Lost Witness

by Rebecca Forster

  Yes, Adeano agreed, this was much ado about nothing. The owners, sitting in their fancy offices, gave the captain his discretion with one exception: whatever he decided to do there must be no delay in delivery to Panama. This was a matter of scheduling, freight movement, profit and loss. In that context, Adeano had two choices: allow the Coast Guard to board his ship if it appeared they would not release the vessel in time to reach Panama, or be replaced upon completion of the voyage if he did not meet the schedule.

  Neither of these was a good choice, but the worst would be to allow the Coast Guard access to the Faret Vild. He knew from experience that they were relentless and thorough and no doubt they would find what he, Adeano, could not: drugs and money or both. Then it struck him. What if his passenger was a human trafficker? Bianchi had assumed he was dealing in drugs, or money, or guns, but God help him if there were people in the containers. If that were the case, the Faret Vild might be a floating morgue soon.

  Regarding Adeano's second choice, if he were replaced as captain of the Faret Vild then that was the end of his career. He could not bear the thought of sitting with the old men in the village, disgraced and pitied. He would be obliged to go home to his wife each night since no other woman would want a lover who sat with the old men. And there was always a chance that the dead man's business would follow him. Memories were long when it came to matters of money. One day, as he sat in the sun dozing, a bullet might find its way into his brain as punishment for this scheme gone wrong.

  Unable to rest, having left the watch to Nanda, Adeano decided upon a plan. In frenzy, he made his calculations and concluded that he could still make Panama if the ship left Los Angeles waters by three a.m. the next morning. He would refuse boarding until then and pray that the Coast Guard was not given orders to board by force before that time. If the three o'clock hour came, Adeano would call their bluff and boldly sail the Faret Vild away and pray they were not fired upon. It was a gamble, but one he would take.

  Between now and then he would enlist the help of Guang and Bojan. But what of the rest of the crew? They all knew what was going on; perhaps not the specifics, but they knew enough. None had approached him asking to be taken off the ship, no one had threatened to engage with the Coast Guard to save their own skin, but that could change. Adeano decided that if he enlisted all the crew's help by promising money and favors they would not betray him. And truly, there was little risk. These were not Somali pirates off the ship's bow. This was the U.S. Coast Guard in their fine uniforms and strict adherence to protocol. God help the Americans, but they were a rigid lot who would do nothing without orders.

  The only one of his crew Adeano would not ask for help was Nanda. He had been ready to surrender with the first call to heave to, and that was not good. And then there was Tala Reyes. Adeano truly did not want blood on his hands, but he had reached the conclusion that she must cooperate or disappear. Before he spoke to his crew about this, he would give Reyes a last chance to redeem herself. He called Nanda who informed him that the two cutters remained, one at their bow and one at their stern. Only one had a watch.

  That was a good sign, Adeano said. They were waiting for someone to make a decision, and that someone was probably waiting for others who waited for others. Bureaucracy was a wonderful thing and American's did it very well. Satisfied that he now had time, Adeano went to the space where Guang had moved Tala in anticipation of a boarding.

  This was one of many cabins that had been abandoned as the crew of the Faret Vild shrunk and the ship aged. Often the men used these small rooms to entertain the ladies from the love boats, preferring privacy that their shared cabins did not afford. Guang no longer sat with the woman since she was locked into a room with no way out, and she was healthy enough.

  Adeano opened the door to a small dark space. The porthole was secured, the air was stale, and the dim light from the fixture in the corridor illuminated only a wedge of the dense darkness. Adeano could make out the bulbous shapes of life jackets hanging from the wall, half a dozen metal boxes stacked in the corner. There was a narrow bunk on one side and a net hanging like a hammock from the space above that. Tala Reyes was neither in the bunk or the hammock. Adeano swung his head to the other side of the room. There was a pallet on the floor under a metal overhang that jutted into the interior, making the room smaller still. This piece had no purpose other than to free up space for whatever was on the other side of the wall. Underneath this, Tala Reyes had taken her blanket, thrown it over her head and huddled in a fetal position as if that would protect her.

  Adeano smirked, at the indignity of it all. Had he been left like this, he would have died of shame. He felt her looking at him and it was an evil eye she cast from under the blanket she had pulled over herself. She might have thought he did not know of her attention, but Adeano's senses were sharp and she was no match for him.

  At least that's what Adeano Bianchi told himself as he entered the room. But when he opened his mouth to call her out of hiding, he found that he was wrong. The glint that he assumed came from the hatred in her eyes was nothing more than rivets under the metal shelf that had caught the light. The lump under the blanket was not Tala Reyes at all, it was only another blanket and two life jackets made to look like a person. Tala Reyes was lying in wait behind the door, near enough that she could have gutted him if she had a knife. Instead she lunged at him, crying out like a warrior, wielding a metal club as she attacked.

  Adeano jumped back, flinging out his arm to protect his face as the club crashed down on his forearm. He screamed in surprise, pain, and outrage, but Tala wasted no time on pity. She brought the club down again and again: on his arm, on his back. She aimed for his head, but Adeano ducked. He turned and squirmed in the small space, shouting at her, pushing back only to find she was quick and had changed positions and left him flailing at air.

