Metro Girl

by Janet Evanovich

  “That would be me,” Bill said.

  Maria smiled at Bill. “An unlikely hero.”

  Bill slid a protective arm around Maria, and she leaned into him. It was a simple gesture, but it was surprisingly tender.

  “I’m in love,” Bill announced to Hooker and me.

  I smiled at Bill and Maria, and I mentally wished them well, but I’d heard this a lot. Bill fell in love easily. And often. Bill was four years old the first time he made this announcement. Carol Lazar had allowed him to take a peek at her panties and Bill was in love. And Bill has been peeking at girls’ panties and falling in love ever since. I think it would be nice if Bill could find the right woman and commit, but in the meantime, at least his sex life wasn’t without love.

  Hooker smiled at Bill, too. Hard to tell if Hooker’s smile was cynical or wistful.

  “To love,” Hooker said. And he took a pull on his beer.

  “What was the scream about at the end of your phone call to me?” I asked Bill.

  “We were casting off and the night watchman showed up with a gun. I guess he thought we were stealing the boat.”

  “Imagine that,” Hooker said.

  “The night watchman is dead,” I said to Bill. “Knifed an hour after you took off. Both of your apartments have been searched, twice. Once by two Cuban guys. And once by two Caucasians. One of the Caucasians always wears black and has slicked-back hair. The slicked-back-hair guy threatened to kill me and Hooker if we kept looking for you. I was attacked by a mutant named Hugo, who I prefer to call Puke Face. Puke Face tried to kidnap me with hopes of trading up to you. Puke Face works for Salzar. And Puke Face’s message was that you were in possession of Salzar’s property. I imagine he was talking about Maria. Oh yeah, and they called Mom and left a message for you. Those are pretty much the high points.”

  “And then there’s your computer,” Hooker said to Maria. “With the gold and the warhead research. The gold I get. Maybe you should tell us about the warhead.”

  “It was part of the rumor. That besides the gold, there was some new weapon on board my grandfather’s ship. My mother said my father was afraid it was true. My father told her there was a canister not far from the gold. He said it looked like it might be a bomb. He didn’t want Castro gaining control of this weapon, so he wouldn’t talk. When they came to take him away, he told my mother he would never reveal the wreck. My mother told me some of the markings on the canister, and I tried to identify it on the Internet, but I couldn’t find anything.”

  “You’ve been diving,” Hooker said. “Is the canister down there?”

  Maria nodded. Solemn. “Yes.”

  “Do we know the connection between Salzar and Calflex?” I asked Bill.

  “There was a rumor a while back that Salzar was brokering a Cuban land deal for Calflex. Not sure if it’s true.”

  “A better question,” I said. “How does Salzar know about the wreck?”

  “He’s originally from Cuba, no?” Maria said. “He’s of an age where he might have heard the rumors.”

  “Seems like he’s investing a lot of energy in a rumor,” Hooker said. “I can be a pretty aggressive guy, but I don’t think I’d kidnap someone on the basis of a rumor.”

  “There could be others who would know the ship’s cargo,” Maria said. “My grandfather’s partner would know. My mother spoke of him sometimes. His name was Roberto Ruiz. And he could have told people. The men on the Russian ship might know. Someone had to put the gold and the canister on board the fishing boat. And Castro would know. Maybe some of his aides.”

  “Salzar could be working for Castro,” Bill said. “They’re supposed to be buddies.”

  “Why is Salzar going after you now?” I asked. “Why did he wait so long? You’ve been in Miami for four years.”

  “I don’t know. Maybe he just found out. Not long ago, there was an article in the newspaper about the cigar factory with my picture and my name in it. The newspaper man spoke to me because I am the youngest of all the women who roll the cigars.”

  Another plane flew overhead.

  “You’re reflecting light through the trees,” Hooker said to Bill.

