by J. M. LeDuc
“The EMS unit has been busy since you got home.”
Sin looked at Troy and saw the gleam in his eye. The two of them erupted in laughter breaking the palpable tension. Carmelita and Thomas joined in as they continued to drive.
Arriving back home, Carmelita carried a sleeping Maria into the house. “I’ll go put her to bed,” she mouthed. As soon as the words left her lips, she blushed.
Sin watched as she whispered something in her father’s ear. Thomas nodded in response.
“Sin,” he said, “since I was diagnosed, Carmelita and Maria have been spending the weekends with me to help out. I hope you don’t mind?”
Sin could see that Carmelita appeared embarrassed by the situation. She kissed the older woman on the forehead and thanked her for taking care of her father. “I think it’s wonderful,” she said. “I will sleep on the couch, believe me, it’s like the Ritz compared to most places I’ve lain my head in the past few years.”
Carmelita smiled and excused herself to put Maria to bed.
The rest of the evening went quickly, with the four of them talking about nothing important, just enjoying each other’s company.
As the clock struck eleven, Sin could see that her father was exhausted so she made a yawning motion and stretched out her arms. “Excuse me,” she said. “I didn’t realize how tired I was.”
Troy took the cue and said that he had to work in the morning and needed to be on his way. The two of them excused themselves and walked out front to say goodnight.
“So,” Troy said, “how do we end this? Do we insult each other or do we . . .”
Sin reached up and pulled his face towards hers. “Shut up and kiss me before I regret it.”
They embraced—collided—in a fierce kiss. The longer it lasted the softer and more passionate it became.
As they separated, Troy had a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Now what?”
Sin matched his look and then rolled her eyes. “Now you go home and dream about what you wish had happened.”
Troy laughed and kissed her forehead. He inhaled the smell of her shampoo and perfume. “Damn, you smell good,” he purred.
“Home, Tiger,” Sin said pointing to his truck.
She watched him leave and walked back into her house thinking, this is getting complicated.
CHAPTER 16
Sin sat in the sand, knees to chest, and wrapped her arms around her legs as she looked out at the rolling waves visible by the star-lit sky. Her thoughts soon drifted to everything that happened since she had been back in Tumbleboat.
There has to be more to this than I’m seeing, she thought. If Heap is the head of this beast, the agents should have been able to figure it out. What am I missing? While deep in thought, Sin heard the sound of someone approaching. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was exactly three a.m.
“A penny for your thoughts,” Charlie said as he sat down.
Sin moved her windblown hair away from her face and rested her head on his shoulder. “You first. Were you able to find out anything or were you kicked out of the game for not having a ticket?”
Charlie laughed at her choice of words. “You should know by now that I don’t need to be invited to join a party. I just show up.”
Sin thought of different times when Charlie has ‘saved’ her when she was younger. “You do have a way of getting into places.” She sat up straight and looked Charlie in the eye. “So, what do you have for me?”
Charlie’s expression turned serious—dead serious. “Before I tell you what I know, I want you to be truthful with me.”
Sin squinted and the side of her mouth curled upward. “You’re the one person I’ve always been honest with. What do you want to know?”
“Well, while I was checking on the things we discussed, I decided to pull up your dossier. Damned if I couldn’t find jack. Just a bunch of bull about you being in the military.”
“Frank had my file scrubbed and replaced with what you saw.”
“Why? The feds don’t normally go to all that trouble, they just make a fake file.” Charlie shifted his weight so he was facing Sin. “They erased you completely. I couldn’t find a trace of you since you left basic training except for the bullshit.”
“Didn’t you wonder how four of the bureau’s best men, including Alex, ended up killed?”
Charlie nodded. “There must be a mole in the agency.”
“Worse, they think the mole has access to all communication coming and going from D.C. Whoever it is has tapped every agency and the Pentagon, not just the bureau.”
“That makes sense, but if that’s the case, how are you communicating with—”
“I’m not,” Sin interrupted.
Charlie dropped his head and shook it. “Fuck, this is a death mission. Sinclair they asked you back because they know you’re expendable.”
Sin didn’t flinch at his words. “I know,” she mumbled. The words caught in her throat.
“So why did you agree?”
Sin looked up and a single tear slid down her cheek. “They knew they had me when they showed me the pictures of the girls. You know my past and the reason I was booted from the bureau better than anyone. I couldn’t refuse, knowing that if I did, more innocent girls would continue to be abused. I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but it looks a lot like the human trafficking I’ve witnessed over the years.”
“But.”
“But nothing,” Sin stood and slapped the sand from her jeans, “if some sick fuck is kidnapping girls from Central America or convincing their parents that a better life is just a plane ride or a boat lift away, and then taking these children and torturing them for their amusement and for money, I’m going to find out and end it.”
Charlie ran his hand through his beard and stared out at the ocean. “You’re in over your head, Sin.”
“If I have to die hunting these animals, so be it,” she said through gritted teeth. “But I promise you, I will be taking someone to hell with me.”
