Flamingo Coast, page 23
“Flattery will get you everywhere, my dear.”
“Why don’t you put that gun down so we can finally have this talk? I’m sure you want to know why I’m here.”
“I already know why,” he said, not lowering his gun an inch.
—
The rain helped drown the noise Jack made when he pounded out the hinges on a side door and entered Marshall’s manse. He wore the stuffed Balenciaga bag like a backpack and gripped a black Beretta as he hiked up the stairs, hunting for the keys to the Aquariva Super, and the New Deals.
Marshall’s raincoat was on the landing, waiting, proof of his intended defection. Jack searched the pockets. No keys. Only a note with an order number for a helicopter scribbled on it. Marshall was leaving by bird, not by boat. That gave Jack hope.
He continued into Marshall’s master bedroom. Bags were packed and stacked, ready to go. Then he saw the two Burberry briefcases taken from his office.
Jack found a metal comb in the bathroom and used it to pry open the latches on the first Burberry. Inside were files, A through M, packed in tight. In the second briefcase were all the other current Flamingos, N through Z. The New Deals were all there, every detail about every Flamingo transformation, all their untraceable, buried secrets about who they were and who they became.
Jack heard voices outside. He looked out the windows facing the backyard and saw Marshall on the balcony below, pointing his shotgun, bidding Jennifer farewell.
He had to move fast.
—
Marshall felt a blunt cold object push into his neck, and he heard a familiar voice. “Drop it.”
“Surprised to see me alive, Marshall?” Jack asked, pointing the Beretta.
Marshall was actually, and his face went pale. Marshall set down his shotgun and saw his two Burberry cases in the doorway.
Jennifer looked up at Jack as if she were staring at the Messiah. “Thank God,” she heard herself say out loud.
“You okay?” Jack asked.
She nodded. “I am now.”
Jack turned to Marshall. “Give me your keys.”
“My keys?”
“Your keys,” Jack said as he raised his Beretta up to Marshall’s head.
Marshall reached into his pocket and ceded a bulky keychain, along with a cheeky grin.
“Why are you smiling?” Jack asked.
Jennifer answered for Marshall. “Because his boat isn’t down there.”
Marshall laughed.
Jack looked pissed. “It’s in the shed with your speedboat, isn’t it? So you can have it shipped to you once you helicopter to another island…? Too bad your plan just got hijacked,” Jack nudged Marshall forward. “Walk down to the water.”
“Why?” Marshall spewed. “Like you just said, my boat’s not down there.”
“I’m going to tie you up on the dock.”
“You haven’t thought this through. Flamingo security won’t let you leave the island alive unless I stop them. You need me—”
“Walk!” Jack ordered with a forceful shove.
Marshall headed down the steps that led to the lawn. His blood boiled. “Ungrateful son of a bitch,” Marshall said to Jack. “I brought you up from nothing. I gave you a decent life. All I asked in return was that you were loyal.”
“Actually, you asked a lot more than that,” Jack said. “For a guy who’s an expert in gaming the system, finding loopholes, and taking advantage of people, you sure had a lot of rules for everyone else to follow.”
“We all make sacrifices, don’t we?” Marshall snapped. “Success comes from the opportunities we take, not from the opportunities we turn down. The more you have, the more you want. It’s just human nature. True for cops and robbers. True for me. True for you—”
“Some of us seem to know a lot about human nature,” Jack snapped back, “and very little about being human.”
“And some of us would rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.” Marshall’s voice dropped an octave. “What did you think you were doing at Flamingo, Jack, hiding angels? Your idealism was one of your most charming qualities. I played into it, sure, even indulged your naïveté sometimes, if that’s what you want to blame it on, but you always knew the deal. There was a price to escape your miserable birthright. Let’s not play the fool here. You betrayed me. You betrayed Flamingo. And you knew the consequences—”
Marshall stopped himself, realizing that Jack was no longer right behind him. When he turned around, he saw that Jack was several paces behind, his finger on the trigger; he was shaking, deciding.
“Don’t! Please!” Marshall begged.
Jack’s eyes were full of hate.
Marshall turned to Jennifer, desperate. “I’m your father, for the love of God. Stop him!”
“Don’t shoot him, Jack, please,” Jennifer said.
Marshall looked like he had a glimmer of hope.
Jennifer pulled the .38 from the back of her pants and said, “Let me do it.”
Any glimmer of hope faded fast. Marshall pleaded, “Please, no, let me explain—”
“What’s there to explain?” Jack said, his gun still on Marshall. “Why you ordered Dex to kill me?”
Jennifer took a step closer and said, “Or why you let me believe that you were dead all these years?”
“I was forced to leave you. I didn’t have a choice. The CIA made me—”
“Bullshit!” Jennifer shouted. “I know everything. You set up offshore havens for your clients, saw that they could get away with it, and just got greedy.”
“For Christ’s sake, no,” Marshall shouted. “My clients were just a cover. The offshore bank was for the CIA. They hired me to set it up. I used my clients and their money just to make it look legit. It was for them. It was all for the CIA.”
He had her attention.
