Smugglers 1: Nikki (18 page)

“I’ll be in contact,” he said and walked away.

CHAPTER 19

Nikki sat in her car, feeling the remaining adrenaline pump through her body for several minutes after he left.

Too many loose ends, she realized, her brain scrambling to remember that night. Had Armando been on the phone? Who was this Jeff guy? What does he know for sure? Shit! What was she going to do next? She didn’t feel up to finishing the rest of the town chores, but she got through them and finally went home to her office.

Nikki sat at her desk trying to figure a way out of these new situations, Rita, the white guy and the cops.

A knock at the door startled her, but she felt a rush of relief when she opened the door to Rita. “Would you like a drink?” Nikki asked.

“No, thank you, but I would like a beer for sure. For some reason my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.” They exchanged a knowing smile, and then Rita went straight to the point. “Since you came up short cash wise, would it be okay if I don’t pay you rent for the next two or three months?”

“Rita, you know I count on the rent to pay the bills here. I’ve counted on that money coming in from you.”

“I just won’t have enough to get by for the next three months,” Rita insisted.

“Well, what were you going to do before you heard of Mercedes’ money?” asked Nikki.

“To make up the difference if I had to. I always made a lot of money pole dancing, but now I'm not making as much, and I really don’t want to have sex with men. So let’s not fight and let me skip the rent for the next three months,” she begged.

Nikki could see where this was going, and what happened this morning. She thought she might as well give in on the rent now, and save herself some fighting. Even though they were both hung over, they had a drink and parted ways to get some sleep.

During the night, Nikki awakened to thoughts of what the man had said to her about Armando working for him. So this Jeff guy is her real problem. Torching Armando had been a way to get to the boss. She tossed and turned for two or three hours, she couldn’t know for sure, before she went to sleep again, only to get up at 4:30. She felt groggy from the sleepless night and thought coffee would do the job.

The threats from the Jeff guy started nagging at her as soon she was completely awake. He must know everything she had done that night and one thing was for sure, he’ll kill her after he got the money. He lived by the rule that it’s always better to be feared than respected, in that business anyway.

He had to go, Nikki decided. She wasn’t about to sit around and wait for him to kill her. If she had a neighbor she couldn’t get along with and you fight and win, then he goes home and gets a bat, so you get one too and you beat him again and when he gets up he says he’s going home to get his pistol. Do you wait for him to come back and kill you or get your 12 gauge to get ready for him?

“I am not going to wait,” she said out loud and was desperately trying to figure out what to do next, when she heard someone at the dock. She went out to see who it was.

It was the diver who had arrived to fix the patches on the boat for Mark. As she watched the diver and Mark talking about the holes in the house boat, she noticed he had a short spear gun on his belt. This gave her an idea.

She spent the day on her boat, a 20-foot center console, preparing everything she would need for the trip, spear gun, chicken wire, cement blocks and rope. Now her only problem was how to get Jeff on the boat for a trip.

As night fell, she ended up at home, trying to relax. She thanked God that Rita was working, so she wasn’t waiting for her and in her face about more money. Nikki was anxious and kept pouring one drink after another, hoping he would call; she stayed home waiting for her phone to ring, but he didn’t call.

She was tired and about to dose off when there was a knock at the door. It was probably Rita, Nikki thought as she dragged herself to the door. She opened it and came face to face with the no neck South American who had come with Armando. He was unarmed and stepped inside. He looked like an easy target to Nikki. He didn’t seem to be a threat. He spoke in broken English and was really stupid.

“I here pick up money for boss,” he said.

“I don’t have the money with me right now,” Nikki replied.

She offered him a drink to get acquainted. As they talked and drank she tried to get Jeff’s full name out of him, but he wouldn’t tell. She decided to seduce him. When she went to the kitchen to freshen up their drinks, she slipped into her room and put on her robe and went back out and gave him his glass. As they talked she let her robe fall open so he could see her tan thighs and cleavage.

He could tell she was inviting him to touch her, so he moved over to the sofa and sat real close beside her. He kissed her, placing a hand on her thigh. She kissed him back and made another attempt at obtaining the boss’s last name.

Again, no-neck didn’t answer. He brought out a two gram bottle of coke, and they both had a cap full. Then he started to kiss her on the face then on the neck as he opened her robe and worked his way down to her belly. She kept kissing him and steering his head as he got hotter and hotter. Soon, she started to get caught up in the scene herself. She might as well enjoy herself while getting the information, so she grabbed his hand and led him to her bedroom where she dropped her robe to the floor and started to undress him. When he was totally naked and hard, she kissed him and whispered in his ear, “Have your boss call tomorrow or you can give me his number and I’ll call him?” No answer from no-neck.

She didn’t get what she wanted, but she did get laid and put closure on Brett once and for all. He left before midnight and she got up to make a drink and thought of how she could find out who Jeff was and his phone number.

In the morning after very little sleep she made coffee and sat thinking about her problem with the boss. She came up with the only plan she could, but she had to try it today, because he would be on her by the next day or two.

After lunch she called no-neck to see if he could come over and go for a boat ride and swimming but she had to leave a message for a call back. He returned her call within a couple of minutes, which told her he was more than ready to spend the day boating, swimming and drinking.

He got there about two, and after kissing and changing they went to her center console with beers. When they were out at sea, she stopped the engine and suggested they go for a swim to cool off. They did some lines and undressed. He was more than eager to do anything she suggested at that point and was at full attention.

After some more lines, kissing, and heavy petting, he got into the water with a life vest to set his beer on. Nikki opened the locker on the boat and pulled out the spear gun. She aimed at his head and shot no-neck in the neck, missing her mark. There he was in the water with a dive spear sticking out of his neck with blood squirting out of it front and back.

