Geek Mafia: Mile Zero by Rick Dakan (reading tree txt) 📖

about the dead woman in the guest house less than ten blocks away, or at least stopped worrying about her. He certainly hadn’t, and of course they probably hadn’t either. Paul found it more than a little disquieting that they could all talk business and theory with such ease after hearing about Raquel’s murder.

“We don’t know that it did,” said Isaiah.

“But it seems rather likely, doesn’t it,” said Winston.

“Yes, I admit that it does,” Isaiah conceded.

“Well, the first thing we need to do then is figure out what happened to her,” said Paul.

“I didn’t tell anyone she was coming,” said Isaiah. “Not even Winston.”

“I had no idea she was involved in this scheme until Isaiah told me earlier this evening,” Winston added.

“And of course we didn’t know,” said Paul. “What about this other Crew that called in late?”

“I didn’t tell them either. And as far as I know, Raquel never had any contact with them. But of course I have no idea who Raquel has worked with. They may be the best of friends or the worst of enemies for all I know. I mentioned them to Raquel, and she claimed not to have heard of them.”

“You told Raquel about them?” asked Paul. “Did you tell her about us too?”

“I did,” said Isaiah. “And about Winston. Part of what I wanted her to do was check up on all of you, to make sure that none of you had any law enforcement heat on you.”

Paul didn’t like that he’d been secretly investigated. In fact, he did have some legal heat on him, although he didn’t think there were any active investigations going on. “What did she find?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” said Isaiah. “She was supposed to give me a report tonight.”

“So, basically we don’t know anything about who or what she knew,” said Paul. “Other than the fact that she was digging around into other Crews, getting in touch with her law enforcement contacts and generally sticking her nose where it wasn’t wanted. But since we don’t know what she found, we don’t know who she might’ve pissed off enough for them to murder her in her hotel room.”

“That seems to sum it up,” said Isaiah.

“What a fucking mess. Before we do anything else, I want to figure out what happened to her,” said Paul.

“We’ll help you….” Isaiah started to say.

“No, that’s ok,” Paul said. “We’ll handle it to start with. It’s our town, our responsibility. Chloe’s already working on it. If we end up needing help, you can be sure I’ll let you know.”

Isaiah was about to say something, but Amelia tapped her laptop screen, stealing his attention. He glanced at the display and narrowed his eyes slightly, then nodded. Amelia typed into the keyboard for a few seconds.

Looking up from the screen, Isaiah said, “Well, it appears our fourth and final potential partner has arrived.”

“I thought they said their ship had been delayed,” said Winston. Paul thought he detected a note of suspicion in his tone.

“That’s what they said when they contacted me,” said Isaiah. “Either they found a way to get off the ship and to this island, or they misled me. Either way, they’re here now.”

“Here in Key West?” Winston asked.

“Here in this hotel. In the elevator by now I suspect.”

“Then let’s pause our conversation until they arrive,” said Isaiah.

Paul looked around at the other three in the room and nodded. They were all very experienced, intelligent criminals, and now there were more of their kind on the way - men or women who might be murderers. He wished Chloe was there to help him deal with all this shit, but she had her own challenges. He needed to concentrate hard and watch out for anything and everything they might throw at him. Otherwise he was in dire danger of being swallowed by all these big fish he was suddenly swimming with. As Isaiah had said, time to evolve or die.

Paul sat and reflected for a moment, wishing for a pen and paper to doodle on - anything to release his nervous energy. He had started to wonder if maybe Chloe should’ve stayed at the meeting and let him investigate the dead body with Bee. Chloe didn’t have any more experience investigating murders than he did. Less even, if only because he’d read more detective novels in his life than she had. But most importantly, she did have experience dealing with Winston and people like Isaiah. Paul most certainly did not have any expertise with people like Isaiah or Amelia or whoever these new guys were. On the other hand, at least he wasn’t having to deal with a dead body, which was why he’d volunteered to return to the meeting in the first place.

That things had gotten so serious and scary all of a sudden didn’t surprise him. When they’d first heard from Winston about his visit, Paul had felt an anxious pang that he couldn’t explain at the time. He imagined it’s how he would’ve felt if he were married and he learned that his in-laws were making an unexpected visit - no real reason to be worried other than wild fantasies about all the ways it could go wrong. Well, it had now officially gone more wrong than he had ever imagined. And as interesting as Isaiah’s insane corporate/pirate ship scheme sounded, if he could’ve wished them all away, he would have.

No one had much to say as they waited. Amelia typed into her laptop, possibly communicating with Crewmembers outside. Isaiah just watched as she typed. Winston, who might’ve offered Paul some support, had gotten up from the table and was now standing in the corner with his back to the rest of them, fiddling with something in his hand. A cell phone maybe? Paul couldn’t tell.

