Chapter 31

Chuck

Oh yeah, a strange bed and it's too full. Thank goodness I was on the end or the outside. Even a super king or California King can't hold ten people. When I swung from bed and looked back, I almost broke up. Eight girls, or women as they are, were all spooning, nested together as if stacked. It was just inconceivable that we all slept in the same bed. We need to figure out something better even if it's going back to the boat at night.

Thank goodness I had brought my peg as I slipped it on to go to the bathroom. I was amazed at how cool it was with the ocean breezes passing through the room. We almost could have used a light blanket in addition to just the sheet we used as cover. I came back into the room, sat down in a side chair, and just gazed at the critters sleeping together in the bed, chuckling to myself as I observed what I was thinking of as my cast of women this morning. The four house girls from my condo wanted to sleep next to me, so I had been hugging Mertine who was hugging Flori, with Minell, Maria, Gina, Julie, Taiying, Sing, and last was Lisa almost falling out of the bed on the other side. Even the bed in the boat seemed to be getting too small and we had one more than this before the Fun Five left.

I wondered what time it was, but I did know it was past sunrise. I had forgotten to reset my watch to local time, so who knew what time it was. Julie didn't even have an alarm clock in the room. As a matter of fact, I didn't remember any clocks anywhere in the house.

I heard sounds of construction vehicles in the distance, making me think it was probably after seven if the men were already working. Oh, well, I might as well get going. I heard someone moving around upstairs, which is the third floor, so at least someone else is awake.

Amazingly, I showered alone and dressed without waking anyone. I went downstairs and found the kitchen. Mina was busy doing what women do in kitchens. She smiled at me, wiped her hands on her apron, and came over to give me a hug. She pointed at the door to the porch and said, "Vaya siéntese por favor." When I didn't understand quickly, she smiled at me, still pointing at the door, "Please, go sit."

She is really a sweet person. Out on the porch, Mark and Carolyn were sitting with Dewey and Miguel. As soon as I sat, Mina placed a hot mug of coffee in front of me. Mark told me, "The coffee is from right here in Costa Rica. Mina usually trades for a big bag of beans in Limón, brings them home to roast, and grinds them fresh to make coffee. This stuff is strong, but oh so good." He was smiling when he added, "Now that she has all of the gas she can use, she's baking and roasting constantly. Miguel here had to remodel the kitchen to give her a built in double oven, in addition to that giant stove she has. She usually has at least a couple of island wives here helping out, but most of the people are preparing to go into Limón for their Saturday market day tomorrow."

Miguel said, "It is exciting to go to land. There are many shops and many sights to see. We often stay late to have supper at the Yacht club. Because you are the whole area's patrón, we are honored people and are proudly served the best they have to offer."

Carolyn giggled, "I've never met a patrón before."

Dewey told her, "The patrón is the chosen person, the protector or guardian, as well as financial supporter. It's a pretty big honor for these people to refer to you that way, Chuck."

I was a little embarrassed as I sipped the delicious coffee.

We heard what sounded like Steve's and Sue's voices talking to Mina in Spanish before the two of them came out to join us, already holding mugs of coffee. Steve asked, "What do you say we get an early start this morning and go explore the big island first? Miguel, you know the people who live there now, don't you?"

Miguel frowned, "I know them, but I don't care to be with them. I think they might be thieves and go into Limón at night to rob people and businesses. I've seen them on the way into Limón in the late evening as we come home, and have observed their boat on the way back early in the morning. The market shops are not open late at night, so they cannot be buying food. There are no jobs at night for people who act the way they do, and they always have a fairly new big boat and motors. If you travel to the island today, you need to be careful."

I told the group, "I have to sign some papers this morning, so I think I'll have someone help me fly into Limón. How about it, Mark, want to be my instructor pilot again?"

Mark grinned, "Anything to fly. This will be good, as the girls that live at your condo wanted to be taken in this morning. The girls from the boat will come and get them if they ask, but I'm sure they would rather let the boat girls do everything they need to do for tonight and the weekend."

I was going to run back upstairs, when the door opened and all of the women who had been in my bed came out to the porch. We rearranged a bunch of tables so we could all sit at one big table. Julie said, "Your four loves from Limón need to go back to the condo this morning. I just overheard Mark talk about it. That will be perfect for them."

