“We won’t hover over you, either, but we will be in the background,” said Marie. “We’ll be dressed appropriately for the occasion, and just look like we’re mingling in. If it’s something in Washington, where you’ll be in a secure situation, we won’t even go in.”
“So if I’m in the Capitol building?” I asked.
“Once you go inside, we’ll just stay with the car or head to the office or something. You have to call us to tell us to pick you up. We won’t be over your shoulder in meetings.”
Joe said, “When you reserve a room, try to reserve one with a maid’s bedroom, that sort of thing. Otherwise, we can just stand post in the hallway.”
“Generally, you can ignore us. Don’t ask us if we want a drink or want to eat or whatever. We’ll make arrangements for that. Don’t think you’re being rude to us. Just go about your business, whatever it is,” said Marie.
“Huh. Uh, are you two carrying? You know, guns? Now?” I asked. Joe opened his jacket to show a small automatic. Marie simply nodded. “How does that work overseas? What are the rules in the Bahamas? I would prefer not to need to bail out my bodyguards. You’re supposed to bail me out, not the other way around.”
That earned a few chuckles from everybody. “We will need to make some arrangements. We should be safe, but try to avoid getting us in a gunfight,” was Joe’s smiling reply.
I glanced at my wife. “Good advice,” she commented drily.
The four of us chatted for the rest of the flight, mostly about Joe’s and Marie’s backgrounds and experiences, which were totally alien to Marilyn and me.
Eventually we were on approach to Nassau and descended to land. The strange part came when we taxied up to the terminal. As always, we parked away from the terminal and waited for a Bahamian Customs officer to come out. Normally this doesn’t take all that long, since Nassau isn’t the world’s busiest airport, and they are used to having a number of small planes land. Instead, the pilot popped the bulkhead door open and yelled back, “We’ve been asked to hold for Customs. It’ll be a few more minutes.”
I went forward. “Anything unusual?” I asked.
“Not that I know of. You guys carrying the crown jewels?” he replied.
“Not us!”
We shrugged at each other and waited. He kept one engine running to provide power to the air conditioning, since otherwise it’s just a big metal tube in the tropical sun.
About ten minutes later, he said, “Okay, it’s showtime.” He shut down the engine and came back and opened the door as a pair of Customs officers approached.
That in itself was unusual, since we had never had more than one check us out and wave us through. Maybe the second guy was a trainee, but I didn’t think so. For one thing, the first officer didn’t do any more than glance at all of our passports. He said, “Mr. and Mrs. Buckman, would you please come with me?”
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“Nothing’s wrong. We simply need you to come inside for a moment. This will be cleared up shortly. This officer will stay with your luggage.”
The pilot looked very alarmed at this, figuring we were smuggling something. On the other hand, who the hell smuggles shit from the U.S. to the Bahamas? It goes the other direction! I motioned for Joe and Marie to stay seated. They couldn’t do anything with the cops involved in any case. What were we going to do? Yank up the stairs and blast our way down the runway? This wasn’t an old rerun of Miami Vice.
Marilyn and I shrugged in confusion and then climbed down the steps and walked with the Customs guy inside. We were led into an office where a slim man of average height in a police uniform was waiting, seated behind a desk. The Customs officer handed him our passports. The second man glanced at them and then at us, and looked at the Customs officer and tilted his head towards the door. The Customs officer nodded and silently left.
The police officer turned back to us and smiled. “Welcome back to the Bahamas, Mrs. Buckman, Mister Buckman. Here, you may have these back. Thank you.”
I took our passports and put them back in my pocket. “Is there some sort of problem, officer?”
He brought his hand up to his heart, and answered theatrically. “Oh, I am heartbroken! You don’t remember me! And yet I remember you so well! Allow me to re-introduce myself to you. I am Assistant Commissioner Javier. We met back in 1982.”
Marilyn continued to look mystified, but it came back to me. I looked closely at the policeman’s face. It looked a bit older, with a few more lines, and a trace of gray at the temples, but I could tell who it was. “The last time I saw you you were an Assistant Superintendant, if I remember correctly. Might I assume that Assistant Commissioner is a step or two up from that?”
He smiled broadly. “Oh, yes, several steps. That is why I am here. It seems that you, too, have had a promotion since those days!”
I gave a modest shrug and a nod. Then I noticed Marilyn, and I turned towards her. She said, “Carling, what is going on?”
“Ah… Marilyn, allow me to introduce you to Assistant Commissioner Javier. When last you saw him, he was but a humble Assistant Superintendant on the island of Eleuthera, and he was talking to us in the clinic where I was being sewed up after the bar fight. Remember that?”
Marilyn’s eyes popped wide open at that. “But that was years ago! What’s wrong now?!”
Javier had a big grin on his face. “Oh, nothing at all. I am simply here as a humble messenger. You have been invited to dinner by the Prime Minister at Government House on Saturday evening.”
I stared at him for a second. “Dinner with the Prime Minister? Who? Us? Why?”
Javier laughed at me. “Yes, you! Who else! Why? Why is because you are now a member of your Congress! We try to be polite to them. Why else!?”
I turned to face Marilyn, who looked as stumped as I was. “I’ll be damned!” I turned back to Javier. “We don’t really have a choice in this, I am guessing.”
He held his hands out in a placating gesture. “Of course you have a choice, but the smart choice is to say yes and get to meet the people who own the island your house is on, hmmm? Please, it will be very pleasant. The Prime Minister, your Ambassador, a few other people… nothing too elaborate.”
I rolled my eyes and looked at Marilyn, who gave me a wry look and shrugged. I shrugged back, and then said, “Well, when you put it that way… It better not be too elaborate. We’re on vacation, and I left my tuxedo at home!”
“That won’t be necessary. A suit would be fine, or perhaps a sport jacket even. Did you bring one? No? Well, we have many fine shops you can visit by then.”
“Great. You’d better be there, too, buddy.”
“Oh, of course. I’ll even have a car sent round for you on Saturday evening, eh?”
“Fine.” Then I thought of something. “How did you learn I was a Congressman? I haven’t even been sworn in yet. And how did you get this job?”
“The second part is the answer to the first. I am in charge of special investigations for the Prime Minister. When the interest in you surfaced recently, it was placed in my hands,” he answered.
“Interest in me? What possible interest could the government of the Bahamas have in me? You’ve never had any before!”
“But you weren’t a Congressman before, were you.”
“Still…”
He gave me a wry shrug. “Blame it on your reporters back home. Somebody called our embassy in Washington about the events back in 1982. Nobody there really knew anything about it, so they called the home office and asked them. Well, that was eight years ago, so it got passed along to the Assistant Commissioner of Special Investigations to look into. A candidate for the American Congress was in a bar fight? How extraordinary! So I looked into it, and discovered that somebody with the same name visits us on a regular basis and actually owns a home here. A billionaire, no less! Well, why don’t we get the original police officer to see if they are the same people? What a bright idea! And here we find ourselves now.”