3 Mango Bay (17 page)

CHAPTER FORTY FIVE

“
Firebombed a house? What are you talking about?”

Harris smiled. “We have witnesses. They saw you sneak around the house just before it exploded. So we know you were there. We just don't know why you blew it up.”

I shook my head. “Yes, I was there. But I didn't have anything to do with the explosion. I was looking for my dog.”

“
Your dog? Why'd you think your dog was in the house?”

“
It's a long story.”

Harris smiled. “Like I said earlier, I like long stories. Tell me everything.”

So I did.

I told him how Polly, Buck and I had gone out to her houseboat. And how when we got back, we discovered someone had broken into her trailer and stolen her dog.

Harris interrupted me at that point. “Is the dog valuable?”

I shook my head. “Only to Polly. It's like her child.”

Harris nodded. “What kind of dog is it?”

“
A dachshund. His name is Oscar.”

“
So does this Polly person have a lot of money?”

“
No, not that I know of.”

“
So if she doesn't have any money and the dog has no value, why'd they take it? What did they expect to gain?”

I took a deep breath. I needed to be careful with what I told him. I didn't want to get Polly in trouble.

“The dognapper thinks Polly has something that belongs to him. And he wants it back.”

“
And what would that something be?”

“
A package she found floating in the Intracoastal.”

Harris smiled. “Let me guess. Drugs.”

I nodded. “Yes. Well, pot. She found a brick of it floating next to her houseboat. She didn't want to have anything to do with it, so she cut the package open and dumped most of it back in the water. But she saved a small piece as evidence.

“
She took that back to her trailer and didn't know there was a GPS tracker embedded in it.

“
Apparently, someone followed the signal to her trailer, searched for the pot, and when they didn't find it, they took the dog.”

Harris interrupted me again. “She had illegal drugs in her trailer?”

“No, she'd already gotten rid of the pot. Dumped it. But still had the GPS tracker.”

Harris smiled thinly. “So someone broke into her trailer, and took her dog. Then what?”

“The dognapper called. He wanted to trade the dog for the pot. I agreed, but said he needed to send me a photo showing the dog was still alive.

“
He shot a photo with his phone and sent it to me. And I used the GPS info in the photo to track his location to the house on Pandora street.”

Harris rubbed his head. “So then you went over there and blew up the house? Is that what happened?”

“No. I didn't blow up the house. I didn't have anything to do with it.

“
When we got to the house, my plan was to go up and knock on the door to see if the dog was there.

“
But just as I got to the door, the house exploded.”

Harris held up his hand. “You say the kidnapper sent you a photo of the dog?”

“Yes, it's on the cell phone.”

Harris put his hand in the air and motioned with a finger. Apparently sending a signal to someone outside the room.

A moment later, an agent came in and handed Polly's cell phone to Harris.

“
Show me the photo.”

I took the phone and found the photo. “Here it is.”

Harris took the phone back and looked at the photo I'd found. “Nice looking dog.

“
So you somehow discovered the Pandora street address from this photo?”

I nodded. “Yes. The dognapper’s phone had geo-tagging enabled. That means GPS coordinates are saved within the photo file.”

Harris looked at me. “You some kind of computer expert?”

I shrugged. “I worked computer network security for ten years before I came to Florida. So yes, I know a little about computers.”

Harris started browsing the other photos on the phone. “What about this one? Is that the brick of pot the Polly woman found?”

I nodded. “Yes, that's the photo she took before she dumped the package back in the water. We sent that photo to the kidnapper so he'd think we still had the package.”

Harris rubbed his eyes this time. “So, let me get this straight. Everything that happened tonight is about the dog. You just want him back. You're not involved in the meth lab on Pandora street. And you really don't know anything about the owner of the blue van – except you think he has the dog.”

I nodded. “That's right. It's all about the dog. Nothing else.”

Harris heaved a sigh and said, “I'll be right back.”

