Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series) (13 page)

“Yeah, I do,” I replied. “Just don’t know why.”

She was sitting on the edge of the bed, watching me. “You’re going to set yourself up as bait, aren’t you?”

“Dammit, Alex, stop doing that,” I laughed.

Playing innocent, she said, “Stop doing what?”

“Reading my damn mind. How do you do that?”

“Men are easy to read, that’s all. Not much different than fish really.”

“You’re doing it again,” I said, as I walked over and lifted her to her feet. “You really scare me sometimes, lady. Let’s get a shower. Pescador, watch the car.” The dog actually walked over to the window and nosed the curtain open, so he could look outside.

“Unbelievable,” Alex said.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

We got up early and started back. A thought had come to me when I got up before sunrise and started the coffee maker in the room. It seemed that Lester and Baldy were very intent on finding me and had mentioned going to Miami in order to do so. Since I’d pointed them toward the Rickenbacker docks, they’d probably be holed up near there, waiting for my return. Would they stay until I did return, was the question.

The docks on the Rickenbacker were only a couple of miles out of the way if we took Interstate 95, instead of the Sawgrass, but since they’d seen me, I’d have to be careful looking around for them. Odds are they wouldn’t be sitting in a car, too hard to see the end of the docks. My guess, they’d be on a boat at one of the docks, so they could spot the
Revenge
coming in.

Alex was driving and we were nearing Pompano Beach, where we’d get on the Sawgrass. “You know,” she said, “those guys might be waiting at the docks. If we stay on 95 we could swing by there and have a look.”

I rolled my eyes and looked over at her. She just smiled and said, “I told you, Captain Grouper, you’re easy to read.”

“Okay, so let’s take a little stroll on the docks,” I said.

“If they see you, they’ll know something’s up.”

“Then I’ll just have to make sure they don’t see me,” I said.

“Or, I could take a stroll by myself. What do they look like?”

“No way,” I said. “These guys could be dangerous.”

“Only if they suspect something,” she said. “Otherwise, I’ll just be a girl checking out the pretty boats.”

“It might work,” I said. “But if you see them, you gotta promise you’ll di di mau out of there.”

“Di di mau?” she asked.

“It’s Vietnamese,” I said. “Means move quickly. Marines picked up a lot of the lingo there and use it in every day speak.”

“I promise I won’t get anywhere near them,” she said.

“Okay, but I want you to call me as soon as you get out of the car and pretend to be talking to a girlfriend or something and tell me what you’re seeing. They were driving a rental car. It’s a dark blue Chevy Impala. Both guys will be easy to recognize. Lester’s the muscle guy. He’s young, mid-twenties probably. Looks Italian, dark curly hair, under six feet tall, probably 220 to 230 pounds. He looks like a weightlifter, big arms and chest, but skinny at the waist. The other guy is really strange looking. Very pale skin, light blue eyes, short and wiry. He’s completely bald. I mean no hair anywhere that I could see, not even eyebrows. It seemed to me that he was the boss, not Lester.”

We arrived at the docks a few minutes later. Alex parked the car in a spot near the boat ramp and got out. “Be careful, babe,” I said.

“Don’t worry, I’m just a girl looking at pretty boats.” Then she turned and walked away. A few seconds later, my cell rang. It was Alex doing as she was told. She chatted away, like she was talking to a friend, describing the boats as she walked toward the docks. After a couple of minutes, I could hear the sound of her footsteps change as she walked out onto the dock. She whispered, “I’m going to check the north dock first. It’d be the best place to watch from.”

“Alex, please be careful,” I said.

She continued chatting away, as she walked along the dock. Then her voice changed, but she continued chatting. From the sound of the wind over the phone, I could tell that she’d turned around. After a minute she said, “I saw him. The muscle guy. He’s on a boat called
One-Eyed Jack
, near the end of the southern dock, but on the north side of it. Just the one guy, though.”

“Okay, get back here,” I said.

“Di di mau?”

I laughed out loud, “Yeah, most riki tik, lady. Did he see you?”

