Bluewater Enigma_Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series

by Charles Dougherty

  "How could we cut out parts of the recordings?" Beverly asked.

  "I don't know, but it's the kind of thing Marie does all the time. She'll help."

  "Could I see what's going to be sent to the police? Before it ... "

  "That's the point," Liz said. "Nobody needs to see what happened between you and Velasquez."

  "That," Dani said, "and the recordings of my plotting 'cold-blooded murder,' as you put it, Beverly. I don't want those floating around out in the world."

  "But I actually did the things that are in the recordings. You were just upset and talking out of your head. You weren't really going to kill them."

  "Of course not," Dani said.

  Beverly gave Dani a hard look. "Or were you? I saw you cut that one man, to make him talk."

  "As you said, she was upset," Liz said. "Dani does have a temper."

  "Will this Luke man be okay with us doing that? He's a cop."

  "He's a friend," Dani said. "Besides, he's not here. We three decide what we're comfortable with sending him. That's what he gets. He wouldn't want or need the rest of it."

  Beverly nodded. "Okay. I'm in, if that's what you two are asking me. What do we have to do?"

  "I think we should head for Martinique," Dani said.

  "I'm for that," Liz said. "How about it, Beverly?"

  "I'd like that. I've always wanted to go there, ever since I was in college. How long will that take?"

  "To get there?" Dani asked.

  "Right," Beverly said.

  "An extra hour and a half, two hours, at most. It's around 20 miles from Rodney Bay, but we'll shave off some time by setting a course straight there," Dani said, beginning to plug the course change into the chart plotter. "You can meet our friends there, too. The guy I told you about who's like an older brother?"

  "He's there?"

  "He and his wife live in a villa overlooking our favorite anchorage," Liz said. "You'll enjoy them, I think. Phillip and Sandrine."

  "Sandrine sounds French."

  "She is. She's a senior officer in the French customs service there. She's a real kick," Dani said. "You'll like her."

  "I hope so," Beverly said.

  "There's another thing I wanted to ask you about," Dani said.

  "What's that?"

  "You told us you had dinner with Berto a couple of times."

  "Yes, I did. What do you want to know?"

  "Would you be willing to sit down with a police artist and help to develop a sketch of him?" Dani asked.

  "Sure. They really do that? I thought it was just a television thing, maybe."

  "They really do. The other thing is, can you remember the restaurants he took you to?"

  "They're in my calendar app. That's no problem. Will I have to go to Miami?"

  Dani frowned.

  "For the artist?" Beverly asked.

  "Oh," Dani said. "No. Sandrine can arrange that, right in Ste. Anne."

  "Ste. Anne's where we anchor when we go to see them," Liz said, seeing the puzzled look on Beverly's face.

  "Thanks, Liz," Beverly said. "You're thinking the police will be able to track him down that way?"

  "It's a start," Dani said. "I want to find out whose idea it was to steal Vengeance. There's more to this than blackmailing Velasquez. I want to know why they picked our boat."

  24

  "It's Luke," Dani said, looking at the LCD screen on their satellite phone. She pressed the green icon to accept the call.

  "Hi, Luke," she said. "You're on the speaker. Both of us are here."

  "Good afternoon, you two. Is your guest there, too?"

  "No, she's below," Liz said, "taking a nap to recover from the excitement last night. Should I get her? Or did you want just the two of us?"

  "It's okay either way. There's nothing sensitive coming. I just wondered. You can pass this along to her. I wanted to let you know we arrested Mike McGuire a little while ago. He's charged with grand larceny and kidnapping you three, for now. The state's attorney is reviewing other charges as well, based on what's coming from St. Vincent. Plus, we're still waiting to question his three minions; they're in pretty rough shape. I'm not sure how long it'll be before we get to them."

  "Poor babies," Dani said. "They thought they were so tough."

  "Hell hath no fury like an angry woman, or something like that," Luke said.

  "What did McGuire have to say?" Liz asked.