  “I know. I was hoping it wasn’t too bad. If this had been planned out I would have gotten a tarp. We only need one more night, and we’ll be out of here. We’ve been diving at night, so we wouldn’t be seen. The harbor is deep in the middle. Sixty feet. And that’s where the boat went down. Maria brings the gold up using lift bags, and we ferry it back to the boat in the RIB. Tonight we’ll bring the boat out and take off when we get the last of the gold…if it’s okay with you.”

  “Sure,” Hooker said. “I wouldn’t want to see Castro’s gold go to waste.”

  The birds had stopped chattering and had settled in for the night. The water was still. No trace of a breeze. The sun was a fireball, sinking into the island palms. Hooker and I were on deck, waiting for Bill and Maria.

  “That was nice of you to let him use your boat,” I said to Hooker.

  “I didn’t see where I had much choice.”

  “You could have asked for some of the gold.”

  Hooker was slouched in a deck chair, bare legs outstretched, eyes closed, arms crossed over his moth-eaten T-shirt. “I don’t need the gold.” He opened his eyes and looked over at me. “We’ve got a few minutes, in case you want to jump my bones.”

  “I’ve got your number.”

  “Oh yeah? What’s my number?”

  “Every time you do something nice you have to follow it up with some asshole remark. Just to keep the balance. To keep things at a safe distance.”

  “Think you’re pretty smart, hunh? Maybe I meant what I said. Maybe I’d really like you to jump my bones. Maybe bones jumping is what Texas NASCAR drivers do best.”

  “There’s no doubt in my mind that Texas NASCAR drivers are excellent bones jumpers. It was the unromantic announcement that guaranteed failure.”

  “Damn, I thought that was a good line. I thought I was being real classy. I didn’t even say anything about what a great rack you have.”

  “You’re doing it again!”

  Hooker smiled and closed his eyes. “Just funnin’ with you. We haven’t got enough time. When I finally let you jump my bones it’s going to go on for hours. And sugar pie, you won’t even see it coming.”

  And the horrible part was…I believed him.

  EIGHT

  I heard the boat engine turn over upstream. Bill was moving out before he was in total darkness.

  “He’s good at this, isn’t he?” I asked Hooker.

  Hooker sat up. “At working the boat? Or at looting gold?”

  “Working the boat.”

  “He’s very good at working the boat. He’s one of the few people I’d trust to captain her. The Happy Hooker is a big boat with a deep draft. I’d need a whole crew to get me out of that estuary if I was at the helm. Even then I’d probably run into a bank.”

  “But you think Bill and Maria can do it?”

  “Yep. He couldn’t do it alone, but it sounds like Maria’s been around boats all her life. She’s probably a good mate. Bill would have asked if he needed my help. He doesn’t take chances with boats.”

  The engine noise drew closer, and the boat appeared and stopped before moving into the more open water of the cove. Bill went to the prow, attached the remote to the windlass, and dropped anchor.

  A half hour later, in total darkness, I heard the hoist swing out and set the RIB on the water. The sky was black and moonless. We knew the course of the RIB more by sound than by sight. A low-level hum. It was moving toward the middle of the small harbor. Then the outboard cut off. Snatches of muted conversation carried over to us. There was a soft splash and all was quiet.

  “She’s diving to sixty feet,” Hooker said. “It’ll take her two minutes to get down and a minute to get up. And she’s probably got a little over an hour work time. She’s using lift bags to bring the gold up, so you’ll know she’s coming up when
you see the white bags.”

  Forty minutes later, the lift bags bubbled to the surface like giant marshmallows, and a light appeared at the side of the RIB.

  Hooker had taken a walkie-talkie from the Happy Hooker, and the talkie came to life.

  “She has to go down again,” Bill said. “If you bring Vana’s boat around to the far side of the lift bags we can load onto your dive platform. I’ll talk you through it. Keep your running lights off.”

  Hooker cranked the boat over and we raised anchor.

  Bill was back on the talkie. “Follow my light beam,” he said. “I’m going to bring you around to the far side of the RIB.”

  When we were in position I resumed breathing.

  Hooker looked over at me and grinned. “You look like you’re about ready to pass out.”

