Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series) (16 page)

“Where's Carl staying?” she asked.

“They're in the guest cottage on the back of the island,” I said. “Their kids, too.”

“Oh,” she said. “I think I better go down and change before we get there.”

“You look good to me,” I said leering at her.

“That was the idea,” she said with a sultry smile. “But, maybe something a little more conservative around the kids? Take the helm.”

“Aye aye, Admiral,” I said. She went down to the salon and was back up on the bridge in less than five minutes, wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve green blouse.

“I didn't bring a whole lot of clothes,” she said.

“Don't worry about it,” I said. “I'll take you shopping Saturday morning.” She seemed to like that idea, based on the huge smile and kiss she gave me.

The light for Harbor Key Bank was visible about a mile ahead. I slowed the big boat to barely above planing speed and started a slow turn to the south.

“There's a narrow, natural channel coming up,” I said. “See those red crab trap floats up ahead?”

“Yeah, they look pretty close together,” she said.

“That they are,” I said as I brought the
Revenge
down off plane. I switched the sonar to forward scan and idled toward the crab floats. “I call this Narrow Cut. It doesn't have a name on any chart. Actually, it's not even on a lot of charts.” We eased between the floats, barely five feet on either side, then wound slowly toward Harbor Channel. I was on my feet for a better view and used the engines, as much as the helm to maneuver through it.

Once clear of Narrow Cut, I turned southwest and followed Harbor Channel for about a mile. “Is that it?” Tina asked, pointing to my dock and the roof of my house showing above the mangroves and buttonwoods.

“Yep,” I said. “That's home.” I could see Trent's two kids running out onto the dock, with Pescador trotting along happily behind them. I suddenly realized I really missed the big shaggy mutt.

I started to turn south, following the channel, then reversed the port engine and revved it until the big boat spun around. I dropped it to idle and reversed the starboard engine and slowly backed up the little channel. I pressed the button on the key fob and the big doors on the west side of the house slowly opened.

Tina looked around and said, “You have electricity? I don't see any power lines.”

“The doors open by springs,” I said. “There's a solar panel and wind turbine that charge big batteries to run the place. The motor to close the doors and everything else on the island is twelve volt.”

Trent came down the steps to the dock, as I backed under the house, gently bumping the fenders hanging on the rear and side dock at about the same time. He took a line lashed the stern cleats and looked up at us, “Welcome home, McDermitt,” he said.

“Good to see ya, Trent,” I said. “Have any trouble?”

“Had a great time,” he said. “Charlie really loves it here. The kids, too. Hi Tina, what are you doing here?”

Just then, Pescador came running down the steps and leaped into the cockpit. He sat down and his tail was almost wagging him, as he looked up at us on the bridge. I shut off the engines and started to climb down.

“I shanghaied her,” I said. “Tina, this is my best buddy, Pescador.” I stepped over onto the deck, knelt down and scratched him behind the ears. In a rare display of affection, he licked my face. I turned as Tina came down the ladder and lifted her off the last step. She turned around and Pescador looked at her, then at me.

“Pescador, this is my friend, Tina.” I said. He looked at her again, wagged his tail and barked once. Turning to her I said, “He likes you.”

“How can you tell?” she asked.

Trent answered for me, “If he didn't, there'd be no question about it. Jesse, that's about the smartest dog I've ever seen in my life. He killed a little spinner yesterday. It almost bit Patty. Snatched it up out of the water and just slung it back and forth till it was dead.”

Tina reached out and seeing what I did, she scratched Pescador behind the ear. “What's a spinner?” she asked.

“A shark,” I said. “There's lots of them around here. Mostly little, like Trent said.”

Charlie came down the steps and said, “I thought I heard your voice, Tina. How've you been?”

“Fine,” she said. “You look good.”

“It's this island,” she said with a smile. “I can't remember a time I've been so relaxed. Y'all come on out back, after you drop your gear in the house. I have lunch almost ready.”

“Hope you don't mind, Jesse,” Trent said, “There's a lot of lumber back there, so I built a big outdoor table.”

“That's what it was for,” I said. “I need about four of them.”

I went into the salon and picked up both our bags and carried them as we walked up the steps, where the kids were waiting at the top. They said hi and took off down the back steps. Pescador looked up at me and I nodded. He was off running after the kids.

“Y'all go ahead,” I said. “We'll be just a second.” I opened the door to the house for Tina and we walked in. She went first to the kitchen side of the main room, as I carried both our bags into the bedroom. When I came out, she was standing in the middle of the room, noting that I'd put both our bags in the bedroom.

“You have two rooms back there?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“Just one room with two beds?” she asked.

I shook my head.

“One bed and a hammock? One bed and a couch?”

“Just one big bed,” I said.

She walked past me and looked inside. Then she slowly turned back toward me, her dark eyes smoldering.

“Are you sure about this, Jesse?”

“Yes,” I said. “Let's go eat, then I'll have Pescador catch us something for supper.”

“This I've got to see,” she said and took my hand as we walked toward the back steps. Before we got to the steps, my phone rang again. “Popular guy today,” she said.

I opened the phone and saw it was Deuce. I told her to go ahead that I needed to take the call and didn't get a signal off the deck. I opened the phone and said, “Not a good time, Deuce.”

“Never is,” he said. “I had to tell the ADD about Cuba and Santiago trading guns for marijuana.”

“You need to lighten up a little, buddy,” I said. “Grass, pot, or weed.”

“Whatever,” he said. “The Director wants to catch him in the act of delivering arms. We're pretty sure the people he's trading them to for weed are a Hezbollah cell, working out of western Cuba.”

“Hezbollah?” I said. “They controlled most of Lebanon, when I was there in '82. A pretty unfriendly group of people.”

