Chapter 13 #2
Gable sat back in the seat, sliding slightly over to sit behind his seat where they could keep an eye on each other in the rearview. Dane willed him to hurry it up. The trip to the Lucky Parrot wouldn’t take long.
“He was renting an old friend’s house and had a yacht in town.
I met him at the marina. He seemed personable and well-to-do.
He expressed an interest in making Martha’s Vineyard the base of his operations.
” Gable cringed. “In retrospect I can see that was a bad thing given the kind of operation he has. But I swear to you I had no idea then what his business was.”
“What did he tell you his business was?”
“Pharmaceuticals.”
“Did he have a wife? Family?”
“None that I knew of. He never said. There were a couple of young women on his yacht. I figured him for the playboy type. He’s a few years younger than you and I.”
It was Dane’s turn to wince. Shana snorted, but said nothing. She didn’t need to.
The dig hit its mark in the softest spot Dane had. His weakness turned out to be his age. He’d be turning forty this year. It got tougher to feel indestructible and immortal when gray hairs showed up in your beard and your knees complained if you ran more than a few miles.
But he still had his wisdom. And more goddamn experience than he ever wanted with the likes of Nate Beaumont. So he sucked it up and shored up his vulnerable spot with an overdose of unearned confidence and moved on.
“Wait a minute,” Shana said. “How young is this guy?”
“Late twenties.” Gable said. “I figured he was a playboy heir to one of the pharmaceutical fortunes. He didn’t want to talk business and I figured it was because he didn’t know anything about it because he was uninvolved and living off his trust, letting everyone else do the work.”
“Hmm.”
Dane knew that sign from Shana.
“What do you have?” he asked her. He tried not to sound impatient as he pulled up to the curb outside their second home. They spent more time at the Lucky Parrot than Captain Lynch’s office and so did Captain Lynch. Almost.
“I don’t think this is Beaumont’s operation. I think Del is running the show. Beau’s too young and Del is too alpha dog for it to be any other way.”
Dane slammed his hands against the steering wheel.
“Damn. You’re right.”
She smiled at him. “Don’t you hate that?”
He laughed. Mostly at himself.
“It’s not always a competition between us, girlie.
” He reached out and yanked on a golden lock of hair.
He was glad she’d ditched the ponytail. She looked much sexier with her hair down and falling over her strong shoulders.
The contrast between the shapely muscles of her arms and shoulders and her soft flowing hair turned him on whenever he let himself think about it, dwell on it. Now wasn’t the time.
He turned and got out of the car, flipping the keys to Gable in the back seat as he did.
“So what’s the verdict? Did Del have us followed?” He asked Shana as he joined her on the sidewalk outside the door. He glanced in the window to see that it was a quiet night.
“Yes.” She pointed her chin past him down the street.
He put an arm around her and angled himself so that he could see the car. An anonymous-looking Chevy. At least it wasn’t a Ford. ATF had more imagination than the FBI.
“Anyone get out?”
“No. Only the driver. A man. Probably Del’s fake-deputy, what’s his name. He can’t follow us inside since we’d spot him and he doesn’t strike me as the confrontational type.”
“Are we going inside for a drink?” Gable pushed the door open. “Because I was serious about needing one about now. Drinks all around on me.”
They took a table and Dane could see Gable’s tightly wound anxiety unraveling as he took a sip of his Scotch.
He and Shana ordered their regular. Patron.
“So what does this all mean?” Gable leaned toward them and spoke quietly, as if the other three people in the place were all there to listen.
“What do you mean?” Dane said.
“Delbert Parrish with the f—king ATF is running a drug operation? With Beaumont? And some guy is following us? That’s what I mean.”
Dane sighed.
“Take it easy. We have this under control. Del is a rogue agent, but that’s rare.
” He hoped he didn’t trip over his words because he only half believed them.
It would be more accurate to say that he hoped it was rare, but he suspected it was less rare than he wanted to know.
The thing was he knew. He knew far too many bad things he’d rather not know about.
Now Gable would be disillusioned and Dane and Shana would not only witness it, they were responsible for bringing him into it.
Gable stared at Dane with confusion taking over his anxiety. What Dane liked about the man was his ability to be impressed without worrying about appearing sophisticated and cool at all times. He was a rarity among his peers. Dane regretted contributing to his inevitable seen-it-all attitude.
“We have a lot of manpower on this,” Shana said. “I’m sure Del won’t expect the Coast Guard. He can’t bring anyone in because he’s not supposed to be officially working this case.”
“What if he decides to ditch his operation and kill Beaumont?”
“We’re counting on him to do that,” Dane said.
Shana sharpened her look at him. It was a surprise to him too.
He said, “It’s the natural implication now that we suspect Del is in charge. He can’t afford to have Beau spouting his mouth off. He’ll play it like he’s been playing Beau as an undercover agent and find an excuse to kill him. He’ll probably figure he needs to kill us too.”
“He can’t think he can kill us all and get away with it,” Shana said.
“No, but he doesn’t know we’re all going to be there. He doesn’t know Cap will be there. He might not even be expecting you. Although after Pratt fills him in on tonight’s visit he may.”
“What about me?” Gable asked.
“You go home and make sure he’s convinced that you were just having a friendly drink with us.”
“He’ll never believe me. He’s paranoid.”
Dane decided he would ask Gable to do what he’d planned to ask in the first place.
“Tell him we often go out. Tell him it’s a standing meeting because we have a deal in the works with you. You’re negotiating movie rights for our story and we’ve been meeting to work out the details.”
Gable’s face lit up like a flare gun.
“It’s a story. There is no deal.” Dane lifted his glass and noted that Gable’s excitement about a movie deal hadn’t diminished with the reminder that it wasn’t real.
“I also want you to tell him that you overheard me saying something to Shana about visiting Nate Beaumont. Tell Del you thought that was strange and maybe dangerous and ask Del what he thinks of it. That’ll throw his suspicion off you.”
Gable looked frightened and shook his head.
“Are you sure? Won’t that put you in more danger?” Gable’s hand shook as he lifted his glass from the table.
Damn complications. He hated damn complications. Gable the amateur complicated everything.
Now Dane would need to worry about protecting him from Del too.