Robert B. Parker’s Someone to Watch Over Me

52

We met Godfrey at a restaurant called the Hot Spot in Arthur’s Town.

He sat in a back booth sipping some rum from a jelly jar. I assumed it was rum, but it might’ve been Gautier cognac for all I knew. He was a thin, hard-looking black man of indeterminate age. He had dark eyes and a short Afro with a substantial beard. There were the faintest traces of gray in the beard.

Hawk introduced us. Godfrey, much taller than I expected, stood up and wrapped Hawk in a bear hug. He had on khaki cargo shorts and a loose blue Hawaiian shirt.

“It’s good to see you, my friend.”

Godfrey offered a hand. It overlapped mine with a grip that could crack walnuts. The room was cool and quiet. Twinkling white lights crisscrossed lattice that stood in place of walls. Both a front and back door were wide open, offering a little light into the darkened space. A big poster for something called the Rake and Scrape Festival hung by the bathrooms.

“This him?” Godfrey said.

Hawk nodded.

“Heard about you, Spenser,” Godfrey said. “Hawk said one day you’d come to Cat Island.”

“I wish it were under more leisurely circumstances.”

Hawk joined Godfrey in the booth, and I found a nearby chair to sit. The booth wasn’t meant for three men of our size. A woman walked up to the table, bringing two more glasses of the dark liquid. Godfrey smiled at her.

The woman was very beautiful, with sleepy eyes and full lips. Her nails were long enough to help us dig a tunnel down to China. She smiled at Godfrey and then Hawk and wandered back wordlessly to the bar.

Godfrey lifted the glass. We clinked them together, and I took a drink.

I was right. It was dark, very good, sweet rum.

“Relax, gentlemen,” Godfrey said. “We have you covered.”

I thanked him for his hospitality. For the car, the cottage, and the good rum.

“I’ve heard of this man, Steiner,” Godfrey said. “And I’ve made some inquiries. I know some people who’ve been on his cay and seen many things.”

I liked the small restaurant made of clapboard, tin, and concrete block. The daily specials were listed on a chalkboard. Conch burgers, cracked conch, cracked lobster, conch fritters, and conch salad. Godfrey caught me staring at the menu.

“I wonder if they have any conch?” I said.

Godfrey smiled and motioned to the waitress. Hawk ordered two lobster tails with black beans and rice and plantains. I ordered one of everything and two beers.

“Beer for me, too,” Hawk said.

The woman looked back at me.

“Planning ahead,” I said.

Hawk and I finished the rum at the same time and placed the jelly jars onto the center of the table. Godfrey leaned forward, looking up at us and nodding. “I know some people who’d worked for this man,” he said. “It’s not a large island. But big enough to employ security. I heard there are cameras everywhere. Even the beaches.”

“Can you get us ashore at night?” I said.

“Of course,” he said. “No problem.”

“Can you get us guns?” Hawk said.

Godfrey just smiled. “Already waiting for you back at the cottage.”

Hawk nodded his approval.

“Do you mind telling me the purpose of your visit there?” Godfrey said.

The waitress returned with three beers. Hawk tried to take two. I intercepted them both. He again smiled at the woman. She smiled back and went away. Something personal and intense passed between them.

“Karena hasn’t forgotten about you,” Godfrey said.

“Or I her,” Hawk said.

I drank some of the beer. More Kalik. I wondered if there were any more breweries in the Bahamas or if rival beers were outlawed.

“We’re looking for a young woman,” I said. “Her name is Carly Ly. She’s from Boston, of Asian descent, and fifteen years old.”

“I know about the girls,” Godfrey said. “Some people call it Pedo Island. It’s an island of pleasure for old men. All the workers must sign an agreement. If they talk too much, they’re fired. Or worse.”

“What’s worse?” I said, already knowing the answer but wanting to know more.

“There was a cook,” Godfrey said, scratching at his beard. He leaned back into the ragged vinyl booth. “Some years ago. He took some photographs. Possibly tried to sell them.”

“And then?” I said.

Godfrey threw up his hands. “No one knows,” he said. “One day he went to work. And never came home.”

“Do you know someone there now?” Hawk said.

Godfrey nodded.

“We will need to speak with them,” he said.

“I don’t know what they’ll tell you,” Godfrey said. “But I do know you will need more men.”

“You’ve never seen me and Hawk in action.”

“I have seen Hawk,” Godfrey said. “And even if you are half as good, you will need at least two others.”

“Half as good?” I said, pointing at myself.

“Maybe a quarter,” Hawk said.

Soon the food arrived, and we took a break to eat. Mine was served on a platter the size of a manhole, with both cracked conch and cracked lobster with sides of beans and rice and plantains. I ordered another beer.

When we finished, Godfrey and I walked out to an open courtyard where people had started to gather for a karaoke night. Hawk had wandered up to the bar to chat with Karena.

“Hawk is a brother to me,” he said.

“And to me as well,” I said.

“You shall have whatever you need,” he said. “Guns, assistance. People like Peter Steiner are like a cancer on our islands. They are no different than the plantation owners from a hundred years ago. They destroy the natural beauty and use our people to do it.”

I watched as he pulled a very large cigar from his Hawaiian shirt and set fire to it with a lighter that resembled a grenade. The cigar had a big fancy band on it that looked expensive. I waited until he had it going.

“There’s another man who may be there,” I said. “I don’t know his real name, but he often goes by Ruger. He has gray hair and gray eyes. He only wears gray clothing.”

“Sounds like a very strange man.”

“If he’s there,” I said. “I would like to know.”

“Of course,” Godfrey said. “Anything. Anything at all.”

Hawk walked out and clasped Godfrey on the shoulder. He looked at me and said he’d be back to the cottage by midnight.

“Some unfinished business?” I said.

“Don’t wait up,” Hawk said.