Stairway to the Bottom - a Mick Murphy Key West Mystery

by Michael Haskins

  “And they took one last payday, for themselves,” Norm said.

  “Yeah, that’s the way I see it and now all these years later pieces of their story fall into place and we’ve got a shit pot of over-the-hill spies searching for something that doesn’t exist,” I said.

  “You’re sounding like a conspiracy theorist,” Tita said. “Who really killed Kennedy? Was Pope John poisoned? You sound like that.”

  “It’s irrelevant,” Chris said. “The people here looking for the diamonds, or whoever has them, are real.”

  “And deadly,” Norm said.

  Chapter 61

  Tita gave me control of the Fenian Bastard as we neared Sand Key. I sailed into the wind so she and Norm could lower the mainsail and then Tita took back the wheel.

  “Buoy at twelve o’clock,” she called out.

  The reef is part of the Sanctuary, a no anchoring and no fishing zone, so you have to tie off to a mooring buoy, if you want to stay. I stood on the bow with a pole hook, grabbed the buoy line and handed it off to Norm. He ran one of our deck lines through the mooring line’s hooped end, tied if off and dropped it overboard. The other end of our line tied off to a bow cleat. Tita had the engine in neutral and as soon as Norm dropped the line, she shut it off.

  The Fenian Bastard moved slowly until the bowline tightened, then she stopped and turned with the current. We were as still as the water allowed.

  Norm took two dive tanks from the bow locker.

  “You sure you don’t want to join us?” Chris asked Tita as she tried on a set of fins.

  “I get down about ten feet and that’s good enough,” she answered.

  “Me too,” I said.

  Because it’s illegal to touch or stand on the reef, Tita and I wore small buoyancy vests. You filled the vest with air by blowing into a small tube on its front and deflated it by letting air out the same tube when you wanted to dive down. It allowed us to float over sections of the coral reef without effort and not touch it.

  “You won’t need the knife,” I said watching Chris and Norm attach dive knives to their upper leg. “It’s a no take zone and there’s nothing down there bigger than you.”

  “I might need it to fend off Norm if he gets fresh.” Chris smiled.

  “I’m never stale,” Norm said, belting the air tank to his back.

  “At the Farm our instructors explained that when we’re in the water, we’re out of our natural element,” Chris said, adjusting her air tank. “Not like a dark street in Budapest, he told us, where you can find a paving brick or car antenna as a weapon. In the water you have what you brought with you.”

  “I learned it from being in the Boy Scouts,” Norm said. “Be prepared.”

  Tita looked around the water. “I chose here because of the boats.” She pointed off the stern. “Coast Guard checking the snorkeling and dive boats, now that’s convenient. I can’t imagine Pauly arranging it or him letting Mick out here alone.” She waited for Norm’s reply.

  “You’re observant, counselor,” Norm said.

  “Yes, and persistent.” Tita pulled her dive bag from a locker, found her mask and fins, then handed me mine. “I’m here to enjoy myself and, as God is my judge, if anything happens out here, you both will answer to me!” She looked at Norm and Chris.

  They sat on the edge of the boat, ready for their dive. “Mick, I think there’s been a mutiny by your crew.” He laughed and fell into the water, followed by Chris. They were underwater and gone in seconds.

  Tita slipped out of the T-shirt. There were no tan lines on her bronze body. She put on the fins. “We stay together.” She played with adjusting the strap on her mask.

  “Of course.”

  “I wanted to be alone,” she said and smiled.

  “We will be,” I said. “There’s tonight.”

  “Just you and me, okay?”

  “The way I want it,” I said as we both dropped into the water.

  Tita swam next to me and it only took a couple of kicks of our fins for us to be over the coral reef. The water was warm and crystal clear. Small, colorful tropical fish swam beneath us, darting in and out of the reef. Sea grass swayed on the bottom because of the current. Yellow-tailed snapper hid in crevasses and barracudas stayed motionless in the lower shadows waiting for an injured fish to get within range. On the sandy bottom, a nurse shark moved, creating a sand cloud.

