Fallen Pride (Jesse McDermitt Series) (26 page)

“Grayson?”

“Yeah,” I said. “He can’t possibly get enough calories up here
eating fish. A guy that big, needs beef.”

When we went back outside, Tony, Jared, and Grayson were sitting at one table, while the women were still talking excitedly at the other, apparently about the upcoming wedding. That reminded me of something.

“Deuce, come with me,” I said. We walked across the clearing to the main house and went inside. I went into the bedroom, opened the bottom drawer of my small dresser and took out a small box. I carried it into the living room, where Deuce waited.

Handing him the box, I said, “I’m sure Rusty wants you guys to have these, but he’d never ask for them back.”

He opened the little box and looked up in surprise. “These are the rings he gave you and Alex.”

“Yeah,” I said as he started to protest. “He shouldn’t have. They should be worn by you and Julie.”

He closed the box and extended his hand, “Thanks, man.”

“Don’t mention it,” I said, taking his hand. “Now, let’s get some breakfast so you and Julie can head off to pick out napkins and flowers and shit.”

Joining the group outside, which now included everyone but Trent’s kids and Pescador, we sat down to a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and pancakes. When Deuce showed Julie what I’d given them, she came over and gave me a huge hug.

After breakfast we split up. Cindy went fishing with Charlie in the Grady, while Hinkle, Mitchel, and Simpson took their snorkeling gear
and borrowed spear guns from the gear locker under the house and headed out to the southern pier, to spear fish in Harbor Channel.

“Scott, you and Tony want to go to Marathon with me and Julie?” Deuce asked.

“Will there be meat?” he asked, causing Deuce and I to laugh.

“Yeah,” Tony answered. “Wait till you try old Rufus’s cooking.” Turning to Julie he asked, “Think he’ll have some of that bacon fish?”

She laughed and said, “If he doesn’t Tony, we’ll go spear fishing and get you some.” When I first met Deuce, Tony, and Art, they were looking for me to take them to a reef to spread Deuce’s dad’s ashes. I’d recommended they try Rufus’s blackened hogfish and jokingly said it tasted just like bacon.

“Jared, how about you give Carl a hand with whatever he’s got going on this morning
?” I said. “Me and Dawson can go to Big Pine to pick up the appliances.”

“Sure thing,” he said.

“We didn’t know how many people were going to be here, when Charlie bought groceries,” Carl said handing me a piece of paper. “She made this list for whoever went into town next and here’s the keys to my pickup at Wooden Bridge Marina. It’s parked in front of Skeeter’s barge.”

Dawson and I took my skiff
and he waited at the dock, while I went to the grocery store to fill Charlie’s order. On the way, I called Doc to tell him we would be going to DC to meet with the President early on Saturday.

When I called Jackie to tell her, I managed to catch her between rounds. “About time you called,” she said.

“Sorry, we’ve been real busy on the island. Are you busy Saturday?”

“My CO already told me. What’s this about?”

“All I know is that the FBI wants to interview each of us and the President requested we come to the White House.”

“Have you made airline reservations yet?” she asked.

“Better than that,” I replied. “Stockwell is sending a Gulfstream. We’ll leave at 0700 and be at Andrews by 1000.”

“Isn’t Deuce and Julie’s wedding on Sunday?”

“Stockwell assured us that we’ll be back by sunset.”

She had to go, so we said goodbye and I went into the grocery store. Charlie’s list was long
, as feeding 12 people takes a lot. It took me an hour to find everything and when I got back to the dock at Wooden Bridge, Dawson, the Home Depot truck driver, and his helper were just finishing loading the last of the appliances. When I saw the commercial sized coffee maker was when I realized I’d forgotten to pick one up. As usual, Charlie and Carl were a step ahead of me. Charlie didn’t cut corners, just like I’d told her not too. Everything was top of the line equipment and fixtures, from the double gas oven to the bathroom sink.

What I hadn’t expected to see were fruit trees. There were two apple trees, five orange trees,
three papaya trees, three banana trees, and my own favorite, two mango trees. They were large, some already bearing fruit and each one was in its own thirty gallon bucket. I hadn’t even thought of fruit trees, but was very glad to see that either Carl or Charlie had.

It took another ten minutes
to move the boxes of groceries from the back of Trent’s pickup to the barge. I planned to take the barge all the way around to the north side of the island to make it easier to move the heavy equipment ashore. It only drew about 18 inches of water and with the heavy stuff loaded to the rear of amidships, the square bow could be nosed right up to the beach, next to the pier.

The barge only had an old 50 horse Evinrude outboard, but it started instantly. It took well over an hour to get back to the island and docked on the north side
, me piloting the barge and Dawson in the skiff. It was nearly noon when we started unloading. Charlie took charge, directing where everything was to be taken. With all of us working, we had it unloaded in an hour. Trent had everything ready in his house to hook the equipment up and he and Jared started working on that, with Simpson helping.

Dawson and I worked on the aquaculture system, planting more and more seeds and small plants in places
that Charlie had already marked. We worked straight through lunch and it was a blessing when Charlie brought us sandwiches. Hinkle and Mitchel had the hardest job. Digging the holes for the trees.

“I put stakes in the ground where the fruit trees will go,” she
’d told them. “Some by the main house, some by our house and some on the ends of the bunkhouses.”

“You think they’ll grow alright in this soil?” I asked.

“The only ones I’ll have to baby will be the apple trees, but I love fresh apples. The others are native to sandy and salty soil. We can water them daily from the crawfish tank.”

“You’re the boss,” I said and she smiled.

Dawson and I went back to work and by midafternoon had everything planted in the aquaculture system. Jared and Simpson joined us, helping to move the big trees to their spots and put them in the holes. By supper we had all 15 trees planted and supported.

