Smugglers 1: Nikki

by Gerald McCallum

  Mercedes got to Nikki’s at midnight; they loaded Mercedes’ SUV and left. About one-quarter mile from Glenn’s boat, at an inlet, they unloaded everything into the water, and Nikki rowed off in Glenn’s direction. At Glenn’s boat, she tied up the inflatable and got on board. She cut the locks, took her red lens flash light and screw gun and went to work on the v-berth bolsters. She found half the money behind the first one. Behind the second was the other half of the money, about five million dollars in total. She didn’t bother putting things back, just loaded her boat and rowed away.

  About half way to the landing point Nikki put the screw gun, bolt cutters and other tools in the water. At the landing site she unloaded the boat, took it out to waist high water, and cut the boat up so it would sink. She took apart the oars and let them float out to sea. She was ready.

  About fifteen minutes went by when Mercedes showed up. Nikki quickly put the two bags in the SUV and got in.

  “How’d it go?” asked Mercedes.

  “Just fine so far. There’s about five million dollars there. I got it all,” Nikki replied.

  “No shit!”

  “No shit! Remember to stick to the plan. Don’t spend any big money. Stay to yourself and no contact with friends or relatives. And don’t call me. I’ll call you on Trac phones only. Glenn will be gone in thirty days or so. If I leave now, he’ll know I had something to do with this, so drop me off and leave immediately. Wait a week before you call me to give me your new number,” said Nikki.

  Mercedes let Nikki off with her half of the money. Nikki went to her apartment, then went out and slipped in the water. She tied the bag full of money under the dock by her house boat. Then she went in to make a drink and think. Surely Glenn would be there the next day. She finished her drink before climbing into bed; she did not get any sleep.

  In the morning she taped a Smith & Wesson Ultra Light full of black talons under the cocktail table in the living room. She taped her two palm knives under the two end tables, and she put two big butcher knives under the two TV recliners. In the kitchen she taped a ball-peen hammer under one of the bar stools. She put a claw hammer beside her bed. She had done all she could to be ready for Glenn.

  At around 10:30 that night there was a knock at Nikki’s door. She knew it was Glenn. She put on her best face for lying and opened the door thinking Glenn would hit her and come in. To her surprise he just stood there and said, “Hi, can I come in?”

  “Of course,” replied Nikki. “Are you going to tie me up again?”

  “That was necessary. You two had my money. Speaking of that, what happened to my money? I mean all my money. Where is it?” asked Glenn.

  “I gave you your money the other night,” she replied.

  “Not that money, you asshole! You know what I mean — all the money. It’s gone! I need a drink! Can I have a vodka?”

  “Sure.” Nikki made the drink, and when she handed it to him he hit her right square on the nose, the blow breaking her nose and blackening both her eyes.

  Nikki fell backward over the glass cocktail table, breaking it. Glenn was on her like a cheap suit and wire-tied her feet together. Nikki tried to reach the 38 that was under the cocktail table as she could see it but could not reach it by two inches.

  Glenn pulled out his gun and asked Nikki, “Where’s my fucking money? I know you have it, Where’s my damn money!” He pulled the man’s sock with the soap in it out of his pocket and hit Nikki on both shoulders and her head several times. Then her hand found one of the knives under a recliner; she pulled it out and stuck it in Glenn’s left leg up to the handle.

  Glenn screamed from the pain and grabbed the knife handle. Nikki reached the 38 and moved to shoot Glenn, but he hit it with the sock, and the gun flew across the room. Glenn stood up with the knife still in his leg and pulled Nikki out into the middle of the room where he proceeded to beat her with the sock. She screamed and tried to cover up. He quit hitting her to pull the knife out of his leg. Blood went everywhere and soaked his jeans and boots.

  He hopped to the kitchen to get a towel to stop the bleeding. When he looked up, Nikki was standing there with her legs apart. She had cut the wire ties at her feet. She stabbed Glenn in the chest with the butcher knife and took a second stab at him, but he blocked it. The knife went right through the middle of his left hand, through the sock and all.

