By edRogers
[Reviewed here on the novel’s publication day, October 6, 2018: “Coming soon to a Barnes & Noble store near you?”]
The ferry docked the next morning at 10:30. Juan felt it would be better if they weren’t seen together, so Charlie walked off the ferry while Juan drove past him on his way home.
The town was abuzz with the killing at the warehouse, and police were wall to wall. Charlie walked toward the little soda (café) that he, Edgar, and Rufino had first gone to. He was in sight of it when two policemen stopped him and asked for ID.
He handed them the copy of his passport that he always carried. They glanced at it, handed it back, and walked on. They weren’t looking for an American tourist. They seemed to think that the crooks were locals.
At the soda he ordered a bottle of beer and when the owner brought it to him he asked, “What happened last night to bring all these police to town?”
The owner was beside himself to share what he knew. With a sense of importance he said, “Two bandidos tried to rob Mr. Tai’s warehouse and killed a guard. Mr. Tai has offered 20 million colons for their capture.”
Charlie set his beer back on the table and smiled. “That’s close to forty thousand dollars, Mr. Tai must have been very close to that guard.”
“The guard was Nica, and Mr. Tai doesn’t give a shit about him. If the bandidos hadn’t killed him Mr. Tai would have killed him because he let someone into his warehouse.”
“Do they know what these bandidos look like?”
“No, just that one was short and the other was tall.”
Charlie stood up next to the owner. “That matches the two of us and over half the people in town.”
“There is little chance of finding who did this. If they stole something and tried to sell it…maybe.” The owner noticed that Charlie’s beer was almost gone.. “You want another beer?”
“Si, una mas.”
Charlie pulled out his cell phone and called Margot. “I need a ride. Any chance I can get you to pick me up?”
Juan pulled through his gate and closed it behind him. His wife was on the front porch waiting. She had done that many a night when he was on the police force but he had promised those days were over. Before he reached the porch she stood and walked into the house. Juan knew that was never a good sign.
Charlie wasn’t faring much better. “What the hell are you doing down here without your motorbike? Please tell me you had nothing to do with that killing at Tai’s warehouse.”
“I came down to do some shopping this morning and took a cab. There were so many cops running around that I decided the hell with it and was going home, but then I called you.”
“What have you heard about the attempted robbery at the warehouse?”
“It sounds like some locals found out about the drugs and decided to rob the place, but ran into a security guard. I guess there was a shootout and the guard lost.”
“You’re sure you and Juan didn’t go back in there?”
“It was high tide last night, or we would have been in the middle of it. Our only way in is at low tide and now even that won’t be possible. Tai will have an army guarding the warehouse from now on.”
Margot smiled. “I have a surprise for you.”
“You haven’t been watching the porn channel, have you?”
“Not everything is about sex, Charlie.”
Charlie laughed. “All the good shit is.”
“This is not sex but I have a box of bird feathers for you to take through Customs. They are mostly fake feathers dyed to fool the tourist but no one at Customs will be looking in the box.”
“Good, let’s go get them and carry them to Customs today.”
“What’s the hurry?”
“Tai’s drugs are at Customs right now, and I would like to locate the pallets there. The drugs must be hidden in them. Then I’ll get back into Customs tonight to try to see if there is any way to get to those drugs.” Charlie had no intention of breaking into Customs, but he had to sell the lie that he hadn’t been in the warehouse.
“Are you out of your mind? I don’t know where you come up with these ideas. You can’t break into Customs. There are guards, real guards, not a low-paid Nicaraguan with a rented gun.”
“I need to make Tai believe somebody at Customs is fucking with his shipment.”
They pulled through Margot’s gate and parked in front of the house. “Let’s go inside and talk about this,” she said. “You’re not thinking straight.”
“Maybe you’re right. I didn’t sleep worth a damn last night.”
They went into the house and Margot said, “Go lie down on the couch and I’ll make you a drink.”
She made Charlie his rum and Coke and poured a glass of wine for herself. When she came around the couch she found Charlie sound asleep. Better asleep, she thought, than trying to break into the Customs.
Margot got her laptop and sat in the chair across from the sleeping Charlie. After all, she had a business to run. There were e-mails to answer, reports to file, any number of things that would keep the money for her war alive. People who had bought into her dream to save the sharks had been sending her money for years; she doubted they would be happy with the way things were going. They were good, decent people who would be appalled at the idea of being involved with breaking and entering, no less murder.
She looked up from her computer and reached for her glass of wine. As she sipped the wine and stared at Charlie, she wondered which one of them had killed the guard. Her money was on Juan, but Charlie was well-trained and capable of doing it.
For the first time, she was faced with some consequences of what she had started, and she realized that everything was her fault. Charlie almost drowning or getting eaten by sharks, and now murder. Not to mention the fact that she had involved Howard and Tommy. They were all as guilty of the murder as the one who had pulled the trigger. What the hell had she been thinking? She had become so blinded by her hatred of the killing of thousands of sharks each day and by her inability to stop it that she hadn’t seen she was taking everybody over the cliff with her.
The phone rang, and she had to wipe her face with her hands before answering it. “Hola.”
“This is Juan. I need to speak to Charlie.”
“Charlie’s asleep. You can talk to me, I know what you two did.”
“Did Charlie tell you?”
“He didn’t have to tell me, I knew the moment I heard. Now, what is so important?”
“The word on the street is that the Morales Cartel tried to rob Tai’s warehouse last night and Tai is going to war over it.”
She couldn’t hold back the anger in her voice. “I want you to come over here. This is getting way out of hand and we need to talk.”
She laid her cell phone back on the table and closed her computer. She walked to the couch and shook Charlie. “Get the hell up.”
“What, what’s wrong?”
She walked back to the refrigerator and poured more wine into her glass. “Your commando raid with Juan last night may have destroyed any hope of us helping the sharks.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Give it up, Charlie! Juan is on his way over here. I know it was you two in the warehouse last night. We have to figure out what to do next; you’ve started a war between the Taiwanese Mafia and the Morales Cartel.”
Charlie saw the run and Coke and threw some back. He didn’t know how she knew about the warehouse but it didn’t matter, she knew. He took his drink and leaned back on the couch. “I don’t see how that is a bad thing: we sit back and let them kill each other off.”
“Mr. Tai is not a good person,” said Margot, “but he is a businessman. He kills only to protect his business, he’s not a cold-blooded killer. But Victor Morales is. He kills entire families just to make a point. And there is no guarantee that Mr. Tai will win this war.”
“I don’t understand what you think we can do about it?”
She came back to the chair with her wine and took a deep breath. “I don’t know what we can do but we need a plan, a better one than you came up with.”
| Copyright © 2018 by Ed Rogers |
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