  “I was worried we were going to run them over. Our boat is so big, and the RIB is so small.”

  “Barney girl, you need to learn to trust people. Your brother’s a good guy. He’s kind of a horn dog, but he knows what he’s doing when he’s on a boat. It’s like when I’m racing, and I’ve got spotters telling me I can make it through a wall of smoke and fire. You figure out who you can trust and then you go with it.”

  “So you weren’t scared just now?”

  “Almost messed my pants twice. Don’t tell your brother.”

  Maria was sitting on the side of the RIB. She adjusted her mask and mouthpiece. She touched hands with Bill. And she went over, into the black water, and disappeared. I followed Hooker to the dive platform, and we started working with Bill, hauling the gold out of the water, onto the platform, being careful not to damage the bricks.

  “This is a lot easier than trying to get the gold into the RIB,” Bill said. “I didn’t want to bring the Happy Hooker out until I was ready to make a run for it. I know the Flex chopper is doing airtime looking for us.”

  “You’ve never cared that much for money,” I said to Bill. “I’m surprised you’re risking your life for this.”

  “I’m risking my life for Maria,” Bill said. “This is her gold, not mine. She thinks her father might still be alive in prison. She’s hoping she can buy him out with the gold.”

  “Oh shit,” Hooker said. “We’re doing this for a good cause. How crappy is that?”

  The lift bags bobbed to the surface for the second time. Maria followed them up, and we tugged the bags over to the dive platform. Bill helped Maria come on board and get out of her equipment.

  “This is it,” she said. “This is everything that was down there. At least everything I could find.” She slipped back into the water to guide the last bag while Hooker and Bill hauled it onto the boat.

  We opened the bag, and we all stood back, looking at the contents. A single metal canister, approximately a foot and a half wide by three feet long. Very heavy. Maybe eighty pounds. Russian writing barely visible running along one side. The end cap had been painted red. And there were two thin green-and-black bands painted onto the rear of the canister.

  Hooker toed the canister. “Anyone read Russian?”

  Nope. No one read Russian.

  “It does sort of look like a bomb,” Bill said.

  “Probably we shouldn’t open it,” I said.

  Hooker squatted beside it for a better look. “Probably we can’t open it. At least not without an acetylene torch and a crowbar. This baby is sealed.”

  If this came off a Russian ship that was stopped by the blockade, I didn’t even want to speculate on its purpose. “I keep going back to what Puke Face said about fear,” I told Hooker. “He said this was about fear and what it can do for you.”

  “And maybe this is something to fear? Not a good thought. I don’t want to go there.”

  “I brought it up because I was worried it was no longer safe to leave it in the cove. It should be turned over to the authorities,” Maria said. “My father suffered to keep this out of Castro’s hands. I don’t want that suffering to have been in vain.”

  We heard the beat of a helicopter coming at us from the north. We scrambled to get the lift bags out of sight and ducked into the cabin. The copter did a flyby, sweeping the water with its light. The beam missed the boat, and the helicopter continued south.

  The instant we could no longer hear the chopper, Bill and Maria were off the dive platform, into the inflatable.

  “I’ll bring Happy Hooker around, and we can use the hoist to load,” Bill said.

  A half hour later the boats were in position to transfer cargo, and Bill was on the talkie to Hooker.

  “I’ve got a problem here. I can’t get the boat out of idle.”

  “What do you mean, you can’t get it out of idle?”

  “If I try to increase speed it cuts out.”

  “So?”

  “So that’s not good.”

  “Can you fix it?”

  “Not my thing, pardner. Send Barney over.”

  “Barney? Did I copy you…Barney?” Hooker asked.

  “She’s good with engines.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  I was standing behind Hooker, listening to the conversation broadcast over the walkie-talkie, and I had a real strong urge to kick him in the knee again.

  “Do you know anything about marine engines?” I asked Hooker.

  “Not a damn thing,” Hooker said. “I don’t even know anything about car engines.”

  “How could you make a living driving cars and not know anything about engines?”

  “I drive them. I don’t repair them.”