  We could see people snorkeling along the reef line and bubbles floating upward indicated that divers were on the bottom. The surface was less than ten feet from the reef, where we were, and we floated on top, holding hands and letting the current move us.

  Tita pulled my arm and pointed behind us. I saw the boat’s keel and nodded. We had floated a long distance, caught up in the silence and beauty below. Tita turned to follow the reef line while I swam a direct route to the boat. I watched her for a minute and thought how beautiful she was, even under water. Gentle kicks of her feet moved the flippers ever so slightly and she glided through the water like a predator in search of its prey.

  I felt a tug on my flipper and turned expecting to see Norm. It was someone else in scuba gear, holding a large dive knife. Using the knife, he pointed across the reef. I shook my head and with short angry motions of the knife, he pointed across the reef again.

  I saw Tita turn, looking for me. I swam back to where we’d been, wanting to take this threat as far away from her as possible. I kicked hard and fast, but he swam underneath me and kept up. I breathed through the snorkel but needed fresh air, to open my mouth and breathe in deeply. My heart pounded. I surfaced and spit out the snorkel’s mouthpiece. There was no one on the surface. Tita popped up, a small speck on the water, but I knew it was her. I could see the Fenian Bastard in the background.

  A strong yank on my leg pulled me under before I could replace the mouthpiece. I snagged a breath and a taste of salt water before closing my mouth as I went under. The diver wasn’t giving me directions, he was coming at me with the knife in his out stretched arm. I kicked at him and lost one fin. He slowed down but then slashed at my foot and I felt the blade against my ankle. I tried to swim to the surface, kicking at him. I surfaced, took a long, deep breath and looked below. He was coming, the knife leading the way. Blood colored the water around my foot.

  I had to stay on the surface it was my only advantage. Dive tanks would be cumbersome and slow him down allowing me some maneuvering room. Underwater, he had all the advantages. All I could do was kick at him, but with his knife, my kicks were no threat. I could hold my breath for a minute or two that was it.

  I swam the reef line, away from where he wanted me to go and Tita. I headed toward a section of reef that was less than five feet from the surface. If I could stand, I had a few seconds advantage. He would have to lose the tanks. It was a difficult swim with only one fin. I knocked the remaining fin off with my foot and for the first time felt pain in my ankle. I kicked harder, using my arms to swim faster.

  I felt him grab hold of my leg. I took a deep breath and realized he meant it to be my last. He pulled me down. I bent over and went for his mouthpiece. It surprised him. He slashed at me, but I kept going, reaching for the narrow air supply line. I wanted to grab hold of something and pull it to take his advantage away.

  I hit his mask with my palm and yanked at the mouthpiece. He bit down hard to keep it in place. With my left hand, I held his knife attack off. I let go and grabbed the more flexible air supply line with both hands, yanking it, and the gauges attached to it came lose.

  I felt the knife go into my side as he twisted it. I held onto the thin line and it come off in my hand. I wanted to yell in excitement. My lungs burned. I needed air. The water around me was turning red from my blood. I let go of whatever I had grabbed onto and tried to swim to the surface. I didn’t move. My vision got blurry. I felt around in the murky water, wanting to push my assailant away and get to the surface. He wasn’t there. Not within my reach anyway. I touched my side and felt blood. I looked up and the surface
looked so far away.

  Chapter 62

  I felt hands on me and fought back. I knew I was underwater and had to hold my breath. Pain stabbed at my side. I could feel the knife cutting. I let out a breath.

  Norm held down my shoulders with his hands. He was dripping water.

  “Breathe,” he ordered and I tried to breathe in.

  My lungs hurt. I coughed up salt water. I was on my back on a boat’s deck.

  Murdock, one of Pauly’s guys, messed with my side.

  Bruehl held down my legs.

  “Tita!” I said.

  “On the Bastard, with Chris,” Norm said. “You’re okay.”

  “This is going to hurt,” Murdock said.

  “It already hurts,” I said, breathing like a tired runner. “He stabbed me.”

  “No, he slashed you,” Murdock said.

  “He wasn’t trying to kill you,” Norm said. “He wanted to hurt you and bloody the water.”

  “He did.”

