Gray Ghost (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 1) (8 page)

BOOK: Gray Ghost (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 1)
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Roger panted. “Well, mon, answer your damn cell phone and I wouldn’t need to drive like that.” Roger cautiously eyed Dix and Petersen.

Bubba said, “Come on. Out with it, mon.” Bubba saw Roger examining Dix and Petersen. “It’s okay, they’re cool.”

Roger hesitated a moment. “Okay, we need to talk somewhere private.”


How about the boat shack at the end of the dock?” Bubba pointed to the far south end of the property.

They grabbed a few beers and cigars and strolled to meet the others, trying to look casual.

Dix turned to Petersen. “This is a fine mess you got me into.”

They argued all the way as to who was to blame for their involvement.

Roger opened a beer and sat down. “Bubba, this has nothing to do with your momma or papa.” He motioned to the other chairs. “Get comfortable. This will take a while.”

Roger looked at Dix and Petersen.

Dix held out his hand. “I’m Bill Dix, and this is my partner, Steve Petersen.”


I’m Roger Fellows. You should know I don’t trust strangers, but since Bubba says you’re cool, I guess you’re okay.”

Dix nodded. “Thanks.”

Roger took another gulp from his can. “A few hours ago, my son, Tommy, was looking out at the sea as he was procrastinating about doing his homework. He thought he saw a piece of dry grass, about the size of a rabbit, move up and down. Tommy thought the grass seemed sort of strange. He said it looked like it didn’t belong. He watched it for ten more minutes, but it didn’t move again.”

Roger stood up and started to pace. “Tommy was still curious, so he just kept staring out at sea and at the patch of grass. After a while, he got off his lazy butt and walked out toward where he thought he’d seen movement earlier. He got about a hundred yards away and saw it move again.”

Bubba looked from Dix to Petersen. “His kid knows this whole island. If he said it didn’t belong, then it didn’t.”

Roger nodded. “When it moved again, Tommy came to get me.”

Bubba grew impatient. “Where you going with this?” He knew his friend was long winded.

Roger replied, “Damn, mon, you always want everything right now. I’m getting to it, and I’m sure it has to do with Sean and Preston.”

Everyone froze.

Dix raised an eyebrow. “What makes you think that?” Roger didn’t answer but continued. “So, like I said, Tommy thought something was up, so he backed off and came to get me. I went to see what he was looking at and watched for about ten, fifteen minutes. I didn’t see a thing and was getting ready to tell Tommy he was crazy when I thought I saw movement through my binoculars. Sure as heck, it looked like a patch of longer grass and brush that was different than the surrounding area. At first I dismissed it, figuring I may be seeing things. But, since I’m into plants and such, and I wasn’t doing much, I figured I’d go check it out anyway.”

Roger took a deep breath and continued. “It took me a long time to get to about fifty yards from the patch. I was hoping to catch a rabbit, so I was real slow and deliberate. The patch began to take shape the closer I got to it. When I was about forty yards away, it was obvious the area didn’t fit in.” Petersen scratched his chin. “Why was that?”


It was about the size of a person. I thought maybe someone tried to dump a body.”

Dix leaned forward. “Do people dump bodies out here a lot?”


No, but it happens sometimes.” Roger shrugged. Peterson said, “Okay. So what else happened?”

Roger appeared to think a moment. “I grabbed my binoculars and looked out in the water in front of the shape.” He pointed to the detectives. “I saw you guys in two boats. Except you weren’t fishing, and I didn’t see Wilfred.”

The men looked at each other.


Then I had a thought. Word on the street was Sean and Preston were killed by a large caliber round. Some folks speculated about a high-powered rifle. I stopped moving, thinking a person with a gun might be hiding there.”

Bubba sat forward. “So then what happened?”


I’m gettin’ there. I didn’t have my gun, but I spotted a two-by-four tucked in the dogwood bushes. I grabbed it as quietly as I could and moved closer. When I was about five yards away, I noticed the left side of the object raise and lower like it was breathing. This pretty much confirmed a live body was underneath. When I saw the barrel of a rifle come out, pointed in your direction, I didn’t even think, I just swung down on the grass where I thought a head might be.”

Bubba and Wilfred were shocked. Dix and Petersen just looked at each other and back at Roger.


The guy must have figured out I was there just as my swing came down on him. He turned over enough for me to catch him right across the temple with my piece of wood, and out he went.”

Bubba was concerned. “Did you kill him?”

Dix had his own questions. “Where’s the body? What was he wearing? What did he look like?”

Petersen cleared his throat. “Calm down. Maybe the guy’s alive.” Everyone looked at Roger waiting to hear his reply.

Roger nodded. “He is.”

Dix shook his head. “Roger, you saved our lives. That son of a bitch could have taken us out. Thank you.”

Dix offered Roger his hand and then stood up. “I want to question the guy, at length, and then punch him squarely in the face. The asshole may have killed or was involved with killing Preston and Sean.”

Roger motioned toward his car. “Let’s take a ride. He’s regained consciousness. Tommy and my brother are guarding him in my backyard shed. Oh, and one more thing, I haven’t told the police about this yet.”

Dix looked at Peterson and shrugged.

The detectives piled into Roger’s vehicle, anxious to talk to the captive.

Bubba waved. “You can handle this.” He headed back to the dining room as the car sped away.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

 

Jim “Bloodhound” Calhoun contemplated the contents of the brief, yet informative phone call he’d just completed.

He wasn’t completely surprised, but he was disappointed.

