Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series) (14 page)

“How you gonna get that Lester guy alone?”

“Haven’t quite worked that out yet,” I replied. “If they rent a car and split up, that’ll be two on the boat and two on land. I have the advantage of knowing what three of them look like and they don’t know what I look like, except as the guy that told them I’d gone to Miami.”

We’d reached the turn into Moser Channel and no large ships were coming from either direction. About a hundred yards from the edge of the channel, I dropped the engine to idle speed, but the barge didn’t seem to be responding. So, I kicked the Maverick into reverse and brought the engine up to 1200 rpm and that did the trick. The big barge turned into the channel and I kicked the engine into forward and brought it back up to 2000 rpm. With the current running at about five knots in the channel, we crossed under the bridge pretty quickly. Directly under the bridge, the dog started barking over the side of the skiff.

“Quick,” I said, “grab a rod and put a line out.”

“What kind of lure?” he asked.

I looked at the dog and he was looking straight down into the channel. “Put that Rapala deep running shad on the leader. Hurry!”

While putting the lure on the swivel, he asked, “What the hell is that dog yapping at?”

“Get that lure in the water and you’ll see,” I replied.

Rusty threw the line out and a few minutes later reeled in a nice red snapper, which he put in the live well.

“Don’t tell me that dog saw that snapper,” he said.

“That’s the third time I’ve seen him do it. Crazy, huh?”

“I’d say so. Never heard of a fish pointer. Well that’s lunch,” he said. “Time for a snack.” He opened the cooler, got a sandwich out, and offered it to me. I declined and he wolfed it down in just a few bites, tossing the last bite up on the casting deck to the dog.

The dog looked at it, and then looked expectantly at me. “Go ahead,” I said and he gobbled it down. Once we were about a mile past the bridge, Rusty had to cross over to his skiff and do the same trick that got us into the channel, to once more get us out. After he’d gotten the barge set on the right course, slightly north of west, he crossed back over again and joined me.

“Think Deuce will mind if I go along to spread Russ’s ashes?” he asked.

“No, I don’t think he’ll have a problem with that,” I replied.

“Been thinking on how to separate Lester from the others,” he said. “Like you said, they’ll likely rent a car and split up once they make Dockside. When they split up, ya got two scenarios. First, they split into twos. More likely, since they’re landlubbers they’ll leave one guy to watch the boat, trusting that people can only be found on land. That’ll put three in a rental car. A bit harder to separate, but if we’re lucky, Lester’ll be the one on the boat.”

“Don’t tell me you started counting on luck, man,” I said.

He laughed hard at that one. “No, but like the man said, ‘Fortune favors the prepared mind’. It could happen.”

“Yeah, it could,” I said. “And I do favor being prepared.”

Then at the same time we both said, “The Seven P’s,” and started laughing.

“Yeah,” Rusty finally said. “Sergeant Livingston was a good teacher.”

I said, “Deuce told me the only things of value that we should have found at the apartment were likely four cob coins, two escudo. One on a gold chain that Russ usually wore and a gold cross with three emeralds. Alex and I didn’t find any of them. If Lester did kill Russ and break into his apartment, he’s got those, along with Russ’s journal.”

“I know the doubloon necklace Russ had. I got one exactly like it,” Rusty said. “Never wear it anymore, too touristy. What if I was to loan it to Aaron. Think Lester would take an interest? Maybe hang back with the boat, while the others go off to get a car so he could maybe talk to Aaron about it?”

“Good idea,” I said. “The thing that’s been nagging at me, though, is when Lester and the bald guy were in Aaron’s office, it seemed like the bald guy was the boss, not Lester.”

“If that’s the case, this Lester guy would be sure to take an interest in my doubloon and hang back, if he really was the one who stole Russ’s.”

I gave it some more thought. Why were these guys after me anyway? How dangerous were they? I damn sure didn’t like Baldy’s looks. He just had an evil look about him. And I was pretty sure that Lester had something to do with Russ’s death. So they were dangerous enough.

