Caribbean Capers

by Dan Kelly

  Caribbean Capers

  Daniel Kelly

  Copyright © 2013 by Daniel Kelly

  Smashwords Edition

  PUBLISHERS NOTE:

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  Dan Kelly

  CARIBBEAN CAPERS

  Chapter 1

  -Caribbean Sea - Off the Coast of Barcelona, Venezuela

  Bob and Millie Trumball are standing out on the upper deck of their new yacht, Blissful Times, enjoying their lifelong dream of taking a leisurely Caribbean cruise on their very own piece of paradise. They no longer have to worry about daily schedules, appointments to keep, twelve or more hour work days, goals to reach and fretting over too much to do and not enough time to do it.

  They’ve just sold their business, Trumball Quarries, suppliers of high quality marble and granite from company owned quarries all over the world for close to a half billion dollars and at the age of 57 and 56, respectively, Bob and Millie are now getting use to a life of care free relaxation and enjoying the finer things in life.

  The Blissful Times is the epitome of a luxury yacht. Its 250 foot length with its steel hull, two-deck composite superstructure, blue and white color scheme and top of the line accoutrements captures the envious notice of any observer whether a yachtsman or not. It accommodates 12 guests and a crew of 22, but for this cruise it’s just the two of them and the crew. They are adamant in their desire to get some down time with nothing to do but relax and share each other’s company. Entertaining anyone but themselves is the farthest thing from their minds.

  It’s the middle of February and the weather is beautiful. The temperature is in the low eighties with the humidity a little lower, but not much. The winds are gentle at about five miles per hour, so the sea is calm. Bob’s planning on doing some fishing and Millie is planning on soaking up some sun and reading a good book. They deliberately planned this cruise for this time of year to avoid the rainy and hurricane seasons which occur later in the year.

  They started their Caribbean Sea rim cruise at Cozumel, Mexico and have pulled into ports in Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, the port city of Barranquilla in Colombia, the island of Aruba and the port city of Barcelona in Venezuela and are now headed for the island of Martinique. So far it has been everything they’ve imagined.

  As Bob heads down to the stern of the yacht on the lower deck to fish off of the fishing platform there and Millie gets comfortable on a lounge chair with some fluffy pillows for her head to read her book, the restful scene is shattered by the sound of four speed boats quickly approaching, each with three men, each holding an AK- 47 and each is wearing a silk stocking mask. The Trumballs are about to have some uninvited guests.

  The captain, Pete Brody, and his crew know immediately what’s going on as there have been reports of piracy regarding luxury yachts recently occurring in the Caribbean, but those incidents supposedly have taken place farther north and to the west of their position, off the southern coast of Jamaica.

  He had cautioned the Trumballs about the danger that might be lurking somewhere along their cruise of the Caribbean rim, but they were determined not to let anything or anybody interfere with their plans.

  Bob’s reaction to the news was, “The United States Navy and Coast Guard working in conjunction with numerous international agencies in many countries along the rim are constantly patrolling the waters and skies along our planned route. I don’t think any pirates are going to be crazy enough to go up against those kinds of odds.”

  Pete hadn’t been given much advance notice for this cruise, just three days, and after hearing the rumors he was concerned enough about the safety of his new clients to take some precautions no matter what the odds might be on a piracy attempt. Before they left Cozumel, he installed a weapons locker on the upper deck in the aft section and managed to scrounge up a paltry assortment of weapons and ammo to store in it.

  The make shift armory contains two Mossberg 500 and one Remington 870 12 gauge pump shot guns, an AR15 and three old M-16s. Pete and five other men of the crew are the only people on board who have ever fired a weapon and none of them has fired a weapon of any kind since they served in the military which for Pete was ten years ago. Pete’s hoping that all they’ll have to do is show that the crew is armed and willing to defend themselves, hoping that the pirates will decide to look for easier prey.

  Pete tells the Trumballs to go below deck where the steel hull will provide protection if bullets start flying and he and the other five men grab a weapon and assume positions along the railings on the upper deck.

  The speed boats surround the yacht, one on each side, one on the port side of the bow and one on the starboard side of the stern. One of the men in the port side boat that is about mid-ship shouts, “We’re coming aboard.”

  Pete shouts back, “That’s not going to happen. Haul ass out of our way.”

  The pirate doesn’t take kindly to this kind of attitude and strafes the American Flag that is barely fluttering in the gentle breeze.

  One of the crew members doesn’t take kindly to the disrespect shown the American Flag and puts a bullet in the guy’s head and takes out the other two men in the boat as well. All three were dead in less than five seconds. When the other pirates see what happened, they take off for safer waters. Pete shouts out to the other men along the railing, “They’re probably heading to a mother ship hiding behind one of the numerous small islands that are close by. I read somewhere many of these guys operate that way.”

