Ms. Anna

by Bill Lockwood

  Then Ms. Parker expertly unloaded the chambered round and the clip of bullets before she opened up the trombone case and stowed it away.

  Anna was angry. “Just a damn minute here. How about you tell us just what the hell is going on?”

  “Okay, I will,” Ms. Parker said, then bent over and rummaged in her beach bag. For an awful moment Max thought she was going to pull out a gun of her own. Instead, she pulled out something that looked like a simple leather wallet. “I’m taking over this boat,” she said.

  “What?” Max and Anna asked, in equal amazement, in unison.

  Ms. Parker flipped open the wallet and showed them her ID.

  Anna kept one hand on the wheel, but she and Max moved together and saw what it was.

  “You’re with the Coast Guard?” Max said.

  “Merilee K. Framingham,” Anna read. “I knew your name couldn’t really be Ms. Firehouse.”

  Ms. Parker laughed. “It is a true fact that not too many years ago I was voted Ms. Firehouse for the Fireman’s Ball in my little ol’ Iowa town. I put it down as Sac City, Iowa, on my fake resume when I went undercover and applied to work for Señor Cofresí. You can just keep calling me Jane Parker. The rest of them don’t need to know any of what’s happening in here.”

  “Well, that certainly explains some things.” Max didn’t really know what might actually be explained.

  “Amazing,” Anna said. She pointed to the radar screen and asked, “So does that mean the little blip there that’s been following us has something to do with the US Coast Guard?”

  “It does,” Ms. Parker acknowledged. “And if I don’t call them soon on my radio, they’ll close in on us.” She reached down into her bag and pulled out a radio. “Firehouse to Mother Ship,” she said quickly into it after turning it on.

  “Sac City, Iowa,” Max said. “I’ll be damned.”

  “Mother Ship to Firehouse. We read you loud and clear,” the radio answered back.

  “Exchange made with other boat,” Ms. Parker reported to the mother ship. “Cargo still not identified. Hold off for now.”

  “Roger, we copy,” was the answer.

  They all stood in silence for a moment after she put the radio away. Anna was again intent on her instruments and the wheel.

  “Holy shit,” Max said.

  Ms. Parker laughed. “I chose Firehouse as my code name for the radio.”

  Anna and Max looked at each other, but neither shared Parker’s laughter.

  Ms. Parker looked over at the radar screen, and she scanned the other instruments as well.

  “Look,” Max spoke up. “I know I’m only the owner and captain because I won this boat in a poker game, but what’s this about you taking charge here?”

  “Max, you should have let me take you to lunch the other day,” Ms. Parker said. “I would have explained. I even came to the bar looking for you. I was going to tell you what was going on and ask for your help, since I knew you are investigating Cofresí too.”

  “Okay, I bolted,” Max admitted. “But at least give me the short version now.”

  “Okay, that explains why you came to the bar,” Anna said, “but there’s a hell of a lot more questions I want answered.”

  Max repeated, “At least give me the short version now.”

  Ms. Parker continued speaking to Max. “I wanted to recruit you,” she said. “Your family sent you down here to find out what Señor Cofresí is up to. He told me that, and the people I work for sent me to work for him for the same reason.”

  “Okay…” Max was trying his best to let it all sink in. “So we’re both after the same thing.”

  “We checked you out. We know you were once an informant for the CIA.”

  “I’m not supposed to confirm or deny that,” Max said. “You must know that. I was over in Europe for a while. My family keeps accusing me of being in the CIA, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Right.” Ms. Parker nodded, smiling.

  “Right,” Anna repeated as she spoke up again. “We know something fishy is going on. But Max still doesn’t know what it really is. He hoped to learn more on this trip. Since you say we’re both on the same side, can I ask if you’ve made any progress on that front yourself?”

  Ms. Parker nodded. “I think so. If I can find out what’s in that casket we just loaded on, I think I might be able to put the whole thing together.”

  “That thing was heavy as hell,” Max said. “Cofresí’s brother must have been an awfully heavy guy.”