“Yeah, he made a rude suggestion that I’m too much of a lady to repeat. Slime ball.”

Within minutes, she was back in the car. “I didn’t see the car, though,” she said. “It’s nowhere in the parking lot.”

“Maybe Baldy is on a beer run,” I said.

Just then, the car pulled into the parking lot and passed by us. But it wa
sn’t Baldy driving. Some Hispanic looking guy. He parked a few spots down, got out and headed toward the docks. He was carrying two bags from McDonalds and a drink tray with four drinks on it.

“Well, that changes things a little,” Alex said. “Four drinks means four guys. What now?”

“Now, it’s time to get my channel widened,” I said.

We pulled out of the parking lot and headed south on US-1, toward the Keys. I was trying to formulate a plan that would get Lester to come to me, without the other three guys and at the same time keep Alex out of harms way. I needed to get back up here in the
Revenge
to lure them back down to Marathon. That was the only way. The city was their turf. The Keys and the water were mine. But, I’d need an accomplice. Someone to stand in as my client, that I could put off at the docks on the Rickenbacker, then pull out immediately and head back south. Alex was out of the question. I thought I might ask Deuce to do it. Maybe I could have Alex pick him up, though. She could be parked near the launch ramp. Deuce could step off, get in the car and drive away before Lester and his buddies even got near them. They were docked at the far end of a five hundred foot long dock. They’d have to go to the other end of that, cross over the connecting dock to shore and around the parking lot to the launch ramp. Deuce and Alex would be long gone and I’d be halfway back to open water. Odds are, they would forget Deuce and go back to the boat to follow me, which is exactly what I wanted them to do.

“You’ve been quiet,” Alex said when we were driving through Key Largo. “You’re planning something, aren’t you.” I hadn’t even kept track of where we were going.

“Yeah, I’m gonna have to ask you to help me out again,” I said. “You and Deuce. He’s coming back down Saturday.”

We drove on through the upper and middle Keys, as I explained my plan, arriving back at the Rusty Anchor at 1600. We parked and I noticed that Rusty had moved the
Revenge
from the middle of the turning basin and tied her off to the east dock. Rusty came out of the bar. “Julie told me what happened up there in Fort Pierce,” he said, walking toward us.

“How’d she know?” Alex asked.

“Deuce told her,” Rusty replied. “They’ve been talking on the phone all week. When you wanna go up to the house with the barge?”

“I have to take the
Revenge
up to Miami Saturday morning. So let’s get it moved up there tomorrow and I can work on the channel over the weekend. They get the power back on here?”

“Yeah, just a few minutes ago, in fact. Why you gotta go to Miami? He asked.

“Deuce told me that a few weeks ago Russ had mentioned that he had a new dive partner, a muscle guy named Lester. Turns out the prospective charter Jimmy was talking about the day after the storm was a muscle guy named Lester, too.”

“Too much of a co inky dink, man,” Rusty said. “So, you’re thinking this Lester guy had something to do with the break in at Russell’s and somehow got your name and is looking for you?”

“Not only that,” I replied, “I think he killed Russ. Ran into him and another guy at Dockside yesterday morning, but they didn’t know who I was. I sent them on a wild goose chase to the Rickenbacker, saying I was picking up a charter there. Alex and I stopped by there on the way back and they were on a boat, apparently waiting for my return.”

“But,” Alex said, “There were four of them on the boat, not two.”

“Four guys looking for you?” Rusty asked, concerned.

“Looks that way,” I replied. “And I don’t have any idea why. Russ kept a journal of all his dives, looking for treasure. I know, because I’d seen it and am pretty sure my name’s in it. Couldn’t find it anywhere in the apartment. My guess is Lester killed Russ when they were on a dive, and then broke into his apartment, found the journal and some treasure pieces Russ was hanging onto. Lester must have seen my name in the journal and is looking for me, for whatever reason. What doesn’t add up is the other guy with Lester at Dockside seemed like he was the leader, not Lester.”

“So, what ya gonna do?” he asked.

