by Eric Douglas Douglas’ previous stories, including Cayman Cowboys, Flooding Hollywood and Guardian’s Keep are available on his website at, www.booksbyeric.com .

Chapter 4

The next morning, Jackson and Littlebear took off in Daydreamer to get things ready. Mike and Sarah went back to the little diner for breakfast. “I can’t believe how lucky we are that this all happened right in front of us,” Mike said loudly, making sure the other patrons could hear him. “I agree, but you really need to keep your voice down,” Sarah replied. “I mean how amazing is it that we came down here looking for a place to set up our new operation and the fishermen who own the commercial marina are arrested?” Mike asked, his volume barely abated. “It seems like it was made to happen like this. I have already talked to our attorney and he is going to get in contact with the owners. I’m sure they’ll need the money we will pay them just to defend themselves from the charges against them.” “I’m sure you’re right, Mike,” Sarah said. “Now, please, keep your voice down a bit. We don’t want everyone around to know our plans.” “You know, maybe we should just wait on things a bit. We can buy the land from the owners, but the government will probably end up seizing the property and then we can buy it from them,” Mike said. He stopped for a moment to order his breakfast from the waitress and listen to Sarah order hers. “But if we do that, then we have to wait even longer for the process to shake out and who knows who else might step in to try and bid on it. No, we need to take it over immediately,” Sarah said. “As soon as we’re finished, let’s go on over there and check the place out. I want to take some pictures we can show to the architects. Let’s get this ball rolling!” “You’re right, dear. Like always. Let’s get this moving so we don’t lose that marina. I want it now,” Mike said, loudly again. “We can swoop in and take it over almost immediately.” The rest of their conversation was remarkably less animated, but so were the other patrons in the diner. Everyone stayed quiet and kept their eyes on Mike and Sarah. When the pair finished their breakfast, they went to Mike’s rented Jeep Wrangler and drove away. They didn’t see a man standing outside smoking a cigarette. As they drove away, he made a phone call. ****** Jackson and Littlebear tied Daydreamer up at the dock in the commercial marina in between two fishing boats. The marina had an eerie feeling to it. Most of the work boats were there, tied up to their familiar slips, but no one was around. Nothing was moving. The Florida Fish and Wildlife officers had shut the marina and most of the boats down, pending the completion of the investigation. They didn’t know who was actually involved in the smuggling and poaching and who was innocent, so they had decided to impound everything for the time being. After making a few phone calls, Littlebear had found out that the brothers who owned the marina were there, though. “Should we’ve called before we barge in there?” Littlebear asked just before he opened the door to the little run down shack that served as the office. “I’m a cop. They aren’t exactly going to be in the mood to talk to me.” “They’d probably be less likely to talk to either of us over the phone,” Jackson said with a laugh. “We’ll just have to make them listen. And fast.” Littlebear opened the door and Jackson stepped through first. “Paul, Duke, come out here, we need to talk to you,” Jackson shouted. “What do you want? Come to gloat?” Duke said as he entered the room, angry and challenging. Neither Jackson nor Littlebear was above average height or weight. Duke, on the other hand, stood six and a half feet tall and had the broad shoulders of a man who had worked the ocean all his life. They could see his rough hands were weathered as he placed them palm down on the wooden counter. They heard it groan under the force. “Maybe I should just throw you two out of here.” “No, Duke, we’re here to help. We think you’ve been set up,” Littlebear said quickly. “No kidding,” Duke’s younger brother Paul said from the other side of the room. He had just entered the room from a side door. Smaller than his brother by three inches and 30 pounds or so, he was still larger than Jackson or Littlebear. He was also quieter, but still angry. “Even if it weren’t illegal, we wouldn’t bother with conch. Too much work and not enough money in them. We need to catch fish.” “Guys, listen, we’re convinced someone has set you up and we want to help,” Jackson said. Duke started to shout an answer, but Paul held up his hand. The older brother stifled his retort. “Jackson, you’re new here,” Paul said. “I admit, you’ve been a solid guy for the island, but you’re an outsider. Why would you and this reservation cop want to help us? What’s in it for you?” “Nothing Paul,” Littlebear answered. “There’s nothing in it for any of us. I don’t like bullies and I don’t like to see anyone get pushed around. Jackson called me and asked me to help. He tells me he needs my help and it’s a good cause. That’s enough for me.” “Littlebear and I, and a couple others, think you’ve been set up. We don’t know why or by who, but we want to figure that out,” Jackson said. “We’re offering