Chapter 4

Chuck

I left Steve, Julie, and Dewey at the outdoor helm and went down two decks to the office. I called the Marshal's station in Miami to get an update. I was advised that a team was being put together and would be making the arrest soon. They had people out at Romano's place, watching so he couldn't leave undetected. They also advised me that Politini's place in Ft. Lauderdale was already being raided. All of this made me feel better, but there seemed to be a loose end somewhere. I was going to have to research this group to find out where one group stopped and another began. There was too much intermingling of the various groups for normal operation. I was missing something.

I called Wanda to see how she was doing. She immediately began, "What the hell are you doing out there? You're supposed to be on vacation. You had that terrible confrontation last night with those drug people and the Bureau just told me you just had a firefight southwest of the coast. What's going on?"

"Calm down, Wanda. With the group that's on this boat, there is nothing to worry about. We have good equipment that gives us ample warning when there is a threat. We know what to look for, and we are watchful. This last group is my fault. That Romano guy that we have a warrant out for contracted the guy who attacked us, or at least was going to attack us. The New York Politini brothers, who apparently were a part of the group Nardelli was with, contracted him. They think they have a grudge to settle. The Bureau is taking the Politinis down as we speak. We should be okay now. We're in the Gulf Stream, on our way out to the Atlantic, sailing to Europe."

Wanda said, "Just be careful. You and Lisa have had too much contact lately. Your luck has been pretty good, so let's not stretch it. How is the trip other than having to shoot your way around the Keys?"

"So far it's been very pleasant, Wanda. How are things at the office?"

"Everything here and stateside is fine. Hawaii had a capture that wounded a deputy, but everything is settled down over there now. John says the only trouble around the country is offshore, where you are. He told me to tell you not to call him, as he would be too jealous to talk intelligently. He did ask that you call him about directions to your island. He said he wanted to go check out the security there for you. He said that he could probably figure out how to make it an office expense."

"I'll give him a call. How is everything at home?"

"Well, my John is the king of the hill right now. Lena and Tina were hanging all over him last night, telling him he needed to make them feel less lonely. I think they were teasing more than anything. Jan and Marie are excited they will be able to fly over to Ireland to meet you guys in a couple of weeks. I am too, and I know my John is anxious about it. You're really going to have a full boat with three more couples joining you."

I told Wanda, "You know, it really doesn't seem to be that many on board now. Six more won't make a difference. When someone needs some space, there are plenty of areas to find some peace and quiet. Almost no one uses the rear weather deck salon. The kids come up through there and I did see one of the triplets reading there. That salon is perfect for the kids if they want to be by themselves."

"Well, the six of us are really anxious to join you guys. Keep in touch. Sarah sends her love."

I hung up and called John, "So you want to go to the island, huh?"

John said, "Could I? The ladies and I could go down there and perhaps figure stuff out for you. I could do a security survey for you and for the service. We could use your island as a place to stash a witness before trial. Who would think we would hide a witness on a foreign island?"

"We could do that, but I would hate to attract some crazies to hurt the people there. We would have to keep it really quiet."

"This visit now would just be a survey, no changes, just a week to look over the facilities. I understand one of Steve Sharp's men is down there doing a survey too."

I told John, "Yeah, a guy named, Mark Robbins, is going down there or is already there, figuring out how many wind turbine generators it will take to supply the island with power. I can save a lot of diesel fuel that way. I'm also going to have him do a survey of the east side of island to see what kind of runway I can build over there. I'd like to be able to land on the island to save the time a boat takes to get back and forth to Limon."

John asked, "Is that how I get there? Do I fly to Limon and take a boat to the island?"

"Yeah, but I'll have the condo girls meet you at the airport in the convertible. You'll love that thing. They'll take you out to the boat and the boat crew will take you to the island."

"Jesus, Chuck, you have it all down there; a condo full of women, a boat, more women, an island, and probably more women."

"No, John, no women on the island." John was laughing at that.

"When are you going so I can have the condo girls meet you? Let me give you the number there so you can tell them when your flight comes in. Oh yeah, there will be a chubby customs guy there. Tell him you're my friend and give him a nice tip. The man can be a helpful friend."

