Dual deception, p.19
DUAL DECEPTION, page 19
Donar stopped pacing and sighed. “I may as well tell you everything.”
“You better,” Laili said.
Donar pointed angrily at the dead men. “Friends of theirs, three of them, took Outcast, along with Paz, his captain, and…” His eyes teared over. “My daughter. They gave me until tomorrow morning to transfer ownership of this marina to their boss.”
“Who’s their boss?” Molka said.
“He runs a drug cartel. Horribly dangerous man.”
“Do they know who Paz is related to?”
“I don’t know. If they do, they didn’t say.”
“You going to pay the ransom?”
“I can’t.” Donar pointed to Laili. “As she knows, the business is in bankruptcy proceedings. I tried to explain that to them. But they won’t listen.”
“Where did they take Outcast?” Molka said.
“They moved her to a small unoccupied bay on the remote northwest coast of the island. They’re holding everyone onboard.”
“Ok.” Molka tucked her weapon behind her back and took out her phone. “We’ll go free them too.”
Donar sobbed with joy. “Thank you, officers. Thank you, thank you.”
“What’s the name of the small bay?” Molka said.
“Pennington Bay.”
Molka tapped the info into a map search.
Laili removed short-shorts and a crop top from her bag and pulled them on over her bikini. “Is Gus around?”
“No,” Donar said. “I haven’t seen him in a few days.”
Molka held her phone for Donar to view. “Is that the place?”
Donar squinted. “Yes, that’s it.”
“If it’s not, we’ll be back for you.” Molka pointed down to Red Shirt and Blue Shirt. “Until we recover the hostages, it’s better if no one sees, or even knows about, these bodies. Ever.”
Donar wiped his eyes. “You don’t need them for your investigation?”
“Not really,” Molka said.
“Then don’t worry about them. I have people to take out that kind of garbage.”
“Perfect.” Molka looked to Laili. “Let’s go.”
They moved to leave.
“Hold on,” Donar said. “What should I do in the meantime, officers?”
“You may want to postpone the wedding,” Molka said. “Then wait and worry. If your daughter doesn’t come back by tonight it means…we all died.”
CHAPTER 48
Molka and Laili decided to leave Laili’s car at Yacht Marina Grande since they would finish the task as a team. Mr. Levy could pick it up later. However, Laili did grab her binoculars and a half pack of cigarettes from it.
They drove to Saint Thomas’s lower populated northwest coast and followed a twisting narrow side road, which ended at a locked yellow gate. The beginning of a dirt path leading into dense vegetation waited on the other side.
Molka checked her satellite map view again. “That goes straight to Pennington Bay.”
They exited with their binoculars, jumped the gate, and headed down the long sandy trail.
“Thorsen better not be lying about Outcast being way the hell out here,” Laili said.
“I don’t think he lied to us,” Molka said.
“He’s already lied to us when said he would tell us everything but didn’t mention the drugs and gold he’s smuggling on her.”
“Would you have mentioned that? We’re the police, remember?”
“Azzur said leaving out key facts of a situation is the same as lying.”
“True. But I’m sure Thorsen’s not lying about Outcast being here.”
“How are sure?” Laili said.
“Because of a father’s love.”
Laili laughed sarcastically. “I wouldn’t know about that.”
The path broke from the trees and ended on a hill overlooking the small gorgeous, pristine emerald-watered Pennington Bay.
Molka and Laili raised their binoculars. Anchored 50 yards off the bay’s curved white sand beach, Outcast presented an advertisement-quality image. Three shirtless men lounged on her sundeck.
“My map said this entire area is a nature preserve,” Molka said. “Some would call it a tremendous waste of prime real estate. But it is an excellent place to conceal a 200-foot mega yacht from tourist eyes and cameras.”
“Those three cartel guys are drinking beer for breakfast,” Laili said. “They look half-drunk already.”
“They’re not expecting any trouble in this peaceful setting.”
