Fallen Hunter (Jesse McDermitt Series) (21 page)

When I got back to the
Anchor
, I could hear Dan doing a sound check out back. I walked in the bar and it was empty except for Rufus, an old Jamaican man, who was the cook. “Dey all out bock, Cap’n,” he said. “Ahn welcome back, brudda.”

“Thanks, Rufus,” I said. He passed me a cold Red Stripe as I walked by the bar toward the back door. The new deck was impressive. The old smaller deck had been completely torn down and the new one was twice the size, with umbrella covered tables scattered around the edges and uncovered tables in the middle, maybe twenty in all. On the far side was an elevated stage. The tables were about half full, as Dan warmed up on the stage. Another younger man was behind him on a small drum set. Rusty, Deuce, Tina, Chyrel and Julie were at a table close to the canal. I noticed Julie had her guitar case leaning against the railing behind her.

Dan saw me crossing the deck toward my friends and said in to the microphone, “I’ll get started in a second y’all. First I have to say hi to someone.” He stepped down off the stage and met me half way.

“Jesse,” he said grabbing me by the shoulders. Then in a thick Irish brogue, “Ow’s your onions?”

“What’s the craic, Dan,” I said back in my best brogue.

“Been a long time, man,” he said. “Rusty told me what happened, damn shame.”

“Thanks Dan,” I said. “How was the islands?”

“Arseways at times, but a lot of fun, mostly. You gonna be around a while?”

“Here for the night,” I said.

“Yeah, I saw that big Rampage when I woke up,” he said. “Hey, I gotta get to work, we’ll talk later.” He went back to his brogue and said, “Tear your hole off the haggart, boyo.”

I went over to the table and sat down next to Tina. All eyes were on me as I took a long pull on my beer. “Well?” Rusty said.

“Well what?”

“The lawyer, ya dim witted ground pounder!” he said.

“He just needed my signature on some papers concerning Alex’s estate,” I said. “I gave most of it to charity.”

“She would have liked that,” Rusty said. “Buy some books for the school kids or something?”

“Yeah,” I lied. “Something like that.” Then I turned to Deuce and said, “I need to talk to you a minute.” I leaned over and gave Tina a kiss and said, “Be right back.”

“You better,” she said. “Or I’ll run off with Rusty.”

Deuce and I walked over to the barge, out of earshot of everyone else as Dan launched into his first song, “She Only Loves Me”.

“What’s up?” Deuce asked.

“What would you think about moving your team, at least the field operatives, to the island?” I asked him point blank.

“Books for the kids, huh? Lawyers don’t travel 3000 miles for a small estate.” he said.

“Wasn’t a lie exactly,” I said. “Alex started a kind of Outward Bound School to teach kids in Oregon to fly fish and was going to start one here. A third of her estate is going to that. Another third will be used to set up college scholarships here for kids of local fishermen and fallen warriors.”

“And the last third?” he asked.

“About $2.7 million,” I said and watched his mouth fall open.

“You’re kidding.”

“No,” I said. “I thought we could set the island up to be completely self-sustainable and use it as an operating base for training. What do you think?”

“That’s really generous, Jesse. But, we have a state of the art training facility at Homestead.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I was thinking something more basic, not high tech training. Somewhere that nobody can see what’s going on, next to a town full of gossips.”

“You have a point,” he said. “What do you mean by self-sustainable?”

I gave him a brief rundown on my idea to grow and catch our own food, make our own water and add to the accommodations. “Give me five men and a week and I can have things ready to house the whole team. Two months later and food won’t be a problem.”

“I like the concept,” he said. “Especially just before a mission. Isolated training and planning. I’ll talk to Smith, see what he thinks.”

“Just Smith now?” I said sarcastically. “Not ‘the ADD’ or ‘the Director’?”

“Your insubordinate ways must be rubbing off on me,” he said with a grin.

“Want to go diving tomorrow?” I asked. “Me, you, Julie, and Tina?”

“Just a fun dive?” he asked. “Nothing to blow up or people to kill?”