“That's an understatement. Here's the deal, Jesse. Mister Smith is arriving here in about an hour and wants to meet with you.”

“When?” I asked. “I'm at home right now.”

“Perfect,” he said. “We can be there by 1500.”

“No good,” I said. “I have guests here.”

“Trent?” he asked. “That's good. The Director wants to debrief him. See if he can give us any more to work with.”

“Trent, his wife, his kids, and a friend of mine,” I said irritably.

“This is important, Jesse. Who's the friend?”

“A lady I met in Key West, if you gotta know.”

“Trent needs to know who you are working with, so clue him in. But your friend is out of the loop.”

“Hey, Deuce,” I said sternly. “This is my island, remember. On my boat and on my island, I call the shots. That's not debatable.”

“Like I said, Jesse, this is muy importante. Think you can make something up, so that the four of us can sit down together for half an hour?”

“You flying in a DHS chopper would make that difficult,” I said.

“It'll be a civilian chopper. Tell your friend and Mrs. Trent that we want to see your island about a base for a fishing expedition or something.”

“Okay,” I said reluctantly. “But remind Smith that I'm not his lapdog or errand boy.”

Smith's voice came over the phone and I realized Deuce had me on speaker, “I'd never considered you anything of the kind, Gunny.”

“See you at 1500,” I said. “And don't be late.”

I walked down the steps and joined the others for lunch. After we'd eaten, I invited Trent to walk out onto the north dock, while Charlie and Tina cleaned up. Once we were at the end of the long dock I said, “I have to tell you something, Trent.”

“If you're gonna brag about your landing, save it,” he said. “But, I might call you from time to time to check those fishing reports.”

“I work for Homeland Security,” I said. I let that sink in, while he pulled a cigarette out of a pack and lit it. “When I came down to Key West last week, it was only to help a friend’s dad out of a jam. Then it turned out that Santiago has been on DHS's radar for some time.”

“You're a damn fed?” he asked. “So, why you telling me this now? Can't you just bust him for the pickup you made?”

“It's complicated, Carl,” I said. “He's involved in arms smuggling, too. He's trading weapons for grass to a terrorist organization in Cuba. If he got picked up for trafficking drugs, he would barely see the inside of the booking office and be right back on the streets. If we get him on terrorism, he goes to Gitmo, no lawyer, no right to remain silent, nothing. He's just gone.”

“Okay, I follow that. But, why are you telling me? I'm just a shrimper.”

“The Deputy Director and one of his team leaders will be here in a few hours. The team leader is a good friend of mine. The Director wants to talk to both of us. I'm really just kind of a subcontractor. I move men and equipment on the
Revenge
, disguised as anglers.”

“They're coming here?”

“Yeah,” I said. “We can tell the women they're a prospective charter.”

“I don't like that, Jesse. Charlie and I have an honest relationship. I learned from lying to a woman I was involved with, with my first wife. I don't hide anything from Char.”

I looked back up the dock toward shore. I could see Tina between the two shacks, throwing a stick for Pescador. Suddenly, I felt very cheap. I didn't want to lie to her, any more than Trent wanted to lie to his wife.

“You don't like it either, do you?” he said. “I know about you, Jesse. You're a straight shooter. That gal is, too from what I seen. If you screw things up in the beginning, she'll bolt. I can guarantee that.”

“So,” I said. “The other option is to tell them.”

“That'd be my choice,” he said.

“Let's go,” I said as I started walking back up the dock. Tina saw us coming and smiled. She ran out to meet us at the end of the dock.

“You're dog's too cool,” she said. “He'll do almost anything I tell him. It's like he understands what I'm saying.”

“Really?” I said. “He's never paid attention to any woman.”

“It's true,” said Trent. “He totally ignores Charlie.”

“We need to talk, Tina,” I said. “All four of us.”

We walked over to the table Trent had built and I complimented him on his craftsmanship. “Think you could build three more just like it,” I asked.

“Why do you need four tables?” Tina asked as the four of us sat down. “Or for that matter, two guest houses, that have twelve beds each?”

“That's kinda what I wanted to talk to you about,” I said. I went on to tell her and Charlie the whole story. How I worked as a part time contractor for the government. How Santiago was dealing arms to terrorists and how we were going to stop him and end his threats against everyone in the Keys. How, in less than two hours, a chopper was going to land in the middle of the clearing and a big-shot DHS agent was going to talk to all four of us. When I was done, I just sat there.

“So, all this time, you've been working for the government?” Tina asked. “When you took me out to Fort Jefferson, what were you doing, scouting?”

“No,” Trent said. “He came to Key West to help us, Tina. It wasn't until later that he found out that Santiago was running guns.”

She looked from Trent to me and said, “Is that true? Why are you telling us?”

Charlie hadn't said anything since we sat down. She leaned forward and smiled at me. Then she smiled at her husband and turned to Tina. “Carl and I don't hide anything from one another. I suspect that little pow wow out on the dock was to make up some kind of lie about what those men arriving in the chopper were here for. A good relationship must be built on honesty from the start, or it'll never grow.”

“I swear, Jesse,” Trent said, “That woman can read my mind. It'd just be a waste of time to try to pull anything over on her.”

“So, you were going to lie to me?” Tina said.

Trent looked at her and said, “I could see that it was tearing him up to do it, Tina. These islands are small and people that have never met, know about everyone else. Before I ever met Jesse, I knew him to be an honorable man.”

“Well, aren't you gonna say anything?” she asked.

“I told you now,” I said, “Because I don't want to hide anything from you. Why that's important to me, I don't fully understand because I've only known you a few days. I'm sorry I couldn't tell you anything before. But, now it seems important to me to tell you.”