Under the Jamaican Moon (Katy Marshall Romantic Mysteries Book 1)

by Sheila Lee Hall

As Katy sorted back through each packet, she was stunned. The packet containing her “marriage license” held not one, but several, each one containing a different variation of her signature.

  The packet containing the insurance policies held numerous policies on her life. The total amount seemed to be around nineteen to twenty million dollars, but she wasn’t sure if that was correct. All the policies were with small companies. Gee, Katy thought, I hope Felix knows that I’m worth so much. Poor guy, he has to play so much golf just to make a living.

  The packet with Cuban oil gas applications were written in Spanish and she didn’t have time to decipher the lease terms.

  She carefully placed all the packets back in the original outside pocket, and the attaché case back in the original location. As she was replacing the outside window screen, a golf cart drove up to the villa. Katy was home free.

  . . . . . . . . . . . .

  Katy was hungry. A light rain had made her use one of the other cabins instead of cabin 42. The new cabin had not been used for some time, and no food was available. If she had some of Al-ho’s goat cheese, she would still have suffered, but not as much. There was one thing she did find that made her very happy — a flare gun along with two cartridges. Although its primary purpose was as a signal gun to indicate danger in marine situations, it was an excellent defence weapon at close range.

  In the light of a single candle, Katy huddled in the back room of the deluxe cabin with the door rightly closed. The events of the last few days had shown why she had ended up on Isla de los Muertos. She was now able to guess the whole sequence of events.

  When Sam Kutsun met Katy, he saw her as an opportunity to be taken advantage of. She had no close relatives in Denver, and would not be immediately missed when she disappeared. His company apparently was nothing more than a sham, as the villa she had been to last night indicated. The villa served the purpose of being a rendezvous location for a drug gang, one far enough from the Jamaican police so as not to attract attention. The eastern end of the island was being used by a drug cartel for illegal purposes. Sam Kutsun had to be a laundry man for the drug cartel, hiding their ill- gotten gains in his oil and gas company.

  In addition, there were now several thugs from the drug cartel that were sent to dispose of her in any way possible. Katy Marshall now had to face the possibility of losing her life unless she acted quickly.

  The Secret of Zombie Island

  Katy had heard the pounding on her door the next morning. She had gone back to the original duplex unit. Peeking through a curtain, she realized that Felix had returned. The mirror showed her hair in disarray, but Felix would have to get used to it. She opened the door and said, “Surprise, I’m still here.”

  Felix could only grin. “Well, I’m all set for my golf tournament. But I heard you had a little excitement around here last night. They ran two water shuttles this morning and I was lucky to be on the first one. That incident last night was the topic of conversation.”

  “What incident are you talking about? I went to bed early and I didn’t hear anything unusual.”

  Well, apparently two men got seriously burned when somebody fired a flare gun at them. They had to fly in a helicopter to take them to a hospital. They were bringing in several cops from Kingston on the second shuttle to investigate what happened.”

  Katy tried to act stunned! “It seems everything happens around here. Where were these men from? Were they employees here at the lodge or tourists from someplace else?”

  “Nobody seems to know anything about them. They weren’t staying here on the island, and they also don’t have any passports. In addition, they don’t speak English very well and apparently are from one of the South American countries.”

  “When do you suppose we will hear something?”

  “It’s hard to tell. The Jamaican cops aren’t the fastest in the world to make a decision on anything that happens. I suppose it will be several weeks at least — or maybe even months.”

  “Well, I hope so. It will be interesting to learn what they were doing here.”

  . . . . . . . . . . . .

  The clock was ticking. Katy would be sleeping on the beach in several days if the Japanese chef turned up early. Felix had brought back a satellite phone so Katy could now connect with the world. She tried calling Mary Jo but learned she was on vacation — someplace in Las Vegas and would return in a week.

  Katy’s law office was snowed in again and everybody was out until next week. Katy, however, had several things to do before returning to Denver to face the office grind. Felix had agreed to a dinner date that evening to discuss the future. First, however, Katy wanted to talk to Al-ho.

  Al-ho was in the kitchen instructing one of the younger chefs about the evening dinner hour. He acknowledged he hadn’t actually “seen” a zombie. “It may be that I have pictured them in my mind so many times that I believe I have actually seen one.”

  “Would you believe me if I told you that I have actually seen one?” Katy wanted to get his reaction.

  Al-ho stood silent for a moment. “Perhaps you too have pictured them in your mind.” Katy went into hysterics! “Well, maybe I did. There is something else I have to discuss. I got a notice to vacate my duplex unit because the new chef is coming. Do you know exactly when he is supposed to arrive?”

  Al-ho rolled his eyes. “You never know exactly. He is supposed to be in New York right now.” He seemed reluctant to give an exact date.

  “Anyway, since you don’t know the exact date he is coming, I want to stop working in the kitchen and dining room because I want to have time to see the rest of the island. I really want to make sure I have seen a zombie.”

  Al-ho thought her comments were the funniest thing he had ever heard. He leaned against the counter with tears in his eyes because he was laughing so hard.

