Trap Line - Carl Hiaasen [29]
Augie was on him swiftly. The pistol hit the floor like a hammer, followed by the snap of the man’s wrist breaking. It was the loudest sound in the bar that night. Augie never said a word.
Albury had always admired instinct in a young man. The island was loaded with strong, dumb Conch kids; smart ones like Augie were a precious resource.
They cast off an hour before dawn. Albury set the Diamond Cutter on an east-northeasterly course up the straits. It was a healthy two hundred miles to Andros, a couple days, at least. The coordinates for the pickup had arrived in a brown envelope from Tom. The morning turned up gray, and the sky hung over them like a damp membrane. The sea was smooth and the colors dull. A stubborn pelican followed the crawfish boat, waiting vainly for the crew to start pulling traps.
Augie stretched out on the bow while Jimmy snored on deck. Albury flipped on the radio and said good morning to Crystal on the mainland.
A school of bottle-nosed dolphins came alongside after noon. Albury counted ten adults and three juveniles. They raced in front of the bow for more than five miles. Occasionally, one would peel off from the pack to perform a great, happy somersault, smacking back into the water like an eight-hundred-pound cannonball. Albury would laugh and take his hands off the wheel to clap appreciatively. Augie awakened to share Albury’s delight.
“Dolphins are good luck, man. I hope they stay with us the whole trip,” Augie called.
Albury smiled and shook his head knowingly. An hour later the dolphins were gone.
Chapter 8
(From the deposition of Augustin Quintana, taken on the fourth day of October 1982, before Christine Manning, counsel to the office of the Governor. Also present was court reporter Mary Perdue.)
MISS MANNING: Tell me your relation to William Clifford Albury.
MR. QUINTANA: I have known him most of my life. My father, too. They fished together sometimes.
Q: Have you ever been on his boat, the Diamond Cutter?
A: Many times. I helped him repaint the—
Q: Did you have occasion to be on the Diamond Cutter in August during a trip to the Bahamas?
A: You know the answer to that, lady. Breeze needed somebody to speak the Spanish. Jimmy, that’s his mate, speaks a little, but a little ain’t good enough when you got a couple dozen loco Colombians talkin’ eighty miles an hour. Which is exactly what we had.
Q: What happened aboard the boat, Augie?
A: A whole lot more than should have.
Q: Tell me what kind of weapons Captain Albury brought with him.
A: Some terrific weapons. Besides Jimmy’s Remington, we had a couple fishing knives, a spear gun, and the bang stick.
Q: The bang stick is essentially a firearm, correct?
A: It’s got a shotgun shell rigged to blow out on the end of a spear. You pop the shark real good and it explodes. Technically, yes, I guess it’s a firearm. But it’s definitely designed for sharks, not people.
Q: What was Captain Albury’s destination when he left Key West on the twenty fourth of August?
A: An island off Andros.
Q: And what was the purpose of the trip?
A: To work off a debt. They spring him from jail, and, in return, he smuggles their Colombians.
Q: They? Who’s they?
A: Them.
Q: Augie, that isn’t good enough.
A: I’ll tell you what happened on the trip. Nothing more.
Q: All right, what happened?
A: It’s simple. One of the crazy Colombians, his name was Oscar, really went crazy. Breeze had to do something; it was his boat.
Q: This Oscar, what was his last name?
A: Which one, lady? They tell me he had three different passports in his pockets. Guys like Oscar pick a new name every morning while they’re brushing the scum off their