orsoff
Manuel smiled again, and ran his tongue across his lips. “I don’t know, missy. Whatcha offering?”
“How about you don’t tell the police about me,” I said, “and I won’t tell them about your drug house?”
His smile disappeared. “What drug house?”
“The one just down the beach,” I said, and nodded in the direction of the downed palm tree.
Manuel glared at Jack, who shook his head. “She found it on her own.”
Manuel turned back to me and licked his lips again, this time without the smile. “You drive a hard bargain. Maybe I can watch too?”
I gave him what I hoped was a sultry look. “I promise next time we’re in the mood we’ll give you a call.”
This time he gave me the full gold-toothed grin. “Jack mon,” he said, but never took his eyes off me, “you better get that boat back to your father or he’ll be looking for you with a shotgun. Lizzie, I’ll be seeing you soon.”
The definitiveness of that statement sent shivers down my body. When he finally started his engine and took off out to sea I crumpled onto the bench.
“Who was that?” Jane asked, ignoring Ernesto, who was awake and struggling again, but this time he was also trying to speak.
I ripped the duct tape from his mouth and yelled, “What?”
His voice was hoarse, but he croaked out something that sounded a lot like “That’s who killed Michael.”
Chapter 55
I POURED HALF A bottle of water down Ernesto’s throat and asked again.
“He killed Michael,” Ernesto said.
Jane was the first to speak. “I thought you weren’t going to talk without your lawyer?”
“I want my deal,” Ernesto said. “If he sees me, he’ll kill me too.”
“Then tell us about the head,” I said. “The one Michael stole.”
“He didn’t steal it. He was just holding it for me.”
“So you stole it?” Jane asked.
“No, I bought it. That’s what we did. Me and Michael, we were just middle men.”
“And who did you buy it from?” I asked.
“A supplier,” he sneered.
“And you didn’t bother asking if it was stolen?” Jane said.
Ernesto looked at her like she was crazy. “I don’t ask questions. They bring me pieces, I give them money.”
“Then why’d you try to kill me?” Jack asked.
“I wasn’t trying to kill you. I just wanted the ten grand.”
“We would’ve given you the money,” Jane told him. “All you had to do was answer our questions.”
“Good, then give me my money and I’ll leave.”
“Not until you give us the head,” I said.
“I can’t. I don’t have it.”
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know,” Ernesto said. “I’ve been looking all over for it since Michael died.”
“You still haven’t explained why Manuel would kill Michael,” Jack said.
Ernesto managed to shrug even though his arms were still tied behind his back. “I don’t know. I heard it was over some woman.”
“You heard?” Jack said.
“I wasn’t in the room. If I was, it wouldn’t have happened. Now are you going to untie me or not?”
“We’ll get back to you,” Jack said, and plastered the duct tape back over Ernesto’s mouth again. Then he motioned for me and Jane to join him at the back of the boat.
“I don’t believe him,” Jack whispered. “But I’ve got to get this boat back to my father. Will you two be okay with him for a couple of hours?”
“Of course,” I said, and held up the stun gun.
Jack nodded. “Good. And when I get back, I want to hear more about this threesome you’re planning.”
“We’re not planning a threesome!” At least I wasn’t. This was definitely a side of Jane I’d never seen before.
“It was the first thing that popped into my head,” Jane said.
“Does that mean I don’t even get to watch?”
“Jack!” we both yelled in unison.
“Okay, okay. A guy can dream, can’t he?”
Jack dragged Ernesto back to the turtle camp and tied him up again. But since he was being so cooperative now, Jack took the duct tape off his mouth and I poured another bottle of water down his throat. Jack promised he’d be back in two hours, but programmed his number into Jane’s cell phone just in case.
Ernesto stayed silent until Jack left, then we couldn’t shut him up. “If you two want to go at it, I can watch. Or if you untie me, I’ll even join in.”
Was watching two women every guy’s fantasy?
“We’re not lesbians,” Jane said.
“Then I’ll sleep with both of you.”
Jane and I shared a ‘can you believe this guy’ look, before Jane replied, “Ernesto, if you don’t settle down, we’ll have to muzzle you again. Is that really what you want?”
He licked his lips. “Ooooo chica, you’re making me hot. What are you going to do then?”
Jane picked up one of the stun guns and walked over to Ernesto’s chair. She leaned over him so his face was only inches from her breasts. “I’m going to zap you in the balls until you beg me to stop,” she said in a sultry voice. “Sound like fun?”
Ernesto stopped talking after that, and Jane and I moved into the front room so we could have some privacy.
“Have you ever considered becoming a dominatrix?” I asked, as we each took a stool and watched Fred, who continued swimming circles in his aquarium, indifferent to our presence.
“Not really,” Jane replied. “Why? Do you think I’d be good at it?”
“Definitely. With some black leather boots and a bustier, you could make a fortune.” Not that she needed it.
“I am getting a little tired of re-decorating people’s living rooms.”
While she mulled it over I asked, “So any ideas how we’re going to find that head?”
“Nope,” she said. “You?”
