Valentino Pier (Rapid Reads) (7 page)

“Hugo. Idiot! What are you screaming about?” Prentice was seething.

“Let me kill this insect now,” Hugo said to Prentice. “Better to kill him now.”

Prentice whispered something in Hugo’s ear. Not good, Gulliver thought. Not good. He didn’t wait for Hugo to start shooting. He reached for his Sig. Hit the ground. And not a second too soon. There was a stream of fire spitting from the barrel of the MP5. Wood splintered above Gulliver’s head. Bullets shattered the fiberglass hull of the boat he had taken cover behind.

Gulliver moved to his right. Lined up a shot. Squeezed the trigger. The shot missed. But it was close enough to the big man’s head to make him take notice. Hugo and Prentice got down and flattened themselves to the deck of
El Condor
. Prentice crawled away and disappeared below deck. Gulliver looked around for his help to arrive. But he saw no one. Heard nothing.

“Time to make you dead, insect,” Hugo shouted as he got to his feet. He put a new clip in the MP5. He hopped down from the boat and onto the dock. He walked toward Dowd. As he did, he aimed short bursts of fire at Gulliver. More wood splinters. More fiberglass shards.

Being stuck flat on the ground wasn’t such a great place for Gulliver to be now. He shot back a few rounds at a time. Not so much to try and hit the big man but to buy himself+, Dowd. u kas some time. To give himself a chance to get up. To retreat. It was no good. There was really no place for Gulliver to hide. And his running was woeful. The big man was closing in. Gulliver wheeled around to squeeze off his last few bullets. But when he spun, Hugo’s gun had already gone silent.

The big man was on the ground. He was twitching. Grunting. Flailing his arms and legs. He had been Tasered. Gulliver breathed a sigh of relief. His help had arrived at last. A figure dressed in matte black clothing stepped out of the shadows. Ahmed Foster.

Ahmed bent over the big man. Gulliver couldn’t see what Ahmed was doing. But when Ahmed stood up, Hugo was no longer twitching. He was no longer doing much of anything.

“Is he dead?” Gulliver asked.

Ahmed shook his head no and whispered, “Let’s just say he’s asleep and he’s gonna be that way for a while.”

“Remind me to thank the navy for your SEAL training.”

“Where’s the girl at?”

Gulliver pointed at
El Condor
. “My guess is she’s below decks.”

Ahmed picked up Hugo’s MP5. Ejected the old clip. Put in a fresh one. He handed it to Gulliver. “You know how to use this?”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“Get the other guy up on deck. Whatever you got to do. Just get him on deck,” Ahmed said. Then he slipped back into the shadows. A few seconds later, Gulliver heard a quiet splash in the water.

He walked back to
El Condor
. “Prentice! Get out here,” he yelled. “Hugo’s not in any shape to help you. Get out here. We need to talk. All I want is Mia. Give Mia to me and you can get gone.”

He felt panic rising in him when there was no answer. In spite of the chill, sweat was soaking through his shirt. The only sound was the slapping of water against the dock. The purr of
El Condor
’s engines. Then there were footsteps. Two sets of them.

Prentice and Mia were on deck. Mia’s face was swollen. One of her eyes was bruised. Her lip was cut and bleeding. Her hands were tied together with tape. She was shaking. She was scared. She had reason to be. Prentice held a shotgun under her chin. He looked scared too. His eyes were wide. He was breathing fast.

“Where’s Hugo?” Prentice asked.

“He’s dead,” Gulliver lied. “You’re alone now, Doc.”

“I have her.” The vet tilted his head at Mia.

“Give her to me. Take your boat and go.”

“Drop the gun, Dowd. Drop it.”

“No, Doc, I don’t think I will.”

Prentice shoved the shotgun hard into Mia’s neck. She almost fell over. “I’ll kill her.”

“And then I’ll kill you,” Gulliver said. “And I’ll do it very slowly. You dug my knife out of Hugo’s back. I threw that one. With one in my hand…I am very good with a knife, Doc.”

