Читать книгу The Devil's Work - Linda Ladd - Страница 10

Chapter 3

Years in the military had taught Novak that he could sleep anywhere. He could get by on two or three hours of sleep for days at a time. He hadn’t needed that capability of late, but tonight he did. After Alcina had led him to a different chickee, she left him there without another word. This one had a pup tent erected on the raised platform. Novak zipped himself up inside and found a colorful handwoven blanket and pillow left there for him.

After that he lay awake for several hours and thought about what an unmitigated disaster this case was going to be. The tent was too small for him, and he had to bend his legs. It felt more like being encased in a funeral shroud. The primary thoughts running through his mind were how easy it would be to sneak up on a man caught inside a tiny tent atop an open-air platform. So he listened for footsteps or the racking of firearms. After a while, he got out and looked around. He couldn’t see anything.

The constant, strident, static of singing insects became tedious fast, although he’d heard it in countless jungle camps all over the world. It was getting on his nerves. So was the idea that a small army might be descending on the camp right now, armed with AR-15s. He just couldn’t shake the idea that they would come after Alcina and Pedro. Alcina felt secure here, and hopefully Eldon Osceola’s men were on guard. Still, underestimating your enemy was asking for trouble. One lucky helicopter sweep across the swamps, one slip of the tongue in some bar, and the Skulls would know exactly where to find them.

It didn’t help, either, that Novak did not know these guys who could be sleeping like babies in their own pup tents. He didn’t know if he could trust them. He didn’t like being zipped up in a tent where everyone knew where he was. He’d rather make the bad guys search for him when they had murder in mind. Claire’s case had placed him in a hornet’s nest of strangers, and he hoped to hell he was joining up on the right side of this war. He was pretty sure he was, but he’d feel better when he knew more about those guys around that fire. He had never heard of Eldon Osceola, never met him, and wouldn’t know if he could trust him or not. It didn’t sound to him like Alcina really knew him, either.

So he lay down outside the tent with the blanket over his head and chest to ward off the swarm of mosquitoes that were feasting on him. Maybe the tent wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. When he finally did get to sleep, he woke next to find a weird cloud of gray mist drifting around him like ghosts in the breeze. He lay there for a few minutes and stared at the palmetto fronds forming the roof above him. Birds were waking up: cheerful and chirping and irritating. It had been a while since he had spent the night in an unfamiliar swamp. His house had the luxury of modern electricity and plumbing, but nothing like that out here, not that he’d seen. These people knew how to rough it.

The surrounding fields were covered with that same damp ground-hugging fog, so he couldn’t see much that didn’t look like he was wading through a cloudbank. The night before, Alcina had disappeared without a word, presumably heading back to her own tent. Everybody else was either gone or asleep or dead. He hoped it wasn’t that last, but he wouldn’t be surprised. He dropped his face into his hands and rubbed his eyes.

Novak was uneasy but tried to shake it off. He had no real reason to doubt these people or to fear them. Still, if they had all gone off during the night and left him out in the middle of nowhere, he was not going to enjoy a good day. Stepping down into swirls of gray, he headed off in the direction he thought he’d come from the night before. The sun was trying to come up. The fog started to lift as if on cue. Within minutes, Novak made out a large building on the far side of a grassy field. It was built with dark wood and a galvanized red metal roof. It was several feet off the ground like the chickees. He started walking toward it.

The farther he got, the more he could see. It was a little settlement. What did Alcina call it? Pa-hay-Okee Safari. That’s what it looked like: the jungle area at Disney World, maybe. It looked clean, interesting, unthreatening. There were a dozen more chickees built along a central road. Most of them had tents pitched on top. There was a body of water down close to the major building. There was a good-sized covered dock down there, too, and he could see four large airboats and about ten aluminum canoes and kayaks where they were neatly stacked on boat racks along the bank. This was a place of business catering to tourists, all right.

Novak felt better because the girl’s story panned out. Roads covered in small white shells led up to smaller buildings. None of them looked like private residences. He had a feeling this might be a replica of a historic Seminole village that also offered boat rentals and guided tours. If he had to guess, the water would eventually wind around and empty into the Everglades’ immense grasslands. There were similar offshoots in the bayous with businesses that catered to tourists. He could see now that there were booths, still shuttered, but where they likely sold handmade arts and crafts. That meant they weren’t out in the middle of nowhere, but fairly close to a highway. Breathing easier, he turned and headed for the big building, hoping to find Alcina and Pedro.

