"That's quite a bit," Johnson said. "We know SpecCorp, but we think of them mostly as a contractor to the Pentagon. They're a bunch of ex-military people; they account for a lot of the boots on the ground under our flag in the Middle East. I don't know much about them doing private security work otherwise. They hire some pretty tough, battle-hardened characters, from what we know. I'm surprised your friend got that much information out of them."
Sharktooth grinned. "He said they happy to tell all they know, jus' on one condition."
"What was that?"
"Don' let that crazy woman from the yacht get at 'em."
"Which crazy woman?" Johnson frowned.
"Me," Connie said, a grim look on her face.
"You?"
"She plenty scary when she angry," Sharktooth said.
"I can vouch for that," Paul said.
Connie shook her head and looked down at her plate.
"They mess up Diamantista II pretty bad. I don' much blame her for being a little rough on 'em yesterday. She gave 'em a taste of their own medicine, like the sayin' go. By the way, Connie, Clarence say tell you and Paul bring Diamantista II on down to Le Marin. Those men been causin' trouble in Fort-de-France for some days, now. Gendarmerie Nationale authorize payment for repair in appreciation for your help."
"Hey, that's great!" Paul said. "Isn't it, Connie?"
She looked up, forcing a smile. "Crazy woman? I guess I was a little over the top."
"You were provoked," Paul said. "Noah, were the Lewises involved in the drug trade?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Why?"
"SpecCorp's mission was to find out about the cartel they thought the Lewises were working for."
"You know, we picked up another tie to SpecCorp. Remember the analyst we thought was leaking information to somebody?"
"Yes. What happened with that? I thought you couldn't find him."
"We finally did. He was dead, in the bathtub in a motel. An apparent suicide. There was a video on his PC featuring him in, um ... an embarrassing situation. Looks like somebody was blackmailing him for information. The forensic IT guys tracked the video back to a SpecCorp computer, via an attorney in West Palm Beach."
"And what did the attorney have to say about it?" Paul asked.
"He's missing."
"Skipped out?"
"Doesn't look like it. His car was found in a downtown parking lot, and nothing's missing from his home or office. No recent bank account withdrawals -- just vanished."
"Ties to the drug trade?" Paul asked.
"Maybe. There was a prepaid cellphone in his desk with one number in it. We set up a trace and used the phone to call the number. It went to another prepaid phone that was answered at a nightclub that's a hotspot for dealers. As soon as our guy spoke, the call was disconnected. By the time we got to the nightclub, there was nobody there but the bartender and a waitress -- no sign of the cell phone."
"Wait, though," Connie said. "When I was asking Kathy about what kind of things they invested in to produce such big returns, she hinted at money laundering and maybe bankrolling some players in the drug trade -- 'wholesale pharmaceuticals in the Caribbean basin,' or something like that, she called it. When I pressed her on it and asked about smuggling drugs, she said 'What's legal in one country may not be legal in another.' She made it sound like they might be in some shady deals."
"Yes," Johnson said. "We picked up similar things from some of the other victims of their scheme. It was all part of their scam, making people think they were into things nobody wants to talk about. That was all BS, I promise you. We were able to track every dollar that went into their accounts. It was like a closed loop. The only money that came out went either to pay off investors who were cashing out, or into the Lewises' pockets."
"But you know," Paul said, "if they told enough people that story, it could have gotten back to some of the people who really are in that business, and they don't like competitors."
"You're right, Paul," Johnson said. "I hadn't thought of that. That's the second good idea you've come up with. Any more and I'll have to put you on the payroll."
"Thanks, but I've already got a job, and I don't want to risk irritating the boss. I hear she's got a temper."
Connie punched him on the shoulder. "Keep it up, cookie, and you might find out the hard way." She smiled. "But Noah, what was the other one?"
"Other one?"
"You said it was Paul's second good idea. What was the first?"
"Uh, yeah." Johnson looked uncomfortable, squirming in his seat. He picked up his coffee and took a sip. "I've been trying to figure out how to tell you, since you haven't asked lately, but I may as well just do it. It's about Leon Contreras."
"What about him?" Connie asked.
"Remember when we were talking about him a few days ago, trying to figure out where he went after those guys pretending to be FBI questioned him?"
"Yes."
"Paul suggested checking to see if he'd been on parole after he was released from prison. We followed up on that. The truth was, he wasn't released. I need to tell you, we did determine that the man in prison was, in fact, the son of your mother's sister, Maria Contreras. He was your first cousin." He took another sip of coffee.
"Was?" Connie asked, frowning.
"Yes, was. The real Leon Contreras, your cousin, was killed by another prisoner over ten years ago. I'm sorry."
Connie's face fell, and she slumped against Paul. He put his arm around her and drew her to him, patting her shoulder with his other hand. "So who is the man who's calling himself Leon Contreras?"
"We don't know. I told you we'd staked out the place where he was living, and that there was a woman living there with him?"
"Yes," Connie said.
"She gave us the slip, too. We got a warrant and searched his apartment and his office. We got some good prints for him, but none for her."
"Were his prints in the system?" Paul asked.
"Yes, but that's where this gets really strange. The response to my query came back stamped 'Requested information could not be provided. Access forbidden,' with a whole bunch of legal mumbo jumbo and code sections cited. I've heard about that kind of thing, but I always thought it was some kind of, I don't know, an urban legend, maybe."
"Yeah," Paul said, frowning. "Me, too."
"I don't understand," Connie said. "What does that mean?"
"It means that whoever he is, he's deep under cover."