I shook my head. “Not a one. Do you believe Ernesto when he says he doesn’t know?”
She shrugged, then offered me her stun gun. “You want to torture him and find out?”
“Not really. You?”
She started to shake her head, then stopped and smiled. “But we have other methods.”
I followed her into the back room where we found Ernesto struggling to free his hands. He hadn’t made much progress, but to be on the safe side Jane wrapped three more strips of duct tape around his wrists and taped his chest to the back of the chair. Then she stood behind him with her hands on his shoulders and leaned his head back so he was looking up at her. It was evident from both the look on his face and the bulge in his pants that he was enjoying the experience.
“Good news, Ernesto. We just talked to our boss and he signed off on your deal. All you’ve got to do is give us the head and your home free.”
“But I don’t know where it is,” he whined.
“Oh come on, Ernesto,” Jane said, “Just because we get off on giving blow jobs, doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”
He actually moaned.
She walked around to the front of the chair and put her hands on his knees, affording him the full cleavage view. “You help us and we’ll help you.”
I wished I had a video camera. She could win an Oscar for this performance.
“I swear.” He was practically crying. “I’ve looked everywhere.”
“Where’s everywhere Ernesto?”
“Michael’s hotel room, her hotel room,” he nodded at me, “Every—”
“You looked in my hotel room?” I said. “When?”
“After Michael died. It wasn’t in his room with the rest of his stuff, so I thought maybe he left it with you.”
“When specifically?”
“I don’t know. The next day, maybe.”
“What?” Jane asked, staring at me.
“I know where the head is, or at least w
here it might be.”
Chapter 56
“ARE YOU SURE LEAVING Ernesto alone was such a good idea?” I asked Jane, as we power-walked down the beach. I wanted her to stay behind to guard him, but she refused.
“Where’s he gonna go tied up to a chair?” she said, then steered the conversation back to the head. “What makes you so sure it’s in the drug house?”
“I’m not sure. It’s just a hunch. If Michael really hid the head in my room, along with those little jade pieces the police found, then someone beat Ernesto to it”
“Manuel?”
“Why not? If he really did ask Jack to keep me occupied that night on the boat, then it all makes sense. We know he’s a drug smuggler. Why not antiquities too?”
“But if we steal it back,” Jane said, “don’t you think Manuel’s going to know it was us?”
“Yes, but hopefully by the time he figures it out, he’ll be in jail, and we’ll be back home and far out of his reach.”
“Where is this place?” Jane asked after we’d crossed over the dead palm tree and reached the clearing where we’d met John and Cheryl.
“Back there,” I said pointing to the jungle behind the beach.
It had been a lot easier to spot when men were walking in and out with armloads of cocaine. It took me a few minutes, but I found the path I’d seen the men follow through the trees. We were halfway there when we first heard the music, something with a Latin beat. Damn! It never occurred to me that someone else might be there. I thought it was just a warehouse.
We were still fifty feet away when the front door banged open. Jane and I both froze. We watched from the bushes as a skinny, dark-haired teenager emerged. He walked to a nearby tree, unzipped his pants, and took a leak. When he’d finished, he zipped up and returned to the house, slamming the door shut behind him.
“That’s unbelievable,” Jane said.
“I know.” That kid couldn’t have been older than fourteen or fifteen. Where were his parents? Why wasn’t he in school?
“How can someone work in a place without a bathroom?” Jane asked, still incredulous. “Where’s the kid supposed to wash his hands?”
We stayed crouched in the woods another few minutes. When the boy didn’t re-emerge, we moved closer and circled the drug house until we found a window.
“I don’t suppose you remembered to bring the binoculars?” I asked.
“Sorry,” she whispered. “But I’ve got the stun gun.”
I grabbed a giant palm frond off the jungle floor, then Jane left behind while I crept up to the window.
The stun gun wasn’t going to help us. The kid had a friend with him, and they both had guns. The kind with bullets. They also had I don’t know how many kilos of cocaine, a bunch of pottery, and some jade pieces. I couldn’t tell from this distance whether any of them were shaped like a head.
After I’d taken inventory, I crept back to Jane.
“Is it in there?” she whispered.
“It might be. I can’t tell.”
“Maybe we should come back later with Jack.”
“Maybe we should come back later with an army.”
Jane raised both brows.
“He looked a lot less scary with his dick in his hand than he does holding a gun.”
When the second kid came to the window and flicked his cigarette butt into the trees, we decided it was time to high tail it back to the turtle camp to plan our next move.
My heart skipped a beat when I walked into the back room. “Jane!”
“What’s wrong?” she said, running to the doorway.
“Ernesto’s gone.”
“He can’t be gone.”
“Well do you see him here?” There was no sign of him. No rope, no tape, even the chair we’d tied him to was missing.
“Ernesto,” she called and starting searching the room
“He’s not a cat,” I said. “I don’t think he’s hiding under the bed.”
“People don’t just vanish, Lizzie. Do you think someone could’ve kidnapped him from us?”
“No, Jane. Obviously he escaped.” I knew leaving him here alone was a mistake. Why do I even listen to Jane? All of her detective skills come from watching T.V.