“That’s why I’m taking the
Revenge
up to Miami. Since they don’t know me, they must know my boat. Don’t know how unless they somehow checked boat registrations. Then I can get them back down here. I want to cut this Lester guy from the herd and have a little talk with him.”

“Well,” he said, “it goes without saying, brother, if there’s anything I can do to help, you just say the word.”

“Thanks, Rusty,” I said. “Right now, I think I got everything worked out in my head. You still having that party Sunday?”

“Yeah, just the locals. Told everyone to bring some seafood and Rufus will put on a big spread.”

“Looking forward to it,” I said. “Did Julie say when Deuce’s gonna get here?”

“Flying in Saturday morning, arriving at 0400,” he replied.

“He must be flying out of Virginia about midnight then,” Alex said.

“No, he’s coming on a company plane, is what Julie said.”

“Company jet? Sounds like true love to me,” Alex said. “Come on, Jesse. Let’s get aboard and I’ll cook dinner for you. See you, Rusty.”

She turned and started toward the
Revenge
. “You be careful, Jesse,” Rusty said under his breath.

“I’m not too worried about four goons, at least not down here,” I said.

“Wasn’t talking about the bad guys,” he said as he looked toward the
Revenge
, then smiled and walked away.

Thursday, October 27, 2005

Lester was kicked back at the helm of Sonny’s boat, after Tomas had left to get lunch. Boring didn’t begin to describe it. Bunch of old farts, sitting around on fancy boats, or hired help sanding and polishing the old farts boats. Maybe he shouldn’t have told Sonny about the gold and treasure he’d found. Maybe he could get to this Jesse dude on his own and ditch the old loanshark and his posse.

He heard footsteps on the dock, coming toward the boat and a woman’s voice. He swiveled around in the Captain’s chair to see. Hot damn, he thought, that’s more better. There was a tall, good-looking blonde coming along the dock, talking on her cell phone. She had long shapely legs, wearing tight jeans and a tank top. Her shoulders were kind of mannish, but with tits like that, she probably needed them to hold them up, he thought. The tank top she wore was straining to hold them in, but flattened out to a narrow, flat belly.

“Oh, you should see this one. It’s really big and looks super fast,” she said into the phone describing the boat next to Sonny’s, one of those offshore racing types.

“Hey baby,” Lester said. “I got something big I think you’d really like to see. But it’s so big, I gotta drive it slow.”

She looked up at Lester and stopped. Slowly, she turned around and as she walked back up the dock, she lifted her middle finger back over her shoulder.

“Fuckin’ bitch,” Lester mumbled, as Walt poked his head up out of the cabin.

“Who you talkin’ to, Lester?” he asked.

“Just some stuck-up bitch, headed down the dock there,” he tilted his chin in the direction the blonde babe had left. Both men eyed her hungrily, as she walked along the dock, her tight jeans barely hiding anything.

“I could really do some damage to that,” Walt said. “Hey, when’s Tomas s’posed to be back? I’m hungry.”

“Should be any minute,” Lester said, glancing at his watch. “Been gone about twenty minutes already. Hey Walt, how long you think Sonny’s gonna have us sit out here on this boat?”

“Ya got me, man. I ain’t even got any idea why he wants to get this guy.”

“Yeah, me neither,” Lester lied.

Walt went back down the hatch, into the boats salon. They’d been playing poker at the table down below, switching lookouts every six hours. Lester was anxious to get off the deck and back down there, not just to win his money back from Walt, but because Tomas had found the controls for the generator and had the a/c cranking. But if the blonde came back, he’d just as soon stay up here. He could still see her. Crossing the parking lot by the boat ramp and getting into a yellow Jeep Cherokee, towing a boat. Then he saw Tomas pull into the parking lot, get out and start heading toward the docks. About time, Lester thought. He was getting hungry, too.

Friday, Octo
ber 28, 2005

Alex was up before me. I’m a very light sleeper, so was surprised when I opened my eyes at 0430 and she wasn’t there. But, then again, she pretty much wore me out last night. I could smell coffee wafting through the open hatch to the salon and could hear bacon grease sputtering in a pan. As I was looking around for my skivvies that Alex had tossed on the floor last night, I could also smell bacon, mixing with the coffee aroma. Man, I thought, a guy could get used to this. Wonder if I just laid back down, she’d serve me breakfast in bed.

