Hurricane (4 page)

“
Is it true? Did this woman’s husband just pass?” The sergeant asked.

“
It’s not relevant.” The man poked the sergeant in the chest with the pointed finger.

“
It is to me,” the sergeant said. He slapped the little man’s hand away with a crack that could be heard halfway down the dock.

“
You can’t.”

“
Shut up,” the sergeant said.

“
But—”

“
Another word and I’ll arrest you and forget where I put you. Do you take my meaning?”

The little man glared at the policeman and nodded his head.

“
Go,” the policeman said, and the little man went, walking stiff-legged down the dock toward the club house. He moved fast. A pressure cooker ready to blow. The policeman had made an enemy, Julie thought, and so had she.

“
Thank you,” Julie said. She saw the policeman she had been so prepared to dislike in a new light. For him to strike a white man was a big thing, even if nobody in Trinidad would admit it.

“
I am truly sorry,” he said. “I didn’t know about your husband. I should have shown some respect.”

“
You couldn’t have known,” Julie said.

“
We have to ask you some questions about yesterday.”

“
About the dead man?”

“
Yes.”

“
All right,” Julie said.

“
Why didn’t you report it?”

“
I was going to, but when we got back to the boat there were two policeman here and they told me about my husband. The dead man just didn’t seem important anymore.” Julie flicked a few strands of hair from her eyes with the back of her hand. She wished she had her sunglasses on.

“
Do you remember anything about the man?”

“
Not a thing.”

“
I do,” Meiko said.

“
Yes, Miss.”

“
He was white and he was fat.”

“
We already know he was white and the corpse was probably bloated.”

“
I’m premed, in Los Angeles. I’ve attended my share of autopsies. I’ve seen floaters before. I know the difference. This man was fat. Fat with small feet and close cropped hair. It looked like he might have had a bald spot on the top of his head, but I couldn’t really tell, fish had been at the corpse. If I had to guess I’d say he was between four-six and five feet, a short man.”

“
Anything else?”

“
Yeah, the man had a scar, big, almost like a brand across his chest. It reminded me of a lightning bolt.”

“
You’ve done very well. Most people can’t give us as good a description of a living person.”

“
Like I said, I’ve been trained.”

“
How come you’re not writing it all down?” Julie asked.

“
It isn’t necessary. From what the young miss has said I know who the man is. All of Trinidad knows who that man is.”

“
Who is he?” Julie asked.

“
Don’t you read the papers?”

“
Not really. Ever since my husband and I bought this boat it’s been all we could do to keep up with it.”

“
Michael Martel, Martel’s Magic Manufacturing. He makes and ships magic tricks all over the world. Very famous, but not because of his magic tricks. He was the witness in the Chandee murder.” The policeman shifted his weight from his left foot to his right and fixed Julie with a steady, brown-eyed gaze.

“
The attorney general?” she half gasped, meeting his steady eyes. He wasn’t the lazy policeman his slow, ambling gate suggested.

“
The one and the same.”

“
I don’t understand,” Meiko said.

The policeman moved his eyes to Meiko. “The attorney general was murdered six months ago. There was one witness and he’s been in protective custody until two weeks ago, when he disappeared. It’s been front page news.”

“
How do you disappear from protective custody?” Julie asked.

“
I think we’ll have that coffee now,” the policeman said. “And my name is Lawless, Sergeant Leon Lawless. Please don’t make fun of the name. I’ve heard all the jokes. May I come aboard?”

“
Certainly,” Julie said. “What about your friend?”

“
He’ll be going to the bar.”

“
What for?” The second policeman spoke for the first time. His voice was deep, with a touch of gravel.

“
To arrest that little white man for assaulting an officer of the law.”

“
But he didn’t.”

“
You saw him poke me in the chest,” Sergeant Lawless said, and a smile lit up the other policeman’s face.

“
You want me to put him in handcuffs in front of everybody in the yacht club?”

“
Yes, in front of everybody in the yacht club. Handcuff him and sit him down in the bar and wait for me. If he utters one word, smack him across the mouth.”

“
What?” The young officer’s eyes widened along with his grin.

“
If you want to keep your job, no words will pass that little man’s lips, no ears will hear a thing he has to say. Do you understand me?”

“
Yes, sir. Yes I do, sir.”

“
Then do it.”

“
Yes, sir. Right away, sir.” He made a snappy about face and jogged down the dock toward the bar. He also was no longer the image of the slow moving Trinidadian policeman that she’d seen so often in her two years here.

“
Seems he’s going to enjoy arresting a white man.” He swung a lanky leg over the lifelines and stepped on board.

“
Seems so,” Julie said.

“
How do you like your coffee?”

“
Black,” he said.

“
My husband drank it that way,” Julie said, under her breath. She went below to get the man his coffee.

“
Yes, your husband.” Lawless followed her, uninvited, below. Meiko came down after him and they both watched as Julie pulled a cup from the cupboard above the coffee pot and poured Lawless his coffee.

“
Have a seat,” Julie said. Lawless sat down at the salon table. Julie and Meiko joined him.

“
Do you want a sweet roll?” Julie asked.

“
No, just coffee.”

They sipped their coffee in silence for a few moments, with the ticking of the old brass ship’s clock counting off the seconds. The man had something to say and Julie had learned that in Trinidad it’s best to have patience, especially when dealing with customs, immigration or the police.

After a long minute the policeman began to talk.

