A little after eight a car pulled into the driveway and idled behind the Mini. I peeked from behind a curtain and saw that it was Hooker getting dropped off by his pilot friend.
I opened the front door, Hooker swaggered in, grabbed me by the front of my shirt, and kissed me.
“I’m home,” he said. “And I’m hungry.”
“For dinner?”
“Yeah, that too. I don’t suppose food has magically appeared in the kitchen?”
“Must be the food fairy’s day off.”
“That’s okay. I know a place where we can get sauce up to our elbows eating ribs.”
“Probably that’s not a good idea. We might want to order in.” And I told him about the shooter and his partner.
Hooker had a full-on smile. Lots of perfect white teeth showing. Crinkles around his eyes. “Let me make sure I got this right. Felicia shot the guy in black? And she also shot his Rent-A-Thug.”
I had to smile with him. Now that I had some distance it was sort of funny, in a surreal kind of way. “Yep. She shot them. One in the foot. One in the arm.”
“And then you all ran away, they dropped you off here, and they left.”
“Yeah. And Felicia gave me her gun.”
“I’m jealous. You had a better day than I did.”
“Did you find your boat?”
“Maybe. We found the islands. They’re about ten miles offshore and a good distance from Nuevo Cabo. We couldn’t see any sign of habitation. The vegetation is thick. And there are places where a boat could go up an arm of the sea and not easily be seen. Apparentl
y some of these waterways are deep. We saw light reflecting from something on one of those cross-island arms. No way to know if it was off the Happy Hooker. We were afraid to spend too much time there or to go too low. I didn’t want to chase Bill into a different hiding place.”
“Now what?”
“Now we get some pizza delivered, and tomorrow we take Rich’s boat and go look for Bill.”
I’d left my cell phone on the coffee table, and it started to buzz and dance around.
“Hey girlfriend,” Judey said when I answered. “I’ve got news. I just got a phoner from Todd. He was called back to Flex. They’re leaving first thing in the morning. And Salzar is on board with a diver.”
I dragged myself out of bed at 4 AM, took a shower to try to wake up, brushed my teeth, and gave my hair a blast with the dryer. I stumbled into the kitchen and found Hooker drinking coffee and eating cold leftover pizza.
“Good morning,” Hooker said.
“This isn’t morning. Morning has sun. Do you see sun?”
“We don’t want sun. We want to board the boat and get under way without being seen. I know where there’s an all-night convenience store. We’ll clean them out of water and granola bars, and then I’ll stash you and the food on the boat. I’ll park the Mini somewhere and walk back. I don’t want to leave Bill’s car in the marina lot.”
“You know all about boats, right?”
“I know enough to get us to the island and back…if there are no problems. We’re supposed to have good weather. Calm water. No storms predicted. Rich has a sixty-foot Sunseeker Predator Powerboat. It can cruise at thirty-two knots. And it can carry enough fuel to take us where we want to go. You’ll have to help me get away from the dock. Once we’re under way the computer takes over.”
“How long do you think we’ll be gone?”
“I don’t know. A couple days, I’m hoping. I haven’t got a lot of time. I’m supposed to start doing promotions at the end of the month.”
I grew up in Baltimore, on the harbor, but I know nothing about boats. I can tell the difference between a powerboat and a sailboat, and that’s where my expertise ends. So it looked to me that Rich Vana had a boat with a big nose. The boat was sparkling white with a wide navy stripe running along the side. The place where you drive was at the back of the boat and was enclosed and cozy. When you went down a set of stairs, the inside of the boat was all high-gloss wood and luxuriously upholstered couches and chairs. It had a state-of-the-art kitchen, two bedrooms, two bathrooms with showers, and a small living room with a dining area.
Hooker dropped me off with the groceries and immediately left to park the Mini. I stashed the bread and peanut butter, cereal, milk, beer, bags of cookies, sealed packets of bologna, sliced ham, cheese, pretzels, granola bars, and cans of SpaghettiOs. And then before Hooker returned, I took a quick peek at the engines. I don’t know boats, but I do know engines. And these were big boys. Two twin Manning diesels.