He kept twisting in the water trying to get the spear out of his neck. Soon the water was crimson but he kept trying to pull the spear out and yelling for help, but no sound came out, just air and foam. Nikki started the boat and backed it up to where the life preserver had floated, picked it up then kept backing away as no neck tried to reach the boat for safety. Soon with a few last grasps, no-neck went under.

She watched him struggle for breath or the dive spear. Soon he was lifeless and out of sight. She turned the boat toward land and headed back. She felt nervous when she saw Jerry and some other people on the dock socializing, but they just waved and smiled at her when they saw her pull up to her slip. She felt relieved and casually joined in. No one asked where no-neck was, so they must not have seen him leave with her.

The phone rang as soon as she arrived home. It was Jeff, the boss; he wanted to know where Jose was. Nikki said she had not seen him all day.

There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then he said, “So you haven’t heard from him all day?”

“No, he called and said he was coming over but that’s the last I heard from him.”

“That stupid bastard, I can’t even rely on him for a simple assignment. I guess if you want something done right then you have to do it yourself. I will see you later.” He hung up.

Nikki knew she had only a few hours until death arrived. If she didn’t think fast she wouldn’t have a chance to enjoy all the money she had. She searched and fumbled through the whole house to see what she could use to protect herself from Jeff. She found Glenn’s old cell phone and put it in her pocket. She arranged a few things around the house to get ready for him. She knew after seeing him at the warehouse the other day, he was big and probably very strong compared to her. The thought of having to encounter him gave her a chill that ran from her neck all the way down her spine. She would never forget his intimidating look.

Hours of anticipation drained her energy, and she didn’t realize she had fallen asleep on the chair while waiting for him. She woke up with a start to a knock on her door. It was midnight.

Her heart started to pound and she quickly poured herself a drink to calm down. She didn’t want him to see her fear of him, because she knew that’s what he wanted to see.

She opened the door with a smile and casually said, “Hi Jeff,” and he walked in without acknowledging her.

She offered him a drink.

“I don’t drink. Where is my money?” She was startled by his shortness and fumbled for the correct answer that would not piss him off more.

“Do you have my money or don’t you?” he asked. She started to tell him a story that she would have it in two or three days. He became even madder and said, “You’re lying to me! You don’t have my money, and you will never have it. I am not wasting any more time on you; if you don’t have the dough like I told you to, you’re dead!”

Nikki could tell at this point that he was going to have her killed tonight. Nikki quickly reached into her pocket where she’d hidden Glenn’s old cell phone and pushed a button to make a call that she had already programmed in.

Jeff’s phone went off. While he fumbled to answer the call she walked to the bar stool by the kitchen, reached under it and came out with the claw hammer and hit Jeff on top of his head with all her strength. Jeff had turned around and tried to duck down but unfortunately for him it was right at the level Nikki could manage. If he hadn’t ducked down he would have had a chance to live since Nikki didn’t have the strength to swing the hammer to reach his head. He slumped down in his seat and started to shake all over like he was having a fit.

Nikki watched him until he was quiet then she sat down across from him and sipped her drink and just kept looking at him.

A trickle of blood dripped down his face from the top of his head. Now what? she wondered, her thoughts scrambling. He must weigh two hundred pounds. She couldn’t move him, and the thought of cutting him up made her stomach turn. She made herself another drink and sat there looking at him and thinking.

About 3:30 she heard Rita get home and went to greet her. She told Rita the story about Jeff and his coming to take all the money. Rita got mad about his attempt to take her two million dollars which was the reaction Nikki expected and wanted. She decided it was time to take Rita and show her Jeff. When they got inside Nikki’s apartment and Rita saw Jeff sitting on the sofa with a little blood on his face, Rita asked, “Is he passed out or dead?”

“He’s dead!”

“No shit! Are you sure? What happened?” Rita asked.

“He was going to take all the money, all of mine and yours and then kill us both so I had no choice.” she explained.

“What are you going to do now?” Rita asked.

“What am I going to do? Don’t you mean what are we going to do? I saved your two million dollars. If you leave this to me I ought to be able to keep your money, too, right?” Nikki stated.

“Okay! What do you want me to do?” responded Rita.

“Let’s get to work. They will be here in one or two hours. We got to get rid of his body and move his car.” Nikki started to go through his pockets to get his car keys.

“First cover his head. I can’t stand to look into his open eyes,” Rita said. Nikki got a white kitchen garbage bag and put it over his head.

“Oh, that’s much better,” Rita declared.

“Now he looks like a new KKK member,” Nikki responded as she continued going through his pockets. She found eighteen hundred dollars in cash and his Lincoln Town car keys. Nikki split the money with Rita and said, “Let’s deal with the car later.”

Rita got the dock cart and brought it to the house boat. They pushed, pulled and carried his body out the door to the dock and got it into the cart. When they got to Nikki’s boat, they noticed that the dock was two or three feet higher than the boat. They looked at each other, deciding in whispers to dump his body off the dock to the boat. As they tried that, his body tipped the dock cart over and it fell from the dock to the boat, sounding like the noise of a trunk closing or the door closing on a car. Nikki quickly got in the boat and covered him up with a tarp. Then they looked around and saw no lights had gone on so they put the dock cart back and took off in the boat for the deep waters of the trough.

Once there, they attached the chicken wire and cement block to the body, and put it overboard to sink. When they were back at the dock Rita wanted to drive Jeff’s car to town. They decided to leave it behind Ken’s office as Nikki knew that if they found two grand on his person, chances are there was a trap full of money in his car. When they got there, she opened the trunk, then she looked under both seats and tried to find a hidden compartment in the car. She pushed on the CD player and it popped open and found one hundred grand and a pound of coke. She grabbed the money, toot, and jumped in the car with Rita. When Rita saw the money and toot she freaked out.