  “Yes,” Ms. Parker agreed. “Too heavy for drugs, if you ask me. I mean, we know Cofresí is up to something, and we know he’s contacting the Cubans. But we don’t know why he hired you for this particular trip.”

  “Okay, it makes sense why we now need to see what’s in that casket of his,” Max said.

  “If we find something incriminating, then we’ll have him, and your family will have their answer, I think.”

  “If you don’t?” Anna asked. “If it really is just Señor Cofresí’s dead brother?”

  Ms. Parker shrugged. “If not, I’ll radio the boys behind us, and they’ll look into the import rules for dead bodies. I don’t think what we’re doing is legal. Then I guess I’ll go back down, share some more of the rum, and continue my investigation.” She thought a moment and added, “I just hope Cofresí gets too drunk to put any moves on me while we’re sleeping tonight.”

  Anna laughed. “Oh, my God, she’s human after all!” She wanted to add, Well, maybe, if you wouldn’t hang out almost naked on deck… But she didn’t.

  “Thank you, I think.” Ms. Parker smiled.

  “Okay, then,” Anna asked, “So how do you plan to get a look at what’s in that box?”

  This time Ms. Parker did not have an immediate answer.

  Anna continued, “The way I see it, this is all crazy. I’m driving a boat full of people who may or may not be secret agents, or whatever the hell you really are. Half the crew is drunk, and I’ve just taken on a box that may or may not have a dead man’s bones—”

  Max cut her off. “Okay, then, I’m the captain here. If you ask me to think as if I were in charge or were maybe somehow once a secret agent of some kind, here’s what I think. They’ve all had a lot of rum by now, and they just finished working really hard. The casket is taking up the entire table. So I bet they’re not playing cards. I bet they’ve all fallen asleep by now.”

  “Yeah,” Ms. Parker agreed. “Maybe I can sneak down there and take a look.”

  “There’s a pry bar in that toolbox by the door here,” Anna said.

  “No, wait,” Max said. “I’m the captain here. I’ll go down.”

  The two women were both surprised by his sudden assertion of authority.

  Max said no more. He grabbed a flashlight from a hook on the wall. Armed with that and the pry bar, he went out the wheelhouse door. He crossed the deck swiftly to the door that led below deck and tried his best to get through it quietly. He did an even better job of getting quietly down the ladder and into the galley.

  He had been right about the effects of the hard work and all the rum. Señor Cofresí snored loudly. He was stretched out on the bench that ran alongside the table. His feet hung far over the end, and his ever-present straw hat lay on the floor. The bottle of rum sat within his easy reach. Captains Bob and Jim were somewhat upright but stretched out across the other seats. They were both breathing deeply and sound asleep as well.

  Max took a deep breath and bent down beside the big wooden casket they had loaded on. He carefully worked the pry bar under the edge of the lid. The nails groaned as he raised the lid. All three of the men stirred. Max stopped. He waited till their regular breathing returned, then pried the lid a little farther, just enough so he could get a good look inside. He held the flashlight right up against the opening and snapped it on.

  Right away he could tell there was no body inside. The box seemed to be full of black steel rods. Max shifted himself so he could get a
better look farther down inside. Shit, he thought with sudden recognition. Assault rifles. This sucker’s running guns.

  He snapped off the light and drew away from the box. When he pushed down on the lid of the box, the nails did not easily go back in. The boat lurched with the waves, and Max fell forward, his weight landing on the lid. The nails slid back into their places, but he had made a noise. The men stirred. Señor Cofresí’s eyes opened, and he woke with a start.

  Max stood up straight and shoved the pry bar under his belt and down the back of his cutoff jeans as quickly as he could. He still held the flashlight in his other hand.

  Cofresí sat up, and the other men began to rouse also.

  Best defense is a good offense, Max thought. “Just came down to see how you were all doing,” he said. He gave Cofresí a big smile.

  Señor Cofresí laughed. He retrieved his hat and the rum. He took a drink from the bottle. “Here, Max,” he offered. “You can drink now that tonight’s big job is done.”

  “Well, not quite,” Max disagreed. “We’re now running hard to get to Key West as quickly as we can.”