“Yeah, I was thinking of Conrad Reef,” I said. It was where we’d taken Deuce’s dad’s ashes almost five months earlier.

“Sounds like fun,” he said.

We went back to the group and I noticed there were a lot more people on the deck. More than forty, at least. Rusty looked happy.

Dan finished his first song and said, “I’d like to have a friend join me on this next number. Julie?”

Julie got up, took her guitar from the case and stepped up on the stage. “Miss Julie Thurmond, everyone,” Dan said into the microphone. “This is a new song I wrote and Julie’s gonna back me up on guitar. It’s called ‘Stormfront’. Hope you like it.”

Tina took my arm as we listened. I always liked Dan’s style and Julie played a great accompaniment. The song itself was very visual, full of lightning, high wind, and waves, even on a bright, clear January day.

Tina said, “That song’s more about you than the weather, I think. What were you and Deuce talking about?”

“Just future plans,” I said. “We’re going scuba diving tomorrow.”

“Just the two of you?” she asked.

“The four of us,” I said. “Remember, I promised to show you how.”

We listened to Dan play for another half hour, then he took a break and came over to sit down. I introduced him to Tina and Deuce and we caught up on old times until he had to go back up on stage. It was a pretty good turnout. Just before sunset, I told Rusty and Deuce we had to run out for a bit and could I borrow his pickup.

“Sure,” he said. “Keys are in it.”

As we walked out to the front of the bar I said, “I need to make a call to Santiago. Could you go inside and get us a couple of bottles of water?”

“Sure,” she said and headed into the bar.

I pulled up Santiago’s number and he picked up after two rings. “I thought you were going to back out, Capitan,” he said.

“Had things to do,” I said. “Offer still on the table?”

“Si, but we need to meet in person,” he replied.

“I’m not in Key West, but I can get down there tomorrow,” I said.

“Nor am I, senor,” he said. “Can you come up to Miami?”

“No,” I said. “I don’t have reliable wheels. Do you have a boat?”

He laughed and said, “Si, I have a boat. Very cautious, eh? Where would you like to meet and what time?”

“I’ll text you the GPS coordinates,” I said. “It’s offshore near Long Key, Alligator Reef. Early morning, about nine?”

“Perfecto,” he said. “You’ll be alone?”

“No,” I said, “Nor will I be unarmed. There’ll be three people with me. One man and two women. A dive charter.”

“I will be with a young lady myself,” he said.

“Hasta manana,” I said and ended the call, just as Tina walked up to me.

We went out to the pickup and Tina asked, “Where are we going?”

“I told you I’d take you shopping,” I said. “Not just for clothes either.”

“You don’t have to do that, Jesse,” she said.

“I want to,” I said with a grin. “Besides, you’ll need a new wardrobe for Cozumel.”

We got in Rusty’s Chevy pickup and drove first to Hall’s Dive Center. In about an hour of negotiating, we had a complete set of scuba gear and a wet suit for Tina. I also bought a new buoyancy compensator for myself, since my old one had a leaky air bladder. We put everything in the small seat in back and drove to Anthony’s, a ladies clothing store just across A-1-A from the
Anchor
.

I told Tina that she needed at least two new bathing suits, three outfits for the evening, three outfits for casual hanging out and whatever shoes, underwear, night clothes and accessories she’d need to go with them. “Jesse,” she said, “The dive gear alone cost nearly a thousand dollars. There’s no way I can afford to repay you for that, let alone this.”

“You don’t need to repay me,” I said. “We need to look like a classy couple on vacation down there. Our next stop is a men’s store. The money Smith is paying me was already in the bank before he even mentioned it. If you want, I can take it out of the $5000 I was going to give you to go along.”

“Is this for real?” she asked. “They’re paying you $10,000 to go to Cozumel for a few days and I get half?”

I got serious for a second and said, “This isn’t just a fun trip, though we’ll try to make it as fun as we can. We’ll be going into Cuban waters, so there is some risk involved. That’s why we’re being compensated so well. If you don’t want to do it, say so.”

