Caribbean Capers

by Dan Kelly

  “How did Damien know it was you and not your brother? The two of you couldn’t look more identical.”

  “You know, that’s a damn good question and I don’t know the answer. The only answer I can think of is he’s been following us for some reason, perhaps ever since we left Miami. If so, why and why did he show himself to me here?”

  “You know this wouldn’t be the first time the right hand of the U. S. government didn’t know what the left hand was doing. Perhaps I’ve done something that has aroused the suspicions of another agency of the government and you have come under the microscope by association with me. Maybe Damien felt it was worth coming out into the open to talk with you and get some idea what we were up to. Hell, if we let our imaginations run wild, we could dream up a bunch of possible scenarios. One thing’s for sure, Dave and Phil are going to be livid when they hear about this.”

  “You know, another thing that surprises me is that word of the shooting has not reached here. You’d think by now someone in this crowd would have heard something. Things like that don’t happen every day and there are lots of people who like to be bearers of shocking news.”

  A half hour later they knew the reason why. Someone who had been at the bar when the shooting took place came into Lorenzo’s and spread the word. Apparently, the police were on the scene within minutes and closed the place down, not letting anyone leave or make any phone calls. The customers weren’t even allowed to talk with each other until after they were interviewed by the police.

  Where before there had been a lot of loud conversation and laughing throughout the lounge, now there was still a lot of conversation going on, but it was quiet and no one was laughing. Pete and Abby just listened and picked up a lot of rumors and names that they would pass onto Dave. After about an hour of this, they had reached information overload and decided to leave and get what they had overheard down on paper before they forgot something that might be important.

  Pete drove and Abby wrote as she was good at speed writing, a skill she picked up in college, and Pete’s writing was worse than a doctor’s. By the time they got back to the Vuelta de Lujo, Abby had gotten everything they remembered down on paper. She said, “I don’t think we forgot anything. This is going to keep Sea Wasp’s people busy for a while. There was a lot of name dropping in Lorenzo’s tonight.”

  “We should run those names by Julio Mendoza and see if he’s heard of any of them.”

  “I agree. He could also check them out with his network to see if anything of interest pops up.”

  Chapter 10

  -Onboard the Vuelta de Lujo-

  The first thing they did when they got back to the Vuelta de Lujo was thank Manny and his men for what they did. “Manny, if your guys hadn’t intervened we might not be standing here right now.”

  “All in a day’s work ma’am.”

  “Smiling she said, “Well keep up the good work. My parents will appreciate it.”

  The second thing they did was to report in to Dave and give him a summary of the evening’s events. As Abby predicted, Dave was furious when he heard about Damien Christensen. “If Pete is right about this guy being on assignment in the Caribbean and he’s also doing a lot of poking around for the same kind of information you two are, that much inquiry could get to the attention of the people we want to keep in the dark, make things a lot more dangerous for the two of you and mess up our plans to get these bozos at each other’s throats. This guy is going to have to be dealt with quickly. We can’t go to his boss because none of the agencies in Washington know about Sea Wasp and we want to keep it that way. The more people in the know, the more likely word will get out to people we don’t want to be in the know. Well, this will be Phil’s problem. All we can hope for is that Mr. Christensen will be removed from the playing field before any harm is done.”

  Pete asked, “Anything come from our sighting of that sub?”

  “A navy sub intercepted it and forced them to surface. It was loaded with marijuana, street value in the millions of dollars. Some drug lord is really going to be pissed. So far none of the crew is talking, but word will be spread throughout the Caribbean that an anonymous group of drug kingpins had the sub and its cargo hijacked and its crew killed. The same kind of rumor will be spread about the shooting that took place tonight. Even the cartel boss who ordered the hit on Juan Fuentes will start to wonder who’s got him in their sights because his men have been killed. and their bodies removed and no one saw who did it. Things are going to heat up fast so watch yourselves.”

  Dave broke the connection and Pete said, “I wonder how Phil will handle Damien.”

  “Phil will find out what agency Damien works for and have the plug pulled on whatever operation they’ve got going in the Caribbean if your assumption is correct.”

  “Does Phil have that kind of power?”

  “The scuttlebutt is that he has direct access to the highest levels in the U. S. government. Whatever the operation might be will probably be terminated based on other higher priorities or cost factors. The head of the agency involved won’t have a clue as to the real reason behind the termination.”

  “Man, your telling me that the higher ups of Sea Wasp don’t even trust the heads of their own crime fighting agencies. That’s scary.”

  “It’s not a matter of trusting them. I don’t think anybody believes they would deliberately do anything to hurt our country, but inter-agency rivalry is so intense that they might do something inadvertently to create a real mess. Sea Wasp’s leaders don’t want to take that chance.”