“Rise and shine, Captain Sleepy,” she said. “Or I’ll give this to the dog.” So much for breakfast in bed.

Together, we ate a big breakfast in the salon. “Funny that cop thinking we were married,” she said.

“Natural assumption,” I said. “He’ll have to hone his observation skills, if he wants to make Detective, though. No rings.”

“Have you ever thought about getting married again? They say the third time’s the charm.”

“Why Mademoiselle DuBois, are you proposing?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. What would your answer be, if I did?” That right there floored me. We’d spent a year as friends and workout partners, nothing more. Then she comes back after being gone a year and it turned out we both wanted more. But, how much more? Marriage? While the thought of a long relationship with Alex was appealing to me, what could I offer her?

“Cat got your tongue?” She asked. “Relax, Jesse. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

“It’s not that,” I said. “I’ve only recently realized that I am, in fact, in love with you. Just can’t fathom what you’d want with a run-down boat bum like me.”

She smiled at that and her eyes sparkled. “I’ve recently realized the same thing,” she said and leaned over the settee and kissed me. “And you’re a long way from being ‘run-down’. That was you last night, wasn’t it?”

Out the porthole, I could see lights on in the house just past the bar. While we were eating, I saw the lights in the bar come on, too. The dog was in the cockpit. I saw him jump up onto the dock. I watched as the door opened and the dog trotted inside the bar. Julie had bought a large bag of dog food for him.

“Rusty and I are taking the barge up to the house in about half an hour,” I said, changing the subject. “He wants to catch the incoming tide, to help move it across the flats. What’s your plans?”

“I have a noon appointment at Skeeter’s, over on Big Pine,” she replied, smiling excitedly. “To look at a Maverick that he’s had there for over three years, that somebody had abandoned. When I called him the day of the storm, he said it was in rough shape. But he had a clear title and would fix it up really nice and hang a brand new motor on it, just for me.”

“I bet a lot of fisherman will be glad to hear you’ll be back in business,” I said. “And probably quite a few guides will be equally frustrated. We should have the barge up there before noon. If you buy it, come on up and let me have a look. We’re towing the barge up there with both mine and Rusty’s skiffs.” I saw Rusty crossing the back yard, heading to the dock where his skiff was tied up. He had a bag over his shoulder and a cooler in his hand. “Guess it’s time to get going,” I said, grabbing my go bag. “Good luck with the skiff. Don’t let Skeeter take advantage of you.”

“Yeah, that’s likely to happen,” she said.

I kissed her goodbye, stepped up to the dock and the dog walked over to me. Together, we walked over to where Rusty had already started up his skiff and I dropped my bag on the casting deck of my own skiff. “Just how wide is that barge?” I asked. “Gotta be twenty feet, at least.”

“Twenty-four. We’ll have to tow it out front and rear. Once we’re clear of the canal, we can tie off to either side and take it the rest of the way up. Try that in the canal here and a gust of wind could shove us against a bank and crush one of the skiffs. Got some coffee here in the thermos, want a refill?”

I extended my mug and he topped it off. Then I climbed down and cranked up my own skiff. The sound of the two engines burbling in the predawn echoed off the concrete piers. Together we walked over to the barge and started to untie it. We could see Alex through the portholes of the
Revenge
, cleaning up.

“I topped off your tank already and took the liberty of adding another twenty gallon tank for reserve. I’ll tow from the front and we’ll tie you off to both corners on the stern with about twenty feet of line. That way you can move it left or right easier. Alex not going with us?” Rusty asked.

I grinned and said, “No, she’s going over to Skeeter’s. He’s put together a Maverick for her.”

“I overheard her talking to him,” he said, “while we were waiting for Julie to fetch you the other day. Didn’t think he’d have it ready this quick. Gonna be some pissed off guides around here, when they find out. What’s Deuce gonna do with that Grady?”

