Falling Darkness--A Novel of Romantic Suspense

by Karen Harper

  Nick said, “Stick close to the building. Nothing overhead so far, but we have to get out of this alley before those goons with guns find us.”

  “Gina,” Heck said, “I didn’t mean to get you in all this. You want to go, go, in case they catch us.”

  “I’m with you. No going back.”

  As they sprinted around the corner and then slowed so they wouldn’t draw attention, those last words echoed in Claire’s mind. No going back. “We need to mingle with the crowds on the Malecon, get lost,” Jace said. “Split up into small groups but keep in sight of each other. Stroll, not run. Maybe we can get a couple taxis.”

  “How about we go back to my parents?” Gina asked. “I would want to say goodbye if I can escape with you. Please, let me go too. My father could help with his boat, but we cannot put them in danger.”

  “We have another contact that may help us,” Nick said. “Someone on our side.”

  Claire thought he still didn’t trust Gina. But could they trust anyone on this island, except Gina’s parents? Well, surely the marines at distant Guantanamo miles and hours away. And Gina’s home was in the opposite direction.

  * * *

  Jace tried not to keep looking back. Anyway, once they blended in with the strolling crowd, he felt calmer. As they slowed their pace, he tried to catch his breath. But his heartbeat kicked up again when three police cars screamed past, heading for the hotel. At least the guys dressed in business suits with guns Nick said he’d spotted were nowhere to be seen.

  They stopped under a thick fica tree with the seawall and crashing water on the rocks behind them.

  Jace said, “Don’t we need to cross the street to get taxis heading east?”

  “East?” Gina said. “Costa Blanca is west.”

  “We’re going to trust Gina to keep our secret and her father to help us,” Nick announced. He was holding Lexi and her green whale again. Claire had seen Jace reach for the girl, but Nick had hung on to her.

  Jace asked, “You mean hire him to get us where we want to go?”

  “That’s what I’m thinking. But, Gina, will he balk taking us to a rendezvous spot, if it means maybe losing you?”

  “Rendezvous with who? Another boat? I can ask him, beg him, tell him it’s my chance, but my mother... After losing Alfredito... I will not tell my mother and will only tell him at the last minute. We could take the bus again.”

  “No,” Nick said, “we could be trapped in a net that way, if they set up a roadblock or come on board. Let’s move on down farther into the crowd, line up for two taxis. Change I got for Meggie’s whale, even if it’s in pesetas, should get us a good ride. Let’s go before they search the crowd.”

  Jace got them one taxi—a two-tone Ford Fairlane Skyliner, it was called. How he wished it was a flying skyliner and he was at the controls, getting them all out of here. The one Heck hailed was an old Cadillac Fleetwood.

  Nick, Claire, Jace and Lexi piled in the Ford with Nita to translate while Bronco, Heck and Gina took the Cadillac. Heck had the money for their taxi. “He say he can go only far as Costa Blanca, so he gets back near dark,” Nita translated what the cabbie said to her.

  “Tell him that will do,” Nick said.

  But as they pulled away, and the engine seemed to cough, Jace wasn’t so sure. And he really got shook when he saw two Cuban policemen emerge from the crowd they’d just left and point after them.

  “We’d better change taxis,” he told Nick. “The boys back there may have spotted us.”

  “Let’s get a ways out, off the main drag. Lorena, ask him if he can pull off in a block or two and signal so the taxi behind us does too.”

  She asked, then translated back. “He have to charge you more, half of what you promise him.”

  “Tell him to do it. And I’m giving him a tip with a tip. If he’s stopped, not to say where he heard we were going.”

  “Tell him,” Lexi spoke up, though Jace had been grateful she’d kept quiet so far, “this is a whale, but sharks are after us, ever since the water.”

  “Meggie, not now,” Claire said to their girl and hugged her, but it wasn’t enough to shut the child up.

  “If he doesn’t listen to me, Lily will do something really scary.”

  Claire put two fingers over Lexi’s lips as their cab blinked its lights and pulled off into a side street with the other right behind it.