She thought about it for a few minutes then said, “I’ll go.” For the next hour, she tried on dozens of outfits, finally choosing six. She also bought a few things from the lingerie department that made me smile. We piled these boxes on top of the dive gear and headed down by the airport to Bayshore Clothing, where I bought the first suit I’d bought in many years. I was surprised they had a forty-six long to fit me. I also bought a few casual, but sturdy, pairs of pants and shirts. Shoes were a problem. They only had a few styles in a size 13 and I didn’t really like any of them, but settled on the least ugly.

Once we stowed these in the front seat, there was barely room for the two of us. We drove back to the
Anchor
and carried everything to the boat. Before we finished putting everything aboard, I heard a familiar voice from the yard.

“Permission to come aboard, Skipper?”

It was Tony Jacobs. He used to be one of Deuce’s SEAL team operators and moved with him to DHS. “Tony,” I said, “How the hell ya been?”

He reached out his hand and took mine saying, “Doing well, Jesse. How about you?”

“Better every day, brother,” I said. “Tony, I’d like you to meet Deputy Christina La
Mons.
Tina, this is Tony Jacobs, part of Deuce’s team.”

The two shook hands and Tony said, “Looks like y’all been out shopping. I have a few more goodies in the SUV. Can you give me a hand?”

“Sure,” I said and the three of us walked over to Tony’s black Expedition. He’d backed it up close to the barge, so we could unload it without being seen.

“I have a message for you from Smith,” he said. “He says Ms. La Mons temporary assignment has been approved by the local Sheriff.”

“Please, Tony,” Tina said, “Just call me Tina. Everyone else does.”

“Look forward to working with you, Tina,” he said. “But I’m kind of in the dark as to what a Sheriff’s Deputy will add to our mission.”

“Oh,” she said, “I’m just arm candy.”

“I guess Smith and Deuce didn’t update you,” I said. “We’re going diving in Cozumel. We’ll drop you and Art off on the way down, then the two of us, plus Deuce and Julie will make a show of having a good time in the sun down there for a couple days and pick you guys up on the way back.”

“He also said to tell you that he’d like Talbot to come up to Homestead for a day to meet the team. Then Deuce can schedule him for training.”

“What do you think he’d say about bringing the whole team to the island?” I asked. “Hell, I’ve only met the three of you.”

“I don’t know, Gunny,” he said. “He’s a weird cat sometimes. I think he’s got political ambitions. Came to us from CIA, but was never a field operator.”

“That’s the exact same thing I thought when I met him,” Tina said. “I gotta ask. Gunny? Is that another nautical term?”

Tony and I looked at one another and laughed. “No,” I said. “That was my rank in the Marine Corps. Gunnery Sergeant.”

“And you were in the Marines too, Tony?” she asked.

“No ma’am,” he said between chuckles. “My head doesn’t fit in a jar. I used to be in the Navy.”

“Now you guys have lost me,” she said. “Gunners, jars, port, and starboard. I really need to get a book or start taking detailed notes.”

“Back to Smith,” I said. “What kind of boss is he?”

“I really don’t have a lot of interaction with him,” Tony said. “From what I gathered, he seems to think he’s on the way up, though. He micro-manages too. Which is why I doubt he’d send the whole team down here. Putting about twenty people up in motel rooms would make steam come out of his ears.”

“You guys don’t talk much, do you?” I asked. “I built a pair of bunkhouses on the north side of the island. Bunks for twenty-four men.”

“Maybe we can just do it and not even tell him,” Tony said as he opened the hatch on the big SUV. “He gives Deuce pretty free reign, as far as training goes.”

In the back of the car were two large crates and two smaller ones. He grabbed one of the smaller ones and I grabbed the other. We carried them across the barge to the
Revenge
and stacked them beside the gunwale on the dock. The two larger ones required us making two trips. They were the compact underwater scooters. Once we got them aboard Tony said, “Y’all don’t mind me. It’ll take me about ten minutes to get these bladders set up in the fish boxes. Each one has its own battery powered pump and fuel line. All we’ll have to do is open the fish box, pull the line over to the fuel tank cap and turn it on.”