Killers and Keepers Read online

  Killers and Keepers

  The J.R. Finn Sailing Mystery Series

  C.L.R. Dougherty

  Copyright © 2020 by C.L.R. Dougherty

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Killers and Keepers

  Puerto Rico and the Windward and Leeward Islands

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Mailing List

  A Note to the Reader

  About the Author

  Also by C.L.R. Dougherty

  Killers and Keepers

  The J.R. Finn Sailing Mystery Series

  Book 6

  Vigilante Justice in the Caribbean

  1

  "We're here to kill you, Finn. Nothing personal, man. It's just our job; you'd understand that. Twenty years — how many kills do you have to your credit?"

  I didn't say anything, returning his steady gaze. He and two others boarded my boat in the anchorage at Soper's Hole, Tortola, a few minutes earlier.

  "You know how this works, Finn."

  I looked him in the eye and kept my mouth shut. Once they handcuffed me to the pedestal of the table in Island Girl's main cabin, the other two went up on deck. They fired up the diesel and retrieved the anchor as soon as they went topside. From the boat's rolling motion now, I could tell we were outside the harbor in open water.

  "You may as well talk to me," the man said. "You're going to, eventually, and you know it."

  He was lean and fit, with an average build. Wiry, and no doubt stronger than he looked, he was typical of the breed. I knew, because I was an earlier vintage of the same species.

  I shook my head.

  "You're a legend in the department. I'm sorry that you ended up on the other side."

  "I don't know what you're talking about," I said.

  "Yeah, you do. I reported to Nora, just like you did."

  "Who's Nora?"

  "Your old boss. The woman you killed. You probably knew her by a different name. And then somebody nailed her boss, the Undersecretary, but we don't figure you for that one. Not your style. But the Secretary of Defense, now that had all the earmarks of your kills."

  "You've got me confused with somebody else. I'm just an old retired soldier."

  "Sure you are. That, and a whole lot more. I know better, Finn. Your escapades were part of our training. Don't get me wrong; they never used your name. Not in the schoolhouse, they didn't. But when I got briefed for this mission, they came clean and told me who my target really was. It's an honor to meet you; I wish the circumstances were different."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "You know. I've told you enough to establish my credentials. You already know the end of this story. Let's talk about the middle part."

  "What's the middle part?"

  "The part between now and the time I kill you."

  "I still don't know what you mean. There's a middle part? If you're going to kill me, what are you waiting for?"

  "I need to interrogate you first. That's the middle part of the story."

  "Sounds like you think you already know everything about me. It's all wrong, but I can tell you believe it, so what's left for you to find out from me?"

  "That's more like it. Cooperation will serve you well."

  "I'm a cooperative guy, but I don't have a clue what you think you're doing. You've already decided that I'm your target, whatever the hell you mean by that. You claim to know my life's history, but you want to interrogate me. About what?"

  "There are some missing pieces. We need to know how you got off the track. That's the first thing. You were ultra-loyal, and then you turned on your chain of command. We know there was corruption at Nora's level, and at her boss's. That's been dealt with, and they've been replaced. Okay?"

  "If you say so," I said.

  "It's true. Everything's all fixed now."

  "That's good to hear. But if all that were true — I'm not saying it is, mind you — but if it were, then why have you been sent to kill me? If I understand this yarn you're spinning, all I did was take care of a rotten apple or two."

  "Yeah, that's what we think."

  "Then why are you going to kill me? Sounds like you should invite me to come home to this 'department,' whatever it is."

  "I'll level with you, Finn. I like you, man. The decision to kill you was made way above my pay grade, but I'll give you my opinion. Maybe then you'll be a little more open with me. Fair enough?"

  "I'm listening," I said.

  "The people calling the shots think you would normally have chosen another way to root out the corruption you discovered. You had the credibility and the track record. After 20 years, you knew your way around the department. You with me?"

  I nodded, and he continued.

  "They think you were encouraged to kill off your chain of command by an outsider. Taking matters into your own hands wasn't consistent with your behavior over the course of your career. You still following?"

  "Yes, for the sake of argument. But again, why not offer me redemption instead of executing me?"

  "Because of your activities after you took out Nora and the Secretary. Now, that's the end of what I was told in my briefing. I don't know what activities they were referring to. My guess is that they think you were working at the direction of another country. In other words, you've sold out, gone rogue on us."

  He paused and locked eyes with me. I frowned and held his gaze. After several seconds, he spoke again.

  "Before I execute you, my orders are to question you until I learn who you're working for now."

  "If I were a rogue agent, why would they assume I'm working for somebody else? Who's to say I didn't just flip out and start killing people who pissed me off?"