“I was one of the most knowledgeable specialists on offshore tax havens at the time,” he continued. “The CIA needed to launder a lot of money. They needed a bank that could be discreet and flexible. So they came to me. I told them that the Bahamas were their best bet. They hadn’t had any taxation since 1717 and their privacy laws were upheld. They asked me to help. I set them up at Nassau Bank & Trust, a bank I had a good relationship with, and I agreed to oversee and execute all their transactions. They couldn’t pay me on the books, so they bought me a stake in the bank. I would have even more control that way, and so would they—”
“It was a win-win for all of you,” Jennifer interrupted, “until it wasn’t. The Briefcase Affair happened. The IRS accidentally exposed the CIA. You and your clients got off. The IRS didn’t like how arrogant you were, so they sent an auditor to make your life hell. That auditor was Roberta Coscarello. For some reason, she fell for you. When she told you that she was pregnant with your child, you took the opportunity to run away from all your mistakes.”
Marshall didn’t see that one coming. And he didn’t have a response.
“You faked your death and moved to the islands. Your relationship with offshore banks made you the go-to guy for hiding money, and so you built Flamingo—”
“No,” Marshall objected. “I was too good at what I did, and the CIA needed banks all over the world—”
“More bullshit!” Jennifer shouted again. “You don’t do any work for the CIA any more. You have them working for you. You pay off a few greedy ones and they provide surveillance, authority, and security for Flamingos. The tax payers pick up the tab. That’s called bribery, treason, fraud.”
Marshall didn’t counter.
“Roberta Coscarello came here to save me,” Jennifer told him. “Your henchmen chased us over a bridge and she was killed.”
Marshall didn’t flinch.
“And your son’s name was Marcus, by the way. Did you even know that your other child was a boy? He was killed this morning. Your security apparently reaches all the way back to New York.”
Marshall looked away. He was trapped. And he didn’t have any words that would make a difference to his daughter.
“I always knew you were scum,” she said, her voice shrill now, “but you’re even worse than I had imagined. I spent my life wondering what happened to you, hoping that one day I’d learn that you were more than just a selfish prick, that you had one redeemable quality. Just one. I hoped that you really did have a boating accident, that you were dead. At least then you’d have a real excuse. For so long, I missed you, even wanted to be like you. Until I learned about the real you… Then I became the person I thought you would dread. I went after guys like you for pure pleasure. And you want to know something? I was good at it. I reveled in it, seeing the look in their eyes when they realized that they hadn’t beaten the system like they thought they had, that they couldn’t run, that they would pay.”
Marshall tried to speak but nothing came out.
“But I was miserable, resentful, and angry,” she continued, “and that’s no way to live. It’s finally clear to me…I was wasting my life trying to get back at you. But I’m done with that. I’m done with you.” Jennifer raised her gun, pointing at his head. “Do you have any regrets? Any at all?”
Marshall was no longer listening to Jennifer’s rant. His eyes fluttered. Reminiscences flooded his head, about Vera, Roberta, the dead son he never knew, the life he left behind—
“Answer me!” Jennifer shouted.
Marshall looked wary. “What was the question?”
“I asked if you have any regrets—”
“We all have regrets, young lady, and you’re going to have a big one if you pull that trigger.”
Jennifer’s eyes showed no mercy. “You think I would regret pulling this trigger? Are you kidding me—?” Just then, Jennifer noticed the keychain Jack had taken from Marshall and she reached for it, “Can I see that?”
Jack handed it to her. It was the rabbit foot keychain she had given her father on the day he walked out the door for the last time. She rubbed the soft white fur.
Marshall knew what she was thinking of the day he left:
“Daddy has to go away on a business trip.”
“You have to take this with you for good luck.”
Jennifer looked up at Marshall. “I gave this to you—”
“My lucky rabbit’s foot. Yes, you did. I’ve carried it with me ever since…” He saw a tear fall down her cheek. “See, I’m not the monster you are making me out to be.”
Jennifer lowered the gun. “I’m not going to pull the trigger. Not because I think you deserve a second chance, or because I forgive you. I don’t…”
Jack lifted his gun back on Marshall.
Marshall’s eyes shifted to the bushes over her shoulder. Dex was sneaking through and he had a gun in tow. Neither Jack nor Jennifer noticed.
Marshall had a surge of hope, proof that his system of checks and balances worked. He would have banked on Jack being his most loyal protégé in the end, but it was Dex who turned out to be his savior.
Marshall had told Jennifer on her tour of Flamingo Enterprises that human nature is profitable. He also said that people were as unpredictable as stocks, the reason he always delegated jobs to different Flamingos and never put all his eggs in one basket.
Now she was about to learn how he enforced the rules that protected his enterprise, and about rule number four, which was often referred to, but never spoken, until now:
“Any threat to Flamingo must be eliminated, without hesitation,” Marshall seethed.
No one was aware of Dex yet. He moved slowly and aimed his gun at Jennifer.
Jennifer looked at her father’s fraught expression, and her eyes swelled. “I’ve carried around the anger you left with me all these years,” she told him. “I don’t want to carry around anything of yours anymore. You’ve always been dead to me anyway—”
Jack shouted, “Get down!”
