Smugglers 1: Nikki

by Gerald McCallum

  He was very quiet on the dock then went upstairs to his apartment. He poured vodka and went out to the patio in the dark. He saw Mercedes come home about 2 a.m. and just laughed to himself when he thought about what he had seen between her and Bill one night. He heard a door downstairs open, and Nikki appeared then walked across the dock to Mercedes’ apartment, did not knock, just walked in with drink in hand. Glenn just sat there thinking, ‘What the hell is going on and every other time he was there, too.’ He made several more drinks and fantasized between being there and thinking what the hell is going on?

  At about 5 a.m. the door to Mercedes’ apartment opened and there stood Nikki and Mercedes locked in a long kiss. Then Nikki went home, and Mercedes shut her door. Between sex fantasies and wondering what they were up to, Glenn couldn’t get to sleep for several hours.

  In the morning, over coffee with Nikki, she did not bring up last night so Glenn thought to himself, ‘they are together, and she has never kissed me like that. It was 2 a.m. when she went there with a drink in her hand. When Nikki left, Mercedes had her robe open when she kissed her goodbye.’

  Glenn and Nikki both went to work. The day was uneventful. Later that night after a couple or three or four drinks, Nikki came to Glenn with a blue pill and started to make moves on him. Before too long, they ended up in bed for three or four hours then fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  Nothing happened on the dock that day. Saturday morning around 1:00 a.m. Glenn left all for Cuba. He left Nikki, the marina, and the trouble with the DEA, and the trouble about Jim. He left Nikki a note saying: “I’m sorry but don’t try to follow me. I’m going to the Bahamas by boat. The $250,000.00 I gave you is a gift. Goodbye. Love — Glenn”

  Nikki read the note and ran outside to see if his boat was gone, and it was. She started to smile and then laughed out loud. She went to Mercedes’ apartment and rang and rang the bell until she opened the door. Still laughing she gave the note from Glenn to Mercedes to read.

  CHAPTER 9

  Nikki asked Mercedes, “When Glenn and I were in bed did you go to his boat and neatly take half of the money?”

  “He will never know I was on board,” replied Mercedes.

  “How much was there?” asked Nikki.

  Mercedes waited the proper amount of time then said, “Five million dollars!”

  They jumped up and down and hugged and kissed.

  “So you took two or three million dollars without a trace?” she asked.

  “Not a trace,” said Mercedes.

  “Good. First he won’t know for weeks, second he’ll have enough money to live on without coming back, and third he has no clue about us taking the money. He was so hot from seeing us the night before, I could hardly stop him when you were done and had gone home,” Nikki said.

  They kissed again and Nikki asked for and got her million. Then she went home to lay out her plans to drop a dime on him going to the Bahamas and about Jim, too.

  About the same time, Glenn was pulling into Cuba, not knowing what had taken place.

  Glenn had been in Cuba about a month living the life of his dreams. He could see from his balcony that the marina where his boat was tied up was fairly new. Things were very cheap here, rooms, food, and drinks. The women were very young and gorgeous, and would do anything for American jeans or to get a ride to the United States with their new American husband.

  They knew all about the wet-foot dry-foot law in America, separating the river from the marina to be with Glenn in hopes he would marry them or take them to America. Cuban people didn’t eat lobster, so a small lobster in the wall of the marina was at least ten pounds. This was heaven for Glenn.

  Glenn was running low on money, so it was time to go to his boat and get some more. He got to his boat and took down one bolster, and immediately he saw something was wrong. He counted the money on that side; there was a little over a million. He took down the bolster on the other side and there was the same on that side.

  He wanted to scream and yell out loud, “That shithead Bill did this. He took half my money! I’m going back to get my money and put a box of bullets in that asshole!”

  Glenn counted the money again and again and then put it back except for ten thousand dollars. He went up to his room to plan his trip back.

  He left four days later and went straight to the atoll in the Keys where he grew up. He knew he would be safe there. He put his boat in a slip knowing no one would turn him in.

