“Alright, I gotta go fill tanks, I’ll see you later.” The girl’s voice started to fade as she must have been walking back towards her van. “Let me know any updates, okay?”
“Will do. If not I’ll see you at the Fox and Hare tonight,” came Thomas’s reply, followed by the sound of the front door closing.
The van drove off and Anatoly finally breathed again. He got to his knees and surveyed the front of the house. Realising he needed to get closer to see inside, he scrambled to the next shrub and from that to the corner of the bungalow itself. Between him and the front door was a wide window but to get to it would leave him exposed in the front yard. He looked down the side of the home where there were two windows. That part of the house was in shadow and there were shrubs in a flower bed all down the side. He chose the shade and edged along to the first window where he fought the prickly shrub to get a peek inside.
The window lit a living room with a couple of sofas and an open-plan layout to a dining room and the kitchen. Leaning against an island in the kitchen was a slender, dark-skinned girl in her early twenties. He brought up a photograph on his phone and compared it to the girl he could see across the room. Trained to make identifications he ran through a series of checks, looking at individual features rather than the overall appearance. Hairline more than hairstyle, width apart of the eyes, shape of the nose, jawline. Anatoly was confident he’d found Sydney Bodden.
Another woman stepped into view. She was good looking, curvy figured, late forties or early fifties, he estimated. Probably quite the stunner in her earlier years, the younger man thought. Pearl would be flattered by Anatoly’s assessment, but oblivious to the Russian’s surveillance she continued making lunch. The two women appeared to be in conversation but the hurricane-resistant windows blocked all sound efficiently. He noticed Sydney turn and address someone out of his sight, which he assumed must be Thomas. Anatoly looked down at his phone and began typing a text message.
“Come and grab a sandwich you two,” Pearl called across the room and Carlos didn’t hesitate. Thomas followed Carlos to the kitchen, away from the computer, and the cable leading down to the hard drive on the floor. Thomas glanced out the front window as he crossed the living room, noting the usual afternoon scattered clouds were staying away today. Carlos smiled broadly at Pearl, thanked her while he grabbed two sandwiches and wandered back over to the computer.
Anatoly hit send on his phone and peeked back through the window. There was Thomas. He’d joined the two women in the kitchen. Anatoly backed away and scurried through the edge of the garden and back down the road to retrieve the stolen bicycle. Bringing up maps on his phone he dropped a pin to find this location again and studied how to extricate himself from West Bay and return to their hotel. Finally he had something that would make Gurov happy. He’d found the Bodden girl. Now maybe they could use her to locate Rojas and the computer files.
Chapter 33
The police boat pulled up alongside its sister on the far side of the North Sound short of the reef, and again they were lashed together. Mikhail looked at his phone and read a text that appeared.
‘Found the girl. House belongs to Pearl Divers owner I believe, have coordinates. No sign of Rojas.’
Mikhail looked at the logos on the bags now being opened on the deck of the boat and the tee shirt Reg was wearing. They all had Pearl Divers logos. He wished he’d engaged in conversation with the man now, he could have learnt something. It also registered with a degree of concern that the guy diving the wreck well may be hiding the fugitive they’re looking for. If his theory was correct and Sydney Bodden had been aboard this plane and survived just fine, then Carlos Rojas must be alive too.
“You must be Gurov?”
Mikhail looked up and a light, brown-skinned Caymanian man was extending a hand in his direction.
Shaking Roy’s hand, Mikhail replied, “I am Gurov – Detective Whittaker, I assume?”
“Yes sir,” Roy responded, “good to meet you.”
Roy scratched his temple and carried on in a friendly tone, “So being a simple policeman on a tiny island I guess I’m a bit confused…”
Mikhail had been studying Reg now that he knew who he was, but he turned his attention back to Roy.
“How is it that a Russian officer represents the Cuban authorities?” Roy finished and smiled, putting on a credible perplexed look.