  "Some things they blame on you were too complex for you to have done without a support organization. Even with that girl helping you in the field, you couldn't have done some of what they put down to you."

  "Girl? What girl?"

  "She's a freelance killer. Don't bullshit me, now, Finn. We've watched the two of you since you came back to Soper's Hole last week. One of my men followed her to the airport last night. He saw her get on a flight to Miami. That's when we decided to make our move on you. My orders were to leave her out of this."

  He stared at me. I looked him in the eye for several seconds. Then I chewed on my lower lip and looked away, letting him win the stare-down.

  "Finn, don't play dumb. Come clean with me, and I'll put a round through your skull. Quick and easy. Screw me around, and you know I can make you talk. Make it easy on both of us. I'll give you a little time to think about it. I need to fire up my satellite phone and check in, let the department know you're in custody and see if they have any new questions for you, okay?"

  I shrugged. "You're calling the shots, here."

  He rummaged in the pack he brought with him when he and his friends boarded Island Girl in the anchorage. The satellite phone he retri
eved was a familiar model. I carried one like it for years, back when I was working for Nora. That phone was government-issued; it wasn't a commercially available type. His possession of it confirmed the truth of what he told me.

  These three men were indeed working for whoever replaced Nora after Mary and I killed her. As he said a few minutes ago, he was just doing his job. He was right about me, too; I was the prototype for people like him.

  The 'department' he mentioned was a small, highly classified part of the Department of Defense. Its mission was to carry out government-sanctioned assassinations. Now I was a target of the very organization I helped to create.

  How that came to be was another story, and one that I couldn't afford to dwell on right now. My immediate challenge was to keep him occupied. I wasn't interested in being interrogated. Telling him what he wanted to know would save me some pain, but it wouldn't increase my life expectancy. When I got into this line of work, I was in my early 20s. Like everybody that age, I thought I was immortal.

  Now, I knew better, but that didn't mean I was ready to die just yet. Even though my chosen line of work carried an increased risk of early death from unnatural causes, my will to live was still strong. I was considering how to drag things out until my situation became more favorable to survival. Then my circumstances changed.

  With his satellite phone in his left hand, the man mounted the companionway ladder. As good as the special phone was, it still needed an unobstructed view of the sky to acquire a satellite.

  He was halfway through the companionway when I saw him crumple. He fell back down the ladder, landing in a heap on the cabin sole. Before I could process what my eyes told me, a blonde in a day-glow orange bikini landed on top of him. The pistol in her hand was trained on his head.

  She raised herself to a crouch and slapped his face, holding the pistol steady. He didn't move. She felt for a pulse in his throat and nodded.

  "You okay, Finn?"

  "Fine as frog's hair. What took you so long?"

  "I've been aboard for several minutes," Mary said. "I was waiting for a chance to knock this one out; I killed the other two. I thought we might want to ask him a few questions."

  "Maybe. He's already told me quite a bit," I said. "Get me out of these cuffs before he wakes up."

  She nodded and peeled the blond wig from her head, shaking out her hair. "Whew! It's too hot for a wig in this part of the world."

  Shifting the pistol to her left hand, she opened one of the drawers under the chart table. She felt around and brought out a folding combat knife. With a flick of her thumb, she popped it open. Leaning over her latest victim, she sliced his pockets open and found the key to the handcuffs. After she put the knife away, she set me free and handcuffed my erstwhile captor.

  "Let's secure his ankles," I said, opening another drawer and grabbing a few heavy-duty cable ties. I handed them to her and took the pistol from her. "You do it; I'll cover you."

  She nodded. "Your hands numb?" she asked, as she zip-tied his ankles together.

  "A little. I didn't hear you come aboard."

  "Thanks to the noisy diesel. That aqua jet tender is super quiet. Too bad we don't have room for one on Island Girl. It sure beats your old inflatable and that two-stroke outboard."

  She rented the tender from a place in Road Town two days ago. When we noticed that we were under surveillance, we set about turning the tables on these three. Mary, with her skill at disguises, got close enough to them to overhear that they were waiting for a chance to get me alone. We weren't sure what they were planning, but it was easy enough to accommodate them.

  Once we put all the pieces in place, Mary made airline reservations through a travel agency in the marina complex at Soper's Hole. We were obvious about it, making sure the watchers saw her go into the place.

  Mary told the agent that her ex-boyfriend was following her. She said she would double any bribe he offered the agent for details of her trip. All Mary asked for in exchange was a warning phone call. Sure enough, within an hour, her cellphone rang; the watchers took the bait.