  As they all head back to the weapons locker he’s thinking how lucky they’ve been to get through that encounter without anyone on board getting hurt. When the shooting started, he thought they weren’t long for this world. Turning to the man who saved their butts he asked, “Where did you learn to shoot like that?”

  “I was an Army Ranger sniper, sir.”

  “Well, I’m sure glad your skills haven’t diminished one bit. We all owe you big time.”

  “No one owes me anything, sir. If that jerk kept firing bursts like he did, one of us could have been hit. I had no way of knowing what those creeps might have done next and didn’t want to give them a chance to do it. Besides, I’m sick and tired of people showing disrespect for our flag.”

  “Well, your quick thinking and reaction kept us safe. Thank you.”

  Pete’s relief is short lived as Millie comes running up to him screaming, “They took Bob! They kidnapped Bob!’

  “How in hell did they do that? You were both below deck and none of the pirates got on board.”

  “While all of the shooting was going on, Bob looked out onto the fishing platform and saw his fishing reel spinning, letting out line rapidly. He went out to set the hook into whatever had taken the bait and began to reel it in. I kept yelling at him to come back in, but he tuned me out. When Bob’s fishing, he forgets everything else. One of the men i
n the speed boat that was near the fishing platform jumped up and pulled him down into it and then the boat sped away. We’ve got to get help to get him back. Oh, I hope they don’t hurt him. I wish we had listened to you and never started this cruise.” Everything she said after that was unintelligible as she started to sob uncontrollably.

  Pete notified the coast guard authorities in Barcelona and was told to stay where they are and wait for a coast guard cutter to come out to them. Pete’s starting to have second thoughts about his making a stand against the pirates. “Maybe I should have just made a run for it back to Barcelona, but the Blissful Times’ maximum speed is only 17 knots, a lot slower than the speed boats. All of those guys had AK 47s and probably a lot more ammunition than we have. We were outgunned and wouldn’t have stood a chance. The element of surprise of having an expert marksman on board was the only thing that saved our bacon. That probably wouldn’t have been a significant factor if we had made a run for it. Damn, what a mess. Three men dead and one of my clients is kidnapped. What the hell possessed the man to go fishing during a gun battle?”

  Chapter 2

  -Miami, FL-

  When the coast guard cutter arrives, the bodies of the three pirates are hauled on board the cutter and the speed boat is tied up to its stern to be towed back to Barcelona. The next several hours are spent responding to a relentless barrage of questions from the mean looking middle aged commanding officer of the cutter with a disposition to match. Everyone on board the Blissful Times is subjected to the man’s insensitive interrogation technique, but he finally backs off when poor Millie goes into hysterics when the jerk intimates that he thinks she might have had something to do with the kidnapping.

  After everyone provides contact information, they are eventually allowed to continue on to Martinique. Millie decides to stay there because she thinks by being reasonably close to the authorities conducting the investigation into her husband’s kidnapping, compared to returning to Cozumel, she’d have easier access to them in monitoring their progress. After her experience with the coast guard cutter officer, she is leery of any future face-to-face encounters with him or any other investigators she might have if she returned to Barcelona. Pete agrees with her decision. Their encounter with the Latin Sherlock Holmes has left a foul taste in his mouth as well.

  When they arrive in Martinique, Millie instructs Pete to take the yacht back to Miami, the Trumballs home port, and says that when they find Bob they will fly home. So, three weeks later Pete is back in Miami looking for work.

  Pete is an interesting guy with an interesting background. He has an unbridled love of the open sea which was spawned and nourished by his dad who is a cruise ship captain chauffeuring travelers to all the ports of call throughout the Mediterranean and Caribbean Seas. During his time at home, his father loves to go sailing on his 35 foot sailboat with its Bermuda rig all along the Miami coast and frequently into the Gulf of Mexico. His wife, Cassandra, a maritime attorney, and twin sons Peter and Paul when they were still living at home, were almost always with him His wife and kids also got to go on a lot of freebie cruises to the Mediterranean and Caribbean during the summer months when the kids were out of school. This was one of the perks for being the captain of a cruise ship. They were and still are a close knit family.

