She nodded, smiling, and buckled herself in as he got in and pulled away from the curb.
"We have an agricultural economy here," Wilbur said, as he gestured at the lush, green countryside just outside the airport.
"I've heard about that," she said. "A friend told me that you grow some fine weed here."
He took his foot off the gas and turned to look her in the eye for a moment. Whatever he saw seemed to satisfy him. He returned his attention to driving, and said, "Weed?"
"Grass, bud, ganja, whatever you want to call it," she said. "Guess it's a good cash crop."
"Your friend smoke?"
"Uh-huh. You?"
"From time to time, mebbe. You smoke?"
"When I can."
He reached up and plucked a fat joint from over the sun visor. Lighting it, he inhaled deeply and passed it to her. "You can, now," he grinned, exhaling as he spoke.
She took a hit and passed the joint back to him. "That's good stuff all right," she said, as she let the smoke out after twenty seconds. "Locally grown?"
He bobbed his head up and down. "Like your friend said, we grow some fine weed here."
"Any chance you could help a girl with a problem?"
"Could be. Depends on the problem."
"Uh-huh," she said. "I thought you might be able to."
"What do you need? Weed's not a big deal, but other stuff's not so easy."
"Weed's what I'm looking for. I'm gonna be on a boat for two weeks, so I kinda need to stock up."
"No problem. You got cash?" Seeing her hesitation, he said, "I only ask 'cause I can stop at a bank machine if you need to."
"How much?"
"Twenty — that's U.S. dollars, not E.C. That'll get you a good stash. Enough for you to take care of a few friends, maybe, for a couple of weeks."
"How do we make it happen?"
"Easy. I make a phone call. When we get to the ferry terminal, you pay me, like you payin' for the taxi. There's a bar on the ferry. You order a Piton and some salted nuts. The bartender will give you the beer and a paper bag with the nuts and a baggie in it. No big deal."
"You've done this before," she said.
"Mebbe so," he said taking another hit and passing the joint back to her.
"Make your call, Wilbur," she said, as she raised the spliff to her lips.
****
Festus Jacobs sat in the shade of the awning on the upper deck of the ferry as it idled against the dock in Bequia. He could see the people disembarking from here, and he knew they couldn't see him. The girl strolled down the ramp with that loose-jointed gait that marked her as stoned to those in the know. He'd spotted her earlier in the bar when she made the pickup. She must have sampled the goods on the crossing.
He didn't monitor transactions like this as a rule, but the Dragon Lady was interested in this girl. That meant money, and Festus believed in following money.
He saw her approach the two women who held a sign with the name "Vengeance" lettered on it; that must be the name of the yacht. They were making this too easy. He had expected to have to follow the girl to learn the boat's name, but now he didn't even have to get off the ferry.
He stood, turning away from the crowd ashore and looking out over the harbor. Removing a small pair of binoculars from his shoulder bag, he swept his gaze across the boats at anchor, pausing on the fanciest looking one. He put the glasses to his eyes and adjusted the focus, estimating that the boat was around 60 feet in length.
The hull gleamed white in the late afternoon sun, and the varnished brightwork sparkled like gold. The boat swung slightly with the breeze, and he was able to make out the beginning of the name picked out in gold leaf on the transom. Everything about the vessel screamed money, even the oversized U.S. flag that wafted in the gentle breeze.
There would be plenty of money from this one, and not much risk. Marissa Chen — the diminutive, middle-aged woman that everyone called the Dragon Lady — had enough of the senior police officers on her payroll to make this work. Festus could run small-time scams on his own, but just looking at that boat told him this would be too big for him and his cronies. He was happy to be working for the Dragon Lady on this one.
Chapter 3
Cynthia had rolled a joint from her new stash and smoked it on the ferry. She was feeling mellow when she looked over the crowd at the foot of the gangway. She spotted the two women pictured in the brochure her father had shown her. One of them held a placard bearing a line drawing of a sailboat and the legend, "Vengeance." Going with the flow of the crowd, she took almost a minute to reach them.
