Hurricane (36 page)

“
A man.” Broxton took a safari jacket from a hanger. He slipped it on over his bare skin.

“
They’re way too big,” she said.

He bent low and picked up a pair of used running shoes. “Stuff some tissues in them,” he said, handing her the shoes.

He went back to where his Levi’s were discarded on the floor and put them on. After cinching up the buckle he took the hand held radio out of its holster and pushed the talk button.

“
Voyager, Voyager, It’s Broxton,” he said.

“
Danny Boy, how ya doing?” T-Bone’s voice crackled over the radio.

“
Looks like you lost the boat,” Broxton said.

“
Like hell, I took it out of the lagoon, she’s fine. It blew like a mother, but we made it.”

“
You know that stretch to the airport between the sea and the lagoon?”

“
Know it well,” T-Bone said.

“
Ten, maybe fifteen minutes I’ll be going down it in a battered four-wheel drive.”

“
How will I know it?”

“
It’s a cop car.”

T-Bone laughed into the mike. Then said, “The damsels?”

“
Safe so far.”

“
If I turn my head sideways and squint I can almost see land through this rain. I’ll keep an eye out for you.”

“
I’ll be in touch.”

“
What was that all about?” Julie asked.

“
Friend of mine. I came in on his boat.”

“
The damsels, I mean,” Julie said.

“
Damsels in distress, we came north to save them,” Broxton said.

“
Us, you came up to save us?”

“
Yeah,” Broxton said as he rummaged about the closet, then he started on a chest of drawers.

“
What are you looking for?” she asked.

“
Clothes for you.” He turned and tossed her a sweat shirt and a pair of jeans that were only a little too big. “We have to get going,” he said.

She gave him a quick kiss, then stepped into the jeans, surprised to find they fit. The sweat shirt was a touch large, but that was okay. She felt funny with the big shoes, but they were better than nothing at all.

“
It’s time,” he said, and she followed him out the door and into the wind and the rain.

Chapter Twenty

Julie came down the stairs with an arm around Broxton’s shoulder for support. It was pelting rain, but at least the hurricane force was gone from the biting wind. She stumbled and he held her up. Her foot hurt, but the pain was manageable.

“
Just a little farther,” he said.

She tightened her grip on his shoulder, looked out at the road and gasped. It wasn’t there. “How are we going to get through that?” The ground—earth, driveway and road—was covered by the ocean.

Two more steps and they were at the bottom and they stepped into the water. “It’s only a few inches deep,” he said.

“
But you can’t see the road,” she said. It may have been shallow, but those few inches joined the ocean to the lagoon. The airport a quarter mile away looked like a small island. The underwater pathway was marked up ahead, at the halfway point, by a few restaurants on the right side of the road.

He helped her into his side of the car and she slid over. “Will it start?” she asked.

“
Should,” he answered. “Four wheel drive, Mitsubishi Montero, built for the police department. If this baby can’t get us there then nothing can.”

“
But it’s so beat up,” Julie said, “and you can’t see out.” The front window looked like a carnival of crazed spiders had crisscrossed it at every angle, drunkenly laying their webs as they passed.

He turned the key and the engine purred to life. Then he leaned into the back seat, brought out a policeman’s nightstick and punched a hole in the sticky safety glass, then another and still another.

Julie looked around the car and spied a laptop computer on her side of the back seat. She grasped onto it and used it as a battering ram, poking at the glass, helping Broxton to remove the window.

“
I always hated computers,” she said when they were finished.

“
Me too,” he said.

She laughed and sailed the laptop out the front window and they both watched it hit the water and sink.

“
You know all the info on the hard drive will be lost,” he said.

“
Let’s go see what’s in that locker,” she said.

“
I’m with you.” He put it in reverse and eased the battered police car out of the protective shelter of the two buildings.

“
Scary,” she said.

He laughed, but looked tense as he felt for the road under the sloshing water. He found it, backed onto it and shifted into drive. Rain pounded them through the front window.

Julie was horrified at the total destruction. The lagoon was a Sargasso Sea of floating vegetation, raw sewage, the wreckage of broken homes, broken lives and sunken ships—catamarans, schooners, sloops, yawls, trawlers, sportfishers, and million dollar mega yachts—all now worthless.

She was captivated by the palm trees in the distance, still bending with the wind. Then she turned around and saw it, coming fast, water splashing out from its four tires.

“
Oh shit,” she said. “The Land Rover is back.”

Broxton looked over his shoulder, saw it and added gas, but he wasn’t quick enough and the car smashed into to their rear. The Land Rover was trying to drive them into the sea. Broxton jammed on the brakes, but the driver of the four wheel beast behind was a step ahead of him. He backed off the gas, then rammed them again.

The crunching impact ricocheted through the car and sent it spinning sideways toward the airport. Broxton was working the wheel like a demon possessed and Julie saw the Land Rover back off. He was gloating, Julie thought, sitting back, watching and waiting. Spastic thoughts riddled and ran through her brain at lightning speed as Broxton fought to keep the car on the road.

Meiko’s face flashed before her, then Hideo’s, then Tammy’s. Tammy. What was it about Tammy?

Then Broxton yelled out, “I got it!” He spun the wheel one last time and they were again headed toward the airport. They were firmly on the road.

“
Put the pedal to the medal, Danny boy,” T-Bone’s sweet bass voice boomed from the front pocket of the safari jacket. Broxton jammed on the gas and the Mitsubishi squished and slid as he worked the wheel from left to right and back again, fighting to keep the car on the sunken pavement.

“
What are you doing?” Julie asked.

“
Trusting a friend,” he said, and then they heard it. The unmistakable sound of an outboard motor with the throttle wide open. Julie looked toward the sea, toward the sound, and widened her eyes at the sight.

