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

TWO and a half hours later, Paul met Isaiah and, as it turned out, Winston at the Blue Parrot restaurant over in Bahama Village. The restaurant was one of Paul’s favorites, and also one of the most popular breakfast joints on the island. Most of the dining area consisted of picnic tables spread out beneath the trees, with chickens scrambling around the mulch-covered ground while the owner’s dogs prowled about hoping for table scraps. The ultra-casual setting belied a relatively sophisticated menu that included seafood eggs benedict that Paul craved at least once a week.

Even at this early hour the restaurant was crowded. This time of year, with so many tourists on the island, there would soon be an hour’s wait. Most of the tables had happy diners chowing down at them. But Paul didn’t see Isaiah anywhere among them. He was about to ask the hostess for a table when his phone started to vibrate in his pocket. It didn’t even surprise him when he saw the number Isaiah had been using on the caller ID.

“I assume you’re watching me from somewhere?” Paul said as he answered.

“Look up,” Isaiah responded.

Paul looked up, first into the trees and then at the second floor of the ramshackle wooden building that housed the restaurant’s kitchen and small indoor dining section. On the second floor was another dining room, one usually closed except on the most crowded mornings. He saw Isaiah standing at the top of the stairs. He’d changed into less formal attire - a pair of jeans and a simple, short-sleeve button-down red shirt. Paul nodded at him and shut off his phone as he made for the stairway.

Upstairs he found Isaiah and Winston both waiting for him at a table, along with pitchers of coffee and juice and a platter of muffins and croissants. They had the small dining room to themselves, and Paul assumed they’d paid for the privilege of not being disturbed any further.

“You found my favorite restaurant,” said Paul. “You seem to know everything.”

Isaiah ignored the barb. “Please, take a seat,” he said, motioning to the chair across from him.

Paul nodded to Winston by way of saying hello, sat down and poured himself a cup of coffee and took a blueberry muffin from the tray. “Is there going to be a waitress coming?” he asked.

“Is there something you need?” asked Isaiah.

“Eggs. Bacon. Toast.”

“If you could wait until we’re finished,” Isaiah said. “It shouldn’t take long.”

“Fine,” said Paul, munching his muffin.

“So, did everything go all right at the hotel?” Winston asked. “Did you…?”

“Yeah, it went fine. We got her out of there.”

“Where is she now?” Winston asked, his voice sad.

“For the moment we’ve got her hidden in a freezer in our backyard,” said Paul. “But that’s not a good long-term solution. It’s not even a good short-term solution. If you could…”

“We’ll help you dispose of it,” said Isaiah.

“I’ll take care of it,” said Winston. Isaiah looked over at the old man and the two stared at each other for half a heartbeat. “She was a friend. I owe her that much.” Isaiah nodded in agreement and they both turned their gazes back on Paul.

“It’s going to be tricky now that the sun is up,” said Paul. “You never know who’s watching. I’m told you can’t be too careful.”

“We can handle it discreetly I’m sure,” said Winston.

“And I guess you already know where we live,” said Paul. Winston nodded and smiled. Paul wondered if Isaiah had told him or if the old man had found out on his own. He was pretty sure Chloe hadn’t filled her old mentor in on her supposedly hidden home base. Hidden no more it seemed. “Ok, well, the sooner the better.”

“It will be my top priority when we’re finished here.”

“Great,” Paul said, his voice dripping with sarcasm although the truth was that this was the first piece of news he’d heard that actually gave him some relief. Having Raquel’s body in his backyard scared him stiff every time he thought about it. One call to the cops and he and Chloe were toast.

“What did you find in her room?” asked Isaiah, bringing the conversation back to where he apparently wanted it to be.

“Not much,” said Paul. He’d gotten a full report from Bee and Chloe about their investigation. “Whoever killed her also ransacked the room. Or at least we think so. The room looked totally neat and undisturbed, but any laptops or other electronic devices Raquel might have had were gone. Also, Chloe found a hidden compartment in her luggage that was also empty. The killers covered their tracks very well.”

“And how was she killed?” asked Isaiah.