He left the room, leaving Polly's cell phone on the table.

CHAPTER FORTY SIX

The phone was right there in front of me. And no one had told me I couldn't use it. So I did.

Lucy answered on the third ring.

“
Hello?”

“
Lucy, this is Walker. Can't talk long. Oscar wasn't at the house on Pandora street. We followed a lead to another location but it didn't pan out. We've got another lead to check out. I'll call you as soon as we learn more.”

“
Walker, don't hang up. Are you and Buck okay?”

“
We're okay. Gotta go.”

I ended the call before she could reply. That would be the second time I'd hung up on her today. She'd be furious, but I couldn't tell her the whole story. Didn't have time and didn't want her to know we were being held by Homeland Security.

Moments after I put the phone back on the table, Harris re-entered the room.

He pointed over his shoulder. “Your friend out there is pretty famous. I've seen all his movies.”

I nodded.

Harris continued. “I'm surprised he got mixed up in this. You'd think he'd know better. But the good news is, his story matches yours.

I smiled. “So we can go?”

“
No, not yet. You guys stumbled into one of our operations. And we can't risk you going back out on the streets and messing this thing up.

“
So, here's what we can do.

“
We've had the man you know as Darrell under surveillance for two months. We know he took your dog, and we know where the dog is.

“
The dog is safe. For now.

“
But the thing is, we can't give you the dog back until we finish our operation, which is to pick up Darrell and get him to tell us about some of his associates.

“
And we can't pick him up because we've lost track of him. We don't know where he is.”

I interrupted. “Wait a minute. You just said you knew where the dog was. You said he was safe. But now you say you don't know where Darrell is?”

“That's right. We know the dog is with Darrell. We know he'll probably keep the dog safe until he gets the package from you. But at the moment, we don't know where Darrell is.”

I shook my head. “You've got all that surveillance equipment out there, and you don't know where Darrell is?”

“That's right, we lost him. We followed his van to the marina, and lost him when he took his boat out on the water. We were waiting for him to return to his van when you three stooges showed up.

“
After you broke open the door to his van, we went ahead and searched it. It was empty. Like he wasn't planning on coming back.

“
But now that we know you have something Darrell wants, there might be a way for you and I to work something out.

“
According to Buck, Darrell expects to meet you in the morning to trade the pot for the dog. That would be an ideal time for us to pick him up. Right after you give him the package.”

I shook my head. “Won't work. We don't have any pot to give him. Polly dumped it all.”

Harris smiled. “That won't be a problem. We can supply the pot. We can create a package that looks exactly like the one in the photo. It'll be what he's expecting. You give him the package, and he gives you the dog.

“
After the exchange, we'll pick him up, and you and Buck are free to go. But it could be dangerous, so we can't force you to cooperate.

“
It's up to you. Either stay here until we find Darrell and hope your dog is safe. Or you take the call in the morning and go ahead with the exchange as planned. Your choice.”

Harris sat back in his chair, waiting my decision.

“What about Eddie? What happens to him?”

“
Eddie? Which one is Eddie?”

“
He's one of the guys from the Pandora house. He helped us after the explosion. Led us to Darrell's van.”

“
Oh. That Eddie. He's relatively harmless. Nothing's going to happen to him.”

I was relieved. “That's good to know.”

Harris was still waiting for my decision.

I wanted to get Oscar back, and I definitely didn't want to hang around Homeland Security in what amounted to house arrest until they picked up Darrell.

So it was an easy decision.

“
I'll do the exchange. But only if you promise we'll get the dog back unharmed. And if you keep Polly, Buck and Eddie out of this.”

Harris smiled. “I was hoping you'd say that.”

He stood, shook my hand and said, “Follow me.”

CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN

When we walked back into the main operations room, Buck was sitting on a couch surrounded by three agents who were listening to his stories.

When the agents saw Harris, they moved away from Buck and went back to their work stations. Buck saw me and nodded. “You hungry? We got pizza.”

