by Matt Day
Another Cuban man, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a mustache, was also being handcuffed and led away to another waiting police car. Watching the action take place, Joseph asked once again, “That the guy he had a problem with?”
“Yeah! The guy pulled one of them funny knives on him when they started arguing.”
“Funny knives?” Joseph queried, not taking his eyes off the man as he was led to the car.
“Yeah! You know, those knives that retract into their own sheath, and then with the push of a button – POW! – out pops this wicked looking blade.”
Joseph smiled at the man’s explanation for a switchblade, “I see. Any idea what they were arguing about?”
“Nah, but there was another younger man with the white guy over there. He was talking about some fishing boat he worked on and how he was going to find buried treasure…the older guy tried to shush him up, but that group of Cubans over there kept egging the younger kid on. Said they wanted to hear all about it, and he was welcome to join them. They bought the kid another drink, even though he was so hammered he couldn’t hardly stand up on his own.
“That’s when everything got mixed up. The older guy there tried to forcibly remove the younger kid, and the Cuban fellow there tried to intervene. Words were exchanged and fists were thrown.”
Joseph shook his head, clearly envisioning what had happened. He looked around and caught Tommy’s gaze before the police officer slammed the rear door closed. Nodding his head, he indicated that he would come down to the station and bail him out.
Joseph then looked around for Jimmy, but couldn’t find the kid. After twenty minutes of searching, he decided the kid must have crawled home with his tail between his legs. He was still wet behind the ears when it came to holding his own with more mature men; he even still lived at home with his parents. Mentally reminding himself to have a chat with young Jimmy tomorrow while they were at sea about the dangers of alcohol, and how quickly it could shatter your future, he headed towards the police station.
*****
Monday, Our Lady of Mercy Hospital cafeteria, September 1, 1955…
Carmelita was just going off her break when Charlie had first entered the cafeteria, so they’d only had a few minutes to talk, but what she’d told Charlie sent chills up his spine.
When she had arrived home the night before, she had checked on Mateo once again, and was alarmed to find him out - again. His clothing from the night before had been piled on the floor of his room so she had spent a few minutes picking things up. When she had lifted his jeans from the floor, a plastic bag with a dried material in it had fallen out.
Carmelita had worked in the hospital a long time, and she knew even before she opened the pouch and smelled it, her son had brought home marijuana.
She had waited up for him to come home, which hadn’t occurred until well after midnight. He had smelled of marijuana, and hadn’t even bothered to deny smoking it with some friends. New friends…
Carmelita suspected these new friends were the same ones he had been meeting with on the beach, but couldn’t prove it. She was very worried about her son, who had assured her he was fine and had tried pot just one time.
Charlie promised to talk to him that afternoon when he picked him up for his interview over at the service station. Stephen wouldn’t be happy to find out one of his employees was using drugs. Mateo needed to get his head screwed on straight before he found himself in a place he couldn’t get out of!
Charlie finished his lunch, wondering what was taking Wally so long. He’d dropped Charlie and Tommy off at the back entrance, just in case the Cuban watchdog was still out front.
Before heading back upstairs, he walked to the front entrance of the hospital, seeing no sign of either Wally or the watchdog. Figuring he and Wally had just crossed paths, he took the elevator up, pleased to see Tommy and Jimmy talking quietly. Jimmy seemed more relaxed and gave Charlie a half-smile when he re-entered the room.
“Everything going okay in here?” Charlie asked, seeing Jimmy push something beneath the covers.
“Sure.” Jimmy gave him a smile that was completely false. The kid was still hiding things and thinking he could get away with it. He’d deal with him later. Right now, he needed to find his cousin.
“Did Wally come up here yet?” Charlie asked, not having seen the man in the hallway.
Tommy shook his head, “No, I figured he was with you.”
Charlie shook his head and headed back out the door, Tommy right on his heels. “You don’t think he ran into trouble, do you?”
“Based on everything else that’s happened today, I’m not sure of anything.”
Charlie and Tommy exited the hospital, skirting around the side of the building, looking for Wally’s bright orange truck. They spotted it parked several rows over and headed in that direction.
“Is he still in his truck?” Tommy asked as they got closer.
Charlie narrowed his eyes; that’s what it looked like. A person resembling Wally sat in the driver’s seat, but as they got closer, he realized the truck was still running. That was not like Wally at all!
Charlie went into stealth mode, pulling his revolver from his waistband to raised eyebrows from Tommy. “It’s been an interesting few days!” was all the explanation he gave.
“You go that way, stay low and keep your eyes and ears open. Something’s not quite right.”
“I agree,” Tommy whispered back.
Charlie approached the driver’s side of the truck, bending down to look under the surrounding vehicles. He was still two vehicles over, but there was a set of male legs between him and his goal. Charlie carefully weaved his way between the vehicles until he could get a better idea of whom the legs belonged to.
Using a side mirror, he tilted it up until the face of the man came into view. Mustache man! And he had a gun pointed at Wally with his right hand, and a wicked looking blade held in his left!