  * * *

  Nick knew this plan changing taxis he’d hatched so suddenly was a big gamble, but he was afraid to flee straight for Guantanamo. Basically, there was just one main road along the coast that went both east and west. It was possible that the Cuban government had intercepted and decoded the emails and knew they’d be headed toward Gitmo. Or had Ames’s people followed Heck and Gina because they looked suspicious outside Ames’s Havana hacienda—and they’d called the police? Those guys in business suits with guns loose in a huge hotel—pure amoral Ames.

  But could they make it to Gina’s house in these two different taxis? His neck was about to break from craning around to watch behind them all the time, and he saw Heck doing the same in the taxi following. If the police located their original taxis, what would the drivers tell them?

  But they had no choice, he agonized silently, trying to keep calm. Hitchhiking like they’d seen people do here was ridiculous. Risking the bus? Walking forty miles to Costa Blanca—impossible. The thing was, even if they got back to Nando and Carlita’s house, would that old fishing boat get them clear to the other end of the island? Was it his imagination or were those dark clouds ahead and not just the sharp shadows of sunset?

  * * *

  By the time they reached Costa Blanca and got out of their taxis to walk the rest of the way to Gina’s house, Claire saw the sun had disappeared in a blinding burst of crimson and gold that was soon devoured by storm clouds on the horizon. Since Gina had decided not to tell her mother she was leaving and to only tell her father just before he got them as far east as he could, she’d been scribbling them a note to explain, to promise she’d be back, that she’d send them money and love them always.

  The distraught woman had used her backpack for a makeshift desk on her knees. Jace sat in front beside the driver, and Gina was wedged in next to Claire in the backseat with Lexi in the middle asleep and Nick on the far side. More than once, in tears, though she was writing in Spanish, Gina had whispered to Claire what she was telling her parents.

  Strange, but Claire was coming to trust her now like Heck did and Nick still didn’t. So far, Gina didn’t know their destination was the place her country hated, American-held Guantanamo. And Gina wasn’t the only one in tears. Claire was too, and her well-honed forensic psychologist instincts—and her woman’s intuition—told her they could trust Gina.

  Since they apparently had not been followed, they thought they were momentarily safe in Costa Blanca. Yet rather than burst in on Gina’s parents and risk getting caught there, they hiked to Gina’s house outside town and sent Gina and Heck in while they waited outside in the windy darkness. Claire carried the whale now while Nick and Jace took turns holding the sleeping Lexi. If only, Claire thought, as she took her narcolepsy pill in the dark with a swig from Nita’s water bottle, Lexi’s dad and stepdad could learn to share the child like that.

  They heard footsteps in the darkness. Then Gina, Heck and Nando rounded the corner where they waited, huddled like the refugees they were.

  “He will help you,” Gina told them, “but it have to be at dawn he picks you up in Alfredito because of the rocks. Berto and I take you to the spot you waited before. Mamacita, she say you already pay for much gasoline, a fortune she found in her little jar.”

  Claire blinked back more tears. Fifty dollars was a fortune? She knew Nick would insist on paying more, and he only had big bills left.

  Nick said, “Berto and Gina, does
Nando understand we need to go clear to the other end of the island?”

  Heck translated for the old man, then explained, “He swear on his son’s soul he get you close as he can. He say there nice little beaches along there to put in. I think he guess where you going but did not say so. He does it for Gina since I told him I come back for her someday.”

  Nando nodded through all that, so Claire wondered if he knew what was being said. He might have guessed where they were going, but he’d hardly figured out that his last remaining child intended to go with them.

  Claire wiped her tears on the stuffed whale, remembering the last time she’d seen her mother, her father too, though they’d lost him far earlier. She was so exhausted she was losing control. What if she regressed, had a narcoleptic nightmare or, worse, had her muscles lock so she couldn’t move, couldn’t keep up? Would they carry her too?

