Chapter 23

Life on the island can be so laid back and relaxed that you don't want to do anything except to help with the fieldwork or to go to the studio to play some music. It was during the morning three days later when Steve told me, "You know, it's probably time for Sue and me to get back to business. I think Dewey is also ready to go back, so you might want to talk to your Hawaiian friends to see if they want to return to Hawaii soon."

"You're probably right, Steve. I think I'm just about done fooling around in the studio and doing the live practice. It's been a lot of fun, but I should probably report for duty pretty soon. The world is doing fine without Lisa and me, but we may be putting pressure on others. Let me talk to everyone and we'll see who all will go back with whom."

Steve's kids all seemed happy about going home since they missed their friends back in Florida. The people who surprised me were Kenny and the group. They wanted to stay a while longer and said they would find a way back. Kenny asked me on the side, "I know this place is sold out forever, but you seem to have some pull. Do you think they might let us stay a few more weeks on our nickel, and we'll want to use your studio and just have some fun here?"

I talked to Diego and he told me, "Your people can stay as long as they like. They can stay in the suites they have now since they are in the expansion building close to the studio. How about we make them a deal to play something for us every other night? That would be a good trade off for both of us."

I had Kenny go work something out with Diego. I knew the guys would go for a deal like that, as it was some of the plushest surroundings they could be in, and they would be practicing and playing in front of some very special people.

The last person I needed to talk to was Giovanni. He was staying in the condo and had been enjoying visiting with his men. I called him on his cell phone and found he was involved in a problem his men had run into.

Once again some import, from Spain this time, was attempting to harass the men by intimidating their families and threatening them if they didn't allow his men to photograph the celebrities at the resort. This guy represented some kind of Spanish mafia that wanted exclusive pictures on an ongoing basis. The man had offered big bucks, but the men turned it down and wouldn't negotiate. The guy then had a couple of the men beat up on their way home.

This brought all of the old feelings and need for revenge back to the surface, of course. The men took one of the wives hostage before they could do anything, and said they would trade her for a week of security boat access. That's when I called to talk to Giovanni.

"Lisa and I will be there in under an hour, Gio. I don't want you or your men to do anything rash. Let Lisa and me do what we do best. Have whoever is off duty right now and knows anything about this meet us at the condo. We'll be right there."

I found Lisa and told her what was up. I had to find Steve and tell him that I had some business in town that had to be taken care of, to leave if he had to do so, and that we would soon follow.

Lisa and I went to the hangar, brought out our work cases, and pushed the float plane from the hangar and did a quick inspection. We had the plane warmed up and into the water quickly. Thirty minutes later we were walking into the condo.

Giovanni was sitting with two men who had been beaten pretty badly. I asked, "Have you two been to a doctor?"

The one said, "Gio made us go. We need to eliminate these people. We know how to do it, but we need to find my wife. We have other friends watching our families until they can come here where Giovanni can watch them."

"Okay, now tell me everything you know about these people. Do you know where they may be staying here in Limon?"

They began telling me that they knew of at least ten men who were soldiers, and at least two men who were running the operation. The fear was that these men wouldn't stop at just taking pictures and they would begin doing some form of kidnapping for ransom among the hotel guests. When I asked again where these men were staying, the two looked at each other and almost apologetically said, "They are in your resort here in Limon."

I called Diego and asked him, "Do we have some of the retired Marshals at the resort in town?"

Diego answered, "Yes, four of them there and eight here. I have a waiting list for men to come."

My mind was going a hundred miles an hour and I told Giovanni that I needed to go to the Limon resort. The wife was in all likelihood being kept in rooms at the resort. The easiest way to find out was to have some help from the room maids. I told the other men to get their families to the condo.

I went up to the big bedroom and looked in the side of the closet for the access panel that gave me access to a full size gun safe before I left for the resort. I pulled two Glocks and six magazines out after opening the safe, along with two boxes of ammo. Giovanni or his men hopefully wouldn't need them, but he needed to have them available. Lisa and I filled the magazines and took everything downstairs.

