Chapter 3

Chuck

When we woke up the next morning, I went up to the galley and made coffee. Up in the main salon, I opened the sliding door to a cacophony of birds in the nearby trees. I watched a turtle run down a log into the water, and even saw a set of eyes back in the mangroves looking for something to eat.

Lisa brought me a mug of coffee and we sat out on the deck, looking around at the peaceful setting. A boat would come down or go up the river, but we were fairly obscured and someone would have had to be looking for us to see the boat. Lisa said, "This is a neat place. I can see why you wanted to come back here last night. How about us going to that place you talked about for breakfast? I never did eat supper last night, and I don't think you did either. We were just too excited about being back together."

We washed our faces, and Lisa brushed her short hair, while I started the engines and pulled the anchor. We pulled out of the anchorage and went upstream, around the bend, to the little place on the river. Actually, it wasn't that little. They had the fuel dock, the bait and tackle shop, and the restaurant. Before we went into the restaurant, I pulled up to the fuel dock and topped the tanks off again. If we decided to head south, I wanted to be ready.

There was a Coast Guard boat tied up at the restaurant, so I told Lisa, "Pull a couple of life jackets from the locker in the port bulkhead. If we hang them by the door, the Coast Guard probably won't even want to inspect us."

Inside the restaurant, we sat at the big picnic table where breakfast was served home style. There were bowls of potatoes, sausage, bacon, biscuits, pancakes, scrambled eggs, and bacon. A waitress brought us each some orange juice, telling me, "I recognize you from yesterday. Did you catch anything?" I told her I had caught one keeper and was going to have it for supper tonight. Eyeing Lisa, she said, "I see you picked up a hitchhiker."

I smiled, "Yep, she couldn't get off until last night, but now we're going to have some fun and private time out on the water."

One of the Coast Guardsmen asked, "Aren't you the guy with the cat out off Tampa Bay where we were dealing with a capsized boat?"

I nodded, "That's me. I was on my way to some numbers up past Dunedin. The one number panned out. I caught a nice one."

The guy said, "I'll bet it was a grouper. Since the season just opened, everyone is trying to get some good eating. We've seen some dolphin fish, out about twenty-five miles, at the site of some old wrecks. You might try out farther as that has to be the absolute best tasting fish to eat there is."

I told them, "I'll wait until I eat what I have. No sense in catching more than we can eat. The fish will still be there when we run out of this one."

The Coast Guard captain asked, "How big was that fish you caught?"

"It was a gag about thirty pounds. It wasn't a female because its belly wasn't bulging or slack. If it had been bulging, I would have put her back. Since it was obviously not female, I kept it."

One of the younger guys said, "Wow, nice size. You will be eating that for a while."

They said goodbye and told us to have a good time and to stay safe as they left the little restaurant. As soon as they were gone, the waitress came over, "That redheaded sailor, or would that be Coast Guardsman, is my husband. They come in for breakfast every morning while he's on duty so he can say hi to me. The whole crew is a good bunch."

With our bellies over full, we stepped out of the restaurant. I asked Lisa, "What do you think? Want to just hang out around here, go up north toward Panama City, or head south toward the island?"

Lisa stood next to me with her arm around my waist, looking out at the river flowing by, "We probably should stay up here, but let's go south. I brought our passports in the event we decided to go to Mexico, the Virgins, or the Caymans. Let's see how far we can get. We won't kill ourselves, so we'll stop at night. Does this thing have an alarm like the other boat? You know, the one that sounds if anything is moving around the boat?"

I told her, "I don't know. It might have. It has good radar, so it might have a movement sensor. Let's check."

I looked over all of the gauges, dials, and switches, not recognizing all of them, but I did know what most were. I took the large bunch of literature and instructions stored in the cockpit locker out, and handed Lisa half. "Let's look through these. If the boat has one, it should have some instructions in this bunch of stuff."

In a couple of minutes, Lisa held up a booklet and said, "Got it. Let's see what we should be looking for."

The book said that there would be a switch for the radar monitor and a dial to increase or decrease the scanned movement distance. It operated with the collision avoidance system by alerting anyone of a large object closing within ten miles, and also monitored up to a two hundred meter area surrounding the boat for movement of masses of two by four feet or larger. It gave instructions to not anchor too close to a shoreline as land animals could set off the alarm, as well as something in the water. It reacted to any patterned movement. We found the switch and dial under the radar monitor, a logical place for it.

Lisa said, "Well, that takes care of night time security. Let's head for the island."

We had traveled less than a hundred miles when Lisa's secure satellite phone rang. When she answered it, she listened for a while, then was shaking her head as she handed me the phone. When I said, "Johnson," the voice said, "The other one, huh?"

