Buzzard Bay (48 page)

“I had no intention of keeping this quiet and phoned Jon telling him he had better get his brother out of here or I would go to the police. He said that he would look after it, but a few days later he phoned me saying I was a liar, that he had a copy of Quinn’s passport, an airline ticket, and a letter proving that Quinn did not want to work for me anymore and left. When I first met Jon Smyskin, I thought he would be thankful that we had kept the business in order here. Instead, he was much more interested in what I had done with my half of the money and why he was not a partner. It was made clear to him that I did not invest his money because it was not mine, and what I did with my money was none of his business.”

Lena shook a bit as she lit another cigarette and continued, “We didn’t part on good terms. I didn’t hear much from him for a while. He was too occupied in getting his own house in order. Then out of the blue he tells me he is sending his brother to take over security at his compound. Of course, I asked him to clarify what he meant by that. In the meantime, his brother moved into the guesthouse, and suddenly my security disappeared. When I went to go out of the compound, I was told that I would need permission to do so. I was a prisoner in my own house.”

Lena stopped talking for a moment and concentrated on her cigarette before continuing on. “I fought back the only way I knew how. I thought if I could bed Julio, maybe he would come over to my side or at least find out what Jon was up to. That was a mistake that resulted in my getting raped and Quinn getting killed.” Lena’s voice began to quake again. “Throughout all this, I complained to Jon, but all he would say was, ‘I’ll take care of it,’ and I guess he has because all of a sudden, I feel very alone.”

“You must have gone to Sir Harry or someone who could help you with Quinn?” Henekie asked her.

“This is the first time I’ve been allowed out on my own since it happened. Smyskin did tell me he was sending Julio a Venezuelan beauty queen so he would leave me alone, but as you can see, that hasn’t happened yet. I’ve had no phone or way of communicating with anybody until today and I know that meeting got me nowhere.”

You must be doing very well with your business end of things,” Henekie surmised. “I also think he still needs you or you would have disappeared by now.”

“Oh, he needs me all right. I’m the only one who can understand how my business works and how to run my computers. I think his plan is to move me to Colombia where he can study my operation and that could happen at any time. As for my business, yes, I have been incredibly successful. That island I told you about in Dubai, it’s a playground for only the very rich, and Dubai itself will double or quadruple our money on everything we built there. I did everything right but cover my ass, Henekie. I still have my little pistol, and when they come for me, that will be the end, but I shall make sure to take that prick Julio with me.”

“This is serious,” Henekie thought to himself. If I don’t have access to her computers, I’m dead too.

“How come they’re letting you go out now?” Henekie asked.

Lena shrugged, “They know that I’m powerless. All the people that I thought were in my pocket are scared to talk to me. My driver watches my every move. I guess they want to see who I talk to. He’s probably watching us right now.”

“Don’t think so,” Henekie smiled. “He fell off a bridge. That’s what the commotion was about out there a while ago.”

Lena smiled, “Are you trying to get me in trouble?”

“I think you are doing a good job of that all by yourself,” he told her. “How many men does Julio have with him?”

“Five, but I saw three go out this morning. So unless they are back, he has just two. Why? What are you thinking, Henekie?”

“How close do they check your car when it comes in?”

“There is a camera at the gate. My driver honks twice, and they let us in,” Lena answered.

“Good, you and I are going to pay Julio a visit,” Henekie told her. “I’m your new driver.”

The gate was not a problem. Once they entered Lena’s house, Henekie told Lena to get her pistol and put some pants on since they might have to do some crawling around. Lena did as she was told, and Henekie noticed a spring in her step. He felt a sense of guilt that he was doing this more for himself than he was for Lena.

“We’re all after her money,” he thought, it was by no means clear who would get it.

“There are security camera’s covering the grounds. We’ll have to wait till dark before we have any chance of getting over to the guest house,” Lena told him.

“You don’t have to come with me, Lena. I’m going to kill them you know.” He picked up a butcher knife to emphasize what he had in mind.

he turned and looked Henekie straight in the eye. “I know. All I ask is that you let me do Julio.”