I gave the two Glock 27s to Giovanni, and made sure he knew how to use them. "These are in case anyone comes to the condo. Don't go out on the street with these. Let Lisa and me take care of this."

We had given a taxi driver from the yacht club enough money to ferry us around for the day, so he was waiting when we came out. I found the manager of the Limon resort, and he knew who I was. I was able to corner two of the security men and I told them what was up after some glad handing. My thought was to ask the maids first whether there were any women in the rooms of the Spanish guests.

We had to go to the floor where the people were staying to talk to the maids on duty. We found out there were women in the rooms, but one woman was being hidden in a bedroom where they weren't allowed to change the sheets or clean the bathroom. They had made a note of it on their room report.

Lisa looked at me and said, "Let's go get her. We can surprise whoever is in the suite if we let security let us in, and go right into the bedroom to get her. We'll round up the rest of this group as soon as we get her free."

The retired Deputy Marshal said he was ready for some fun as it had been a long time since he broke a sweat.

We went to the suite door knowing that there were four bedrooms off the main area, so there could be four men in there, in addition to the hostage and possibly other women. I had the security man use his pass card on the door and Lisa and I were inside the room fast enough to surprise the men there.

There were three automatics lying on a coffee table that were out of reach of the three men standing there surprised.

Lisa and I went to the only closed bedroom door while the security man held the three at gunpoint. We walked in on a guy sitting in a chair reading a magazine. Across from him was a woman tied to a chair with a gag tied around her head.

The guy was thinking of trying for something at his back, but Lisa's Glock to the side of this head convinced him it wasn't a good idea. We shook him down and didn't find anything besides another automatic pistol in his waist at his back. I had Lisa get the woman loose and took the man out to the living area where the other security man had now joined the fun. They were in the process of searching each of the three out there.

I asked the two men, "Do you guys have any personnel tie-wraps? I don't see any cuffs, but I do have a silencer, so we can shoot them and have them carted off. Let's take them into the bathroom and do it in there. We don't have time to mess with them."

One security man used a radio and had a conversation. Within a couple of minutes a bellhop walked in the open door with a handful of tie-wraps. We snugged the four of them and I said, "There are two more suites, so let's take those down real quick to find out who we might be missing."

I turned to the four prisoners and said, "Remember that we can still do you in the bathroom where there will be no bloody mess. What I'm saying is that I'm leaving one man here to watch you, and you should be very calm and sit on the floor like gentlemen."

I looked at the former Deputy and said, "You know the drill. If they move, shoot them even if you bring the house down. Don't take a chance."

The man just smiled knowing he could and would do what was necessary.

The next suite was almost the same game as the first, but there were four men startled by our entry. There were no visible guns, so we had to hold them at gunpoint while each one was searched. We tie-wrapped them once we knew they were clean. I asked the men if the last two men we were looking for were in the next room, but no one wanted to say anything. I pulled my silencer out and screwed it on the barrel of my Glock. "Okay, I will now ask the question again before I begin taking you into a bathroom and shooting you in the shower. Are the two men you work for in the next suite?"

They all looked at each other until I said to Lisa, "Pick one so we can get an answer from one of the other three."

Lisa smiled and smacked the nearest man on the head with her Glock. "Move it, Buster. We need to keep this from being messy."

The guy had the most terrified look on his face I'd ever seen. A wet spot appeared on his pants and he begged, "They'll kill me if I say anything. They are both here now, but are leaving soon to go get another of the wives."

We herded the four men into the first room and I asked the four men, "Where are the women who were with you?"

The man who had wet himself said, "They belong to the boss, but he lets us use them."

Okay, that's pretty kinky, but I suppose the boss wants his men to be happy. I told the security guy watching the wife and now eight men that we had one more move to make.

