Contraband

7

Stone was on deck when they docked near the old submarine base and saw the RIB tied there. The crew hoisted it to the top deck and into its chocks. Then he saw Max and an older man get out of a car.

“Hey, there!” Max yelled.

“You made it back?”

“In good time, too. Permission to come aboard?”

“Permission granted.” He met them on the fantail and Max introduced Tommy Scully. “This is all the department can scare up for a partner,” she said.

“Same here,” Tommy said, shaking Stone’s hand.

“Coffee?”

“Why not?”

Stone ordered it from the galley and sat them down to wait. “Did you interview your pilot friend?”

“Yep, and he went all blank on everything that happened between breakfast two days ago and being loaded onto the helicopter.”

“I wonder why?”

“Well, either he’s an honest amnesiac or a lying dog.”

“If he’s an amnesiac, he’ll come around in a day or two. If he’s a lying dog, well...”

“I haven’t formed an opinion on that, yet,” Max said. “I’m trying to keep an open mind.”

“Well, what he may have forgotten has put his life in danger. What sort of attempt was made?”

“Somebody dressed like a nurse jimmied the door from the fire escape and injected propofol into his IV bag. He twigged to what was going on and yanked his IV while his ‘nurse’ departed down the fire escape.”

“You got a tox screen pretty fast,” Stone said.

“I had to lean on a lady, but in the end, what was supposed to take a month took fifteen minutes.”

“I had visions of a platoon of people with microscopes, laboring away.”

“So did I. Turns out, it’s a machine. You just push a button and it spits out the report.”

Dino joined them in time to hear this last part. “Sounds like your local hospital has some pretty good equipment,” he said.

“They’ve managed to keep it a secret until now,” Max replied. “Our captain couldn’t believe it.”

“So now you’re stumped?” Stone asked.

“Unless Mr. Dix finds his memory.”

Coffee arrived, and they drank it.

“We’d better get back to work,” Max said. “There’s a report of a stolen bicycle on Duval Street.”

“The excitement must be hard to handle.” Stone walked them back to the gangplank. “How about dinner tonight?” he asked her, sotto voce. “My house, six-thirty?”

“You’re on.”

He gave her his Key West card.

“Right next door to Bare Assets,” Max said, naming the gentlemen’s club. “I worked there for a week when I was nineteen. I think I still have the bruises.”

Stone laughed. “See you at six-thirty. It’s casual.”

“It’s Key West,” she said, getting into her car and driving away.

Captain Todd appeared. “We’re ready to cast off,” he said. “Are you coming with us?”

“No, Dino and Viv are, though. Text me a location when you get to Miami, and ask someone to bring my laundry up to date. I’ll call for a tender after I’ve landed at Tamiami.”

“Will do,” Todd said.

Stone went ashore, where his caretaker, Raul, waited in the car. Breeze was headed north, and they would make her their base for the Democratic Convention. The voting would take place that night. Stone would join them the following day in plenty of time for Holly Barker’s acceptance speech.

Stone answered the front doorbell at 6:40 and let Max, dressed in a flowered minidress and flip-flops, into the house. He kissed her. “Are you wearing anything under this?” he asked, feeling around.

“That’s for you to find out,” she said. “Who do I have to fuck to get a drink around here?”

“The bartender,” Stone said, leading her to the bar and producing a frosty bottle of gimlets.

“How’d you know I’d want one of these?” she asked, sipping the deliciously cold liquid.

“You seemed to like them the other evening,” he replied.

“Give me the tour while I can still walk,” Max said.

Stone took her around the place and showed her his study, the living and dining rooms, the kitchen, and the master suite that was in a stand-alone area off the deck. They settled on the deck with their drinks, overlooking the gardens, koi pond, pool, and spa. Stone set the bottle, wrapped in a bar towel, on the coffee table.

“Did you recover the stolen bicycle?” he asked.

“Some schmuck tourist parked it on Duval Street, in front of the restaurant where he was having lunch. Then he sat on the porch and watched some homeless-looking guy walk up to it, get on it, and pedal it away. Didn’t even yell at him — scared the guy would yell back. A six-thousand-dollar bicycle! I didn’t even know there was such a thing. A uniform found it abandoned on the beach and recovered it before someone who knew what it was worth rode away on it. The tourist was flabbergasted. He never expected to see it again.”

“Another crime solved by the Key West PD,” Stone said, freshening their drinks.

“The way we’re going,” Max said, sipping her drink, “we’re not even going to make it to dinner.”

At that, Sara, Stone’s housekeeper, came out of the kitchen with a covered tray and turned on the grill.

“Too late,” Stone said. “We’ll start over after dinner.”

Sara grilled snapper and roasted vegetables, and Stone opened a bottle of chardonnay and tucked the gimlet bottle into the outdoor freezer. They dined outside. Then, when Sara had cleared the table, Stone took Max’s hand and gave her the tour of his master suite.

They entertained each other for the better part of an hour, then sat up in the electric beds.

“You said Breeze has gone to Miami? What’s your interest in the convention?”

“Holly Barker is an old friend.”

“I think I know what that means,” she said. “I mean, I’m a new friend, and look at us — all nekkid. How on earth did you meet her?”

“I went down to Vero Beach to take delivery of a new airplane at the Piper factory some years ago — this was before I moved up to jets. I was in line at a local bank to pick up a cashier’s check for payment, and people with shotguns entered and started pushing people around. A guy behind me in line tried to protect a woman from them, and they shot him where he stood. I watched him die, while we waited for the ambulance.”

“And what does that have to do with Holly Barker?”

“She was engaged to marry him the following day. We met when she was interviewing witnesses. She kept right on working, and I was impressed.”

“She’s an impressive lady,” Max said. “I’ll vote for her.”

“I’ll tell her. She’ll be thrilled to have your vote.”