I gave John the telephone number and said I would call the condo girls, as well as the island. The condo girls would talk to the boat crew. John was in for a surprise.

As I hung up and called Costa Rica to talk to the condo girls, I realized that both Mark and John would get the chance to stay out on the island more than I have had a chance to. The girls in Costa Rica told me they would take care of John. They also said they would call Miguel out on the island to let him know more people were coming. They were excited that I trusted them to take care of my friends.

I gave the condo girl my satellite phone number, and asked her to give it to Mark and to have him call me. They are so eager to please; you just want to hug them.

When I got up from the desk, I thought I might lie down for a few minutes in the cabin. When I went up a deck and opened the door to the big cabin, I found that some of the two families had gotten together. The Fab Five and Maria were all tangled up with Mickey, Sue, Mercy, and Juanita. The only person who saw me was Mercy. She grinned at me, blew me a kiss, and reached down to scratch her fuzzy place. She motioned me over, pointing at the recently scratched area, but I shook my head, gently grinning. Mentally, I heard, "Come on, join in, this is fun."

I answered her with a smile, "Enjoy, I have enough entertainment of my own. Let me catch up on them first."

Mercy was mentally laughing with me, as I silently closed the cabin door and turned to go back up to the main salon. Up there, Lisa was sitting at the keyboard with a pile of handwritten charts. She was following them, trying to get the feeling the composer had intended. She looked up at me, "So you found the girls? Mercy was trying to get me to come to them. This is more fun to me right now."

I asked, "Are those more of Pop's stuff?"

Lisa said, "Yes, and I have a couple that Rags gave me, too. Rags has some that are more earthy than Pop's. You are the one to play Rags stuff on your Les Paul or the SG. When you look at what Rags has written, you'll hear and feel what he was thinking. The man does get deep."

I pulled out the Blues King case, but Lisa said, "Get out an electric. I want to hear how you interpret what Pop has here. He has a note that this is to be played with a standard R&B blues bass progression. Play it through before you get a bass out to record a sample. The way I hear this is with a strong keyboard in the background, perhaps even some B3 sound. I haven't done any of that, but I know what would sound good. No time like the present to experiment."

Looking at Lisa, I said, "Remember, we have to do Georgia with the kids this evening. They are looking forward to showing off again."

Lisa smiled, "No problem, we'll do that for them. When are you going to teach them "When a Man Loves a Woman?"

"How do you know about that?" I asked, wondering if she had been in my head.

"You left all of the parts on top of the printer and left the midi queued up for it," Lisa said, accenting what she said with a kiss.

"Tomorrow," I said, with a plan in my head, "We'll work on it and play it tomorrow night. We have to keep playing what they've learned each night so they won't forget the tunes. It will be good for them. I'm going to switch them around on the harmony parts so that each of them gets a chance at the melody. We'll practice singing as a chorus, too. That should really be cute."

"Oh my, you really are going to teach them. They don't know what they're in for do they? You're really doin' it."

Lisa told me to try to get the feeling of Pop's chart, so I plugged in the Gibson and began playing. I had to stop to tune it better, but that only took a minute. I was soon feeling what Pop had written. While I played, Lisa began putting in full keyboard chords, and then she snuck in the B3 organ voice on the keyboard. She was grinning because it did sound good.

We had been lost in the music for a few minutes when I realized Mercy and one of Steve's kids were standing there. Mercy said, "Liz wants to ask you two something. Go ahead, Liz."

Liz was Sue's second tier kid. I called the kids of Sue, Mercy, and some of the ladies at the park, first, second, and third tier kids. They seem to be born in cycles. Like Stevie, Greg, and CJ were first tier. Liz and Mike were second tier, and Sue's twin boys and Mercy's triplets were third tier. I guess that made Bonita fourth tier. Anyway, Liz was the same age as Mike, about eight or nine.

Liz held up a Hohner harmonica in one hand and another one that I didn't recognize in the other. She said, "Can I play my harmonica with you when you play the blues? I won't play loud, but I want to follow along with you to see if I can harmonize like you said, Chuck."

