Smugglers 1: Nikki (2 page)

CHAPTER 2

Nikki returned to her office where she called her lawyer. There was no answer so she left a message for him to call her back.

Captain James from the new forty-five footer was going into town. He stopped by the office and asked if he could use the phone to call a cab.

“Yes, of course,” she said as she handed him the receiver and dialed the cab company number for him.

“It will be twenty to thirty minutes for the cab to arrive.”

“How long have you been living on the boat and what line of work are you in?” Nikki asked.

James replied, “I’ve been living on the boat about five years. I’m a welder and diver, but I’ve been working for a treasure hunter on a boat with an umbilical cord instead of tanks. The boat was in less than fifty feet of water. Then the weekly checks started getting later and later. The divers were stealing from the government, the insurance companies and each other.” His cab arrived and James left.

The phone started to ring, and it rang in simple ring tones. It didn’t play music or themes from movies. This was the Keys, it just rang, nothing fancy. It was her attorney.

“Hi, how are you doing or should I ask how are we doing? Within two weeks? No shit! Two weeks! Boy does that sound good to me. Bill has let go of all his claims on the marina? No shit! That’s good news. Okay, just call the day before and I’ll be there. Thanks, bye.” Nikki hung up and went back to work.

Bill pulled in and started walking back to Cynthia’s boat. Nikki called out to Bill.

“Bill, come into my office and put your groceries down.” Bill kept walking and ignored her.

“Bill, the attorney called and I talked to Cynthia at length,” Nikki yelled.

He stopped in mid-step and turned around. Once in the office, he set down his groceries. “Okay, what do you want,” Bill said, snapping at her.

Nikki lit another cigarette, “First, the attorney called and our divorce will be final in two weeks. Second, I talked to Cynthia and she said she gave you three thousand dollars for rent on Saturday.”

The color drained from his face, and he looked like a teenage boy caught playing with himself by his mother. She didn’t need to eat half the cow to know it was beef.

“Okay, Bill. Where’s my three grand?” she asked.

“I’ll give you a thousand dollars if you keep your mouth shut” replied Bill.

“No! You’ll give me fifteen hundred and I’ll keep my mouth shut” she said.

Bill capitulated and gave her the money in crisp new one hundred dollar bills. “Bye, Bill. See you next month,” she said with a smirk.

“Don’t count on it.” He replied as he left the office.

Talking to herself yet again, she said, ‘What an asshole. What did I ever see in him? It must have been the sex, at least at first, anyhow.’

She went back to work on the pile of papers stacked on her desk. Then she headed out to see how Mark was doing. He was working down in the four-plex house boat. He came up when she yelled to him.

“You have a leak in the northwest corner. I put a coat hanger through the hole so the diver can find it to patch.” Mark said.

“That’s fine Mark. I’ll call the diver later today and see when he can fix the boat house. Did you get to the tie down chains?” Nikki asked.

“It’s done” Mark replied smiling.

Nikki returned to her efforts to collect more rent. She knocked on the side of an old fifty-seven footer that was parked in slip six. Captain Don came up on deck. He had his check in hand and gave it to her. “I was about to deliver this to you.”

Reflecting on the fact that she had spent a lot of her time talking to herself, she muttered, “This boat was here when we bought this marina over twelve years ago. I bet old Captain Don hasn’t started these diesels in as long. So many people take their life savings and buy a big old boat, thinking they are going to cruise the Bahamas. That is until the first trip when they find out how expensive it is and how scary the ocean is when it wants to be. They pull in somewhere and sell the boat at a loss or stay in the slip they found until they die. Most stay, and tell stories about the ocean trip they took, which has now become a two or three year voyage instead of two or three weeks.”

She continued on, walking to the other slips. These two were owned by people who lived back East, but left their boats here and mailed their rent to Nikki. She didn’t see them at all in the winter time, because it was just too windy and cold.

Nikki spotted a man that she didn’t recognize on the dock. “Oh, no!” she muttered. He was from the Sheriff’s office, and as he approached her he proceeded to serve Nikki with a foreclosure notice from the bank.

“Where’s the other owner? Is Bill your husband?” he asked.

She pointed to the 100 footer, and said, “He’s on that boat standing next to the five foot wrinkle.”

The man proceeded to serve Bill, who read the papers, tore them in half and threw them in the water. Nikki turned away as tears filled her eyes and spilled down her face. She hurried to her office to hide.

As she sat at her desk, she pondered that the bank wanted two hundred thirty-five thousand to catch up! Where was she going to get a quarter of a million dollars in thirty days?