  “Come on,” Gina said, patting Lexi’s lolling head as she slept, then pecking a kiss on her father’s cheek. “I have a lantern, and I’ll lead the way, stay with you the night while Papa goes back in. The breeze is picking up, but we will pray it doesn’t rain on us, yes? Berto has a piece of plastic we can get under, extra one from the fishing boat. Come on, then, and we all get away. Berto says he cannot tell me where we meet that other ship, but we will find it tomorrow.”

  Claire thought Gina must know too, unless she thought that some boat or pontoon plane would meet them offshore. After all, they were headed for an American navy base in hostile territory, crawling with marines. Worse, Gina had no clue she was leaving her homeland with people who were not who they said they were. She’d be stuck on a snowbound island in Northern Michigan for much of a brutal winter. But Gina had cast her lot with them, with Heck, and they owed her for her help. Together, they were safe so far.

  As they started off down the dark road, following Gina, Claire held hard to the stuffed whale as if it was her lifeline instead of Lexi’s. Jace carried the child, and Nick steadied Claire with a strong hand on her upper arm. She knew she’d messed up the timing on her meds, which needed to be taken regularly. Was any of this even real? How she wished it was all some dreadful nightmare and she’d wake up next to Nick in Naples. But dangers had lurked there too, thanks to their other murder/suicide investigations—and thanks to that monster, Clayton Ames, who still haunted them here.

  She fought to keep her balance as they went single file down the twisting path toward the now-familiar stretch of beach. Along the shore, the waves were whispering a warning, hissing at her. Dizzy, light-headed and scared, she thought for a moment she was plunging into the ocean again, bouncing, as their plane belly-landed and sank. She was in the rocking lifeboat. She was being followed by men with guns and by a stone woman who held a dead baby in her arms and stared at her—and that woman was her!

  Was she looking in a marble mirror? She saw a woman there who loved two men. And most frightening of all, as her feet slipped in the shoreside sand, she knew she had not only her child with her but was growing one inside her too.

  9

  Claire and Nita huddled next to Lexi under the plastic tarp while the four men took turns keeping watch. The wind had picked up, and Claire prayed it wouldn’t keep Nando and that old fishing boat from reaching them. But in the windy, drizzling dawn, the Alfredito appeared, and they waded out.

  He’d brought them bread, rice and beans and guava juice, but it was pretty rocky to eat. Lexi nibbled at the bread, and Claire forced herself to drink the guava juice and chew on some of the crusty loaf. She felt she was eating for two now but still wondered when to tell Nick. Did they even have good prenatal care on Mackinac Island, if they ever got there?

  She could not fathom having a baby here in Cuba, especially not if they were caught or imprisoned. Gina had mentioned to Nick that government critics used to get prison terms of thirty years. Rob Patterson had told him that, even if they were exposed in Michigan, he’d have to deny he knew them, to say that they had run and hidden on their own. So if they were captured here, whatever would become of them?

  At least they were traveling with the wind, not against it. Claire saw Gina hung tight with her father. Maybe these were her last hours with him. Like them, she’d brought next to nothing with her, only a backpack full of medical textbooks, probably dated ones and in Spanish. Claire not only trusted Gina now, but admired her too.

  Nando kept up a running commentary on towns ashore as well as spots to catch certain types of fish. They passed Havana Harbor midmorning, when he offered everyone food again. Lexi took nothing this time and stayed under the plastic on the deck in a fetal position curled around the wet stuffed whale. Claire tried to comfort her, but at least Lily wasn’t making an appearance now. She vowed silently to work on counseling her to put Lily permanently to rest.

  Late afternoon, Nando pointed at the horizon. They looked and saw black smoke rising. Gina said, “Burning the sugarcane fields to harvest it faster. It doesn’t hurt the crop and helps the workers get rid of all the extra trash and just leaves the canes.”

  Claire could see Gina was increasingly nervous. It wasn’t just the hovering storm clouds, nor the fact her father had said he’d brought an anchor and would spend the night in a shallow bay before heading home at dawn again. The time was coming for Gina to tell him she wasn’t going back. Would he let the rest of them out safely then?

  Nita chatted with Nando while Heck took Gina aft and explained where they were really headed. Nick had also given Heck permission to explain their real story and the need for their false names. Claire saw that Gina nodded, though she frowned through it all and looked distraught. So would she still want to go with them?