  “He wiggled the knife to make the slash wider, to bleed, to hurt,” Norm said. “We’ve got another problem.”

  “Russian?”

  “Yeah,” Norm said. “He wanted to take you alive. There has to be a boat out here with an accomplice or two.”

  “Ask him,” I said, not wanting to know what Murdock was doing. There wasn’t pain now; it felt like being in the dentist chair after Novocain, the sound of what was going on was bad enough.

  “He ain’t here,” Norm said, looked at Murdock and then at me. “You okay?”

  I nodded. Norm and Bruehl let go of me and I looked toward Murdock. He was kneeling next to me, putting things

  I didn’t recognize into a satchel.

  “Bring him back,” I said. “Can I sit up?”

  “Slowly, you don’t want to tear the stitches,” Murdock said.

  “Only Jesus came back from where this guy is,” Bruehl said as he stood.

  Norm helped me up. “Dead?” I looked around the fishing boat. “What happened?”

  “I came from underneath as Chris pulled him off you…” He patted his dive knife. “You should be thankful I was a Boy Scout. Now he’s chum in the Gulf Stream.”

  The boat began to move toward Key West, I recognized the tower at Fort Zachary Taylor in the foreground.

  “Is Tita okay with just Chris?” My head began to clear with the fresh air. The boat sped toward the harbor, splashing through the choppy water. My side throbbed and I was unsteady on my feet. The shit had begun to hit the fan and I had a feeling there was a pile of it yet to be tossed.

  “Jim Ashe has a boat following her,” Norm said. “Problem is we don’t know where the Russian was taking you.” He looked toward the stern. “Somewhere back there he’s missed.”

  “Why?” I said and looked aft. “Why all this?”

  “Alexei is a thug,” Norm said. “He wants the diamonds.”

  “I don’t have ‘em.”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Norm said as we sat outside the small cabin. “You’re a link.

  When he finishes with you he expects to have the diamonds, or know what his next move is.”

  “If he kills me…”

  “Not if, when,” Norm said. “There’ll be another link, somewhere, and he’ll move onto that.”

  “Damn it,” I said and almost laughed.

  “You think it’s funny?”

  “Alexei is a bad version of Sydney Greenstreet’s character in the Maltese Falcon,” I said.

  “I’ll have to watch the movie when I get home, maybe I’ll understand this crap.” Norm rubbed his chin and looked uncomfortable in his wet bathing suit. “Things are gonna get worse, Mick. Maybe Tita should leave. It’d make this easier.”

  “I don’t think she’ll go.”

  “Make her.”

  “You haven’t been paying attention, have you?”

  “Go with her.”

  “Run away?”

  “Take her out of harm’s way,” Norm said. “You don’t want to make her a target. If they didn’t know about her before, they do now.”

  “Sounds easier to do than it is.”

  “Do you want me to talk to her? Explain the facts of life?”

  “The more frightened she is, the more stubborn she becomes.”

  “Don’t I know it!” he said. “That’s nothing.” He pointed at my side. “The Russians, the Mexicans, brutality is a sign of strength to ‘em. The stronger they are, the more brutal their tactics.” He pointed at me again. “They would’ve got you back on a boat and let you bleed out, slowly while questioning you. If they didn’t like your answers, you’d have slices on both sides, maybe on the bottom of your feet. Wherever, it would hurt and bleed. And low, so you could see the bloody deck. And the pain when they smacked the cuts, I don’t have words to explain it.”

  “I’m already scared, Norm,” I said and wondered how he knew all this. “Pauly’s two guns didn’t do me much good, did they?”

  He slapped his thigh, were his dive knife was. “You were out of your element.”

  “I won’t be again.”

  “The only good thing about this is we’re no longer waiting,” Norm said. “I’m checking for Alexei. We find him, we get him.”

  “Who’s we?” The motion of the boat was making me queasy.

  “You and me, hoss. Always, you and me,” Norm said and smiled. I hadn’t seen that smile since we faced off with the Tijuana cartel.