Then he saw the guy. He was squatting down beside a cook fire not too far away, and the come-hither aroma of frying bacon wafted enticingly to Novak. His stomach reacted, got hysterical, in fact, so he hastily changed course. He hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before. He wanted some of that bacon.

About thirty feet from the fire, the man glanced up and saw Novak. He was a Seminole, Novak knew that at once. He was tall and slender, with black eyes and even blacker hair. Even from a distance, he had a presence about him that made Novak feel he would be someone important. In the 1800s, he might have been a chief. Maybe he was now, too. He looked mid-forties, maybe in his fifties, but it was hard to tell. He was muscular but in a hard, lean way. He had on faded denim jeans and a beige canvas shirt and New Balance black tennis shoes. He said nothing to Novak but kept an eye on him as he approached. Novak broke the ice. “Good morning.”

“You think so?” the man said, looking up at him.

“So far. Maybe not for long, all things considered. You tell me. I’m new around here.” Novak shifted his gaze to the meat sizzling in the skillet, and his stomach made embarrassing sounds. “Can I buy some breakfast off you?”

That brought a smile. “Considering you’re wearing no shirt and have mosquito bites all over you, I suspect you don’t have any money with you. But go ahead, sit yourself down. Everybody around here is just damn lazy.” He flipped a piece of bacon. “Kids today only think about their cellphones and stupid stuff like Twitter. All that social media crap won’t do them a lick of good in the long run. Waste of good time where they could be learnin’ something. Go ahead, help yourself to the coffee, if you have a liking for it. You look like you might need all you can get. Got you in the head last night, did they?”

“I met up with a baseball bat, but the kid says he’s really sorry he hit me so hard and both times, too. I’ll take as much coffee as you can spare.”

“Good, that means he shows some manners.”

Novak found some metal mugs sitting on a camp table alongside paper plates and plastic forks and a roll of paper towels. He took a cup, squatted down, and lifted the percolator. Now the guy was ignoring him, so Novak took the hint. This guy wasn’t chatty; neither was Novak. He sat down in a camp chair and watched the cook prepare breakfast. It was just past dawn. Ten thousand birds seemed ecstatic to see the sunrise.

Up close, Novak realized the man might be older than he’d first thought. Now he looked to be in his sixties, maybe. Pure white streaked his black hair just above his temples, but his hair was trimmed short, almost to the scalp, so it wasn’t noticeable at first. His face was the color of aged bronze and looked newly sunburned. The corners of his eyes were creased with deep lines, but his cheeks were smooth with a few creases but no wrinkles. His eyes were keen as shards from a black window. Novak had never seen him before. He knew that because this was the kind of man Novak wouldn’t forget. He wanted to talk to him because he was certain he could fill in the cracks in Alcina’s story.

“My name is Will Novak. Your young friends and the Guatemalan woman brought me out here last night, right after they clubbed those big knots on my head.”

The man grinned. “Yeah, I taught ’em how to do that. Saves a lot of bloody knuckles and broken fingers. Just take the big ones out first and quick before they lay hands on you.” Then his amusement faded, and he sat back and considered Novak. “I reckon one of us is gonna pay the price for what happened on that beach last night. Probably you, if I had to hazard a guess. Afraid you won’t get off so easy with those guys. Just don’t know who or how many of ’em are going to come at you or when it’s gonna go down.”

“You’re Eldon Osceola, I presume.”

“That’s right. My kids and I run this place. You’re safe here at the moment, but I reckon both of us will be knee deep in shit before this week is done.”

Another flash of levity lit up those intense black eyes, but it was fleeting. Osceola turned over another strip of bacon. “I heard tell you can hold your own in a fight. Put down three or four of those stupid boys all by yourself.”

“Can’t take much credit. Those guys last night were young and stupid, but they were armed and they like to hurt people. I’ve faced worse.”

“You were in the military.”

It wasn’t a question but a statement. “Yeah, out now, though. Army first, then later I joined up with a SEAL team. You were a soldier, too.” Novak knew it as sure as the man had known it about him.

“Marines. Twenty years and out. Most of my sons have served stints, too. I’m real proud of my boys.”