"Hi," she said, stopping in front of them and dropping her bag. "I'm Cynthia Savage."
"Welcome to the islands, Cynthia. I'm Liz Chirac, and this is Dani Berger. Is your dad far behind you?"
"Um, he couldn't make it today. He got sucked into some kind of meeting with a client." Cynthia grinned, waiting.
"Is he still coming?" Dani asked after several seconds, frowning.
"Who?"
"Your father. Who else?" Dani snapped.
"Oh. I guess. Linda said he's on the same flights, um, tomorrow, I think."
"Who's Linda?" Liz asked, stepping forward so that she was between Dani and Cynthia.
"Linda? Oh, yeah. Linda Mason. She's his, um ... his secretary."
"You must be tired," Liz said, cutting Dani off as she was about to speak. "Let's get you back to Vengeance and get you settled. We'll show you around Bequia tomorrow while we wait for your dad."
"Mm, 'kay. Might as well," the girl said, yawning.
Dani picked up Cynthia's carry-on bag and stomped off to the dinghy dock, leaving Cynthia and Liz in her wake. She flung the bag into the dinghy, jumped aboard, and had the engine started before Liz escorted the girl down the dock. When they got back to Vengeance, Liz took the girl below and settled her in one of the midship staterooms.
"Let me know if you need anything, Cynthia," she said. "Anything at all. Drink, snack, extra bedding, whatever."
"I'm good, thanks, Liz," Cynthia said, closing the door as Liz left.
"Charming girl," Dani sneered, as Liz joined her in the cockpit.
"Give her a break, Dani. That's a miserable trip, and you know it."
"Especially for a stoner."
"Stoner?" Liz asked.
"She's wrecked," Dani said.
"Oh, she's just beat, I imagine," Liz said.
"Spaced out, bloodshot eyes — she's been toking. You tell her about zero tolerance?"
"No. Elaine would have covered that in the package she sent them."
"Don't bet that little Miss Congeniality bothered to read it, even if her father shared it with her."
"I'm going below to get a glass of wine. You need one, too. Want anything else?"
"No, but the wine does sound good."
Liz stepped below and returned in a moment with a bottle of chilled white table wine and two glasses. She filled one and handed it to Dani.
When Liz had her own glass in hand, Dani said, "I have a bad feeling about this one."
"Lighten up, Dani. You have a bad feeling about most charters. Sometimes I wonder why you're even in this business."
"It's because of the boats, not the people," Dani said.
"At least see what Cynthia's like after a night's rest before you write her off; two weeks could be a long time with your attitude."
"Hmph," Dani grumbled. "She's — "
The buzz of her phone interrupted her. She glanced at the screen. "That's odd. Sam sent me a text asking me to call him ASAP."
"Sam?" Liz asked.
"The model boat guy," Dani said, raising the phone to her ear. She listened for a few seconds, nodded her head, and said, "Thanks, Sam," before she disconnected the call.
"What's up?" Liz said.
"His nephew's a cop. Sam was showing him the model of Vengeance, and the nephew remarked that the drug squad from St. Vincent was planning a raid in Bequia later this evening. We're the target."
"What?!"
"The nephew heard the guy in charge of the drug squad calling his team together. He mentioned Vengeance by name, and told them they were headed for Bequia for a bust, that he'd been tipped by the regular dealer."
"So do you think — "
"No 'think' involved. Miss Cynthia bought herself a couple of ounces of weed on her way from St. Vincent."
"What are we — "
"Let's get under way. The best thing we can do is be gone when they get here. We can sort out the aftermath later, after we ditch her stash."
****
"Where are we going?" Liz asked. "We don't have clearance papers to leave."
"As far out to the west as we can get," Dani said. "I figure we might make it outside the limit before they find us."
Vengeance was plowing through the long-period swells at almost ten knots, her diesel wide open and the Yankee jib drawing as she ran dead downwind in the 20-knot easterly trade winds.
"Then what? Are you thinking we'll clear out at Union or somewhere? We'll still have to go back to Bequia to pick up Ed Savage."