“You little bastard,+sc t88as” Prentice shouted. “You screwed this all up. You and that stupid kid.”

“Let’s forget all that. Let’s deal with what we’ve got to deal with now. I’m giving you an out. Just push Mia onto the dock. Then get out of here. It’s the best deal you’re gonna get. At least you get to live. Who knows, maybe you’ll get away. You’ve got plenty of cash.”

Gulliver had painted Prentice into a corner. And Prentice’s fear was turning into panic. The vet was finding out that real life wasn’t like tv.

“Put your gun down, Dowd. I’m going to kill her! I am!” He used his free hand to shove Mia onto her knees.

Prentice was about to find out that that was a very big mistake. At that second Ahmed thumped the hull of
El Condor
. The vet swung his shotgun around. Already on her knees, Mia leaned forward. She crashed to the dock shoulder first. Before Prentice could swing the shotgun back around, Gulliver pulled the MP5’s trigger. Prentice’s knees shattered. He screamed in pain. The shotgun fell out of his hands and into the water. He crumpled to the boat deck. Then headfirst, with a thud, onto thn right onto A

CHAPTER
EIGHTEEN

T
wo weeks later, Detective Sam Patrick and Gulliver Dowd were at an outdoor café in Red Hook. Ugly slept by Dowd’s feet. It was warm. The sun strong. The skies clear, as they were the day Ellis Torres had run into Gulliver on Valentino Pier. But almost everything else had changed. Mia’s bruises had faded. She had a new job. Gulliver and Mia had eaten dinner together every evening since that night at the yacht club.

“The kid gets out of the hospital today,” Patrick said. “He’s got to go into foster care until his mom gets out. I hope he doesn’t run again.”

Gulliver shielded his eyes from the sun. “He won’t. We talked about it. Last time, he ran because of the dog. I’m taking care of Ugly until he and his mom can get back to being a family. You know that old lady I told you about. She[enhohat happened’s got an empty apartment they can live in. There’ll be someone around to keep an eye on the mom and the kid.”

“Your pal Dr. Prentice won’t be getting out of the hospital anytime soon. You shot up his knees pretty bad.”

“I’ll send him a get-well card,” Gulliver joked. “Is he still not talking?”

“No. That’s why I asked to meet you here. I wanted to tell you. His lawyer cut a deal with the Brooklyn DA and the Feds. He confessed to it all. You were right, Dowd. He and Hugo were smuggling rare animals into the States. Some were for private zoos. Some were for rich-men hunting clubs. How sick is that?”

“It must have paid well.”

“Millions,” said the detective. “They would take the boat out to meet cargo ships waiting to come into the harbor. Then they would off-load the animals from Prentice’s boat in Red Hook behind the warehouse. From there they would take them to his office. He would check them out. Give them whatever shots they needed. Then they would be trucked to the zoo or the club.”

“What went wrong?” Gulliver asked.

“The animals were all supposed to be knocked out with drugs.”

“But the night the kid woke up the animals woke up too.”

“Right,” Patrick said. “The drugs wore off too fast. And it was a shipment of monkeys. I guess the monkeys were pretty pissed off after a long ocean voyage. They musta been screaming their heads off. What I don’t figure is why Prentice fed you that story about the Indian beetles.”

Gulliver laughed. “He wanted to know if the kid would live. Also if you and Rigo were making progress on the case. I was Prentice’s only source. He had to get me into his office somehow.”

“It was still dumb, because it got you curious.”

“You’re none of those, Dowd. But you should have kept me in the loop.”

“Sorry about that. I’m stubborn that way. I’ve gotten too used to doing s8221;

“Forget it.” Detective Patrick’s cell rang. “I’ve got to take this,” he said. “Hang around. It will only take a minute.”

“Nah,” said Gulliver. “It’s a beautiful day. tuff my way.&#