Caribbean Hustle (A Nick Teffinger Thriller / Read in Any Order) (17 page)

48

Day Seven

June 10

Tuesday Afternoon

An hour passed, then another and another. Noon came and went. No boats broke the horizon. No one came for Teffinger. The island sat alone and desolate in its own eerie silence, interrupted only by the gentle lapping of the water against the beach and the occasional squawk of a seagull or the rustle of a palm.

Teffinger was no longer part of the world.

He was irrelevant.

He was invisible.

There was a good chance Rail and Angel were dead. They would have called early this morning to check on him and not gotten an answer; or gotten an answer from Janjak. They would have had plenty of time to rent another boat and get out here to check on things.

Suddenly it happened.

The shape of a boat broke the horizon, hardly more than a dot at this distance but kicking up enough spray to frame it as an actual vessel approaching at some speed.

It came straight for the island.

The silhouette of one person slowly took shape.

Then it took the shape of Janjak.

Her dreadlocks bounced in sync with the boat.

She wore no top.

Down below was a wrap-around skirt.

She trimmed the outboards up as she came to the beach and then hopped over the edge into knee-deep water as the bow planted itself in the sand.

She had no gun or obvious weapon.

“You have a lot of guts coming back here,” Teffinger said.

She walked past him towards the palms and said over her shoulder, “Your prize is in the boat.”

He checked.

Modeste was on the floor near the stern, lying on her stomach, either dead or unconscious. He jumped in to find her breathing, alive. Her face and body were battered but not any worse than the last time he’d seen her.

“Bring her up here,” Janjak shouted.

Teffinger complied, carrying the woman across the beach up to the palms and laying her softly on the sand in the shade. She didn’t respond much, obviously drugged.

“What’d you give her?”

Janjak approached, ran her fingers through Teffinger’s hair and looked deep into his eyes. “You’re the first person I’d had in a long, long time.”

“That wasn’t the question.”

She kissed him on the lips.

He had time to pull back but didn’t, or couldn’t, or both.

She kissed him again and he responded.

She whispered in his ear, “I found the diamonds.”

“What diamonds?”

She rubbed her stomach against his.

“You know.”

“I told you about them?”

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“You had no choice,” she said.

“Even if I did, there’s no way you could have found them,” he said. “All I would have been able to tell you is the general location.”

“I looked through your eyes.”

“What’s that mean?”

“It means I found them,” she said. “Modeste is in something you might call a nether land, between life and death. I can push her either way any time I want, or just leave her there until her body consumes itself.”

“Prove it. Bring her back right now.”

She stepped back and ran a finger down his chest.

“First we dig.”

“I don’t get it.”

“Sure you do, under that second pile of bones you told me about, on the other island. Don’t worry about Modeste. She’ll be fine.”

They hopped over on the Whaler, scattered the bones to the side and then dug, shallow at first, then deeper and then even deeper, past where Teffinger had to go before, and found nothing, not a single coin, not an old belt buckle, not a rusty dagger, nothing.

Janjak sank to the ground.

Her face twisted with disappointment.

“I was going to let this be your final act. I was just going to go away and not worry about what Evil Angel has. Now there’s a difference to make up.” She saw the doubt on Teffinger’s face and said, “You told me about Evil Angel’s half of the dig. I want those coins; I want them by tonight. Then I’ll bring Modeste back to life. She’ll live and so will you.”

Teffinger kicked the sand.

“You have the diamonds, they’re worth ten times more than the coins, maybe a hundred,” he said. “Let’s just end it where it is.”

The woman grabbed Teffinger’s hand and led him towards the boat, saying, “That reminds me, there’s one diamond missing—Marilyn. I want that one too, by tonight, with the coins.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Yeah, I know, you told me. Constance has it. Get it from her.”

Teffinger hated himself.

What else had he told the woman?

“I don’t know where she is.”

“Find her,” Janjak said. “Because if I have to find her myself, well, let’s just say that she’d wish you had instead.”

Teffinger stopped and put a serious expression on his face.

“I’m half tempted to just kill you right where you stand.”

The woman backed up two steps, hiked her skirt up and squared off.

“Come on,” she said. “Do it.”

Teffinger’s chest pounded.

He was tired of playing games.

He was through with all of it.

It needed to end.

It needed to end right now.

He took a deep breath and charged.

49

Day Seven

June 10

Tuesday Afternoon

Teffinger changed, committing every muscle in his body to the assault, only to have Janjak sidestep at the last second. All his might pounded into thin air, causing him to lose his balance and slam chest first into the wet sand at the water’s edge.

“Come on! Kill me!”

He charged again, intent on getting an iron grip on anything he could and then bringing her down.

The woman twisted and swung a lightning kick at his chest, smashing his lungs with an evil force and knocking his air into oblivion.

He gasped for breath.

Then he charged again.

The woman shifted to the right but he anticipated it and caught her by the arm as she swung a fist at his face. She fell backwards into the water.

He was on her with a viper’s speed, straddling her chest and pushing her shoulders down.

Her head went under water, not far, not more than six inches, but enough.

She twisted violently.

He didn’t let up, not for a scary long time, and then at the last second he jerked her head up as she gasped wildly for breath.

She landed a fist to the side of his face.

“Kill me! Do it!”

He pushed her back under, feeling every molecule of her body trying to free itself from his horrible grasp. Her face was crystal clear. The terror in her eyes arced through the water and straight into Teffinger’s brain.

Something deep in his being snapped.

Don’t!

Don’t!

Don’t!

He jerked her head up, stared at her in disbelief as she coughed up water, and then got off and stood up. The woman eased up on to her elbows and let the wisp of a victory smile come to her lips.