“He told me to sell it along with all of Russ’s gear,” I replied. “Thought I might make him an offer, myself.”

“That’d be a good idea,” he said. “Adding a smaller deep water boat along with Alex’s flats skiff to your charter stable could be pretty profitable.”

“Alex’s skiff? She’s an independent. But the Grady’s the perfect boat for fishing the reefs.”

“Listen, you old salt. That woman’s got her hook in you and she’s just about ready to set it. Trust me, I know these things. Besides, the two of you would be great for each other and as a charter business, you’d be unmatched.”

“Let’s just move this barge, okay?” Damn, had Rusty been listening in on our conversation? Had Alex talked to Julie and she in turn talked to him?

Once we had the barge free from the end of the dock, Rusty secured the two bowlines from the barge to the stern cleats on his skiff and started pulling the heavy barge away from the dock. I secured the stern lines from the barge to the two bow cleats and motioned to Rusty that I was ready. Once we had the barge lined up between us, we wouldn’t be able to see one another, so keeping the damn thing in the middle of the canal will be all on me. For the most part, I planned to just let the Maverick idle in gear and let Rusty tow us both. The extra drag of my skiff should keep it straight and if a wind did come up, I could turn and increase throttle to keep it off the banks. Fortunately, we had no wind and within fifteen minutes, we were beyond the canal entrance and moving through the channel.

Once clear of the channel, I heard Rusty’s engine drop to an idle and he shouted out, “You take the starboard side, I’ll take port!” I untied the two bow cleats and tossed the port line up onto the deck of the barge, as far forward as I could, then resecured the starboard line to the stern cleat on the left side of my skiff, with what I hoped was enough slack to put me close to the center of the barge. Then I idled around the starboard side. Rusty had tied off several large bumpers near the center of the barge and my stern line became taut just about where I wanted it. I noticed that Rusty had tossed the bowline back far enough and I reached up and grabbed it and had it secured to my bow cleat in just a few seconds. Looking across the deck of the barge, I saw that Rusty was also ready.

“Steering’s gonna be tricky,” he said. “More throttle control than wheel. Tides, with us, so that’ll give us a little more speed. Should be high tide up in the Content Keys about 1100. I figure we’ll probably get there about then. Once we clear the Seven Mile Bridge, we’ll keep her at 280 degrees and make for the southern tip of Little Pine, then turn northwest and run Big Spanish Channel, then across Cutoe Banks.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Doesn’t look like it draws much more than the skiffs. Should be easy going, until we get to Cutoe Banks. Even at high tide, it’s only a couple feet deep there.”

“That’ll be more than enough,” he said. “With the backhoe centered it only draws sixteen inches. If we’re lucky, I think we can make four or five knots. That’ll put us crossing the flats just about the time the tide goes slack. I put four deep-cycle batteries on board to power the lights and hooked them to the backhoe’s battery so they’ll charge when the engine’s running. We can anchor it right at the mouth of your channel. I sure hope Jimmy’s as good at operatin’ a backhoe as he says. That barge ain’t got a motor, so the only way to maneuver it is with the bucket.”

“Never known him to exaggerate before,” I said. “Let’s rock and roll.” With that, we dropped both engines into forward and working together, turned the barge until it was headed nearly due west. Using hand signals, we synchronized our engines to 2000 rpm and before long, we were moving along at a good four knots. We had a good hour before we got to the main ship channel, under the Seven Mile Bridge, so Rusty tied a lanyard to his wheel and crossed over the barge, carrying his big thermos. He stepped down lightly onto my casting deck, which always surprised me, as big as he is. He sat down next to me, leaning against one of the bumpers and topped off my mug again.

“Gonna be a nice day,” he said. “I brought some sandwiches Julie made us. But I also brought my rod and tackle box. Thought we might troll for snapper and cook that up, instead.”

“Good idea. Brought mine too.”

“You and Alex seem to have stepped over that line, brother. Hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Yeah, that line’s astern. We’re still taking it slow, just seeing what happens,” I said. Rusty and I have been close friends for over twenty-five years. Between us, nothing was out of bounds or not the others business. Truth is, I thought of the man as my brother and so did he. “Turns out, we’d both been thinking of crossing that line the whole time she was here before.”