“Come on,” he said pushing himself off the sand, “I know of an all-night coffee joint where we can talk and I can show you what I found out.”
“All night coffee joint, I like the sound of that. Where is it, and I will follow you?”
“No need,” Charlie said. “We can walk.”
Sin looked up and down the beach but saw nothing but the old Johnson mansion that had been empty since she was a kid. “You sly fox,” she grinned. “You own the Johnson place, don’t you?”
Charlie grinned. “Come on and I will make you a good cup of coffee, not that swill you drank in the hangar earlier.”
They walked in silence until they came to the ‘no trespassing’ signs on the beach.
Charlie led Sin past the signs and with a key fob he opened what looked like a boarded up rear door. Once inside, he flipped a switch and the entire place was illuminated.
The sight took Sin’s breath away. “This place is right out of the turn of the century.” Sin was awash in history as she walked around the ground floor—a huge ballroom in disrepair stared back at her. The only thing that looked like it didn’t need complete restoration was a marble fireplace and the portrait above the mantle. “I’ll be damned,” she pointed, “that’s Henry Flagler and someone who looks a lot like you.”
“My grandmother’s brother,” Charlie said. “Her maiden name was Johnson.”
Her eyes twinkled from the reflection of the chandelier. “This is going to be a long conversation.”
Charlie smiled. “A conversation for another day. Follow me upstairs and I’ll make you that cup of java.”
Sin followed Charlie up a spiral staircase that was straight out of the movie, Titanic.
“Un-freakin-believable,” she uttered as they crested the top step and Charlie flipped on the lights.
Sin�
�s jaw hung in amazement. “Jesus, the surprises keep coming.”
Charlie continued to walk through the formal dining room to the kitchen.
Entering the kitchen, she saw a large copper cappuccino/espresso maker sitting on the stainless steel counter top. Sliding her hand over the counter, she said, “This sure doesn’t look original.”
“Naw, I made a few upgrades here and there. The old plumbing busted, so I figured I would just put in a whole new kitchen and update the bathrooms. Everything else is as it was when this home was first built.”
“How did you pull off the rebuild if this place is supposed to be vacant?”
Charlie’s eyes twinkled. His smile enhanced his crow’s feet. “I had it arranged for the house to be labeled as a historical site. When the architects were finished analyzing the place, I had the workers come in, do the rough work, and bring in the fixtures. When they were finished, I did the rest myself.”
“And, you did this all under an alias, I suppose?”
“Hell,” he laughed, “I have so many names, it takes a computer program for me to keep them straight.”
A few minutes later, Sin and Charlie were seated in the library—a large room with vaulted ceilings. The walls were lined with bookshelves and they were all filled with leather bound classics as well as suspense thrillers from some of today’s best-known authors.
Charlie sat behind a large mahogany desk and smiled at Sin. “You’re gonna love this.”
She watched as he reached under the desktop. Without warning, the bookcase on the opposite side of the room began to rotate. By the time it turned completely around, the wall was filled with flat-screen monitors. She turned back toward Charlie about to make a snide remark when she watched him reach under the desk one more time. This time, the portion of the desk that was covered in an antique leather writer’s blotter began to flip. As it disappeared, a keyboard embedded in the desktop appeared.
“What the fuck is this,” Sin mused, “Mission Impossible?”
Charlie kept his head down, pecking at the keyboard as he answered. “That shit’s child’s play.” He looked back up with a gleam in his eye and tapped the enter key.
The monitors flashed to life, some scrolled numbers while others showed images from around the world.
Sin stood up and walked the breadth of the room, never taking her eyes off the wall. “These aren’t news feeds,” she said. “Where the hell are these images coming from?”
Charlie rose from behind the desk and joined her. “I’ve tapped into the intelligence satellites from the CIA, the FSB, and the Mossad. Give me another week and I should be on-line with the Chinese. Those bastards are tricky, but I think I finally wormed my way through their firewalls.”
Sin arched her eyebrows in amazement as she viewed all the feeds. “Charlie, as incredible as all of this is, how does it help me?”
“It doesn’t, I just wanted to brag a little,” he chuckled. “It’s a little rough having all this and not being able to share it with someone.”
Sin thought back over her years on the outside of the agency. Her years as a rogue contractor. She had done so much good, but no one ever knew or will ever know. She knew exactly how Charlie felt.
She leaned toward him and gave him a peck on his bearded cheek. “Thank you for showing it to me, and thank you for helping me.”
Charlie just nodded, but his eyes were smiling—beaming—with gratitude.
“Sit back down and I’ll show you what I’ve been working on since earlier today.”
They sat at a small conference table. Charlie opened a drawer, pulled out a manila folder, and slid it towards Sin. “The first thing you will see is a dossier and history on Troy. It—”
Sin put her hand up as she continued to read. The motion had its desired effect and shut Charlie up. “Not what I expected,” Sin mumbled as she read. “I figured he was injured or kicked out for academic reasons.”
