by AJ Basinski
I could see Shipley get extremely angry when I said this. His face turned almost a purple color.
"Mark Sullivan was not having an affair with your wife,” I screamed at him.
“What do you mean? I saw his initials on a Christmas present that my wife mistakenly put under our tree last Christmas. MS, who the hell else could that be?"
"I know all about the Christmas present, I've seen your diary. Pretty sick stuff, if you ask me. But what you forgot is that there is another person on the island with the same initials, MS. And you knew that person as well.”
“What do you mean, asshole? Sullivan was fooling around with goddam half the women on the island. He told everybody about that.”
“You might be right, Ed, but your wife was not one of Sullivan’s conquests. Mike Schafer, not Mark Sullivan, was the man having an affair with your wife. I actually saw them together just a little while ago when I stopped by your house."
I could literally see all the air go out of his lungs just as I said this. His whole body seemed to go limp. He looked like a balloon that had been punctured and quickly fizzled to the ground.
"Mike Schafer? You have got to be kidding. That little douche bag."
“Yeah, the one and the same. You made a horrible mistake. Unfortunately there are no second chances for murder.”
"How in the hell do you know that it wasn’t Sullivan?"
"I know it because I saw two of them, Schafer and your wife, together.” I then lied, “She also told me that Schafer was her lover when I interviewed her today after reading your diary."
"She told you? Why the hell would she tell you, of all the goddam people on the island?”
I could see he had dropped his guard when I said this. Slowly, while he was distracted by the thought that he had made a terrible mistake in killing the wrong man, I reached under my shirt and pulled the Walther from its holster and without even aiming, I fired. I shot Shipley in the middle of the forehead. He fell backwards instantly from the force of the 9mm bullet that tore open his skull and he dropped the Bowie knife harmlessly to the floor. As he was falling, I ran towards Sun Li and grabbed her. Shipley lay there on the ground blood flowing from his head wound. He moaned for a few seconds more like a wounded animal. And then he stopped moaning suddenly and I knew he was gone. I reached over and took the Bowie knife from the floor and placed it on the table next to where Sun Li had been sitting.
Chapter 50
After I removed the duct tape from her hands, leg and mouth, Sun Li hugged me like never before. We had always had those friendly hugs that people do more out of courtesy than anything else. But this was different. And it was different more than just because I had saved her life. I could tell that in some very strange way, all of this had bound us together and always would.
The Palm County sheriffs arrived shortly after I had called 911 with an ambulance to take Sun Li to the hospital. Fortunately she did not appear to be injured but the paramedics said it was only a precaution.
When we got to the hospital, I asked her how this had all happened. I was particularly interested in how Shipley had lured her away from the Inn.
“He told me that my probation officer had called and that I had to return to Miami right away,” she said.
“And you believed Shipley?”
“Yes, I was very much afraid that if I didn’t do as I was told that I would have to go back to prison again. And I didn’t want that to happen. Ever.”
“What about the letters?”
“What do you mean by ‘letters’? I wrote just one letter explaining where I was going. Did you not get that letter?”
“No,” I said. “I got two letters from Zeke. The first letter said you were leaving because we would never be a couple because you could never love me.”
“No, no. That is not true.” Sun Li started crying as she said this and put her head on my shoulder. “That is not the letter I wrote. Shipley must have taken my note and copied the handwriting and wrote his own letter.”
“And the second letter said you were going to China to visit with your sick mother.”
“No, No, that is not true either. You knew my mother was already dead. Why would I say that? I wrote only one letter. And in that letter, I said I loved you and would be back as soon as possible.”
“My God,” I said. “I can’t believe it. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. That bastard, Shipley, almost succeeded in killing that love. He was one helluva forger also, but the mention of your mother being sick did set off some alarm bells. Just not enough, I guess. What happened after you flew back to Miami?”
“I went to my probation officer and he did not know what I was talking about. Shipley had lied to me to get me away from you.”
“You know, he also sent me to Miami on a wild goose chase looking for Cuban gold.”
“I did not know that. But once I learned that Shipley was lying, I tried to reach you by phone. When I could not reach you by phone. I flew back to Fort Myers and went to the Bonita Inn but they said you had checked out of the Inn and they didn’t know where you had moved. Shipley somehow found out I was back on Palm Island and got Zeke Chandler to bring me to this half-built mansion where Shipley was waiting. Zeke told me that we would be meeting you there. But when we got there, Shipley taped my hands and feet and duct taped my mouth.”
“That bastard,” I said, as I rubbed her arm. I explained that my cellphone had died on me for several hours that day she tried to reach me and that’s why I didn’t get her calls. Technology had let me down.