“Good. Then it should be easy.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Got an assault plan?” Laili said. “You’re the badass former special forces warrior.”
“Well, all my experience was in helicopter—not seaborne—assaults. But right after dark, we can use the inflatable life raft from my boat for a stealth approach to Outcast, board her, and neutralize the three combatants.”
Laili lowered her binoculars. “You mean kill them, right?”
Molka lowered her binoculars. “We don’t have the time or means to take and detain prisoners. And like Thorsen said, they’re not going to surrender anyway. They sacrificed their lives when they became cartel soldiers.”
“Damn, you sound just like Azzur.”
“Don’t say that either.”
Laili yawned. “We’ll use our suppressors and flashbangs again?”
“Yes. Sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m good. Just a little tired. I want to eat and catch a nap before the op.”
“Alright,” Molka said. “Me too.”
They backtracked on the path toward Molka’s car.
“We got this, right?” Laili said.
“We got this. Because when we work together, we’re a pretty effective team.”
Laili turned her head back to Molka and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, ugly.”
“Grow up, brat.”
CHAPTER 49
Mister Cutter jogged down Katelyn’s harbor dock to his 40-foot sport cruiser moored at the end, hopped aboard, and ducked into the forward cabin.
Gus waited at the small galley table.
“Let me have it, lad,” Mister Cutter said.
“You got my money?”
“Letting you hide out on my boat is all the pay you’ll be getting from me.”
“Don’t forget,” Gus said, “I only asked to hide out here because you fucked me over with my Delgado Island connection.”
“How you figure that?”
“I told you about Señor Delgado buying Candyland as a courtesy, so you wouldn’t wake up surprised he moved into your backyard out here. Not so you guys could go on a kill crazy rampage, take down all his men, steal everything you could steal, and set a fire that burned half the island down.”
Mister Cutter shrugged. “Well, the captain has his ways.”
“Fuck the captain, and fuck you too. You weren’t the only one I was trading Delgado info. And when Señor Delgado finds out my man there was his leaker and puts the blowtorch to his nuts, he’s going to give me up, and then Señor Delgado will put an open contract out on my ass.”
“That’s what happens to snitches, lad.”
“Fuck that! You’re a snitch too.”
Mister Cutter unsheathed his fighting knife and put the point to Gus’s throat. “I knows what I am. What are you? Because if I find out you had anything to do with those poor abused girls we found as prisoners there, I’ll execute the contract on you myself—no charge.”
Gus tipped his head back. “Easy bro, easy bro, we’re cool. I told you, I just brought young girls to Jake’s parties and then took them home after. I had nothing to do with that all other shit he was doing.”
“Give it to me.”
Gus took a small packet of blue pills from his short’s pocket and placed it on the table.
Mister Cutter lowered and re-sheathed his knife, opened the packet, dumped two pills on the table, retrieved a hammer and straw from a galley cabinet, crushed the pills with skilled hammer strikes, and used his thick fingers to form two tight, equal-length powder lines.
Gus chuckled. “Looks like you’ve done that a few times.”
Mister Cutter put one end of the straw in his right nostril, bent over the table, snorted the lines in rapid sequence, sat down, leaned back, and rubbed his nose. “The captain wants me for a briefing about tonight’s prize in 10 minutes. It’s the big prize he’s been working on with the two ladies.”
“Did he finally tell you? What’s this big prize?”
Mister Cutter exhaled deeply and rocked his head back. “When you worked for your now former employer, you remember a big beauty named Outcast?”
Gus smiled and then laughed. “You serious? Captain Savanna’s going to take Outcast? You serious, because that’s—you serious?”
“That’s right, lad. Then we’re going to take Outcast away from him. And she’s worth at least 40 million if she’s worth a penny. And then you’re going to use all your famous connections to make us both—fuck the captain—rich.”