There was a knock at the door, and Paul twisted around in his seat to see who was there. He blinked once in surprise. It was as if a fraternity field trip had just walked through the door. Leading the way was a broadchested short man with wavy bleached-blonde hair tucked under a blue baseball cap. He wore red surfer shorts and a loose-fitting cream-colored shirt that was unbuttoned to halfway down his chest, revealing a gold chain nestled in tufts of brown chest hair. Behind him came another man who could’ve been his older, thinner brother, also blonde, in sandals and a throwback New York Knicks jersey with a laptop tucked under his arm.

“What’s up, guys,” said the first one in a voice two levels too loud for the room. “Sorry we’re late.”

Isaiah and Amelia stood up, and Paul followed suit, offering his hand to the man. “Hi,” Paul said.

“Hey,” he said to Paul. The newcomer gave his hand a quick squeeze and a smile, but his attention was already focused on Isaiah.

“And you must be Isaiah,” he continued, pumping the older man’s hand. “Great to meet you, bro. I’m Eddie.”

“I’m surprised to see you tonight,” Isaiah replied, his voice revealing nothing as he reclaimed his hand from Eddie’s grasp and took his seat.

“Yeah, I know I said we’d be late, but I caught a different boat. It’s f ‘ed up, man. But anyway, we’re here. Did we miss anything?”

“As a matter of fact, rather a lot,” said Winston from the other side of the room. He was heading back from his corner.

“Really?” said Eddie. Following Isaiah’s lead, he and his companion took seats at the table between Paul and Isaiah, across from where Winston had been sitting. I guess we don’t get to know the other guy’s name, thought Paul, as he sat back down.

“There’s been a bit of a complication,” explained Isaiah.

“That’s an understatement,” said Winston. “One of our fellow guests has died.”

“No way!” exclaimed Eddie, his face startled as he turned to look at his companion. “What the hell happened?”

“We’re not sure yet,” said Isaiah. “It’s being looked into.”

“Who was it?” Eddie asked, looking around the assembled group.

“Her name was Raquel,” said Winston.

“You’re shitting me!” said Eddie. “No way…”

“You knew her?” asked Winston.

“Yeah. No. Not really. We just met a couple weeks ago, down in Jamaica. We were working this…” Eddie stopped, apparently realizing that maybe he’d revealed more than he meant to. Or maybe he just wants us to think that, thought Paul, reminding himself that everyone at this table was a shark.

“She hadn’t mentioned that she knew you.” said Isaiah.

“Really?” asked Eddie, a hint of annoyance. He leaned back in his seat. “Whatever. The point is, this is pretty fucked up. What did you say happened?”

“We don’t know yet,” Isaiah repeated. “We’re looking into it.”

“Looks to me like you’re sitting around on your butts on top of this crappy hotel,” said Eddie. “If she was murdered, then, well, I gotta know that shit.”

“What makes you think she was murdered?” asked Paul.

Eddie turned toward Paul, seeming to only now really notice him. “Who’re you?” he asked.

“I’m Paul. Why do you think she was murdered?”

“I don’t,” he said, smiling in a condescending way that Paul hadn’t seen since college. “I was just asking if she was.”

“Well, we’re looking into it,” said Paul.

“You’re looking into it? Looks to me like you’re…”

“Sitting on my ass in this crappy hotel. So you’ve said. But hey, guess what? There are more things on heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy, Eddie.”

“Your point being?”

“It’s being looked into,” said Paul.

“Ok, ok, I get it. Sorry to be a pain in the ass,” said Eddie, suddenly friendly as he leaned over and gave Paul a pat on the shoulder. “Just trying to get the lay of the land, you know?”

“Ok,” said Paul. He had to admit, if he walked into a room and someone told him that someone he knew was dead, he’d probably have asked the same questions as Eddie. Given the kind of people who were in this meeting, murder was the most likely cause of death. He decided not to think about what that meant for his own personal mortality statistics.

“We’re deciding how to proceed at this point,” Isaiah was saying. “We have no reason to believe that Raquel’s untimely demise is directly related to our endeavor here.”

“And no reason to believe it isn’t,” said Winston.

“He’s got a point,” said Eddie. “It doesn’t seem like a very fucking likely coincidence.”

“I agree,” said Isaiah. “It is probably related in some way, but it may well be entirely tangential to our actual purpose. As you know well, Raquel was a busy woman with a lot going on. We’re not going to make any decisions in regards to her until we know more.”

“We’re not?” asked Eddie, with a laugh. “So you’re making the decisions about what we are and aren’t going to do?”

“Of course not,” said Isaiah, although Paul thought that was exactly what he’d been doing. Despite himself, he was glad Eddie had called him on it. “We’re all free to do as we please, but I for one plan to keep going, taking all necessary precautions, of course. I’m not going to panic.”

“Who’s panicking?” asked Winston. “I just want us to be realistic and careful.”

“And we will be,” said Isaiah.

“Great. Sounds fucking great,” said Eddie. “Now would someone like to tell me just what it is we’re being so damn careful about? Isaiah, buddy, why’d you want to meet like this?”

Isaiah paused and took a deep breath. “As the man said, I have a dream…” he began again, launching into the same speech he’d just given half an hour earlier. Paul sat back in his chair, prepared to be bored as he heard