A Blast to Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller: The 3rd Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Connie Barrera Thrillers)

by Charles Dougherty

  "You okay with this?" Paul asked.

  "Yes. You?"

  "A little nervous."

  "Why? Everything's going just like Bill said it would."

  "Thanks to you and your sharp eyes and small hands. I would have never found that box."

  "Bill told us last night that there was a wire running from the warhead to that, um ... whatever it is in the box."

  "Magnetic reed switch," Paul said.

  "That's it," she said.

  "Right, but what if — "

  "Relax, Paul. He said they found all of Mo's notes once they cracked his hard drive, even the circuit diagrams that showed the reed switch."

  "Yeah, but Mo could have — "

  "Paul, chill! When I waved the magnet past the box, it disarmed the weapon. Bill's person was standing around here somewhere with that gizmo they found on the guy that I kicked at Solomons Island. She saw it; you heard him say so on the phone last night. What more do you want?"

  "I want it disarmed now."

  "He explained that. If he could see that I disarmed it, so could the guy who's supposed to trigger it."

  "Yeah, but —" Paul's iPhone vibrated. He snatched it from the seat beside him and swiped the screen. "Yeah, Bill."

  "We got him. We homed in on his wireless signal right after he triggered it; it's set for three this afternoon. You can disarm it again, Connie."

  "On my way," she said, standing and turning to the companionway.

  "Okay," O'Brien said, 15 seconds later. "She got it. I'll be there in a couple of minutes with the explosive ordinance disposal team." He disconnected the call.

  "Okay, Bill. What's your news?" Paul asked as soon as O'Brien came aboard.

  "The team on Sam followed him to a Syrian restaurant. He took a cab there from the marina and went in. Two minutes later, he left from the back door with another man. They walked out of the alley and a black sedan with diplomatic plates picked them up at the curb. They managed to shake the surveillance, somehow. The team followed the car around for about 45 minutes, and it came back to the restaurant. The unknown man got out and went inside, but there was no sign of Sam."

  "Damn. Can you find a way to search the car?"

  "No need. The driver stopped in the alley and opened all the doors and the trunk and started cleaning the car, almost like he was showing us it was empty. Every cop in the city's got Cohen's picture now. We'll find him. We've sealed up the airports and ground transportation terminals."

  "What about Miriam?" Connie asked. "Did you have her followed?"

  "Of course," O'Brien said. "She's been in and out of department stores all morning, trying on clothes. She had to buy one of those folding 'granny carts' to carry all the bags, and she's still at it."

  "What should we do?" Paul asked.

  "We're going to need to get Diamantista II around to the Coast Guard station so the E.O.D. team can pull the fuel tank. I've got the go ahead to pay for another one and have it shipped down. We've already made arrangements with Rick Peterson. He's going to expedite it and send two men down with it on a truck. They'll install it at the Coast Guard station and we'll fill 'er up for you. How's that?"

  "But — " Connie said.

  "You're our guests; we've booked a room at the Plaza for you."

  "I need to get my stuff," Connie said.

  "There'll be somebody assigned to you; just tell her what you need. Clothes, cosmetics, anything. It's all on us, but we need to process Diamantista II. She's a crime scene. Sorry for the inconvenience."

  "Well, okay, I guess," Connie said. "Clothes, even?"

  "Anything. You've got a blank check."

  "You Feebs treat all your victims this well?" Paul asked.

  "You know better than that, Paul. You guys are certified heroes right now. Enjoy it while it lasts."

  "What about the Cohens?" Connie asked. "I want to know what happens with them, especially Sam."

  "I don't blame you. How about if we get you two settled at the Plaza, and I join you for dinner at seven o'clock. I'll call if we catch up with Sam before then."

  "Okay, you're on," Connie said.

  O'Brien stood and waved to a woman who was standing on the dock. She approached and stood on the finger pier, her hand on Diamantista II's lifeline.

