By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
Margot was asleep on the couch when Charlie got back. He poured a large drink and walked out onto the back porch. It was a cool evening and the clear sky offered billions of stars.
He lay back in the sun chair, held the cold glass to the lump at his right temple and stared upward. The fact that he was still alive and Rufino was dead hadn’t escaped him. He knew that but for the grace of God, the shark chum they would be chopping up tonight would contain himself as well as Rufino.
Charlie wondered whether Tai really believed him or was playing him along. He lay there for over an hour trying to think like Tai, but without any luck. As much as he didn’t want to speak of what had happened, everybody needed to know, because they needed to be more careful. Rufino had followed them to Customs. Charlie had little doubt about that, but it could have been any of Tai’s people, and next time it would be.
He awoke to the smell of fresh coffee. Still on the porch, Charlie pulled himself together and walked inside. “Morning Margot. It looks like I fell asleep on the porch. Did you ever get off the couch?”
“No. Why didn’t you wake me up? The reason I was on the couch is I was waiting for you.”
“Let me wash up, and over some coffee I’ll tell you what happened to me last night.”
By that afternoon, Howard and Tommy had been briefed on the events of the night before and, while a little shaken by it, they agreed to be careful if they had personal contact with anybody. Juan had little at all to say at the meeting but Charlie knew he would hear from him privately on their scouting trip that afternoon.
Charlie walked toward his motorcycle but was stopped by Juan. “Word will be out to look for the American on the motorbike…which would be you. From now on we use my car.”
They rode slowly downtown and Juan stopped his car in front of the old woman’s house. Juan went to the door and returned in a few minutes. “We’re good to use her yard for as long as we need.”
Charlie had been studying the entrance to the warehouse and knew there was no way through the gate area. “Juan, look at the fence that runs alongside the warehouse toward the water.”
“Okay, what am I looking for?”
“See how the fence ends at the water’s edge? It’s low tide, we should be able to walk around that fence and go into the warehouse through the boat entrance. We’d be out of sight of the guard post, although there may be another guard inside. No way to tell until we’re in there. What do you think?”
“That’s the only way I see. I had been thinking there might be a way to come in from the back side, but now I see the other buildings are blocking the way. It looks like you may have found our way in.”
Charlie sighed. “Take me back to the house. Tonight, Margot and I will come to the Restaurant Pescado. Pull around to the back at eight. I’ll slide out the back door and we’ll take care of business and I’ll be back at the restaurant with no one the wiser.”
Juan pulled out onto the street. “That sounds like a plan.”
Margot heard Juan come up the road and opened the gate for him, but he left Charlie outside the gate, turned around, waved, and then drove off. Charlie walked down the steps, and Margot kissed him. “What did you find out?”
“We found a way to get into the warehouse, but I’m not sure what we’ll run into once there.”
“Are you sure this camera is worth the chance of getting caught? Tai will kill you this time if he catches you.”
“I know, but Tai is shipping these drugs somehow that allows them to be unpacked in U.S. Customs even with cameras everywhere. I have to know how he does it. That is the only way my plan will work.”
“You say that, Charlie, but I don’t know what you’re planning.”
“I haven’t finalized the plan, but once I know how the drugs are getting into the country, I’ll let your friends in the D.E.A. know and point a finger at someone here in Costa Rica. I’ve not worked out how that last part will go yet. It’ll have to be somebody high on the food chain. That’s all I know for now.”
Charlie had moved to the couch and Margot poured a couple of glasses of wine and joined him. “I don’t understand how you’re going to do this. The high officials I know keep well away from the crime operations. That’s why in all the years I’ve done battle with them I could never find a link even though I knew they were neck deep in the shit.”
Charlie drank his wine and searched for words that would make her happy. “Once I have decided on the person, I’ll link him to the D.E.A. Then Tai will have to make a move on him and once he does, all the rats will jump ship. That’s what I’m thinking right now anyway. Tomorrow everything may change – I don’t know what we’ll find on that camera.”
At eight that night they walked into Pescado’s and took a table next to the door into the kitchen. Charlie didn’t bother to sit down.
As he came out of the back door of the restaurant, car lights flashed. He ran to Juan’s car and entered the passenger side. “So far so good! I hope the rest of the night goes as well.”
Juan drove down the alley toward the street at the end. “There’s a pair of rubber boots for you behind the seat.”
