When we walked into Alfredo Maggio’s office, I couldn’t help but be awed by the view outside the window. Deuce was sitting in Maggio’s chair behind the desk, his Sig laying on the desk right in front of him, and the older man was seated in front of it. I shoved Nick down into the other chair as Deuce got up. I walked behind the desk and sat down.
Looking from one man to the other, I snarled, “Your greed has caused the death of nearly ten people. All but one were just as dirty and greedy as you two.”
Nick started to say something, but Alfredo cut him off. “Shut up, Nick.”
“Now that’s smart,” I said. “Probably the only smart thing either of you has done in a week.”
Looking at the older man, I said, “Do you know who we are?”
“Agent Livingston has identified himself,” Alfredo replied.
“I’m Eve’s dad,” I said, letting it hang there for a minute.
Finally, I said, “I can’t help but wonder. What would you have done to us, if your plan had worked?”
Both men stared at me. “Never mind,” I said. “Fifty million bucks will make a man do just about anything. You see, the problem we had was that we couldn’t think like you. A friend pointed that out to me a couple of days ago. You’re criminals and my mind doesn’t work the same way yours does.”
Again, Nick began to speak. I leveled his own gun on him and cocked it. “If you say one damned thing, I’m liable to start, though.”
He changed his mind about whatever he was going to say and I continued, “You two made some pretty stupid mistakes. Not the least of which was not knowing the type of people you were trying to steal from. My friend here works for the federal government. I work for him, along with about thirty others.”
I opened the cylinder on Nick’s .38 and dumped the cartridges in my hand, transferring them to my pocket. I tossed Nick the gun and said, “Our job is to protect the American public from scum like you. You see my predicament, don’t you?”
I looked to the elder Maggio. “Your son is married to my daughter, who will soon give birth to our grandchild.”
Maggio looked down at his lap and I continued, “We did a complete background check on you, your son, and this firm. We had analysts scouring every document that’s ever been produced in this office and every case either of you have handled, individually and collectively. We know when you became criminals and it wasn’t that long ago, was it?”
“No,” Alfredo said. “It wasn’t.”
“Here’s the deal,” Deuce said. “Against my better judgment and in deference to Jesse’s relationship, you two get a second chance. Each of you now have a ten-million-dollar life insurance policy, naming Eve McDermitt Maggio as the sole beneficiary. Compliments of the man in front of you. If you take this deal, you’ll both live to be old men. If you don’t, or if you stray just a little bit off the straight and narrow, there won’t be any arrests made. No lawyers. No Miranda rights. No trial. You won’t see us coming. And you won’t live to be old men.”
“From now on,” I said, “you won’t be representing degenerate scum like Madic. The only cases you’ll take will be for the betterment of the community. You’ll take pro bono cases whenever someone needs help. You’ll become fine, upstanding citizens even if you never get rich. If you don’t, we’ll know. You’re not to speak a word of this to anyone.”
“How do we know you can do all these things?” Alfredo asked.
Deuce reached over and turned the phone to Alfredo. “Dial information and ask to be connected to the Department of Homeland Security in Washington.” I looked up at Deuce and he winked. Maggio reached for the phone and dialed. “When you’re connected, ask for Associate Director Stockwell’s office and put it on speaker.”
Once he asked for Stockwell, he punched a button and put the phone back in the cradle.
“Travis Stockwell,” a familiar voice said over the speaker.
“Hi, Colonel,” I said.
“Jesse! How are things in the Keys? President Bush asked me when you were going to take him fishing again.”
“Anytime the President wishes, sir.”
“I assume Deuce is there with you?”
“Yes, sir,” I replied.
“Am I also to assume that your son-in-law and his father are seated there, as well?”
“Yes, sir,” Deuce replied.
“Good evening, Misters Maggio,” Stockwell said. “My name is Colonel Travis Stockwell, US Army, retired. Deuce and Jesse are part of a very elite anti-terrorist group that I’m in charge of. Deuce asked me to take this call and against my better judgment, well, here we are. The two men in front of you are two of the most dangerous men employed by our government. I bet you didn’t know that, did you?”
“No, sir,” Alfredo said. “We did not.”
“Either or both of these men can end someone’s life very quickly, or in some very slow and unpleasant ways. And I can have the whole matter completely swept under the rug. Permanently. I hope I make myself clear. Do I?”
“Yes, sir,” Alfredo said, again speaking for both of them.
“Good,” Stockwell said. “Deuce, Jesse, I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
“Have a good evening, sir,” Deuce said and reached over to end the call.
“We’re going to leave you two to talk about your future,” Deuce said and headed toward the door.
I got up and followed after him. Waiting for the elevator, I turned to Deuce and said, “How’d you arrange that?”
He just shrugged and said, “He likes you.”
“And what was that crap about seeing him tomorrow?”
“Call Kim,” he said. “Tell her to meet us at zero eight hundred where El Cazador is docked. And tell her to pack a bag.”