“
Four years ago my wife was taken from me. I loved her so much. We have three children, three girls. I thank the lord every day that they are easier to raise than boys.” There was the beginning of a tear in the policeman’s eye.

“
I loved Hideo like that,” Julie said, quietly. She reached out and took his hand. He looked her in the eyes and the hard questioner was gone, replaced by a bereaved man, still suffering over a wife he’d lost a long time ago. Would she grieve for Hideo that long? She would, and longer.

“
I have a few more questions,” Lawless said, easing back his hand.

“
How did that witness walk away from protective custody?” Julie asked first.

“
He just walked away.”

“
Didn’t anybody try to stop him or follow him?”

“
Why should they? It was his right.”

“
Now he’s dead,” Julie said.

Then Lawless changed the subject. “Can you sail this boat by yourself?”

“
I think so,” Julie said.

“
Then you should go to Immigration and check out. You should leave Trinidad as soon as possible.”

“
There’s no way I could do it today. I’d have to get Meiko on the crew list. That’ll take a least a day. There’s no way that obstinate man over in Immigration will do it any quicker. And by then it’ll be too late, because that weasel will be back here with his papers and more policemen to throw us off the boat. I guess the only thing I can do is hire a lawyer.”

“
Justice moves very slow in Trinidad,” Lawless said.

“
There isn’t anything else I can do.”

“
You should go to Immigration about an hour or so after I leave here and check out. The forms will already be filled out and dated two days ago. You and your daughter will merely have to get your passports stamped. Then come back here straight away and take your boat away from Trinidad.”

“
You can do this?” Julie said.

“
That obstinate man at Immigration is my son from my first marriage. That’s how I know girls are easier. He was never anything but trouble. Into everything and anything. Still, he minds his father.”

“
And your first wife?”

“
She died in childbirth.”

“
I’m so sorry,” Julie said, looking deep into his brown eyes.

“
It’s not your fault,” Lawless said. “Others have suffered as well.” His words brought back Julie’s own pain.

“
Why are you doing this?” Julie asked, but she knew the answer even as the words left her lips.

“
Because you’ve lost your husband,” he said, “that’s enough. I won’t let you lose your home as well. Make yourself ready to go. Don’t spend the night in Scotland Bay. Get clean out of Trinidad. If possible you should be sailing through the Bocas by noon.” Lawless smiled at her as he hefted his lanky frame up from the table.

“
What about the man with the papers?” Meiko asked.

“
He’s going to spend a very unhappy twenty-four hours in jail, but he’ll be out by tomorrow morning. Out and mad and looking for you and your boat. He sighed. “When he doesn’t find them he’ll be after my black skin.”

“
Will you be okay?” Julie asked.

“
He works for a very powerful man.”

“
Who?”

“
Robert LePogue.”

“
Should that mean something to me?” Julie asked.

“
He’s the lawyer defending Cliffard Rampersad.”

“
Let me guess, the man that shot the attorney general?”

“
That’s what they say.”

“
I’ll be out of Trinidad by noon,” Julie said.

“
That’s best,” the policeman said, rising.

Julie and Meiko followed him topside and watched him walk down the dock. Then they started securing the boat for travel.

Chapter Three

Broxton walked along the sea wall, squinting against the morning light. He stopped a hundred yards away from her boat, then turned away from the sun. He fished his sunglasses out of his shirt pocket and slid them on.

Then he ran his hand over his shaved head. Should he be angry or not? She’d made fun of his head and his name and it bothered him, and it bothered him that it bothered him.

Others had made fun of his Kojak look and he always shook it off. His shaved head set him apart, gave him that power look, struck fear in the hearts of petty criminals, drug traffickers, and back stabbing colleagues alike. But for the first time in the ten years that his head had been reflecting the sun’s glow, he worried about what a woman might think about it.

Something about her struck a chord where he thought no music would ever play and he knew he would never take a razor to his head again. In the few moments that he’d spent talking to her she’d wormed her way into him, burrowing deep into places that had been long empty. He blinked, remembering the vision of the sun glowing through Julie Tanaka’s light brown hair and reflecting off her sparkling green eyes, and he smiled.

Lawless was still on the boat. He’d have to talk to her later. He turned and walked back to the clubhouse. Not with his usual man-with-a-mission stride, but slowly, like a boy being dragged from a big league ball game at the seventh inning stretch, because his mother wants to get out of the parking lot before the traffic jam.

He ordered his eggs over easy in the clubhouse and watched the young policeman put the cuffs on Henry Hackett. There was going to be one pissed off attorney in Trinidad. For a minute it looked like the little man was going to protest, but something about the cop’s demeanor held Hackett in check. It was almost like the policeman wanted him to resist.

He was still in the clubhouse, finishing his breakfast, when Lawless came from the jetty, sweeping the young cop and Hackett in his wake. Julie Tanaka was pretty popular with the law lately, he thought. Then he paid his bill and walked over to the yacht club office.

“
Anything for me?” he asked the girl behind the desk. She was a scatter brain, but she had an hour glass shape and a wide smile.

“
Nothing.” She didn’t like him. He knew it, but he’d never cared before. Today he cared.

“
Here, Lacy, buy yourself something nice,” He held out a blue TT hundred dollar bill, the equivalent of eighteen dollars, US.

“
Thank you, Mr. Broxton.” She took the bill and slipped it into her purse.

He turned to leave.

“
You did have a call, though.”

He stopped, turned back.

“
Yeah?”

“
He said to call him at home,” she said.