  “Felix is back and I have invited him to dinner tonight. I want to pay for it instead of you giving me all that free food. I don’t think I have worked hard enough for all the meals you provide me.”

  Al-ho murmured about that. “It would be the same way it was before and also free.”

  As Al-ho had no knowledge of where one might look, Katy decided that Andrew might do better — maybe he could provide the name of a local fisherman who could give her more information. After much prodding, he came up with the name of Julio Digato, who was more of a beachcomber than a fisherman. He lived in a cardboard shack on the northern coast of the island.

  The dinner with Felix went more smoothly than ever before. Felix leaned closer to her as the evening bliss continued. “I guess I really have not been a good host while you have been here. When I was over in Kingston, I really missed you every second.”

  They sat on the back porch swing, holding hands under a full moon. Katy wished they were absolutely alone, with nobody within miles of them.

  Towards midnight, Katy told Felix about wanting to interview a beachcomber by the name of Julio Digato about seeing zombies. Felix got upset. “You should forget about zombies. You are just wasting your time. There are better things to do.”

  Katy stood up. “You do know about the bottle of Old Jamaican rum I buried on Sunset Beach when you and I were going to explore the universe one night, don’t you! The night I was accused of drinking all that rum, getting stone-dead drunk, and then seeing all those zombies. Well, for your information, I went back and dug up that seventy-five dollars of Old Jamaican rum and nothing had been drank from it. There is a small nibble on the cork, probably from a sand crab. I have it in my kitchen, I want you to come and take a good look at it!”

  Felix now tried to change the subject. ”Well, maybe you did see something that night. I can’t tell you that you didn’t see any zombies. Sometimes we think we see something that isn’t there.”

  Katy stood up again. “Do you see that star-scope ove
r there? Last night I looked at that expensive villa down by the water. What do you think I saw? I will tell you what I saw! I saw the captain of the Blue Dolphin, Sam Kutsun, and two zombies. Was I drunk then? Tell me, do you think I was drunk last night? Was I just sitting here pining away for some golf genius who doesn’t know the butt end of a golf club from the hitting end?”

  Felix sat silently. He knew when he was on the losing end.

  “Go ahead, take a look through the star-scope. You can see everything on the outside of that villa.”

  With that comment, Felix stood up. “Well, okay, I will take a look through the telescope just to pacify you. How do you operate it?”

  After Katy had moved the star-scope into position, she said, “Alright, try it now. There is a light on down there, you should be able to see something.”

  Felix bent over the star-scope to finally bring it into focus. He suddenly stood up. “Actually, I don’t see two zombies. In actual fact, there are three of them standing on the deck.”

  Katy was quick to point out that the villa is rented by Sam Kutsun. “The question is,” she said, “How do the zombies get from the eastern end of the island all the way over here? What’s the connection between a drug gang, an oil man, and what looks like a bunch of zombies?”

  Felix sat down in one of the deck chairs. “It seems to revolve around the eastern end of the island. We need to start taking some hikes in that direction. I don’t think night hikes will help us solve the mystery. We need to take a look at the cemetery where you originally saw these ‘creatures’, whatever they are. The problem is that there are so many cemeteries that are overgrown with vegetation and also overlap, that it will be difficult to come up with any kind of a systematic approach.”

  Katy was now in deep thought. “Surely there must be some kind of trail map around here. The resort has to have a map of some kind. A search of the resort library showed that none existed.

  “Obviously,” Felix said, “we need to take a hike tomorrow. We can pretend we are honeymooners getting away from society who want to be alone. I will be up here by 8:00 a.m. for breakfast.”

  “Oh,” Katy said with a smile, “Do I get to wear my bikini on the hike?”

  Felix grinned. “Not unless you want me to attack you.”

  Katy smiled. “Well, it doesn’t have to be tomorrow. We can save that for another time.”

  During breakfast the next morning, the “honeymooners” put on an act that would have convinced anybody that they were indeed on an actual honeymoon. After much hand holding, laughing and giggling together, Katy started to get the feeling that Felix was finally getting enthused about her.

  The walk to Sunset Beach followed the trail that Katy had first used on her midnight excursion. When Felix surveyed the place where Katy had buried the bottle of Old Jamaican rum, he commented, “This is really a romantic spot. I don’t think anybody else could have stumbled on this spot.”

  Katy agreed wholeheartedly. “Yes, it would have been romantic.”

  Eventually, they reached the spot where the zombies had joined the main trail. Felix wanted to follow that trail to see where it ended, but Katy insisted they follow the main trail to the main cemetery where the zombies disappeared.

  Their travel slowed down to a very leisurely pace as they tried to keep a lookout both up and down the trail. Felix became quite interested in the trail itself. “It looks like there has been a lot of heavy traffic with all these boot prints — I haven’t seen any prints made by bare feet. I still want to come back and follow that other trail.”

  Katy did agree, but only if they found nothing at the old cemetery.

  Felix paused. “Do you smell that?”

  “I don’t smell anything.”

  “I have never smelled anything like that around a cemetery.”