“Yeah,” Charlie said sipping his espresso, “you never know what triggers a person to do the things he does.”
Sin glanced toward Charlie and back down at the folder. She gave him the finger as she continued to read knowing he was metaphorically speaking about her.
He chuckled under his breath.
“The next item you will find is the background information on the ‘pious’ Jeremiah Heap. I had to do some digging but I was able to uncover some court documents you might find useful.”
Sin leaned back in the high-backed Elizabethan chair and grinned. “Nice.” Sarcasm oozed from her lips like maple syrup off the side of a stack of pancakes.
Again flipping the pages, she looked up to Charlie.
“What?” he asked.
“I was waiting for the play-by-play. What will I be reading next just in case my whittle bwain doesn’t compwehend.”
Charlie bellowed laughter. “I’m glad to see you’re still a bitch. You’ll need that spunk if you decide to stay the course of this mission.” Sin went to respond when he pointed back to the folder.
Charlie stood up, came around and sat on the edge of his desk. “Listen,” he began, “I know it wasn’t on your ‘to do’ list, but I took the initiative to dig a little—well a lot deeper. Girls washing up on shore and your last official case with the bureau made my conspiratorial mind start spinning.”
“Fuck, Charlie, just spit it out.”
“I checked for the disappearance of young girls in Central America, specifically, Nicaragua,” Charlie hesitated before finishing his thought, “and on an old friend of yours.”
Sin’s complexion blanched and her pupils dilated. “Tell me it’s not what I’m thinking.”
Charlie freshened both of their espressos. “I’m afraid it is. That bastard was released as soon as you put his ass in jail.”
Sin slammed the file shut. “How? I had him and his men dead to rights. I caught him in the act of raping a teenage girl!”
Charlie slung a leg over the corner of the desk and sat facing Sin. “Veloz owns almost everyone in Nicaragua.”
“But her family . . .” as she looked at Charlie the life seemed to drain from her jade green eyes, “they didn’t testify, did they?”
Charlie shook his head. “The child’s father was killed—executed, gangland style, and the little girl was ‘gone’ on the day she was to testify.”
He placed a hand on Sin’s shoulder. “Veloz has been lying low the last four years, but this smells like him. I would bet this house that he is involved.”
Sin opened her mouth and inhaled deep. She stood and exhaled. “Fuck.”
She paced the room trying to gather her thoughts.
“What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking that I’ve wasted too much time since I’ve been back in the Keys. I have some recognizance to do.”
“Such as?”
Sin leaned forward, elbows on her knees. “The Church of the New Son is not what it seems . . .”
“How so?”
“The square footage is much bigger than the floor plan. I need to get inside and scope the place out.” She thought for a moment and smiled. “Can you get me a security layout of the property?”
Charlie nodded. “Consider it done. What else?”
“I have a bad feeling about the orphanage. It’s too much of a coincidence that Heap opens an orphanage and shortly after bodies start showing up along the gulf.”
Charlie could tell she wasn’t finished. “And?”
“And, the night I arrived, I saw two boats on the first reef in the black of night.”
That peaked Charlie’s interest. “Are you sure?”
Sin nodded. “My father asked me the same thing and then he told me I must have been mistaken, but I know what I saw.”
“But that’s a death trap. Boats can’t navigate those currents or reefs in the light of day, forget
the dark of night.”
Sin smirked. “Not the reefs we know.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, what if someone changed the landscape—made it easier to navigate.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out. I’m planning a little night dive tomorrow. Care to come along?”
Charlie chuckled. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
Sin sat back and chewed on her bottom lip.
“What else are you planning?”
Sin thought about telling Charlie what she had planned, but thought better of it. She would probably need his help to pull it off, but now wasn’t the time to talk about it.
She released her lip and brushed her fingers through her hair. “I was just thinking about that church.”
Charlie nodded. “Why don’t you go look around the rest of the house and I will see what I can find out.” He tapped a key and the monitors sprang to life once more.
Sin was about to leave the library when she suddenly stopped. “Won’t anybody see the lights?”
“Nah,” Charlie said. “All the windows have been blacked out and sealed with a film that doesn’t allow any light to seep through. You can turn on every light in this place and it will still look abandoned from the outside.”
Sin shook her head and walked out of the library.
An hour later, at five a.m., Sin and Charlie were back on the beach where their night began.
“I want to be with you when you hit the church as well as the water,” Charlie said.
“Meet me at eleven tonight at the north point of Tumbleboat. The current should take us right onto the first reef,” Sin said.
“How would you know that?”
She had a mischievous gleam in her eye as she wiped her windblown hair from her face, picking a strand off her tongue with a pearl white fingernail. “You never did figure out where I caught those three-pound lobsters I always gave you as gifts, did you?”
Charlie expression broke into a wide grin. “Sinclair, you’re a piece of work. Hell, you might be crazier than I am.”