  Cofresí laughed again. “That is a problem for your pilot, Señor Max, and you have the best one in the fleet. Please join us. You are taking this captain thing far too serious. Now the job is done for tonight, you must join us for a drink. Here, it is our way…” Cofresí looked around for a moment and frowned. “Capitán Max, where is Ms. Parker?”

  Max glanced around too, as if he had just noticed she was not there. “Must be up on deck somewhere.”

  They had not been speaking quietly. Both the other captains were fairly well awake by this time. Captain Bob reached out and grabbed the edge of the casket to help himself stand up.

  Captain Jim almost slapped his hand away. “That’s Señor Cofresí’s dead brother in that box,” he said sternly.

  “Is touching the casket of a dead man bad luck or something down here?” Max asked. “I never seem to have all these local customs straight.”

  “That box holds the bones of my poor dead brother,” Cofresí declared. He thumped his finger on the edge of the casket, and he took a swig from the bottle of rum.

  “I didn’t mean him no harm…” Captain Bob said quickly.

  Max gave an inward sigh of relief. The drunken men had appeared to now have forgotten Ms. Parker.

  Captain Bob looked around at Max. “Anna doesn’t need your help at the wheel. She will bring us safely to port in Key West on her own without any help from even a real captain like me or Jim here, I guarantee.”

  Señor Cofresí raised the bottle. “I will drink to that,” he said, and he took another drink. “To our good pilot Anna,” he saluted with the bottle again.

  “To Anna!” the two older captains agreed, and Cofresí handed the bottle to Captain Bob.

  Max grabbed his chance. He hurried up the ladder and out the door onto the deck above.

  Max entered the wheelhouse with a smile on his face.

  “So what’s going on down below?” Ms. Parker asked.

  “They’re all drunk as lords,” Max reported, “and Cofresí’s starting to get rowdy. You’ve been missed down there. Cofresí was asking for you.”

  “Oh, great,” Ms. Parker said.

  “What about the box?” Anna asked. “Did you get a chance to have a look?”

  “Cofresí almost caught me,” Max said. He pulled the pry bar from the rear of his cutoff jeans, and he patted the little statue of Saint Anne that was still in his side pocket. “Before he woke up, I got a good look inside, though.”

  The two women waited intently for him to continue.

  “Assault rifles,” Max said. “The damn box’s full of guns just like the one over there in that trombone case.”

  “Okay!” Ms. Parker said triumphantly. She looked at the instruments and asked Anna, “Are we still definitely in international waters?”

  “Oh, yeah.” Anna nodded. “We’re very much out to sea.”

  Ms. Parker rummaged in her bag and came up with her radio again. She turned it on. “Firehouse to Mother Ship,” she said as she had before.

  “Firehouse, we read you,” came an immediate answer.

  “I got a positive ID on the cargo as contraband,” Ms. Parker said. “Will hold to reach US port.”

  “Firehouse, we read you loud and clear,” the radio voice said again. Then it added a sudden human, personal touch. “We are right behind, but keep your head down.”

  “Will do,” Ms. Parker answered. Then she shut off the radio.

  “Your head, what about ours?” Anna asked. Anna studied the radar screen as if she wanted to make sure for herself that the blip that had been following them was still there. Then she looked at Ms. Parker and asked, “Firehouse, I got a question… Max here is the captain, and I’m the pilot. We just took on a very illegal cargo. Isn’t the captain responsible for everything that happens on his vessel? And also sometimes isn’t the crew?”

  “What do you mean?” Ms. Parker asked.

  “I mean,” Anna said, “if you tell me we’re in trouble too, when your people hit the deck, I might just decide to take my chances on outrunning that boat back there to the harbor.”

  “No, you’re both fine.” Ms. Parker laughed. “You two are working for me. Captain Bob and Captain Jim are fine, too. There’s only one person this operation is after. We’re just going to let you tie up, or at least get into US waters, before we arrest him, just so there’s no question where he is taking those guns.”

  “Good, then,” Max said. “You all arrest him, and my family’s questions about what he’s up to at the tuna plant will all be taken care of as well.”