According to his source, two significant problems had developed. First, the initiative for the Deepwater Project was shot down in the House of Representatives. Apparently, the money wasn’t right, and the cost of the scheduled maintenance of the new equipment was unsettling to the people who had to sign the checks. Second, and more importantly, hiring the retired Special Ops mercenary turned out to be an egregious mistake.

One of Calhoun’s biggest competitors from Columbia arranged to send a massive shipment of cocaine to Miami through the Bahamas. To maintain his control of narcotic distribution on the East Coast, Calhoun had planned to have the load hijacked. If all had gone well, the boat and its contents, worth close to one hundred million dollars, would be sitting in a slip registered to a fake owner in the port of Miami. But, it hadn’t gone well.

A loss of this size would temporarily crush his opponent, and make others think twice about trying to move into his territory. The only contingency he hadn’t prepared for was the mercenary failing, and worse, sinking the cargo.

The Deepwater Project could wait. In the meantime, the Coast Guard would get the funding necessary to remain the primary force patrolling the Caribbean, mostly because no one else was prepared or trained to do it as well.

Thomas had come highly recommended and had no idea who’d hired him, but he might be able to provide law enforcement with a clue to Calhoun’s identity.

Calhoun took a deep breath and reminded himself to remain calm and focused when he called the sniper-for-hire. He would not pay the contract, and the guy could expect heavy penalties.

However, every time he tried to call Thomas, he got no answer.

This was unusual because Calhoun had used Thomas three times prior to this mission, and he always answered and returned calls quickly.

Calhoun grew more upset. Not knowing the current status of the situation was eating him up.

He felt his blood pressure rise. He had himself mostly to blame for relying on the aged sharpshooter. Now his entire operation was in jeopardy. Calhoun wasn’t ready to let go of thirty years of diligent work and deception, just because of a little hiccup. Not yet anyway…
I’m going to have to take care of this myself
.

CHAPTER TWELVE

 

 

Dix’s cell phone rang, waking Petersen in the rear passenger seat. He grabbed it from his pocket and looked at the screen. The call was from Snead.

He answered. “Speak to me, bud. What do you have?”


You’re in a good mood. Tell me what
you
got, and I’ll tell you what I got.”


Deal. One of the locals apprehended a sniper.”


A what? Did you say sniper?”


Yes, sniper. Before you ask what it means to this case, I have no idea. The locals assume the bastard murdered Sean and Preston.”

Snead laughed. “Man, you step into shit no matter where you go.”

Dix chuckled. “I have you to thank for that.”

Snead grunted. “I’ve got your intel, but I don’t know how helpful it’ll be.”


I’ve got a short ride, so make it quick.”


The vessel is registered out of Florida. Miami to be exact. Registered owner is a female named Jackie Spears, with an address on Palm Drive. And before you ask, I already ran her. Near as I can tell, she doesn’t exist. Looks like a phantom registration. I called my techie buddies to see if they could come up with anything else.”

Dix was already ahead of his friend, wondering what the information meant.


Hold on a second,” said Snead. “What’s up? I just got an instant message from one of my guys. He says he had to disable several firewalls and a worm virus which attacked his computer when he started his search for a Jackie Spears at that address.”


Jesus, this thing gets crazier by the minute.”


It’s a hell of a sophisticated operation,” replied Snead. “We haven’t seen this level of complexity at the office.

Do you remember anything like it before you retired?” Dix wondered who could pull something like this off.


We had the one case out of Miami, remember, where a guy led us on a wild goose chase. He had everything safeguarded on his laptop. He was a small time dealer, but he used lots of smokescreens and stuff.”


That’s right. Didn’t we have to send the laptop off to the FBI, and they sent it to the nerds at MIT to get into it?”


Yep. Even those guys needed two damn days.”

Dix had hoped to get a lead from the data he gave Snead, but it hadn’t worked out. “Okay, so I won’t know much for a few days, if at all.”


Don’t get your panties in a wad. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Snead chuckled.


Okay, I have to go. We’re pulling up to where the locals stashed the guy they caught.”


Be careful.” Dix strongly considered Snead’s warning as he ended the call.

 

 

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

 

 

A young Bahamian man Dix assumed was Roger’s son opened the front door of the house before the car came to a complete stop. He was dressed in black and armed with an MP-5 over his shoulder and a Colt .45 on his hip.

The house door closed, and Roger glanced over his shoulder. “We have company. Police on the left.”

Dix nodded.


They haven’t driven down here for months.”

Roger looked at the detectives. “No offense, guys, but let me do the talking if they stop.”

A white van slowed to a crawl as it neared the house. The driver positioned the vehicle to block Rogers’s car as it stopped. Two uniformed local officers emerged.

Roger flashed them a friendly smile. “Good evening, gentlemen. How are you?”

The older of the two, a light-skinned man with a thick British accent answered, “Hello.”

His partner, much darker skinned and younger, nodded. Roger pointed to his visitors. “This is Mr. Dix and Mr. Petersen. They’re guests at Turtle Cay Lodge. Bubba and Wilfred Jones took them fishing today and convinced them to try my famous guava jam rolls. Would you like a taste?”

The younger officer stepped forward. “Well, speaking about those rolls, that’s why we’re here. The commissioner is entertaining guests from the States and wondered if he could get some to impress his visitors.”

Roger’s grin broadened. “Is that all? I thought you were here to take me away.”

Both officers chuckled.

Roger turned toward the house. “Wait here and I’ll get a dozen for the commissioner.”

The older officer walked back to the van and got into the driver’s seat while the younger one asked if he could go inside to see how the rolls were made.

BOOK: Gray Ghost (The Bill Dix Detective Series Book 1)
9.73Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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