Bluewater Target_Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series

by Charles Dougherty

  "Kilpatrick says they're into nightclubs, prostitution, drugs. The same rackets O'Toole was into. They're competitors. After Montalba and O'Toole got arrested, the DiGenovas moved in on some of their action."

  "So is Lucas working for them?"

  "We don't know. Not yet, anyway. But that's what Kilpatrick wondered. He decided to feel out O'Toole a little. First thing he asked the Senator was whether he'd ever heard of Walter Lucas. Guess what?"

  "Tell me."

  "O'Toole never heard of him."

  "You believe that?" Delaney asked.

  "It's consistent with what Lucas said when he came to see you. Kilpatrick believed O'Toole. There was more to it than just an out-and-out denial. Kilpatrick felt him out a little first, about ways for somebody in O'Toole's situation to get messages in or out. O'Toole kind of shrugged, he said. Then O'Toole said, 'I'd count on somebody like you. You've got a track record with people I trust.'"

  "Kilpatrick told you O'Toole said that?" Delaney asked.

  "Yeah."

  "Kind of self-serving of Kilpatrick, don't you think?" Delaney asked.

  "Well, it could be. But it's true, Clayton. We checked him out, remember? That's why we retained him."

  "Okay, but you didn't tell me that before, so I didn't know."

  "Right. Sorry. But now you do. Kilpatrick's as honest as he can be and still practice law. And he's had prior dealings with O'Toole's attorneys, as well as some lawyers we've used before."

  "Okay. So O'Toole didn't send Lucas to tell me somebody's trying to have me killed. That's worrisome."

  "What are you talking about, Clayton? I thought you'd be relieved."

  "Somebody sent Lucas with that message. I was more comfortable with the devil I knew."

  "Yeah, okay. I can see that. But think about it. Lucas could be full of shit."

  "Why would he deliver the message, then? Somebody had to send him."

  "Somebody sent him. I'll grant you that. But we don't know who or why."

  "So we're back to square one," Delaney said.

  "Not quite. We're pretty sure O'Toole didn't send him. That opens up other possibilities."

  "Like what? Who else would send me a message like that? Somebody who wants to get on my good side?"

  "Maybe. Or maybe the DiGenova brothers, or somebody else who wants to throw you off balance. But there are other things to factor in, here."

  "What other things?"

  "Whoever did it wanted two pieces of information planted in your mind. One, that O'Toole's involved. Two, the reference to 'her,' some unknown woman."

  "Okay, you've had a head start on me, and besides, this is your kind of game, Larry. Why would somebody plant those two pieces of information with me?"

  "Whoever it is wanted you talking to O'Toole. Or at least thinking hard about him. They could be trying to shake your trust in him, but that's just a thought off the top of my head. And second, they want you focused on the mystery woman."

  "The mystery woman?" Delaney said. "You mean Barrera?"

  "You're the one who made that connection, not me," Thompson said.

  "You saying there's another mystery woman, Larry?"

  "No, not necessarily. I guess it could be the Berger girl, but I'm not sure there's much difference in her and Barrera, based on what we know about the two of them."

  "Why would somebody do that, though?" Delaney asked.

  "Answer that question, and we'll be that much closer to knowing who's behind this."

  "I'm flummoxed, Larry. I didn't see this coming. I haven't a clue."

  "That's all right. You can sleep on it, but here's more food for thought, okay?"

  "Okay, feed away. I'm listening."

  "These are random ideas, Clayton. It could be one of them, or a combination of them, or something else entirely. Don't latch onto any of them. Just take them one at a time and play around with them. See where that leads you."

  "Okay, got it. Go ahead."

  "Somebody wanted to distract you, send you running toward O'Toole. Or Barrera, or Berger — father or daughter.

  "Somebody wanted to drive a wedge between you and O'Toole, or Berger, or Barrera.

  "Somebody's watching you to see how you play this. Maybe they thought you'd fly off the handle, kill O'Toole, or one of the others. Or provoke one of them to kill you.