  “Maybe it’s all the decayed bodies.”

  Felix said, “I think it could be the smell of marijuana mixed in with all the decayed vegetation. It’s sure an odd smell.”

  They proceeded to argue in low tones, but continued to wander up the trail. Katy saw some movement up the trail. “That’s the captain of the Blue Dolphin. What is he doing here?”

  As they decided to slowly walk along the main trail, Katy found the smaller trail that paralleled the main trail. Finally coming in sight of the cemetery, the captain was nowhere to be seen.

  Katy whispered, “This is the way it happened before — they disappeared — and the captain is not a zombie.”

  Felix started to play detective. “This trail goes back to the resort, so I don’t think he came from that direction. He must have been walking in front of us. That means he came up the other trail that connects with this one.”

  Katy started to give her theory. “I’m sure that trail goes back to the beach. It’s also possible that he saw us and went back to that cemetery where everything disappears. The captain sure doesn’t look like a zombie — what do we do now?”

  Felix went into deep thought. “Does this trail that parallels the main trail actually go past the cemetery?”

  Katy had to think. “I’m sure it does, at least it seemed that way when I was here before.

  Felix leaned against a palm tree. “Let’s go a bit further and we will just sit and watch. I think it’s too dangerous to go into the cemetery.”

  They had been in that location for several hours, becoming very bored with the afternoon heat and humidity and an occasional mosquito. As the afternoon ran on, Katy began to feel the pangs of hunger. They had started moving slowly up the parallel trail when Felix suddenly grabbed Katy and pulled her behind some dense foliage. They watched as the captain of the Blue Dolphin walked by them on the main trail.

  This time Felix was really amazed! “They got to be coming out of that old cemetery — but from where? There’s nothing there but some old grave stones lying around the foliage. Boy, that captain didn’t think anybody would see him as fast as he was walking.”

  After skirting the cemetery, they walked hand in hand along the trail, relishing being with each other. When the trail narrowed, they went single file, still holding hands but continuing in silence. Felix spoke first. “We will come back tonight. They can’t be there all the time. We need to get something to eat.”

  As they reached the main lodge, Katy remembered she had to get something from her unit. When she walked back to her unit, she noticed she had not placed the door trap on the door as she had done before. “Oh well,” she said to herself, “I don’t need it anymore.” As she opened the door, she suddenly stepped back and waved to Felix, “Oh honey, can you come here for a minute?”

  Felix looked puzzled, “What’s the matter,” he said softly. Katy whispered, “I smell cigarette smoke in my unit.”

  Felix took a deep breath and muttered, “That’s not cigarette smoke, somebody has been smoking marijuana in there. Turning around and before closing and locking the door, Katy said loudly, “Oh darling, I’m so hungry, let’s go eat first.”

  As they sat in the dining room area, Katy hailed down one of the waiters. “Omar, has anybody been in here today looking for me?”

  Omar stopped and came back to her table. “Yes, several rather dark-skinned individuals wearing Columbian T-shirts were here just a few minutes ago. They said they would be back.”

  Exchanging glances, both Felix and Katy both rose in unison to their feet. “Head for the back door,” Felix said softly. “I know another way to my cabin.”

  It was becoming obvious that both their lives were in danger. “I will check my unit first. If somebody has been there, I know another place we can go.” After several minutes of looking at his unit, Felix said, “I can see a reflection of a cigarette in the glass window of the door.”

  As they hunkered down in another unit, Felix said, “We will wait until shortly before midnight,
and then take off for that old cemetery.” Katy had to smile. “How do I know I can trust you for that long?”

  Felix grinned. “I forgot to tell you, I have the Good Housekeeping seal of approval.”

  “Oh,” Katy said, “Do you get it renewed every year?”

  “Sometimes,” he answered.

  . . . . . . . . . . . .

  When they reached the trail junction, Felix remarked, “It looks like there has been more traffic on this trail than this afternoon. There are a lot of foot prints.”

  They went single file with Felix in the lead. Katy suddenly stopped. “Are there snakes on this island?”

  Felix stopped. “Why do you ask crazy questions like that right now? How would I know if there are snakes on this island. If one bites you, please don’t yell and scream.”

  “Thanks,” said Katy. “I will try and remember that.” After a short time, she broke the silence. “The moon is sure bright tonight. If there are any snakes, I think I could probably see them.”

  Felix stopped again. “If you keep talking, I’m going to tie you to a tree. You’re starting to make me start thinking about snakes. Please keep quiet!”

  After another fifteen minutes of walking, they could hear the pounding of the surf. The tree level seemed to extend down to the water’s edge. The trail started climbing and getting much rockier. “I thought this part of the island was supposed to be flat,” Katy said to herself.

  The trail divided with the main part going back down to the beach. Felix pointed to the smaller trail. “We want to stay on the upper trail so we can get a look at what’s below us.”

  The cliff face had split in two. As they pushed their way around some big boulders, overturned trees, and sharp rock outcroppings, they were astonished by what they saw below — lying in anchorage was a small submarine!