  "Nothing. He's lawyered up. But he left an easy trail to follow. He's going down. The only question is how far down and how long he stays."

  "What about Velasquez?" Dani asked. "Where's he?"

  "Home trying to make peace with his wife, I guess."

  "You didn't arrest him?" Liz asked.

  "There's no law against being a shithead," Luke said. "Just as well, too. We wouldn't have enough space in the prisons."

  "That's a good reason to make it a capital offense," Dani said. "Eliminate overcrowding in the penal system."

  "Careful, Dani. This is one of our fine, upstanding congressmen you're talking about. If being a shithead were a capital offense, we'd be hard-pressed to have a federal government. On a different subject, where are you headed? We may need to arrange a video deposition with you in the next few days."

  "Ste. Anne," Dani said. "We were going to call you in the morning, anyway. In all the confusion, we forgot something."

  "What's that?"

  "We realized last night that Beverly has seen this Berto person, face-to-face."

  "Whoa! How'd we miss that? I should have asked. Can she pick him out of a book of mugshots?"

  "I don't know about that. We're headed in a different direction. We thought Sandrine could set her up with a police sketch artist. Beverly thinks she can give a good description of him."

  "That'll work. Where did she meet him?"

  "She met him twice, for dinner. Two different restaurants. She has the names in her calendar. We'll send them along with the sketch when it's done."

  "Good. We're at a dead end on that one, unless he does something to reveal himself. Has she gotten any more texts from him?"

  "Not that she's mentioned, but the cell service was iffy in the Tobago Cays, and we've been out of range since we left there."

  "Some of the heat's off him," Luke said, "since we picked up McGuire. Once things settle down, I imagine McGuire's lawyer will let us talk to him. We may be able to find out a little more, then."

  "Do you have some reason to think he's connected to Berto? Or was he just pissed off about Velasquez running around on his sister?" Dani asked.

  "Too early to tell," Luke said. "I think the McGuire family was backing Velasquez in the primary, though. Mike's at least smart enough to see this as a scandal that could derail his campaign, even if Velasquez is oblivious to that."

  "What I want to know is whether or not you can connect McGuire to the theft of Vengeance from Miami," Dani said. "I assume what he's charged with is taking her from the Tobago Cays, for right now. I can't make sense out of the other yet."

  "We don't have anything either way on the theft from Miami. Maybe it'll come clear when we know more. I agree; right now, it doesn't add up. I need to get moving, unless you have something else," Luke said. "We can talk in the morning."

  "I have a quick question," Liz said.

  "Ask away, Liz."

  "You mentioned the state's attorney was waiting to see what else came out of St. Vincent. What's going on there?"

  "Thanks for reminding me. I meant to mention it before. The two guys who're locked up down there are offering to talk in exchange for reduced charges. Their lawyer is hinting that they might know who hired them."

  "That's probably bullshit," Dani said. "SpecCorp doesn't let the peons know who's paying the bills, according to Phillip."

  "Yeah, you're right. But that's the other thing I meant to tell you about them. SpecCorp has disowned that operation."

  "Disowned it, how?" Dani asked.

  "They've put out the word to the law
enforcement community that Norris and those two guys were no longer associated with SpecCorp when they stole Vengeance. SpecCorp says they quit and ran off with a bunch of their equipment and were freelancing for an unknown party."

  "That's a little too convenient for SpecCorp, isn't it?" Dani asked. "I can hardly wait to hear whom they say they were working for."

  "Yeah. Well, that's the news from this end. I gotta run; the state's attorney's got a meeting set for us with McGuire and his lawyer. Talk with you tomorrow."

  Montalba stared at the computer. The glass of wine he had poured an hour ago stood beside it, forgotten. He had been tracking the yacht throughout the day. It had been stationary for an hour this morning after he talked to Delaney, but then it had begun moving on a course to St. Lucia.

  He needed to know what was happening aboard. He understood Delaney's lack of curiosity about the yacht. Still, he found it frustrating. The only remaining goal he shared with Delaney was seeing O'Toole in the White House.