CHAPTER 50
The three shirtless cartel soldiers—Felix, Rafa, and Ernesto—drinking beer on Outcast’s sundeck, watched a charter boat enter Pennington Bay behind them. Nine men, plus the charter pilot, filled the open boat. Two huge coolers and three large bugling gear bags sat stacked on the boat’s deck.
The charter pilot brought the boat alongside Outcast’s sizeable stern-mounted, retractable swim platform, which had been lowered to just above water level. The nine men used the platform to board Outcast and unload their gear.
Rafa removed his sunglasses and looked down on them. “Hey Manny, I see you brought your boyfriend with you.”
Manny looked back up to him. “Fuck you, Rafa.”
All the men laughed.
“Get your ass up here,” Rafa said.
Manny climbed the two levels to the sundeck. “The boss said you needed his best men to guard his shit and his new yacht on the way home.”
“Yeah,” Rafa said. “Do you know when they’re getting here?”
Manny laughed. “Fuck you, bitch. What’s up Felix?”
Drunk Felix toasted him with a beer.
Manny addressed Ernesto. “They tell me you’re a fucking yacht pilot now. Sure you can handle this big motherfucker?”
Ernesto nodded. “Just like a handled your girl.”
All the men laughed.
Manny surveyed the yacht. “This thing is fucking gorgeous! What’s the plan?”
“Play before work,” Rafa said. “You bring my pig?”
“No, I left your wife at home. But I brought your roasting hog.”
Rafa pulled a Glock from his shorts and pointed it Manny. “That’s it, pussy. You die now.”
Manny smiled, side stepped, and pulled Rafa’s shooting arm down. “Come on, Rafa. Quit fucking around, man.”
Rafa laughed and re-tucked his Glock.
“So we party tonight,” Manny said. “What’s up for tomorrow?”
“The boss is waiting for old man Thorsen to come through with his papers by tomorrow morning. Carlos and Luis are babysitting him. But whether he does or doesn’t, he and the two dudes downstairs get smoked. Easy job.” Rafa raised his beer. “That’s why we’re chilling.”
“What about the girl? I heard she’s fucking gorgeous too.”
Rafa put his sunglasses back on. “She is. But I’m keeping her for a while.”
CHAPTER 51
Right before they got home, at Laili’s insistence, Molka stopped at a pates truck. And Molka didn’t admit it to Laili, but the deep fried, beef-filled dough made her stomach growl. She stopped at a café and ordered a fresh seafood salad to-go for herself.
Early lunches secured, the debate that had begun on the drive back from Pennington Bay resumed.
“Why are you lecturing me?” Laili said. “Better lecture yourself. I’m the better shot, remember?”
“Yes,” Molka said. “But you said this will be your first live, night tactical op. And we need exceptional fire discipline. One shot, one kill. So a stray round doesn’t hit Paz or his yacht captain. Or Caryn.”
Laili grinned. “Hey, stray rounds happen.”
Molka glared at her. “Don’t even joke like that. She’s a civilian. She’s off limits.”
“What are we going to do with the dirty little whore, anyway?”
“Tell her to go home, grab her dad, and start running.”
Laili laughed. “Fuck yeah, they better. But you know, this op will burn our cover stories with Paz.”
“Can’t be helped,” Molka said. “Azzur will have to find something to keep him quiet about us. Get his mind right, as he likes to say.”
Laili stared out the side window. “Azzur’s definitely good at that.”
Five minutes later, Molka parked at the curb outside their apartment. The door to the animal hospital stood open.
“You leave that unlocked?” Molka said.
“I haven’t touched it,” Laili said.
“And why is the paper covering that window missing?”
Laili shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Hope we haven’t had a break in.”
“Maybe someone is still in there,” Laili said. “Take our weapons with us?”
Molka pushed the trunk release. “Yes.”
Molka and Laili exited and moved to the trunk.
Two USVI Police vehicles sped toward them from opposite directions and blocked in the car. The driving officers leapt out with Glocks drawn and aimed them at Molka and Laili.