Novak nodded. Now he felt better about falling in with these people. One Marine was better than ten gangsters any day of the week.

Eldon looked at him. “Alcina told me how you saved her and her brother. She said you put down a couple of her attackers, despite their weapons. That ain’t easy to do, even with those kids. They’re young and strong but don’t know how to fight except with a gang backing ’em up.”

“Most of them are little boys dressed up to be tough. I suspect you know that as well as I do. They’re not the kind of enemy we face on a battlefield.”

“No, but they will smile while they beat you to death with a crowbar. They’ve done it.”

“Yeah, I found that out when I pissed them off. I would’ve got a bullet in the back of my head if your boys hadn’t shown up when they did. I appreciate that. Your son, Jake? He’s not too bad with a Louisville slugger. Can’t say I like this concussion he gave me, but it’s not as bad as it usually is.”

Osceola said nothing and went back to cooking. The sun was peeking over the trees in the distance now, flooding the fields around them with bright sunlight and turning the sky a clear, brilliant blue. The fierce glitter-glare attacked Novak’s headache, and it quickly intensified. He needed sunglasses. He needed painkillers. Hell, he needed some clothes to put on. He glanced at the tents along the road. Nobody showed. Nothing moved. Maybe nobody else had spent the night. Maybe all the Osceola kids had homes in town. Maybe they were up earlier than Novak and off on assignment. Novak hoped somebody was on guard duty at the road. Apparently, Eldon Osceola felt safe enough.

“Anybody else out here with us?” Novak inquired. “Or just me and you?”

“Some of my sons stayed here last night to guard you and those Castillo kids. They like to sleep in, like I said. They’re lazier than their coon dogs, but they were up late saving your ass, so I’ll cut them some slack this morning.”

Okay, so that’s how it was gonna be. Novak had to grin. This old man was right. Still, they had brought him out there without his permission, and he wanted to know more before he got Claire and himself too deeply involved. “So, what about Alcina? Is she really safe out here? They’re targets now, witnesses to their own attempted murders. That’s going to make the Skulls nervous. They’re going to try to put them down, and fast.”

“Try is the operative word. We’re protecting her. Don’t worry about that. My boys know what they’re doing. I taught them myself. Taught my daughters, too.”

“They got here legally, right? Why don’t you have them go to the police about that attempt on their lives? Get those guys locked up?”

“I don’t trust some of the police around here. Some officers are paid off. I’m just not sure which ones. Only takes one bad apple to murder somebody in their custody and make it look like an accident.”

“Has that happened before?”

“Yeah.”

Osceola seemed to like to converse in spurts. Maybe he liked to think things through before putting them out there. By now, he had fried up enough bacon to feed thirty men. Novak’s stomach appreciated his skill, if not his haste. He watched Osceola pour off most of the bacon grease and then crack a good two dozen eggs into the skillet. He started scrambling them with a fork. No milk added but plenty of salt and pepper.

“Where exactly are we?” Novak asked him.

“Big Cypress on one side; Everglades on the other. See that water over there? It’ll take you straight down into the swampland and then out through the open corridors in the grasses.”

“Business good out here?”

“Good but seasonal. We do other things in the off-season.” He looked up. “Are you nervous around swamps?”

Novak shook his head. “I live in the Louisiana bayou, so I know where the dangers lie. I’ve been out in the Everglades a few times but wouldn’t know my way around it. Had to come out here on a case once a few years back.”

“Eggs are done. Eat ’em while they’re hot. Help yourself.”

Novak thought he’d never ask. The sun was already hot on their heads. Novak wished he had a shirt to put on. The humidity was heavy, and his head was sweating under the bandage. He needed to get rid of it. The bleeding had stopped. He wished the headache would. Osceola took a Styrofoam plate, the big white kind divided into sections, and handed it to him. Novak filled his plate with good-sized portions and sat back down with it, glad to get something inside his empty stomach. He felt a little sick from the pain, which was gradually advancing up into the agony level. His companion dropped a couple of pieces of grilled bread on Novak’s plate and took a camp chair across from him. He started eating without comment. Novak followed his lead. Concentrating on his food was fine with him. He already felt better.