  Again and again Tala beat him, but she was tiring and Adeano knew it. Her blows were not as strong as they had been at first. Her breath was labored and her balance was off. When one blow glanced off his cheek, it was the last straw. Adeano turned on her in outrage. He grabbed her weapon with one hand and her wrist with another.

  "Bitch! Bitch!" he cried.

  Tala went to her knees, crying out in anguish, defeated. Adeano raised the thing she had hit him with, but stepped back before he brought it down and crushed her skull. As much as he wanted her gone this was not the time, and he did not want to do the deed himself. Grasping her arm tighter, he swung her into the wall, and she collapsed on the floor near the bunks

  "You damn bitch."

  Adeano stepped back, slammed the door shut, and threw the switch. A sickly glow illuminated the space turning everything a yellow/grey. Tala Reyes with her dirty black hair, her swollen eye, her scabby wounds, looked a very nasty thing in such a light.

  "You have hurt my face."

  Adeano touched his cheek. He moved his jaw. He shook his head to clear it. Tala said nothing for there was nothing to say. When he finished checking to make sure that no bones were broken, he gave her his full attention. Any other woman would have been begging for mercy, but not this one. Seeing that, Adeano realized how soft he had become on this old scow. He should have seen the trouble she would cause when he allowed her to sign on as crew. He should have known by the way she presented herself, the way she insisted on boarding the Faret Vild even though she was far too qualified, the way she raised her chin and looked at Nanda as if he were the one who must pass muster. Whatever had brought her to his ship was not good. She had a purpose and he could only surmise that the purpose had something to do with the dead man.

  "You have hurt me, but you are hurt worse. You look like an animal and you smell like one."

  Adeano then looked at the club in his hand. It was metal and tapered at one end. It was hollow. There were four screw holes in the top but no screws. He couldn't imagine where it had come from. He walked the length of the room slowly, using the metal stick to push aside a lifejacket or tap a metal b
ox as he tried to determine where she had found this thing. He snapped it into the palm of his hand now and again, muttering to himself. Adeano cocked his head, touched the end of it to his chin, and finally pointed it at the side of the wall.

  "Oh, you are very clever," he said.

  Adeano waved the piece of metal at the narrow table that was folded up and secured against the wall. It had legs that were designed to fall to the floor when the top was released and fold back up to make room inside this cabin. One leg of the table was missing.

  "How did you remove this? I know you have no tools. If you did - if you had a screwdriver - you would have shoved that into me instead of trying to beat me to death."

  He came back at her again and hunkered down, using the table leg to steady himself.

  "Nothing to say for yourself, Tala?"

  He reached for her face, but before he could touch her Tala Reyes spit on him. Adeano sprang away, disgusted, shocked that she should do such a thing to him, her captain. He swiped at his face and then drew his hand down his trousers to rid himself of her spittle, but still it felt it like slime on his skin. The indignity of her act burned inside of him, and in the next instant he swooped down, took her by the arms, and lifted her off the floor. Tala cried out, but Adeano paid no mind. Even if someone heard, it didn't matter. The crew belonged to him. They would turn a blind eye. They would become deaf.

  Ignoring Tala's wounds and the virgin scabs that broke open and bled at his touch, he threw her under the metal outcropping and onto the pallet. She rolled away; scooting like an animal burrowing into its den. Blood spread across the white bandage on her neck. Adeano raised his foot and his heavy boot landed in the middle of her back. She arched and muffled a cry. He drew his foot up again, but before Adeano landed another blow he turned away, snorting out his frustration and fury.

  He shook his head, drew a hand over his face, and closed his eyes. When he was sufficiently calm, when his anger was tamped down to a mere flicker, he took the one narrow chair in the room, placed it in front of her, and hunched over so he could see all of her in the little cave.

  "I could kill you. I should kill you for all that you have done."

  Adeano waited a beat, hoping to hear a sob from her, a womanly sound that would melt his heart. He heard only her gasps and the grinding of her teeth as she defied him. His head rolled to one side and then the other. It felt too heavy to hold up any longer and yet he must not give in, he must not be defeated. He tried another tack.

  "Tala Reyes if your life means so little to you then remain silent, and I will do what I must. If you want to have a chance to live, you will tell me what I want to know."

  Adeano waited longer than he should have, but he was rewarded for his patience when she spoke.

  "You will kill me no matter what I say," she said.

  "When you stand at hell's door there is always a chance God will take pity if you repent," Adeano said. "I am not God, Tala, but I am as close as you can come to salvation. You see there is trouble. We are all standing at hell's door because they have found my friend. The one you killed."

  "You cannot prove that I killed him," Tala said.

  "Even if you did not kill him, you caused him to be dead. It is the same to me."

  Slowly, hesitantly, Tala rolled over. He could see only the silhouette of her, only the brightness in her dark eyes - one fully open and one just a gash under the swollen lid. While she might be in pain, while she might have tears, her voice was steady.