  Montalba could insist that Delaney undertake further investigations for him. He wouldn't, though, because he wasn't impressed with SpecCorp. In his view, Delaney's operation was overmatched by the Bergers and Barrera.

  He could use his own people, but there was risk in that. His minions had narrow, well-defined responsibilities. He was reluctant to task them with anything beyond the day-to-day movement of product.

  Having them spy on Barrera and the Bergers would make him vulnerable. He knew a great deal about his people and their organizations. In contrast, they knew nothing about him.

  LaRosa was the one exception. LaRosa knew too much about Lennox and Velasquez. Once this was over, he would eliminate LaRosa. Meanwhile, he could use LaRosa's contacts in the Caribbean.

  First, he would call Delaney. He wanted to know if Delaney's men in St. Vincent had pointed the finger at McGuire. The McGuire scandal would take Velasquez out of the presidential race. That left only the issue of the yacht unresolved.

  The two SpecCorp men in jail in St. Vincent claiming McGuire had hired them to plant the drugs would be the coup de grâce. Montalba picked up the SpecCorp encrypted phone and made the call. On the third ring, Delaney answered.

  "Good evening, Mr. Delaney. I was hoping for an update on the situation in St. Vincent."

  "It's happening. The lawyer has cut the deal. The two men will be deposed tomorrow morning. Then the real shit-storm will start for McGuire. No worries; he's finished, and so's Velasquez."

  "That's what I wanted to hear."

  "I told you we would take care of it," Delaney said.

  "The only loose end is the yacht," Montalba said.

  "What about it?"

  "I've been tracking it; it's under way."

  "Under way? Where?" Delaney asked.

  "It appears to be headed to St. Lucia. It has covered about two thirds of the distance from where it was drifting when we spoke this morning. My estimate is that they'll arrive tonight."

  "Those are McGuire's people. I have no idea what he told them to do, but I'm sure they're not going to let the three women live to tell what happened. They're probably already dead. Or wish they were." Delaney laughed, an ugly sound.

  "Then why are his men sailing the yacht? I thought they were going to sink it," Montalba said.

  "Who the hell knows?" Delaney asked. "It's not our problem anymore. Velasquez is ruined. O'Toole's got a lock on the nomination. We just need to focus on whoever the frontrunner is from the other party, right?"

  "I see," Montalba said. "Enjoy the rest of your evening."

  Montalba leaned back in his chair. He saw the forgotten glass of wine from the corner of his eye and picked it up, taking a sip. He took out the prepaid cellphone he used to communicate with Beverly Lennox. She still had not responded to his message about retrieving the recordings.

  Montalba wondered if he should destroy the phone. It was the only link to Beverly Lennox. If McGuire's men had killed her, the phone was of no consequence. If she were still alive, she might respond to the last text message when she next got cellphone service. Then he would know; he could decide what to do.

  "What did I miss?" Beverly asked, joining Liz and Dani in the cockpit.

  "You made it up here just in time for what promises to be a glorious sunset," Liz said. "Be glad you didn't miss that."

  "Feeling more rested?" Dani asked.

  "Yes. I really crashed; I don't remember when I've slept so well. I'm feeling good about life, for a change."

  "Good for you," Liz said. "We called Phillip and Sandrine while you were asleep. We're going to have breakfast with them tomorrow morning, if that's okay with you."

  "Sure. I'd like that."

  "Sandrine will arrange for the police artist to meet you at her office," Dani said. "It's in the marina complex. We're going to meet her and Phillip at one of the restaurants there, and she'll walk you to her office after we eat."

  "I'm excited to see how that works, this sketch business. Could you do that, Liz?"

  "I don't think so; not without some training, anyway. I think there's more art in drawing out the person making the description than there is in rendering the sketch. I'm not sure about in Martinique, but I know in some places, they use software that has a lot of different features: hundreds of different eyes, ears, noses, lips. It's fascinating to me, but I wouldn't know where to start. I'll be interested to hear how it goes."