"When we get there, can one of you drive me to the legal office to sign some papers?"

Minell smiled and said, "I am the best driver. I will take you."

The other three girls were all pushing her on the shoulder and telling her she wasn't speaking the truth. She just wanted to hog my attention. It was cute the way they were teasing her. Maria said, "It is good for Minell to do the drive; she is not that good at keeping house anyway. At least we've found something to do she is good." Maria screwed up her mouth and corrected herself, "Something she is good at."

My smile obviously was welcome. Flori and Mertine got up and were soon coming back out, helping Mina carry large trays of plates. They passed out plates with some kind of scrambled egg concoction and a lot of fruit around the edge of the plate. Mina went back in and came back with a huge platter of muffins. Miguel said, "We are in luck. Mina only makes these when she is the happiest. I think we will have a good day."

Mina didn't speak English that well, but understood what Miguel said. She gave him a hug before going back inside. Miguel did a Groucho Marx thing with his eyebrows as he smiled and looked at the departing Mina.

I asked, "This may sound like my music talking, but does anybody know what time it is?"

Julie laughed, "I'm not used to having to know the time. John never liked to be rushed or have to be somewhere at an exact time. He would only deal with other businessmen who could come around or be visited when he wanted it. I think we do have a couple of small alarm clocks."

I said, "That still didn't tell me what time it is."

Mark looked at his watch and said, "Coming up on seven right now, if my watch is correct."

Dewey pulled out his cell phone and said, "Six fifty-nine to be exact."

Oh yeah, I could have looked at my cell phone. I probably needed to charge it soon. I told Mark, "I think I can see the lawyer at eight. We need to go wake up Ben too. That's going to put us one person over for the airplane ride."

Sue said, "Let me go wake Ben up. If any of you men were to go in there, Carlotta will grab you and you wouldn't get out of there before lunch. She's just about as bad with us women."

Sue came back right away, but it took Ben a half hour to get ready. He had a cup of coffee and a muffin, and declared himself ready to go. I asked Mark, "What do you think? Should we risk an additional person?"

Mark said, "We shouldn't, so you'll have to fly by yourself. You did great yesterday, so you shouldn't have any problem landing. You can set down outside the yacht club lagoon and taxi into the new aircraft dock. You saw the lines in the pontoons yesterday, so just remember to tie up the front and back of the pontoons. I would recommend you put the plane to the dock on the right side. The passenger door is there. Show one or two of the girls where the lines are and they can help tie you up. You'll be fine."

I asked the girls, "Do you need to get any bags or anything?"

Maria said, "We leave clothes out here, so we'll wear what we have. All we need is our purses."

Mark went with us so the seven of us took a passenger cart down to the big hangar. Mark and I pushed the aircraft out of the hangar to the edge of where the ramp begins to slant down. I was doing the preflight and discovered the plane could use some fuel. Mark suggested, "The aircraft has enough fuel to go to Limón and back. You're going to be fairly heavy so why don't you save the weight of additional fuel? It will make your take off easier."

I told Mark, "The way the aircraft handled and the power it seemed to have, I'll bet it would take off easily over it's computed max load."

"Just to be on the safe side Chuck, go with the fuel on board. It'll make take off easier."

Before we moved the airplane from the fuel dock, I checked the engine oil and tire pressure inside the pontoons. We pushed the aircraft back near the water, and were ready to go. I made sure the ladies were all seated, buckled up, and had headsets on. Ben was getting used to small planes now, so he buckled up and put his headset on while sitting in the right seat.

I went through the cockpit checklist and started the engine. Mark's experimental engine sure was quiet. I began pushing the throttle in until the aircraft tipped over the slant and rolled into the water. As soon as we were floating, I checked the wind sock one more time and headed for the buoys.

At the buoys, I punched in the name 'Limón Yacht Club' to see if Mark had logged it. Sure enough, the correct coordinates came up with the headline name. After keying the radio and announcing my intention to take off, I gave one last check of the instruments and I pushed the throttle the rest of the way in.

