“Oh good, you’re in training then.”
“I’ll get the bar to have some sandwiches made up for us.”
***
Vaughan left Conway on the flying bridge of a sport fishing fast powerboat, “I’ll give you a call from Paúl do Mar as soon as I have got settled there, hopefully there’ll be a mobile signal.” Vaughan turned to go.
“What if there isn’t, Ian?”
“I’ll come back.”
The road from Calheta to Jardin do Mar was the old one, narrow and very winding, but once into the new tunnel link to Paúl do Mar, Vaughan was able to travel at speed. The harbour road was immediately by the exit from the tunnel and turning down the steep incline Vaughan parked the car facing the sea wall. Getting out he strolled down to the small harbour past two late drinkers at the café on the front. The harbour wall was deserted but there was some activity in a small fishing boat moored alongside the quay. Wandering along towards it, hands in his pockets, he looked down into the boat and noted the empty crates being arranged ready to receive the early morning’s catch. By the time he had walked to the end of the harbour wall and back the two fishermen had left, presumably to get a night’s sleep.
Taking his mobile out of his pocket he found he had a signal and keyed in Conway’s number. “Anything at your end?”
“No, mate, nothing except a lad pushing drugs on the esplanade.”
“A good trade?”
“Yeh he seems to be doing all right. Just done a deal with a very pretty young thing and her boyfriend. No wonder I have bloody nightmares about my daughter.”
“Are you okay there for a few hours?”
“Well it’s better than waiting around all day in the police headquarters. They’re doing their best but this guy Staunton has gone to ground and until he makes a move we’re not going to have a chance of picking him up. I reckon you’re on the best track; we better get the local guys involved though. I realised just now that if he has company it could well turn into a shooting match.” Conway waited a moment or two for Vaughan’s response. When there was no reply he said, “But of course you knew that.”
“My plan was to call in the army; I have a direct line to the guy in charge.”
“Oh, so you did have a plan, right.”
For both men it was an uncomfortable and cold night and by dawn Vaughan knew that the shipment would not take place until darkness fell again. He collected Conway at six o’clock that morning having seen his fishermen put out to sea at daybreak. “Sorry, Brian, maybe we can do it again tonight if you’re up for it.”
“Yeh, okay, if you’re sure about this. Why not bring in the local police as well?”
“Well ‘a’, I’m not supposed to be anything other than a maritime author and ‘b’ Staunton would have scouted the area for law enforcement. Also, the weapons they are likely to have available have greater range and accuracy than the police nine millimetre Glocks.”
“Suddenly I’m feeling even more vulnerable.”
“All you have to do is give me a call if you think anything is going down, then stay out of sight. I will call in the cavalry.”
***
Vaughan arrived back at Amelia’s house just as Alicia was leaving to take Zeferino to school. She gave him an odd look but other than ‘Bom dia’ and a wave, said nothing.
Amelia was sitting in the kitchen eating cereal as Vaughan entered.
“Bom dia, Amelia.”
She smiled, “Bom dia, Ian. It is a relief to see you unharmed.” She nodded towards the kitchen window, “I was surprised to receive an invitation from Colonel Castelo-Lopez very early this morning, to attend a meeting at the Presidential Residence the day after tomorrow.”
“Will you go?”
“It was signed by both the President and the Colonel so I feel I must.”
“Good decision.”
“You think so, eh.”
“Did you sleep well?”
“Yes, after I spent some hours thinking about what passed between us yesterday”
Vaughan reached for the coffee pot, “May I?”
“Please go ahead, there are cereals and fresh bread, help yourself. Then I think you go to bed, you look very tired.”
A good part of Vaughan’s training had been conducted alongside sleep deprivation and during his time at The Manor he had learnt to sleep whenever he had the opportunity.
“I’ve only just got here, Amelia.”
“There is a spare room upstairs and the bed is already made up.”
As he ate some breakfast he told her more about his first brush with dangerous criminals, which was the initial event that had brought him to the attention of the then Commander Campbell.
“And your poor wife she suffered a miscarriage, oh, Ian, how sad for you both.”
“That had happened while I was still at sea and by the time I got to talking with her from the States she was all for me seeking revenge. So I stayed and helped a bit tracking down the gang.”
“So the divorce was something else.”
“No, the divorce was because her parents who, now it appears, had never liked me, and her so called best friend, persuaded her that despite her request for me to ‘Go get them’ that I should have returned to her side. They branded me unfeeling and dangerous and the man who had deserted her in her hour of need.”
“Surely she remembered what she had said.”
“Apparently not and if she had said those things I should have ignored her. Anyway, shortly after I got back other members of the gang were released from jail in Japan and it was thought they were coming after me.”
“Did they?”
“I don’t know, but by misfortune I was working at a facility they wanted to attack so I became involved again and in the meantime Sarah had hired a divorce lawyer. Much to her parents’ delight.”
“Where was the place they attacked?”
“I’m sorry I can’t tell you.”
“Oh, a secret place, eh.”
Vaughan nodded, “I’ll take up that offer of sleep if you don’t mind.”