Just then Glenn came in from shopping downtown. He stopped in the office before going upstairs. “Nikki, are you crying? I hope my Bloody Mary wasn’t that bad?”

She handed him the fistful of papers, and, putting his shopping bags down, he scanned them with a keen eye. He looked up and said, “All you owe on this place is one million six hundred thousand?”

“I don’t know for sure, I’ll have to sit down and figure it out.”

“So what do you have in the bank now?”

“Zero,” she replied.

“You have nothing? How’s your credit? How’s your credit report?” .

“Bad,” she admitted.

“Okay, I’ve got to think for a minute, I’ll be back.”

He left with his groceries and Nikki could hear his footsteps on the stairs.

She flopped back in her chair and started to cry again. Twenty minutes later, Glenn returned and instructed her to take the phone off the hook and lock the office door.

“I have something I want to talk to you about in private. Dry your face and sit down.” He motioned to the chair in front of the table.

She dried her face and sat down, noticing a brief case in Glenn’s hand. He set it on the table between them and said “Now, you only need two hundred fifty thousand to catch up.”

With that said, he opened the briefcase and spun it around so Nikki could see the contents. She gasped. She had never seen so much money— cash money, that is.

After a few moments, she asked, “How much is here?”

“Just what you need,” Glenn replied. “There’s two hundred fifty thousand.” He paused, then continued on in a stern voice. “There are strings attached. First, your husband must go.”

“You want to kill Bill?” she exclaimed.

“No, no,” he said, “he just has to go. Second, you must give this money to your attorney to settle with the bank. Third, no one—that is no one must know about me and our deal. Fourth, never— and I mean never bring this up in a conversation again. Fifth, I want no paper work. If you can live this way we’re okay. If not, no hard feelings. Oh, and sixth— I get half ownership of the marina.” Glenn shoved his chair back and stood up. “Think about it overnight, he said, looking down at her with dark eyes. “I’ll leave the briefcase here. Another thing, Nikki—so far you have only seen my shining side. You don’t want to see the other.” Glenn went to the door, unlocked it and left without a backward glance.

Nikki sat and stared at the two hundred fifty thousand dollars in the briefcase.

Chapter 3

In the morning, Nikki saw Glenn come downstairs, and she called out to him, “Glenn, can you come into my office? I want to talk to you about last night.”

“You want fifty percent ownership…” Nikki said after he entered and closed the door behind him.

“Stop! Stop!” He held up a firm hand. “First, do I look like this is some kind of a negotiation or deal? It isn’t, and second, I told you to never bring it up again. Nikki, you have until 4 o’clock today to give me back the briefcase either full or empty, but don’t ever—that’s ever, mention it again at your own peril.”

He left as quickly as he’d arrived. She’d never seen this side of Glenn, at least not before yesterday when he’d shoved a suitcase full of money in front of her. She’d stashed it inside the credenza beneath a stack of papers she intended to file someday.

Feeling antsy, she decided to take a walk and collect some more rent while she tried to clear her head. Her thoughts kept going back to the briefcase in her closet, and her strange conversation with Glenn.

Is he for real? she wondered as she stepped onto the dock.  Is the money clean and good? Don’t be stupid, she told herself. It can’t be clean. But knowing how thorough Glenn was with everything in his life, it’s probably good money, and one thing was for sure, the foreclosure was for real and looming on the horizon like a burning Florida Keys sunset.

The “Major” appeared on the dock in front of Nikki, cutting off her thoughts of impending doom. This time he was in civvies, and he didn’t remember being out earlier or talking to Nikki or anything else. He walked around aimlessly, drinking coffee from a large foam cup and looking sharp. His clothes were custom made. In fact, he reminded Nikki of the guy in “
Scent of a Woman
”, but he wasn’t blind. On the contrary, sometimes he saw things that others couldn’t.

She had forgotten to call the diver for Mark, so after helping the Major back to his boat, she returned to her office and placed the call. He couldn’t make it until Saturday, so Mark would have to keep the house boat pumped out until then. She left to find him, and after she gave Mark the scoop, she strode back to her office to call the attorney for an appointment about her ex-husband and the two hundred fifty thousand. She decided in a rush that she would keep the money in the briefcase and deal with Glenn’s rules later.

On Wednesday morning Nikki headed out for the appointment at her attorney’s office scheduled for nine o’clock, and she was late as usual, this time because she’d forgotten the briefcase and had to go back to get it. He made her wait in the outer room twice as long because she was tardy. She finally got in and started the conversation with “Will my divorce be final in two weeks?”

“You betcha.” he said.