  Claire’s stomach knotted even tighter. Heck was steadying Gina with his arm around her shaking shoulders. Claire got to her feet on the rocking boat and walked unsteadily toward them.

  “Gina,” she said, taking her hands in her own, “I just want you to know we owe you our lives. I’ve had to make some desperate decisions too, take a step into a storm when I wasn’t sure what was coming. I had to decide to cast my lot with the man I loved. Can I or anyone, besides Heck here, who obviously loved you at first sight, do anything to help? Can we help you tell your father? I know you’re worried about Carlita, but I promise you, whether Cuba opens up to America in the future or not, my husband and I will be your friends as well as this man whom you first knew as Berto.”

  To Claire’s surprise, Gina hugged her. She sniffed back her tears and squared her shoulders. She nodded and stepped away to speak to her father, gesturing broadly, pointing, giving him the note from her backpack. Heck waited next to Claire, while everyone else watched furtively and silently. Nando shook his head and sounded angry but he turned Alfredito toward a small cove, just as—a good omen?—the sun came out.

  With tears streaming down his brown, weathered cheeks, Nando idled the engine in the cove. Too much pain and loss lately, Claire thought. But what bravery, and she had to show that too.

  Each of them hugged Nando as Jace and Bronco climbed over the side first to test the depth of the water, then helped the others down, all but Gina. Nick had left two hundred-dollar bills in the plastic carrier with the food. Heck finally climbed down but stayed where he was in the chest-deep water by the prow, holding Gina’s backpack above his head, while the rest of them slogged to shore. Nita lifted Lexi’s whale, and Claire held her purse above her head, to keep her meds dry.

  On the narrow strip of white sand, they held their breath to see what Nando and Gina would do.

  Still in the boat, she gestured, talked, cried. Nando shook his head and yelled. They thought he might keep her on board, just put out, but Gina hugged him, holding hard. For one moment again, it looked as if Nando would turn the boat away, but they saw him kiss her forehead, cross himself and shout something over the side to Heck as Gina ran to the rail and scrambled down the netting.

  Nando w
as still yelling at Heck, who yelled back as he and Gina waded toward shore. Nick went out to help them, taking the backpack from Heck, trying to steady Gina with a hand on her arm while Heck had his arm around her waist.

  “He’s not going to just stay there or report us, is he?” Nick asked. “What did he say?”

  “He said he have my head and haunt me forever if I not take good care of her, marry her. And if Cuba and the US make a deal in the future, I swear to him by the Holy Virgin I bring her back to visit.”

  Claire broke into tears again as Nando finally gunned his feeble motor and moved slowly away, not looking back. Yet they all stood there waving as if he’d just dropped them off at the safest, sweetest vacation spot in the world.

  “Let’s see if we can get there,” Nick said. “According to Gina, Guantanamo can’t be but a few miles beyond this point.”

  “You knew?” Jace asked her.

  She nodded. “I think my father—he knew too where you are going.” She shoved her wild hair back from her face and asked, “But aren’t we waiting for a boat or a helicopter to come and look for us?”

  “We’ve got a little hike ahead,” Nick said, speaking to all of them now.

  His arms crossed over his chest, Bronco frowned at the area where they stood as if the Cuban police or Ames’s men would appear again. Nita reached for his hand, and Lexi finally spoke. “Lily is really hungry and tired, and she still wants to go home.”

  “So let’s do that. Listen up, everyone,” Nick said, jamming onto his face the sunglasses Gina had bargained for on the bus, which now seemed to Claire like an eternity ago. “We are going to the US but we have to get to the American base at Guantanamo Bay first. As far as Jace and I can tell, we have maybe an hour or so walk to freedom. And we need to do it before the sun sets.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Bronco said with a shrug and the first smile Claire had seen from him here. “I lost one of my shoes in the water, but I don’t care. Let’s go ’fore it gets dark or rains again or someone spots us. We get close to the town, we can blend in til we reach the base.”