Dex fired his gun.
Jennifer hit the ground and heard the bullet whir over her head.
Jack squeezed his trigger.
The bullet hit Marshall square in the back of the head. He fell hard and died easy.
Jennifer took cover, diving behind nearby shrubs.
Dex charged her, howling, firing.
Jack trained his gun on Dex. It was difficult to stay with the moving target. Jack got two shots off. Both missed.
But the third was a charm.
Chapter 44
Dex and Marshall were both lying face up; bodies frozen; goggle-eyed gazes; gob smacked.
Jennifer couldn’t take her eyes off her father. “You’ve always been dead to me,” she mumbled. “This just makes it official.” Then she allowed herself to fully cry; a bountiful release, long overdue. She wasn’t sure if it came from finally knowing the truth, letting go of her past, pure exhaustion, her love for Jack, or all of the above—but the tears flowed.
Jack held her for a while and she welcomed his warmth. When she spoke again, she was stone-sober—qui vive—and ready. “We need to go back to the harbor,” she said.
“It will still be blocked off,” Jack reminded her. “Flamingo security has been ordered to stop us, and you were chased by CIA agents when you tried—”
She cut him off, “Are those the New Deals?” She was looking at the two large Burberry briefcases Jack had brought out to the veranda.
“A through Z,” Jack confirmed.
She felt a chill and a thrill. They could finish the job. And she couldn’t imagine a better partner.
Jack retrieved the briefcases, then they rushed across the lawn, through the front gate, and past the security guard, who was still unconscious.
When they got to the street, Jack said, “I still didn’t understand what you’re thinking. The harbor will be blocked—”
“We’re going to use a diversionary tactic.” She stopped and looked around.
Jack pointed to the right. “The harbor is this way. About a twenty-minute walk.”
“Driving will be faster.” She approached a Buick Regal parked on the street. The door was unlocked. Jennifer reached under the seat, crossed some wires, and the engine turned over. “Let’s go.”
Jack got in the passenger side and they drove off.
“What’s the diversionary tactic?” Jack asked.
She touched the Balenciaga bag Jack was still wearing like a backpack. “I’ll explain everything if you tell me what’s inside this thing.”
He looked out the window, contemplating.
“When I saw you the other day going into a church with that bag…I thought you were playing Robin Hood—”
“I wasn’t playing Robin Hood,” he said.
“Were you stashing away money?”
“No.”
“Then what’s inside?”
“All the New Deals that never made it to Marshall’s cabinet, the ones that I stole.”
“Why did you—?”
“I pulled all the files of people I believed in, who deserved a second chance,” he explained, “Flamingos that didn’t come here because they were running from the law or because they screwed over a bunch of people, but because they just wanted a fresh start.”
She smiled at him. “The innocent ones?”
He smiled back. “The innocent ones.”
“I thought you weren’t supposed to judge.”
“Sometimes a little judgment’s a good thing.”
“Is Jim Thompson’s file in there?” she asked, remembering to the story he had told her at Club Flamingo about why he liked helping people that deserved a second chance. “Will it show that he had fallen under the love spell of an aboriginal Semang woman and is living off the grid, happily ever after?”
“I don’t have Jim Thompson’s file, no.” Jack smiled. “But I have yours.”
“You planned on protecting me?”
“I still do… Take a right at the first stop sign,” Jack said as she approached an intersection. “It’s the quickest way to the harbor.”
She turned left instead. “We have to make a quick stop first.”
—
Jennifer stood behind a large palm tree, hiding in the shadows, waiting for her resourceful bartender to arrive for his evening shift.
When he arrived at the hotel, she called out, “Alex!”
He turned and saw her waving. “Ms.…Pelican?”
“I need to talk to you.”
He approached cautiously. “Our staff was briefed last night to alert our manager know if anyone saw you… Are you okay?”
“I’m fine. But I need a big favor.”
“I hope you’re not getting hooked on that Devil’s Breath shit—”
“No drugs,” she assured him. She handed him a hundred-dollar bill. “Please don’t tell your hotel manager you saw me.” She handed him another hundred. “Or anyone.”
He pocketed the money. “What’s the favor?”
“I just need you to get something to one of your guests.” She went behind the large palm and brought out the two heavy Burberry briefcases.
Alex looked nervous.
“I promise you, there is nothing illegal inside,” she told him. “No drugs. No money. Just papers. Very important papers.”
He nodded. “You just want me to leave these at the front desk?”
“I want you to get them to a guest. Sheldon Strom, he got married at the hotel—”
“I know who he is.” Alex lifted the heavy briefcases. “Is this some sort of wedding gift?”
“Kind of.” She handed Alex an envelope. “There’s a note inside for Mr. Strom that explains everything.”
“Don’t worry about a thing,” he assured her. “I’ll make sure he gets it.”
She gave Alex another C-note and kissed his cheek. “Thank you.”
Thunder cracked, as if on cue. Alex looked satisfied and put on his hood. “I got you covered,” he said as he started toward the hotel. “I just hope there’s not a bomb in these things.” He turned back to see if Jennifer thought that was funny, but she was already gone.