"We'll go back in the morning," Dani said. "After we make sure we're clean. Get in mid-morning, and drop the hook."
"How do you plan to make sure we're clean?"
"Take the helm. I'm going to wake up our little princess and put the fear of God into her."
"Dani, let me — "
"No. This is a job for the iron fist, not the velvet glove."
"Don't hurt her, Dani. She's just a kid."
"An almost adult kid who could cost us our boat, Liz. Don't worry; I won't hurt her, much. Not unless she's more aggressive than she seemed."
Dani went below, and moments later Liz heard a crash, followed by a scream of sheer terror. The scream ended abruptly with a resounding slap, and she heard Dani's voice.
"Shut up and listen to me, or I'll give you something to scream about. Where's your stash?"
Liz cringed as she heard a sob, and then soft words, followed by another solid slap.
She heard Cynthia's raised voice. "My father's a lawyer, and he'll — "
"Don't even start that. He's nobody in St. Vincent. They won't even let him visit you in prison, and if you think I won't have you locked up after I get through kicking your ass, you're dreaming. Besides, I'm betting he doesn't know you're a doper, does he?"
Liz heard a whimper, followed by Dani screaming, "Answer me, you little shit!"
"N-no. Please, if you don't tell — "
"Don't start trying to bargain with me. Hand over your stash, all of it, right now, or I'll make you hurt like you never imagined."
A few seconds later, Dani appeared in the companionway, a Ziploc bag in her hand. She opened it and emptied the contents over the side of the boat, holding the bag downwind and well away from Vengeance as she shook the last bits out. She ripped the bag into two pieces and tossed it into the water.
"Please," Cynthia sobbed, crawling through the companionway onto the bridge deck. "You don't know what he'll — "
"I couldn't care less," Dani said, cutting her off. "You have no idea how close you came to getting us all locked up. Whoever you bought that grass from reported you to the cops. We could still lose our boat and go to jail, and believe me, you don't want to go to jail in St. Vincent. Especially if I'm your cellmate."
"Why would — "
"Get out of my sight. I don't want to look at you right now; I need to think and make some phone calls to see if I can get us out of this mess. Go!"
Dani took the helm, and Liz moved to stand beside the distraught girl. "Come on below," Liz said, putting an arm around Cynthia's shoulders. "I'll make us some herbal tea, and we'll sort this out."
****
Vengeance, still running before the wind under sail, was about 25 miles west of Bequia and the big island of St. Vincent. Dani had shut the diesel down after she checked the radar and saw that no vessels were following them.
"You really scared her," Liz said, taking a seat beside Dani.
"Good. She should be scared. We aren't out of this yet."
"What's your plan?" Liz asked.
"What's she doing?"
"She's asleep. Once I got her calmed down and told her how serious the drug laws were down here, she started dozing off and spilled her tea. I got her settled in her berth and she was dead to the world in a minute or two. What are we going to do?"
"We'll go back to Bequia, but not until I can find out what's going on."
Liz chewed on her lower lip for a beat or two. "I'm not sure I understand."
"Well, she did ask a reasonable question. Or was about to, when I cut her off. I can only think of one reason why the dealer would have tipped the cops."
"You think he was trying to curry favor or something?"
"That's a possibility, but it's more likely that they were planning a shakedown."
"A shakedown? How would that work?"
"Oh, it's a fairly common scheme down here," Dani said. "The dealer lines up a crooked cop and tips him when a tourist makes a buy. The cop busts the buyer, but he keeps the whole thing off the books and takes a payoff from the tourist to forget about it. The cop and the dealer split the money. Cynthia was a perfect mark — a spoiled rich kid. They'd have locked us all up until her father showed, and then put the squeeze on him, big-time. Us, too, and they'd have impounded Vengeance in the bargain."
"How are we going to keep them from doing that when we get back? If they're crooked, won't they just plant some marijuana on Vengeance and go ahead with their scheme?"