“Okay, but we aren’t waiting until dark. We’re taking the tunnel.”

“Tunnel? What tunnel?” Lena wanted to know.

El Presidente took time to show me how he got in and out of Nassau without anyone knowing he was here. Henekie led her to an old door in the garage with a flashlight in hand. “It’s damp. There are cobwebs and bats down there, but it does come out in the guesthouse.”

“So this is where you hid when you used to show up in my house unannounced,” Lena exclaimed.

“Only when I had to. It’s pretty nasty down here. Most of the time, I just hid out in your house.” He lied, not telling her about his lair down in the old warehouse. They went down some steps and began making their way through the tunnel. It certainly had not improved with age; the ceiling was low, and in places it was only wide enough for one person to squeeze through.

Henekie walked ahead, breaking through the cobwebs, waiting for Lena to start complaining; but instead, he heard her ask, “So, you saw me walking around the house naked?”

“Yup,” was his answer.

“Did I turn you on?”

He stopped and shone the flashlight on her. “Because I have never come on to you, you are wondering if I’m gay, aren’t you?”

“You know everything about me,” Lena answered, “I know nothing about you.”

Henekie looked at her. “In my business, it is not wise to get too close to people or them to me.Your next question would be why am I helping you. My services are very expensive, Lena, and my loyalty goes to the highest bidder. If I can get you through this rough spot, you may have a future, and that means I have a future. Now be quiet and let me concentrate on the job at hand.” He turned, and they continued up the tunnel.

Finally, they came to another set of steps leading up to a heavy wooden door. Henekie found a key. “I hope they aren’t in the garage.”

He had to push hard to open the door enough to get them through. Henekie immediately saw that he was lucky he got the door to open at all; someone had put a stack of bags against it. He whistled. “These are the old-style canvas bags they used to ship cocaine in.” He bent over and opened one, “Holy shit! They’re full.”

“I heard Julio talk about an old barge on Andros, and then the other night some men worked most of the night pulling something up over the cliff,” Lena told him.

“Interesting. Show me where the surveillance cameras are, and we shall see if anyone is manning them.” Quietly, they went from room to room until Lena motioned to a door. They looked in to see a fat man with his head thrown back over a chair snoring. Henekie pointed at Lena and put his hands over his eyes, and then he carefully walked up behind the man and slit his throat. Henekie went back out of the room to see how Lena was, but she wasn’t there. This puzzled him, but only for a second, as he saw her tiptoeing toward him.

“They are out on the patio,” she whispered. “I checked the rest of the house. There is no one else here.”

Henekie nodded, “Here, take your gun and if anything happens to me, make sure you get anyone who is left. Just don’t panic and shoot me.”

Lena waved toward the patio door. “Let’s go. I’ve taken shooting lessons since the last time you saw me.”

Henekie looked around the doorway just as the phone rang. He listened as Julio told someone on the other end to stay in the safe house.

“There will be a boat at Buzzard Bay between eleven and one o’clock to pick you up. Just make sure you’re there.” Julio hung up the phone.

The man across from him said, “What are the guys in Miami going to say when they find out our guys didn’t find any shit?”

“Fuck them,” Julio responded. “ Now they’ll believe me when I tell them the guy who owns the hotel stole it all.”

The man across from Julio shook his head, “That’s a dangerous game, Julio.” He put his head down to snort a line of coke.

Henekie was instantly behind Julio, putting the butcher knife to his throat. “I suggest you both stay very still,” he told them.

Henekie could feel Julio go stiff with fear, but the man across from him slowly raised his head and stared at him. “You’re thinking that if I go for my gun, what’s he going to do. I think I can put this knife through you as quick as you can blink, but there’s only one way to find out, isn’t there?”

The man was shifty eyed, making it hard to know which way he was going to go. Then suddenly, he upset the table and went for his gun. Henekie braced himself behind Julio, letting him take the full brunt of the table. The butcher knife’s blade was quite blunt, which meant it might bounce off a rib, so he had to pick somewhere soft.

