Bonefish Blues (12 page)

She stood. “You piece of crap. I’ll bring you up on sexual harassment charges for all your little innuendoes. Come on,” she muttered, grabbing her bag. “Let’s get out of here.”

Will followed her out the door, almost at a run. “Where are you parked? What about the police? He said he was going to call the sheriff,” Will said as they reached her car. 

“I don’t know what to do,” she reached for him. 

He hugged her, “The best thing we can do is go to the sheriff and report it ourselves before he calls. The office is five minutes away.” 

Matt was walking towards them, “I haven’t heard anything. Maybe we should go to the police.” 

“That’s what we were just saying,” Will said as he kept an arm around Sheryl’s shoulder and guided her to his truck. The last thing he wanted to do was to lay this mess out in front of an officer, but what else was he going to do.

Chapter 15

Pagliano pushed Nicole into the back seat, then got in next to her. She huddled against the door, but he still felt too close. A quick glance at the door handle revealed that the door was unlocked. She thought about getting out right now, and started to make a move for the handle but he was faster and reached across her, rubbed against her breast as he locked the door. 

“Try anything stupid, and I’ll knock your sweet ass out.” He turned to Braken. “Hit the childproof lock thing. I don’t want to lose her.”

The automatic locks clicked, sealing her prison. She knew from raising Matt that the windows would not work either. A solid wall on one side and the leering Joey Pagliano on the other. She started to cry.

Braken pulled onto the road. “Where to?”

“The marina, you idiot. Find that worthless son of yours. We need his boat.”

Braken lifted his phone to his ear, waiting for Cody to answer. “He’s not answering. I’ll text him.” 

“We don’t need him. This time of day he’s probably in some bar drinking. Worthless shit. You got another key?” Pagliano was getting impatient.

“The old man that runs the place probably has one.” Braken said as he turned off US 1. 

With every passing minute Nicole knew her chances of staying alive were slipping away. She desperately sought escape, but with a locked door and Pagliano next to her she would have to wait until they got out of the car before she could do anything. She hoped Will might be around and be able to help, but after his cowardly performance the other night she doubted he would be much help. He had not met her expectations as a protector or provider. Time was getting shorter as Braken pulled into the gravel lot and parked under a shade tree. 

“I’ll stay here with this one.” Pagliano grinned at Nicole. “Go get the key and start up the boat. Send me a text when you’re ready for us.” 

Nicole watched as Braken got out, leaving her alone with Pagliano. As soon as Braken was out of sight he leaned closer and started to fondle her. With nothing to loose she lashed out with an elbow, catching him in the nose. Blood started to trickle down his face. 

“Now, now. Is that any way to treat Uncle Joey?” He slapped her and grabbed her by the chin making her focus on him, “Listen good, because the life of your son is on the line here. You are going to get out of the car and walk nicely to the boat. You are going to get on the boat and sit down. You are not going to start any shit, or your son is dead.”

She stared at him in submission. 

“Do you understand me?”

She nodded her head, but a sense of urgency flowed through her. There had to be a way out of this and it had to be right now. Once they were on the water she could bail out of the boat if he didn’t tie her down - but then what. The thought of floating around in the gulf didn’t warm her but it could be a last resort. Pagliano’s phone dinged, interrupting her thought. 

“Okay, here we go. Remember what I said.”

He got out of the car first and went around to her side. She got out on her own and started walking next to him towards the dock. Then her phone vibrated in her back pocket again. Taking a chance, hoping it was a call and not a text, she moved her hand around and slowly lifted the phone out of the pocket. With the same hand she found the round button on the bottom and swiped the screen, hoping to activate the call. The phone slid back in her pocket and she turned quickly to Pagliano. “Where are you taking me? You know I’ll cooperate now that you’ve threatened Matt.”

“Shut up bitch.” He reached over and grabbed her butt. “What the fuck?” he pulled the phone from her pocket, wound up and tossed it into the water. 

***

They stood at the counter of the sheriff’s station, a deputy in front of them, taking notes on a form. Will was answering his questions, as patiently as his distaste for authority allowed. Matt fidgeted and thought,
Why don’t they find her now and do the paperwork later
? He looked out the window and saw the street lights flicker on. It would be full on dark soon, making it that much harder to find her. And still Will and Sheryl just stood there answering questions. They needed to do something besides answer questions, his mom was in danger! 

“Just for the record, why don’t you try and call her again?” the deputy asked. 

Matt put the phone on the counter, put it on speaker, and dialed. He was about to grab it and disconnect when the ringing stopped. They listened intently, Sheryl having to put a hand over Matt’s mouth to keep him from talking. The deputy reached over and hit the mute button, just as the man told Nicole to shut up. The line remained open, but they could talk freely now.

“You see. They’ve got her,” Matt said.

The deputy reached for his phone and made two quick calls, one to the sheriff and the other to the tech assistant. He turned to Matt. “I’m going to need that phone,” he said, grabbing it off the counter. Just as Matt was about to protest losing the only link to his mother, the door behind the counter opened. 

“What’s up?” the girl asked, looking at the three figures huddled in front of the counter. “Hey Matt.”