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s get Aaron to wear that doubloon. I’m certain they’ll come directly to Dockside for fuel. And to see if I’m there, once I run off from them. If Aaron’s wearing a doubloon necklace exactly like the one he stole from Russ, he’s bound to be interested. And he’ll suggest that he be the one to stay back with the boat. Something else we can do is anchor up in the intracoastal and watch their boat at the docks. Likely, they’re watching incoming boats in shifts. If we wait to come in when Lester finishes his watch, he’ll be tired. After sitting in the sun for several hours, then chasing me for three or four more hours, he’ll be really tired.”

“I like it when the enemy’s really tired,” Rusty said, grinning. “People make mistakes when they’re really tired. So, you’re gonna want to leave before daylight, to be able to anchor in the intracoastal early in the day. It’s gonna take you a good three hours to get there and you’re gonna need to stop for fuel to be able to get back here nonstop running wide open. You could put in at Key Biscayne Yacht Club and top off. That’ll give you just enough fuel to get to Rickenbacker and back here, without stopping. Just how fast is the
Revenge
?”

“She’ll make about forty-five knots, in calm seas.”

“Really?” he said. “I never thought she was that fast.”

We continued bouncing ideas off each other’s heads the rest of the morning, as we slowly motored up to my house. As predicted, we got there just before noon and made it across the flats with no problems. The barge had legs at each corner that raised and lowered with a hand crank system of gears, so that it could be positioned and held in place. We positioned it on the flats, to the left of the channel to my house and dropped the legs to the bottom. Since it was high tide, we only needed to crank them a few inches to make the barge secure and it wouldn’t drift off, as the tide rose and fell, before we get back. We idled our skiffs up under the house and went up for lunch. As Rusty was cleaning the fish, I threw a can of beans in a pot and put them on a low simmer. When I went back outside, I could hear the sound of an outboard approaching. I reached back inside, grabbed my binoculars off the hook by the door and trained them to the south.

I immediately recognized the skiff flying over the water as a Maverick Mirage, like my own. It had a red upper hull, white below the waterline and a poling platform over the engine. Man that boat was moving fast. As I focused on the driver, the familiar light blue, long-sleeved denim shirt and long billed fishing cap stood out only slightly more than the blonde hair flying behind and the excellent form that the wind created in the shirt. Alex was back on the water in her own boat.

I hustled down to the dock and Rusty asked, “Who’s that boat coming I heard?”

“It’s Alex in her new Maverick,” I replied.

The sound of the outboard slowed as she dropped off plane to come up the channel to the house. After a minute, she appeared, coming through the overhanging mangroves.

“Dayum!” Rusty said. “Now that’s a fine water craft.”

Alex was beaming, as she tossed Rusty a line and he tied her off to the dock.

“You like?” she asked.

I walked along the dock and admired the work that Skeeter had done. He’d gone above and beyond to please Alex, it seemed.

“Is that for real?” I asked, nodding toward the big Mercury outboard with a big ‘300’ on the side.

“Sure is,” she said grinning. “A brand new 2006, aluminum block, three-hundred horsepower, four stroke, Merc. Weighs only one hundred pounds more than your Yamaha.”

“Skeeter did a fine job,” I said. “That’s a damn beautiful boat. I’m real happy for you.”

“It sure is, Alex,” Rusty said. “Skeeter did a great job. Hope he didn’t charge you too much.”

“I think I got a pretty good deal, guys. Cost me less than a brand new boat and motor and looks brand new. The only thing original is the hull and he reglassed it. Even used Kevlar along the keel and chines.”

“Congratulations,” I said. “I know you’re happy to be back on the water. We were about to eat. Come one up.”

“Hang on,” she said, then reached in the icebox and pulled out a really nice sized red snapper.

“Gimme that,” Rusty said. “Y’all go on up. I’ll be just a minute.”

Alex handed the fish to Rusty and said, “Caught him under the Seven Mile Bridge.”

Rusty said, “Yeah? That’s where that dog pointed out this snapper.” Then he turned back to the cleaning board and started in cleaning the fish. Alex and I headed up the steps to the house. I wanted to go over all the plans that Rusty and I had put together while running the barge up here. Inside two minutes, Rusty joined us and while I went over everything with Alex, he started cooking the fish filets. After I’d finished, we sat outside and had lunch with a few cold Red Stripes. The dog even got his own snapper filet.

