Bluewater Bullion: The Seventh Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 7)

by Charles Dougherty

  ****

  "Calm down, Marilyn," Liz said, touching the upset woman on her hand. "We'll help. Don't worry."

  She and Dani had been finishing the morning's carafe of coffee when Marilyn had called out from the quay. She had come below and burst into tears.

  "Sit down and tell us what's wrong." Dani shifted, making room on the settee in the main cabin.

  "They took Gerald. They ... "

  "Wait a second," Dani said, holding up a hand, palm toward Marilyn. "Take a deep breath and start over. Tell us where you were when this happened, okay?"

  "I was on my balcony, but ... "

  "And where was Gerald?" Liz asked.

  "Start at the beginning, Marilyn," Dani said. "You and Gerald were in your room, right?"

  "Yes. Sorry. We had lunch from room service. He wanted to go back to the villa and get the rest of his stuff packed up so we could move aboard Vengeance tomorrow morning. He was going to take a taxi from the Inn. I was on the balcony with my camera, shooting some harbor scenes, and he had just come out the front door. He was on the sidewalk, walking to the taxi stand, when this couple approached him." She paused, looking from Dani to Liz.

  "Good," Liz said. " A man and a woman?"

  Marilyn nodded.

  "Did you recognize either of them?" Dani asked.

  Marilyn shook her head. "But I got some pictures."

  "Good. That'll be a big help. So this couple approached him, and then what?"

  "He looked worried, and the man reached toward him, and then the three of them walked to the dinghy dock."

  "Could you tell if he went willingly?" Dani asked.

  "I don't think so. I mean, he didn't struggle or anything, but it looked like the man was touching him on his side, his left side, and the woman was close up against him on the right when they were walking. They got in this big gray dinghy with two outboards and left."

  "Headed which way?" Liz asked.

  "Toward the harbor entrance. Should we call the police?"

  "They won't do much, based on what you've told us. Let's go up to your suite and have a look at the pictures," Dani said.

  ****

  "How much of that stuff did she give him?" Meyers asked.

  "I don't know. That's her thing, you know? She said he'd be docile for a few hours." Hart shrugged.

  "Docile?"

  "Her word."

  "Shit, man, he doesn't respond to anything," Meyers said. "Not going to get any answers from him when he's like this."

  "It's probably just as well; Bond's damned boat's not there."

  "Think he's out at that wreck? Should we send the RIB out there?"

  "No. We don't know he's out there. It's better if they wait in Falmouth Harbour. He comes back there every night."

  "So, what's the plan, then?" Meyers asked.

  "She'll call us when Pisces of Atë gets back. Once they've taken care of Bond's crew, they'll bring Pisces of Atë around to the anchorage right outside here and send the RIB in for us. We'll take Bond's boat out to the wreck site and question them out there."

  "Sounds good. There shouldn't be anybody around out there. Not after dark, anyway," Meyers said. "Will his boat tow our RIB okay?"

  "Yeah, no sweat," Hart replied. After a moment's silence, he asked, "Did you get Beauregard taken care of?"

  "Yeah, but we've got to do better with these new people."

  "Problem?"

  "No, not really. Beauregard's secretary got in the way, though. He had to waste her."

  "Too bad. He still make it look like suicide?"

  "Said he did; same gun. Cops will figure Beauregard shot her and then himself, like some kind of lover's spat or something. From what he said, anyway."

  "So what's the problem?"

  "The asshole wanted an extra 50 for the secretary."

  "No shit?" Hart asked. "Too damned many of these hotshot special-ops types floating back from the Middle East. That guy you had on the desk ... "

  "Yeah. He's history. They've got the skills, but no experience outside damned war zones," Meyers said.

  Chapter 33

  "Here we go," Marilyn said, scrolling through the pictures on her laptop. She picked it up from the table in her suite where she had been working and set it on the coffee table in front of Dani and Liz. Joining them on the couch, she zoomed the photo to full-screen.

  "Can you blow up his face more?" Liz asked.

  "Sure." Marilyn ran her finger over the touchpad and tapped it twice. The man's face filled the screen.

  "It's the same man," Liz said.

  Dani nodded. "Alex Hart," she said, as her cell phone rang.