One officer yelled, “Get on the ground!”
Molka and Laili laid face down on the dirty street.
The officers cuffed them.
A smiling, black suit wearing Agent Justain exited the animal hospital doorway holding a police radio and a white document. He swagger-walked to Molka and Laili’s prone positions and crouched before them. “Good morning, ladies. What’s left of it, I should say. This is your copy.” He held the document for Molka to read.
Molka bent her head back and scanned it. “A search warrant?” She gazed mystified at Justain. “What is this?”
Laili bent her head back and scowled at Justain. “And who the hell are you?”
Justain showed Molka and Laili his badge and ID. “This is who I am.” He smiled again. “And as to the previous question, you’re both under arrest.”
CHAPTER 52
Molka and Laili sat side by side in an interrogation room inside the USVI Police station wrist-shackled to a metal ring bolted atop a bolted-down table.
Justain entered, sat across from them, and tossed their passports on the tabletop. “Told you it wouldn’t take long. Our new system is a beautiful thing. And I also took a closer look at those pistols found in your car. Besides the serial numbers being removed—quite professionally, I might add—every other manufacturing mark was removed, making them untraceable. Hmm…I wonder why you would also have such highly illegal weapons in your possession. But where were we?”
Molka spoke. “You were about to tell us your theory on why a veterinarian and a vet tech would have vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana totaling 200 pounds stored in our workplace under our apartment.”
“Right,” Justain said. “I would theorize you were going to use it to top off the load of fentanyl and gold bullion on the yacht I’m looking for.”
“Wrong,” Laili said. “We were obviously set up. Someone else put that shit on us.”
“Why did you have cause to search our workplace?” Molka said.
“A confidential source gave me a tip there was a huge quantity of marijuana sitting in plain sight inside an old bakery. And this bakery was supposedly being converted into an animal hospital by two young women who lived above it. I went over there and looked through its street facing display window, and sure enough, there sat a huge quantity of marijuana in plain sight. I took some photos and I got the warrant. Oh, thanks for reminding me. Bit of bureaucratic red tape. I’m waiting on a separate warrant to search your apartment. Two different addresses at the location caused the snafu. I tried to contact the property owner, but he’s away, so you wouldn’t want to give me consent to search, would you?”
Molka thought about the task cash, night vison goggles, and flashbang grenades in their closets she would have to account for. Deflect the question. “What exactly are we being charged with?”
“Besides the illegal weapons, I can easily build a tidy trafficking case. I’m also going to seize the 40,000 dollars in your glove compartment. But that’s just for starters. Unless you decide to cooperate.”
Laili snorted. “We’re not snitches, cop.”
“Giselle, please be quiet,” Molka said. “Agent Justain, we’re innocent of your charges, so we want to cooperate. What do you want from us?”
“I want the name and present location of the yacht. I want the names and present locations of your co-conspirators. And I want the names of your contacts in the yacht’s destination port.”
Laili turned her hands palms up. “Well, you can want in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.”
“Shut up, Giselle,” Molka said.
Justain chuckled. “Giselle’s funny, isn’t she.” He picked up and opened Laili’s passport. “Giselle Binoche is funny, funny. But you know who doesn’t think she’s funny, funny? The real Giselle Binoche this passport was issued to in France. She had no idea a stranger was using it down here in the commission of crimes.”
He picked up and opened Molka’s passport. “Yours isn’t quite as humorous, Miss Molka…I’m not even going to try and pronounce your last name. Your Canadian passport comes back as applied for but not yet issued. Yet, you have it anyway. Or a very good forgery.” He put down Molka’s passport and smiled. “See what happens, ladies, when you leave loose ends? Eventually you trip over them.”
Molka and Laili exchanged looks, and Molka said, “I don’t think we should answer any more questions at this time.”
Justain winked. “I don’t blame you.”
“So what happens next?” Molka said. “We bond out of jail and get a court date?”