In a dead pan voice, I said, "Who, What, Where?"

That got a laugh, then the voice said, "The Marshals are all in DC trying to send the new deputy supervisor through a meat grinder. They're having some difficulty as the guy is really slippery. I'm told it's probably from all of the KY jelly he uses in his private life, if you know what I mean." He paused to laugh and take a breath, "My director is talking to the AG right now, as we've discovered bugs in our offices and have found out some of our personal cell phones are tapped. When we confronted the judge who signed the orders, all he wanted to say was this was part of a suspected subversive investigation. When he was told the Marshals had been some of the taps, he didn't believe it and demanded the Marshal Service get out to his home to protect him from anyone seeking revenge. So far, all of the Deputies contacted for the duty have declined because of the dangerous aspects of his protection. You should hear this guy crying. So far, the only person responding is the local station chief, and he's not too hot on what's going on either."

Another deep breath, "The AG has requested the Secret Service to perform a private investigation of the situation and report only to him. It sounds a little fishy, but it might be that even he is afraid to rock the boat until he knows how much pull this guy has. From what I'm told, the guy has locked himself up, hibernating or hiding in his office, and only contacting people by phone."

I asked, "So where does that put me? It's Monday, for crying out loud, with this bullshit going on all weekend."

He said, "That puts you right where you are, wherever you are. The warrants are still active, so unless you want to go through booking, a holding cell, and waiting for a local judge to hold an arraignment, you need to continue what you're doing. I understand you are a new dad and haven't even seen the babies yet."

"That's not true," I told him. "I was with the moms when the kids were born. I haven't seen them since, but at least I did get to see them and the mothers before I booked."

The voice asked, "Moms? Mothers?";

"Oh, you know my situation. You've had me watched for what, over a year? You know I have a harem of a dozen or so women, and you're just jealous. Well, this thing is keeping me from my harem and I'm not happy."

The man on the end of the phone conversation laughed. "You can't appeal to my sympathetic nature. I'm one of those guys that if I had two of what I have at home, I'd be a candidate for the funny farm. Actually, I'm just about ready for the farm now, with you contributing to my demise."

It was my turn to give advice, "Like you said, I feel for you. If you need to get hold of me, use this connection as I may be out of cell phone range. Oh, and make sure your secure phone is secure. This guy is doing everything we know that he should not. It'll catch up with him, but right now, we have to protect ourselves, got it?"

"Yeah," the voice said, "I have our people going over all of the area and checking all of our stationary and cell phones for bugs and taps. Every bug and every listening device we find will put this guy deeper into a federal prison one day soon."

"Okay," I said, "I'll wait for your call. Get this thing done, because I have other things to do, places to go, and people to see."

"Yeah, I know," the man said, "You're a big businessman now, with property holdings all over the place. Well, relax while you have the opportunity. You'll be back on the line soon enough.

When I hung up, Lisa said, "I can't believe there can be that much infighting going on in DC. You would think that our supposed leaders would be standup people. So far the Secret Service has been straight with you and me, except for getting us mixed up with the CIA in Nice."

I told Lisa, "I'm thinking all of them may be suspect. Ronnie is just a manifestation of the plague going around up there."

We motored on south, heading southwest toward Cancun on the Mexican Yucatan Peninsula. I figured we could need fuel by then, plus we could stay overnight to sleep tied up in a secure resort area. If we alternated piloting the boat and napping, we could be at that halfway point in about eighteen hours. Lisa was up for the adventure, so we enjoyed the trip, discussing all aspects of our lives.

As some good entertainment, Lisa dug out a stack of CDs she said were from Jack, recordings of our practices and the shows. She said, "If you can figure out how to make the DVD player work on the TV up here, we can watch a couple of shows too."

Steve

Lisa had come to the patio to attempt to explain what was happening. She knew there was a new person in charge of the field Deputy Marshals and the man was doing some kind of witch hunt of Chuck and some of the other Deputies and Marshals. The idea that a bunch of Deputies could present some kind of warrant and search Chuck's place, followed by coming over here and do it too, had me boiling. Sue and Mercy were pissed, Kathy wanted to call the Marines, and Juanita wanted to hide. Mickey followed the searching deputies around, making them put everything they messed up back the way it was.

