Jack and Amos walked down to the water’s edge. They had been inspecting the work on the cabin porch, which government had called to an abrupt halt. Amos had shown the building inspector the plans to replace the porch floor with a different material than had previously existed, and Tallahassee surprised them with a demand for a $500 special permit to rebuild it. Amos had driven all the way to the capitol with the plans and the money. He wanted to firm it up quickly and get the place back in shape before “government” thought of something else. Jack was all for it.
“We always want ‘government’ to work in our favor, don’t ya know,” Amos said. They both had taken off their shoes and were ambling along the shore. A couple of dolphins gave them a playful show, not a care in the world.
“Well, I bet they roll out the permits like toilet paper to those land developers. They got the cash.” Jack squinted out over the Gulf. He field-stripped the cigarette and put the butt in his pocket.
“When you gonna quit?”
“When I can tie up this bundle of nerves and bury them in a hole somewhere.”
“I hear you.”
The two had gone to Manatee County High School together, but then, as is often the case, they didn’t see each other for years. They hadn’t hit forty yet, and they had both managed to turn out successful careers. Now it looked like Jack had hit a bump.
A walk on the beach was private with no ears to hear but their own. Jack didn’t want to talk on the porch. It was a mess of timbers, rolls of screening, and a scatter of dusty chairs. The workmen lingered and they were none too tidy. They’d left a large bag of garbage and an ever-growing pyramid of soda cans and beer bottles. Amos was having a talk with them when Jack walked up. Alcohol had a way of screwing up building projects. Amos had already been down that road, and he didn’t want to go back.
“What’s going on?” Amos asked the question, and then laughed. So much had been going on, it was hard to know where to start.
“Most important, Blanche is better. They were worried about the trauma of the kidnapping, but apparently the physical side is under control. She’s tough. She’ll pull through.”
“We’re here for her. She seemed confused, but I would be, too.” Amos had dropped by the hospital with flowers.
They both looked back at the cabin, its porch under construction, the second floor still propped up, but the project was coming along.
“It would be nice if she had a home to come home to.”
Amos sighed. “Yeah, I hear you. This new permitting to rebuild is the hard part, but we got them this time around. The inspector wanted to condemn it, but I reasoned with them and proved it wasn’t more than fifty percent gone. They bought it. I didn’t tell Blanche.”
“Well, don’t. She’s already out for blood.”
“I know. I met him. He came after me looking for support for the land development. Talked of money. I hate to use the ‘p’ word. But I will. They were talking payoff to bamboozle the folks into thinking their buyout offers were good. No talk of the increased property taxes and the teardowns of the businesses and all the other stuff.”
“They also tried to get Bob on board. Promised payoffs. They paid him off all right.” Jack ran his fingers through his hair. “Jeez, I never should have gotten tied up with them. Looked so easy.”
“You know what they say. It looks easy, look again. They wanted me to use my connections in Tallahassee and I told them no. I played dumb.”
“That wasn’t easy. Don’t they know you’ve been building out here since you could hold a hammer?”
“Yeah. I deflected. Something wasn’t right about them from the beginning,” said Amos. “When I asked questions about the financial end of it, Langstrom was vague. At first, he didn’t even want to give me Brecksall’s address and phone number. Real cagey. He should have been more open about it. I think Blanche’s instinct about the whole bunch was right on.”
“I felt the same, but I went ahead and hooked up with them anyway. I was desperate to get stuff moving out of Texas to the Midwest, and they seemed only too willing to oblige. I didn’t even finish all the paperwork—They said they’d take care of it. Now I see why. They have connections with what’s left of that Chicago mob. Most of them got sent up, but the underground is alive and well and growing.”
Amos looked at Jack. “Good God, how fast did you run from that?”
“Not fast enough. Langstrom held me off, said that was all a thing of the past. It’s not. And right now we don’t know how deep it goes.”
They are about to move on Brecksall. Jack trusted Amos, but he changed the subject. “Have you seen Langstrom around? He disappeared just about the time Blanche was kidnapped. Do you know anything about the guy? Where’d he hang out, travel, stuff like that?”
“Not really. Haven’t seen much of him lately,” said Amos. “It’s funny. He seemed so likable at first. We got to talking about sports, and apparently, he likes to ski. He got some kind of trophy out of college, was on a ski team and even tried out for the Olympics. I was impressed.”
Jack remembered what Haasi said about Langstrom and a Swiss bank account. On the phone, he’d insisted on having money sent to such an account. That’s probably where he was headed, Switzerland or the Austrian Alps, unless he stopped off in Vail. Ski resorts were one place to look.
“I think they could get them on RICO,” said Jack. “Langstrom was complicit in the kidnapping, and attempted murder—and that’s what they’re calling it. He was partly the mastermind, and he must have called a lot of the shots. We have witnesses.”
“Who?”
“Haasi. The girl is everywhere. And Blanche, of course, is deeply involved.”
“He sure isn’t much of a mastermind. That whole thing didn’t go well for anyone. Blanche is traumatized and coming out of a coma, and let’s face it, Langstrom was found out. You should be keeping a low profile, Jack.”
“I’ve got protection now. I don’t want it, but Duncan and the Feds insist. I hardly notice they’re there, but they are. Blanche is being watched in the hospital, and she’ll need it for a while. I can just hear her now, but maybe she’ll be willing with all that’s been going on, at least until this mess is straightened out.”
“I wonder. Those guys parked in the sedan down the street aren’t wearing bathing suits.”
Jack glanced in that direction. “Very un-island-like behavior and dress, but so is a lot of other business going on around here.” He turned to the Gulf horizon and watched a couple of pelicans hovering over a frilly wave. “Those guys got the right idea.”