The big man stepped out of the crouch and waved to him with his right hand, the gun hanging loosely on his trigger finger, telling him it was over for now. Telling him they were safe, for now. Safe from them, but not safe from the dark sea. Broxton couldn’t help himself, he waved back. He didn’t want to follow the prime minister blindly into the dark ocean, but he didn’t want to face those men either. He wondered why they spared him, why they wanted him alive, but when the man in the mask showed him the middle finger of his left hand, he decided he didn’t want to stay around and find out. So he turned back around, and like a dolphin he slipped into the cool, dark water and started out after Ramsingh.
Chapter Fourteen
Earl knew better than to waste ammunition firing at things he couldn’t see. He stood out of his crouch, letting the pistol hang off of his trigger finger and waved to the bodyguard. To his surprise he waved back. The man had balls. Most men he’d known would be swimming away to beat the band, but this one was cool, standing there in water up to his chest, watching him, burning everything into his memory.
And here he was, standing under the lights, like a rookie out of the academy. The bodyguard was getting a good look and all Earl saw was shadow. Better to kill him now, but the woman said to leave him alive and that’s what he was going to do, although he felt that one day he’d regret it.
The night was quiet again and Earl listened for the sounds of sirens, high pitched voices or running feet. He heard nothing except the gentle surf. He looked out into the dark and saw nothing except the lapping waves, reflecting the moonlight.
“ Let’s move out of the light,” he said, and he moved a few feet away from the doorway. After a few seconds his eyes started to get used to the dark. There were several boats at anchor, but his more immediate concern was the four thatched hut restaurants lining the ocean less than a hundred yards off to his right. He kept his eyes on the tropical buildings, looking for movement. But if they had people in them, they were minding their own business.
“ We have to get him,” the man next to him said. Earl didn’t know him, but when he came flying into that kitchen shouting, ‘Undertaker, Undertaker’ at the top of his lungs, Earl figured that he’d met his backup. And after the man allowed Earl to snatch the gun from his hand, Earl knew that he’d met a coward.
“ Can you swim?” Earl asked, turning to the man in the ski mask that Dani had dubbed the Undertaker.
“ No.”
“ Well I can and I’m here to tell you that I’m not going after them. It’s a big ocean and even with the moonlight we’d never see them out there. We won’t get them tonight.”
“ We have to,” he wailed.
“ He’s right, Kevin,” Dani Street said, stepping through the doorway and instantly moving out of the light.
“ We can’t let them get away.” Kevin was holding his right hand with his left and now Earl could see why. He’d broken the man’s finger when he snatched the gun away.
“ Hurt much?” Earl said. The index finger on his right hand was swollen, already black and bent at an odd angle.
“ Hurts, like a bitch, you asshole.”
“ He woulda shot the bodyguard if I hadn’t grabbed his gun,” Earl said. He felt sand fleas biting into the fleshy part of his ankles. They’d gotten through his socks. He resisted scratching. He didn’t want to look at all vulnerable to her.
“ Really,” she said. Then she pointed her index and middle finger at him, thumb up, turning her hand into a child’s gun. Earl got the message and shot him once, straight to the heart. Clean, small entry, no exit wound. Earl saw the man’s eyes go wide in disbelief, then he sank to the ground, dead before he hit the sand.
Earl looked around to see if anyone had heard the gunshot, but the night still remained quiet. Now that he could see them, he worried about the anchored boats, but they were pretty far out, and even if they did hear, what were they going to do? What could they do?
“ He was stupid. I told him to leave Broxton alone, but like a hyena chasing a wounded animal, he just couldn’t help himself,” she said, as Earl continued to scour the dark for signs of life. But all remained quiet.
“ Better this way,” he said.
“ Why’d you stop him?” Dani asked. He watched as she raised her left foot, using it to scratch her right ankle.
“ When I give an order to my men back home I want it obeyed. I don’t want excuses and I don’t want no buts. I’m working on your nickel now, so I’m giving you the same respect I want when I’m in charge. No more, no less.”
“ Why, Earl, I think you and I are going to get along even better than I originally thought.”
“ You wanna leave this?” Earl said, looking down at the body.
“ I don’t see why not.” She bent over the body and pulled off the ski mask. Then she picked a wallet and passport out of a back pocket. She stood and smiled at Earl, “There’s a national guard post not too far from here, but I doubt that they’d investigate, even if they heard the shots.”
“ There must have been someone in the hotel, that door didn’t get open by itself. And what about those?” Earl nodded toward the beach bars.
“ They all have someone sleeping in them,” Dani said. “But like the security in the hotel, they’re not a problem.”
“ Why not?”
“ When there’s a shooting in Venezuela, the police round up everybody connected, witnesses included, and throw them all in jail. Then they wait and see who starts talking.”
“ Won’t get many witnesses that way.”
“ Exactly,” Dani said. “When shots are fired people start running. Nobody sees anything. But we should leave anyway.”
Dani sat back as Earl drove back toward the Sans Souci. She marveled at the way he’d sauntered away from Kevin’s dead body. It was no more in his mind than yesterday’s trash. “Want me to drive, or you?” he’d asked. “What about your car?” she’d said. “Stolen. Better that way, no paper trail,” he’d said and she handed over the keys. She usually liked to be in control, but she was at ease with this big man. He was not the lumbering ox she’d first thought. He was smart, cagey, and ruthless. A lot like her.
“ Up ahead,” he said.
“ I see it,” she said. They were on the long strip of road with the pounding surf on their right. And ahead, losing its battle with the sea, surrounded by a crowd, was Kevin Underfield’s Jeep, still lying on its side as the waves washed around it.
“ He was lucky to get out of that alive,” Earl said.
“ He was climbing out the passenger window when I came by,” she said, remembering the way the white moonlight played of off Kevin’s blanched face. It was at that exact moment that she knew he had to go. She’d turned a blind eye to his rabid jealousy, and she could forgive him trying to take a few shots at Bill-he hadn’t succeeded after all-but she could never forgive the fear that radiated from his eyes when he climbed out of that Jeep. A man afraid was a man that would talk.
Earl slowed, then stopped behind a police car with flashing blue lights, telling the world that there was danger here. He leaned his head out the window and asked, “?Que pasa, agui?” What’s going on here?
“ Accidente,” a young policeman answered back.
“?Es alquien lastimado, muerto?” Is anybody hurt, dead?
“ No veo a nadie, nadie esta aqui,” I don’t see anybody, nobody’s here, the policeman said.
“ Esta bien que nadie esta lastimado.” It’s good that nobody’s hurt, Earl said.
“ Claro,” the policeman said, then he moved away and Earl slowly maneuvered around the police cars and the crowd.