Lisa held her hand out to look at Liz's harmonica and nodded. "This is the same kind I have, Liz. Have you been playing very much?"

Mercy pointed at Lisa and said, "She heard you play yours in Hawaii, and bugged Sue endlessly until we got her this one. The other is a Hohner Blues Harp. She does pretty well on it too. Now mind you, everything you hear is self-taught. We bought her some CDs, a couple of instruction videos, and a lot of music. We asked her if she wanted us to get her a teacher but she didn't want one. She's done this all on her own."

Lisa asked, "What do you want us to play so you can play along?"

The little girl said, "What you were doing sounds good. I like the feel of that one. I've been listening to nothing but old time blues on my Ipod and playing with it. I really like the way it makes me feel."

Lisa looked at me and grinned, "Let's just do Pop's another couple of times through to see if we can get the feelin' again. When we get going again, join in whenever you want, Liz."

Lisa led in with the piano keyboard so I could pick up the thread. Almost as soon as I began, Lisa switched to the B3 voice and we all heard a real funky harmonica come in with us. Liz had a feel for the key we were in, and seemed to be able to blend in with us, giving some real feeling to the music.

I stopped, held up my hand, and said, "We need the bass. Let me get the back beat going with the R&B boogie bass background, and let Lisa lead us in again." I hit the controller button so a synthesized basic bass beat began. Lisa came in again with the keyboard on piano and I began. Lisa switched voices and Liz began again. She really did have a feel for the music.

Lisa, Liz, and I were lost in the music for ten minutes or so, giving Lisa an opening for a breakout solo, followed by breaking for me to get weird. When Lisa and I nodded to Liz, she didn't even see us, as her eyes were closed, but she wailed, I mean really made that harmonica crawl and growl. Holy smokes, another talent discovered.

Someone yelled "Hey! Suppertime."

All three of us stopped playing and looked up at a dozen smiling faces that surrounded us. Liz almost looked embarrassed that we had been lost in the music. Juanita was standing at the top of the stairs with her hands on her hips. "Come on, you guys. You can play for us later. The kids are already at the table. That is, all of them except Lizzy."

Lisa and I grinned at each other as Liz ran down the stairs to join the rest for supper.

I told Lisa I was going to relieve Steve at the helm so he could eat. She said she wanted to stay with me. Steve protested for less than ten seconds before he left for supper. Today's schedule had gotten messed up with our confrontation, since the next up was Dewey. Steve was trying to make Dewey's tour only two hours before I went on tour at eight. We closed the outdoor helm and moved inside, so whoever was at the controls could be a part of the fun.

Lisa asked me, "Did you know Liz could play the harmonica?"

"No, I didn't know. She's not said anything to me. No one else mentioned it to me, either. I guess she's learned and played on her own." After pausing a second, I said, "She's really good."

Lisa said, "She has a better sound than mine, I'm jealous. The little girl has a great feel for the music. Wait till Pop and Rags hear her. They're gonna wrap her up in their big black arms and love her to pieces."

With a laugh I said, "Wait till Pop and Rags hear you doing a B3 imitation. They're gonna go nuts."

"That was luck," Lisa said. "I decided to try it and the sound just came out. If you hold the Keys down when you're playing the B3 voice, it automatically sustains. Really cool."

"As usual, Lisa, we sounded pretty damn good. We should have had the controller set to record so we could have sent Pop a recording of us playing his music."

With a grin, Lisa said, "I did. I used the aux circuit to record while you were using only the first set of channels for the bass back. You know that thing has six sets of channels. That means you can sync six separate channels and play along while recording everything."

"Well, pull that out and let's send it to Pop right away. He and Rags have to hear this new kid on the block."

While I checked over the gauges, radar, and Internet weather, Lisa went to the controller and pulled a CD. She brought it over and said, "We need to have the laptop on the keyboard connected to the internet."

I said, "It is, just pull up Mozilla, click on Yahoo, and send Pop the piece. I have both his and Rags' address on my Yahoo account."