  His grandparents, Mom, and Dad grew up there. In 1925 they started running rum from Cuba to Miami City in a Scorpion boat. They were rum runners for McCoy, Dutch Schultz, Bugsy Segal and Al Capone. That’s where the saying ‘the real McCoy’ originated. It meant the rum was not cut with water and re-bottled. A rum runner boat called the Black Horse had two five-hundred horse power aircraft engines and did over forty mph with four thousand bottles of rum on board. They went to jail for four years. When they got out they went right into the bush business as prohibition had ended; different product, same business.

  Glenn got to the Keys, tied up, and met some old friends. Nothing had changed. They still didn’t talk to strangers. In fact they didn’t talk about business at all. Just girls, sex, Cuba, and who went to jail. He told no one of his plans or his problems. He bought a clean car that was registered to a dead guy and a throw down 9-mm with a big clip and a silencer. A throw down gun is a gun you can shoot someone with and throw down next to the body. It isn’t registered to anyone. You didn’t have to worry about it being found, just finger prints and DNA.

  Glenn took the car and drove up at night to see the marina and his storage locker. One of his cars was gone from the dock, but the storage locker was still taped shut by the DEA. After checking things out, he drove back to his boat. He spent seven days and several hours in his car finding out what was going on at the dock and what was going on with Bill and Cynthia. He was always ready in case the opportunity should arise when he was there.

  One night around 11 o’clock Bill and Cynthia pulled into the parking lot and walked down the dock to their boat. He waited for about an hour then got his work tools out of the trunk of his car and the throw down from under the back seat floor mat and went quietly down the dock to their boat. He knew that as soon as he stepped on their boat they would know because of the lean, so when he got aboard he quickly went to the door and started down the steps to the cabin. Bill was just coming with a 38 in his hand, so Glenn hit him at the steps as soon as he saw him. He hit Bill in the face with the butt of the 9 mm. Bill fell down the steps, out cold, and the 38 came out of his grasp. Glenn hit Bill one more time in the head to make sure he was out, picked up the 38, and went to the stateroom where Cynthia was sleeping or passed out.

  He put the silenced 9 mm in her mouth and said “If you say one word or scream, I will blow out the back of your head. Roll over!” He put plastic wire ties on her hands and feet and duct tape around her head to cover her mouth, then pulled her over, covered her up, and went to get his money from Bill. He tied Bill up in the same fashion then put him in a chair, knowing it would be a while before he would wake up. Glenn knew better than to waste time searching the boat because Bill wouldn’t share the money with anyone, especially Cynthia.

  Bill came around and looked startled and bewildered. Startled at seeing Glenn and bewildered at how he could have let Glenn get the drop on him, Bill started to bitch at Glenn. “What the hell are you doing? You knocked my teeth out!”

  “Shut the hell up, or I’ll shoot you in the knee with your own gun. Now, I’m only going to ask you once, then I’m going to knock out your new teeth,” Glenn said and showed Bill part of the work tools he’d brought with him: a pair of brass knuckles that were dressed on the knuckles with spurs. “This is so I don’t hurt my hands or leave any DNA in case I have to kill you both. Now where’s my fucking money?” he asked..

  Bill looked at Glenn with legitimate disbelief and asked, “What money?”

  Glenn hit him on the nose with the
hand that had the brass knuckles. Bill’s nose was broken and bleeding badly, and the flesh hung loose where the spurs hit.

  “You know, Bill, I have always wondered if this works,” Glenn said and pulled Bill to the floor, and then he went and got a beach towel and a bucket full of water.

  He put the towel in the bucket then over Bill’s face and poured the water from the bucket very, very slowly over Bill’s nose. Bill screamed, kicked and begged and said he didn’t know anything about any money. After about five or ten minutes Glenn gave up. He knew Bill was telling the truth. To make sure they would keep their mouths’ shut, he brought in a can of gasoline from the outboard and poured it on Bill.

  “Don’t burn me! Don’t burn me! I don’t know anything about your money,” Bill begged.