“You better,” Laili said.
Donar pointed angrily at the dead men. “Friends of theirs, three of them, took Outcast, along with Paz, his captain, and…” His eyes teared over. “My daughter. They gave me until tomorrow morning to transfer ownership of this marina to their boss.”
“Who’s their boss?” Molka said.
“He runs a drug cartel. Horribly dangerous man.”
“Do they know who Paz is related to?”
“I don’t know. If they do, they didn’t say.”
“You going to pay the ransom?”
“I can’t.” Donar pointed to Laili. “As she knows, the business is in bankruptcy proceedings. I tried to explain that to them. But they won’t listen.”
“Where did they take Outcast?” Molka said.
“They moved her to a small unoccupied bay on the remote northwest coast of the island. They’re holding everyone onboard.”
“Ok.” Molka tucked her weapon behind her back and took out her phone. “We’ll go free them too.”
Donar sobbed with joy. “Thank you, officers. Thank you, thank you.”
“What’s the name of the small bay?” Molka said.
“Pennington Bay.”
Molka tapped the info into a map search.
Laili removed short-shorts and a crop top from her bag and pulled them on over her bikini. “Is Gus around?”
“No,” Donar said. “I haven’t seen him in a few days.”
Molka held her phone for Donar to view. “Is that the place?”
Donar squinted. “Yes, that’s it.”
“If it’s not, we’ll be back for you.” Molka pointed down to Red Shirt and Blue Shirt. “Until we recover the hostages, it’s better if no one sees, or even knows about, these bodies. Ever.”
Donar wiped his eyes. “You don’t need them for your investigation?”
“Not really,” Molka said.
“Then don’t worry about them. I have people to take out that kind of garbage.”
“Perfect.” Molka looked to Laili. “Let’s go.”
They moved to leave.
“Hold on,” Donar said. “What should I do in the meantime, officers?”
“You may want to postpone the wedding,” Molka said. “Then wait and worry. If your daughter doesn’t come back by tonight it means…we all died.”
CHAPTER 48
Molka and Laili decided to leave Laili’s car at Yacht Marina Grande since they would finish the task as a team. Mr. Levy could pick it up later. However, Laili did grab her binoculars and a half pack of cigarettes from it.
They drove to Saint Thomas’s lower populated northwest coast and followed a twisting narrow side road, which ended at a locked yellow gate. The beginning of a dirt path leading into dense vegetation waited on the other side.
Molka checked her satellite map view again. “That goes straight to Pennington Bay.”
They exited with their binoculars, jumped the gate, and headed down the long sandy trail.
“Thorsen better not be lying about Outcast being way the hell out here,” Laili said.
“I don’t think he lied to us,” Molka said.
“He’s already lied to us when said he would tell us everything but didn’t mention the drugs and gold he’s smuggling on her.”
“Would you have mentioned that? We’re the police, remember?”
“Azzur said leaving out key facts of a situation is the same as lying.”
“True. But I’m sure Thorsen’s not lying about Outcast being here.”
“How are sure?” Laili said.
“Because of a father’s love.”
Laili laughed sarcastically. “I wouldn’t know about that.”
The path broke from the trees and ended on a hill overlooking the small gorgeous, pristine emerald-watered Pennington Bay.
Molka and Laili raised their binoculars. Anchored 50 yards off the bay’s curved white sand beach, Outcast presented an advertisement-quality image. Three shirtless men lounged on her sundeck.
“My map said this entire area is a nature preserve,” Molka said. “Some would call it a tremendous waste of prime real estate. But it is an excellent place to conceal a 200-foot mega yacht from tourist eyes and cameras.”
“Those three cartel guys are drinking beer for breakfast,” Laili said. “They look half-drunk already.”
“They’re not expecting any trouble in this peaceful setting.”
“Good. Then it should be easy.”
“Don’t say that.”
“Got an assault plan?” Laili said. “You’re the badass former special forces warrior.”