  Truth is, I was itching to see his engines. I scrambled across to the Hatteras and followed Bill into the mechanical room.

  “He’s got twin CATs,” Bill said. “Twice as big as the Sunseeker’s Mannings. I took a quick look but nothing jumped out at me. I guess that doesn’t mean much. I was never that interested in garage stuff.”

  “Holy Toledo,” I said, eyeballing the CATs. “This is way over my head. I can take a car apart and put it back together again, but I don’t know anything about any of this.”

  “Take a deep breath,” Bill said. “They’re just engines… only bigger.”

  Maria was at the helm on the walkie-talkie. “The helicopter’s coming back,” she said. “Kill the lights.”

  Hooker, Bill, and I stood in the darkness, waiting for Maria’s all clear. My mind was racing and my heart was skipping around. I was in a broken boat that was filled with Castro’s gold and something that looked like a bomb. And the bad guys were looking for us.

  “All clear,” Maria said.

  Hooker flipped the lights back on. “How bad is this loss-of-power problem?”

  “I don’t know how bad it is,” Bill said.

  “Executive decision,” Hooker said. “Let’s use the hoist to transfer the gold over to the Sunseeker while Barney pokes around down here. It’s probably better to have it in Rich’s boat anyway. No one’s looking for his boat. You guys can take off as soon as you’re loaded up, and we’ll follow when we can.”

  I found the service record and some manuals and I began walking my way through basic troubleshooting. At the very least I thought we could limp out of the harbor and get far enough out of Cuban waters to radio for help and not get arrested.

  I was checking hoses and seals when I heard the Sunseeker’s engines turn over. I looked at my watch. I’d been working for two hours. I stepped out of the mechanical room and went on deck. Bill was pulling away, moving toward open ocean. Maria was flat on the prow with a hand-held halogen, periodically searching the water in front of them.

  Major lump in the throat time.

  “He’ll be okay,” Hooker said.

  I nodded, sucking back tears, not wanting to go hormonal in front of Hooker.

  “I think I found the problem,” I told him. “You had water in the fuel, probably from condensation over a period of time. And it affects both engines. I was able to drain the water that collected in the fuel filters, and we should be good, unless they fill with wate
r again. I don’t know why they didn’t catch this when the boat was last serviced. I have a few more things to check and then I’ll be done.”

  “Take your time. Bill’s a lot more skilled than I am when it comes to running this boat. I’d rather wait and get under way at dawn when I can see where I’m going.”

  “Do you think it’s dangerous to wait?”

  “Yes. Unfortunately, chances of us getting stranded on a sandbar are good if I try to go out in the dark. I got this boat with the idea in mind that I’d always have a captain. I’ve learned how to do the minimal, but I’m not a pro.”

  I went below deck to finish and Hooker followed me down with two glasses and a bottle of wine.

  “Do you mind if I watch?” he asked.

  “Nope.”

  “Do you mind if I talk?”

  “Nope. I’m a multi-tasker.”

  “I thought you worked for an insurance company.”

  “Your use of the past tense is probably appropriate.”

  “So what’s with the mechanic thing?”

  “My dad owns a garage. I helped out.”

  “You must have more than helped out. Bill thinks you’re a mechanical genius.”

  “Bill’s my brother. He has to think things like that.”

  He handed me a glass of wine. “Not true. I have two sisters and I think they’re both airheads. What did you study in college?”

  “None of your business.”

  “Art? American history? Mechanical engineering?”

  I sipped some wine. “Engineering, but I never did anything with it. By the time I graduated I was disenchanted with job prospects.”

  I finished my wine and my checklist at precisely the same time. “I think we’re good to go,” I told Hooker. “Start her up and check out the gauge.”

  Hooker came back two minutes later. “We have a problem,” he said.

  “The gauge?”

  “The gauge isn’t in the same league as this problem. There’s a boat sitting at the mouth of the harbor. Not the Sunseeker. It’s got its lights off, but I can see the white hull reflecting in the water.”

  “Could it be Flex?”