Later Sunday, Lisa came over and talked about a way she could get out to Chuck. She had a pretty good plan, but she couldn't figure out how to get to the airpark without anyone knowing she was going. Mercy had been listening to Lisa and told her, "Tell you what, you and I are the same size, so we can swap clothes. We're the same size and same color hair. Mine is longer, but I'll stuff it up under a cap and they won't know who it is. If you have a bunch of stuff you want to take to Chuck, go get it. I'll come over in a few minutes, and we'll change clothes. You come back here, have Steve take you out to the airpark and you should be able to park inside the helicopter hangar to load whatever you have. Steve will call Tank to get a chopper ready, along with one of the good ex-military pilots, and they can take you out to Chuck. I'll wait for you to get back before going home. I can play with the babies all afternoon. I'll bring Sue with me so it that looks like two went over and two came back."

I told Mercy, "That is a good idea. I don't think I could tell you two apart from a distance if you both had a cap on with the same clothes. Lisa, go get your stuff together while I call to get a bird ready. Remember to get some clothes for Chuck too."

Mercy said, "I'll get a care package together so you guys can have some snacks. Knowing Tiny, there is lots of food and beer, and very few snacks. Go, Lisa, get ready."

About twenty minutes later, my cell phone rang. It was Lisa saying she was ready. I called the airpark to make sure they were ready before telling Mercy Lisa was set. Sue and Mercy both wore ball caps with their hair tucked up to further confuse the issue. There was no hiding Sue, as her chest gave her away immediately. I pulled my pickup around to where the carts usually parked, so Lisa could just throw her stuff into the back.

A few minutes later, Sue and Lisa pulled up in Sue's cart. If I didn't already know it was Lisa, I would have sworn that it was Mercy. The two ladies were built exactly alike and even had similar facial features. Their only difference was Lisa's short hair. Lisa knew why the truck was where it was at, and tossed her stuff into the back.

Sue went into the house and had Gio and a couple of kids come with us to make it look more like a family thing. I watched as one of the deputies really looked us over, but didn't move from his observation location. I watched behind me all the way out to the airpark to make sure no one was following.

As I suspected, there was an unmarked, but obvious law enforcement car, parked in the parking lot of the operations building. I drove past, waited for the green light to cross the runway and drove over to the helicopter hangar. The big door was open, with Tank waving at me to pull into the hangar.

"Mercy just called me and asked if there were any strange cars around, Tank said I told her about the unmarked cop car in the parking lot and she told me to have you pull into the hangar. She wouldn't tell me why, but I figured it had something to do with what you're planning for this helicopter. I didn't push it out yet in case you might need to keep something out of sight."

I told Tank, "Help get this stuff in the Huey, and get that big basket you use to raise and lower stuff. If you have one of the harnesses to drop people, that would be good too."

Tank looked at me skeptically while we put everything in the open cargo area of the helicopter. He brought over the big basket and a body harness. He also had the winch that he mounted in the doorway that was used to raise and lower material. "That should do, Boss. Where are we going?"

I told him, "You guys are taking Lisa and me out to Chuck. We'll radio him on our marine frequency so he can give us his coordinates. We're going to drop these supplies and Lisa on a boat. It has a pretty wide deck, so it shouldn't be too bad."

Tank said, "How about I get one of the dry suits that the inspection divers use. I think we have one small enough for Lisa. That way, if she can't be safely dropped on the deck, we can put her in the water and Chuck can fish her out."

Tank took Lisa with him, and a few minutes later, Lisa came back carrying her clothes, a pair of flippers, and a snorkel mask. She was smiling and said, "I think I might want to be put in the water and swim around for a while."

Sue told me, "I'm going to go see if they have a 172 so I can take Gio and the two kids up for a look around. That should be a decent diversion."

The four of them walked across the wide tarmac between the helicopter hangar and the office between two hangars.

Tank had Lisa get in the helicopter through the door away from the parking lot so she wouldn't be obvious getting in if the helicopter was already out of the hangar ... Tank, the pilot, and I pushed the helicopter out of the hangar on the rolling platform. I got into the left seat and put on a headset and Tank got into the back with Lisa, sliding the door closed. After the helicopter was started and warmed up, we lifted off and headed north. I noticed Sue already had a 172 out, doing a preflight inspection.

I waited until we were out of the air traffic corridor before tuning to our marine frequency. Over the intercom, Lisa told me that when I called, to tell Chuck it was Mother calling. She said that was a call sign he would recognize as friendly. I called Chuck using his boat's name, "Paddle Boat, Paddle Boat, come in, Paddle Boat. Paddle Boat, Mother is calling."

As soon as Chuck answered, Lisa motioned that she wanted to talk to Chuck, so I flipped the switch that allowed the passenger headsets radio access. She asked Chuck for his location telling him they had some supplies for him. If you were listening to the frequency, you wouldn't figure on the radio transmission being from a helicopter, or think it was a strange conversation.