“Well, all my experience was in helicopter—not seaborne—assaults. But right after dark, we can use the inflatable life raft from my boat for a stealth approach to Outcast, board her, and neutralize the three combatants.”
Laili lowered her binoculars. “You mean kill them, right?”
Molka lowered her binoculars. “We don’t have the time or means to take and detain prisoners. And like Thorsen said, they’re not going to surrender anyway. They sacrificed their lives when they became cartel soldiers.”
“Damn, you sound just like Azzur.”
“Don’t say that either.”
Laili yawned. “We’ll use our suppressors and flashbangs again?”
“Yes. Sure you’re up for this?”
“I’m good. Just a little tired. I want to eat and catch a nap before the op.”
“Alright,” Molka said. “Me too.”
They backtracked on the path toward Molka’s car.
“We got this, right?” Laili said.
“We got this. Because when we work together, we’re a pretty effective team.”
Laili turned her head back to Molka and rolled her eyes. “Whatever, ugly.”
“Grow up, brat.”
CHAPTER 49
Mister Cutter jogged down Katelyn’s harbor dock to his 40-foot sport cruiser moored at the end, hopped aboard, and ducked into the forward cabin.
Gus waited at the small galley table.
“Let me have it, lad,” Mister Cutter said.
“You got my money?”
“Letting you hide out on my boat is all the pay you’ll be getting from me.”
“Don’t forget,” Gus said, “I only asked to hide out here because you fucked me over with my Delgado Island connection.”
“How you figure that?”
“I told you about Señor Delgado buying Candyland as a courtesy, so you wouldn’t wake up surprised he moved into your backyard out here. Not so you guys could go on a kill crazy rampage, take down all his men, steal everything you could steal, and set a fire that burned half the island down.”
Mister Cutter shrugged. “Well, the captain has his ways.”
“Fuck the captain, and fuck you too. You weren’t the only one I was trading Delgado info. And when Señor Delgado finds out my man there was his leaker and puts the blowtorch to his nuts, he’s going to give me up, and then Señor Delgado will put an open contract out on my ass.”
“That’s what happens to snitches, lad.”
“Fuck that! You’re a snitch too.”
Mister Cutter unsheathed his fighting knife and put the point to Gus’s throat. “I knows what I am. What are you? Because if I find out you had anything to do with those poor abused girls we found as prisoners there, I’ll execute the contract on you myself—no charge.”
Gus tipped his head back. “Easy bro, easy bro, we’re cool. I told you, I just brought young girls to Jake’s parties and then took them home after. I had nothing to do with that all other shit he was doing.”
“Give it to me.”
Gus took a small packet of blue pills from his short’s pocket and placed it on the table.
Mister Cutter lowered and re-sheathed his knife, opened the packet, dumped two pills on the table, retrieved a hammer and straw from a galley cabinet, crushed the pills with skilled hammer strikes, and used his thick fingers to form two tight, equal-length powder lines.
Gus chuckled. “Looks like you’ve done that a few times.”
Mister Cutter put one end of the straw in his right nostril, bent over the table, snorted the lines in rapid sequence, sat down, leaned back, and rubbed his nose. “The captain wants me for a briefing about tonight’s prize in 10 minutes. It’s the big prize he’s been working on with the two ladies.”
“Did he finally tell you? What’s this big prize?”
Mister Cutter exhaled deeply and rocked his head back. “When you worked for your now former employer, you remember a big beauty named Outcast?”
Gus smiled and then laughed. “You serious? Captain Savanna’s going to take Outcast? You serious, because that’s—you serious?”
“That’s right, lad. Then we’re going to take Outcast away from him. And she’s worth at least 40 million if she’s worth a penny. And then you’re going to use all your famous connections to make us both—fuck the captain—rich.”