  "Or maybe they're thinking they'll somehow monitor your interactions with those people and learn something, get some intel on you, or even evidence against you, if there's some government organization behind it.

  "Those could apply whether or not there's really a contract out on you, agreed?"

  "Yeah, I can see that. Anything else?"

  "Yeah. Maybe there is a contract out on you. This could be an effort to deflect blame onto one of the three, to confuse you or somebody else. That's if whoever wants you dead sent Lucas. On the other hand, it could be that somebody wants to spook you and then offer you salvation. That's another one that could apply whether there's a contract or not. And I'll leave it there. That's enough for you to mull over for now."

  "Jesus, Larry. Thanks a lot. I thought I was going to go to sleep, until you called. Have you got a favorite theory, before I let you go?"

  "Not yet. I'd rather hear what you come up with tomorrow. I'm still working up possibilities, but I don't want to overload you."

  Delaney laughed. "Don't worry about the donkey; just load the wagon, huh?"

  "Go to sleep, Clayton. Let it all roll around in your subconscious mind. Maybe you'll wake up with the answer."

  "The big challenge will be falling asleep. Talk to you tomorrow."

  18

  "We need to find a good spot," Dani said, as they were motoring out of Spa Creek. "Somewhere out of the way, but still close enough to Delaney's place for Marie."

  "So much for sightseeing in Annapolis," Liz said. "Do you think she's being overly cautious?"

  Dani shrugged.

  Marie had suggested that they move from the marina. She was worried that the stolen phones could lead SpecCorp to Vengeance.

  "It is GPS enabled," she had said, "and we know they are capable when it comes to technology. If someone turns the phone on and it locks on a satellite, they could find its location. The phone is encrypted; they may well have some kind of alarm set, since they know it is missing."

  "But that'll lead them to the thief," Liz had said. "Not to us."

  "Yes, but these people, they will not stop there. They will interrogate the person who stole it, and perhaps he tells them where he found it. They know Vengeance. The coincidence of the phone being aboard Vengeance in Annapolis will be enough. They will come looking because the thief will say he took the phone from this marina. It is best if Vengeance is not here."

  "We'll move, then," Dani had said. "Not a big deal. What time is the rental car company going to pick you up?"

  "In fifteen minutes, at the marina office."

  "I'll go up there with you and settle our account," Dani said.

  "Will they keep a record?"

  "I'll pay cash," Dani said. "We can tell them that your ex-husband is stalking you and ask them to delete the entry from their records, or use a different boat name if they can't delete it. An extra hundred bucks should handle it."

  "I was married to an asshole like that once," the marina manager said, when Dani spun her yarn about Marie's ex-husband. "Forget the extra hundred bucks; it's no big deal. Just pay it forward, sister."

  She took a cash payment and gave them a receipt for diesel fuel instead of dockage. "That keeps my books clean, and there's no vessel name on a fuel receipt," she said.

  Five minutes later, Dani and Liz had Vengeance under way, leaving Marie at the marina entrance gate, waiting for her car.

  "Think the South River's far enough?" Liz asked. She stood behind the helm with Dani, her finger on the screen of the chart plotter.

  "Maybe not there," Dani said. "You can see the marinas that could accommodate us when you drive over the highway bridge,
if they come that way. And if they do their homework, they'll have pictures of Vengeance from our website. Let's head down to the West River. There should be something there. It's not much farther; we'll have to get a car anyway, if we're coming back into town."

  "They won't be able to see the marinas from the road, there?"

  Dani laughed and shook her head. "The little town's called Galesville. There's nothing there but a few boatyards and marinas. It's on a dead-end road that must be two miles long, and that road only connects to a back road, not a main highway like the one over the South River bridge."

  "How did you even know about this place, then?"

  "I chartered a boat there for a long weekend once. You'll like it. It's a quaint little village. And it's probably no more inconvenient for Marie. She'll bypass a lot of the rush-hour traffic, heading west into Virginia from there."

  "Okay, I'm sold," Liz said, "But without that sat phone, how're we going to fool Delaney?"