  “Who’s running the show at Sea Wasp?”

  “That’s on a need to know basis. Although I would think the President’s got to be the man with the final say regarding major decisions. I have no idea who he has running the day-to-day operations. I just do as I’m told by Dave or Phil.”

  “Okay, where to next?”

  “I’m in the mood for some French food. How about we head for Guadeloupe? Besides, there’s a lot there to attract the kind of people we’d like to talk to or perhaps chat up.”

  “Chat up?

  “My Brit roommate at college used to say it all the time. It’s a phrase that implies a kind of flirting without any serious intent. It might open some doors that otherwise might remain closed.”

  “I’ll bet you’re real good at this chatting up business.”

  “You’d win that bet. I had a master teacher, my older sister, who started teaching me when I was five years old.”

  Seeing the skeptical look on his face, she went for the whole enchilada, utter shock. She added, “I also started jumping out of cakes at bachelors’ parties when I was a senior in high school.”

  The look on his face threw her into hysterics and she wiggled her way to her stateroom. It was at her older brother’s bachelor party and she did it as a joke and never did it again, but she kept that fact to herself.

  Pete’s thinking, “Damn, that woman’s full of surprises. I wonder what she was wearing when she jumped out of that cake.” The thought pushed a smile through the surprised look on his face, but if anyone saw it they’d swear it was a leer.

  Chapter 11

  -Guadeloupe-

  The trip to Guadeloupe was uneventful. No submarines were detected and there were no suspicious aircraft sighted. They decided to follow the same routine in Guadeloupe as they did in Kingston and Santo Domingo, but since they arrived around dinner time they headed for one of the hotels for something to eat and figured they’d start their snooping there.

  Guadeloupe is made up of two main islands that look like the wings of a butterfly which are joined together by a mangrove swamp. The eastern wing, Grande-Terre, has a string of beach towns that offer visitors everything from surfing schools to beach bars to fine hotels with fabulous restaurants serving up the finest French cuisine anywhere on the planet.

  The western wing, Basse-Terre, is focused more on the outdoors type of attractions, but also provides repasts to satisfy the most discriminat
ing palates. They opted for Grande-Terre and the La Cocoteraie hotel. It wasn’t an easy decision because they were also attracted to four other hotels, the Hotel Eden Palm, La Creole Beach Hotel & Spa, La Toubana Hotel & Spa and Le Meridien La Cocoteaie.

  They’ve never been to any of them, but information provided on the internet convinced them they are all places that should be on their agenda during their stay in Guadeloupe as they have the potential to be great havens for the kinds of information they’re looking for.

  Abby surprised him again when after they had been seated at the restaurant in the La Cocoteraie hotel she picked up the menu and revealed her ability to read and speak French. She also told him that in addition to French and Spanish she was also fluent in Italian. “The lady is definitely full of surprises.”

  After a splendid meal and some excellent wine, the names of which Pete didn’t remember and even if he did he wouldn’t be able to pronounce, they headed for the bar to do some reconnoitering. “I’m glad you’re fluent in French. If you had left ordering up to me, we would have feasted on baguettes, Crème brûlée, Éclairs and Café au lait, the only French food names I know.”

  This tickled her funny bone and she started to laugh, but it was cut short when she spotted the reflection of a familiar face in the mirror behind the bar. It might have been her imagination, but she thought he was watching her in the mirror as she approached the bar and then turned away when she looked his way.

  Pete asked, “What’s up?”

  “Don’t be obvious, but take a look at the big man sitting at the bar wearing a cream colored sports jacket, light green shirt and brown pants. Does he look familiar to you?”

  “I think I’ve seen him before, but I don’t remember where or when. Wait a minute. Isn’t he the guy we were talking to at the bar where the shooting took place, the one that told us about the groom to be?”

  “I think so. He’s not as imposing when he’s sitting down. If he was standing up, I’d have zeroed in on him right away. I wonder what he’s doing here and why he was watching me so furtively.”

  “Come on, Abby, every guy in here checked you out when we walked in.”

  “That may be and thank you for the compliment, but this wasn’t that kind of look.”

  “Well, you’ve been at this undercover stuff a lot longer than I have, so I’ll trust your instincts. What do you want to do?”

  “Let’s hang around and see what he does. Perhaps somebody else will show up that was in the bar when the shooting started. Let’s sit down at the other end of the bar. I’m curious as to why if he recognized me he didn’t want me to see him looking at me. I’m also curious about why he wasn’t killed with the rest of the people in the group surrounding Juan Fuentes. He was in that crowd and his size made him an easy target. Maybe he was the snitch.”