  Glenn raised the gun up, but Nikki grabbed it. It went off two times before Glenn lost his grip because of blood, and it flew across the room.

  Full of blood, Nikki grabbed the ball-peen hammer from under the bar stool and took a swing at Glenn. He blocked it, but the blow broke his right wrist. Nikki hit Glenn on the other hand, breaking that one, too. Then she hit him in the head, and he went down.

  Nikki mounted him and hit him and hit him and hit him in the face and head with the hammer, crying and screaming and hitting him with the ball-peen hammer. She kept hitting him and screaming long after he was dead.

  She finally sat back, crying and bloody, with black eyes and a flattened nose. The place looked like a group of vandals had broken in. The table and chairs were either broken or tipped over. Glenn was bloody from the wounds in his chest, hands, one leg, and his face didn’t even look like a face anymore. It was just a pile of blood and meat.

  Nikki went to look at herself in a mirror. Oh, my God! She looked like hell; two black eyes, a broken nose and one missing tooth and black, blue and yellow from head to toe. She had cuts on her hands and arms plus blood all over her face and shirt.

  She picked up all the knives and hammers from under the furniture. Then she tipped over the knife block in the kitchen and picked up the claw hammer from beside her bed. She looked around the apartment; she was ready.

  She started to scream and cry and ran across the dock and got Dave the town cop up by pounding on his door and screaming his name.

  Dave opened the door, Glock in hand, and asked what was going on. Nikki told Dave that Glenn broke in and wanted her to move to the Bahamas with him. When Nikki said no, he tied her up and started to beat her. Dave looked around and then called the cops. The ambulance came and took Nikki to the hospital. The cops were at her apartment, taking pictures and such for seven or eight hours. When they left at 6:00 a.m., they took Glenn and both guns. At the same time, the radio came to life and said “Harbor Marina, Harbor Marina, this is the fifty foot Chris-Craft coming back, known as the Sea Cactus. Do you have a slip for me for three or four weeks?”

  Nikki spent one day in the hospital getting her nose straightened. Not only did she have two yellow and black eyes ,but she had stitches three or four places on her face and head that showed, dark glasses and all. She left the hospital in a cab, ignoring the cabbie’s curious stare.

  The cab pulled up and let her out. She walked to her apartment, and when she opened the door and stepped inside, she just stood there in wonderment at how messed up and broken up everything was. Glenn’s or her blood was on the ceiling, walls and thick in pools on the carpet and tile. She wasn’t up for this, so she went upstairs to what had been Glenn’s apartment and went to the unmade bed. She decided she would lay down for a couple of hours before she got involved with cleaning up downstairs.

  After a few hours of fitful sleep, she got up and went out on the dock. The first person she ran into was Mark who was working on repairs to a slip.

  “How do you feel?” he asked.

  “Really stiff, but better,” replied Nikki.

  “Must have been some fight. You look like shit. Take off your glasses so I can see your whole face,” Mark said. Nikki took off her glasses. “Jesus! Did he break your nose?”

  “My nose and other things. Mark, where are the day workers? I need help cleaning up my apartment.”

  “Never mind the day workers. I’ll do it. It’s best they don’t know how bad it was,” Mark said as he picked up his tools and went with Nikki to her houseboat. “Jesus Christ! Is there anything that isn’t broken or doesn’t have blood on it? Shit! Where do I s
tart?”

  “I’ll go lay down and take care of this later,” Nikki said heading for the bedroom.

  Mark swept up the glass and cut the carpet up to haul everything to the dumpster. Then he started on the blood. It took him all day to clean up the mess.

  On the day Nikki got her new shag carpet installed, she went out on the dock to meet Jerry from the Sea Cactus to tell him her story. She had to tell her story over and over to everyone she met on the dock. They all wanted to know what happened and they all wanted to see her face.

  About a week went by when Mercedes called. She didn’t know anything about Glenn or the fight that killed him. They talked for hours.

  “Nikki, I’m going to move back down to Harbor Marina,” said Mercedes.

  “You’ll have to move back into your old apartment until things get better,” Nikki said.

  “That’s a good idea. I’ll call you tomorrow night. It will be about a week,” and she gave Nikki her phone number.