After a while, Novak attempted conversation. “Alcina said you’re a member of the Seminole tribe. You guys have got several reservations around here, right? She said this is the Miccosukee. You live out here?”

“I live in town with my wife and some of my kids. Alcina’s confused about the tribe. Actually, we’re members of the Miccosukee tribe. We used to be part of the Seminole nation until we split in the 1960s, but we still live and work closely with them. My wife was born a Seminole, and some of her relatives work out here with us. We’re members in good standing all around. They let us do our business with a cut going to the res. Both my daughters work up there in the museum. There’s a snack bar in there, by the way, that sells T-shirts. You might want to get a couple of those. Put it on my tab and you can settle up later.”

“I’ll do that. Thanks.”

“I knew the boys would be hungry, so I came out early and fixed them breakfast. You kept them up past their bedtime, and I doubt if they trust you any more than you trust them.” He took a big bite, chewed it, swallowed, and then said, “Truth is, my children like to sleep. It goes against my grain the way they do that, but they stay up all night and sleep way past sunup. It’s not a good habit to get into. Good to see a man who’s up with the sun and ready to go to work.”

Novak wished he wasn’t. He wished he was back at the condo in a shower with a soft clean bed next on the agenda. “Thank the Army. They trained me. Food’s good. Thanks.”

“I’m the best cook around, and that includes my wife. She tries, but she fails. She’s an attorney in Punta Gorda.”

“Bet that law degree comes in handy.”

“You bet it does.”

Novak grinned and then cleaned up his plate. He stood and poured them both more coffee. He drank it while he listened to some bird shrilling its head off. He wasn’t a fan of birds. Somebody ought to shoot it so it would shut up. If that racket didn’t wake up the Osceola boys, nothing would. Yep, he was in a foul mood. After a few minutes, Eldon finished his breakfast and dumped his paper plate inside a covered trash can. He turned back and stared hard at Novak.

“Alcina tell you why we’re helping her?”

“She told me you’ve got a mutual friend, some doctor who knows Claire’s husband. I guess you’re helping for the same reason I intervened on that beach. It irks me when bullies pick on innocent people.”

“Yeah, I get that. That doctor was a good friend to the tribe, lived out here and took care of us. She delivered my youngest kid. She asks us to protect her friends, we do it. Eloise is a good woman. She travels all over the world just to help people, and she never asks a thing in return. This time she felt she had to. I’m glad we could do something to repay her.”

“Yeah, I heard she helped Alcina get up here.”

“Looks like you and I are gonna end up allies in this thing, whatever it is.”

“I hope so. I think you’re a good friend to have around here.”

“Yeah, I am. I know my way around the Everglades and the towns surrounding it. I know the people who live there. I know their secrets most times.”

“Don’t doubt it. Native Americans have lived out here forever, right?”

“For hundreds of years. Nobody could run us out of these swamps. They tried hard enough, but we just went in deeper. We know every inch of that swamp. That’s why this place does well, especially with sport fishermen.”

Novak didn’t ask him anything else. He had a feeling he’d get more details when Claire showed up. She was running this case, so Novak could wait. “This place open year-round, you said?”

“Yeah, but it gets slow. We hold native dances here, and craft shows. You’re welcome to stay out here as long as you like. We figured the three of you might end up dead if we left you at the condo. Those guys are out to put you down, trust me on that.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.”

Eldon shrugged and started covering the food with aluminum foil, and then he placed it in airtight plastic containers and stuck them down into a big cooler.

Novak watched a moment, but he needed to know a couple more things. He had walked straight into a bad situation, and he had to know where he could and could not step. “Last night, Alcina mentioned a dirty lawyer in Fort Myers by the name of Max Kellen. She indicated that he might be mobbed up. To be honest, she was pretty sketchy with the details. Now that we’re on the same team, how about filling me in on the particulars and who runs things over in Fort Myers?”

“Yeah, Kellen’s a bad character. My wife has had dealings with him in court. She says he’s dirtier than that riverbank over there. She says he might be the mob in his neck of the woods, but she thinks others, higher-ups, call the shots for him. Don’t know who yet. The Skulls act as enforcers and like to bully people for him, but as we’ve already ascertained, the lot of them are as dumb as cypress knots.”

“She said they steal babies out of Guatemala. That they took her little girl and murdered her husband. You know anything about that?”