“Our governments have many common interests, so we assist in different ways, this is an example,” Mikhail offered politely.
“I see, sounds like a friendly arrangement, probably good for everyone,” Roy continued with the dumb local routine, Reg catching every word.
“But you’re with a geological study group are you not? So you’re not actually with any law enforcement agency, correct? You study rocks and the like?”
Mikhail straightened a little taller and his cheeks flinched ever so slightly, annoyed at the interrogation. “I’m actually a marine biologist but I assure you I have the authority to represent the Republic of Cuba, Mr. Whittaker.”
Roy smiled again. “I have no doubt sir, that’s what I was told. I’m just trying to get an understanding of how things work in other places, you know, broaden my awareness of foreign cultures.”
Mikhail nodded, relieved this local paper pusher was done with his questions and moved towards Reg, hoping to start over with him. But Roy wasn’t quite finished.
“Hell of a coincidence you guys rolling in here last night in your boat, probably less than twenty-four hours after this plane here crashed into our island, huh? Strange time to be on the water, or especially in the air, when a storm is going on like that.”
Mikhail turned back and sighed impatiently. “We must presume the thief stole the plane once he knew we’d left port for our voyage here.”
Roy kept digging. “Why would a man stealing an aeroplane fly it to the location he knew the company he stole it from was heading?”
Mikhail turned away with clenched teeth. “When we drag his body from your bay here maybe we can ask him. Until then how about your men get on with their job of returning our cargo to us?”
Reg had his wetsuit pulled up around his waist and his shirt off. At sixty-four he was still in great shape and he stood the same height as the Russian. Stepping in front of Gurov with his broad chest puffed out a little he spoke in a calm but firm voice, “If you’d like to step to the other boat right now you’re the only thing in the way of us doing our job.”
Mikhail fumed inside but simply stared through his aviators eye to eye with Reg. This wasn’t the time. Deciding to let it go for now, Mikhail walked around Reg and his gear and stepped over to the other boat. He caught Roy giving Reg a wink.
The Russian was frustrated simply due to the time restraints he was under, but he actually appreciated both men. The policeman was doing his job and his suspicions were accurate, albeit inconvenient. Reg, he could tell, was a military man like himself and his first impression was of someone quite capable physically and mentally. Mikhail enjoyed a good adversary and these two would keep him on his toes he was sure. He watched them carefully from the other boat.
The swells had lain down a step further and visibility had improved again as the two men made their second dive of the day on the seaplane wreck. The surge was easing so the fuselage was no longer being rocked and bashed against the coral head. The cases were unwieldy but actually quite buoyant as they were sealed full of air. The professional waterproof containers were holding up well and as Reg suspected they didn’t really need lift bags to float them as they hadn’t flooded. He dragged the first one out across the folded seat through the door opening and George helped him rest it on the side of the plane which was facing the surface. George tied the deflated lift bag around the handle then Reg took the regulator from his mouth and, using the purge valve, blew air inside the lift bag. The bag filled out like a bright yellow balloon and rose up immediately, tugging on the handle of the case. From thirty feet down it only took a few secon
ds for it to pop to the surface and the men heard the swooshing of a prop in the water and the drone of an outboard engine as the police boat promptly swept in and retrieved the case.
The two divers repeated the process for the other three cases, which were all a similar size, and had fortunately remained watertight. With the interior now cleared Reg was able to wriggle inside and cram himself into the back of the cabin to search for anything else pertinent or useful. He was barely able to turn around in the restricted space that tapered even tighter towards the tail. He thought again about flying this small plane through the violent storm and then being trapped inside it as it went down in the pitch-black night. Reg had been in some terrifying situations as a navy and then commercial diver, crazy depths, zero visibility, deep inside wrecks, aggressive creatures, you name it, but imagining the two kids’ perilous trip still gave him the willies. Finding nothing of consequence, Reg was happy to extricate himself from the plane so he and George could surface.