“It looks like someone hit her over the head. Or it could be poison or something, but obviously we have no way of testing that. It looks like she was in a fight though. Bee took some skin samples from under her fingernails, so maybe we could do a DNA test or something. Not that we know how to do a DNA test. Do you?”

“No,” admitted Isaiah.

“No,” concurred Winston. “Although I might be able to use a contact of mine up in Miami. I can take the sample and send it to him if you like, but it would still take weeks to get results.”

“Sure,” said Paul. “Might as well.”

“You said she fought back, but the room looked undisturbed,” Isaiah said. “Do you think the killer cleaned up after the fight?”

“We think she was killed somewhere else,” said Paul. “There was beach sand in the room and some of her clothes were damp. And there wasn’t much blood. Nothing broken. Plus someone had removed the window from its frame. Our guess is, they killed her somewhere else and then moved her body back to the room.”

“They?” asked Winston.

“Well, it would’ve been real hard for just one person to move the body around like that and push it up through the window without being noticed. You gotta figure there was someone else, right? And we seem to come in packs.”

“What do you mean, ‘we’?” asked Isaiah.

“I mean crews, like mine or yours or Winston’s. We’re like packs of wolves aren’t we? Feeding off the herd.”

“That’s a less than lovely metaphor,” said Winston.

“It’s a less than lovely murder,” said Paul.

“And you’re certain that one of us was responsible?” asked Isaiah.

“Well, not one of us in this room, I hope. But yeah, one of the Crews out there. Definitely.”

“Why do you say that?” Isaiah asked.

“Well, it’s a two-man job at least, probably more, and it’s unlikely this is all a coincidence of some kind. And then there’s the whole putting the body back in her room. Why do that? To send the rest of us a message.”

“Explain,” said Isaiah.

“Well, the killers put her back in her room. Why? Not to hide the body from the police, that much is for sure. There wasn’t a Do Not Disturb sign on the door. The maids would have found her body this morning. And then the police would have gotten involved. Plus, if they were moving her body anyway, then they could have hidden it anywhere. Or dumped it in the water - we’re never more than a half mile from the ocean here. No. They put her in her room, where there was every expectation that we would find her before dawn. Hell, we found her in under two hours once we started looking. So I figure they had to be sending us a message.”

“I agree,” said Isaiah.

“Well, that’s nice to hear,” said Paul. “Do you have any idea what the message is?”

“Do you?”

“No idea,” said Paul. And he didn’t. He knew it was a message, but he thought it was a pretty crappy one. “Some sort of warning I guess.”

“I agree with that assessment as well,” said Isaiah.

“And what do you two think the killer was warning us about?” asked Winston. “Assuming that’s what’s really happening here.”

“I assume that the killers are trying to scuttle our new project,” Isaiah said. “By killing a key player in the corporation and then placing her body where we alone would find it in time, they’re hoping to scare us off. That alone tells us something about the killers,”

“What’s that?” asked Winston.

“That they do not know me very well at all. I will not be dissuaded. And I hope you won’t either,” he said, looking both to Winston and Paul. “This should, if anything, strengthen our resolve. We need to find the killers. We need to take care of them. And then we need to move on. Our course is clear.”

Isaiah’s voice never changed from its level, careful tones, but Paul saw real anger in the man’s eyes. From the little he knew of Isaiah, he could guess that he was a man who prided himself on keeping his emotions in check. But behind the calm fa�ade was a hint of fury that he couldn’t hide. “What do you mean, take care of ?” Paul asked.

“That depends on who and what we find. But we obviously need to make sure that whatever group or person killed Raquel can never hurt us again. Absolutely sure. We are all agreed on this point, are we not?”

“Of course,” said Winston.

“I guess so,” said Paul. “I mean, I’m not making any promises. And I’m not going to turn into anyone’s hit man. We’ll just have to see how it plays out, won’t we?”

“Yes,” said Isaiah. “Which is why we need to proceed with the investigation. I know this is your island, Paul. And I know that you have resources and knowledge here that we visitors can’t match.”

“You seem to have good resources of your own,” said Paul.

“Not as good