Chapter 38
Charlie was tired of dancing around these men. Making his way around to the back of Wally’s truck, he caught Tommy’s eye from across the row and gestured for him to come in from the front. Tommy would create the diversion, and Charlie would neutralize the threat.
Tommy got in position, waiting until he could see Charlie crouching behind Wally’s truck. Taking a deep breath, he stood up and hollered at the man holding the gun, “Hey! What’s going on over there? Wally you okay?” Tommy kept up his dialogue as the mustached man diverted the hand holding the gun in his direction.
Before he could speak or fire, Charlie brought the butt of his revolver down on the man’s head, dropping him to the pavement like a stone in the ocean.
Looking inside the truck, Charlie asked, “You okay, Wally?”
“It took you long enough to come looking for me! Geez, I thought he was actually going to shoot me!”
“Did he tell you what he wanted?”
Wally nodded his head, turning the truck off and exiting the vehicle, stepping carefully over the prostrate man, “You! He wanted me to take him to you! I get the feeling these guys don’t really like you much!”
“Yeah! I’m kind of getting that impression as well. I’m going to restrain this guy. Why don’t you go inside and tell Chief Morgan to send a car down here to pick up the trash.”
Wally nodded, “With pleasure. Man, I hate having guns pointed at me. How come every time I help you out, I’m the one who ends up on the wrong end of a gun?”
Charlie chuckled, “You’re just lucky that way, I guess.”
Wally headed towards the hospital, muttering beneath his breath, “Lucky! He’s thinks having a gun pointed at him is lucky?”
Charlie grabbed a piece of electrical wire from the back of Wally’s truck and tied the man’s hands behind his back. As he started to come around, Charlie made sure to inform him that the police were on their way.
He was treated to a barrage of Spanish epithets and curses, many of which he did unfortunately understand. Shaking his hea
d, he walked a few steps away to speak with Tommy. “Did you get accomplished what you wanted to upstairs?”
“For the most part. I would like to go back up there and explain why we rushed out of there.”
“Fine. I’ll wait for the police. After that, I’m going to head over to grab my car. I need to pick up Carmelita’s son in an hour.”
“Shall I go with Wally?” Tommy asked, thinking about the other two Batistos that were still out there.
“Yeah. Do that and I’ll call or drop by later.”
Tommy nodded and headed back inside the hospital. He found Wally in the foyer, speaking with hospital security and told him he was going with him, and where he’d be when Wally was ready to leave.
As he rode the elevator up to the third floor he made a decision. He was going to convince Jimmy to forget everything they had seen Monday at sea. With Captain Maclean dead, and no way of knowing where they’d actually been, everything they’d found was a moot point anyway.
Tommy knew where the sandbar was, sort of. Maybe in a year or so, once everything seemed settled down, he and Jimmy could head out there and do some exploration once again. Yeah, he and Jimmy just needed to pretend as if Monday had never happened.
*****
Charlie waited no more than five minutes before a bevy of police cars descended on the hospital parking lot. Chief Morgan was amongst them and pulled Charlie to the side. “Want to explain what’s going on here? The mayor just called and said there was a man walking around the hospital parking lot with a gun. Was that you?”
“Maybe,” Charlie shrugged. “Mustache over there had his gun held on Wally before I surprised him. He also has a very wicked looking knife with him, which if I’m not mistaken might be the same weapon used to stab Jimmy Spencer.”
Morgan’s eyes widened, “Really? That’s good news. That was the other part of his diatribe. He wanted to know why we still had an attempted murderer running around our city and what was being done to find the man responsible. Mr. Spencer happens to be very good friends with the mayor and a weekly golfing buddy with him.”
Charlie huffed, “I’m not surprised. Well, now you can tell him that both situations have been corrected.”
“Wonderful.” Morgan turned to watch as two officers picked mustache man up off the pavement and hauled him to a waiting vehicle, “Isn’t that the same guy we had in lock-up last Monday night?”
Charlie nodded, “Yep. Think you can manage to hold onto him this time around. It would certainly help even the odds.”
“We’ll do our best. He’s looking at attempted murder times two. He won’t be getting out any time in the near future.”
Charlie smiled, “I assume your men took the man guarding my car into custody?”
Morgan grinned, “Oh yeah! He’s Cuban as well, but curiously enough, he was born in New York. He has a whole list of charges pending on him right now.”
“Really? What for?”
“Well, let’s start with threatening the life of a peace officer. Now, his threats were issued in Spanish, but both of the officers on the scene speak fluent Spanish, so that charge will definitely stick. It also seems that he’s on the feds list of people they’re currently following.”
“Did they know he was in the Daytona area?” Charlie asked.
“Surprisingly, no.”
“I would say they need to up their game. Maybe the mayor could give them a little pep talk?” Charlie asked, laughing.
Morgan looked at him for a minute, and then started laughing so hard, he had tears rolling down his bloated face. “I think I might just suggest that to him. I just might.”
Charlie laughed, “Maybe he’d make that call so that we could all listen in. That would be perfect.”