“All I’m saying, bro,” he said, “Is you don’t have exactly the best track record with the women. But I think with her it’d stick. She ain’t no yuppy type. Good solid woman there. ”

“Yeah, I mentioned that to her. Know what she said?”

“What?”

“Both my exes were weak.”

He laughed at that. “Yeah, well there’s some truth to that, for certain. Why you married the second one, I can’t even fathom. But Alex, she ain’t weak. She’s about the toughest woman I’ve ever known. But that could bring problems all its own, man.”

We rode on for several minutes, looking out over the water to the bridge. The Seven Mile Bridge is quite a feat of architecture and really beautiful in its own way. Henry Flagler had first built the railroad bridges from island to island all the way to Key West in the early 1900’s, but much of it was destroyed by the Labor Day hurricane of 1935 that killed thousands of people on the Keys. The original bridge only goes two miles now to Pigeon Key, which is kind of a museum to how life was for the workers building the bridges and rail lines a century ago. The new Seven Mile Bridge, along with many of the 42 bridges connecting Miami to Key West, were completed in the early eighties replacing the ones built in 1938. It has a high arch over Moser Channel, the main shipping channel, that’s 135 feet across and soars an impressive 65 feet above the water. We could cross under it, between any of the spans, but the current flows fastest in Moser Channel so our plan was to take advantage of that extra push. As it was now, the slight current across the flats east of the channel was slowly pushing us closer to the bridge. So, I bumped the throttle up slightly and about a minute later the barge responded, turning us slightly away from the bridge. I dropped the throttle down to 2000 rpm again.

Rusty broke the silence and asked, “She gonna move in with you, up there at the stilt house?”

I thought about it for a minute. I had actually built the place with her in mind. Not consciously, I don’t think, but in the back of my mind, as I didn’t even know if she’d come back. Finally, I answered, “We haven’t really talked about it. She’s only been back for five days. But, if she wants to, I think I could live with that.” To change the subject I asked, “What’s going on between Deuce and Julie?”

“I don’t think they’ve slept together, if that’s what ya mean. Deuce doesn’t strike me as the kinda guy that would sleep with a man’s daughter under his own roof. I do think there’s a spark there, though.” Then he laughed heartily and said, “About damn time.”

“I’m gonna ask him to ride with me to Miami tomorrow,” I said, “After we scatter Russ’s ashes on Conrad. Lester and his crew are expecting to see me show up there to drop off my charter. Alex said she’d drive up and be waiting to pick him up at the boat ramp.”

“A charter of one? You think they’ll buy that, and then follow you back down here? Maybe I should come along, you know, to sell the ruse a little better.”

“Can you cut loose like that, the day before your ‘grand reopening’?” I asked.

“Cut loose?” he laughed. “Damn, bro, Julie runs things around the Anchor now. Pretty much has since she finished high school. She’ll be glad to get me outa her hair. Tell me about the boat they’re on.”

“Alex said it’s an older thirty-two foot Carver aft cabin. Probably has twin Mercruisers for power. They might be able to squeeze twenty-five knots out of her. Staying ahead of them won’t be a problem.”

“Okay, so you drop me and Deuce off at the ramp, we ride back with Alex and you play cat and mouse and get them back down here, right?”

“Yeah, that Carver probably has enough range to make Marathon, but not much further. I was thinking I’d cruise along and let them follow, until I make Alligator Reef. Then open the Revenge to full speed and be way out of sight, when I make it back to the Anchor. If I wear a hat with a flap and sunglasses and play it right up in Miami, they won’t get a good enough look at me to recognize me as the guy that sent them up there. They’ll naturally go to Dockside for fuel and I’ll let Aaron know that just about everyone will be at your party. They’ll probably need to rent a car, ’cause they’ll be stuck walking from there. At the party, they’ll recognize me as the guy that told them the
Revenge
had gone up to Miami and ask where Jesse is.”