Wow! This little aircraft was powerful. We lifted off with a full load in a very short distance. We turned toward Limón, climbing out to five thousand feet. When I backed the throttle off to about three quarters, watching the tachometer to make sure I was in the correct range, I couldn't believe the airspeed indicator. We were doing a little over a hundred sixty knots. That is almost unheard of in a aircraft this size. Mark said that he and Abe had created a turbo-normalized engine. This would keep sea level combustion air at all altitudes, without any overboost

We quickly traversed the distance, so after announcing my existence to the world and my intention to land, I circled my way down to the area where Mark told me to land. The water looked good, without any chop, so our landing was smooth. I did exactly as Mark had taught me. I flew into the water, or rather kept flying, until I felt the drag of the water on the pontoons and gradually decreased the run out speed. I taxied into the yacht club marina and spotted the aircraft dock at the end of the dock where my big yacht was moored. There were several people standing on the dock, along with the four boat girls. As soon as I got up close to the dock, one of the boat girls stepped onto the pontoon, opened the front hatch, threw a line to the dock, turned around, opened the rear hatch and threw another line up. The plane was pulled up close enough to the dock that Ben was able to step out of the plane onto the pontoon before taking a big step up to the dock. The people on the dock helped the four girls out of the plane, while I had to crawl over the console to climb out the right door. Pontoon boats needed a walkway between the pontoons.

As soon as I stepped onto the dock, I was surrounded by the boat girls. The condo girls were excitedly talking about their first trip in the pontoon aircraft. When the girls gave me some room, Dino, the yacht club manager, was pumping my hand as if I was his long lost brother. He finally let go of my hand when I told him we would be coming to the party this evening. I asked him, "Do you think you could separate off some more room for a band? I am traveling with some great musicians who have agreed to help entertain. They will be giving you about two solid hours of dance music and entertainment, but they can bust it up into two sets to make the music last later."

Dino was excited and said he would have a large area ready for us. I found Minell and asked, "Do you want to run the girls to the condo before you take Ben and me to the lawyer, the abogado?"

We all got into the giant Lincoln convertible after removing the tarp that had been over it. Riding in it was like being in a parade, as people were waving at us all the way to the condo and all the way to the lawyer's office. The office was open and the receptionist spoke great English, "Mr. Sanchez heard you had arrived at the yacht club and opened early for you. Please let me show you in."

We went into a nice office with an older gentleman behind the desk. Ben introduced me, "This is Diego Sanchez, the attorney who has been helping me to help you do the community things you've been doing. He has also put me onto a few investments that have done well."

Diego Sanchez was as bad as Dino shaking my hand. He said, "It is so good to meet you, Mr. Johnson. I've admired you a great deal since you rid us of that plague of a man who was here. You have generously given us everything possible to help build up our community, and the whole area does appreciate it."

Diego finally let go of my hand and began moving files around on his desk. He said, "I have all of the papers right here. Let me call the seller's attorney to come. He is right next door. Diego first pushed a button and said, "Deni, please bring Mr. Johnson and Mr. Phillips some of our special coffee." He looked up at us and said, "Actually, all we have is our special coffee."

Diego called the other attorney and had a brief conversation. It wasn't but a few minutes after we had been served coffee that the other attorney came in, flanked by some pretty rough looking men. One of the men looked familiar, but I couldn't place him. He did a double take and looked at me hard as well.

After some brief introductions, the new attorney, Montego Ruiz said, "It is convenient that the present owners are here to sign, as well. Shall we do the signing and money transfer?"

The attorney gave Diego his documents and Diego began going through them. He asked me for my passport then asked the rough looking guys for their IDs. The two were grumbling as they searched through their wallets for their Costa Rican identity cards. When they finally pulled them out, Diego looked at them and back at the contracts several time before he said, "There must be some kind of error, the title of both of the islands are in two other names. Neither title reflects you two men."

The other attorney looked nervous, but the one guy I thought I might know said, "It is not your concern. I have possession of the islands, and therefore the owner. You will make this deal and give us the money. We are in a hurry to get away from here."

Diego said, "I'm sorry, I cannot assist in transferring property fraudulently. If you bring in the two owners listed on these documents and have them sign, I will distribute the monies to both of them."

The two men were becoming angry. The one was whispering to the other. I couldn't hear what they said, but one word came through loud and clear, "Martinelli." That's when I recognized one of the men who had come to the condo that night to make me pay tribute to a man that was not around any longer. I didn't recognize the other man, but he had to be another of the original Dominic Martinelli group. I guess we knew where the houseboat ended up, but I wondered where all the others were.

