"I have a question, Marie," Dani said.
"Yes?" Marie asked.
"What about the wreckage of the helicopters?"
"The client has arranged for the Navy to release a statement. There was a training accident involving contractors who were testing classified equipment. I forgot to mention that. Thanks for reminding me."
"I don't understand why Delaney did what he did," Liz said. "It makes no sense that he would pass up the opportunity to continue his money-laundering business. Even if he had done what he said he would do and brought us back to the wreck, he would have turned us against him. I mean, if he bought our whole charade to begin with."
"I agree," Marie said. "There is something we still do not understand. It may be that he learned of our plan, somehow."
"But how could that be?" Dani asked. "He thought he was dealing with Connie, and he knew she'd been working with Montalba."
"He also thought she'd killed Montalba, don't forget," Liz said. "We told him as much, taunting him with the satellite phone."
"We may never understand these things," Marie said. "There were many things beyond our control. The people behind Lucas, for example. They were competitors of Montalba's. They might have been willing to pay Delaney to put Connie's fake cartel out of business — to kill Connie. We have no way to find out what they offered him."
"What about the FARC rumors?" Liz asked. "Could the ex-FARC people have been working for yet another cartel? Or even for the people behind Lucas?"
Marie chuckled at that. "Ah. I am glad you asked about that. Those are good questions, except that there were no ex-FARC people involved."
"What?" Dani asked. "How can you be sure?"
"Because we started those rumors in Miami. It was a plan of misdirection, to cover the killing of the Montalbas. Extending it to cover the threat to Delaney was his own idea, or maybe Lucas thought of it."
"Clever," Liz said.
"Yes, except for one thing," Marie said.
"What one thing?" Dani asked.
"We did not start the rumor that someone wanted to kill Delaney. We do not know the source of this, and it is a worry."
"Why is it a worry?" Liz asked.
"There was only one contract on Delaney that we know of. That was ours. Since there were no ex-FARC people to start that rumor, it had to be a leak."
"A leak from where?" Dani asked.
"We are sure it wasn't from our people," Marie said. "It had to be from our client's organization."
"You don't think Connie's cousin…" Liz said.
"No. We have previous experience with him."
"What's going to happen with that?" Dani asked.
"I have discussed it with Clarence. He will deal with it. We may hear nothing more about it."
Epilogue
Late that afternoon, aboard Vengeance…
"You know, we haven't heard from Connie and Paul in quite a while," Liz said. "We should call them; let them know we're okay."
She and Dani and Marie sat in the cockpit sipping wine. In the fading sunlight, the fleet of small sailboats from the nearby yacht club was racing out in the river again.
"Let's do it," Dani said. "Okay with you, Marie?"
"Yes."
Dani put her cellphone on the cockpit table and placed the call. Connie answered on the first ring.
"It's a relief to hear from you," she said. "Didn't you get our emails?"
"No, we've been running hard for the last 36 hours," Dani said. "What's up?"
"You didn't answer your satellite phone either," Connie said.
"We left it on the boat. Didn't you try our cellphones?"
"Yes, but there was a network problem getting calls out of Antigua. We've been frantic."
"Well, you've got us now. What's the matter?"
"Remember, Leon told us there'd been a leak somewhere high up in the government. Turns out some White House staffer got word of the contract you were working on. Nobody knows how, or at least, nobody's saying. She was passing info on DEA activity to that guy, Lucas."
"She? A woman? How was this discovered?" Marie asked.
"Text messages on their cellphones," Paul said. "It all happened at once; she was in Miami for a romantic liaison with Lucas. Their bodies were found in his condo. I got word from Luke about the same time we heard from Leon. The police thought at first that she killed him and then herself."
"Wait," Dani said. "How do you know it's related to Marie's contract?"
"Their texts, again," Paul said.
"Why did she kill him? And herself?" Marie asked.
"Luke doesn't think she did. His people are still working it, but it looks like a hit by a third party, made to look like a murder/suicide. He's at a dead end on the investigation."
"Did Leon offer anything further?" Dani asked.
"No," Connie said. "His message to us didn't have a lot of detail. Just that there'd been a leak, and that it disclosed that the contractor for the mission was female, and from outside the U.S. But he also told us it had been dealt with in a permanent fashion."
"So Luke won't solve that one," Dani said, smiling.
"Not likely," Connie said. "We worried that we wouldn't reach you in time, in case it made a difference to your plans."