"They probably would, but not all the cops are crooked. Phillip's got a long-standing relationship with the Chief Superintendent. We'll stay out of their waters until he can get in touch and let us know it's safe for us to go back. I just hope Cynthia wasn't holding out on me. We may still get searched. If she's got more drugs, we're screwed."
"I don't think she has anything else, Dani. She was shaken up by this, worried about her father's reaction. She's already in trouble with him for sneaking off to meet a boy when she was supposed to be visiting a girlfriend and her parents at their vacation home in Miami Beach."
Dani's face split in a grin. "Now, that makes me like her a little better. How'd he catch her?"
"He tried to call the girlfriend's parent's place to tell Cynthia about his change in plans. When he got their voice mail, the message said to call them at their place in Atlanta, so he did. You can guess the rest."
"No wonder she didn't want him to know about the weed, then."
"Are you going to tell him? She's really worried about that."
"I'm not sure we'll have a choice. It depends on how things play out back in Bequia. If we manage to get clear, I guess there's no reason to add to her problems. Sounds like she's in enough trouble already. Maybe she'll learn something about the risks of dabbling in drugs."
Liz looked at her wrist watch. "It'll be sunrise before too long. Should I make us some coffee?"
"Sure. I don't think we'll be going to bed any time soon. Maybe if we're lucky, we can squeeze in a nap this afternoon before her father comes."
Liz stood up and stepped toward the companionway.
"Hey, Liz?" Dani said.
"Yes?"
"Bring the sat phone when you come back. I'll call Phillip after we have a cup of coffee. He'll be up soon anyway. May as well give him time to think about this before the Chief Super gets to work."
Chapter 4
"What did he say?" Liz asked, putting a plate of sliced fruit on the cockpit table.
"He agrees that it's probably a shakedown; he says there's been a resurgence of that sort of thing recently. Thanks for the fruit."
"You're welcome. So he'll call his friend?"
"Yes. He'll be back in touch. He thought we should stay lost for the time being, though."
"Hmm. Think we'll be able to get back in time to meet Ed Savage?"
Dani shrugged. "I hope so. Otherwise, we'll have to tell him what's going on. We should probably
prepare Cynthia for that, just in case."
"Prepare me for what?" Cynthia asked, rubbing her eyes as she stepped through the companionway.
"Have some fruit," Liz said. "And there's coffee, if you want."
"No coffee, thanks. But the fruit looks yummy. What's going on? Where are we, anyway?"
"We're about 20 miles from Bequia," Dani said, "waiting for things to settle down."
"I feel like a fool. I thought weed was okay down here, with the Rastas and all."
"Yes, well, there's certainly enough misinformation in the media to give you that impression," Liz said.
"Cynthia?" Dani asked.
"Yes?" Cynthia dropped her fork and began twisting her napkin, cowering as she turned to face Dani.
"Sorry I was so rough on you last night. I didn't think we had time for any drawn-out discussion after my friend tipped me to the raid."
"Okay, I didn't know; Liz explained ... "
"She told me," Dani said. "Look, I was your age not so long ago; we all make mistakes. It's part of growing up. I did a lot of stuff that I didn't want my parents to know about."
Cynthia put down the napkin. Her face relaxed a bit, and she forced a smile. "Like what?"
"There'll be time for that later," Dani said. "Right now, we need to deal with the fallout from this drug thing."
"Okay. I'm really sorry; I'm blown away by the dealer calling the cops. Why would he do that?"
Dani explained the shakedown theory and the gravity of being caught with drugs on a yacht in most of the island countries.
"Liz told me about that last night. I had no idea they were more strict than the U.S., or that I could get you guys in trouble. But this sucks. It's my own fault, but I'm going to be in so much trouble with my father. I mean, like, I already am. I — "
"I shared that with Dani," Liz interrupted.
"We may have a problem keeping him out of this," Dani said. "It depends on how we come out with the authorities."
"You mean you might not tell him?" Cynthia said, her voice softening as she raised her eyebrows.
"Only if we have to," Dani said. "It sounds like you're in enough trouble already."
Bluewater Ganja: The Ninth Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 9) Page 2