  "We'll think of something. That reminds me, though. When we were coming up the Bay yesterday, I thought of the perfect place to stage an ambush."

  "Where?"

  "There's a big naval presence at the mouth of the Patuxent River — naval aviation."

  "That doesn't compute," Liz said. "Wouldn't we need to stay away from that sort of place?"

  "They have aerial gunnery ranges in that area. There's one that's got the rusted hulk of an old Liberty Ship that's aground. It's all shot up. I saw it when we went by, and that reminded me."

  "Wouldn't it be off limits to navigation?" Liz asked.

  Dani scrolled the chart plotter until she spotted what she was looking for. "There, where it says restricted area. I think people sneak in there to fish the wreckage sometimes. We'll have to look up the restrictions. It's probably only restricted when they're shooting."

  "Can we even get Vengeance in there?"

  "I don't know. Looks like there's enough water, but I think we'd be better off with a speedboat, like we talked about with Marie. There are plenty of places we can leave Vengeance nearby."

  "Won't we risk being seen?"

  "I don't think so, if we stage it at night. And gunfire and explosions won't attract any notice there."

  "Well, it's a good suggestion, anyhow. We can run it by Marie tonight and see what she thinks. Should I go call some marinas on the West River?"

  "I think we should just take our chances. We'll find something, I'm sure, and it would be better to see what we're getting into. If we strike out, there are more places up in the Rhode River, a couple or three miles away. There's also plenty of room to anchor if we need to."

  "Then I'll just bring up our coffee, and we can enjoy the rest of the ride," Liz said. "It's a beautiful day."

  "Yes," Dani said. "It is."

  "How did I sleep? Not well, after what you dumped on me last night," Delaney said.

  Larry Thompson took a sip of his coffee and chuckled. "Kept you awake, did it?"

  "You knew it would, damn you. Where have you been for the last two hours?"

  Thompson laughed again. "It's only been an hour and a half since you left the voicemail. I've been working on something hot."

  "Something hot?" Delaney asked, his face flushed. "When I leave an urgent message, I want a quick response. That shit you gave me last night was plenty hot."

  "Calm down, Clayton. I've been working on something new that'll make you forget all about last night."

  "I doubt that. You're just trying to cover your ass for being late."

  "Uh-huh. Well, get a grip, boss. You ready for an adrenalin rush?"

  "Don't toy with me, dammit. If you've got something, give it to me straight."

  "The encrypted satellite phone we issued to Guillermo Montalba has turned up. It acquired a satellite link last night around midnight."

  "You're shitting me, Larry."

  "No, I'm not shitting you. We had a trap for it, and the tech center got the alarm around 12:30 this morning. Somebody turned on that phone."

  "It's been missing since the Montalbas died," Delaney said.

  "Yep. Well, it's not missing now."

  "Who did they call?"

  "Nobody," Thompson said. "They couldn't get past the authentication. After several attempts, the phone locked them out and dropped the satellite link."

  "So it's not Montalba, then?"

  "Well, I don't think so. He's still dead, right?"

  "Smartass."

  "I'm taking nothing for granted, boss. You haven't heard anything about his resurrection, have you?"

  "No. Why are you even asking? I thought you said they failed to authenticate."

  "Yeah, they did. But that phone's set up for two-factor authentication. They entered the six-digit passcode, and the system sent an authentication code to Montalba's trusted device. End of story. No response; not even an attempt at entering the authentication code. Sorry about the resurrection crack, but he wouldn't be the first guy who didn't die when everybody thought he did."

  "Yeah, but what about the authentication failure? Could somebody have hacked the phone's passcode?" Delaney asked.

  "Not likely. That's why I asked about Montalba. The techs say brute-forcing the passcode would take like 20 years of continuous attempts. And the phone would have locked them out for 24 hours after ten unsuccessful attempts."

  "So either somebody got lucky, or they had the six-digit passcode?" Delaney asked.

  "Yes. That's right."

  "I doubt Montalba would have given that passcode to anybody. Maybe his sister, but I don't know about her, even," Delaney said.