you our help.” The four men stared at each other for a moment. Then Paul and Duke deflated. They had been through too much in the last day to keep it up. “What do you have in mind?” Paul asked, staring at his feet for a minute. “Best we can figure out, someone is trying to take over the marina. That’s why they’ve set all this up,” Littlebear said. “Do you know anyone who would try to do that?” “We get people coming in here all the time trying to buy the place out from under us,” Duke said. “We don’t pay them no mind. Couldn’t even tell you who they were.” “Do you remember any of these buyers, Paul?” Jackson asked. “No. Duke’s right. We just tell them no and show them the door,” Paul replied. “This place has been in our family since my granddaddy got started down here. Now we’re gonna lose it.” “Hold on, Paul,” Jackson said. “That’s what we’re trying to stop.” “You don’t get it, Jackson. Every day we don’t work, we lose money. We have to have our boats out there every day to keep things going and we depend on the money from the other boats that use this marina too,” Paul said. “This couldn’t have happened at a worse time of year. We owe a big tax payment in three days. Money is so tight and our taxes have gone up so high, we were just barely going to make it. With this….” “Sounds like someone really knew when to pull this,” Jackson said. “I tell you what, though, this really plays right into the plan we came up with.” “What plan is that?” Duke asked. “We’re going to spread the word that we are going to buy the place from you,” Littlebear said. “You’re what?” Duke shouted as he leaped over the counter. “You bastards. You’re the ones doing this to us.” Littlebear stepped forward and caught the larger man’s arm as he jumped forward. With a deft twist, using the man’s momentum against him, Littlebear spun Duke around and pinned him to the ground, his arm twisted up against his shoulder blades. Duke let out a blast of air when he hit the floor. “Paul, listen. He said we are going to tell everyone we are going to buy the place. We don’t want it, but we think it’ll bring whoever set all this up out into the open. And then can expose them,” Jackson said, watching the large man on the floor struggle in spite of Littlebear’s hold. “Littlebear, let go of him,” Paul said, quietly. “Not until he agrees not to break me in half,” Littlebear said. “Duke, relax. Stop it,” Paul said. “I believe these guys. I think they’re here to help us.” Littlebear felt Duke stop struggling and he immediately let go of the man’s wrist. As they stood, Duke stood, chafing his wrist and flexing his shoulder, but he didn’t make a move. “So, what’s the plan? How are you two going to make everyone believe you’re going to buy us out?” Paul continued. “Well, it isn’t just the two of us. We have two other friends in on this,” Jackson said. “And people will believe it because they are strangers and they’ll be convincing, or at least convincing enough.” “Where are your other friends? When do you want to get this started?” “We’ve already put it in motion. They were talking about buying this place out over breakfast this morning in the diner. If the word doesn’t get back to whoever set this up that way, we’ll go back to the bar later and spread the word around. We just want to get people talking about the sale, so the word gets back to whoever is behind the takeover,” Jackson continued. “Then what?” Duke asked. “We’re still working on that. We hope they will come in and try to scare us away or stop us,” Jackson said. “Doesn’t sound like much of a plan,” Paul said dubiously. “Unfortunately, it’s the best you’ve got for now,” Jackson said with a wry grin. ***** Jackson and Littlebear walked outside, just in time to see Mike and Sarah pull into the gravel parking lot in Littlebear’s car. “How did things go?” Mike asked, as he got out of the car. “About as well as can be expected. Paul and Duke aren’t happy about any of this, but they’ll play along,” Jackson replied. “How about you guys?” “Sure seemed like a lot of people were listening in on our conversation,” Sarah answered. “The great actor here may’ve overplayed it a bit, but I’m sure the message got out.” “Oh come on, give me my 15 minutes on the stage why don’t you,” Mike said with a laugh. “Everyone’s a critic!” “As long as you got people talking about what you said, this will work,” Littlebear said. “It’s a small town. There are no secrets and word travels fast.” “You don’t know how right you are,” Jackson said as he watched a car entering the road that led to the marina and saw a boat approaching the mouth of the marina. “Looks like we’ve already got company. Come on, Littlebear. Let’s make ourselves scarce for a little while.” The two men made their way back to Daydreamer before anyone saw them. They left Mike and Sarah standing on the dock outside to greet the new arrivals. Mike and Sarah walked out onto the dock to wait. The car parked, but no one got out. They could tell there were at least two men inside. The boat pulled up to the fuel dock in front of the marina office and two men got off as the other two men got out of the car. The four men approached Mike and Sarah together. “Can we help you gentlemen?” Mike asked as they got close. “We’re