I slumped down on the edge of the bed I had slept in last night. Wait, I wasn’t here last night.
“Trisha, would you mind if I took a catnap for a few minutes?”
“No, but as soon as our luggage arrives, we’ll have to leave the ship by eleven o’clock. It’s seven now.
“Good, wake me in an hour before you want to leave.”
I scooted up on the bed and laid back. Trisha pulled the sheet over me.
Chapter 23
Capture
Several officers tried to locate Susan and the thieves. Larry received a vibration from his silenced phone. At the same time, they heard a crack echo in the metal lined cargo hold. A bullet whizzed by an officer to his left. They hunkered down behind some of the empty metal bins. Larry wished he had his gun, but his weapon was stored in one of these suitcases lining against the wall. Another officer had a pistol but refused to fire back without assurance of hitting a positive mark. Firing guns down in the cargo bay was just as bad as shooting one in an airplane fuselage.
A third officer waved them on while they could hear footsteps rapping against the floor tile from several people running away into the distance. Larry held back to check his phone.
He read Trisha’s message about the large woman and texted back a heart icon. An officer behind him turned on a ceiling light. Sitting on the floor by the suitcases, was a heavy-set woman in a blue taffeta gown.
“Help me, I was kidnapped,” she moaned, raising one arm toward them.
As the officer approached her to help her up, Larry hurried forward.
“Stay back. She might have a gun,” he yelled.
The officers had no time to retreat. She raised her other hand and took a shot. The midshipman fell when the bullet entered his leg. Larry and the other officer lunged to yank the wounded man away into the hallway. Another officer fired at the woman’s upraised hand, knocking the gun out of her reach.
“Good job,” Larry said to the firing officer.
She tried to reach across the floor for the errant pistol but Larry rushed over and knocked the weapon over by one of the pallets holding luggage.
“Let’s get her on her feet,” he said, gripping under her shoulder.
“Ow, not so rough,” she complained as one of the officers helped him.
Another crewman, wheeling full recycle bins onto the pier who had heard the first shot, came to help.
“Call the doctor,” shouted the officer, assisting Larry as they heft the woman to her feet. Larry reached down for the warm pistol as the officer sat her down on top of the stacked luggage. He picked the weapon up by the trigger guard and set it on a suitcase beyond the woman’s reach.
“How’s the officer?” he called, keeping his eye on the woman as she held her bloodied hand.
“The doctor is coming, flesh wound on his leg,” one of the officers said.
One of the men in uniform approached Larry.
“Mr. Paige, I’ll escort this lady to a holding room. Is that her gun?
“Yeah, I suppose you need it for prints,” he replied. “I wish I had one to help you out.”
The officer hesitated for a moment and then reached into his holster around his ankle.
“For now, use this one,” he said, handing over his personal issue. “Please be careful down here. Let them go and don’t risk your life. We’ll catch them later. You can’t hide on an island.”
“Thanks, but I’ll stay,” Larry replied, placing the weapon on safety and pocketing it into his rented tuxedo pocket. “Oh, check the woman’s pockets. She stole my wife’s phone.”
The officer holding the assailant by one arm reached into her bulging pocket, drew out the cell phone, and handed it over to Larry. He pulled on the woman’s arm and escorted her to the service elevator. The doctor exited from the same elevator and hurried passed them to tend to the injured man. A crewman ran over to help the other officers load the injured man onto a flatbed dolly.
Another shot rang out and ricocheted off the metal wall near them.
“You can’t go anywhere here,” shouted out the lead officer. “Come out with your hands in the air.”
They could hear shouting as one large man ran out holding his gun at them. The officer shot him point blank in his chest. Heavy tapping of footsteps faded into the distance of somebody running away. Larry deduced this injured or dead man on the floor was a distracting ploy by the thieves. The officer bent over the wounded man, removed the gun out of his hand, and checked for life. Larry saw the officer shake his head. The man was dead.
“I’ll help you move him,” Larry said, regretting someone had to die in the exchange.
As they began to remove the body off to one side. One of the large empty bins came rolling toward Larry and two of the officers. They jumped aside as the container rushed too close to them. As soon as the bin crashed against the wall, they saw three men run out into the daylight of the open hatch onto the pier. Larry looked at his sidekicks and nodded. They gave chase.
The pier, now crowded with passengers leaving the ship, was hauling many suitcases and totes by their sides. As if the crooks were following a football playbook, one of the beefy thieves in black tripped over a hazardous suitcase rolled by a passenger. A maintenance crewmember carrying a long piece of lumber out of the open bay, struck another crook on his shoulders. Larry picked up the first man off the boardwalk and the officer collared the next one. The third and shorter man ran ahead and disappeared into a waiting vehicle. His chasers weren’t close enough to see the license plate as the car sped away.
Within seconds