“Rusty,” Alex said, “Julie said to let you know that she’s got everything set for Sunday, except for a couple of things she has to wait for Sunday morning to do. She also said she’d be going with me down to Miami, to pick you and Deuce up.”

“Wait a minute,” Rusty said. “Me and Jesse only decided I was going while on the way up here. How’d Julie know?”

“My bet would be Alex told her,” I said.

“And you’d be right, Captain Psychic,” she said.

“So how’d you know?” Rusty asked.

“We men are as predictable as fish to her,” I answered.

“So you are,” she said. “I’m guessing you’ll want to leave as soon as Deuce arrives?”

“Yeah,” I said. “Guess I better call him and get him up to speed.” I stood up and walked down to the dock to get my phone, then looked back at the call history and found Deuce’s number and dialed him.

“Hey Jesse,” Deuce said, when the connection was made. “I was just about to call you. I’m going to be arriving there earlier than I originally figured. Just getting on the plane now. Should be there in three hours.”

“That change in schedule wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain bar wench, would it?”

I could almost hear the color change in his cheeks. “Yeah, that has something to do with it. What’s up?”

I told him the suspicions we had and the update on what we
’d learned at Rickenbacker Marina. Then went over the plans Rusty and I had put together.

“Really?” he asked. “Rusty has an identical necklace? That could work. I’m warning you, though. If we get the guy alone and he confesses, the Police won’t be involved. I’ll use the guy for shark chum, personally.”

I believed him. “Look I said, we’re up at the house right now. We’ll leave here in a few minutes and should be back at the Anchor by 1400. Want me to pick you up at the airport?”

“Julie’s already said she’d pick me up. Might not see you until morning though. She said she has plans and it involved room service at the Hyatt on Sugarloaf Key. What time do you want to leave?”

“I want to be down there by sunrise, so we need to leave the Anchor by no later than 0430. Make sure you get at least a few hours sleep, okay.”

“Will do, Jesse. See you in the morning.”

I disconnected and closed the phone, wondering how I was going to explain this to Rusty. When I climbed back up to the deck, Alex was heading through the door with the dishes.

Rusty said, “We need to get moving, bro. Alex told me that Julie’s gonna pick Deuce up and they’ll meet us in the morning. We gotta top your tanks and get together with Aaron, then turn in early for a 0300 reveille.” So, I thought, Julie told Alex about her and Deuce’s plans and Alex broke it to Rusty. It didn’t seem to bother him too much.

“Yeah, Deuce told me. You okay with that?”

“Hey Amigo,” he said, “She’s twenty-four years old. For all of those twenty-four years, she’s been the perfect daughter. Never got stellar grades, but she’s worked hard to get everything she’s got. What kind of dad would I be, if I got pissed that she’s actually become a woman? She reminds me so much of Karen. Poor Deuce never had any more of a chance than I did.”

Alex came out onto the deck then and said, “Everything’s squared away inside so let’s di di mau out of here.”

Rusty almost doubled over, he was laughing so hard. Finally, he was able to add, “Yeah, most riki tik, Alex. I think you been hanging around old Jarheads too much.”

We walked down to the docks, untied the three skiffs and one by one pushed off into the little turning basin, then headed out to Harbor Channel. The tide was still high enough that a nearly straight-line course could be run back to Marathon. We spread out, and accelerated up onto plane as we crossed the channel, with Alex in the center and Rusty to her left. My skiff was probably a little faster than Rusty’s, so I backed off a little until my speed matched his, as did Alex. The water was clear with barely a ripple across its surface. It seemed almost as though we were three fighter planes, zooming across a barren desert, as we headed almost due east toward the narrow cut between Big Spanish and Little Spanish Keys. As we neared the cut, Alex increased speed slightly and took the lead through the narrow, shallow cut, toward Horseshoe Key six miles in the distance. Although it was high tide, the water across the flats here is only ankle deep, except for this cut. Later today, at low tide, the shallows become a sand bar. The cut’s not marked on any charts because it’s less than a foot deep at low tide. Only locals knew that you could go this way. Right now, it was at least two feet deep, but only a few feet wide. Once we cleared the shallowest water, we spread out again into a vee. I called ahead to Alex, “Show us what she’s got!”