Dani took two steps back, feeling the concrete block wall behind her, as the other women converged on her in a semicircle. She held the tray in front of her like a shield and grinned at the women. "Which one of you wants to be next," she taunted, measuring the distance as they approached, shoulder to shoulder. "You gutless fools," she yelled as she feinted with the tray and dropped to a crouch, delivering a powerful kick to the knee of the woman at the right end of the line.
As the woman went down, Dani threw the tray aside and grabbed the next woman's shirt, dropping her head a fraction as she lunged forward. She heard a satisfying crack and felt the warm blood run over her face as her head-butt knocked the woman unconscious. The women were backing away, throwing punches as Dani charged first one, and then another.
She paused as two matrons with nightsticks pushed into the crowd from behind, watching as the measured blows to the backs of the women's legs took them down. They curled up as the nightsticks rose and fell in a rapid tattoo of blows. After thirty seconds or so, the larger of the two matrons looked at Dani and said, "Your turn, missy."
Dani steeled herself, knowing that if she fought, she would inevitably be made to pay. The matron gripped her nightstick in two hands and thrust the end into Dani's solar plexus. Dani doubled over and the two women delivered a flurry of blows to her ribcage and lower back. She slipped to the floor, covering her face and head as best she could with her arms.
To her surprise, she heard one of them say, "Okay, Amaryllis. I 'tink she done had enuff." The matrons grabbed her under the arms and frog-marched her from the dining room.
"Don' be feelin' too easy, now, little white girl. The warden, she want to see you while you can still talk. You don' tell her what she want to know, then mebbe we work on you some more. Or mebbe she want us to sof'en you up some, firs'. We see."
****
"Dinghy still there," Timothy said, as he and Liz approached Vengeance.
Liz studied the RIB as it bobbed in the chop behind Vengeance. "It's still chained to the big boat," she said.
"Mebbe Dani take a nap," Timothy said.
"I don't know. The phone would have awakened her, I think."
"Less'n she have it set to vibrate," Timothy said, as he shut down the outboard and stood up to fend off from Vengeance's side.
Liz scrambled aboard. "Dani?" she yelled, as she stepped back to the cockpit.
Alarmed to find the companionway doors locked, she fumbled for the key that they kept hidden in the small locker on the port side of the cockpit. She unlocked the doors and swung them back, reaching in to undo the barrel bolts that held the sliding hatch cover closed. She leaned against it with both hands, using her weight to push the heavy teak hatch open. "Dani?"
"I wait," Timothy said, "case you be needin' some help, mebbe."
Liz nodded. "Thanks, Timothy."
Liz went down the companionway ladder, noticing that the interior was in disarray. Her eye fell on Dani's iPhone on the chart table, next to the canvas briefcase that she carried instead of a purse. She touched the phone's screen and saw the notifications for the two missed calls she had placed earlier.
She checked the cabins, noticing again that someone had rummaged through the boat, but that nothing seemed to be missing. Things were just slightly out of place, as though Dani might have tried her unpracticed hand at housekeeping. Liz would have been amused by that except that she was too worried.
Dani's bed was unmade, but the others were undisturbed. That did bring a brief smile to her face; she knew that Dani would have made some attempt to make the bed before going ashore. She wouldn't have wanted Liz to catch her being sloppy.
Dani always felt a little guilty that she was a slob at heart, but Liz found her lack of domestic skills charming. It was one of the things she teased Dani about. Still, something was wrong. She contemplated what to do, her thoughts interrupted by Timothy's call.
"Liz?"
"Sorry, Timothy."
"You want me to take you back ashore? We go look for she?"
"No, thanks, Timothy. I've imposed on you enough. I know you need to get home to your family. I'll be okay; I've got the dinghy, and I'm home now. I'll call around and see if anybody's heard from her."
"Mebbe she go off wit' some frien's an' lose track of de time."
"Maybe," Liz said, stepping onto the companionway ladder and poking her head out. "Thanks again for your help, Timothy. Have a good evening."
"You, too." Timothy released his hold on Vengeance and bent over to start his outboard as his ragged little boat began to drift away into the gathering dusk.