Charlie reached over and brought the boots to the front. By the time they had parked in the old lady’s yard he had them on. They each had a small flashlight, but the lights from inside the compound lit the entire area. Juan pulled Charlie back into the shadows. “It’s like daytime out here.”
Charlie watched the guard post and could see how he had a perfect view of everything in front of the warehouse. “What are we going to do? There’s no light at the boat ramp, but we need to get there without being seen. You have any ideas?”
Juan shook his head. “I don’t like it but we’ll have to go through the yard of that house across the street, walk down to the beach and along it and come in from the backside of the ramp.”
Charlie liked it even less. “If they have a dog we’re fucked.”
“Let’s hope they don’t have a dog.” Juan moved to the rear of a car parked on the side of the street and Charlie followed. Then at the same moment, they both raced across the open street and paused in the shadow of the house before proceeding toward the rear. No dog barked.
At the rear of the house was a small dock that sat high and dry in the low tide. They climbed down the bank and started along the muddy trail toward the boat ramp that led into the warehouse.
At the ramp they were confronted with a horrible smell. Charlie, gagging, whispered, “What the hell is that?”
Juan laughed softly. “They push the fish guts and everything else out of the warehouse here. Don’t fall. If you do you’ll never get the stink off.”
The big ramp doors were closed. Juan tried the small door to the right of the ramp and found it open. “Come on, Charlie, let’s go.”
Inside there was no cover at all for the first fifty feet, just a long concrete hallway. At the end, they could see the stacks of square pallets, which was their goal.
At the pallets, Juan pulled out the map. “According to this, the camera is on the third beam over toward the far wall.”
They moved quietly toward the beam. They had been lucky so far, but there had to be an inside guard and it would be only a matter of time before he showed up.
Charlie, being thinner, moved between the pallets and at the beam climbed the edges of three pallets in order to reach the camera. With it in his pocket, he hurried back to Juan and they rushed back the way they had come.
At the sound of footsteps they both froze for a moment and then picked up their pace. As the door closed behind them, they took a second to catch their breath before racing down the ramp.
They attained Juan’s car and Juan let Charlie out at the rear of the restaurant. Charlie shook Juan’s hand. “Thank you, my friend. It was a good night’s work. Come over tomorrow and we’ll take a look at what we have.”
“You’re welcome, Charlie, but you owe me for those boots we had to throw away.”
Charlie laughed. “It was well worth the expense.”
Margot unlocked the door and they walked into the cool air of her house. She said, “I’m going to get into my PJs,” and headed down the hall.
Charlie strolled to the bar to make himself a rum and coke. With his drink, he plumped himself on the couch and turned the small camera over and over in his hand. Did it hold the answers he sought, or was it a bust?
Margot sat down beside him and ran her hand across his shoulders. “You’ll never know until you turn it on.”
He smiled at her. “What do you mean?”
“Were you not wondering if there was anything on the camera?”
“Yes, I guess I was.” He pulled her computer toward him and removed the card from the side of the camera. He inserted the card and clicked the icon. The video started, but nothing was happening, so he fast-forwarded it, until people began to move within the frame.
Margot whispered, “I don’t see them loading anything but shark fins. Are you sure this is how they’re shipping the drugs?”
“It has to be, Margot. No other overseas shipments leave his warehouse.”
Margot shook her head. “Okay, they place a pallet on that turntable, attach a hard cardboard box on top of it, and fill the box with shark fins. Then the turntable spins and wraps the enter mess in plastic wrap. I don’t see how anything can be added after that.”
Charlie had a sinking feeling. “We’re missing something. That camera is not catching the drugs but they have to be there.” They watched three pallets being loaded but couldn’t see anything that looked like drugs.
Charlie pulled out the card and tossed it on the coffee table. “That was one hell of a waste of time.”
Margot put her arm over his shoulders. “Charlie, if you believe in this please don’t give up on it. If you think these shipments are how the drugs are being moved then prove it.”
“I’m calling Juan and telling him we came up dry and then I’m going home.”
“You’re not spending the night here?”
He picked up the card. “No, I have to think and to do that I need to be alone. Let’s have dinner tomorrow.”
Margot watched him drive off on his motorcycle and a sadness came over her. He had been so carefree and happy when they met, just a writer in search of a story. She felt as though something had died within him.
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
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