Crystal Blue (Buck Reilly Adventure Series Book 3) by John Cunningham (novels for beginners txt) 📕

The shore wasn’t visible from the road, but I made a mental note to cruise the coast from the sky to see what lay around the Church of Hellfire. He might not call it that, but the shoe damn sure fit.

AFTER A TWENTY-MINUTE HIKE, I saw a black SUV coming up the road. It flew past, braked, did a quick U-turn, pulled up alongside me and slowed to my pace—all within a few seconds.

The tinted passenger window lowered and a massive black bald head peered out.

“You looking for me?” Boom-Boom. “Ready to broker the deal?”

“Just having some spiritual time.”

He grinned. “Hellfire’s place?”

The SUV came to a stop and Boom-Boom popped the door open. Of course there was a shotgun between his legs. I got in the empty back seat, and the same driver as last night stepped on the gas.

“How do you know Hellfire?” I asked.

The deep laugh I recalled through the stupor from last night made my toes curl.

“You ask a lotta questions, Reilly. But to demonstrate the extent of my network to you and your people, I got some information for you.”

“What—”

“Not so fast, brudda, we still need to arrange that sit-down. The quid for the pro quo.” He laughed. “You won’t be sorry, man. We can do this together a lot easier and cleanly than if things gets hostile.”

The driver turned onto the road toward Frenchman’s Reef.

“I’m headed to the airport, if you guys wouldn’t mind—”

“Let’s go meet your people, Reilly. Right now.”

“I told you, I’m working with Adoption AID.” Deep breath. “Did someone grab Thedford and Mahoney as leverage for future negotiations?”

“That why you went to see Hellfire?”

The cell phone rang in my pocket.

I pulled it out: YOUR MASTER. Shit.

“Go ahead and answer it,” Boom-Boom said. “Tell him I’m ready to meet, here and now.” He thumped the butt of the shotgun on the floor.

My mouth was dry. The phone started to ring again and I hit the green button.

“I can’t talk right now—”

“Impersonating an officer—”

I clamped my hand over the earpiece so Boom-Boom wouldn’t hear Booth.

“I said I can’t talk.”

“White’s threatening to have you arrested.” He laughed. “I’m calling, Reilly, to tell you that your lady friend’s now my top suspect in the disappearance of her husband.”

“Are you crazy? Just because of Stud—”

“Five million dollar life insurance policy says I’m not, hotshot. Keep your eyes open and think with your big head, not the little one.” He paused to make sure I appreciated his devastating wit. “I’m still assessing how this ties to Mahoney.” He hung up.

Boom-Boom turned back to look at me.

“Heard something about five million dollars, Reilly. I can get you more.”

I swallowed, hard. “I hear you. Why don’t you tell me what you’ve learned? I already told you we’d work something out.”

“I want a guarantee,” he said. “Insurance.”

My mind shot back to Booth’s call. A five million dollar insurance policy? On John Thedford?

“I’ll be at that concert,” Boom-Boom said. “That’ll put all those celebrities right in the middle, you know, in case our talks don’t go so good.”

“You help me find Thedford and Mahoney,” I said, “and good things will happen.”

Big yellow teeth appeared, but his eyes were slits.

“Okay, here’s the skinny. Brudda from Tortola picked up the dude you looking for on St. John, few nights back.”

“John Thedford? How’d he pick him up?”

“Boy got a bad ass red speed boat. Cigarette with trip 300’s.”

“Where’d they—”

“He’s a boat for hire, used him plenty times myself. Said he dropped the dude, who was all fucked up, at another boat out in the middle of the sound. Got paid on the spot in cash, but he don’t know shit. People approached him at the bar on Soper’s to make the run. Just business. Said he didn’t know the dudes.”

We were down in Charlotte Amalie now, driving up through the hordes making their way toward the cruise ships, when I smelled something not unlike burning rope. Boom-Boom had lit a monster blunt. He passed it to the driver, who pulled on it with Olympic strength, then tried to hand it back to me.

“Not today, fellas,” I said.

“Suit yourself, but you owe me now,” Boom-Boom said. “I want that meeting.”

“Fine, but I need to know where Thedford is, Mahoney too. Otherwise it’s just gossip. Did the same guy pick up Mahoney on Peter Island?”

“’Brudda with the boat didn’t know shit about no actor getting kidnapped.”

“So what’s his name, the guy with the red boat?”

Boom-Boom turned back to look over his shoulder, smoke streaming from his nostrils.

“That’s it for now. You set the meeting or I’ll be at the show this weekend, don’t forget it.” He stared into my eyes. “And if things don’t go good, there’ll be a whole bunch of other famous people in trouble.”

Boom-Boom gave me a long, hard stare. I held his eyes but had my hand on the door handle. I’d jump if that shotgun budged off his crotch. By the time he turned back around we were at the General Aviation building.

I got out. Fast.

“This weekend, Reilly. I’m counting on that meeting. And if things get ugly around here with your boss, I’ll find you first.”

WITH THE PRE-FLIGHT CHECK complete, I reread the letter from the FAA for the umpteenth time. Had they transmitted this to all the local authorities? Would Commissioner Duncan Mather of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force really allow me to make a water landing in the BVI?

Only one way to find out. I fired up the Beast’s twin Pratt & Whitney Wasp Jr. engines. The plane shook with the 900 horsepower from the twin radial engines. The sound and vibration stirred me to the core. Flying antique planes came with a lot of headaches, not the least of which was obtaining parts, but a thrill pulsed through me every time I cranked the Beast up. Seaplanes today were much more efficient and often faster, but they were all modified to