Thank goodness I had my sport coat and shoulder holster on in case these bozos decided to get rough. I wasn't going to let them push me or anyone else around this time.

The man I recognized said, "The original owners have died. They left the land to us, but didn't have the opportunity to sign it over to us and none of us write well, so there is no will."

Diego looked at the other attorney and said, "You know, that is not true. Jesus Hernando might have been a recluse, but the man was a Rhodes Scholar. I think there is a problem for the police here, Montego. I will call them for you."

The rough looking guy looked as if he was trying to get at something from his back pocket. My Glock was in his face so fast his eyes and mouth opened wide. I told him, "Raise your hands very slowly. No fast moves. Ben, check this guy for what he was reaching for, then check his partner." I told the two of them, "If I fire, it will go through both of your heads so you both need to be very cooperative."

When Ben laid two older forty-five semi-automatics on Diego's desk, Diego asked, "Should I call the policia now?"

I asked Diego, "Do you know how to use one of those?"

Diego picked one up, dropped the clip to check for ammo, slid it back in and jacked a round into the chamber. He said, "Before I went to law school, I served in the Policia Nacional. I know a forty-five."

"Watch them. I need to make a call. I looked at my watch to see it was eight-thirty here so it would be two –thirty in the afternoon in Italy. I pushed the buttons on my contact list and waited. The voice at the other end said, "Yes."

I said, "Giovanni, this is Chuck Johnson. I am in Costa Rica and I may have found a couple of Dominic's men." I motioned to Diego for the two men's IDs. "Do you know," and I gave Gio the two names. Gio said, "Oh yes, I know both well. How do you know those two now?"

I explained what had happened then asked, "Should I turn them over to the police, or do you have someone near here that you might want to have them?"

There was a pause and he said, "Wait, I must make another call. I am making your call silent so you cannot hear."

He didn't take but a couple of minutes before he came back. He said, "You are in Limón, right?"

"Yes Sir, in an attorney's office. If you would like, I can explain what I was doing."

"You should later tell me, but right now you will hang up and wait for a call. You tell the person how to get to you. Call me later."

I no sooner hung up than my phone rang. I answered, "Johnson" and a voice said, "Giovanni asked me to come to you. He said you have two things for him. Where are you?"

When I told the man where we were, he said, "Yes, I know the location well and will be there in a minute or two. If you could please have only the two packages and you." The man hung up without another word.

The two rough looking men were looking at me with what looked almost like obstinate fear. I held my Glock on the two and told Diego, "Drop the hammer for me, and hand me both weapons and their IDs. Wipe all of them clean, please."

The man caught on quickly and did as I asked, holding each weapon with a tissue he had on his desk. Using another tissue, I took both guns and dropped them and the IDs into my side coat pockets. I told Diego, the attorney, and Ben, "Please have a seat. I'm going to send the secretary in here for a minute. I'll be right back."

I went through the door and asked Deni, the secretary, to please go into Diego's office. I had my piece down at my side but aimed at the men. She didn't see it on the way by and as soon as she passed, I motioned the two out into the reception area. The one guy asked me, "You were the cripple who we saw the night Dominic disappeared and the night we were pushed out to sea. I know because I see it in your eyes the same as that night."

He turned to the other guy and spoke in what sounded like Italian then turned back to me. "What Giovanni were you talking to?"

I smiled when I said, "Giovanni Martinelli."

He asked, "How do you know him? You have been to Italy?"

I nodded and added, "I did a favor for his grandchildren."

Both men's heads came up when I said that. There was a rapid exchange in Italian between them, but I did hear Mario and Sophia along with two different sounding Gios. Oh my, I wonder if?

Four men came through the door. All four were nicely dressed and not in cheap gangster clothing. The four smiled and in perfect English one said, "Thank you for keeping these two. We have been looking for them for a long time."

Before they left, I said, "I have a couple of toys that I would appreciate you taking."

When I lifted the flap of my sport coat pocket, I showed the handle of one of the forty-fives. One of the men pulled a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and a large plastic bag. He smiled at me as he removed the guns and ID's from my pocket and put them into a bag. He pulled the gloves off and put them into the bag before sealing it.

The first man to talk when they came in, said, "Mr. Martinelli thanks you for this service. He wants you to call him soon."

One of the men had his hand in his coat pocket, and the two rough looking smelly men went meekly with the four.