“That’s what she and Eloise both say. We’ve seen children taken around here, too, and more than seems reasonable for it to be coincidences. One kid was a tribe member who lived over in Chokoloskee. There was a pregnant woman who up and disappeared in Naples last winter, not one of us that time, though. I tend to believe there’s some kind of human trafficking going on. Maybe illegal adoptions, too.”

Novak frowned. “Is ICE involved?”

“They’re hereabouts, but they’ve got their hands full.”

“Did they find those women who went missing?”

“No, they never found any of them or any of the missing children. It’s a terrible thing.”

“You think this Kellen guy is behind whoever took Alcina’s baby?”

“Sounds like it. At least, it’s a starting place.”

Novak nodded. “Illegal adoption sounds like what’s going on. I’ve spent a lot of time down in Central America, and it’s prevalent. Kids disappear from villages, just like Alcina described. Usually they just vanish off the street. I think they’ve got people down there watching for the right moment to snatch kids when nobody’s looking. Going into the house after Rosa and killing her daddy doesn’t fit. I figure something more is going on in this case.”

“You think Rosa’s still alive, Novak?”

“They’ve got no reason to kill the kids they take. They’re commodities to those people. They’d be more apt to kill the mothers and fathers. Maybe Alcina and Pedro should be moved out of state until we find Rosa.”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking. Well, good luck convincing that young woman to leave. I tried, and she will not budge.”

“You think they’re really safe out here?”

“Safe as anywhere, I guess. You have a better place in mind?”

“Not yet. Your condominium is out.” He paused. “Mind if I ask you a question, Osceola?”

“Nope. Call me Eldon, now that we’re sharing food.”

“Okay. What did your boys do with those men they took down last night?”

“Well, they didn’t kill them, if that’s what you’re worried about. We aren’t murderers. They left them out on a median on the busiest intersection in Fort Myers, naked and bound and gagged. They’ll be found soon enough, I’ll wager, if they haven’t been already. They’ll never see their Harleys again, either. My brother and his boys loaded them on a semi and hauled them down to Miami to a chop shop. Don’t worry, you can trust him, too.”

Novak laughed. “I’m beginning to like your family.”

“We have our good points. All right, enough talk. I’ve got to go now and get out to my main job.”

“What’s that?”

“Professional bass fisherman is my day job when a tournament’s going on.”

Novak was impressed. “That’s a tough gig, man. You must be damn good with a rod and reel.”

“My grandpa taught me to fish these swamps when I was a bare five years old. I know every good hole and every fish and every trick in the book out there in the grasses. I’ll show you my trophies someday if either of us lives long enough to be buddies.”

“Hope it happens. Thank you again for the breakfast. So where do we go from here?”

“Well, you wait right here and do nothing until we figure out what comes next. My boys are gonna have your back. Jake’ll take care of your needs if he ever drags his butt out of that tent. That pretty young wife of his keeps him in bed way too long every damn day, but can’t say that I blame him. I’d still be in bed with my darlin’ wife if I didn’t have to check in at the tournament by six a.m.”

With that, he gathered his gear and strode off toward the airboats. Novak glanced at his watch. It seemed he better get used to waiting around and doing nothing. He should have slept in like everybody else. He poured himself a third cup of coffee and took a turn around the camp. Several people heard him walk past their chickees and peered out from under tent flaps but ducked quickly back inside when they saw him. Nobody came out.

There was another field of mowed grass near the booths, and he figured that’s where they had those native dance festivals. Another area looked like it was a small zoo or alligator house. It smelled like it. That’s where he encountered the Guatemalan boy. Pedro was sitting cross-legged on the ground and gazing at a fenced-in pond with about thirty gators lying unmoving in the mud. Novak walked over to him.

The kid spun around when he heard footsteps and then jumped to his feet. “Oh, you scared me. Thank you for saving me and my sister. I thought I was going to drown until you came. I couldn’t make him let me go.” His words came out in a rush and were heavily accented. His English was poorer than his older sister’s.

“He’s bigger than you are, Pedro. You’re just a kid. I’m bigger than him, that’s why I could put him down.”

“I’m not a kid. I’m twelve years old,” Pedro said. He sounded indignant.

