Chapter 12: Near Calamity

William entered the address of Leonard’s yacht into his phone’s mapping application and announced, “It’s about forty-five minutes from here. Leonard has a boat in a private marina on San Jacinto Bay. We should be traveling through downtown after rush hour, but there may still be heavy traffic.”

Luck was with them. They did not encounter bumper-to-bumper traffic in their mid-morning ride. Even with little traffic the time was spent in silence. Sarah thought about Edith, her deception, her decision, and how her actions could impact her business. The fact that someone as close to William, and for so many years, could turn against him, meant that she needed to significantly expand the list of people she considered possible traitors.

Sarah looked to the front seat. As usual, William had his head resting on the back rest with his eyes closed. She wondered what was going through his mind? Surely, he had to be wrestling with Edith. He had known about her deception for a few hours, maybe a day, longer than the rest, but her death had to have shook him.

While Sarah tried to rationalize and understand what had happened, she knew that recent events meant she had no idea of what they may find when they arrived at the marina and talked to Leonard.

The GPS directions led Jimmy to a security booth, with a gated entrance, for the marina. A slightly overweight man stepped out wearing a tight-fitting dark gray shirt with stripes on one arm and a small pocket on his right chest. Strapped to his belt was a billy-club and pepper spray. He wore dark sunglasses and carried a clipboard.

“What is your business at the marina?” he asked gruffly.

Even though Jimmy was driving, William leaned into view of the driver’s window and spoke from the passenger seat. “We are with Argonne, Industries, and we are here to see my Vice President of Marketing, Leonard Koppel. His yacht, All Smoils, is moored here and he is expecting us.”

The man looked at his clipboard, flipped a few pages, and then stated, “You are not on the approved list. You will need to go to the public entrance.” He pointed to his right and said, “Quarter mile.”

Jimmy asked, “Can’t you call him and confirm our visit? I can see the boats right there.” Jimmy was pointing straight ahead. A small parking lot, with available spaces, had a walkway directly onto the pier. Jimmy’s question was met with the back of the man’s head. He had turned and was walking to his security booth.

Jimmy flipped him off and muttered, “Fucking wanna-be cop.”

William shrugged and pointed in the direction of the public entrance. Jimmy reversed the car and headed in the indicated direction.

From the backseat, Dennis asked, “Did I hear you right? What kind of name is All Smoils for a yacht?”

William sighed. “It’s Leonard’s idea of being clever. For being in marketing he can be a stupid son-of-bitch sometimes. It’s meant to be a play on words with All Smiles, but since he’s in the oil industry, he thought it would be funny to change smiles to smoils.”

Sarah groaned at the explanation. “Yeah, that stinks,” she said.

“When he got the yacht, everyone he told about the name tried to convince him it was a bad name. But he had already fallen in love with the name, or his perceived cleverness, and wouldn’t think of changing the monicker.”

“How long has he had the yacht? What does he think of the name now?” asked Dennis.

William paused to think. “He’s had it, let me see, at least ten years. And he still loves the name. He doesn’t understand why everyone else thinks it sucks.”

Jimmy turned on his blinker and navigated into the drive for the public entrance. It wound down a small road to a larger parking lot than they saw from the private entrance. It was also much further from the boats.

“Damn wanna-be,” cursed Jimmy again.

Resigned to their longer walk, everyone got out of the SUV and slammed their doors. William started down a sidewalk that led to the water.

As they approached the boats, Sarah, Dennis, and Jimmy started scanning all of the names, looking for the All Smoils. Many of the names they read made them chuckle, or groan at the bad pun. The more they read, the more they knew Leonard had chosen a bad name. William had seen pictures of Leonard’s yacht and was focused on the larger ships moored further up the pier.

They eventually arrived at All Smoils. William was not fond of boating, but he knew the protocol. He called out loudly.

“Leonard, it’s William Estes, permission to come aboard?”

They waited a few moments, then William called out his request a second time.

A head popped up from below deck of a nearby boat.

“Lenny’s there. Saw someone go aboard about twenty minutes ago.”

The four exchanged glances. When they heard what sounded like a muffled cry, William made the decision to board. He lightly jumped onto the deck of the All Smoils, then turned to give Sarah a hand as she stepped over the small gap between the pier and the boat.

William continued to call out Lenard’s name as he opened the hatch to go below deck. He slowly descended the narrow, steep stairs. At the bottom of the stairs he let out a snort.

“I’ll be damned.”

The others yelled below, “What’s the matter? What do you see?”

Jimmy dashed below. He had pulled a gun from his pocket. Sarah and Dennis followed as closely as they could manage. The four were crowded into the galley area of the All Smoils. Sitting at the small table was Leonard. His hands were behind the chair and secured with a zip tie. His legs were tied to the legs of the chair. He was gagged.

A short stocky man stood behind Leonard. He was on the north side of middle-age, but he was clearly in better condition than most men twenty years his junior. He had on dark clothes and had a ball cap pulled low over his forehead. Within arm’s reach, on the counter next to the sink, was a small bag. The zipper was opened and everyone could see that it contained a variety of tools – a ball peen hammer, pliers, a knife or two, and zip ties. They assumed he was not on the boat to help with odd jobs.

William smiled. He motioned for Jimmy to put away his gun. Everyone looked at him in disbelief.

“Darth Vader, my old friend, I wish I could say this is a surprise.”

There were three gasps around William. The man just nodded.

“You know, I recently met your daughter, Annette, so after all these years, I finally know your real name. Sean Holbert. Son of the legendary lawyer Herman Holbert.”

This time there were no quick intakes of breath. Everyone knew the legend of Darth Vader. Learning his real name was anticlimactic.

The other man nodded again.

“Well, listen, I hate to interrupt this party, but it doesn’t look like you’ve really gotten started,” William said as he looked at the bag that still contained the tools. “Mind if I have a quick chat with Leonard? I think we’re here for the same thing, and with luck, we can get it without this getting too messy.”

Sean took a step back from Leonard and leaned against another chair. He motioned for William to do what he wanted, then crossed his arms across his chest.

Leonard’s eyes widened in fear as he realized William was not there to save him from the intruder. He began to mumble into his gag.

William approached Leonard, then knelt down so that he was eye-to-eye with his vice president.

“Leonard,” he said softly. “I have a few questions for you, and I need you to answer them without screaming or trying to draw attention. If you do scream, then I leave and let this gentleman continue with what he started.”