  Looking at the phone's display, she said "Phillip," as she touched the connect button. "Hello, Phillip."

  She listened for a moment. "Liz and I are with Marilyn, in her suite." She paused and nodded. "Okay."

  She switched the phone to hands-free and set it on the coffee table. "Marilyn, meet our friend, Phillip Davis. He used to be my father's partner, but he's retired, now. He lives in Martinique, and he has lots of connections all through the islands."

  "Hello, Phillip," Marilyn said, uncertainty in her voice as she cast a questioning look at Dani.

  "Hi, Marilyn."

  Dani interjected, "We asked Phillip to help check out the people who boarded Vengeance, Marilyn. You have something new, Phillip?"

  "I wanted to let you know I'll be on the LIAT flight in the morning. Denardo got an arrest warrant for Meyers; I'm going to meet him there and smooth things over with the locals."

  Marilyn looked perplexed again. Dani said, "Marilyn doesn't know about any of that. How about a quick overview for her? It sounds like there must be more information since we spoke last, anyway."

  "Yes, Denardo's got the shooter." He rattled off a quick summary of Beauregard's murder for Marilyn's benefit.

  "Gerald just talked with him last night," Marilyn said. "He said Beauregard was almost incoherent, talking about how if he had known they were going to kill all those people, he never would have hired them. Gerald couldn't make any sense of it."

  "That's interesting," Phillip said. "Now, about the shooter, ... "

  "Wait!" Marilyn interrupted. "We have to find Gerald."

  "What?" Phillip asked.

  "New development down here, Phillip," Dani said. "Alex Hart and a woman snatched Yates this morning."

  "Meyers has to be behind that," Phillip said.

  "But I don't ... who's Meyers?" Marilyn asked.

  "Alex Hart's partner," Dani said.

  "Alex Hart?" Marilyn frowned. "The man in the picture. But why would they ... "

  "Marilyn," Dani interrupted. "You and Gerald are looking for some kind of treasure. Rodriguez mentioned 'Yates's gold.' Merrill Bond is a treasure hunter; he wouldn't be working for you if he didn't think there was a lot of salvage value in Phaedra's wreck. That has to be what's behind Meyers's snatching Gerald. You need to come clean with us if we're going to find Gerald and get him back."

  Marilyn thought for a moment and nodded. "Short version. I'm a direct descendant of Phaedra's captain; I have the correct location of the wreck. Gerald's side of the family had a bogus location. That's a long story, for later. Okay?"

  "Yes, but ... " Dani started to say.

  Marilyn interrupted her. "Phaedra was supposed to have been carrying several tons of gold — basically, the Confederate treasury. They were planning to move it to Nassau to buy arms and supplies to continue the war."

  "Would Beauregard have known about that?" Phillip asked.

  "I don't know, but it wouldn't be surprising. His family's law firm handled the Yates family's business going back to the post-colonial era. They were probably part of the scheme," Marilyn said. "But we need to find Gerald."

  "That's what we're working on, Marilyn. Hang in there. We have to figure out what's going on before we jump in blind," Dani said. "We don't want him to get hurt."

  Marilyn nodded. "Okay. Sorry, but I'm pretty rattled."

 
"That's understandable," Phillip said. "The shooter was working for Meyers. He was having breakfast in a diner not too far from Beauregard's office and the waitress overheard him talking to Meyers about the shooting on his cell phone. He was fiddling with the three spent cartridges while he talked. We were right — ex-military. He was a sniper. Cold-blooded and efficient, but completely out of his depth in the civilian world. Denardo figures he picked up the brass out of habit — it's a military thing. They're checking for a ballistics match, but Joe's sure they're going to find out the shell casings match the gun that killed Beauregard and his secretary. The guy's rolled over already, looking for a deal to avoid the death penalty."

  "So why would Meyers have Beauregard killed?" Dani asked.

  "The shooter didn't have any idea, but Denardo found paid invoices from Bright Star Ventures in Beauregard's files, marked 'Investigation - Yates, et. al.' Denardo and I figure Beauregard had hired Meyers, maybe to take the gold. Guess they got into a disagreement."