****
One of the matrons held Dani with her right arm locked behind her back, the tip of a nightstick in the crook of her elbow and her wrist up between her shoulder blades. Dani stood on her tiptoes to keep her arm from breaking. The other matron stood beside her at attention in front of the warden's desk.
"Berger, this is not some waterfront tavern. We don't tolerate that kind of behavior. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
"Yes, ma'am. I've been here for hours, and I haven't been allowed to call my lawyer."
"This is not the United States, young woman. You have whatever rights I decide to give you, and that's it. What's the meaning of your behavior in the cafeteria just now?"
"Why don't you ask the woman who tried to take my food? I was just defending myself."
"That's the kind of statement I'd expect from a killer. That why you knifed Herbert Watson? Defending yourself?"
"I don't know what you're talking about. I want to call the U.S. Embassy in Barbados. I have nothing further to say to you until I see my lawyer."
"Oh, my. You have a lot to learn, Berger, and this is just the place to teach you. Start behaving like a lady and answer the Detective Constable's questions right now. He's waiting in an interview room. Are you going to cooperate?"
"I want to see my lawyer."
The warden turned to the two burly matrons who still held Dani's arm twisted behind her back.
"Give her the full treatment. And then put her in the hole. We'll see just how stubborn you are when you can't stand up by yourself, Berger."
****
Keep reading Bluewater Jailbird here!
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A Note to the Reader
Thank you for reading Bluewater Ganja, the ninth book in the Bluewater Thriller series. I hope that 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 click here to subscribe to my email list. 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.
In September of 2016, I released Sails Job – A Connie Barrera Thriller, the sixth in the series. Now I've turned my attention back to Dani and Liz for the twelfth Bluewater Thrillers adventure. You'll find progress repo
rts 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 author’s page on Amazon and click the "Stay Up to Date" 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 C.L.R. Dougherty
Charles Dougherty wrote quite a bit of fiction before publishing Deception in Savannah, his first novel. Most of his earlier fiction works took the form of business plans, written to secure funding for projects and startup ventures during his corporate and consulting work, but he put all that behind him when he wrote Deception in Savannah, a tongue-in-cheek crime novel.
Since Deception in Savannah was published, he has written a number of other books. The 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.
He resides with his wife aboard Play Actor, sailing wherever their fancy and the trade winds take them.
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Fiction:
Bluewater Killer
Bluewater Vengeance
Bluewater Voodoo
Bluewater Ice
Bluewater Betrayal
Bluewater Stalker
Bluewater Bullion
Bluewater Rendezvous
Bluewater Ganja
Bluewater Jailbird
Bluewater Drone
Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set; Books 1-3
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
From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera: a boxed set
Deception in Savannah
The Redemption of Becky Jones
Short Story:
The Lost Tourist Franchise
Non-fiction:
Dungda de Islan'
Life’s a Ditch
For more information, please visit:
http://www.clrdougherty.com/
or
http://amazon.com/author/clrdougherty
I offer a heartfelt thank you to my wife, Leslie Dougherty, and her parents, Alan and Carol Rea, for the assistance and advice that they contributed to this work. It is a far better book than it would have been without their participation. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to real people or events is coincidental. All places mentioned are either fictional or are used in a fictional way.
Table of Contents
BLUEWATER GANJA
WINDWARD AND LEEWARD ISLANDS
ST. VINCENT AND BEQUIA
ST. VINCENT TO CARRIACOU
MAYREAU AND THE TOBAGO CAYS
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
CHAPTER 26
CHAPTER 27
CHAPTER 28
CHAPTER 29
CHAPTER 30
CHAPTER 31
CHAPTER 32
EPILOGUE
READ AN EXCERPT FROM BLUEWATER JAILBIRD, THE NEXT BLUEWATER THRILLER
CHAPTER 1
A NOTE TO THE READER
ABOUT C.L.R. DOUGHERTY
OTHER BOOKS BY C.L.R. DOUGHERTY
Table of Contents
Title Page
Windward and Leeward Islands
St. Vincent and Bequia
St. Vincent to Carriacou
Mayreau and the Tobago Cays
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
Excerpt from Bluewater Jailbird, the next Bluewater Thriller
Chapter 1
A Note to the Reader
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Bluewater Ganja: The Ninth Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 9) Page 21