There were three slices of pizza in a box on the table in front of the couch, reminding me that it'd been a long time since I'd eaten.

So yes, I was hungry. Enough so that I grabbed a slice of pizza and took a bite. It was cold and limp, but still good. I finished the first slice, and grabbed another.

While I was eating, Harris walked over to one of his men and spoke with him in a hushed voice. After their short conversation, both came over to me.

“
Walker, don't take this the wrong way, but you look like a refugee from a bomb factory. You've got soot on your face, your clothes are singed, and you've got grass stains and mud on your back.

“
If you show up looking like that tomorrow, Darrell will be suspicious.

“
So Agent Jones here is going to escort you back to your place where you can shower and change clothes. Then he'll bring you back here and we'll wait for Darrell to call.”

I smiled. “A shower sounds good. Let's go.”

Buck stood to join us, but Harris stopped him. “Buck's staying here. He can call Polly and let her know everything is okay. But he stays here until after you meet with Darrell tomorrow.”

I nodded at Buck. “You okay with that?”

“Yeah. These guys seem to be all right. I don't mind hanging around.”

When we got outside, Agent Jones tossed me the keys to my Jeep. “You drive. Don't do anything stupid.”

I slid into the driver's seat, got the Jeep started, and headed back to Serenity Cove. Jones was in the passenger seat, arms crossed, eyes on the road, not saying anything.

“
So why is Homeland Security involved in this?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No idea. We just do what we're told. And you should stop asking questions. The less you know about these things, the better.”

He was probably right. It wouldn't do me any good to know why Homeland Security was involved in this. The best I could hope for was to get Oscar back and forget all about Darrell, Agent Harris and Homeland Security.

When we arrived back at my motorhome, it was just as I had left it. The lights were out, no cars in the driveway, nothing strange had happened.

It was the same with Polly's trailer. No cars in her driveway and it didn't look like she'd had any visitors since we'd left.

When I went inside, Bob met me at the door. I bent over and gave him a pet, and he replied with a loud “Meeeeoww.”

I knew from the extra emphasis he placed on the 'me' in 'meeeoww', that he wasn't happy. Either his litter box was full or his food bowl was empty.

Either way, he wanted me to take immediate action. That's the way cats are. They are never in a hurry to do anything for you, but they expect you to be in a hurry for them.

Bob was still expressing his displeasure when Agent Jones followed me inside. This unexpected visitor startled him. He wasn't sure whether he should defend me or hide.

He made the easy choice. He ran and hid under the bed.

When I reached for the switch to turn on the overhead lights, Jones stopped me.

“
No lights. Might make the neighbors suspicious.”

He sat down in the chair that Bob had just vacated. “Is this the only door? Any other way to get in or out.”

“No, this is it.”

“
Good, I'll sit here while you shower and change clothes. You've got ten minutes.”

I went back to my bedroom and picked out a clean shirt and a pair of cargo shorts – my normal Florida attire. Then I went into the bathroom and took a quick shower and changed into the clean clothes.

My old clothes smelled like fire and weren't really worth saving. I wadded them up and dropped them in one of the plastic grocery bags which I kept under the sink to use when cleaning Bob's litter box.

Before leaving the bathroom, I topped off Bob's food and poured him some fresh water. This would keep him happy for another ten to twelve hours.

Refreshed from the shower, I grabbed the bag of ruined clothing and walked back to the front of the motorhome where agent Jones was still sitting.

“
What's in the bag?”

“
My burned clothes. Can't leave them here, they'll stink up the place.”

I picked up my car keys off the counter and said, “Ready to go.”

Jones went out the door first. Stopping on the step, he scanned the area to make sure it was safe. Then he headed for the Jeep.

Behind him, I stepped out, locked the door, and looked up at the sky.

It was still dark, but in the distance, I could see the faint glow of the coming dawn. Soon, if all went as planned, I'd be delivering a package and rescuing a wiener dog.