  "You said earlier that it was hard to tell who Meyers was working for besides himself," Dani said. "Is Denardo coming in tomorrow morning as well?"

  "Yes. I'm meeting him in San Juan early tomorrow morning. It's out of my way, but it gives us a chance to talk. And we can pick up some federal support there, if we need it. We've both got contacts there. He's still hoping to talk to Mickey if he can find him. He's tracked him to a hotel at the beach near Jolly Harbour, so we'll probably stay in that area. I'll call you when I get in, unless I hear from you first."

  "Gerald said that Beauregard told him Mickey was dead, along with Jackson and that awful Rodriguez man," Marilyn said.

  "But he took the bodies, Marilyn. Liz and I helped him load them up," Dani said.

  "Gerald said he told Beauregard that, but Beauregard said someone named 'Jones' told him Mickey was dead, too. I don't ... "

  "Jones is an alias that Meyers was using," Dani explained.

  "Well, I'd better go," Phillip said. "Call me if you ... "

  "Wait, Phillip," Dani said. "Any chance you can get here earlier? Like using Clarence's chopper, or Midnight Thunder?"

  "I'll check. Why?"

  "Because I figure we should go after Yates ASAP. Meyers has him; it's a sure bet he's going to try to get Gerald to give up the gold. Liz and I can handle it, but we need firearms, and a fast boat would ... "

  "You know where he is?" Phillip asked.

  "Not yet, but we've got some feelers out," Dani said.

  "I'll get back to you. Let me make a few calls."

  ****

  "How much of that shit did you give him, Cindy?" Meyers asked, as they helped Hart get the semiconscious Yates aboard Pisces of Atë.

  "More than I meant to. He started struggling, and my thumb slipped on the syringe. He should come around in an hour or two. What about Bond?" the woman asked.

  "Don't shoot him up. We'll need him to feel some pain here pretty quick." Meyers cast a worried glance at her. "He's conscious, isn't he?"

  "No, but he's not drugged. He's cuffed and taped. Billy had to hit him when we boarded this tub. I had my hands full with the crewmen."

  "Are they below with Bond?"

  "Yeah. Dead. Had to shoot the big dumb bastards. Sorry about that," Cindy said, with a smile that belied her words.

  "It's okay. They probably didn't know much. Take Billy back to the villa in case we need him to look for something ashore, then you bring the RIB back and catch up with us."

  "You and Alex going to wait here?"

  "No. We'll head out toward the wreck site. You should be able to catch us before we get there."

  "Right. No problem." She flipped him a casual salute and turned toward the RIB. "C'mon, Billy. Move your ass," she barked over her shoulder.

  Hart and Meyers watched for a moment as the RIB pulled away, Cindy at the controls. Meyers chuckled and shook his head. "She's a piece of work."

  "She's good," Hart said. "Where'd she come from?"

  "IDF commando. She's been around the block."

  "Good-looking woman," Hart said. "You ever ... "

  "No way. You know my views on that. Besides, I'm not sure I'd want to take the risk of pissing her off, professionalism aside."

  "Yeah. She's pretty cold. I think Billy might have sampled that, though."

  "Stupid shit. He might have. You said he had something to say about working for a woman, early on."

  "Yeah. I warned her about his attitude before I put them out together."

  "What did she say?"

  "Shook her head and smiled. Next time I saw them, he was following her around like a puppy."

  "You ask her what she did?"

  "Not me. Whatever it was, it worked. That's all I care about."

  "Smart man, Hart. Let's get this boat moving. We've got treasure to find."

  ****

  "Clarence has Midnight Thunder and the stealth chopper tied up down in Central America," Phillip reported. "So he can fly me up there in one of the helicopters from his sightseeing business this afternoon, but we'd have to go through customs formalities, so I can't really bring you any weapons."

  "Well, not that we wouldn't love to see you, but you might as well wait. Any ideas on where we can find a couple of silenced pistols in a hurry?" Dani asked.

  "How big a hurry?"

  "I heard from my man Samuel; we're pretty sure they're holding Yates in the villa that Bright Star rented, so we're ready to move. We've already set up in the villa that Yates rented; Marilyn had an extra key. That puts us in sight of their place, just across the fairway between the docks."