It was at times like this that Henekie seemed to go into a surreal state. Everything slowed down; he was totally focused on what he was doing, but in reality it all happened in a split second. Henekie threw the knife and watched the knife enter the man’s throat, and they both knew whose luck had run out. The man turned and took a few steps before crashing headfirst through the patio railing onto the ground below. Henekie expected Julio to resist; but instead, he slumped, taking everything Henekie had to hold him up. Lena appeared in front of them.

“I’m going to blow his balls off,” she screamed.

“No, no. Settle down, Lena. My balls are right behind his. Just push that chair over here, and I’ll sit him in it,” Henekie gasped.

Lena did as he asked. “My, my, our big tough guy has pissed his pants.”

“He did more than that by the smell of him,” Henekie added sliding him down into the chair.

Julio began to sob, “I love you, Lena. How can you do this to me?”

“Poor little boy, I think you and I will get along fine once I cut off your balls,” she stated.

Henekie took a towel and blindfolded Julio. “You know, I think she really wants to cut off your balls. I think if you tell the truth about some questions I’m going to ask you, maybe we can keep you in one piece.”

“Okay,” Julio said between sobs.

“Where did you find the bags piled in the garage?”

“They were on an old barge that sank in the marina at Buzzard Bay.”

“Who told you they were there?” Henekie wanted to know.

“The Miami boys figured they might be there, but they didn’t know how to get at them.”

“So how did you do it?”

Julio was talking about himself now and began to buck up. “One of our companies has a barge with a crane, so I had them tell the government that we would need the marina for a project on Andros. They told us to go ahead and get the barge out of there as long as it did not cost them anything.”

Henekie was curious. “How did you get the bags out of there without someone seeing something?”

“We floated the barge then waited until dark and dragged the barge out to sea, only it broke apart, but we were able to gather up the bags,” Julio told him.

“There are rumors that you didn’t find any bags on the barge. Now Andros and Nassau are flooded with drugs. How in hell are you going to explain that?” Lena wanted to know.

“Hey, there’s some coke in that cabinet over there. Do you think I could have a hit? I could sure use one.”

“Maybe, we’ll see how well you do in the next few minutes,” Henekie told him. “So how come the cops haven’t nailed this guy over on Andros?”

Julio laughed, “You see, that’s the beauty of things. I needed quick money, so it was me who flooded the market. We heard there was some kid on Andros who had found some bags, so we put the word out he was flooding the market. You’ve got to give me a hit for telling you all this, man.”

“So far you’ve just told us how smart you are. I asked you what’s with the cops?” Henekie repeated, taking the knife from Lena and holding it where Julio could see it.

“They are stupid,” Julio answered. “We heard they’d been to see this guy but didn’t find much, so I guess they figure it was just a rumor.”

“So why did you send your guys in there?” Henekie asked.

“How did you know about that shit? You got my place bugged?”

“Just answer the question,” Henekie replied.

Julio gave them a sheepish look. “I didn’t tell the Miami guys I’ve got the stuff. They heard about this kid on Andros and think maybe he’s got all of it, so they tell me to go in and find out what’s there. It was risky because we think the DEA was watching him, but we figured if we went in quick, found out what he knew, popped him, and got the hell out, no one would be the wiser.”

“But something went wrong,” Henekie quizzed.

“Yeah, stupid fucks for some reason couldn’t get back to the plane, so we had to hide them in a safe house and pick them up tonight by boat.”

“I think you’re fucked, Julio. The Miami guys aren’t going to believe this story for a minute.”

“Give me a hit, and I’ll tell you why they already have,” Julio whined.

Henekie reached into the cabinet and took out a bag, and then he sat the table upright and put everything in front of Julio and shoved his face in it. Julio poured some powder on the table and began snorting it.

“Hey, slow down,” Henekie said, pulling Julio’s head up by the scruff of the neck. “You can kill yourself later. I’m not done with you yet, so tell me why anyone’s going to believe you.”

The hit made Julio belligerent, “Because I’m a fucking genius, and you’re both going to be dead soon.”

“You may be right, Julio, but you saw what I can do with a knife. I can pop your balls out of your sack as quick as I killed your buddy, so whether I’m dead or not, your voice is going to be a lot higher.”