“Will Bill release all rights, title, and interest in all my stuff including the marina?” Nikki asked.

“He already has, that is, pending the divorce being final.”

“How about the house boats?” she asked.

“He’s already signed off on those,” he replied.

“I have another issued I want to discuss with you.” She took a seat in the chair in front of his desk and set the briefcase on the floor next to her feet. “I’ve been served a foreclosure notice on the marina for about one-quarter of a million dollars. Just supposing a friend of mine had that kind of money, but in cash, could you deal with that?” Nikki voice was low.

The attorney got up and closed the door, even though there was no one in the outer office. “What do you mean, some friend of yours, Nikki? Who is it?”

“You have no need to know, and you’ll never meet this friend. Ever!” She met his stare with a stare of her own. “Can you deal with the cash and the foreclosure?”.

“First, I want the money here so I know it’s not smoke being blown up my ass,” he said. “And we can’t do anything until your divorce is final, so that Bill can’t find out, or he will jump back in. Second, there is no paperwork between you and me.”

“Never mind when and what,” Nikki said. She picked up the briefcase and moved it onto his desk. “Open it,” she ordered. “There’s two hundred thirty five thousand in there. You can count it.”. The attorney opened the case and stared at the money, then fingered a crisp stack of bills.

“I guess your friend ain’t smoking. Is this money cool?” he asked.

“It’s cool.”

Nikki drove back to the marina. As she was opening her office, she noticed Mercedes and a man stepping out of Mercedes’ apartment. The man gave her a lingering kiss goodbye. Mercedes was tall and thin and wearing a silk night gown, looking pretty even though her red hair was messed up. Nikki recognized the man. He owned a landscaping business and was married with two kids.

Watching him leave, Nikki wondered how he’d been able to stay out all night?

“Good morning,” Nikki called out to Mercedes who lit a cigarette, then pulled out a wad of money from her robe pocked.

“Rent for the month,” she said, handing Nikki cash in small bills. “Careful honey, it may still be sticky and hot.”

They laughed together, and Nikki felt normal for the first time in a long while.

“What a beautiful day,” Mercedes said, “sun’s out, water’s blue and the sky is clear, so I’m going to bed until five or six when all that is gone. I’ll get the receipt later tonight.”

On the way back to her office, Nikki saw Glenn. “I’ve got something for you,” she called out. “Wait a minute.” She got the brief case which was now empty. This was her signal that she did the deal, so nothing further had to be discussed. Glenn didn’t say anything either.

“I’ll be down on my boat working,” he told her.

Glenn got on his boat, a forty-two foot Scarab with three 225 saltwater Mercs hung on the back. It was a one hundred mile per hour boat when fully loaded. It also had two fifty-mile radars and two color GPS units, two stainless steel twelve-gauge pumps with deer slugs and Triple OTT buck every other shot provided fire power and deadly force if necessary. The dopers called it “Shake and Bake.” It would pop holes in any boat or kill people if need be. It had two 9mm big clips and six clips and one bushmaster 223 fully automatic with six thirty-round clips. It had two six-foot magnetic signs on the sides, white with blue letters that read “Top Dog.”

Glenn thought back about how he’d, started this deal with twenty friends from high school in the Keys. Back then it was for shits and giggles, and of course, the money. It was only grass, no violence, and very little chance of going to jail.

Now, all but three or four friends were dead or in jail for thirty to forty years. Ever since cocaine took over, the drug business had become very violent. You had to have lots of guns and a partner  you could trust, and both needed to speak Spanish to stay alive.

It was a cash business. Let’s say you go out to sea to meet the mother ship fifty miles from the Florida coast with one million dollars in cash. The men on the mother ship were all armed, and you had to give them the cash before they would offload to you.

And then the fun started with the Coast Guard and the DEA. You had to make your mate a partner for half. The men on the mother ship wanted to kill both of you and take the cash. The Coast Guard wanted to kill you or put you in jail for life. The DEA wanted to kill you or put you in jail for life, and the rip-off people wanted to kill you and take the cash. When you got home to unload, you had the DEA, the Sheriff’s department, the local cops, the rip-off people, and maybe a snitch with the DEA, all who had you under surveillance for months. They  wanted to kill you and take the money or put you in jail for life.

Putting that aside, it was easy. You had enough money to live on until you were two hundred. You knew you should have quit ten years ago, but now it was the “Jazz” and not the money.’

Glenn worked on is boat until he saw Nikki come out of her office. She was headed down the dock and Old Auschultz was heading straight for her.