  "Meet Special Agent Mary Evans," O'Brien said. "She'll make sure you're taken care of."

  "This is pretty cushy," Connie said, drying her hair in front of the vanity mirror. She was wearing a heavy terrycloth robe with the hotel's logo on it. "A girl could get used to this kind of treatment."

  She switched off the hairdryer and went to stand behind Paul as he shaved his chin. Reaching around his waist, she tugged at the towel he had wrapped around himself.

  "Uh-uh," he said, dropping the razor and catching her hands. "Special Agent Evans is going to be back any minute.

  "I told her we needed a couple of hours; she'll understand. It's a girl thing." As she snatched the towel away, the phone rang.

  Paul answered the extension over the vanity sink. "Hi, Bill. What's up?"

  Seeing Connie's pout in the mirror, he said, "Excuse me, but Connie needs to hear this. Can you call back on my cellphone?" He hung up as the cellphone rang in the bedroom.

  "They've got Sam," Paul explained, grabbing another towel and heading for the nightstand.

  "Hi, Bill," Connie said, as Paul switched on his iPhone's speaker mode. "You arrested him already?"

  "Not exactly," O'Brien said. "Two beat cops found Sam. Or I should say, they found his body. Dumped in an alley not too far from the restaurant. Apparently the car was out of sight of the team just long enough. Classic execution. Two shots to the head."

  "What about Miriam?" Connie asked.

  "Now that's where it gets interesting," O'Brien said. "We picked her up in Macy's to tell her about Sam, but it wasn't Miriam we'd been following."

  "What? How can that be?" Paul asked.

  "She was a double; an actress. She was hired to wait in a dressing room in one of the first shops Miriam went into. We're working on figuring out who hired her, but I don't have high hopes, there. She never saw the person. They switched clothes and purses, and she left Miriam in the dressing room — with a complete makeup kit, including a bag full of different wigs. Miriam's in the wind, as the saying goes. Looks like Miriam was the one we should have been watching all along."

  "She sure had me fooled," Paul said.

  "Me, too," Connie said.

  "Don't beat yourselves up," O'Brien said. "She fooled a pretty skilled surveillance team."

  "But what about Sam, crawling around in the dark the other night?" Connie asked.

  "My bet is it was Miriam," O'Brien said. "We processed that burner cell phone on the boat for prints since you left; you and Miriam were the only ones who touched it, Connie. Oh, and we found the text she sent in its memory. It was a dump of diagnostic test results on the weapon — the one we intercepted — so that's probably what she was doing when you saw her crawling around in the dark. Gotta go — other line's ringing. See you at seven o'clock."

  Epilogue

  “So, how's the new fuel tank?" Bill O'Brien asked, as he stepped aboard Diamantista II.

  "Full," Connie said.

  "And it's all diesel fuel — 200 gallons of it," Paul added.

  "Sounds like you didn't enjoy your brief period as the world's only nuclear-fueled sailing yacht."

  "That's a fair assessment," Connie said. "Have a seat and admire the view."

  "Don't mind if I do," O'Brien said, gazing across Annapolis Harbor at the Naval Academy as he settled into the cockpit cushions.

  "What can I get you to drink?" Paul asked from the galley.

  "A cold beer would go down well, thanks."

  "Coming right up." He reached through the companionway and set an antipasto tray on the bridge deck. A frosted mug of golden lager and two glasses of red wine followed, and he joined Connie and Bill in the cockpit.

  When everyone had a drink in hand, Paul
said, "Here's to happy endings — or I guess I should say, safe endings."

  "Yes!" Bill and Connie said, clicking glasses.

  "That one was a little closer than we'd like to admit," Bill said, "but it came out all right. I'm just glad you two decided to fill up with diesel."

  "So what's new in the last week?" Connie asked.