CHAPTER 50
The three shirtless cartel soldiers—Felix, Rafa, and Ernesto—drinking beer on Outcast’s sundeck, watched a charter boat enter Pennington Bay behind them. Nine men, plus the charter pilot, filled the open boat. Two huge coolers and three large bugling gear bags sat stacked on the boat’s deck.
The charter pilot brought the boat alongside Outcast’s sizeable stern-mounted, retractable swim platform, which had been lowered to just above water level. The nine men used the platform to board Outcast and unload their gear.
Rafa removed his sunglasses and looked down on them. “Hey Manny, I see you brought your boyfriend with you.”
Manny looked back up to him. “Fuck you, Rafa.”
All the men laughed.
“Get your ass up here,” Rafa said.
Manny climbed the two levels to the sundeck. “The boss said you needed his best men to guard his shit and his new yacht on the way home.”
“Yeah,” Rafa said. “Do you know when they’re getting here?”
Manny laughed. “Fuck you, bitch. What’s up Felix?”
Drunk Felix toasted him with a beer.
Manny addressed Ernesto. “They tell me you’re a fucking yacht pilot now. Sure you can handle this big motherfucker?”
Ernesto nodded. “Just like a handled your girl.”
All the men laughed.
Manny surveyed the yacht. “This thing is fucking gorgeous! What’s the plan?”
“Play before work,” Rafa said. “You bring my pig?”
“No, I left your wife at home. But I brought your roasting hog.”
Rafa pulled a Glock from his shorts and pointed it Manny. “That’s it, pussy. You die now.”
Manny smiled, side stepped, and pulled Rafa’s shooting arm down. “Come on, Rafa. Quit fucking around, man.”
Rafa laughed and re-tucked his Glock.
“So we party tonight,” Manny said. “What’s up for tomorrow?”
“The boss is waiting for old man Thorsen to come through with his papers by tomorrow morning. Carlos and Luis are babysitting him. But whether he does or doesn’t, he and the two dudes downstairs get smoked. Easy job.” Rafa raised his beer. “That’s why we’re chilling.”
“What about the girl? I heard she’s fucking gorgeous too.”
Rafa put his sunglasses back on. “She is. But I’m keeping her for a while.”
CHAPTER 51
Right before they got home, at Laili’s insistence, Molka stopped at a pates truck. And Molka didn’t admit it to Laili, but the deep fried, beef-filled dough made her stomach growl. She stopped at a café and ordered a fresh seafood salad to-go for herself.
Early lunches secured, the debate that had begun on the drive back from Pennington Bay resumed.
“Why are you lecturing me?” Laili said. “Better lecture yourself. I’m the better shot, remember?”
“Yes,” Molka said. “But you said this will be your first live, night tactical op. And we need exceptional fire discipline. One shot, one kill. So a stray round doesn’t hit Paz or his yacht captain. Or Caryn.”
Laili grinned. “Hey, stray rounds happen.”
Molka glared at her. “Don’t even joke like that. She’s a civilian. She’s off limits.”
“What are we going to do with the dirty little whore, anyway?”
“Tell her to go home, grab her dad, and start running.”
Laili laughed. “Fuck yeah, they better. But you know, this op will burn our cover stories with Paz.”
“Can’t be helped,” Molka said. “Azzur will have to find something to keep him quiet about us. Get his mind right, as he likes to say.”
Laili stared out the side window. “Azzur’s definitely good at that.”
Five minutes later, Molka parked at the curb outside their apartment. The door to the animal hospital stood open.
“You leave that unlocked?” Molka said.
“I haven’t touched it,” Laili said.
“And why is the paper covering that window missing?”
Laili shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Hope we haven’t had a break in.”
“Maybe someone is still in there,” Laili said. “Take our weapons with us?”
Molka pushed the trunk release. “Yes.”
Molka and Laili exited and moved to the trunk.
Two USVI Police vehicles sped toward them from opposite directions and blocked in the car. The driving officers leapt out with Glocks drawn and aimed them at Molka and Laili.
