It took awhile, but Suzy finally got herself under control enough for Chic to get back on the road. She huddled as close to Chic as she could. She found strength next to him. It was as though his spirit joined hers, adding the power she lacked. Once again, Suzy realized that facing her mortality for real was not easy. It frightened the hell out of her.
“Chic, I’m sorry I had a meltdown back there. In my mind, I hoped we were out of danger and that we really had no reason to pursue this bunch of crooks. Some part of me wants to retreat to the role of a little, unknown college gym instructor where the problems of the world are not my concern. This mission is not as clear to me as it is to you. I haven’t decided to be superwoman yet, and if I do, I don’t know how to really help you in this fight. It’s a view of my future I can’t comprehend.”
Suzy recognized that crime fighting chose Chic. He didn’t choose this path; it chose him. Their spirits joined together, knowing they were somehow compelled to make their lives together a battle with evil.
“Chic, it makes me feel more connected with the universal and eternal struggle between good and evil to know the battle is bigger than either of us. The evil we’re fighting in this case has to be fought by us both. This group out of Boston is deadly. They have proven they are capable of extreme violence against anyone who is a danger to their organization.
“Let me relieve your mind. I’m sorry I panicked when it dawned on me that we continue to be targets. I didn’t volunteer for this fight, but I’m here until the end. After you calmed me down, I began to think about some of our Bible lessons on fear. I’m concerned that fear of humankind is totally inconsistent with the teaching of Christ. We are to fear no human, only God, who has power over the body and soul. Christ tells us to fear not, that His yoke is easy. So, Chic, I’ve decided to live my life without fear of what the boogeyman may do to me. What is that you always say? ‘Don’t die before you’re dead’? I’ve come to believe that fear of death is exactly that.”
“Babe, you are always a source of inspiration to me. We may not solve the problems of the world, but we are going to put this one evil enterprise out of business.”
“Does that mean I may play Wonder Woman, Chic?
“You bet, babe. We’ll start with the safe stuff. Don’t you have a good friend who teaches in the business school who retired as an officer in a large commercial mortgage company?”
“Yes, her name is Nancy Warditch.”
“What I plan on doing is getting all my notes I’ve accumulated on this enterprise and see if you two can establish any patterns that might lead to the parent company. I’m confident you two can come up with some connection among the various companies. We have to have that in order to crack this case.”
“I’ll talk to her, Chic. I’m sure she’ll help. It’ll be a pleasure to use my brain again for something other than avoiding killers. I’m afraid gym doesn’t challenge the brain.”
Chic was satisfied that Suzy had been fighting this battle for a while. Being around home, her mother and kinfolks brought into focus the real danger everyone was in as a result of her involvement with Chic and these drug dealers. Her decision to engage instead of retreating was a deliberate decision, knowing the risk. Suzy was smart as hell. He was happy to have her aboard so they could cover each other’s back.
Chic’s premonition was well founded. Before Sam and Max left Belize, they made a decision on Chic and Suzy.
“Alex, Chic and Suzy have cost us the services of Ken Renfro and a lot of resources, setting up our new people in Pensacola and staying clear of his attempted investigation. It’s embarrassing to the cartel that amateurs are able to cause us problems. I can tell you, Sam, that I have already issued the order to kill. Only the details are open.” Sam urged Max to make it soon.
Chapter
9
Chic was back home, ready for life to return to normal. He couldn’t wait to get to work and set aside a little time to call Ann Renfro. He couldn’t say if Ken was dead or alive, but he knew the location of the men who did. Ann would be delighted with this progress.
Ann answered on the second ring. “Hey, Chic, good news or bad?”
“Ann, I think I would call this good news. I haven’t found Ken, but I have located the two guys who managed his boat, Amedee, for him. I’m positive that they know where he is.”
“How on earth did you locate those guys, Chic?”
“We believe that Captain Hayes and Doug still work for the company that Ken worked for when he disappeared. I think the headquarters for the gang is located in Belize.”
Chic and Suzy met with the Renfro family, and they all agreed that Chic would go to Belize to learn what he could from Doug and Captain Hayes. Chic, being a careful man, planned to leave for Belize as soon as possible but didn’t disclose a date. He had already arranged for the equipment he needed; a boat, lodging, and the semiautomatic 9mm pistols would all be waiting for him. There was no point in delay. His plan was to pick up the boat at Livingston and motor to Fronteras, located on Lake Izabal. Chic also found that going into a town by boat worked well with the locals. They seemed to accept you more easily.
After the meeting, Myra drove home in her humble car, a Ford Taurus, looking as common as humble pie. As she entered the car, her conservative dress could not hide the hell cat within.
Myra left the family meeting itching to call her secret lover. Myra was a beautiful woman. She had jet-black hair and ice-green eyes, and at five feet nine, she cut a figure any model would die for. She worked as a model in New York as a young woman in her twenties. She was now a very young thirty-four. It was her brain, however, that propelled her to first in her class at Harvard.