He blushed. “Hey, Justine. I didn’t know you worked here.” 

“Got an intern gig. Pretty cool, huh.”

“This is your tech guy? She’s still in high school,” Will muttered.

The deputy looked at him. “Don’t you worry. This is right up her alley.” He turned to Justine. “Glad you’re still here. We’ve got an abduction. See if you can get us a location on the phone that just called this one.” 

Matt watched as Justine took the phone and went back through the door. Marathon High School was small enough that everyone knew everyone else - his class was only a hundred. Matt was liked but not popular. His father was a known drunk and his grandfather making the front page of the newspaper too many times for not the right reasons meant he was often ostracized. Justine’s parents had been clear that she stay away from him when he had asked her out last year. In some ways he wished that she had just told him she wasn’t that interested or something; anything than it was because of his family. Now he felt awkward whenever he was around her - like he was being judged. 

“What now?” Will asked the deputy.

“Why don’t you have a seat? The sheriff’s on her way.” He started shuffling papers, making a noise with his lips every time he wrote. 

Will and Sheryl went to the chairs against the wall and sat, but Matt was too nervous. “Hey,” he said to Will, “I’ll be outside. I need some fresh air.” 

Without waiting for an answer, he pushed the door open and stepped into the hot evening, to lean against the building and think. There was something about the phone call that had caught his attention. Adrenaline was running through him and he had to do something. 

***

The video was gone. Doug stood across from the group and tried the YouTube address again, with the same result. He was slightly embarrassed, but he knew what he had seen, and addressed the group with confidence. The Meetup group consisted of almost a hundred members throughout the Keys, although only a handful had answered his call, probably because of the short notice. He knew that once they had decided on a plan, he would get the support of the entire group - and then some. Development of the out islands in the Keys was a hot topic, and one that environmentalists got passionate about. There was no reason to develop these pristine islands. The impact on the environment from construction and then habitation, no matter how sustainable, was unacceptable to the radicals assembled in front of him.

“Dave, you saw it. Anyone else?”

Four hands went up, giving him enough authority to continue. “It was clearly Flamingo Key. You can tell from the shot showing the mainland in the background. I called the building department and big surprise, the file was missing. I’ve got a call into the building official, but it’s after five on Friday, now. We won’t hear back from them until Monday. I say we take action tomorrow while this is still hot. Millions of people saw that video. If I can just find one of them that downloaded it or has it cached on their computer it would help, but even without it, we can act.”

The call to action was greeted with murmurs of approval from the group. These were the hard core planners that would drop everything and come to a meeting on an hour’s notice. The people who got things done. 

“We should send a message for a Meetup to all our members — both the environmental community group and the kayak group. That’s at least a couple of hundred people. Tomorrow morning, we meet at the boat ramp by 54
^th
Street and paddle out to the island. We can form a ring around it and hang out for a while. If we can turn out some numbers, we’ll have video and pictures flood Facebook and Twitter. Half the country will know about this by noon. 

Doug looked at the group. The excitement was palpable as each member focused on their cell phones and started pecking away invitations and postings. He smiled and thought how easy activism had gotten in the social media age. 

In the meantime, his own thumbs flew along the keyboard of his phone, posting to every site he belonged to.

Chapter 16

Braken pulled the phone from his pocket and quickly shut off the sound. 

It was too late, though; Joey turned to him, having heard the ring. “Nice ring tone.
Wild Thing
? What the fuck?” 

"Oh, that's nothing."

"Do you even know what you’re doing with that thing?"

"Kind of. Got some apps, you know, the Facebook, Meetup … keeps me connected."

"What the hell do you have to be connected to? All's you need to do is front my deals, sit back, watch porn and drink Mai Tais." He reached for the phone. "Let me see that."

Joey grabbed the phone, waved in front of Braken’s face to taunt him them unlocked the screen and opened the notifications window. "What's this? The Keys Kayak Meetup group. Somehow I don't see your fat ass in a kayak."

"Good way to meet the ladies."

He opened the Facebook app to the page, "Shit. That freakin' kid of yours.” He pushed Nicole forward, knocking her to the dock. "That video he made has done irreparable damage. There's some activist group posting about some kind of protest out at the Key in the morning. This is bad.” He grabbed Nicole by the hair and pulled her up. "We need a place to go for the night. Somewhere where the two of you can sit tight while I put something together."

"We can use my place," Braken volunteered.

"Think you can handle wild thing here? Or do I have to take care of her now?"

"No, no. I can take care of this." Braken looked around. Pagliano had rattled him and he didn’t think he was being paranoid. He had been coerced into helping bring bodies to the tank on Flamingo Key, and even though he had never seen the bodies, he knew he was in deep - deep enough for jail time. Business was business in his mind and no matter the shade of the deal he maintained a clear conscious, but now, he was worried Pagliano’s behavior was about to hurt his family. He glanced at Nicole, and knew the damage was already done. “Maybe we ought to get out of here now before anyone sees us. Matt is too smart to sit for too long, waiting for her to be released, before he goes to the police."