“Are you borrowing his truck?”
“I don’t know who the hell you’re looking for but I’m not-”
I reached across Em and hit him on the shoulder.
“What the-”
“James. Tell the officer.”
“Tell him what?”
“We were going to report the license plate tomorrow. You know, we’d talked about driving down to the station and-”
I saw a glimmer of light in his eyes as he realized what was going on. We were driving on a stolen plate. Some guy named Royster was the owner of this license plate.
“Is this your truck?”
“It is.”
“Is that your plate?”
James looked at me.
“No, sir,” I said. “We believe somebody switched plates with us for some reason We have no idea why, but we just noticed it today. Well, tonight. So we thought that we’d report it first thing this morning.”
And, as I said it, I thought about cameras being everywhere. Maybe they had a security camera outside the strip club where they had digital images of James taking the plate from Royster’s truck and putting it on ours.
I saw the second set of lights, then the third. Three patrol cars were now parked by the side of the road.
“Are you employed by Doctor Praveen Malhotra?”
James looked at me, fear in his eyes. We’d gone from being almost killed to discovering that our fortune had vanished. Now the reviled law enforcement agents were ready to arrest us on identity theft.
“No. I think there’s been some misunderstanding.”
Two more officers walked up and the three of them had a short conference.
“James,” I whispered quickly, “this Royster, he could have switched the plate with us, right?”
“Why? Why would he switch plates with us? I mean, I know why we switched plates with him. So we wouldn’t be identified, but-”
He was back at the window. “If you refuse to surrender your driver’s license, you’ll have to come with us. This truck has been identified as one of several vehicles transporting illegal aliens to Miami.”
“What?”
And there it was. Transporting illegal aliens. That was why Royster could just as easily have switched the plates with our truck. And it was just our luck. The one truck that we picked, the one plate in all of the Florida Keys that we stole, was owned by someone who may be a federal felon. What’s the line? If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all.
He’d drawn his weapon.
“Exit the vehicle and open the back of your truck. Now.”
James bristled, I scooted out and helped Em. She clutched her bag by her side.
“Open it, sir.”
My best friend’s hand was shaking as he released the lever. The door creaked and rattled as it slid up and I remembered thinking we should use some of that WD-40 on our truck.
Four officers surveyed the empty interior with flashlights, causing a lightshow that bounced off every strut, panel and floor screw. I think they were genuinely disappointed that we didn’t have people stowed in the back.
One of the men finally picked up the magnetic sign, studying it for a moment.
“You gentlemen are plumbers?”
I shot James a dirty look.
“No. Came with the truck.”
“I’ll need to see all three of your licenses.”
We pulled them out and handed them to him. After carefully inspecting each one, he handed them to another officer who walked to his car. They were going to check the computer and see if we had any priors. I’d seen enough TV and movies to know how this worked.
They escorted us back into the truck and we sat there and waited. And waited. And waited.
Finally the original officer walked back to the truck.
“Sir, leave the keys in the vehicle. You and your friends are coming with us.”
We were each cuffed with nylon ties, a first for Em and me, and pushed into the back of a cruiser.
The dashboard looked like some major control panel with a mounted computer, GPS, and other assorted technical stuff I was not familiar with.
“Can you please tell me what we’re being arrested for?” Em had an edge to her voice.
“We’re going to take you to the station until we get this sorted out.”
James was strangely silent, staring straight ahead.
“What time is it?” I couldn’t very well check my cell phone.
The officer checked his watch. “Three twenty-five.”
“Humor us for five or six minutes.”
“This is not exactly a laughing matter.” He started his car.
“Officer, all I’m asking is that you drive by the vacant lot down by the Ocean Air Suites.”
“I’m sorry, we’re headed to the station. If everything checks out, you’ll be free to go in the morning.”
“Officer, we could make you a hero.”
He was silent as the cruiser pulled away. James and Em both gave me strange looks.
“Listen, you said that somebody who works for Dr. Malhotra is using a truck to shuttle illegal aliens up to Miami, am I right?”
“That’s what I said.”
“I think there’s a good chance I can show you where those illegal aliens are coming ashore. About two blocks from here.”
“Skip, oh my God, it makes sense.” James’s eyes were big and wide.
“The vacant lot?”
“The vacant lot at three thirty a.m. I think the fishing tournament is still going on.”
“Lines up at three o’clock,” Em said. “Skip, you’re right on the money.” She bumped me with her shoulder. “What we saw those people smuggling was,” she paused, “those people. I’ll bet that the people we saw were being smuggled in from Cuba.”
The officer pulled over to the curb, pulled out his radio, and called someone.
“This is Jakes. I’m going to need backup at the Ocean Air Suites.”
There was a brief pause, then, “Ten-four. How many units would you estimate?”
He looked back at me.
“There will be two attack dogs and thirty-some people.”
“Better send three or four cars.”
“Three or four?”
“It’s about the illegals. I’ve got some persons of interest who seem to think we’re going to catch the smugglers in the act.”
“Ten-four, John. They’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Oh, and bring about forty Tuff-Ties.”
“Forty? You’ve got forty people to cuff?”
“If my information is correct, we could have up to forty. That’s a ten-four.”
Officer Jakes turned and stared at me. “How do you know about this?”
“We stumbled onto it, officer. We just never put it together until now.”
“Step out of the car.”
We worked our way out and he walked behind us, cutting the nylon cuffs with a knife.
“I want you three to remain in the car at all times. Do you understand?”
“Yeah.” James grabbed my arm and squeezed. “Damn, Skip. You’ve got to be dead on.”
“The property is totally fenced in, so unless you want to jump the fence, the best place to observe and catch