Epilogue
Stockwell met us the next morning at the dock. Kim arrived just minutes after we did and Stockwell gave me the keys to a loaner I could use until I was able to find a replacement for the Revenge. It was a forty-six-foot Viking convertible, only a year old. Though not as fast as the Revenge, it was very well laid out and handled great.
I contacted the guy that Deuce’s dad and I had gone through many years ago to unload some silver bars we’d found, and arranged to sell the emeralds. After a lot of back and forth, he agreed to pay a nice cool million dollars for them. We knew they were worth at least half again as much, but we also knew we wouldn’t be able to get that in a fast turnaround.
The recovery of the treasure on Elbow Cay would continue for weeks. The people running the operation found more treasure scattered a little further offshore and north of where the main cache was located. Apparently, the survivors were unable to recover all of it after they wrecked and what we’d found was only what they were able to recover. In all, the research team found more than a million pesos, twenty-two hundred pounds of gold, and of course the three twenty-pound chests of emeralds, which were on the manifest. The gold and silver was quite a bit more than was reported and they attributed it to being contraband. In all, our ten percent was going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of six million dollars. But we’d have to wait quite a while to get any of it. Well, except for the cool million we got for the contraband emeralds.
Kim and I spent the following few days boat shopping online. I finally found a 2004 forty-five-foot Rampage convertible, almost like the Revenge. It was in Galveston, so we flew over to take a look at it. It had the same monster eighteen-liter Cat engines my old boat had, but the owner had modified them with twin turbo chargers, so they produced nearly twelve hundred horsepower each. On a run out of Galveston Bay, the GPS recorded a top speed of an even fifty knots and the owner said with the twin turbos, forty knots was a good economical speed. The interior and bridge layout are the same, with a few upgrades, and the hull is a deep, midnight blue. It still needs a few more upgrades and those will come later. After a little haggling, we agreed on a price of four hundred thousand dollars and I bought it on the spot.
The stolen Cigarette from Hope Town
Harbour was recovered in Fort Lauderdale, adrift in the Intracoastal Waterway. Tena Horvac and her briefcase had disappeared, without a trace.
Bradbury and Conner were both turned over to FDLE, arraigned, and released on their own recognizance. Conner immediately disappeared into thin air.
Linda Rosales was promoted and transferred to a desk job in Miami. She came down to Marathon the weekend Kim and I returned from Galveston and we took her out fishing. Kim was fast becoming a very good First Mate and we started taking out charters again aboard Gaspar’s Revenge II. As it turned out, Rosales was a pretty good angler in her own right, loved to swim and ran five miles a day on the beaches of Miami. On her weekends off, she came down and stayed with us on the island, bunking with Chyrel.
Chyrel became a one hundred percent island girl, moving out of her apartment in Homestead and into the little bunkhouse on a permanent basis. Between her and the Trents, they enlarged the aquaculture garden and produced more food than we could eat.
Doc was feeling better and better by the day. After putting together a crew, he and Nikki took to the sea. Carl made him Captain and her the First Mate of the Miss Charlie. At least that way, he was sure to be a “home every night” kind of dad, even though home was sometimes out on the Gulf. Everyone agreed that due to the loss of the Revenge, the replacement cost should come off the top, so I was off the hook for the half a million he’d fronted me. The other half million from the emeralds was split equally between everyone, including Rosales. She protested, but Nikki insisted. Once the insurance pays up, I’ll split that with everyone as well.
A week after we got back, Deuce was promoted to Commander. There was no official ceremony, since on the books he was no longer in the Navy. Along with his promotion, he was put in charge of both the team that operated from my island and the team that was going through training at Homestead and would operate out of Key Largo.
Me? I’m just enjoying the time I have with Kim, teaching her about the sea, fishing, and scuba diving. She’s taking flying lessons and I’m still looking for a King Air. Maggio’s Bell was never returned. It’s now officially a Department of Homeland Security aircraft. Eve still thinks I’m a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal, but Kim is slowly convincing her I have other redeeming qualities. Although she doesn’t understand her husband’s new stance on what cases he and his father are now taking and not taking, she’s happy that they are helping others who need it. She’s due any day now.
I spoke to Stockwell and told him that moving forward, I was going to be more concerned with the welfare of my immediate family and there might be times I’d just tell him a flat no. He didn’t like it, but he went along. We found another boat and Captain in Key Largo, a recently retired, salty, old Navy Master Chief who operates a struggling charter fishing business in Lower Key Largo.
The End
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Other books by the author:
Fallen Out: The Beginning
Fallen Palm: Jesse McDermitt Series Vol. 1
Fallen Hunter: Jesse McDermitt Series Vol. 2
Fallen Pride: Jesse McDermitt Series Vol. 3
Fallen Mangrove: Jesse McDermitt Series Vol. 4
Fallen Reef: Jesse McDermitt Series Vol. 5 (Feb, 2015)
Fallen Mangrove (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 5) Page 31