He walked over to the Whaler and pushed it off the sand.

It rocked gently in the water.

“Come on,” he said. “We’re done here.”

Silently, they motored over to where Modeste was. To Teffinger’s distress, she was the exact position and the exact state of unconsciousness as they’d left her.

Janjak approached him, carefully, and put her lips to his.

“You’ve earned this,” she said. “I’m going to wake her. Get her ready—put her on her back, face up. There’s a machete on the boat under the front seat. Get it for me, I’m going to need it. Oh, your cell phone is there too, by the way.”

With that, the woman disappeared into the palms.

Five minutes later, she returned dangling a large nasty greet snake from her left hand. The reptile repeatedly jerked its body and swung its head at Janjak’s legs, trying to sink its flesh into her flesh but always falling short.

The woman dangled the snake over Modeste’s face, not more than six inches off, then swung it back and forth again and again and again.

Then she lopped of its head with the machete.

She let the blood and guts drip onto Modeste’s face.

Ten seconds later the woman abruptly woke with a start.

Janjak tossed the snake’s body to the side and said to Teffinger, “Take the Whaler and go. Make no mistake that what I just did doesn’t effect tonight. I still want the other diamond—Marilyn—by tonight. I also want Evil Angel’s coins, by tonight. If I don’t get them, I’ll put your little friend here right back where I got her from; and I’ll be giving her a lot of company, you included.”

Teffinger helped Modeste to her feet then squared off against Janjak.

“Where do I meet you?”

“Right here.”

“I’ll be back, one way or the other.”

“Until darkness comes,” she said. “That’s how long you have. Until darkness comes. Not a minute more.”

“Like I said, I’ll be back.”

The woman grabbed him by the arm and jerked him to a stop as he turned for the Whaler.

“You need to learn how to kill,” she said. “It’s your only weakness.”

“Maybe you can teach me someday.”

“Maybe I will.”

50

Day Seven

June 10

Tuesday Afternoon

Rhythmically cutting through calm blue seas away from the island, totally and wonderfully free of Janjak, Teffinger let himself take a deep breath and savor the moment.

The sun was a taste of love on his face.

The wind in his hair was a woman’s touch.

The vessel gently lifted and fell with a playful rhythm.

Modeste was fine.

She was safe, right there next to him.

Teffinger filled her in on the last few days.

She remembered being captured and beaten in an effort to force her to disclose what she’d done with the diamonds and gold, and then falling into an eerie, ghostly world of shadows and fears, where she stayed until she suddenly awoke just a short time ago.

“If I were you, I’d get on the first airplane out of here and never come back,” Teffinger said.

The woman shook her head.

“No!”

“Look—”

“We need to give her what she wants,” she said. “I can’t go back to that place!”

“It’s not real,” Teffinger said. “You were drugged or something.”

“It’s not real? It’s as real as the sky over our heads.”

Teffinger frowned.

“I’ll make a deal with you,” he said. “You get on the first plane out of here so I don’t have to worry about you any more, and I’ll take care of Janjak.”

“How?”

“I don’t know, but I will.”

Her face wrinkled with stress.

“She’s inside me. I can feel her. She’s like a worm slithering around in my soul. Going somewhere isn’t going to help.”

“You haven’t eaten for days,” he said. “Your mind’s playing tricks. Just do what I say. I’m going to put you on a plane, you’re going to get out of here, and I’m going to take care of everything.”

The woman looked doubtful.

“Are you going to kill her?”

“No.”

“Then you won’t be taking care of her.”

“Just let me handle it.”

“She has to die. That’s the only way this can end.
She has to die
.”

51

Day Seven

June 10

Tuesday Afternoon

There was a good chance Rail would kill Modeste for stealing his stuff and setting all the ugliness in motion. She knew it all too well and didn’t argue when Teffinger holed her up in a seedy hotel in Port-au-Prince to await further instructions.

Back at the villa Rail and Angel were alive and well but that was where the good news ended. After hearing everything that had transpired, they quickly reached the same conclusion as Modeste.

“Janjak needs to die.”

They weren’t interested in letting her keep what she already had, much less giving her more.

“Screw her and her stupid voodoo,” Rail said. “If I don’t get those diamonds back, I’m a dead man.”

“Count me out,” Teffinger said.

Rail hardened his face.

“Fine, you’re out,” he said. “You know what? In hindsight I’m sorry I ever pulled your sorry ass out of the ocean. I can’t believe you were sitting on my diamonds the whole time and never told me. What were you going to do? Retire on them?”

“No.”

“No?”

“No. I was saving them as a bargaining chip to get Modeste back if everything else failed. I was hoping to get her back without having to use them and then give them back to you. Everyone would have won.”

“Well, that’s not the way it worked out, is it?”

“Apparently not.”

“You know what? Get out of here.”

Teffinger looked at Angel.

Her face was as defiant as Rail’s.

“You heard him,” she said. “Get out.”

Rail called a guard and said, “Give him a ride to town.” Then to Teffinger, “Have a nice trip. You know what? As long as we’re talking about hindsight, in hindsight I wouldn’t have shot that guy back at Janjak’s place. You know the one I’m talking about, right? The one who was beating you to death? In hindsight, I should have just let him do his thing.” He shook his head with disgust. “I save your sorry little ass—twice! And in return, what do you do? You give my diamonds—the diamonds I needed to stay alive—you give them to some screwed up voodoo witch, who by the way you end up banging, literally hours after Evil Angel gave you her heart and soul. Get out of here and piss back to Denver or wherever the hell it is that you came from.”

Angel spit at Teffinger’s feet.

It hit his shoe.

He didn’t wipe it off.

He turned and left.