  “This all seems too simple,” Anna said.

  “It is simple,” Max said. “We’ll fire him for being arrested and charged with smuggling illegal guns. He’s obviously buying them from Cubans and selling them to probably drug dealers in Florida. I think we’re on firm ground. It won’t matter what else he might be doing at the plant. As far as the family cares, he’ll simply be gone.”

  “Then what will you do?” Anna asked. “Will you just go home right away?”

  Max thought a moment. “No,” he said. “The family will probably want me to make sure we’ve got someone good in there to run the plant before I leave.”

  “You gonna promote Ms. Parker, then?” Anna asked.

  Ms. Parker laughed. “I’ve got a much better job. The one I’m doing. I am finished working at that stinky old tuna plant as of right now.”

  Max laughed too. “No two weeks’ notice to Cofresí in writing?”

  “No,” Ms. Parker said. “Just a pair of handcuffs and a ‘see you in court.’ ” She laughed again. Then she was serious. “But speaking of the job I’m doing right now, we still have, I think, another whole day and into tomorrow night before we reach Key West. I’m not going to try arresting Cofresí all on my own. I want to just go on like we don’t know anything till we land. I’ll call my people again when we’re closer, but I think they’ll have us go right into the Navy base there by Mallory Square, and they’ll have a nice welcoming party for our friend down below.”

  “Sounds like a good plan,” Max said. “I love watching the sunset with the tourists from Mallory Square.”

  “Max, don’t start telling me all about Key West again right now,” Anna complained. “How are we gonna pull off all that time knowing Señor Cofresí’s dead brother is really a box full of illegal guns?”

  “We can do it,” Max assured her. “We just keep thinking, and”—he gestured to the little statues by the windshield—“praying to our saints and gods about the fact that we’re transporting a dead man’s bones.”

  “Thank God we’re not,” Anna said. “Really transporting a dead man’s bones, I mean. It really does give me the creeps.”

  “So now there’s no creeps,” Max said with a shrug.

  “What do you think, Firehouse?” Anna asked.

  “I’m a professional,” Ms. Parker assured her.


  Anna sighed. “Okay, I can do it…I can do it, I’m sure.”

  “Okay.” Max smiled. “Now show me the new heading and all. Then take a break. Then I’ll try to sleep for a while so at least I’ll be able to get up after sunrise and do the first shift for tomorrow.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain,” Anna said with a salute.

  “Wow,” Max said. “You know, that sure feels good.”

  Anna looked back around at Ms. Parker. “Cofresí and the guys are probably all asleep again now. Why don’t you sneak through the galley and get yourself some sleep in my cabin?”

  “Thank you.” Ms. Parker smiled. “I appreciate that. I really do.”

  Anna nodded. Then she started giving Max his instructions for taking over the wheel.

  Chapter 12

  Max was up, as promised, not long after sunrise. He made a big pot of coffee for everyone and left it on the stove. Then he poured a mugful for himself and one for Anna and went up to the wheelhouse. He paused a moment on deck and looked out at sea.

  There were a few white clouds, but once the sun had completely risen it promised to be a mostly bright blue sky, the kind they always showed on the Caribbean tourist ads and brochures. They had lucked out with good weather. A storm would have been all they needed to make things much harder. Max patted his pocket and his little Saint Anna in thanks again.

  “Thanks.” Anna smiled when Max handed her one of the mugs.

  “How’s it going?” he asked.

  “Steady as she goes, Captain,” Anna reported. “Steady as she goes.”

  “Good.” Max nodded as if he really were in charge. He looked at the radar screen. The following blip was still very much there. Max looked around and out the rear window. The Coast Guard boat was just far enough away that it could not be easily seen.

  Anna suddenly spoke up. “What do you think about the change of events with Ms. Parker last night?”

  “Wow, you know, that was a surprise.”

  “Now I know I wasn’t being paranoid or something, thinking there were boats following us every time we took Cofresí out.”

  “The way she played her part at the tuna plant, that woman should have a career on stage.” Max shook his head. “I’ve got to ask her what she would have done if I had stayed.”