  "Why can't you come with us? Maybe you could watch over my shoulder."

  Liz smiled. "Dani and I are going to take Marie LaCroix back to Vengeance while you do that. She's going to retrieve the disk drive that has the recordings on it, and we'll sit with her while she extracts the parts we want to send to Luke."

  Beverly frowned, looking off into the distance and chewing on her lip.

  "Don't worry," Dani said. "You'll get your chance to go over the final product."

  Beverly looked at her and smiled. "Thanks. I appreciate that, but what's going to happen to the original recordings?"

  "We haven't talked about that," Liz said. "Do you want to erase them?"

  "That's certainly my first reaction," Beverly said.

  "Do I sense that you have some reservations about that?" Dani asked.

  "Yes, I guess I do. What if we miss something? Like something Horry might have told me. I may be way off track, but what if there's something that turns out to be important, later? That we wouldn't pick up on right now?"

  "I had that same thought," Dani said, "for slightly different reasons, maybe. I think we should hang on to the original disk drive, at least for a while."

  "What do you mean, different reasons?" Liz said. "I thought you were worried that what you and I were threatening to do to those men might be a problem for us. I was sure you'd want to destroy the recordings, once we pulled out what we want to send to Luke."

  "I do want to destroy them, eventually," Dani said. "But there are bits of conversation on there between McGuire and his minions. There could be something there that we'd overlook now. Once we've gotten deeper into this, we might wish we could revisit some of what they said."

  "I've got an idea," Beverly said.

  "Well, let's hear it," Dani said.

  "Can we get a safety deposit box in Martinique?"

  "Yes. I have one," Dani said.

  "So do I," Liz said.

  "My idea is that we get one that's in all our names, that requires all three of us to be there to open it. I know that's a little odd, but I'll bet it could be done. That keeps anybody from forcing one of us to turn it over."

  "That's a good idea," Liz said. "If we can't do it directly, we can most likely do it through a lawyer. We can talk to Phillip and Sandrine about it. I'm sure they know somebody who can help us."

  25

  "You'll like Beverly," Dani said.

  She and Liz were in their dinghy with Marie LaCroix. They were taking her back to the marina, where they were going to wait for Sandrine and Beverly to join them for midmorning coffee. Sandrine
had called to let them know that the sketch artist was finishing her work just as they were wrapping up the editing of the recordings.

  "I already like her," Marie said. "Anybody working to take down a politician is my kind of woman." They were rounding Vengeance's bow when Marie cried, "Stop!"

  Dani throttled back and shifted the outboard to neutral. "What's the matter?" she asked.

  "Take us back under your bowsprit," Marie asked. "There is something irregular."

  "Irregular?" Liz said, as Dani stopped the dinghy and grabbed the bobstay, pulling them under the bowsprit. "Irregular how?"

  "Something that does not belong. You have cable-tied something here?"

  Marie was standing now, holding on to the starboard whisker stay with her left hand and pointing with her right. A black nylon cable tie encircled the bowsprit about halfway between the bow of Vengeance and the end of the bowsprit.

  "I don't know why that's there," Dani said, "But I'll find out. Hold the dinghy, you two."

  She stood on the side of the inflatable and grasped the whisker stay with both hands, raising herself to a chin-up position. She swung her legs to her left, hooking her left foot over Vengeance's gunwale. Scissoring her legs together, she got her right foot on the gunwale as well and rolled herself under the lifelines, taking up a prone position on the anchor platform.

  Dani pulled herself forward with her left hand, feeling along the underside of the platform with her right hand. The anchor platform was made of teak grating with holes that were about three centimeters square. It was mounted on spacers above the bowsprit, leaving a couple of inches between the platform's underside and the bowsprit. When her right hand touched the cable tie, she looked down through one of the square holes in the grate and spotted the satellite tracker in the space between the platform and the bowsprit.

  "That's how that bastard found us after Joey got us underway," Dani said.

  "What do you have?" Marie asked.

  "One of those cheap satellite trackers," Dani said.