  "Amal Barhati — he's the one who triggered the bomb — recognized Diamantista II from July 4th. You and Connie caught his eye then. Mostly Connie, from what he said. You two were in the restaurant with him on the Fourth. He thought you were fellow jihadists."

  "He talked?" Connie asked.

  O'Brien nodded. "Most do, these days. The only way to keep quiet is the way those two kids that crewed with you did. Given that we lost three of them, we made sure the rest were unconscious when we arrested them; they got new, non-lethal dental implants before they were sent away to prison."

  "How many others?" Paul asked.

  "Can't say," Bill responded.

  "What about Miriam?" Connie asked.

  "Still on the run. We've got her bottled up in Europe, we think. She can't hide forever. We're closing in on her."

  "She sure fooled me," Connie said.

  "Don't feel bad. She fooled a lot of people, including her own parents."

  "What would motivate somebody like her to do what she did?" Connie asked.

  "There are all kinds of crazies running loose. Not all of them stand out from the rest of us," Paul said.

  Bill nodded. "I'm convinced that there's no way to understand what motivates people like her. They're way beyond our comprehension."

  "What I want to know is how she managed to lead Sam around so effectively," Paul said.

  "Well, we have some clues on that one. His secretary told us that Miriam asked her to suggest the charter. She and Miriam apparently had a history of doing that kind of thing. She was stunned at this whole situation, by the way. Said that Sam was sort of a shit when it came to the way he treated Miriam. He was a skirt chaser, and Miriam was good at playing on his guilt."

  "But he was so adamant about the schedule. I didn't see any of that coming from Miriam — just the opposite. Was all that grief she gave Elaine just a smokescreen?"

  "Probably," O'Brien said. "Sylvia Ranitz — sorry, she's the secretary — shed some light on that, too. Sam Cohen was always right on the edge of financial ruin. She kept his books, along with running the office. In the midst of all this, a mystery client came along and wanted to meet with Sam in New York on the 29th or 30th. Sam was stressed out because he'd already booked the charter, so the client offered to pick up the tab. Sam told Sylvia they were talking a retainer of well over a million a year."

  "Who was the client?" Paul asked.

  "Sam wouldn't tell anybody. Sylvia said the man who called had a strong accent that she couldn't place. Sam told her it was a foreign government looking to improve their image on the human rights front, but that's all she knows."

  They sipped their drinks for a few minutes, each lost in private thoughts.

  "When are you leaving for the islands?" Bill asked, breaking the silence.

  "Oh, probably late October or early November," Paul said.

  "We're going to spend some time before that mapping out this historic seaport idea," Connie said. "I like this part of the country, and I think there's a business to be built, at least during the spring and early fall."

  "I would think so," Bill said.

  "Paul and I were talking last night. He said you might not be able to do it because of ethical considerations, but we want to offer you a two-week cruise on us if you can. Here or down-island — either would be great — and if there's somebody you'd like to bring, that would be fine, too."

  "Wow! That's generous of you, but Paul's right. I don't think the ethics bunch would go for that. Thanks for the thought, though. Sounds like a blast."

  "No more references to 'blasts,' please, gentlemen. Paul, let's get dinner on the table."

  "Aye, aye, captain."

  The End

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  A Note to the Reader

  Thank you for reading A Blast to Sail, the third book in the Connie Barrera Thriller series. I hope that you enjoyed it. If so, please leave a brief review on Amazon. Reviews are of great benefit to independent authors like me; they help me more than you can imagine. They are a primary means to help new readers find my work. A few words from you can help others find the pleasure that I hope you found in this book, as well as keeping my spirits up as I work on the next one. If you would like to be notified by email when I release a new book or have a sale or giveaway, please visit http://eepurl.com/bKujyv to subscribe to my email list. I promise not to use the list for anything else; I dislike spam as much as you do.

