Active Measures by Cameron Marc

Author:Cameron, Marc
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pinnacle Books
Published: 2019-11-25T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Odesa was buttoning up her boat for the night when Ronnie walked down Pier 2 at Marina Hemingway. A humid wind caused the palms to chatter overhead. Dock lines groaned and bumpers squeaked. Odesa looked up and heaved a sigh of annoyance, as if she’d narrowly missed her chance to escape. She unlocked the two padlocks at the top and bottom of the door and stepped back, allowing Ronnie to enter so they wouldn’t have to talk outside among the mosquitos and the bothersome neighbors on the vintage Chris-Craft cruiser that had tied up in the next slip to the east, stern to stern with Danotria.

“Have you returned for another cafécito, my sister?” Odesa said, half sneering.

Ronnie shook her head, arms crossed, hugging herself.

“I need your help,” she said.

“Cafécito it is,” Odesa said.

“I’m serious,” Ronnie said. “My friend is in trouble.”

Odesa raised a brow. “Your boyfriend, Jim Shield?”

Ronnie nodded. Her cell phone buzzed before she could answer. She looked at Odesa. “Sorry,” she said. “This might be my auntie.”

Odesa waved away her apology and busied herself with the coffee press while Ronnie answered her phone.

It was Peppa, her voice at once jubilant and guarded.

“I know where they are holding him.”

Ronnie put her phone on speaker. “Odesa is on the line as well,” she said. “Where is he?”

“Valle Grande,” Peppa sighed. “It is a prison, but authorities sometimes use it for detention before a trial. It is a blessing that they did not take him to the Villa.” The shudder of relief was evident in her voice. “Apparently, they think of him as a common criminal.”

“A common criminal?” Odesa lit a gas burner under her coffeepot. She shook out the match and held the smoking stick in her hand. “And that is a good thing?”

“It means they do not see him as a political prisoner,” Peppa said. “Tomorrow is visiting day. There is a chance we will be able to see him.”

Odesa shook her head as she measured out her coffee from the sack she kept in a plastic tub above the stove. “I do not think it will be possible to see him so soon,” she said. “I had to get on the visitor list fifteen days early to see my friend. He is not at Valle Grande, but I imagine the rules are the same.” She brushed a lock of blond hair out of her eyes and flopped down next to Ronnie on the settee, interested now in the situation. “They will make you kick the ball around and around before they let you score.”

“I imagine so,” Peppa said. “But I have, shall we say, greased the way. We are on the list for tomorrow.”

Relief flooded over Ronnie at the notion of seeing Jericho in person. “How did you get us on the list?”

“It is best you do not know,” Peppa said. “Visiting hours are at ten, but I understand we should arrive three hours before that.”

“True,” Odesa said. “And you should take him a rice sack full of cigarettes, crackers, that sort of thing.

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