“Yeah.” Morgan took a couple of deep breaths, gaining control of himself. Sobering, he said, “We had a breakthrough on the second boat. One of the crewmembers came forward and confessed to the killing.”
Chapter 39
Charlie looked at the police chief in disbelief. Someone had actually come forward and confessed to a murder. That was unheard of.
Morgan was still speaking, “…that he had been using the boat as a way to transport drugs back and forth from the states to the Bahamas.
“When the captain found out what was going on beneath his nose, he fired the man on the spot, leaving him in the Bahamas and denying him return passage.”
“So what, he killed the captain to get his drugs back?”
“Exactly. He hired a couple of guys in the Bahamas to follow the captain back to the states. The captain was fairly predictable and he stopped in his favorite spot to fish for a few days. They ambushed him, offered the other crewmembers safe passage back to the states, as well as a cut of the profit. They off-loaded their cargo and killed him.”
Charlie thought about those facts. Maybe something similar happened on the “Big Mama.” Maybe the killers had someone follow them in another boat, and then they came back to shore that way.
He looked at Morgan and then the reality that someone had confessed to a murder hit him. He asked, “So, why confess?”
“I asked him the same question. It would appear that he’s more afraid of his supplier than he is of prison.”
“Did he happen to implicate any of the Batistos that have been hanging around as his supplier?”
“No. His supplier is out of New York State and brings him a new supply once a month. His suppliers were apparently here earlier in the week demanding he increase his sales or they would find someone who would. With his transport option gone, his chances of meeting their quota was slim to none.”
Charlie took that information in and processed it. Were the men in the dark suits his suppliers? They had met with the Batistos and dropped off two suitcases. What was in the cases? Money? Drugs? Both?
Things were not adding up, “So, this has absolutely nothing to do with Maclean’s boat?”
“I’m afraid not. I brought in the other crewmembers, which corroborated his story. By doing so, they indicted themselves. My jail is starting to get full.”
Charlie was silent for a moment, before Morgan asked the question he was still trying to answer, “Do you still think the Batistos are here because of drugs?”
“That’s the question of the day. I think it’s highly possible, but I still need proof that they’re trying to set up a drug network here. I guess I’d better go do some more investigating. I’ll let you know what I come up with.”
Charlie hitched a ride with one of the cops to his house. After checking his urine and taking a dose of Insulin, he grabbed his keys and headed for his car. Mateo would be getting out of school soon and Charlie was looking forward to spending some time with the young man. Carmelita was very concerned about the drugs she’d found, as she should be. Charlie was concerned about the type of individuals the kid was hanging around with. If he got mixed up with the Batistos, drugs might be the most mundane problem his momma had to worry about in the coming years.
He drove the few blocks to the high school and then parked in the teachers’ lot, not wanting some careless kid to scratch his car.
Classes were just letting out, so he waited in the front, keeping his eyes peeled for Mateo and his sister. Carmelita had been positive her daughter had a ride home from school today, but Charlie would feel better confirming that fact, before he took her brother and left the area.
He spotted Carmen a few minutes later, chatting away with two other girls about her age. “Hi, Mr. Flanigan,” she greeted him.
“Hey, Carmen. How was school?”
“Great! What are you doing here?” she asked cocking her head to the side while her friends looked him over. The girls needed lessons in how to do so without being obvious.
Charlie ignored their preening and kept his focus on Carmen who was grinning as her two friends attempted to flirt with him. He considered it harmless practice, being that he was old enough to be their father!
“I’m here to pick up Mateo. He
has a job interview with my brother this afternoon. I also wanted to check and make sure you had a ride home as well.”
“Yep! The girls and I have some homework to finish up so Barbara’s taking me home and we’ll study for a bit before momma gets off work.”
“That sounds good. You haven’t seen your brother around, have you?”
Carmen’s face fell slightly, but only out of concern for her brother. He was playing a dangerous game lately, hanging out with the wrong boys, making poor decisions. She wished she, or someone else, could get through to him, but he didn’t want to hear anyone criticizing him. Every time their momma started scolding him, he stormed from the house without hearing a word of what she had to say.
“Is there a problem?” Charlie asked, seeing the concern cross her face.
“I don’t know, but he was headed towards the back of the gym a few minutes earlier. Do you want me to go back in and see if I can find him?” Carmen made the offer but she really didn’t want to go looking for her brother, afraid of what else she might find.
“No, I’ll wait a few more minutes for him and then, if need be, I’ll go find him myself. I remember how to get around the school.”
Carmen looked so relieved Charlie almost lost the battle to keep a straight face. This kid wore her emotions on her sleeve for everyone to see. Nodding to her two friends, he watched them head towards the parking lot, chattering away once again.
Charlie did a quick schematic of the school building in his head. The back of the gym, huh? He well remembered the various activities that took place in that part of the building and headed that direction. His mother had spent many years teaching at the high school, and as such, Charlie knew all the shortcuts and ways to move around the building without being seen.
He entered the side door, and then climbed the stairs that would give him access to the upper level seating in the gymnasium. Making his way through the dimly lit space, he located the stairs on the other side and quietly descended them.