While we ate burgers from the grill,
I set up a watch assignment. With six of us, we’d each be on 90 minute rotations through the night starting at 2100. Each man coming off watch, would remain outside as a quick reaction force during the next man’s watch before turning in. That would give us one man alert and ready, and another man on hand until dawn.

Just after sunset, my satphone chirped. It was Deuce. “Hey,” I said. “How’s the napkin selection going?”

“Stockwell was right about that,” he replied. “She has a list of things we need to do in the next three days. Stockwell called.”

I could tell by his
voice it wasn’t a social call. “What’s the news?”

“
Brent spent the day with ICE agents in Miami, reformatting their facial recognition software. Smith came through customs in La Guardia early this morning. Backtracking from there, they found that he flew from Saudi Arabia, to Turkmenistan, to Switzerland, to New York.”

“He gained a lot of frequent flyer points. Did we have anyone at the bank in Switzerland?”

“Yeah, CIA. But they must have missed him. He made a wire transfer from a bank in the Caymans. Just over $5 million. His disguise was just like Brent said it would be. A long scar on his cheek and something in his mouth to change his jaw line.”

“Where’d he go from New York?” I asked already knowing the answer.

“Rented a van from Enterprise at 0735. One way to Miami.”

I thought about it a moment and said, “That’s over
1200 miles of driving. What time did he leave the car rental?”

I could hear paper rustling. “He left there at 0800. Driving straight through with minimal stops, he could make it to Miami by noon tomorrow.”

“He won’t drive straight through. Not after a 7000 mile flight over 8 time zones,” I said. “He won’t make Miami until tomorrow night. How many days did he rent the van for?”

“It doesn’t say.”

“We need to find out,” I said. “And why a van?”

There was a moment of silence then Deuce said, “I need to find out how long. I’ll call you back.”

Chyrel was listening to my one sided conversation. “Did Deuce say what time he rented the van?”

“Yeah, 0735 this morning.”

“I’ll get right on it,” she said as she headed toward the bunkhouse.

“Hey,” I called after her. When she turned around I said, “Let’s have another look at that list of Stolski’s associates, too.” She gave me a thumbs up and disappeared into the bunkhouse.

“Whatcha thinkin’, mate?” Hinkle asked.

“Why would a person rent a van and not a car?”

“To move a lot of
people or stuff,” Mitchel said. “But, if he bugged out of Djibouti in a hurry, he wouldn’t be carrying a whole lot of luggage.”

“He plans to pick something
or someone up along the way,” Jared said.

“I’m not likin’ where you’re thinkin, mate,” Hinkle said.

“Me neither,” I said as Chyrel came back out of the bunkhouse, with a folder.

“He rented the van until next Monday,” she said. “Not a passenger van either. A cargo van.”

I flipped open the file, while the others looked over my shoulder. I scanned down the first page, then the second. On the third page, I found him. Joshua Lothrop. A bomb maker. Last known address was Baltimore.

Just then my phone chirped again. I answered it and said, “He has it until Monday right.”

“Chyrel,” Deuce said. “Figured she’d hack it faster than I could call and get it. Yeah, Monday.”

“And it wasn’t a passenger van, Deuce. It’s a cargo van.
Something more, on Stolski’s list of associates is a guy in Baltimore by the name of Joshua Lothrop, a former explosives expert with the CIA, now a freelance bomb maker.”

“Cargo van,” he said thinking out loud. “Bomb maker. Miami. Monday.” I let him come to it and didn’t say anything.
Then in a whisper he asked, “The wedding?”

“
Julies there with you?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay, listen. Strategically, it’d be a great choke point. He knows the date and place of the wedding. He blames you and maybe me. Plus he can take out everyone else involved. He knows the whole team, including Stockwell, will be there.”

“I need to get back up there,” he said. “We need to get proactive and find him. We only have three days.”

“Wait till morning,” I said. “Nothing we can do tonight. I’ll get with Stockwell, email him the information we have and bring him up to speed.”

We said goodbye and I turned to Chyrel. “Get the Colonel on video conference and email him the information on the van and Lothrop. I’ll be there in just a second.”

She headed to the bunkhouse and I turned to Cindy next. “Sorry to ruin your fishing adventure, but we’re going to be busy for the next few days.”

“Is it safe here?” she asked in a very worried tone.

“Safer here than anywhere else,” I said. “We’ll have two men on watch all night.”

Next I turned to Jared and said, “You’re now on the team
, temporarily. You okay with that?”

“Aye aye, Gunny!” he said a little too enthusiastically.

“Good. Come with me.”

We walked across the clearing up the rear steps to the main house and down to the docks.
“Come aboard,” I said. “There’s a few things we might need.”

We went up through the salon and down to the forward stateroom. I knelt down and punched in the code to unlock the bunk and raised it up. I pulled out three boxes and handed them one by one to Jared. Then I pulled out one of the larger fly rod cases and lowered the bunk.

“You familiar with the Sig P226?” I asked.

“Yeah, dad owns one and I’ve fired it many times.”

I took one of the cases and opened it. Inside were a pair of holstered Sigs, four magazines, and a box of ammo. “Load those mags,” I said handing them to him along with one of the Sigs. I opened the fly rod case and pulled out my M40-A3 and attached the night scope to the rail. “I know you’re familiar with this,” I said.

“
Damn straight. What the hell else do you have in there?”

“Just a few toys,” I replied with a grin.

“What’s in the other boxes?”

“
Pulsar Edge headsets.”

“
Night vision?” he asked.

“Yeah, they come in
real handy for night fishing,” I said with a grin.

As we walked back across the clearing, Jared said, “Thanks again for letting me stay here. It’s good to be able to hang out with others, well, like me.”