***
When he awoke he was surprised to find that it was four o’clock in the afternoon and that alongside him in the spare bedroom lay Amelia, her head on a pillow looking at him.
“Have you been there long?”
“I brought you up some lunch,” she pointed to a plate of sandwiches on the bedside table, “But you looked so peaceful I did not want to wake you. Then I thought I would keep you company.”
“Thank you,” he said sitting up, stretching and yawning. “I’ll take a shower if that’s okay with you.”
“There are clean towels in the corner cupboard, help yourself.”
When Vaughan returned to the bedroom he was surprised to see Amelia still lying on the bed.
“You are going searching for this man again tonight?”
“Yes, not alone though, there is this policeman I told you about from London, here to do the formal arrest, I will be working with him.”
“So that is someone else you have to look after.”
“Oh no, Brian is a big boy, he can look after himself.”
She looked at him disbelievingly, “Huh, so you say.” She rolled onto her right side and pushed herself up using her elbow. “I will be so glad when this cast is removed.”
Swinging her feet off the bed she sat for a few seconds then stood up, “Alicia will be here soon and I do not want to raise her hopes if she finds me here, in a bedroom alone with you.” She had made her eyes big and had a mischievous smile on her face.
Vaughan laughed. “I had better hurry downstairs then.”
“Yes, you better had otherwise my reputation will be totally in ruins and I will have to leave the island forever.”
***
Staunton adjusted the boot straps on his injured right foot then downed two more pain killers. Reaching for his mobile he flicked through the directory to MV Verlorenvlei and pressed the call key. The vessel’s radio operator answered.<
br />
“Tell your captain that Leonard wants to speak with him.” There was a few seconds delay, usual for Inmarsat communication time lag.
“He off watch.”
“Well wake him up, idiot, this is urgent!”
Several minutes passed and Staunton was becoming worried about the phone preload amount running out before he got an answer.
“Kallenberg.”
“Leonard. Just checking your schedule, will you be on time?”
“You said 0300, is that correct?”
“Yes, 0300 hours is good.”
“We will be there.”
“No lights, understood.”
“Understood.”
Staunton gave a sigh of relief as he ended the call and slipped the phone into his jacket pocket. Getting up he tested his weight on his injured foot, and wincing with pain reached for the walking stick. Hobbling, he made his way to Reshetnikov’s study; the thought of money had crossed his mind earlier, guessing that the Russian would have been surviving on cash acquired via Sonia’s business, now his bank accounts were frozen. There were two desks in the room, the larger obviously Reshetnikov’s, and guessing from the diary entries the smaller one for the use of Sonia. Rifling through the large desk’s drawers he noticed that the second drawer depth was some fifty millimetres shallower than the exposed drawer sides. Feeling underneath he smiled, withdrawing his hand holding the latest Grach nine millimetre pistol. Slipping the magazine out, he checked that it was full then slipped the clip home and hefted the weapon for balance. A bit heavy maybe but he knew that they were hard hitters. The rest of the drawers revealed little of interest so he moved to Sonia’s desk where he found two of the drawers locked. Ten minutes later, and after the destructive application of a nail bar brought in from the garage, Staunton happily counted out two thousand euros in notes. Feeling generous he left the three soiled five euro notes and the bags of coins behind.
Tipping the contents of Reshetnikov’s smart leather briefcase out onto the floor he poked through the small pile with his walking stick but found nothing of value so, scattering it, he moved back to Sonia’s desk and carefully put the money in the case then turned his attention to the shelves nearby, one of which held a large number of DVDs. He glanced at the labels which had girls’ names written on them. Intrigued, he took a few through to the lounge and putting on the television inserted a disc into the player. After a few minutes he took the disc out and turned off the television, the content of these discs required time and careful study, he was sure that the crew of the MV Verlorenvlei would feel the same. Now, however, he had to prepare for the night’s work and filling a shopping bag with the DVDs he returned to the bedroom to pack.
It was eleven o'clock at night when Staunton picked up the fishermen and drove them to the forest shack hidden down a track off the road heading north-east out of Prazeres. By the light of the car’s sidelights the two fishermen watched curiously as Staunton undid the padlock on the shack doors. After a brief nod of his head towards the doors one of the men stepped forward and pulled both doors open to reveal an Isuzu truck.
Staunton held up the keys and the other fisherman took them and made his way towards the driver’s door. As he did so, Staunton stepped up to the truck, pulled back the tarpaulins and pointed to the lettering on the side of the exposed box. In large red letters “Frágil Porcelana” was written on all sides.
“So make sure you drive very carefully down to the harbour.”
“Sim, Senhor, we take good care.”
The journey was slow but Staunton knew he had plenty of time as he followed behind Boris Kuznetsov’s truck down to Paúl do Mar.
Arriving at the quayside the two men set about loading the boxes into their boat, in the fish hold of which was a loading pallet already prepared with hoisting strops. As Vaughan had anticipated Staunton had stopped short of the quay and spent time driving around looking for police or army vehicles before making his presence known at the harbour. He would have been well advised to have looked into the derelict building overlooking the quay where the weapons cache had previously been hidden and was now Vaughan’s hiding place.