I didn’t know it, of course, but she was only about a mile away from me for most of the time over the last few days.
When I asked her about Zeke’s involvement, she said he was very nice to her. He would bring her food and water every day and talk with her to help pass the time. “When I asked him why he was doing this for Shipley, his eyes would tear up and he would say, ‘I have no choice.’ He also kept repeating, ‘You will be all right. I will make sure of it.’ Where is Zeke now?”
I gave her the bad news, “Zeke’s dead. I’m sure that Shipley killed him.”
Hearing that, Sun Li started to cry and hugged me even tighter.
Chapter 51
There were a lot of things to sort out after Shipley’s death. Five people had died violently on this little island in less than a month. Mark Sullivan, Amanda Blakely and Zeke Chandler were all the victims of Ed Shipley’s desire for revenge. In his diary, Shipley had confessed to the murders of Amanda and Sullivan. The medical examiner also had determined that Zeke had not killed himself but that he was murdered. And Shipley’s DNA and fingerprints were all over the shotgun. Obviously, Shipley had either gotten careless or maybe he just got more cocky and felt he was immune.
The fourth man who died violently that month was the man in the Cadillac SUV who I had shot the day Shipley and I were having lunch together at the fish house. There was no evidence to tie Shipley to that man. Who he was after when he shot remains a mystery. But I did wonder if maybe Shipley had been right, that there may have been some connection to my busting the Chinese drug ring a year or so earlier. Maybe the Chinese Mafia were out to get me.
It was determined that while my shot had hit the Escalade driver, he actually died of drowning in Palm Island Sound. It seems he couldn’t get out of the car when it plunged into the Sound. The medical examiner held a hearing on his death and at the end of the hearing, he determined that my shooting was justified.
Even though I was completely exonerated, I still felt guilty about killing a man and I worried that the whole episode might trigger my PTSD again. I prayed hard that it wouldn’t and hoped that with Sun Li by my side and God’s mercy, I could weather any storm. So far, I have been lucky.
The fifth man to die violently that January on Palm Island was Ed Shipley. When his funeral was held a few days after I had shot him, no one came. Not even his wife.
How fitting.
Chapter 52
About a mont
h later, Sun Li and I returned to Palm Island. This time for a celebration.
Sun Li and I were married on the dock beside the Bonita Inn on a sunny February day. Doc Phillips was my best man. Sun Li’s sister came in from Shanghai and served as her matron of honor. Sun Li looked absolutely stunning in her pink dress and carrying a bouquet of white roses and baby’s breath. As she walked the dock towards me, Zeke’s daughter, Janine Chandler sang “Ave Maria.”
At first, I was reluctant to have the ceremony on Palm Island and particularly on the dock. That was where Sullivan’s body washed ashore the day we arrived on the island. But it was Sun Li who insisted that we be married there. She said that she knew that I really loved her that day when I offered to go elsewhere to stay on the island because the body had been found there. And she said she had such fond memories of the time we spent there together in the pool and lounging by the water.
“These were some of the happiest days of my life,” she told me later.
Sun Li said. “When we first got here on Palm Island, I thought you only wanted friendship. I loved you very much. You stood by me when I went to prison and you were so nice, kind and gentle.”
How ironic, I thought. My ex-wife was right. I did not understand women. All the time Sun Li was as much in love as I was.
Chapter 53
Zeke Chandler’s minister, the Reverend Ike Taylor performed the ceremony. I wasn’t a Baptist and Sun Li, of course, wasn’t either, but we both agreed that it would be a nice tribute to Zeke to have the Reverend marry us. It was a beautiful ceremony.
We had the reception at the Xanadu Bed and Breakfast, which Elsa Pierce had recently reopened. Elsa had received the million dollar check from the insurance company a few weeks before the ceremony. With that money, she was able to pay off the bank that held her mortgage and the Las Vegas casinos where she owed money. She even had a little left over, which she said she was going to use to remodel the kitchen of the B&B. “Amanda would want it that way,” she told everyone.
I still get chills when I recall what the Reverend said in his big booming voice that echoed across the bay at the conclusion of the wedding ceremony: “I present to you, Mr. and Mrs. Mario Morales.”
THE END
I hope you enjoyed reading this novel as much as I did writing it. If you did, please consider writing a review on Amazon. Those reviews are the lifeblood of independent authors like myself. I would be extremely grateful if you chose to write a review.
For those of you who are interested in following the career of Lieutenant Morales, please consider buying the first novel in the Morales trilogy, Dead in the Water. I am sure that you will also enjoy reading that novel.
AJ Basinski
July 2016