Motoring back through the cut to the North Sound, Reg could see at least five or six boats making search patterns. Several were police craft but they only had a handful of marine units so they’d called in some reserve boats, owned by people like Reg who helped when needed. Of course a pang of guilt shot through Reg as he realised again how he wasn’t actually helping but deliberately stalling the operation. With George along the whole time, he still hadn’t spoken to AJ or Pearl but he knew they’d text or call if anything major happened.
They tied up once again and as soon as he could step aboard the Russian sprang over and beelined for the cases.
“Hold up a minute there fella!” Roy shouted. “Those are evidence and need to be processed appropriately.”
The officer from the CIAA stood next to Roy nodding knowingly.
Mikhail wheeled around. “These belong to the Republic of Cuba and contain important information, I need to check them immediately.”
Roy stood firm. “What you think you need and what we’re going to do here may not be aligned Mr. Gurov.” For reinforcement both the police boat captains made their presence felt and Mikhail noticed they were both armed, which they hadn’t been earlier.
Roy continued, “Once we’ve logged the evidence in, photographed it and CIAA have cleared us, we’ll hand them over. Should be by sometime in the morning I’d say.” Roy stood with his hands on his hips staring at the Russian with a polite smile.
Mikhail weighed his options, which didn’t take long. He was in no position to do much. He had no idea how many cases Carlos took or exactly what was in them. He was sure at least some of these had been in the plane before it was stolen but now they could contain the charts and hard drive. Did they crash the plane or abandon it? He had to see inside the cases to know if they contained the evidence or not.
“As you wish, Mr. Whittaker.” Mikhail relented and turned to Reg, “This was everything in the plane, you searched completely?”
Reg grinned and replied offhandedly, “Sure.”
That hardly felt like reassurance but it did reinforce Mikhail’s theory Reg was part of whatever help Rojas was getting on the island; he was certainly not helping expedite the return of the evidence. Mikhail wanted to stare Reg down but the Englishman went about sorting his gear and ignored him so he was forced to address Roy again. “Perhaps you’d be so kind as to return me to the dock then as I can accomplish nothing here.”
“Be happy to,” Roy replied cheerfully, “No problem at all.”
Chapter 34
Pearl beetled about the house getting her gear ready for her gig later in the evening. She liked to be organised and have everything ready as Reg had a habit of being late, causing them to be in a panic to make it to the pub and be ready for her first set at seven. As much as he adored hearing her play he was always helping somebody with something that couldn’t wait and he’d wind up in a rush. Pearl was more the get ready early and relax type. She was half expecting things to run late with Roy on the North Sound as they were looking for a body after all, not the kind of thing you knocked off early and call it a night for, so she assumed they’d keep searching until dark. That was around seven o’clock this time of year hence the expectation that she’d be getting herself over to the Fox and Hare. Half six she decided, if he’s not home by then I’m leaving and he can meet me there. As she finished that thought a piercing squeal came from the living room. Pearl rushed in to find Sydney and Carlos huddled around the computer babbling excitedly.
“What’s going on?” Pearl asked.
Sydney leapt up from the chair and threw her arms in the air. “I’m in, I cracked it!”
She scurried over to Pearl and gave her a big hug. “The trick was hacking in to become administrator, that was the hard part; once I got that it was simple to reset all the security protocols and I was in!”
“Sweetie, I’ve no idea what you’re saying but I knew you could do it.” Pearl gave her a big squeeze and her ample bosom just about pushed all the air out of Sydney’s lungs. “So let’s see what you’ve been telling us about on these files.” Pearl released her bear hug and they joined Carlos.
“Here are the maps and charts they are going to show the world; they have it in this PowerPoint presentation,” Carlos explained eagerly, bringing a map of the south-east part of Cuba up on screen. “See, it shows the oil deposits here, the drilling platforms they will place here,” he pointed to an area along an archipelago labelled Jardines de la Reina. “And here in orange are the reef areas impacted by the construction of the platforms, the running of the pipelines and the boat traffic supporting all this. See how it’s small areas of orange surrounding the platforms and a narrow strip where the pipeline cuts through the islands towards the mainland. Now, I’ll open the map they don’t want anyone to see.”