A wild man, long hair and beard flying in the wind, bright yellow Hawaiian shirt open and flapping, was tilting the engine up in a fast moving dinghy as it charged toward the road. She gasped as he whirled around and grabbed onto the painter with his right hand as if it were attached to a pair of galloping horses. His left hand started spitting fire at the Land Rover behind them.

The dinghy shot out of the ocean as it flew between the two moving cars. T-Bone was whooping like a cowboy on a bronco as he poured lead from the thirty eight into the front window of the Land Rover.

Julie spun her head around and saw the wild man, still standing as the rubber boat barreled into the lagoon. He was facing backwards in the dinghy, still shooting at the Land Rover.

T-Bone let out a rustler’s yell as the Land Rover lost control and flipped onto its side. Then the Land Rover slid into the sea, and was gone.

Broxton slammed on the brakes and the car slipped and squirmed to a stop.

T-Bone dropped the engine back in the water and brought the dinghy around and throttled back as he neared the land under shallow, shallow water. He cut the engine, pulled it back up and jumped out, splashing through the water as he pulled the inflatable up onto the road, and dragged it up to the driver’s window.

“
The nick of time,” Broxton said. “Like in the movies.”

“
Man, you should’ve seen it,” T-Bone said. “All those guys fighting to get in the lagoon, I just wanted out. I don’t care how good a hurricane hole it is, if there’s a thousand other boats in there with you, it’s no hurricane hole.”

“
Voyager’s all right then?” Broxton asked.

“
I laid out all three anchors, put on a diving mask and snorkel so I could breathe, and spent the most fabulous six hours ever, keeping her pointed into the wind. God, it was fucking beautiful. I just wish you could have been there.”

“
I’m sorry I missed it.” Broxton laughed.

“
That one of the damsels?”

“
It is,” Broxton said.

“
We save her?

“
We did,” Broxton said.

“
Her boat?”

“
Gone.”

“
It’s for the best. Grass, okay, but the white powder belongs on the bottom of the ocean,” T-Bone said, then added, “Sorry, ma’am.”

“
It’s all right, I understand,” Julie said.

“
You get the key?”

“
I did.”

“
Listen, Danny Boy,” T-Bone said. “If I had to bet, I’d bet that in about an hour or so the Dutch government is going to close this island down tighter than a shivering Eskimo’s ass. Nobody in, nobody out.”

“
Why would they do that?” Julie asked.

“
They won’t want the tourist industry to see what a hurricane can do to paradise.”

“
We should hurry,” Broxton said.

“
My thinking exactly,” T-Bone said. “How long you think you need?”

“
Not long.”

“
I’ll have the dinghy by the end of the runway. Be quick.” Then he looked at Julie, winked, turned, and dragged the dinghy across the road, back to the ocean side. He hopped in, started it up and paced them until Broxton swung the car into the airport parking lot. Julie watched as he drove the dinghy out toward the runway’s end.

Broxton jumped out of the car into six inches of water and she scooted over and he helped her out.

The electric door into the terminal had been blown away. Large bay windows were devoid of glass, water sloshed across the floor, wind ripped through the building. Julie half expected the hurricane to start back up again and she took Broxton’s hand as they entered the departure terminal.

“
The lockers are over there, on the way to the departure gates,” Broxton said. They picked and splashed their way across the terminal with her leaning on him for support. The service counters had been ripped from the floor. The computers that once sat atop them were broken, smashed and littered throughout the room. The rank of chairs Julie had been sitting in earlier was twisted and bent. The contents of all of the airport shops were littered everywhere.

It would be a long time before that bakery made any more donuts, Julie thought, and she squeezed Broxton’s hand. Who could ever dream such a thing could happen?

“
Hold it.” The familiar voice jerked Julie aware. She turned. “So you had the key all along,” Victor said. He was standing by the luggage lockers, gun in hand, pointed at Broxton.

“
It was you,” Julie said. “The rudder leak, the furling line, the water in the diesel tank. You even told Kurt where to find us. It was all you.”

“
The key,” he said.

“
I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.

“
Give it up, or I’ll shoot your friend.”

“
Then you’ll never get the key, because I have it,” Broxton said.

Victor held out his left hand, shaking it.

“
Wait,” Julie said. “Not yet.”

“
You’re pushing it, Julie.” Victor moved the gun away from Broxton toward her.

“
Just one thing,” Julie asked. “Dieter doesn’t speak German, does he?”

Victor laughed, “You’re pretty good. No, he doesn’t. He needed a place to hide and I provided it. He was wanted for murder and drug smuggling in the US. The DEA,” Victor nodded at Broxton, “would never suspect that a German managing a shipyard in Trinidad was actually Eddie Fitch.”

“
I’ve never heard of him,” Julie said.

“
Number one US importer and money launderer for the Salizar family. Not a nice man,” Broxton said.

“
And my partner,” Victor said. “If you don’t hand over the key, you’ll be dealing with him. And I’m sure you know how he operates.”

“
No,” Julie said.

“
Likes to pull out fingernails,” Broxton said.

“
Oh,” Julie said. Then she turned back toward Victor, “But you were doing so well. You have the biggest yard in Trinidad. I don’t get it.”

“
It’s my name, but Charlie Heart’s money. I don’t want that. Fitch showed me how to launder money and I helped provide him the perfect cover.”

“
You stuffed my boat full of drugs,” Julie said.

“
And they’re perfectly safe, thanks to Hurricane Darlene. When they salvage the sunken boats, we’ll buy Fallen Angel and ship it to Miami for repairs.” It was at that moment that Julie knew for sure that Victor was going to kill them.