"So he's FBI?" Connie asked.
"There's no way to know," Johnson said. "He could be, or he could be with the DEA or any of a number of other agencies."
"But why did he call me, then?" Connie asked.
Johnson shrugged. "When did he first get in touch with you?"
"I don't ... let's see, it would have been the day before the Lewises came on board. Late afternoon. Does that help?"
"Hang on," Johnson said, thumbing the screen of his smartphone. "Yes, maybe so. We released the paperwork for the warrant to monitor your satellite communications that morning. Whoever he was, he probably picked up your name from some of the background work. Guess he decided to approach you himself, for whatever reason."
They were all silent for several seconds. Maureen spoke first. "Well, it's been grand to see all of you, and a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mr. Johnson, but it's time for me to go open the gallery. There's a cruise ship due in soon. Excuse me."
Johnson thanked her again for breakfast, and said, "Sharktooth, is your offer of an island tour still on the table? My flight's not until late this afternoon."
"Yeah, mon. Connie? Paul? You come with?"
"No, thanks," Connie said.
"We should get underway for Martinique," Paul said. "With luck we'll be able to get the damage repaired before our next guests arrive."
"We drop you at the dinghy dock?" Sharktooth asked.
"I could use a walk," Connie said.
"Me, too," Paul agreed, "but thanks anyway, Sharktooth."
/> They shook hands all around and said their farewells, and Sharktooth saw them to the door.
When they were alone, walking into town, Paul took Connie's hand.
"It's too bad about the whole Leon Contreras thing," he said. "I know you were excited about connecting with family."
She stopped and turned to face him, smiling. "Thanks, but it's okay. I was trying to do a sales job on myself about him, trying to convince myself I liked having a cousin, you know? I am a little anxious about who he really is, and why he called me, though."
"I understand, but we may never know. I'd guess that whatever he was working on must have touched on something related to the FBI's warrant application. Like Noah said, he could have picked up your name from that. The way those things go, he's probably dropped that identity and moved on."
"Could he have really put it together that quickly?"
"Yes, given the resources. Remember, he's well enough connected that even the FBI couldn't pull his fingerprint records."
"Yeah, I guess." She shrugged. "None of that makes sense to me, but I'm content with the family I have. You're all I need."
****
Click here to subscribe to my email list for notice of new releases and special sales or giveaways. I'll email a link to you for a free download of my short story, The Lost Tourist Franchise, when you sign up. I promise not to use the list for anything else; I dislike spam as much as you do.
A Note to the Reader
Thank you for reading Sails Job – A Connie Barrera Thriller, the sixth book in the Connie Barrera Thriller series. I hope that you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me; they help me more than you can imagine. They are a primary means to help new readers find my work. A few words from you can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next one. If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book or have a sale or giveaway, please click here to subscribe to my email list. I promise not to use the list for anything else; I dislike spam as much as you do.
If you haven't read the other Connie Barrera Thrillers, please take a look at them. If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy them as well. Connie had a key role in Deception in Savannah, my first book. She also plays prominent parts in both Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal, the fourth and fifth books in the Bluewater Thrillers series. These three books make up the boxed set entitled From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are a spin-off from the Bluewater Thrillers, and share some of the same characters. The Bluewater Thrillers feature Dani Berger and Liz Chirac. They run a charter yacht named Vengeance, a sistership of Diamantista II’s. Dani and Liz taught Connie to sail, and they introduced her to Paul Russo, her first mate and husband.
I released Bluewater Drone, the eleventh Bluewater Thriller in July of 2016. Now I'll turn my attention back to Dani and Liz in their twelfth adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on my web page at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani Berger has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.
A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my author’s page on Amazon and click the "Stay Up to Date" link near the upper left-hand corner. I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is [email protected]. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Charles Dougherty wrote quite a bit of fiction before publishing Deception in Savannah, his first novel. Most of his earlier fiction works took the form of business plans, written to secure funding for projects and startup ventures during his corporate and consulting work, but he put all that behind him when he wrote Deception in Savannah, a tongue-in-cheek crime novel.
Since Deception in Savannah was published, he has written a number of other books. The Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky Jones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.
He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.
He resides with his wife aboard Play Actor, sailing wherever their fancy and the trade winds take them.
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Fiction:
Bluewater Killer
Bluewater Vengeance
Bluewater Voodoo
Bluewater Ice
Bluewater Betrayal
Bluewater Stalker
Bluewater Bullion
Bluewater Rendezvous
Bluewater Ganja
Bluewater Jailbird
Bluewater Drone
Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set; Books 1-3
Love for Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Sailor's Delight – a Connie Barrera Thriller
A Blast to Sail – a Connie Barrera Thriller
Storm Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Running Under Sail - a Connie Barrera Thriller
Sails Job - a Connie Barrera Thriller
From Deception to Betrayal - an Introduction to Connie Barrera: a boxed set
Deception in Savannah
The Redemption of Becky Jones
Short Story:
The Lost Tourist Franchise
Non-fiction:
Dungda de Islan'
Life’s a Ditch
For more information, please visit:
http://www.clrdougherty.com/
or
http://amazon.com/author/clrdougherty
Table of Contents
SAILS JOB
Windward and Leeward Islands
Antigua
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
A Note to the Reader
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Table of Contents
Title Page
Windward and Leeward Islands
Antigua
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Epilogue
A Note to the Reader
About C.L.R. Dougherty
Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty
Sails Job - A Connie Barrera Thriller: The 6th Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Connie Barrera Thrillers) Page 23