  "Okay. The cavalry's coming; remember Marie Lacroix?"

  "The woman Clarence sent to Deshaies to impersonate our charter guest when that stalker was after us?"

  "That's the one. She's just come off an operation she was running. She and two guys left La Boucan on the north end of Guadeloupe in a go-fast boat right before I called you. They should be off English Harbour in less than 30 minutes."

  "Great. I'll take the dinghy out and meet her outside the limit."

  "That's good; they aren't exactly in a position to clear into Antigua — they've been running black since they left Martinique a couple of days ago."

  "My kind of woman. I'll take the satellite phone."

  "Good. I already gave her that number. I'll let her know you're meeting her as soon as we hang up."

  "Thanks, Phillip. Time's wasting."

  "See you tomorrow. Good hunting, and try to save Meyers for me and Denardo."

  "That'll be up to him. Gotta run."

  Chapter 34

  "You said the layout of the villa's a mirror image of this one?" Marie asked. They were sitting around the dining table in Yates's villa.

  "Roughly. There are minor variations," Liz said. "Here's the floor plan sketch for that model." She slid a sales brochure across the coffee table.

  "Phillip emailed pictures of Meyers and Hart. Any idea who else might be there besides Yates?" Marie asked.

  Dani shook her head. "We know there's a woman — strawberry blond, short hair, average build, and at least one other guy on their team. The woman pulled the RIB up to the dock a little while ago and dropped off one guy; he went inside and she left. We've been watching the place for about an hour, but there's no sign of life."

  "Okay, so what's the plan?" Marie said, reaching into the small duffle bag she carried over her shoulder and pulling out two silenced, semiautomatic pistols. She handed one to Dani and one to Liz as Marilyn looked on, tension in her face.

  Dani said, "We'll approach on foot. You and I will go in the front door; we'll walk along the road out front from here to there. It's maybe 200 meters. Left out of the front door here, first left, next left. It's the third unit on the left side after that. Liz will walk along the dock like she's checking out the boats and go in the sliding glass door from the patio. We'll be able to see her between the units. At the last opening between buildings, I'll give her a wave, and 15 seconds later, we'll go in. Try not
to kill Meyers or Hart. Anyone else is fair game. I haven't figured out how to clean up yet, though, so try to make it neat."

  "Door locks?" Marie asked.

  "We'll use the pistol butts to break the glass if they're locked. They don't have deadbolts in these places," Dani said.

  "Anything else?"

  "Yes," Dani said. "I'll open the front door and go high and left. You dive and roll low and right, okay?"

  "Yes. Perfect."

  They were silent for a few seconds, and then Marie spoke. "I'll call my team in after dark for the cleanup; we can dump the trash on the way back across the channel to Guadeloupe," Marie volunteered.

  "Great. Marilyn, you keep my cell phone. Samuel's got people watching for their RIB; I don't want them coming back and surprising us, so call Liz if you hear from him. He knows to expect you to answer." Dani looked at Liz and raised her eyebrows.

  "My cell phone's set to vibrate," Liz said.

  Dani nodded and grinned. "Let's go get 'em."

  ****

  "Everything okay at the villa?" Meyers asked, as Cindy climbed aboard Pisces of Atë and tied off the RIB's tow line at the big boat's stern.

  "Yeah. Billy was going to check in with Ted; let him know he was back. Then he was going up to the grocery store and get them something for dinner, I think."

  "Any sign of people around Yates's villa?"

  "No. Nothing going on there. Vengeance is still on her mooring out in the harbor; no sign of the women."

  "Good. I like it when things are quiet," Meyers said. "Bond's got the wreck marked on his chart plotter. We're going to drop the anchor out there in about half an hour."

  "Okay. You question him yet?"

  "Nah. We decided to let him stew for a while; you can do the honors," Hart said.

  Cindy smiled and nodded. "No stomach for it, Alex?"

  "You're just so much better at it." He grinned.

  "It's the mother thing," Cindy said.

  "You don't look like my mother," Hart said.

  "That's part of why I'm good at it." She smiled, and when Hart looked away from her piercing gaze, she chuckled.

  "Is there something you can give Yates?" Meyers asked.