  As the evening wore on, the bar filled up and the noise level tripled in volume, making it impossible to eavesdrop on any conversation, so Abby went into her research mode and started up conversations on her own. Except for a trip to the restroom, the big guy stayed where he was sipping on his drink and talking to no one.

  Around eleven, two men, dressed casually in slacks and sports jackets, entered the bar and sat down next to the big man, one on either side of him.

  Abby said, “Our guy has company and they’re carrying. Those jackets look like they were bought off the rack and they’re not concealing the weapons very well. The way they’re gawking around, this isn’t their normal scene. It’s got to be a business meet of some kind and probably a last minute thing.”

  “Perhaps our guy called them when he went to the restroom. Seeing us here may have triggered an alarm button at the coincidence of running into us twice in so short a time in different countries.”

  “Two can play that game. I think I’ll place a call of my own, to Manny, and let him know what’s going on. I’m getting an uneasy feeling about this.”

  Less than ten minutes later Abby returned from the ladies room and said, “Manny is moving his people in closer just in case something is being planned for us.”

  Fifteen minutes later the two guys finished the beers they had ordered and split. Pete commented, “Short meeting. There mustn’t have been much on the agenda.”

  “Let’s wait a few minutes and then leave and see what happens. If we were the topic of conversation, they might tip their hand somehow, deliberately or accidently.”

  When they left the hotel, the valet brought their car around and they climbed in and drove off without incident. They headed for the La Creole Beach Hotel & Spa, but never made it. Driving along a deserted dark stretch of road that had no street lights and a thick canopy of trees that kept the moonlight and starlight from getting through, an SUV suddenly appeared on their rear bumper flashing its lights as though whoever was in the vehicle wanted them to pull over. Pete was driving and stomped on the accelerator as he said, “No way that‘s going to happen asshole. I may be no Dale Earnhardt, but you’re definitely going to eat my dust.” To reinforce the image that money was no problem for her, Abby had rented a Mercedes C 63 AMG coupe, a high performance set of wheels that could really move and hug the road and Pete knows how to handle it.

  In seconds, the SUV was out of sight, but Pete didn’t let up on the gas for another ten minutes. Abby looked over at him and said, “Something tells me you’ve done this before.”

  “The Coast Guard provided all kinds of opportunity.”

  Just when they were thinking they had lost their pursuers for good the gas light on the dash board came on. “How can we be low on gas? You just rented the car today.”

  “Oh shit. The guy at the car rental agency told me the car had to be gassed up, but I was anxious to get on the road, so I told him I would take care of it. He said he would make the necessary adjustment to the bill and I drove off and then forgot all about it.”

  “This is not good. If we run out of gas before we get to the hotel or a gas station, those guys are going to be in our faces.”

  “Look for a place to pull off the road and hide the car. We can wait until they pass us and then follow them into town at a more subsonic speed. You used up a lot of gas in that dash to safety, not that I’m complaining mind you. I don’t think any conversation we might have had with those two, if it’s the same two we saw in the La Cocoteraie, would have been very pleasant.”

  “I’ve never thought to ask, but do you carry a weapon?”

  Abby pulled up the leg of her slacks and showed him a small derringer in an ankle holster. “It’s only good for close up shooting and it’s a last resort type of thing to keep me alive and walking around when there are no other options.”

  They found a place where they could pull off the road and be concealed and then waited for the SUV to come by. Twenty minutes passed without a sign of the SUV and then a black van pulled up and stopped right where they were hiding. Pete whispered, “This can’t be happening. It’s got to be a dream.”

  The van doors opened and out stepped a smiling Manny and his men. “Okay you two. Couldn’t you find a nicer place to get to know each other better?”

  Pete and Abby got out of the car and came out of the brush hiding the car. Pete asked, “How did you know where we were and what took you so long to get here? Some jerks in an SUV tried to get us to pull over back a ways and we had to put the pedal to the metal to get away and then we started to run out of gas so we pulled off here and hid until they passed, but they never showed up.”

  “We know all about them. They started following you when you left La Cocoteraie and we followed them. As soon as you hit that deserted dark stretch of road, they turned off their headlights and crept up on you and we did likewise. When they made their move on you, we made our move on them. Take a look.”

  One of Manny’s men opened the back door of the van and trussed up inside lying on their backs with gags in their mouths were the two men from the bar at La Cocoteraie. They weren’t a happy couple, judging by their thrashing about and muffled gr
owls. One of them must have put up a fight because he had a swollen left eye and a split lip which was still oozing blood.