  “Shut the hell up, Bill!” Glenn stood there with a lighter in his hand. “If you or that old bitch say I was here, or you saw me I’ll come back and kill you by setting you both on fire or the boat so you can’t get out.” He threw the empty 38 on the carpet and left.

  After spending several days on his boat with time for thought, he could come to only one conclusion; it must have been Nikki or Nikki and Mercedes. He spent several days checking out the strip bar where Mercedes worked as a dancer. When she didn’t show up he called and was told she had quit about a month ago. He watched the dock with boat binoculars and saw that Nikki and Mercedes were together day and night. He thought, ‘It must be them. They set me up and took my money!’ He got some additional tools and went to stake out the house boat again.

  When it was dark and Mercedes was at Nikki’s place, he went and tried the front door of her house boat. The door was locked so he knocked. When Nikki opened the door, he greeted her with the silenced 9 mm. Needless to say she was shocked. Glenn took Nikki to the kitchen where Mercedes was. He plastic-wired their hands and feet, taped their mouths, and then moved them to the center of the living room floor. He took the tape off of Nikki’s face and said, “I know what you two did, so where’s my damn money?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about! And why did you leave me? I thought we had something together,” replied Nikki.

  Glenn took the tape off of Mercedes, and she said basically the same thing, but she had tells. Her eyes were as big as hub caps. Glenn took a men’s nylon sock and a big bar of soap out of his bag. He put the soap in the sock and tied it down by the soap. He wrapped the other end around his hand, then he hit Nikki on the shoulder really hard. The soap wouldn’t break bones, but it would hurt like hell and leave big nasty bruises. She moaned and screamed, so he turned up the stereo and glanced over at Mercedes. Her eyes couldn’t get any bigger. She was very frightened by what she saw. Glenn hit Nikki again and again then asked where his money was.

  “If you give it to me now I won’t shoot you both. Where’s my money?” He hit Nikki with the sock three or four more times. Nikki was black and blue and writhing in pain.

  “You’re next Mercedes, except I’m going to beat you to death in front of your girlfriend here. Tell me the truth, or do you like being tied up?” He raised the sock over Mercedes’ head.

  “Don’t hit me! It’s in my apartment. There’s a million behind a picture of a sail boat on the wall. I don’t know where Nikki’s money is. That’s the truth!” Mercedes yelled out.

  Glenn went to Mercedes apartment and took down the picture. The wall had a hole cut out, and inside was a gym bag full of money. He went back to Nikki’s place.

  “Mercedes, how much is in the bag?” he asked.

  “About nine hundred eighty five thousand dollars,” she replied.

  “You asshole! You spent fifteen thousand dollars in one month? Okay, Nikki, Where’s yours?” said Glenn.

  “In the bank in a safe deposit box,” Nikki said, having trouble forming the words.

  Glenn hit Nikki with the sock a few more times, on the ass this time, so the bruises wouldn’t show in case she was telling the truth. He asked her again where his money was, and she said the same thing, in the bank.

  “I’ll be back next week, so get my money tomorrow, and Mercedes, you move out of here tomorrow or die. Move far, far away. Miami is too close.” Glenn cut Nikki’s hands loose, told her to get his money, and left.

  Nikki and Mercedes got untied and started to cry. Mercedes tended to Nikki as best she could. She had no cuts or broken bones, just big black and yellow bruises and was stiff as all hell. In fact, she could hardly walk.

  “What should we do?” asked Mercedes.

  “I’m getting his stinkin' money, and you’d better move! I can’t run. I have the marina. He will kill us both. If I stay here, I have to give you half the money, and he will still kill us both!” replied Nikki.

  Nikki gave Mercedes five thousand dollars. Mercedes packed her car and drove off. The next day Nikki went to the bank and got Glenn’s money, all one million dollars. She knew that it was impossible to call the cops. What would she say or what would she say about the two hundred and fifty thousand dollars he had given her, and the stealing of the million dollars? What would come out if they didn’t kill him, and he went to court?

