Hurricane (27 page)

“
Do you always end everything you say with a question?” he said.

“
No.” She thought for a second. “Not always.”

“
How would you like to take a quick trip out to Obsession and see what a sailboat’s all about?”

“
I know what a sailboat’s about,” she said. “My dad is the best diesel mechanic there is. That’s why we’re here. He’s fixing the engine on that Swan 57 over there.” She pointed to a beige yacht that was anchored close to the shore. “The owner wanted him and no one else. He wanted him so bad that he paid the airfare for both of us, and our hotel room. I’ve been on tons of sailboats. Why do you want to go out to your boat?”

“
I need to get a few things.”

“
Like a gun?”

“
Why would you think that?”

“
They said you killed the men they sent after you. All four of them.”

“
You learned an awful lot in such a short time.”

“
They’re stupid. They talked loud. I was at the next table. I would have had to put ear plugs in my ear not to hear. But it’s good that they’re so dull. They talked in front of me once before, and I was able to warn Julie, so she could get away.”

“
Julie Tanaka on Fallen Angel?” Broxton said.

“
You know her?” Darla asked.

“
Yes,” Broxton said. “Those men are after her.”

“
Don’t I know it,” Darla said.

“
And now you warned me,” he said, and he yanked on the starter cord and motored out to Obsession. “Coming aboard?” he asked, after he eased off the gas and they were gliding toward T-Bone’s boat.

“
No, I’ll stand guard in the dinghy,” she said. Broxton smiled, thinking that was probably a good idea. Then he climbed aboard and went straight to the salon and picked up the floor boards. There was something in the tool box he wanted to bring to shore with him.

“
Did you get a gun?” she asked when he climbed back down into the rubber boat.

“
No, I didn’t get a gun,” he said.

“
Did you get a knife?”

“
No.”

“
Well what did you get?”

“
This.” He showed her a small roll of wire.

“
Seizing wire? What good is that going to be?”

“
Think about it,” Broxton said.

She was quiet for a few minutes. Then she shivered, and then for an instant Broxton thought her whole face kind of twinkled. “Which one?” she said.

“
The one that squeaks when he talks.”

“
He’s a bad man,” she said.

“
As bad as they come,” Broxton said, and he twisted the throttle all the way, bringing the dinghy up on a plane, with Darla up front whooping and yelling as they rocketed across the bay. She was acting the excited child as he made a quick pass by Challenge and Snake Eyes. There wasn’t anybody on board either ship. He turned the boat and raced toward shore. Darla stopped pretending and settled back in the dinghy, smiling, her brown eyes golden as they reflected the setting sun. He slowed when they neared the beach, leaned forward, flashed his hand in front of her face, snapped his fingers and showed the coin in his hand. “A US silver dollar,” he said.

“
How’d you do that?” she squealed.

“
Magic.” He said, handed her the coin.

“
I’m gonna keep this,” she said. “And I’m gonna learn that trick.” She was still laughing when he hopped out of the boat and pulled it ashore.

She grabbed his hand as they walked along the beach back to the restaurant. Hazy clouds slid across the sky, taking the moonlight away, then offering it back again. Broxton looked across the bay. Challenge was easily visible from the beachfront restaurant, the clouds willing, but Snake Eyes was anchored past her twin and not visible. He grinned and squeezed her hand as a plan started to form.

“
Hey, Dad, it was so much fun, but I didn’t get to see the green flash,” Darla said when they returned to the table. The sun was over the horizon and the dark was coming fast. Darla scooted into her place, next to Broxton and across from her father.

“
Next beer, I paid,” T-Bone said, indicating the cold Red Stripe. Broxton picked it up and took a long pull, then he leaned forward and T-Bone, Henry and Darla leaned into him so that the Germans at the next table couldn’t hear.

“
Henry, you and Darla go back to your table and order dinner. Stay in the restaurant. They saw you come sit down and say hello to an old friend, and they’ll see you go back to your table. They won’t think anything of it.”