It was at Harvard where she met a very talented and wealthy Larry Moses. He became the number-three man at BCWB, a large investment bank in Boston, partly because of his famous family but mainly because of his talent. His business acumen was recognized in business circles the world over. Larry was married with two children. He fit the profile of a family-loving conservative businessman. Unknown to his family, he had a dark side that only Myra understood. Myra was aware that Larry served on the executive committee at the bank with David Richburg and Gilman Loeb, the bank CEO.
Myra was the type of woman who scared the hell out of any normal guy. Smart, beautiful, savvy, she was the kind of woman no man could control. Her character was as overpowering as her mother’s (Ann). She was very capable of choosing the male with whom she intended to satisfy her basic need for sexual gratification. She used and discarded men with great aplomb.
Her need for unusual sexual fulfillment, however, was reserved for Larry. The two of them meshed perfectly in their lust for the occult and perverse sexual experiences. They managed to lead what appeared to be normal lives except for a couple of rendezvous a year, when their demons within took control. When they met, they were driven into unfettered and uncontrollable passion. Boiling beneath their thin, civilized exterior was a heat that would warm the devil’s heart if he had one.
Myra placed a call to Larry on a coded, encrypted line.
“Hello, my love, are you ready for your gift?”
“Yes, dear,” Larry responded. “Will you be able to meet me in Tulum next week?”
“You bet. I will be there on the 11:00 a.m. flight to Cancun. Can you pick me up?”
“I will be waiting on you,” he answered. “You did get the account I set up for you in Belize? I know Ken didn’t express himself very well, but he was very grateful for your assisting him in company business. I know Ken wanted you to have his accounts. He was a valuable employee. We are sorry to lose him.”
“Yes, thank you, love,” Myra said. “Now, I have a special treat for you when we get there. I need to let you know how much I appreciate your looking after me. Now, there is something you need to know about my family. I told you Chic called and asked for a meeting with us and that we hired him to inve
stigate Ken’s disappearance.” Myra gave Larry a full report of her mother’s conversation with Chic.
“I understand that Chic plans to go to Belize soon and see what he can find out.”
“Myra, don’t worry. Chic is on our radar, and we do not intend to let him continue his investigation. We’ll be waiting on him. Now we know you can handle your family. Don’t be too obvious about your newfound wealth. What you and I know is between us. Our secret must be forever sealed.”
“Don’t worry, love,” she assured him. “You keep my secrets, and I will keep yours. Our shared pleasures will remain our private nirvana.”
“Hold that thought, beautiful, until we meet next week.”
Myra also had work to do that night. She was wet with anticipation. She quickly changed into her hunting outfit: a short skirt, low-cut blouse, spiked high heels, and no underwear. She would reel in the selected man like a spent fish, tongue hanging out and panting like a dog. She picked her subjects carefully—tall, thin hips, long fingers, physically fit, with a slightly aggressive disposition. With that picture in mind, she pulled out of the driveway in her new red Porsche.
As she pulled out of her driveway, she had a fleeting thought of Ken. After the call to her secret lover, benefactor, and provider, Myra’s spirits had soared. The rising RPM of the Porsche and the growing vibration of the ride reverberated through her body, driving her to a new height of sensual pleasure. She coasted back into dull reality, with her mind focused on the moment.
What is it about a little secret, a little deception … well, a big damned lie, she conceded, that makes life so much more interesting?
She had one more fleeting thought of Ken and some of the un-sisterly things they enjoyed together. Ken was a good man, but he was in her way. He was not in her class.
Now, all of the fruit of his labor was hers, and all she had to pay was the gift of sensual pleasure to a kindred spirit. She had earned it. What had her parents and brother done to earn it? Nothing. She, on the other hand, was part of a large enterprise, which gave her a lot of pride. She was the one who made it possible for Ken to make his money.
Past pleasures, promises, and recent potentials faded as she gunned the Porsche to her next hunting ground. She had an immediate itch. She did, after all, need to warm up her techniques for Larry.
Myra knew she was invited to Belize not just as a play toy for Larry but because she had contacts in Amsterdam with people who had connections to the Russians. She would be able to broker substantial deposits for the banking interest of the enterprise in Belize. She had gained valuable information about manipulation of foreign currencies. Yes, she was confident that she would become indispensable.
Chapter
10
Heath and Chic met at Joe and Eddy’s for breakfast, a routine they had established whenever they both were in town. Suzy and Mary, Heath’s girlfriend, were not big on getting up at seven on Saturday morning just to have breakfast at Joe and Eddy’s. This was purely a guys’ thing. Heath and Chic ordered their usual deluxe breakfast.—Heath’s over light, and Chic’s scrambled.
“How was your trip to Sand Mountain, Chic? Did you find any useful information?”
“I actually did find some very useful information from Suzy’s cousin, Buck, the one that took me to a cockfight. To get this straight, Buck took me to the cockfight to meet his friend Jack, who knows Doug. Doug was one of the crew, along with Captain Bart Hayes, who operated the Amedee for Ken Renfro. The Amedee, as you recall, disappeared at about the same time as Ken. I found out that Doug and Captain Bart work on a motor yacht located in Lake Izabal, in Guatemala. This is a very isolated place. There is a small town called Fronteras where the lone southbound highway out of Yucatan crosses Lake Izabal. We believe that Doug and Captain Hayes still work for the same company they were with in Florida. They should be a treasure trove of information.”
