Chapter 4: Cody’s New Job

Cody---For the next three months I lived like a monk in Lionel and Pat’s spare bedroom. Sue had signed the ‘no-fault’ divorce papers and finally I was a free man once again. I helped my brother in his business and would not let him pay me anything other than my truck note. He was well respected and with my help he was able to take on more clients. One day I was busy scraping the barnacles off some rich guys’ yacht when he appeared and started a conversation. He asked where I learned to dive and I said both Lionel and I were in the Marines and had learned as part of our training. After I finished he invited me into his house for coffee. This guy was rich and it showed. He had a mansion on a waterway in Tampa, a huge boat, a cook, a maid, even a fucking butler! He was living the dream. I met his wife, Sally, and his 21-year-old daughter, Ann, who was attending the University of Miami. Both were beautiful.

He told me how they were planning a trip on the yacht next week, taking his daughter back to school. He wrote me a check, and I left. I figured I would see him the next time he needed the barnacles scraped off his yacht.

I was wrong.

The next week he and his family were in the news. Their yacht had run into an afternoon storm off the southern tip of Florida and had sunk! Mr. Lewis, his wife and daughter, along with the yacht’s captain and first mate were all rescued by the coast guard but their yacht, the ‘Sally-Ann’ was lost under the waves. Thank God no lives were lost.

Two days later Mr. Lewis was knocking on Lionel’s door at 7pm. I opened the door wearing cargo shorts, no shirt, no shoes and no pistol in hand. I invited him in, apologizing for the way we were dressed. We were not expecting company! He understood. All of us, Pat, Lionel and I sat in the living room with him as he explained his visit.

“I’m sure you have all seen the story about the Sally-Ann going down. It happened so quick, we were in one of those storms that are so frequent in the area this time of year. But it was when that rogue wave hit us ... how the first mate was able to get that lifeboat in the water amazes me to this day. That kid saved my family, and I will be eternally grateful to him for that.

Now for the reason I am here. I need somebody I can trust, and I think I can trust you. I was not only taking my daughter back to school, I was delivering some ‘merchandise’ to a client in Miami. The insurance is going to cover the loss of the yacht. It will not cover the ‘merchandise’. I need a diver to go down and retrieve it for me...”

Lionel stopped him. “Mr. Lewis, if this ‘merchandise’ you are talking about is drugs, I am going to ask you to leave now. My brother and I have no interest in spending the rest of our lives in prison.”

“It’s nothing like that! I promise! In the safe in my stateroom, I had a bag of uncut diamonds. Their value is over a million dollars! I’ll pay you $50,000 to get them for me.”

Lionel spoke up, “How deep of water are they in?”

“As best as I can tell, 1 to 4 hundred feet.”

“Big difference, but still doable. Do you have the coordinates where she went down?”

Mr. Lewis reached in his coat pocket and pulled out a map. There was an X with numbers written beside it.

“The current is strong there, it will have moved her. We will need equipment we don’t have to find her, then...”

Mr. Lewis stopped him. He took out his wallet and said, “I figured as much.” He handed Lionel a credit card with his company’s name on it. “Use this to buy whatever you need. But please find those diamonds!” He started to walk towards the door and stopped. He took out a business card and wrote something on the back.

“This is the combination to the safe. Keep in touch. My cell phone number is on the front of the card.”

“Wait! Aren’t you coming with us? I mean, what if we don’t find the yacht, you would always wonder if we had found it and stolen the diamonds.”

“I trust you but my wife had the same thoughts. Since none of my family wants to go ‘sailing’ in the near future, one of Ann’s friends has volunteered to go with you. She quit school and started working for her father in Ybor City. Don’t worry, I’ll cover her salary.”

With that said, he walked back to the limo and left. Lionel immediately started doing research on his computer. He was checking the depths and currents where the Sally-Ann went down when I posed the question, “You think they are ‘blood diamonds?”