  If you haven't read the other Connie Barrera Thrillers, please take a look at them. If you enjoyed this book, you'll enjoy them as well. I also write another series of sailing thrillers set in the Caribbean. The Bluewater Thrillers feature two young women, Dani Berger and Liz Chirac. They sail a luxury charter yacht of their own. They are friends of Connie’s; they met her when she chartered with them in Bluewater Ice.

  Connie had a key role in Deception in Savannah, my first book. I enjoyed writing about her so much that I wrote her into the Bluewater Thrillers. She plays prominent parts in both Bluewater Ice and Bluewater Betrayal. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are a spin-off from the Bluewater Thrillers, and feature some of the same characters. Dani and Liz taught Connie to sail, and they introduced her to Paul Russo, her first mate and husband.

  In July of 2017, I published Bluewater Enigma - the 13th novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series. Now I’ll turn my attention back to Connie and Paul for their eighth adventure. You'll find progress reports and more information on at www.clrdougherty.com. Be sure to click on the link to my blog posts; it's in the column on the right side of the web page. Dani Berger has begun to blog about what's on her mind, and Liz and Connie are demanding equal time, so you can see what they're up to while I'm writing.

  A list of my other books is on the last page; just click on a title or go to my website for more information. If you’d like to know when my next book is released, visit my Amazon author’s page at www.amazon.com/author/clrdougherty and click the "Follow" link near the upper left-hand corner, or sign up for my email list at the link in the opening paragraph above.

  I welcome email correspondence about books, boats and sailing. My address is clrd@clrdougherty.com. If you'd like personal updates, drop me a line at that address and let me know. Thanks again for your support.

  About the Author

  Welcome aboard!

  Charles Dougherty is a lifelong sailor; he's lived what he writes. He and his wife have spent over 30 years sailing together. For 15 years, they lived aboard their boat full-time, cruising the East Coast and the islands. They spent most of that time exploring the Eastern Caribbean. Dougherty is well acquainted with the islands and their people. The characters and locations in his novels reflect his experience.

  A storyteller before all else, Dougherty lets his characters speak for themselves. Pick up one of his thrillers and listen to the sound of adventure as you smell the salt air. Enjoy the views of distant horizons and meet some people you won't forget.

  Dougherty has written over 25 books. His Bluewater Thrillers are set in the yachting world of the Caribbean and chronicle the adventures of two young women running a luxury charter yacht in a rough-and-tumble environment. The Connie Barrera Thrillers are also set in the Caribbean and feature some of the same characters from a slightly more romantic perspective. Besides the Bluewater Thrillers and the Connie Barrera Thrillers, he wrote The Redemption of Becky J
ones, a psycho-thriller, and The Lost Tourist Franchise, a short story about one of the characters from Deception in Savannah.

  He has also written two non-fiction books. Life's a Ditch is the story of how he and his wife moved aboard their sailboat, Play Actor, and their adventures along the east coast of the U.S. Dungda de Islan' relates their experiences while cruising the Caribbean.

  www.clrdougherty.com

  clrd@clrdougherty.com

  Other Books by C.L.R. Dougherty

  Bluewater Thrillers

  Bluewater Killer

  Bluewater Vengeance

  Bluewater Voodoo

  Bluewater Ice

  Bluewater Betrayal

  Bluewater Stalker

  Bluewater Bullion

  Bluewater Rendezvous

  Bluewater Ganja

  Bluewater Jailbird

  Bluewater Drone

  Bluewater Revolution

  Bluewater Enigma

  Bluewater Thrillers Boxed Set: Books 1-3

  Connie Barrera Thrillers

  From Deception to Betrayal - An Introduction to Connie Barrera

  Love for Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Sailor's Delight - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  A Blast to Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Storm Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Running Under Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Sails Job - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Under Full Sail - A Connie Barrera Thriller

  Other Fiction

  Deception in Savannah

  The Redemption of Becky Jones

  The Lost Tourist Franchise

  Books for Sailors and Dreamers

  Life's a Ditch

  Dungda de Islan'

  For more information please visit www.clrdougherty.com