“With the chair still taped to his back? I don’t think so.”
We found the chair when we found Jack. They’d both floated up on the beach.
Chapter 57
WE SPOTTED THE CHAIR first. It was sinking into the sand, strips of duct tape still sticking to it, on a stretch of beach just north of the turtle camp. Jack was much farther up the shore.
When we first glimpsed his body lying face down in the sand, waves rushing in over its feet, we thought it was Ernesto.
“Do you think he’s dead?” I asked Jane.
“Let’s hope not,” she said. “If another man in your life washes up dead, they’ll never believe you’re not a murderer.”
It wasn’t until we got closer that I could see the blond hair and realized it was Jack. Please, please, please God, let him not be dead was the mantra in my head as I took off running. Jane and I were both calling out to him, but he didn’t so much as twitch.
As soon as we reached him, I dropped down to my knees and flipped him over. His clothes were soaked and he was covered in sand, but he was still breathing. Jane and I each took an arm and dragged Jack a few feet up the beach beyond the reach of the waves. He wasn’t conscious, but he was alive.
“Do you have any water?” I asked Jane.
She rummaged through her messenger bag and pulled out half a bottle.
I opened Jack’s mouth and poured some in. He immediately started choking, which I took as a good sign. Then I remembered my eleventh grade junior life saving class and rolled him onto his side.
“What are you doing?” Jane asked, when Jack’s back was to me and his front was facing her.
“In case he starts to puke.”
“I don’t want him puking on me.” She jumped back. “He’s your boyfriend, he can puke on you.”
Jack let out a virulent cough then croaked out, “I’m not puking on anybody,” before he spit up in the sand.
“That’s disgusting,” Jane pronounced. “I think I’m gonna be sick.” Then she started gagging and took off down the beach.
I felt the same, but I stayed. Although I did turn my head away and tried to breathe through my mouth.
When Jack finished retching, he reached for the water bottle and drank it down in one long swallow.
“Do you think you can make it back to the turtle camp?” The sun was beating down on us and we had nowhere to hide.
“Just give me a minute,” he said, then laid back in the sand and closed his eyes. Almost instantly his breathing turned rhythmic.
Jane returned a few minutes later. “What happened?”
“I don’t know. He fell asleep again before I could ask.”
“You can’t let him sleep. He might have a concussion.”
“If he has a concussion then he’s supposed to sleep.”
“No he’s not. He could fall into a coma.”
“That’s just an old wives tale.”
“You willing to bet his life on that?”
I called Jack’s name and shook his shoulder, but he didn’t wake.
Jane knelt down on Jack’s other side and before what she was up to she’d slapped him hard across the face.
“What the hell?” Jack said, as he opened his eyes.
“What did you do that for?” I shouted.
“He’s awake, isn’t he?” She stood up and brushed the sand from her knees. “Can you stand up?” she asked a still groggy Jack.
Jack started to nod, then winced. I gingerly touched the back of his head. There was definitely a lump there that shouldn’t have been.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I’m not sure,” he said, pushing himself up. “I think I was ambushed.”
“You think?” Jane said.
“I was on my way
back when a couple in a stranded sailboat flagged me down. They wanted a ride back to shore.”
“You gave strangers a ride on your boat?” Jane asked, her tone incredulous.
Jack shook his head and winced again. “I offered to call the Coast Guard but when I went for my cell phone something hit me in the back of the head.”
“What?”
“I don’t know,” Jack said. “The next thing I knew I was in the water.”
“And you swam all the way back here?” Now I knew where the great shoulders came from.
“I wasn’t that far, plus the tide’s coming in.”
“You didn’t happen to see Ernesto out there, did you?” Jane asked.
Jack stopped rubbing the back of his head. “Why would I have seen Ernesto?”
Jane looked over at me and Jack followed her gaze. Apparently I was the designated explainer. “We think he escaped.”
“You think he escaped!” Jack yelled then grabbed the back of his head again.
“Or someone else might’ve kidnapped him from us,” Jane chimed in. “We’re not sure.”
“How?” was all Jack said, his voice slightly above a whisper.
“Well, after you left Ernesto got very chatty. Then Jane did this little dominatrix routine and—”
“Dominatrix?” Jack asked.
“It was Lizzie’s idea,” Jane said.
“Then Ernesto mentioned that he’d thought Michael hid the head in my room, but when he searched it, it wasn’t there, which got me thinking that maybe someone beat him to it.”
“Someone?”
“Manuel,” Jane said.
Jack closed his eyes again. “Please tell me you didn’t.”
“It’s okay,” I said. “Manuel wasn’t there. And they definitely had jade, but I couldn’t tell if any of it was shaped like a head.”
“They?” he asked.
“Two men, boys actually, were guarding the stash.”
“Did they see you?”
“I don’t think so.” If they had, I’d probably be dead.
When we arrived back at the turtle camp, Jack laid down on the bed, but told us not to let him fall asleep. I sat down next to him so I could poke him if he started dozing off and Jane retired to the couch.