  After receiving his degree in oceanography from Florida State University, graduating with honors, he enlisted in the U. S. Coast Guard and rose to the rank of Commander during his eight year sojourn with them. After knocking heads with more than a few superior officers over a variety of issues, he decided that a career in the military wasn’t for him. He returned to civilian life with the idea of looking for employment in the field of oceanography. He was only home a week when a friend of his dad offered him a job as a captain of a ship for some folks who could afford to buy a luxurious yacht, but didn’t know the first thing about operating one. This led to other similar jobs and now, ten years later, the idea of looking for that oceanography opportunity has become a distant memory.

  He’s now thirty-nine years old, never been married and has no special lady in his life. It’s not because he has anything against marriage. His six foot three inch frame with its athletic build coupled with his ruggedly handsome features with the blue-gray eyes and head of thick wavy dark brown hair has generated an interest from more than a few of the fairer sex, but he just hasn’t met anyone that would put up with him on a daily basis and his love for anything to do with the world’s oceans.

  After a good night’s sleep, attending to some routine household chores and paying some bills that had arrived in the mail, he calls his mom to let her know that he is back home and what had happened during the cruise. He doesn’t know if his dad is at home or at sea.

  Cassandra is a tough lady and a lot of that toughness has rubbed off on her offspring. She’s had to deal with threats from crooked overseas shippers who she has taken to court because of illegal activities that resulted in significant losses to her clients and she made them pay for their audacity big time There’s no way she would let an incident like this act of piracy deter her from pursuing what she loves to do and she knows that any suggestion she might make that Pete pursue another career because of the danger associated with the increasing number of crimes at sea would fall on deaf ears. However, she is a mom and the thought did cross her mind.

  “Pete, do you think Mrs. Trumball might need some legal help in dealing with the Venezuelan authorities? I’d be glad to volunteer my services on a pro bono basis since you played a major role in thwarting the piracy attempt and the resultant deaths of some of the pirates.”

  “That never entered my mind, Mom, but now that you bring it up I think it would be smart for Millie to have someone looking out for her best interests. I’ll give her a call and let you know what she says.”

  “You do that. How about coming to dinner tonight? I’ll have Rosa prepare some of your favorite Mexican dishes, cochinita pibil and ceviche. Paul, Nicki and little Cassie love those dishes also. It’s been a while since we had a family get together. I’ll invite them over too. Your dad should be home in a couple of hours so you two can take turns regaling the rest of us with those hilarious stories about the people you meet on your cruises. How about it?”

  Just the thought of the slow-roasted pork and marinated fish that Rosa made had him salivating, so he didn’t hesitate to say, “I’ll be there. What time?”

  “Seven and don’t be late.” His mom hung up and Pete was left to wipe the drool off his chin.

  At first, he couldn’t remember where he put the business card of the hotel where Mrs. Trumball is staying. She’s not staying at one of the five star monstrosities, so he couldn’t even remember its name. It was a quaint, out of the way place, more like a large villa than a hotel. He hoped the card didn’t get washed with his laundry. He was always stuffing things in his shirt pockets and then forgetting about them. Then he remembered where he put it, in his wallet. The name of the place is Le Meilleur. Chuckling to himself he thought, “How could I forget that?”

  Flipping the card over to see what was on the other side, he’s surprised to see ‘Pete Brody, call me.’ A number was given and it was signed ‘Scrounger.’

  Mumbling to himself he says, “What the hell is going on here? The only Scrounger I know is Phil Desoto and I haven’t seen or talked with him since I left the Coast Guard. He was always suckering me into something that put me behind the eight ball.”

  As his mind slips into a higher gear he starts thinking, “It was a woman who gave me the business card when I was leaving the hotel to go back to the yacht. Come to think of it, she wasn’t wearing the hotel name tag that all of the other employees were wearing. She just handed me the card as I was going out the door and said, ‘We hope to see you again when you return to Martinique.’ At the time, I thought it kind of strange that she assumed I had just checked out and was leaving Martinique. I had no luggage. There was nothing to give her that impression. I was in a hurry, so I just dismisse
d the thought and headed back to the Blissful Times.

  “First the attempted piracy which led to Trumball’s kidnapping and now this. I’ve got a hunch that my involvement with what happened to the Trumballs is just the beginning of something I really shouldn’t let myself get sucked into. Shit! Phil was uncanny when it came to scrounging up materiel and I was uncanny when it came to letting him tempt me into sticking my nose into places it didn’t belong.

  “I thought I left all of this crimes-at-sea crap behind me when I was discharged from the Coast Guard. It looks like I haven’t lost my touch. Damn it to hell! Those red flags are waving wildly at me again, warning me that there are mines in the waters ahead, to change course asshole and find a safe harbor, but am I going to heed the warning? Probably not. Besides, I’ve got to admit I’m more that a little curious about why Scrounger is being so 007 about contacting me. ”