  She allowed the man tailing her to follow her to the airport last night. Once there, she went through ticketing and security. After she reached the gate, she went in the ladies' room and emerged as a different person. Satisfied she wasn't being followed any longer, she came back to Soper's Hole and set up her own surveillance.

  "How did you handle the two on deck?" I asked.

  "I brought the tender in close and let them ogle me while I asked a bunch of dumb questions about how to get to Jost Van Dyke. Then I shot them each in the head."

  "I didn't hear it."

  "Thanks to the suppressor and the diesel."

  "Where did you get a pistol with a suppressor, anyway?"

  "There's a man who has a machine shop near the old sub base in St. Thomas. I found out about him through the grapevine. Only problem is he warned me that the pistol might be hot. He thought it was used in a murder a few days ago, but it was all he had on hand, so I took it."

  "No problem. We'll ditch it with the bodies. He made the suppressor?"

  "Yes," Mary said. "He told me it would do the job, but I had my doubts. It worked all right, though. I was worried this guy would hear me and come up on deck, but he didn't."

  "No. We didn't hear a thing. Do we need to backtrack and pick up the tender?"

  "No. Once I blew those two away, I waited a minute to see if your pal here was coming up. When he didn't, I tied the tender off and came aboard. They were using the autopilot, so I left it on. I was trying to figure out how to take care of this guy when he came up the stairs with his phone. I was sitting on the companionway hatch cover, so he never saw me. I brained him with the pistol. What do you want to do now?"

  "Where are we?"

  "About halfway across the channel to Jost Van Dyke, on a heading that will take us past the east end of the island."

  "Let's turn around and find deep water. We'll head out past Peter Island. An hour southeast of there, the depth drops off to two thousand meters. Good place to dump our friends, if we weight them down with a little chain."

  "Who are they? You said he already told you some things."

  "He did, yes. Nora's replacement sent them."

  Mary frowned and pursed her lips. "They want you back?"

  "Not exactly. His mission was to find out who I'm working for now. Then he was supposed to kill me."

  "You believe that?"

  "I do, yes."

  "Do we even need to question him, then?"

  "It can't do any harm. We might pick up something useful, like who's running Nora's old group."

  "Did he say anything about me?" Mary asked.

  "Not much. They know you're a freelancer, or you were. And they know or suspect some of the things we've done. They think the things we did would have required an organization beyond just the two of us."

  Mary chewed her lower lip for a few seconds. "Wonder how much they know, and how much they're guessing?"

  "Good questions. Maybe he can tell us. Let's get up on deck and get on with it. We should get the bodies out of sight for now; there'll be a lot of traffic until we're past Peter Island."

  2

  Island Girl was rolling along under sail, making six knots on a southeasterly course. We were on a nice beam reach with the autopilot steering; Peter Island was about five miles behind us. Mary and I dumped the two bodies and went below to work on our captive. He was conscious, having recovered from his concussion during the two hours since Mary whacked him.

  He was on his belly, his hands cuffed behind him. He craned his neck to get a look at me as I stepped off the companionway ladder.

  "Where are my men, Finn?"

  "Dead," I said. "The girl shot 'em while they were distracted by her charms. We recycled them just now. Waste not, want not. Gotta keep the marine life fed."

  "But the girl's in Miami," he said.

  "There are lots of girls in Miami, but I'm not one of them," Mary said, jo
ining us in the main cabin.

  "How did..." He shook his head.

  "You guys weren't ready for the big leagues," I said. "I didn't get your name."

  "Doesn't matter. You're in deep shit, now, Finn. So are you," he said, rolling himself onto his side to look at Mary.

  Mary laughed. "You're funny. Glad to see you have a sense of humor."

  "You've killed two federal agents who were enforcing a legitimate warrant."

  "So far, today. But our tally's a little higher than just today's number, and the day's not over yet," Mary said. "Your organization must be depleted."

  "You're dreaming, lady. There are plenty more where we came from, and your pal's at the top of our list. Once I make my report, you'll be right next to him, too."

  "Ooh, damn," Mary said. "I wish I had known. If I cut you loose and let you kill Finn, will you let me go? Or is it too late for me to save myself?"

  "We might work something out," he said.

  "I don't trust you," Mary said. "Guess I'll stick with Finn."

  "My orders were to leave you be. Finn was our target. We thought you were in the clear."

  "I am in the clear. You're the one who's in deep shit, dumb ass. How's it going to feel, getting killed by a girl?"

  "Dead is dead."

  "Enough foolishness," I said. "Remember what you told me a little while ago about answering questions?"

  "Yeah. But I'm not going to talk."

  "That's what they all say," Mary said, flicking open her folding combat knife and kneeling down beside him.

  "Want to reconsider?" I asked.