“
You gonna be all right?” Henry whispered.

“
I’m gonna be fine, thanks to you and Darla. And I’m going to make sure that Julie Tanaka comes out okay too, you can count on it,” Broxton said. Then he added. “It’s important, Henry, that you order dinner, act like nothing has happened out of the ordinary. Wave when T-Bone leaves, but don’t get up.”

Broxton leaned back and took another pull on his beer, and after a few seconds Henry and Darla excused themselves, Henry saying they had a dinner to eat. And Broxton leaned forward again.

“
In a few minutes I’m going to get up and go to the bathroom. I’m betting that one of the ugly twins next door will follow. You should make some excuse to go out to the boat, but let them know next door that you’re coming right back.

T-Bone nodded.

“
Ready?” Broxton said.

“
Any time,” T-Bone said.

Broxton slid his chair out from under the table, took a swig from his beer, finishing it, and said, “Be right back.”

“
Okay,” T-Bone said. “I’m going to shoot out to the boat and get some more money.”

Broxton walked through the restaurant, winked at Darla and smiled when she winked back. Then he turned down the corridor to the toilets. He slipped into the women’s toilet and waited. He heard someone pass on the other side of the thin swinging door and his instinct told him it was Karl Schneidler. He moved into the corridor, took three quick steps to catch up to the German, and slipped a loop of the seizing wire over his head and tightened it with a gentle but quick jerk.

“
You can die here. Now.” Broxton said, drawing back slightly on the wire, “or you can walk out that door and we can have a little talk.”

The German started to speak, and Broxton pulled a little harder on the wire.

“
No sound, nod your head, yes or no,” Broxton whispered. “Yes, for we talk. No, for I kill you now.”

The German nodded yes, and with one hand holding the wire loop around his neck, and the other in the small of his back, pushing him forward, Broxton guided him out the back door and into the dark.

Once out back, Schneidler started to turn, but Broxton brought a foot behind one of the German’s knees, forcing him to kneel on the damp earth. “A slight move, that’s all I want, just give me a reason to end it now,” Broxton said, kneeing him in the back, forcing him forward even more, till he was face down on the ground.

Schneidler tried to talk, but could only gag with the wire around his neck. Then he squawked as Broxton’s hand went up his shorts and he put a smaller loop of the seizing wire around his testicles.

“
Now,” Broxton said, “one wrong move and you spend the rest of your life as a girl.” He stepped off the German and stood aside. “You understand what I’ve done?”

Schneidler shook his head, no.

“
The wire around your balls and neck. Seizing wire. Very strong, easy to bend.” Schneidler started to move. “Don’t, Karl,” Broxton said, and he leaned forward, reached his hand under the German’s loose fitting shirt and removed the gun.

“
Forty-Five auto, very bad. Illegal in St. Lucia. But you knew that.” Broxton thumbed the release and the clip fell out. He threw it toward the ocean and grinned when he heard the splash. “Played ball in college,” he said. Then he pulled the slide back. A round flew up, landing about five feet away. “And one in the chamber. Very dangerous.”

He loosened the wire noose around the German’s neck, then he slipped it off. “Okay, you can get up. Just remember that I’ve got you on a leash, one wrong move and you can kiss ’em goodbye.” Schneidler pushed himself from the ground and gave a high pitch little yelp when Broxton gave a slight tug to the wire looped around his testicles.

“
You’ll pay,” Karl Schneidler said, his voice even higher than Broxton remembered from the phone.

“
We all have to pay,” Broxton said, “but right now I’m holding the hand with all the aces, so to speak. And here’s how I want to play my cards. You’re going to walk to your dinghy with your hand on this,” he shook the hand with the gun in it, like a mother shaking a baby’s rattle. “You’ll get in the dinghy and you’ll do your best to convince your friends at the bar that I’m your prisoner. I’ll get in after you and I’ll drive. Your friends will assume that you’re taking me out to sea to do away with me.”