We banked to the west, heading out off the coast. As soon as we saw the big catamaran, Lisa put her flippers and snorkel mask on. Tank loaded up the basket with about half of what Lisa had brought and prepared to lower it. The pilot was good, as he was able to hover high, but right over the boat while Tank lowered the basket. When Tank had the basket within ten feet of the deck, the pilot lowered the helicopter so the basket landed on the deck of the boat with plenty of slack on the line.

Chuck quickly emptied the basket and Tank brought it back up to repeat the process. Lisa was next, and I was worried that we wouldn't be able to lower her gently enough. Tank smiled at me as the pilot did almost the same as he had done with the basket. This time though, he didn't lower the helicopter until Lisa had been lowered until her flippers touched the deck and Chuck had grabbed her. Chuck unfastened the harness and Tank brought it back up. I watched as Tank leaned out of the helicopter to wave at Chuck.

Now that's the way to catch a ride.

Just as we began lifting up to go back home, a Cessna was making a big turn around where we were. Sue's voice came over the marine frequency, "Good job over there. That was a nice drop."

The pilot said, "Thanks, appreciate the compliment."

We went back to the airpark by going northeast before turning back southwest so if someone was observing what direction we were coming from, they would think we were coming from inland.

After landing, we pushed the helicopter back into the hangar. I went for the fuel truck to save Tank the trouble. When I got back, I thanked the pilot for coming out for me. He said, "I wasn't doing anything anyway, and you know me, any chance to fly I'll take."

Tank said, "If there had been someone else to work the winch, I would have flown us. I'm always looking for an excuse to go up."

After refueling and returning the truck, I went to the charter office so I could call Sue. She radioed back that she was just about to Sarasota to get ice cream, if I didn't mind waiting for a few minutes. That gave me a chance to look over the maintenance records and the operation records to get an idea of the charter company's health.

The place was making a nice profit. It was amazing to me that in the terrible economy, an air charter company was making money. I watched as a couple of little 150s came in from lessons and Sue's 172 soon landed. She taxied to the fuel dock, so I drove a tow tug over to pull it back to the hangar.

Sue is the ever independent woman. Instead of letting me refuel for her, she had the ladder out and had the fuel hose into the first wing tank before I could get there. I had to let her complete the refueling routine including rewinding the hose. At least that is mechanized.

We pulled and pushed the aircraft back to its place in the hangar, then walked over to the helicopter hangar to get the truck. All the way home, Gio and the kids couldn't get over how neat it was to fly around the area and to see the trailer park from the air. The kids thought it really special to get ice cream at a faraway place.

Back home, Tiny and Henry were conspiring to find something even better than the catamaran Chuck escaped in. Henry said, "You know there are a bunch of catamarans for sale up in the northeast. Some of them are priced right and I'd bet we can dicker over the price of any we would want to buy."

Tiny said, "Whatever we get has to be big enough for a family vacation, but small enough for people to maneuver. That was a problem with the one Chuck has. It's really a class boat, but about six feet too long to let someone rent or charter without a captain's license. I guess we could package a deal that included classes and the exam, but what if a guy brings his family down and can't pass the exam. It's better that he doesn't go out, but that guy is going to be really angry. I think we should limit the size of what we look for to thirty-nine feet at the most. Look up what is available that would be big enough for us four. The other five to ten feet would be fun and nice for us, but this is for a Florida coast vacation so we wouldn't have to have a big boat."

I listened to their discussion, not getting involved as anything I had to say wouldn't help them make up their minds. I offered anyway, "We could probably use a big catamaran for some pleasure charters down to the Keys. Something like a weekender. We could leave on a Thursday morning and come back Sunday night. It's only about twelve hours down to the Keys by boat. If some of the people wanted a dive excursion, a cat is great for that. If they just wanted the experience of riding down to the Keys by boat, we could package it with rooms at the hotel down there. Go ahead and get another bigger cat so you can enjoy yourselves. Work out how to make money with it when you get back."

Henry and Tiny looked at each other, grinned, and reached up in the air for a high five. Henry said, "I told you I had the best bro there is. Come on, let's look on the internet to see what we can find. We'll get something nice and lord it over Chuck."

It was amusing that they had to have a catamaran for their vacation, when we had the huge motor yacht they could have used. But they would have had to have a crew, so this would be more private. Too bad they didn't want to sail as we now had a variety of sailboats.

Julie and Gina came to the patio with Gina's kids and the Asian sisters. Julie approached me with something that was unexpected. She began, "You have nine people here that would really enjoy becoming citizens. You know that visas are easy, but they have time limits and I think I have an answer."