  “Hell, Jim Ashe’s SEALs are all over this like horse flies on stable shit,” he drawled. “And your buddy Pauly and his Jarheads, they’ve got itchy trigger fingers. It’s Alexei that should be scared.”

  Chapter 63

  It took a few minutes for the boat to catch up with the Fenian Bastard. A go-fast followed on the starboard side, its engines whining because of the low speed and a thirty-foot fishing boat trailed off her aft. Norm pointed at them.

  “Both belong to Pauly,” Norm said. “Jim Ashe has at least one somewhere.”

  “What about the Coast Guard?”

  “It’s best we keep this to ourselves,” he said.

  “Sounds right.”

  We’d passed a variety of boats heading toward the harbor as we caught up to the Fenian Bastard. We blended into the harbor traffic, as did all the other boats and so would the one that belonged to the Russians. If they attacked us on the water it would be a different story.

  “They could be following her.” I held onto the rail.

  “Could be,” he said. “Could be they’re looking for their comrade.”

  I stared at him but couldn’t read his expression. I expect direct answers from Norm, so when he’s evasive he’s lying or, scarier, he doesn’t know the answer.

  Tita and Chris waved when they saw us. Two men stood off to the side.

  Bruehl and two guys waved back from our boat, signaling all was okay.

  “Pauly’s guys with her?” I looked to Norm.

  “I was taking care of your ass, hoss, so I don’t know,” he said. Evasive again.

  Tita waved for me to come aboard and Norm shook his head no. He got on the marine radio and told her to go to the prearranged channel. Prearranged with whom, I wondered.

  “We’ll meet you at the dock,” Norm said into the mic.

  “He needed stitches. Over.” He put the radio away, not waiting for her reply.

  As we neared the Coast Guard base, our boat moved away from the others and took the channel between the base and Fleming Key. The sailboat’s mast was too high to make it under the bridge, so Tita had to take the long way around the Key. We’d be at the dock in minutes; it would take her an hour.

  I could see Pauly at my slip, as we made the cut between the military base and Hilton Haven. He was talking with Mike and Karen McAloon.

  The boat pulled into my slip and someone tossed Pauly a bowline. He held onto the line. Mike and Karen walked over.

  “I’m surprised it took you this damn long to cut yourself,” he yelled in his Texas accent.
/>   “Are you okay?” Karen said as she slapped Mike on the top of the head. “Be nice.”

  “I’m fine,” I said and wondered what Pauly had told them.

  Norm helped me make the long stride to the dockside steps. My side smarted as I stretched to reach the top step. I smiled at Mike and Karen but I wanted to scream.

  Murdock handed me a small vial. “Pain pills if you need ‘em.” He moved back onto the boat.

  Pauly tossed the bowline back and the boat slowly maneuvered out of the slip.

  “You’re lucky Tita can handle the Bastard by herself,” Mike said and ducked before Karen hit him again.

  “Don’t I know it.” I looked at Pauly.

  “You want to come aboard and wait?” Mike said, the gruffness gone. “I’ve got beer.”

  “Of course you do,” I said. Mike’s taste in beers went in the direction of whatever Winn Dixie had on sale, but his cigars were always top notch, so I put up with his bargain-basement brew. “Give me a little while.”

  “You come when you’re ready,” Karen said and led Mike away.

  “See you in a little while.” I turned to Pauly. “What did you tell them?”

  “That you cut yourself while snorkeling.”

  “They believed you?”

  “Mike seemed to get a good laugh out of it,” Pauly said. “Walk to the parking lot with me.”

  Norm and I followed Pauly. They walked slowly, for my sake.

  “Do you realize the shit-pot of trouble you’re in?” Pauly said to me, but he looked at Norm.

  “He’s beginning to,” Norm answered for me.

  “Tita’s not safe here,” Pauly said. “You’ve gotta get rid of her.”

  “I told him that too,” Norm said.

  “I’ll tell her the truth, with Norm to back me up, and maybe she’ll listen,” I said. “Her work is done so I think she’s sticking around because of me.”

  “Lie to her,” Pauly said. “Drive her to Boston, but get her out of here.” Unlike when Norm told me the same thing, Pauly’s words had urgency to them.