  "That's why I asked if there was any possibility he'd survived," Thompson said. "I wasn't pulling your chain, see?"

  "Yeah, okay. I get it. If it was Montalba, though, he would have gotten the authentication code on his cellphone, right?"

  "Assuming he still has it. Did you have any alternative contact procedure worked out with him? In case something went wrong?"

  "No. He would probably just call my private number; he used it a few times at first. Got it from O'Toole, I guess. We sent him the encrypted sat phone when we got serious, though. He hasn't used the other since."

  "Did you two have a challenge and password for those early calls?" Thompson asked.

  "No. We recognized each other's voices. Jesus, Larry, do you think he survived, somehow?"

  "I doubt it, Clayton. It's been what? A month?"

  "Just about, yeah."

  "If he'd been carrying that phone around, I'd think he would have tried before now. Don't you?"

  "Yeah. You can't track location on a sat phone, right?"

  "On that one, we can. It has GPS built in. It's complicated to track, unless the caller sends us his location, but it's buried in the call metadata, unless somebody disabled it."

  "What does that mean? Can you track it, or not?"

  "The tech center guys are working on it. The answer is probably. Somebody that knew the ins and outs of that model phone could have gone into the setup menu and disabled the GPS. The only way to tell is to download the call metadata from that attempt last night. If it's there, we should have it in an hour or two."

  "Okay. Keep me posted," Delaney said.

  "Will do. Meanwhile, did anything come out of your sleepless night?"

  "Not really. It was like a fever dream. I started diagramming the connections right after I left you the voicemail, but nothing jumps out at me. You?"

  "No. Maybe something will click when we find out where that phone is. I figure somebody must have taken it off Montalba."

  "Or off his body," Delaney said.

  "You never met him, right?" Thompson asked.

  "Never did," Delaney said. "Our only contacts were on the phone. O'Toole set us up at first. Why?"

  "I was trying to get a feel for what he was like."

  "You have a specific question? I talked to O'Toole about him a little, early on. O'Toole met him once, but it was in the dark, in a limo. He said he couldn't tell much. Average s
ize, polished manner. But I got the polished part from talking to him on the phone. No real accent, but he sounded like a rich guy, cultured speech, you know what I mean?"

  Thompson nodded. "I think so. What I'm looking for is whether he's one of those people who can't remember stuff. You know, like the people who stick a piece of tape on the back of their ATM card and write their PIN on it?"

  "Yeah," Delaney said, shaking his head. "My ex-wife used to do that. It sure doesn't match the picture I have of Montalba, but who knows? Sounds like somebody got that passcode somewhere. You're thinking he had it written down on the phone?"

  "It was just an idea. I'll call you when we get the metadata." Thompson stood and headed for the door.

  "Good," Delaney said. "I'm going back to drawing circles and arrows — try to figure out who's behind this Lucas bullshit."

  19

  "Hi, Marie," Liz said, answering her cellphone. She and Dani had just secured Vengeance in a transient slip at a marina on the West River. "Dani's here; I'm putting you on the speaker."

  "Hello, Marie," Dani said. "Get your car okay?"

  "Yes, and I found where I was going with no trouble. Have you moved the boat yet?"

  "Yes," Liz said, and told Marie where they were.

  "And the town's called Galesville, Maryland," Dani said. "Plug that in your phone and you'll get here okay. Are you on your way back?"

  "No. I have more things to arrange. They tell me I should leave here no later than mid-afternoon to avoid rush-hour traffic coming back that way. Is this new place farther than Annapolis?"

  "It should be close to the same driving time for you. It's only a few miles south of Annapolis, as the crow flies."

  "I see. What are your plans?"

  "We're going to get a rental car and head back into Annapolis," Liz said. "Unless you need us for something."

  "No. I should be there by dinner time, and I will tell you what I have learned. Maybe you can just wait until tomorrow to go to Annapolis and use my car. But we are going to need to find a remote location like we talked about to entertain our friend. It cannot be done at his place. You can be thinking about this, yes?"