CHAPTER 14
Vaughan was beginning to think that again he was to be disappointed, and had already checked with Conway twice to see if there was any activity at Calheta, when the truck arrived. Checking the number plate against that given to him by Conway was enough, and the white paint and red lettering on the boxes did little to disguise what was contained within them. As he watched it became obvious that the task of transferring the boxes from the truck onto the boat by hand was a laborious one as with virtually every box there was a grave risk of it ending up at the bottom of the harbour.
Pulling his phone from his pocket Vaughan keyed in the Colonel’s direct number.
“Castelo-Lopez.” The voice was dull from sleep.
Vaughan gambled that the half asleep Colonel would not tie in the fact that he wasn’t on the island when the attack on Amelia occurred, “It’s Ian Vaughan, Colonel. I thought you should know that the man who attacked Senhora De Lima is standing on the harbour wall at Paúl do Mar with two others, and is about to leave on a fishing boat together with a shipment of illegal arms.”
“How do you know this, Senhor Vaughan?” The Colonel’s voice was now firm and clear.
“I am standing in a derelict building overlooking the harbour and have recognised him,” replied Vaughan. “Well, shipping illegal arms is illegal so browny points for the Colonel whichever way it goes, but will they get here on time?”
“I will come straight away but I need time to gather some men.”
“I would also suggest, Colonel, that you make contact with the Portuguese Navy and get their vessel, currently in Funchal, to put to sea and arrest a cargo vessel hovering off Paúl do Mar waiting to transship the weapons.”
“You have seen this ship?”
“No, Colonel, but I know it’s there, you cannot deliver, maybe one tonne, of weapons very far using a small inshore fishing boat.”
“I understand, Senhor Vaughan. I will see if they can put to sea so quickly.”
“Current progress on loading suggests that you have just over two hours, Colonel.”
Both of the men handling the boxes appeared to be middle aged and after the initial enthusiasm Vaughan noticed that the weight of the boxes was rapidly taking its toll and pace had slackened.
With no proper lifting tackle, the task of lowering the boxes down into the boat was both strenuous and risky. Frequent rests were soon being taken; occasionally one of the men would look at his wristwatch but neither seemed to be hurried or panicking, and after a short while Vaughan estimated that he had more than enough time to collect Conway.
Slipping from his hiding place he ran back to his car and drove south to Calheta contacting Conway through the car’s hands free phone link.
“It’s a go, Brian, I’m on my way to collect you, can you meet me at the marina entrance.”
“What’s happened?”
“Boris’s truck turned up with a load of heavy boxes on board. He’s got two men, probably the fishermen who own the boat, to do the heavy work.”
“He’s there then.”
“Not yet, I don’t expect to see him until the last minute, he won’t want to risk being close to that cargo until it’s time to cast off.”
“You sure about this, Ian?”
“Yep, sure enough to call in the army and the navy.”
“Oh, right, mate, I’ll be there waiting.”
The ten kilometre drive to Calheta seemed like fifty to Vaughan that night. Not that there was much traffic about, but more that the road from Jardin do Mar was full of blind bends and steep gradients.
Arriving at the marina Vaughan saw Conway standing in the shadow of a palm tree.
“Hop in and buckle up.”
“Just to let you know, I have a wife and children waiting for me back home in the UK,” Conway said, as the car’s acceleration induced a bit of w
heel spin.
“The tarmac out here doesn’t give much grip when it is cool.”
“Oh is that it, I thought it was more connected to your right foot being flat on the floor.”
The gearbox and two litre engine in Vaughan’s Leon FR were working very hard indeed and Conway was soon admiring the driving exhibition he was experiencing. “You’ve done this type of thing once or twice before I gather.”
“What, intercepted arms shipments?”
“No, driving like you’re on a bloody rally time trial.”
“We have got to get back there and into hiding before Staunton turns up, or the army, come to that.”
“Oh… mind that bloody armco will you…! My whole life flashed before me just then.”
“Stop moaning, my grandmother drives faster than this in her mobility scooter.”
“Who built it for her, Ferrari?”
“Have you alerted your man in Funchal?”
“Yeh, shortly after you called. He wasn’t very impressed, I think he was trying to create another little José Livramento at the time.”
“Look on it as your part in a world population control scheme.”
“It will be more like, my part in pissing off a guy who already thinks I’m a bloody nuisance.”
“Cheer up, I thought you were enjoying this ‘jolly’.”
“I must admit it has had its bright moments, particularly around the pool.”
“You included that scenery description in your postcard home of course.”
“If I had I wouldn’t last to tell the tale at the pub,” Conway put his hand to the dashboard again as Vaughan slung the Leon into a tight left-hand bend followed immediately by a right and steep drop that had the car sideslipping with squealing tyres. “What’s the set-up at the harbour?”
“We take up our position in a derelict building which has a good view. Ideally we get there without being noticed as the two fishermen, if that’s who they are, will sound the alarm for sure. Once in place we watch out for Staunton to arrive and if he looks like doing a runner before the cavalry turn up we attempt to make an arrest.”
In Treacherous Waters Page 35