"We have passed that point in our holiday," Marie said. "Thank you for your concern, but the leak is of no consequence now. You understand?"
"Yes. Glad to hear it," Connie said.
"What are your plans to come back to the islands?" Paul asked.
Dani and Liz traded glances. "It's still Marie's charter," Liz said.
"I wish to sail up the Potomac River and stay at National Harbor," Marie said. "Dani will show the sights in D.C. to me and Liz. I wish to be a tourist, now, after they made me sail this yacht through the storms to get here."
"Well, enjoy yourselves," Connie said.
"And keep in touch," Paul added.
"Yes, thanks, we will," Marie said.
"We'll talk later," Dani said, and disconnected the call.
"That is maybe why Delaney did what he did, yes?" Marie said. "This leak, about the woman who was going to kill him."
"He just thought the wreck was a target," Dani said. "Little did he know."
"There were many targets," Marie said.
"Even us," Dani said. "I don't like being a target. Ready for Plan C?"
"Plan C?" Marie asked. "What is Plan C?"
Liz was frowning and shaking her head.
"Dinner ashore," Dani said. "Let's go."
The End
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Thank you reading Bluewater Target.
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A Note to the Reader
Thank you for reading Bluewater Target, the fifteenth book in the Bluewater Thriller series. I hope you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me; they help me more than you can imagine. They are a primary means to help new readers find my work. A few sentences can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next one. If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book or have a sale or giveaway, please join my mailing list at http://eepurl.com/bKujyv. I promise not to use the list for anything else; I dislike spam as much as you do.
If you haven't read the other Bluewater Thrillers, please take a look at them. If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy them as well. I write another series of sailing thrillers — the Connie Barrera Thrillers. Connie had a key role in Deception in Savannah, my first book. I enjoyed writing about her so much that I wrote her into the Bluewater Thrillers. She plays prominent parts in both Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. The Connie
Barrera Thrillers are a spin-off from the Bluewater Thrillers, and feature some of the same characters. Dani and Liz taught Connie to sail, and they introduced her to Paul Russo, her first mate and soon-to-be husband. The Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers share many of the same characters. Phillip Davis and his wife Sandrine, Sharktooth, and Marie LaCroix often appear in both series, as do Connie, Paul, Dani, and Liz. Here’s a link to the website page at www.clrdougherty.com that lists the related novels in order of publication.
Bluewater Target was published in July of 2018. It is the fifteenth novel in that series. Now I've turned my attention back to Connie and Paul for their tenth adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on my web page at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.
A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my Amazon Author's Page at http://www.amazon.com/author/clrdougherty and click the "Follow" link near the upper left-hand corner. I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is [email protected]. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.
About the Author
Welcome aboard!
Charles Dougherty is a lifelong sailor; he's lived what he writes. He and his wife have spent over 30 years sailing together. For 15 years, they lived aboard their boat full-time, cruising the East Coast and the islands. They spent most of that time exploring the Eastern Caribbean. Dougherty is well acquainted with the islands and their people. The characters and locations in his novels reflect his experience.
A storyteller before all else, Dougherty lets his characters speak for themselves. Pick up one of his thrillers and listen to the sound of adventure as you smell the salt air. Enjoy the views of distant horizons and meet some people you won't forget.
Dougherty has written over 25 books. His Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky Jones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.
He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.
www.clrdougherty.com
[email protected]
OTHER BOOKS BY C.L.R. DOUGHERTY
Bluewater Thrillers
Bluewater Killer
Bluewater Vengeance
Bluewater Voodoo
Bluewater Ice
Bluewater Betrayal
Bluewater Stalker
Bluewater Bullion
Bluewater Rendezvous
Bluewater Ganja
Bluewater Jailbird
Bluewater Drone
Bluewater Revolution
Bluewater Enigma
Bluewater Quest
Bluewater Target
Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set: Books 1-3
Connie Barrera Thrillers
From Deception to Betrayal - An Introduction to Connie Barrera
Love for Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Sailor's Delight - A Connie Barrera Thriller
A Blast to Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Storm Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Running Under Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Sails Job - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Under Full Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
An Easy Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
A Torn Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller
Other Fiction
Deception in Savannah
The Redemption of Becky Jones
The Lost Tourist Franchise
Books for Sailors and Dreamers
Life's a Ditch
Dungda de Islan'
For more information please visit www.clrdougherty.com
Or visit www.amazon.com/author/clrdougherty
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