“Yeah, you were brave to put up that fight.” Truth was, Pedro looked about nine or ten, skinny and slight and not very tall. He was a cute kid, not as beautiful as his sister, but he would be a handsome young man given time. “How are you feelin’ this morning, Pedro? I suspect you swallowed a lot of salt water last night.”

“Okay. Better than Alcina. She cries and cries every night but tries to be brave in the daytime. She misses Rosa so much. She’s worried that somebody’s hurting her. Me, too, I’m scared. You think they’re hurting her? She’s just a little baby. She can’t even walk or talk and she doesn’t have any of her toys. I brought her one, though. It’s a little white fuzzy lamb.”

Novak remembered his own life after 9/11, all the nights spent pacing and weeping in drunken despair. He had feared he’d never get over the loss of his family, and he never had. He had only learned to accept it, haunted by misty memories and awful nightmares. “I don’t think they’ll hurt her, and that’s the truth. We’ll find her.”

“Rosa’s sweet and she likes to throw us kisses.” Pedro got choked up and turned away. When he sat back down, Novak took a seat beside him and let him compose himself.

“We’ll get her back. Like I said, they aren’t going to hurt her. You know that, right?” That was probably the truth. A healthy, happy baby was a lucrative asset in their business. They would not endanger Rosa, but Alcina and Pedro were different stories. They wanted them both dead, no question about it. Novak wished they could go to the police, that would help, but Eldon knew the ropes down here. Novak would listen to him, and he would take his advice.

“They said your name is Novak, no?”

“Yeah, that’s right. Will Novak.”

“You know what? Back there at that condo? I watched you run out on the beach every night. I hid in the shadows behind the pool so you wouldn’t see me. Why do you do that? You know, just run off by yourself like that?”

“I run to keep fit. It gives me stamina. I never saw you, or your sister, either, and I was looking for you.”

“We stayed in the first building down on the bottom floor. It’s apartment A101. We were scared to go outside, except late at night sometimes. The doctor told us not to until that woman named Claire came. Alcina said you might not be a good man, so we hid from you, too. We were scared of you, but now we’re not.”

“So that guy didn’t hurt you much last night?”

Pedro held up his arm and showed him some bruises. “He told me I was going to die, and he was going to hold me under until I drowned and then the fish would nibble all night on my eyeballs and skin until I was just bones. I tried hard to make him let me go, but he was too strong.”

“That kind of man picks on people who’re smaller, and a bunch of them attack at once because they’re cowards. They aren’t used to facing somebody bigger than they are.”

“You’re way bigger. You’re way bigger than anybody I know.”

“Yeah. I get that a lot.”

Then they were quiet, watching the alligators starting to stir. After a while, the Osceola boys started emerging from tents and heading out to the cook fire. “How about you tell me what happened the night they took Rosa? Think you can?”

Pedro hesitated for a long time and then he said, “They killed Luis when he tried to stop them. They shot him two times. I saw them.”

“Luis was Alcina’s husband, that right?”

He nodded. “She misses him a lot, too. They shot Luis in the stomach first and then right here in his face.” He pointed at his left cheek, and his eyes looked horrified by the memory.

“Were they the same ones that hurt you last night?”

He shook his head. “No, they came up from Guatemala City. They have come to our village before but late at night, and in the morning, a child is always gone. It happened three times. Other villagers have seen them, too. They say they sneak into your house and take your little kids out into the jungle. We went to see Dr. Eloise, and she said they bring those kids here and sell them for money.” His eyes got wide, as if he couldn’t believe it. “You think they sold Rosa? She’s scared of strangers. She cries if she doesn’t know them. I bet she cries all the time now, just like Alcina.”

Novak didn’t want to answer that, not truthfully, anyhow. “I think that’s their plan, but we’re not going to let them. We’re going to find her first and make them pay for taking her. I promise you that we’ll keep looking until we find her.”

Novak hoped that’s the way it turned out, because that’s what he planned to do. An infant in the hands of those lowlife thugs wasn’t something he liked to think about. Still, the baby was valuable to their bottom line, and he knew that most illegal adoption rings hired nurses and nannies to care for the children they took. Still, Novak felt as if he was going into this case in the dark, knowing little about his enemy or his allies or the motives or the mob connections, and none of that was good. Claire needed to get on the stick and show up and fill him in, and the sooner, the better. The longer they waited, the farther away that poor little baby was going to get.