“
You’re insane,” Karl Schneidler said.

“
Maybe, but I don’t have wire wrapped around my balls. I’ll play out about ten feet. One wrong move, if I even suspect you’re trying to signal your brother, and I’ll jerk off your nuts.”

“
And they’ll kill you.”

“
I’d rather be dead than the way that’ll leave you, but hey, that’s just me,” Broxton said, and for emphasis he gave a slight pull on the wire. Schneidler winced, but didn’t yelp.

“
Here,” Broxton said. “Stuff it in your pants, make sure your friends see it when we get in the dinghy.” He handed the gun to Schneidler, who did as instructed. Broxton led him to the rubber boat like he was taking a dog for a walk. He risked a glance at the bar as they were pushing the boat into the lazy ocean and fought a grin when he saw the smug look of satisfaction of the face of Schneidler’s twin.

“
Okay, hand it over,” Broxton said, after they were out of the sight of the men in the restaurant. The German handed over the gun, and Broxton tossed it into the sea.

“
Stupid, it was a good gun,” Schneidler grunted.

Schneidler motored up to Snake Eyes and kissed the side of the black boat with the dinghy. He moved carefully up the boarding ladder, with Broxton behind, holding the wire.

“
I need some line to tie you with, then I can take the seizing wire off,” Broxton lied.

“
You’re not going to kill me?”

“
Not if I don’t have to.”

“
You killed the others, and you made sure we noticed,” he said. Broxton winced when he heard the squeaky high voice. He wanted to lash out at him, to jerk on the wire till the man was screaming in agony, but instinct told him that Karl Schneidler was a strong man who wouldn’t break under torture.

But he would talk if he thought his manhood was at stake. He was that kind of man. With a voice like his he probably had to prove himself time and again. He wouldn’t be able to live without his balls.

“
They didn’t give me any choice,” Broxton said. “They were idiots.”

“
And if I give you a choice?”

“
You can walk away from this. Now where’s the line?”

“
There.” Schneidler pointed to the cockpit seats.

“
Get it,” Broxton ordered, and Schneidler lifted up the cushions to get at the storage space underneath. He pulled out some spare line and, Broxton, still using the wire leash to coax cooperation, led Schneidler up to the mast.

“
Hands behind your back,” he said, and he tied the German to the mast.

“
Now you will take this thing off?”

“
First we talk.”

“
You promised.”

“
What do I look like? We talk, if I’m satisfied, we both go back to shore buddy buddy. If I’m not you’ll be squeaking a note or two higher.” Broxton grinned as the blood rushed to Schneidler’s head. The German glared at Broxton. And Broxton knew that if he ever got free he’d tear him apart, like a pit bull would a rabbit.

Broxton stayed quiet and let the blood drain from Schneidler’s face. Then calmly, Schneidler asked, “What do you want to know?”

“
First let me tell you what I already know. Fallen Angel has several million dollars worth of drugs on board. I want to know who’s involved and just what I have to do to get in on the action.”

Schneidler sighed and smiled. Broxton grinned back. For the first time since his capture Schneidler had to be thinking that there was a way out for him after all. “So, you want a cut of the pie?”

“
Yes,” Broxton lied, “but not so big a cut that anyone will be too resentful. The way I figure it there’s enough to go around. Think about it. You guys could use me. I’d like to be on the side of the big money for a change.”

“
You have been resourceful,” Schneidler said.

“
Talk to me,” Broxton said. “Let’s be friends.”

“
Take off the wire.”

“
Sorry, talk first, trust later.”

Schneidler was silent for a while and Broxton was tempted to jerk on the wire, but instead he said, “I know about Stardust. Too bad, but if I inadvertently caused the problem you have to remember that I was just doing my job. That’s not my job anymore.”

Schneidler was quiet for a few seconds more, then he started talking. “Dieter lost a fortune when Stardust went down, over half a million US. He’s counting on making it back with Fallen Angel.”