We had gone to the next room, and were about to use the key card, when the door opened. I pushed hard and knocked one guy down while another was reaching into his sport coat as if going for a weapon. I swatted him with my Glock, but it didn't deter the guy as he continued to go for his gun. I put my Glock with the silencer to his face so that he knew he wasn't going to win this war.

Lisa was going to pull the guy's weapon from under his sport coat when he grabbed her and was going to hold her in front of him. Wrong move. Lisa stomped the top of the man's foot and slid down, using her elbow to slam him in the crotch. The man still didn't want to give up and reached for Lisa's Glock. Another wrong move, as Lisa kneed him hard enough to push him back, then fired her non-silenced Glock into the guy's chest. She only shot once into the main body mass, but it must have hit something vital since the guy's eyes bugged out as he fell backward.

The other man wasn't fighting, and was searched and tie-wrapped while waiting his fate.

Lisa and I went to each of the two rooms and had to look into the closets to find the two women who were with these men. They immediately began pleading that they were just paid escorts for the men and could prove they lived here in Limon. I told them to gather what was theirs and get out of there.

Turning to the one security man, "Since the hostage is freed and all of the participants of the kidnapping are here, let's get the Limon law enforcement people to take these folks to their jail. I think the kidnapping, the weapons they had, the beating they gave the two security men, and the attempted taking over of a security boat, should be enough to hold them here in Costa Rica for most of their lives. Lisa and I will stay to give statements. I pulled my U.S. Deputy Marshal's badge out and stuck it in my sport coat breast pocket so it would be visible. Lisa put hers in the waist of her pants.

It didn't take the police but a couple of minutes to get there, but it took over two more hours before we could leave. The hotel management was happy we didn't get blood all over the carpet as the guy had bled internally. We found out that the man was wearing some kind of cheap lightweight body armor that only slowed the round down and didn't protect him at point blank range. I'm sure glad we don't use that stuff.

We took the hostage wife to the condo to re-unite with her husband. The place was filled with the four men, their new wives, and a couple of small children. I took the two weapons from Gio and put them back in the gun safe. I put everything away after I removed all the rounds from the magazines and put them back into the ammo boxes. Lisa asked, "How come I didn't know anything about that gun safe?"

"It was here when I bought the place, and I put some weapons in it. It has just been there since. The key code to it is only three digits long. 911 should be easy to remember."

Back downstairs, I explained to Giovanni, "We're going to go back to Florida and I wanted to let you decide whether you want to stay here for a while, or go back to Florida now.

The man said, "I think I will stay with my men for a little while. It's nice to visit with them and their new wives and babies. Call me if you are coming down again soon, so I can decide whether we should go back then. Thank you for letting me stay in your nice home here, Chuck. Mesa is enjoying cooking and helping the two maids clean and take care of the house and me. This is the most relaxed we have been in a long time. There is so much happening in your home with all of the women and babies, that it's a little hectic sometimes. Have my girls call me so I can tell them I will come back up soon."

Giovanni and his men thanked us for rescuing the kidnapped wife and for taking care of the problem without them sacrificing their retirement from their previous life. In turn, I thanked the men for having been such great employees of the resort. They were keeping our guests free of prying eyes and that privacy is what made our hideaway resort so popular.

Lisa and I went to the yacht club and had lunch with the manager. He is always so effusive with his enthusiasm when I'm in town or around the area. He told us, "We all feel safe when you are here with us, and know that you will take care of the problem if someone is trying to take advantage of us."

The man wanted us to drink with him, but I told him we were flying so we couldn't drink. He understood, but didn't like it.

We flew back to the island and took some time to thoroughly flush the wheels and pontoons. I recognized one of the mechanics from the airpark at home when he came out to help. He had transferred down here to enjoy the peaceful life on the island and wanted to try meeting one of the pretty island girls. The man was one of the mechanics experienced on all jet and rotary wing aircraft. I thought he was probably too valuable for down here, but then, Mark, Gene, and Sandy needed someone of his quality down here to keep the fleet flying.