  Nikki’s attorney called her. He had just heard about Glenn. Nikki stuck to her story, the same one she told the cops and everyone else. He asked if there was anything he could do, and she told him no. She would get over this and be fine. After they said goodbye, Nikki went back out on the dock to go to work. The next week went by fast.

  She was busy and the cops were there to go over her story. She just remembered what she needed to. For the rest, she faked amnesia as necessary to make her story ring true. She never saw the cops again, but she did run into Dave, the town cop. He asked all kinds of questions about Glenn and why he came back if he had been safe in the Bahamas with his boat and his money. Dave had found out from some of the locals that Glenn was in the drug running business and had been for years. They all thought he had ten or twenty million dollars put away. So why did he come back? Did he fall in love with Nikki or was it something else?

  Nikki kept going over Dave’s questions in her mind. There was something wrong with that old drunk. Something he kept to himself. Something he said just didn’t sit right with her. Something about her fight with Glenn that didn’t sit right with Dave, she thought.

  The week went by, and the cuts and bruises started to disappear. On Friday Mercedes pulled in and moved back into her apartment in the four-plex. That night she went to dinner at Nikki’s. They hurried to the bed, where they embraced and kissed and caressed one another until they came together, stifling their cries of ecstasy in a wide open kiss, their tongues dancing together, a dance that kindled another round of lovemaking.

  Later, Nikki told Mercedes about Glenn and the fight from beginning to end. Mercedes had been shocked when she first saw Nikki, but the worst was over. It had been a week since the fight, and Nikki was starting to heal. Mercedes touched Nikki’s cheeks, kissed her eyes and nose, then kissed the fading bruises with incredible tenderness, feathering the wounds with her tongue which explored new and exciting places on Nikki’s body.

  Mercedes went home about six the next morning, and Nikki did not see her again until about one o’clock that afternoon when she looked down the dock and saw Mercedes standing in front of the four-plex talking to Dave. Nikki frowned as she watched them. Maybe it was nothing. She prayed it was nothing.

  About ten or fifteen minutes later Dave went to work and Nikki walked down the dock to Mercedes.

  “What did Dave want?” Nikki asked.

  “He told me the story about your fight with Glenn,” Mercedes answered, “and said that his contacts in town said Glenn had been in business with Jim. They had both been in the running business for twenty years, and Glenn had to have twenty million dollars put away when he went to the Bahamas. The DEA found two million under Jim’s name in assorted banks. Then Dave said something at the end that was very strange. He said if Glenn was safe in the Bahamas with his money, why did he come back here to fight with you?”

  Nikki lifted a hand and caressed Mercedes’ cheek. “We have to talk. Come by tonight about six o’clock. I’ll make dinner. Right now I have to go to work on the dock.”

  As Nikki walked down the dock, she ran into Jerry and Loretta from the Sea Cactus. She stopped to say hello again, telling them it was nice to have them back and asked how long they were staying. The rest of the summer, they informed Nikki, about three or four months. They asked about the fight with Glenn whom they knew and had shared drinks with. They couldn’t believe Glenn was so violent.

  About 6:30 that evening, Mercedes came to Nikki’s for dinner. Nikki made her a drink and asked, “Did you bring your half of the money back with you? If you did, make sure you don’t open a bank account or safety deposit box anywhere in the Keys.”

  “I have it hidden in my apartment,” Mercedes replied.

  Nikki was satisfied with her answer and felt secure that Mercedes would not tell anyone where the two million was or buy anything outlandish like boats or cars. They had dinner and a few more drinks then went to bed to take up where they left off. Sex with Mercedes was always fantastic; she knew exactly how to please Nikki, how to make her climax just at the right time. And Nikki returned the favor.

  About two a.m. Mercedes went across the dock to her apartment. She slept until noon then went to the pool across the bay at a friend’s house. He was at work, so she swam alone and sunned herself dry. She got back at the dock about 4 o’clock.

  Dave heard her come in and knocked on her door. Mercedes found him standing there with drink in hand. She invited him in, and he sat down while she made herself a drink. After a few minutes of small talk, Dave got down to business and asked, “Why do you think Glenn came back?”

