39
The three of them left the bar and drove to the fishing pier. Bubba and Joey both did a couple bumps of coke while Bubba was driving.
“You think that’s wise? Troy said.
Bubba wiped under his nose and sucked in a deep, snotty breath. “Hell, yeah. It make us think straight and helps sober us up.”
Dumb asses, Troy thought.
Bubba pulled his truck up the dock and just sat there—doing nothing.
“What now?” Troy asked.
“Now,” Bubba said, “we wait. When the boat gets close, I’ll get a call. Then, you’ll make a call telling yer captain somethin’ that’ll keep the cops from here, then,” Bubba winked, “we go meet the boat.”
“Why doesn’t the boat just pull up to the dock?”
“We don’t ask questions, we just do what we’re told.”
A little after one a.m., Bubba got the call. He hung up and faced Troy. “Time to make your money.”
Troy took out his cell phone, but Bubba took it from him and shut it off. “Use mine.”
“You don’t trust me?”
“Boss’ orders. What’s the number?”
Troy rattled off the number and Bubba punched it in. He looked at the caller ID and saw that the LCD screen read Florida State Police. As soon as it started to ring, he put it on speaker and handed it back to Troy.
“Captain Reilly speaking.”
“Captain, this is Deputy Stubbs.”
“What do you have for me, Stubbs?”
“I just spoke to some of the locals who said they saw the girls and O’Malley at the Bridge Hotel in Marathon. I’m headed there now, but I need back up.”
“Good work, Deputy, I’ll pull all units and we’ll meet you there. Over.”
“Over,” Troy said. He hung up the phone and handed it back to Bubba.
“Satisfied?”
“Yep, let’s move.”
On the other end of the line, Charlie hung up his phone. He had rigged the lines so that if Troy called his number, it would show up as the state police. He radioed Fletcher to be ready, grabbed his duffle bag, and ran out the back door of his house.
At the shoreline, there was an inflatable watercraft—a Zodiac—tied off. He pulled it into the water, rowed out past the break, dropped the outboard motor, and headed towards his destination.
Approximately one hundred yards away from the first reef, Charlie saw the faint glow of a boat’s running lights off in the distance. Through his binoculars, he saw a good size fishing boat approaching. They’re still a ways off, he thought, but I’m going to have to move if I’m going to reach them in time.
Charlie quickly donned his SCUBA gear and dropped into the water. Hugging the bottom, like Sin had showed him, cutting the current which made it easier for him to make decent time. He surfaced periodically in order to gage the distance of the boat. On his second reconnaissance, he heard and saw another boat coming from the shoreline. He put his regulator back in his mouth and descended as fast as possible.
Hiding behind a wrecked fishing boat, which now served as an artificial reef, he hoped all the metal would help camouflage him from the boats’ sonar.
From the depth of the ocean, he could feel the vibrations as the boats neared. His adrenaline surged as the boats began to converge on the first reef.
Fletcher and his unit had been out on the third reef along with a couple other fishing boats when he received Charlie’s call. He maneuvered his boat further out and south to stay out of sight and gave the signal to cut the boat’s running lights and engines. The tension was thick, just like the humidity, as their boat bobbed up and down with the rolling waves.
All they could do was wait for Charlie’s next signal.
“What are you doing heading for the first reef?” Fear spiked in Troy’s voice.
Bubba laughed. “Relax, buddy. That’s just the first of tonight’s surprises.”
Troy continued the masquerade of being unaware. He swallowed his anger and hoped he could continue to act like a ‘good old boy’ long enough to take these bastards down. His concentration was broken by the sound of the cocking of a trigger and the feel of cold steel against the back of his neck.
“Whoa, Bubba,” he exclaimed, “what the hell are you doing?”
“The second of tonight’s surprises,” Bubba said. “We need to be sure which side you’re on, so you won’t be carrying any weapons. With your left hand, I want you to reach across and remove your gun from your belt.”
“If I give up my weapon and something goes wrong, I’m a dead man,” Troy said. “Come on, Bubba, we’ve known each other since we were six years old in Pop Warner football.”
“Just following orders. With two fingers, lower your pistol to the ground and slide it back toward me.”
Troy did as he was told and then felt Bubba’s gun move away from his neck. He turned and faced his ‘friend.’ “When this is over, I want my gun back.”
“I’ll hand it over to you along with five grand as soon as we make the transfer.”
From his peripheral vision, Troy saw a light flash three times. “Is that the other boat?”
Joey countered from the helm with two flashes of his own.
“Yep,” Bubba grinned, “along with your third surprise.”
As the incoming boat reached the half mile marker, Fletcher sent a signal to Charlie letting him know of the boat’s location. Charlie received the message through a type of Morse code which infiltrated his full facemask. Charlie knew the next fifteen minutes would be tense. They would mean life or death to Sin and whoever else was on board the boat.
40
From the cabin, Sin could hear Humberto barking orders to his crew. “I want every girl’s mouth taped as well as her wrists. Be careful,” he emphasized, “there can be no marks on the girls. They must remain pure and innocent looking.”
Sin’s skin crawled as she heard the words. Unfortunately, she was in the same predicament as the girls. Her mouth, arms, and legs were also duct