One officer yelled, “Get on the ground!”
Molka and Laili laid face down on the dirty street.
The officers cuffed them.
A smiling, black suit wearing Agent Justain exited the animal hospital doorway holding a police radio and a white document. He swagger-walked to Molka and Laili’s prone positions and crouched before them. “Good morning, ladies. What’s left of it, I should say. This is your copy.” He held the document for Molka to read.
Molka bent her head back and scanned it. “A search warrant?” She gazed mystified at Justain. “What is this?”
Laili bent her head back and scowled at Justain. “And who the hell are you?”
Justain showed Molka and Laili his badge and ID. “This is who I am.” He smiled again. “And as to the previous question, you’re both under arrest.”
CHAPTER 52
Molka and Laili sat side by side in an interrogation room inside the USVI Police station wrist-shackled to a metal ring bolted atop a bolted-down table.
Justain entered, sat across from them, and tossed their passports on the tabletop. “Told you it wouldn’t take long. Our new system is a beautiful thing. And I also took a closer look at those pistols found in your car. Besides the serial numbers being removed—quite professionally, I might add—every other manufacturing mark was removed, making them untraceable. Hmm…I wonder why you would also have such highly illegal weapons in your possession. But where were we?”
Molka spoke. “You were about to tell us your theory on why a veterinarian and a vet tech would have vacuum-sealed packages of marijuana totaling 200 pounds stored in our workplace under our apartment.”
“Right,” Justain said. “I would theorize you were going to use it to top off the load of fentanyl and gold bullion on the yacht I’m looking for.”
“Wrong,” Laili said. “We were obviously set up. Someone else put that shit on us.”
“Why did you have cause to search our workplace?” Molka said.
“A confidential source gave me a tip there was a huge quantity of marijuana sitting in plain sight inside an old bakery. And this bakery was supposedly being converted into an animal hospital by two young women who lived above it. I went over there and looked through its street facing display window, and sure enough, there sat a huge quantity of marijuana in plain sight. I took some photos and I got the warrant. Oh, thanks for reminding me. Bit of bureaucratic red tape. I’m waiting on a separate warrant to search your apartment. Two different addresses at the location caused the snafu. I tried to contact the property owner, but he’s away, so you wouldn’t want to give me consent to search, would you?”
Molka thought about the task cash, night vison goggles, and flashbang grenades in their closets she would have to account for. Deflect the question. “What exactly are we being charged with?”
“Besides the illegal weapons, I can easily build a tidy trafficking case. I’m also going to seize the 40,000 dollars in your glove compartment. But that’s just for starters. Unless you decide to cooperate.”
Laili snorted. “We’re not snitches, cop.”
“Giselle, please be quiet,” Molka said. “Agent Justain, we’re innocent of your charges, so we want to cooperate. What do you want from us?”
“I want the name and present location of the yacht. I want the names and present locations of your co-conspirators. And I want the names of your contacts in the yacht’s destination port.”
Laili turned her hands palms up. “Well, you can want in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up first.”
“Shut up, Giselle,” Molka said.
Justain chuckled. “Giselle’s funny, isn’t she.” He picked up and opened Laili’s passport. “Giselle Binoche is funny, funny. But you know who doesn’t think she’s funny, funny? The real Giselle Binoche this passport was issued to in France. She had no idea a stranger was using it down here in the commission of crimes.”
He picked up and opened Molka’s passport. “Yours isn’t quite as humorous, Miss Molka…I’m not even going to try and pronounce your last name. Your Canadian passport comes back as applied for but not yet issued. Yet, you have it anyway. Or a very good forgery.” He put down Molka’s passport and smiled. “See what happens, ladies, when you leave loose ends? Eventually you trip over them.”
Molka and Laili exchanged looks, and Molka said, “I don’t think we should answer any more questions at this time.”
Justain winked. “I don’t blame you.”
“So what happens next?” Molka said. “We bond out of jail and get a court date?”