  “To see Nikki. He must have loved her, and it got out of hand and went badly,” she replied.

  “I think Nikki has Glenn’s money. At least part of it, and you know Glenn loved Nikki; he trusted her.” He leaned forward and added, “I found out the DEA was about to arrest Glenn for killing Jim and running. What if I was to offer you half of what I get from Nikki? Glenn had ten to twenty million dollars put away, and I’ll bet you Nikki has all of it.”

  Mercedes stared at him for a long moment before answering. “Tell me more and just how it would work, but let me get another drink first.” Drinks refreshed, she sat down and started to listen.

  “First, I don’t believe Nikki’s story about the fight and Glenn’s timely death. Second, I found out everything. I found out the DEA was going to pick up Glenn; I found out that Glenn was in the business with Jim for over twenty years and that Glenn had fifteen or twenty million dollars put away. Mercedes, I will find out everything as we go along. The FBI and the DEA tell the Chief a lot, and he tells me, and I will tell you. Maybe Nikki will give us half if we just keep quiet. Couldn’t you use five or even ten million dollars? What do you say? Do you want to be partners?”

  “Do you really think she has the money? You think she has twenty million dollars? What do we do if she won’t turn over half?” asked Mercedes.

  “We’ll deal with that when and if it happens. But it won’t,” Dave insisted.

  “She can’t know I’m involved. I’ll find out more if she doesn’t know,” she explained.

  “Me, too,” Dave said.

  “Agreed?” Mercedes asked, and they shook hands.

  “We ought to seal this bargain with something other than a handshake,” he said.

  “Not today, Dave. No freebies because of this deal. It’s five hundred as usual. We have a deal starting now, and it will go until we get the money, if you’re right.” With the deal made, Dave left Mercedes’ apartment and agreed not to be seen with her on the dock more than was usual.

  That night Mercedes went to Nikki’s apartment for dinner, but didn’t tell her about Dave or their talk. She knew the money was there but didn’t try to find out where or how much.

  In the morning Nikki went down the dock to meet an old fifty-foot Pacemaker that might stay for the summer. On the way back she went aboard the fifty-seven footer with Don and Mark and had some cut Cuban coffee. It still made her heart go nuts,
just like speed. Jerry from the Sea Cactus came down and aboard for coffee as well. They talked about Jerry and Loretta’s trip to Key West, the Duvall Crawl, and what they did so far.

  After about an hour, Nikki left to go to work. Her face was still sore with some black and blue areas, especially around the eyes. She had to get some paint, so she put on her sun glasses and went down town.

  She got back about 2 o’clock, unloaded, and then went out on the dock to see make sure everything was okay. She saw Jerry and Loretta again. They invited her to come aboard for drinks so she did. Two or three hours went by when they saw Mercedes coming down the dock with her own drink. She was invited aboard, and they all started to laugh and drink more. About five hours later Nikki and Mercedes went to Nikki’s place and made love until they passed out.

  Mercedes went home about 6 a.m. where she climbed into bed. She got up that evening about 4 o’clock and ran into Dave. She decided to bed him, but she had to charge him to make it look good. He only had sixty dollars on him, so he would owe her the rest. They spent several hours in bed, where Mercedes tortured him with her mouth and tongue until he begged for climax. Finally satisfied, Dave went home and Mercedes got in the shower. After dressing, she went to Nikki’s apartment, had some hair of the dog, and went home around ten o’clock after a brief fling in bed.

  Dave went to Mercedes’ apartment again. This was not unusual for Mercedes as she needed sex after drinking so much the day before. They took a shower together where Dave drank water droplets from Mercedes breasts, belly and below. She cried out as she climaxed, holding his head between her legs. Dave then caressed her body with soap and helped her rinse herself. His penis was hard and swollen and he told her it was his turn for some tender loving care. They rolled into bed still wet from the shower, and this time it was Mercedes who licked water from Dave’s chest, down his firm abs and on to his pulsing manhood. He shouted out his satisfaction many times that night. Between lovemaking, they talked in whispers.