Auschultz was a six foot-three inch thin seventy-five-year-old German who had lived on the dock since before Nikki and Bill had bought the marina. Everyone on the dock called him Colonel Klink. His home was a sixty-one foot Tollycraft, a two million dollar boat that maybe went out once or twice a year. No one knew what he did, but everyone know that money was no problem.

Auschultz had a full time captain and cleaning lady. Once when he got sick and everybody thought he was going to die in the hospital, Bill went on his boat and into his storage garage to try to find the names of his nearest relatives. The boat was like new inside and out, but the garage was full of stuff and double locked. Inside was a 1944 Rolls Royce convertible with forty eight hundred miles on it. On the dash was a picture of him from the forties wearing an SS uniform.

When Auschultz came back from the hospital a week later, he was visibly shaken when he discovered Bill had gone into the storage garage and had seen the contents. He never spoke much or had people down for drinks but always paid his rent on time and never caused any trouble. The marina was home to a lot of secrets.

Nikki had locked her office up and decided to freshen up with a shower. Then she poured herself vodka to relax. While she was taking out a pork chop to thaw for dinner, someone knocked on the door.

“Oh shit! What’s wrong now?” she said, but it was Glenn from upstairs.

“Where’s mine,” he asked, eyeballing her drink.

Still in a terry robe with wet hair, Nikki said, “Come on in and I’ll make you one. Vodka on ice, okay?”

“You bet,” Glenn said as he followed Nikki into the kitchen where she made a drink for him.

She turned around and handed it to him. They stood very, very close to each other. He took a sip then brought his face close to hers.

He paused, looked her in the eyes and said, “Here’s to us.” Instead of taking a sip of the vodka, he kissed her lips, pulling the lower lip inside his mouth as if to drink in her sweetness. Her robe fell open, and Nikki did not bother to close it. Instead she let it fall off one shoulder. The movement inflamed Glenn, and when Nikki returned his kiss with a willing and open mouth, he touched her tongue with his and started a slow dance toward passion.

They kissed and drank and worked their way to her room where she let her robe fall to the floor. She was naked and sweet smelling from her bath.

Glenn allowed Nikki to take his drink, which she set aside and then proceeded to skillfully undress him. His body was hard and firm and tan and she liked what she saw and touched. Nikki fell back onto the bed, pulling Glenn with her.

“Take me, Glenn, make love to me.”

He didn’t have to be asked twice. Leaning over her, he started kissing her along the delicate curve of her face, down her neck and onward to her breasts which were full and ready for his mouth. He sucked hard and deep, and Nikki felt the throb of desire between her legs, which she opened wide.  Suddenly she wanted hot wet sex. “Now, Glenn, now!”

He entered her hard and fast, holding her hips down as she bucked beneath him. They made love like sex starved people do, crashing into one another until both screamed out in fulfillment.

“Am I worth a quarter million dollars?” Nikki asked later as Glenn cradled her in his arms. They didn’t bother covering themselves, instead they reveled in their bodies, both glowing with a fine sheen of perspiration.

“Every penny,” he said, his hand finding its way between her legs. He began a circular caress of her most private part. She growled and took his erection in her hand to mimic his motion inside her. Soon they were crying out for satisfaction, riding the wave of pure ecstasy, then crashing together in dizzying splendor.

Much later, Nikki said, “I need a smoke.”

“No,” Glenn said. “I don’t want to spoil the taste of your lips, your tongue. You have the most incredible mouth, and I want more of you.”

“You can have all of me, Glenn. I’m yours to do with as you please.”

And he did please her with his mouth until she cried out with sheer delight. Then she returned the favor. Spent, they fell into a short slumber until Glenn nudged her awake with his mouth on her breasts, his tongue teasing the nipples until she rolled over on top of him to give him easier access to her fullness.

“I don’t ever want to get out of this bed, Glenn,” she whispered as she rocked into him.

“We’ll have to. I’ll be gone a few days starting Thursday. Would you watch my place for me?” he asked.

“Of course, but I’ll miss you,” Nikki said and kissed him again and again until they surged into another turbulent storm of lust.

Glenn spent the night and in the morning they showered together, which led to a quick coupling against the tile with Glenn lifting Nikki up and onto him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her mouth into his shoulder, biting him with the intensity of a woman starved for love. They concluded by washing one another with soap, getting to know one another’s bodies in the light of day.

After Glenn returned to his apartment to get some sleep, Nikki was too keyed up to sit still. She dressed and went on the dock where a warm breeze swayed through the palm trees. The scent of seawater reminded her of the smell of sex, incredible sex. She smiled to herself.

Then she saw Mark, who was coming out of the hatch in the four-plex house boat.