  After Glenn was gone for three days, he called Harbor Marina on a Trac phone from the woods across the street to see who was in the office. Nikki answered, and Glenn asked if she had his money. She said yes, and he hung up. He took the Sim card out of the phone, buried it, and then threw the phone in the swamp. Later that night he went to Nikki’s and got his money in a briefcase. He asked her how much was there; she said one million even, and he left.

  Glenn drove home, got on his boat, hid the money, and then went to the local hangout for drinks and eats. He met some high school friends. Some that were and some that weren’t in the business, but friends all the same.

  Nikki was sitting at her desk trying to figure her next move. She now had less than four thousand dollars to her name and six empty slips but was finally divorced from Bill. She wrote an ad to appear in the boat trader for Southeast Florida and the marina paper for live-aboard slips. No matter how many times she figured the money and payments she always came up short. She dropped the price if the slip rental was for six or more months and the seventh month would be free.

  It was Wednesday or Thursday when Mercedes called to give Nikki her new location in Marathon Key. She’d left town but never left the Keys. She moved a few miles north to Marathon and rented a small beach house under an assumed name.

  “I only have three thousand dollars left, so I went to work at a titty bar north of where I’m living. Have you seen Glenn and paid him?” Mercedes asked.

  “I’ve done both, but I haven’t seen him since. I think he may have gone back to the Bahamas. You stay there for a month or so before you come back. I’ve got to get this figured out!” said Nikki.

  Another week went by, and Nikki was on her way over Seven Mile Bridge one afternoon to get some plants. She saw Top Dog coming in from being out to sea. It had two girls and another guy on board and was rigged for fishing. She kept it in her sight from the road so she could see where it went to moor up. She followed it to port without being seen even though the land mass in that part of the Keys is only two hundred feet wide. After noting where it went, she forgot about the plants, went home, and called Mercedes.

  “Stay where you are. Glenn didn’t go to the Bahamas. He’s here, and I know where. I saw him with his boat. I’ll be at your house at 1 o’clock, so leave the keys under the mat. I don’t want to talk on the phone,” said Nikki.

  “Come to where I work,” Mercedes replied.

  “We can’t be seen together. I’ll be at your house at 1:00 a.m. We need to talk,” Nikki said.

  Nikki got to Mercedes’ house as promised, let herself in, and made a drink. Mercedes got home around 2:00 a.m. They kissed several times then sat down to talk.

  Nikki explained her plan. “I need your help. Just listen. I have a plan for us to take all the money from Glenn. We need to move tomorrow night. You must drive down to my house, and the
n we will drive to Glenn’s. I’ll go get the money, and you must drive off and come back in about an hour to pick up me and the money. We’ll go back to my dock, and you take off with your half of the money unless something happens to me. In either case you just leave. You have to pack your car tomorrow, because as soon as you drop me off, you must leave. I want you to go north on 95 to Palm Bay, not Miami or Fort Lauderdale and don’t work. The town is small. He won’t follow you there. Rent a condo or an apartment under an assumed name, not your real name, and call me on the cell phone. Get a Trac phone. Don’t leave any bills for him to trace. No bills, no bank accounts, no magazines, nothing! Don’t call your mother, brother or me. I’ll call you. You can bet Glenn will be there within twenty-four hours if you do. If he finds you, he’ll kill you to get his money!” explained Nikki.

  They made the rest of their plans then went to bed where they explored one another’s bodies in minute detail, kissing one another with fervor. By now, they knew one another’s bodies in exquisite detail. They kissed, they suckled, they caressed until they cried out from waves of climax. They lay in a tangle of limbs wet with perspiration and spent from delicious lovemaking. Soon, they made arrangements to meet at Nikki’s place the next day at midnight. With one last deep kiss, Nikki left.

  Nikki bought a cheap two-man inflatable boat and two black nylon bags. She blew up the boat and got ready to go. She got a small bolt cutter, screw gun, and palm knife for the trip.