“Chic, that’s a long way out of my jurisdiction. You would need the FBI or DEA to penetrate in Belize, Mexico, or that general area. What’s your plan?”
“The short version is, Heath, I don’t have one. That’s where I need some help. In terms of our actually having hard evidence of Rico violations, we stand empty-handed. What I have in mind is to reassemble all the information we have gathered about the business dealings of Ken’s companies and let Suzy and her friend Nancy analyze the data. Nancy is a professor and is retired from Wall Street. She knows the mortgage business better than anyone I know. If any patterns can be gleaned from the information, they can do it. Then we need to continue to check out George, Ken’s replacement in operations here in Pensacola, under the theory that he’s somehow involved with the same group as Ken and Victor. We are fairly certain that while all the players on the money-laundering side were killed in this area, the drug part of their business is still active in the Panhandle.”
“I assume, Chic, that you want me to turn my information over to Suzy to add to your pool of information?”
“Yes. Aside from the fact that those two ladies are good at this, I need to keep Suzy’s mind busy while I head to Guatemala. I’m going to need some help, Heath. I need some first-rate listening devices and probably a partner who can fit in as a local. This would be a free working vacation. Fishing will be a part of our disguise.”
“Chic, you know the department doesn’t have the money to pay for that kind of thing.”
“Yeah, I know. I talked to Ken’s family, and they agreed to cover the cost. I got a chance to talk to the family in Tennessee as part of my trip to Sand Mountain. I was very impressed with his family. His mother is a retired nurse, his father a family doctor, his sister is a professor at Vanderbilt, and his brother is a neurosurgeon. Makes you wonder how Ken got off on the wrong path in life.”
“Yeah, Chic, some people just don’t have any reason to be the crooks they are. Ken was obviously successful at what he did. He had the brains, personality, and drive to be successful at any line of work he chose. A loss of a potentially good man to the evil forces.”
“Well, the family has no idea what has happened to Ken. They have not heard from him. Perhaps more telling is that they don’t know enough about his business to give me any leads. Ken was as good at hiding information from his family as he was in deceiving me. They’ve not received a Christmas card, birthday card, or gift, which he normally would send. So, the fact that I have located the guy who knows where he probably is was exciting to them. They have agreed to take care of the cost.”
“It is strange that their kind of family has had no contact with Ken,” said Heath. “Even his vast wealth evaporated into foreclosure. How do we explain that?”
“Actually, that was a brilliant move on Ken’s part or on the part of his employer. I think that Ken is the guy who actually devised the overall scheme of daisy chain corporations as well as other tools to hide his tracks. For example, had he left titles to all his assets in his name or in the name of his corporation when he left the country, his assets would remain here and be subject to probate. If he turned up dead, then there could be substantial litigation, which would eventually involve his bosses. They couldn’t allow that to happen. By putting mortgages on all the real and personal property at a very low ratio of debt to value, he could simply draw that money down after leaving the country. The mortgage holders would then take the property. This could be done in a way that we would never penetrate to the core.
“The family has money, and they will spend some to find out if Ken is dead or alive.”
“So, Chic, I take it that you’re going down to Lake Izabal and that area to fish and see what you can find out. I take it you want the listening devices to see if you can pick up any conversations on the yacht.”
“Yes. I’ll be on the plane in the morning headed toward Belize. I’ll give you a call along the way.”
“I see the waitress coming with our breakfast. What time are we to meet the guys at the city g
olf course?”
“I told them we’d be there at 9:30,” said Heath. “That should give us time to be ready to tee off at 10:00. I hope we both can get our heads out of our butts and play some golf today. Last time, we were a little discombobulated.”
“Don’t worry, Heath. I’m ready to show those guys what the real Chic can do. I’ve been practicing, you know.”
And so the pressing problems of the world melted away as the two stout-hearted men prepared for war with a little white ball.
Larry Moses was careful to follow set procedure. The Boston triad knew the value of procedure. It was designed to provide an impenetrable firewall between the banking side of the business, the enforcement side, and operations. The wall between the legal aspects of the business and the side that raised the money would decide which money had to be laundered and what transactions had to remain inviolate. Extreme discipline by all the men in responsible positions was required. Strict rules had to be followed to maintain the relationship along the daisy chain of the corporations to make them work in perfect harmony. Only the top management in the enterprise could be privy to the entire picture; only they knew the true nexus of the tiered structure. Keeping all the parts operating like a finely tuned transmission was Larry’s primary job.
The responsibility was enormous. It did not please Larry that he was called upon to make life-and-death decisions. On the other hand, he recognized that if it was his life or someone else’s life, he had no problem resolving the issue in his favor. Bringing order to a naturally chaotic enterprise required an artist with lethal powers.
Larry had received a call from Myra informing him that Chic and Suzy met with their family and that Chic was going to Lake Izabal in the next day or two. Action was required. Fortunately, the banking side of the operation was in Boston. Gilman Loeb was the chief operating officer of BCWB. Larry was in the investment operations department, and David Richburg was the chief compliance officer.
Medusa's Lair Page 6