looking for the owners of the marina,” one of the men from the car said. He was big and burly, with a bushy grey beard and eyebrows to match. “I don’t think they’re here right now,” Sarah said. “But we’re planning to buy it from them, so if there is anything we can do for you, you can ask us.” “Izzat so?” one of the men from the boat asked. “What makes you think they are going to want to sell it to you?” “Well, it seems like the owners have come into some trouble and need some financial help,” Mike explained. “We’ve already spoken to them and they’re interested in working with us.” ***** “What do you see?” Jackson asked Littlebear from their vantage point on Daydreamer. “Not much so far. They’re both playing it pretty cool,” Littlebear answered as he lowered his binoculars. “These guys look pretty tough, but no one is giving any ground.” “Let me see the binoculars for a second. I’ve got a hunch,” Jackson said, taking the high-powered lenses from his friend. He scanned the newly arrived fishing boat. “What do you see?” Littlebear asked after a minute. “Remember I told you someone had dragged nets across the bottom and tore up all that coral, along with the conch?” Jackson said. “I’m betting that’s the boat they used.” “Sounds like we need to get over there and take a look then, doesn’t it?” Littlebear said. “You wanna go for a little swim?” “I hate to leave Mike and Sarah without any backup, but at least this way we can get closer,” Jackson said. “And if we can get some proof from the boat, we’ll be that much further along.” “The sooner we get in the water, the sooner we’ll know,” Littlebear said. Jackson always kept a couple of full scuba cylinders on board, just in case he needed to get in the water. He and Littlebear had both brought their dive gear along, so they quickly assembled their gear with the practiced ease of professionals and slipped into the water. ***** Mike and Sarah were still talking to the four men, but things were quickly growing tense. “I think it’s time you two leave,” grey beard said. “We’re not finished with our business here yet,” Mike said, looking the man in the eye. “I’d hate for someone to get hurt,” grey beard continued. “I understand you had a little scare on the beach last night. You never know when something like that is going to happen again. The little lady here might not understand the trouble she could get in.” “This little lady can take care of herself,” Sarah said, her hands on her hips, glaring at the man. “Well, looky there,” grey beard said, laughing. “We got us an uppity little woman. We might just have to show her her place.” “Knock it off, Ham,” Paul barked, coming out of the office shack. “You’re not going to go threatening a woman on my property.” The four men and Mike and Sarah turned to see the brothers coming outside. “We’ve been listening to all of this,” Paul continued. “You guys are the ones who set us up. I’m going to take all of this to the cops.” “Is that true, Duke? Is that the way you feel, too?” grey beard asked the older brother. “You gonna turn me into the cops, too?” “Well, I don’t know, Ham. The way I see it, I’m not the one in trouble here. I’ve been out of town and just got back yesterday. Maybe it was my little brother who did all this stuff. And now you guys are just coming in to help me out. Isn’t that right?” Duke said with a laugh. “Duke! What the hell are you saying?” Paul asked, turning on his brother. “Are you helping them?” ***** Littlebear and Jackson lowered themselves slowly into the water. They didn’t want anyone to see them so they did their best not to make a splash. They had agreed that they would swim across the bottom of the marina, working along the wall, hoping it would break up their bubbles. No one seemed to be watching the water, but they wanted to make sure. Both divers paused for a second on the surface, the tops of their heads barely above water, to check out their gear one more time and then they exhaled, descending into the greenish murk. The bottom was only about 15 feet below the surface, but both men did their best to hug it anyway. They swam single file so their bubbles wouldn’t rise to the surface together as well. They made quick work of the 50 yards between Daydreamer and the fishing boat that had brought in the two men — its stern read Misty Ocean. Ditching their BCs and weights, the men watched their scuba units sink to the bottom. Quietly, they climbed aboard the stern of the commercial fishing boat. The men had simply brought the boat straight in and tied up at the dock, leaving the stern facing away from the people on shore. “We need to do this quickly. Looks like things are getting kind of tense over there,” Jackson said to his friend. He had just stolen a look at the dock and realized Duke and Paul had joined in the conversation. He knew that couldn’t be good. “What do you make of these concrete blocks?” Littlebear asked, pointing at four squarish blocks. Each had an eye hook set in the middle. “Looks like they’re for weighting something down to me,” Jackson said, taking a photograph with the small digital camera he had brought along. “Open up that locker there. That should be where they store the nets.” “Got it,” Littlebear whispered