  "Do you know what kind of man your friend was?" Tala asked.

  Adeano threw back his head. He laughed once before wincing at his own pain, and putting a hand to his cheek where the metal had bruised him.

  "What kind of man he was is not my concern. I do not care what he did to you or anyone else. He and I had business, and you have ruined that. And for what? Because he wanted you? Is that what you will tell me? That he tried to rape you?"

  "No," Tala said.

  "Then I must believe that what happened between you was business too. I would understand that. If this is about his business, then we can settle this right now. You tell me your business with him, and I will tell you mine. Perhaps we can come to an agreement that will please both of us. Perhaps, you and I will do business together."

  "He is dead. That's enough," Tala said.

  With great effort she rose on an elbow. Her head appeared from beneath the metal shelf. Her long hair fell across her shoulder and pooled on the floor, she no longer cared that her breasts were exposed because the buttons of her shirt had been ripped away.

  "Why are we stopped?"

  "Because the Americans want to board this ship." Tala opened her mouth to speak, but Adeano held up his hand, determined to tell his story. "I assume they have found the body. What I don't understand is why this is important enough for the Coast Guard to threaten us. The man had no identification on him. He could be anyone. Yet they have stopped us with boats and armed men."

  Tala fell onto her back. Her forearm covered her eyes briefly before it dropped to her midsection where she let it rest. He could see her face now. Battered and bruised though it was, her expression was hopeful.

  "Give me to them. I will tell them what happened. They will let you go. Nothing I have to say will hurt you." She turned her head and looked square at him. "I swear, captain."

  Adeano's lips tipped slightly. Her respect had come too late, he now knew her too well. She was treacherous and, in this instance, he was no fool.

  "If that were the case, you would have come to me in the first place. Instead, you sent your lover away and he brought people to make trouble for my ship."

  She said. "I was hurt. I don't remember what I said to him."

  "Did he help you kill the man?"

  Tala shook her head. "He doesn't know anything about him."

  "No matter what you said, Billy Zogaj left this ship and brought back trouble. Even though I had altered the manifest and erased you both, even though I had been cleared by the Port Authority, trouble came."

  Adeano sat back, put his palms on his knees, and shook his head.

  "Mama Mia, such bad luck. Now, if the authorities find out that you exist after all, it will go very badly for me. No matter what you say to them, it will go badly for me." He leaned forward and got very close to her face. "You do understand that, do you not, that what I have already done is a crime?"

  Tala held his gaze, but slowly faded back into the darkness of her den knowing she had no position of strength.

  "What do you want then?" she asked.

  "I want you to tell me what you know about that man's business. You did not just come upon him. You did not just decide that you would kill him in the moment. You must have followed him, and planned, and waited for the right time. I want to know what you saw him do. I want to know where he went. What you saw him touch. If you know anything about the people he was to meet in this port and the next, tell me. Where did he walk? Which containers did he touch? Were you in his cabin when he was not. I want to know everything, Tala."

  Tala shook her head. "I don't know anything about his business. I saw him. I watched, yes, and I waited. I saw nothing else. Just him."

  "I don't believe you."

  "That is your problem," she said, her voice weary. "But I will tell you this, he tried to kill me and he killed a person I loved. That is why he had to die."

  "Why would he want you dead?"

  "I don't know," she said.

  "And what did that other person mean to this man?" Adeano asked.

  In the dark, under the overhanging metal, Tala Reyes pulled her knees up to her chest and tugged the thin blanket up to her chin. When she spoke, Adeano Bianchi knew the fight had gone out of her.

  "Nothing," Tala said. "The person I loved meant nothing to him."

  22

  Day 2 @2:30 P.M

  "Detective Armstrong."

  The man introduced himself, simultaneously showing his identification. Figuring he knew who she was,
Josie didn't bother giving her name. Instead, she held the door open just far enough to be polite, but not wide enough that he would assume hospitality.

  "What can I do for you, detective?"

  "I'd like a few words with Billy Zuni. I believe he was released on bond today and that you . . ."

  Armstrong's voice trailed off as Josie's gaze shifted over his shoulder. He turned to see Hannah come through the gate and up the path. She eyed him as he stepped aside to let her pass.

  "Everything okay?" She directed her question to Josie.

  "We'll see. This is Detective Armstrong. He's asking about Billy." Josie opened the door to let Hannah in. "Archer's waiting."

  "Sounds like you've got a houseful." The detective's polite smile and small talk was anything but, and Josie knew it. She waited for him to get the show on the road. "As I was saying, it seems Mr. Zuni was released to your custody and this is the address we have for him."

  "I'm his attorney," Josie said. "We have a court date and all our paperwork is in order. The charges being brought don't warrant a visit from a detective."

  "I'm not here about that. I need to talk to him on another matter, ma'am," Armstrong said.

  "Bates. My name is Josie Bates," Josie said.

  "Ms. Bates, is he here with you?" Armstrong said.

  "I can speak for him, so why don't you tell me what you want."