Carlos selected a different file and a new map of the same area opened with vastly different colouring. The orange sections were ten times the size and he pointed to a wide strip that didn’t appear on the first map running along the island chain. “This is the pipeline that runs between all the platforms right on top of the reef. Why?”
He turned and looked at the girls, his eyes alive with anger. “Because it’s cheaper, that’s why! They run the pipes in the shallows here or they have to run them in open ocean much deeper which costs more money so they choose to destroy the reef!”
Sydney rested a soothing hand on her boyfriend’s shoulder. “This is what the world needs to see.”
“Also,” Carlos carried on, “there are emails I have copies of…” He paused while he clicked until he opened what he was looking for. “Here…” An email opened, written in Spanish, and Carlos looked at Pearl before he realised she probably didn’t read Spanish. “Sorry, I’ll tell you what it says.”
Pearl surprised him. “I can read it, it’s from a Russian fella that’s saying see the attached spreadsheet, it shows the cost breakdowns between options…” She points to a word she’s not sure about.
“It means ‘strongly recommend’, which is this guy’s way of saying do it the way I say or Russia won’t pay for it,” Carlos translated for her.
The door from the garage into the kitchen opened and AJ’s voice echoed through the house, “It’s just me.”
Pearl called back, “Good timing. Sydney did it, we’re looking at the files now.”
AJ joined them all huddled around Reg’s little fifteen-inch monitor. “Nice going Sydney! Where’s your brother?”
“He went home to clean up,” Sydney replied.
“Well, let’s see what you have,” AJ asked keenly.
Carlos went back over the maps and email, explaining everything they showed to AJ while Pearl sent Reg a text to let him know they’d made progress.
“Reg says they’re continuing the body search along the reef,” Pearl read from her phone. They all looked at Carlos.
“Pretty weird, there’s probably a hundred people looking for your dead body right now!” AJ said with an amused smile.
Carlos di
dn’t smile. “And a Russian that wants to make sure I end up that way.”
Pearl ruffled his hair, “Don’t worry, we won’t let anything happen to you.”
AJ remembered, “We saw your trawler slash research boat today, they’re moored off the harbour, does that mean your Russian guy is here?”
“He’s here,” Pearl added. “I told Carlos earlier Reg had the pleasure of spending some time with him today, he could only text but he said he’s all over getting the cases from the plane.”
AJ continued, “We have the evidence now, why don’t we contact Whittaker and tell him everything? No reason to keep hiding from the authorities, he’s not just going to hand you over…”
Carlos cut AJ off, “No way, not yet! I can’t talk to the press from a jail cell, we have to see this through. Can you contact your boyfriend?”
AJ shook her head, more at the not telling Whittaker part than the boyfriend comment. Since their call she was feeling more like she did have her boyfriend back and was still annoyed at herself for doubting, especially as apparently he hadn’t been.
“Yes, yes I can try and reach him.” AJ dialled a number in the Internet video chat app on her mobile and they waited while it took forever to make a connection and start ringing.
After some dinging and fuzziness Jackson’s face finally appeared on the screen and his voice was clear, “Hey there beautiful,” he said in his mellow tone with a big smile.
Instantly blushing, AJ quickly halted him. “Gotcha on speaker phone with a room full of people so keep it PG, okay!”
Jackson laughed and Sydney tipped the phone around so she could see him. “Oooh, he’s dishy! Hi Jackson!”
“Alright, alright, enough playing about.” AJ pulled the phone, back turning even redder. “Jackson, this is Sydney, Carlos, and Pearl who you met when you were here.” She rotated the screen around while everyone said hello.
Gardens of the Queen Page 11