back. “Damn, these things are a mess. These nets are ripped to shreds. They’re full of broken coral and shells, too.” “Let me get some pictures. Looks to me like we found what we’re looking for,” Jackson said. ***** “I can’t believe you set me up,” Paul shouted at his brother. “Are you out of your mind?” “I’m tired of working, Paul. You wouldn’t listen,” Duke said. “We’re sitting on a gold mine, and you’re just interested in working your fingers to the bone, just like Dad did. I’m tired of it.” “So we’re going to lose this place so they can fish it? That doesn’t make sense, Duke.” “Nah, this whole set-up is to get us out of the fishing business all together. Do you really think they would go to all this trouble just to fish? Land is gold. We’ve got a dock and a marina. All that land back there can hold condos. I’m gonna be rich. You? Sorry, little brother, but someone has to take the fall,” Duke said with a sneer. “I’m gonna kill you!” Paul shouted as he jumped on Duke. Duke was the larger and stronger of the two, but Paul had anger on his side. And youth. The two men fell to the ground and immediately began swinging. “Now where do you two think you’re going?” Ham asked Mike and Sarah as they started to edge away. “I think you’re going to have to disappear for all this to work out. I hadn’t really planned on you hearing all that.” Two of the men grabbed Mike and pinned his arms behind his back, while the other grabbed Sarah the same way. “We’ll give Duke a minute to take care of his brother and then it will be your turn,” Ham said. “It’s pretty sad when brothers turn on each other, but it happens that way sometimes when the younger one starts bossing the older one around.” Suddenly, Jackson and Littlebear came out of nowhere, surprising Ham and his men. Unable to separate friend from foe, Jackson and Littlebear tackled the men holding Mike and Sarah. Everyone hit the deck, but they were able to roll off and take out the other two men before anyone knew what was going on. Littlebear rolled to his feet and kept running for his car. Jackson, Mike and Sarah stood up and faced their attackers. They were outnumbered, but at least they had surprise on their side. Rather than give them a chance to recover from the tackles, Mike and Jackson both swung punches at the men closest to them. Sarah realized she was well out of her weight class in this fight, but kicked the man closest to her, it happened to be Ham, and took out his knee. He dropped to the ground writhing in pain. “Gotta watch out for us uppity women,” she said, without laughing. Before anyone else could move, they all froze. The sound of a shotgun shell being wracked into place will quiet just about any riot. Littlebear had gone to his car to get a weapon. “I figured this was going to be the quickest way to bring this little party to a halt,” Littlebear said with a smile. “Now, you three, on the ground. Paul, get off your brother and go get some tie wraps. I’d like to make sure no one tries anything stupid.” He had also grabbed a radio and called the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department for backup. ***** Two days later, things were beginning to settle down on Withrow Key. It would take a long time to get everything straight, but at least Paul had his family fishing marina back and the Fish and Wildlife officers had dropped all charges against him. His brother Duke and Ham and his cronies on the other hand were facing a lot of charges — everything from conspiracy and attempted kidnapping to poaching and the destruction of coral reefs and ocean bottom. They were going to be in trouble for a long time. Mike and Jackson were relaxing on the upper deck of Jackson’s houseboat when Sarah came up the steps. “Um, yeah, I think I hear my phone ringing,” Jackson said as he stood up and quickly left, giving Mike and Sarah some privacy. “He’s really funny,” Sarah said, watching him go. “Good guy though. The best,” Mike replied. “You’re a pretty good guy too. You didn’t have to believe in me, but you did. I owe you,” Sarah said. “Well, maybe you will agree to join me for dinner in payment.” Mike said with a smile. “Mike,” she said and then stopped. She tried again, but softer, “Mike. I really like you and enjoy being with you.” “I hear a ‘but’ coming,” Mike said. “But, I also know your type. You’re married to your job,” she said with a smile. “And for what it’s worth, so am I. I just got a call from my office. They need me in California for a new project.” “If you’re ever in North Carolina, why don’t you drop in for a visit?” Mike asked, knowing the answer and knowing she was right. “Mike, I like you a lot. I could easily fall for you,” she admitted. “But I know me. I have my career too. And I don’t share well. So, its time for me to go.” “You can’t stay any longer?” Mike asked. “I’ve already booked my flight. I have to leave right now or I’ll miss it,” she said as she stood and moved toward him. Without another word, she kissed him. They held each other for a minute. And then she turned and left. A few minutes later, Jackson came back up the stairs, holding two cold beers. “I thought you might want one,” he said. “Yeah, thanks,” Mike said as he stared out over the water. “No problem,” Jackson said.