Key Weird 03; Key Witch Read online

  “We should be coming up on the old cabin here before long.”

  ♦

  Consuelo was cooling her heels in the county slammer. She was ‘inside’ and already a hardened member of the prison community.

  “Hey Molly, you gonna play cards, or what?” Consuelo popped her chewing gum. She’d expected to have to fight some big bull dykes right away, or at least some crazy, pimp-eviscerating crack whore would be after her with a knife made out of a spoon. Instead she was in a holding cell with Molly, a mousy 24 year-old kindergarten teacher from Detroit who’d come to Key West with a girlfriend and puked conch-fritter-flavored beer on the wrong cop’s shoes outside Capt. Tony’s bar the night before.

  Molly didn’t look too dangerous, she just looked very hung-over and miserable. Consuelo was feeling extra perky, she’d never been in jail before, and was trying to make the best of it.

  “One of my sisters is making a cure for hangovers. We figured with Key West having like about the most bars per capita in the US, it would be a great place to experiment.” Molly looked up with bloodshot eyes from the cards she was holding limply in her hand and moaned, “That’s nice.”

  “You going to eat that?” Consuelo’s sparkling blue eyes were locked on the baloney sandwich Molly was trying to avoid even looking at.

  “Uh, no, help yourself.”

  Consuelo snatched up the sandwich and tore into it, sending a big bite down to join her own sandwich. Molly was looking a little green.

  “I don’t see how you can eat that!”

  Consuelo pushed the rest of the sandwich in her mouth, chewed twice, swallowed, and belched.

  “My body likes most everything! Wish I had a big glass of beer to wash that down with now.” She gave her cellmate a big wink.

  While Molly was dry heaving again in their toilet, Consuelo was tempted to check on her cellmate’s cards. Old habit. But she decided since she’d already won most of Molly’s money playing poker with the jail’s 43-card deck, she’d let it go.

  ♦

  Sara was so weary. She’d been walking for days in the yellow world. The air was heavy with sulphur gas, and the yellow ground was soft, but there was no comfort here. She was so tired, and just wanted a nice place to lie down.

  From habit she looked at her hand and counted fingers. Definitely more than five, and rather withered and crooked as well. So she was still dreaming, it was a dream. She remembered that her body was lying on a mat in a little cabin in the swamp, and she was very sick. The shadow that had been following to the left was getting more noticeable. She knew now that it was the shadow of death and it was getting closer.

  She stopped walking. There didn’t seem to be much point in it, everything was just a murky, gassy, unpleasant shade of yellow. She noticed the ground was actually made up of soft little bubbles. She kicked at them, and several flew up slowly, with a sickening wobble. The bubbles were making her feel dizzy, so she grabbed one of the larger ones in front of her face to steady herself. The bubble grew larger and more transparent in her hand. She looked inside, but there was only yellow until she closed her eyes. Then she could see, not with her eyes, but with her entire being.

  There was a flood of emotions and visions. Spectacular sights revealed themselves, but were soon gone, leaving her with a curious feeling. There was still the nearly overwhelming need to rest, and her dark companion to the left seemed nearer than ever, but something was different. She summoned up all her strength to think and then knew what it was that was different. She had become so accustomed to being alone it was somewhat of a shock. She had company.

  ♦

  “L-look at her!” Josephine was kneeling and crying her eyes out next to the gaunt figure on the mat. Her sister looked dead.

  “Let me have a look here. She ain’t doing too good all right. Musta got the fever.” Taco Bob put his hand on Sara’s forehead. Her eyes fluttered a little but didn’t open. “That a girl. You looking a little rough here, Sara, can you talk?” Josephine was in full wail now over her sister.

  “She’s probably dehydrated. All that crying ain’t going to do her any good now, Josephine. You want to help your sister, see if you can get her to drink something while I try out this phone.”

  Josephine was having trouble getting it together. She got a plastic bottle of water out of her backpack and tried to get Sara to drink. She was still blubbering, and her hands were shaking so bad she was getting water all over her sister, but not in her.

  She needed Lydia or Consuelo to help her calm down, like they always did when she got like this.

  “S-s-shit!” She was so frustrated with herself, she was crying louder than ever. She threw the nearly empty bottle of water at the wall and slapped herself on the cheek, hard. The blow was such a shock it took her breath away. She shook her head and looked up and noticed some little roots tied to the rafters of the cabin.

  “Feel better?” It was a tiny whisper. Josephine looked down at her sister. Her eyes were open a little.

  “Sara!” Josephine hugged the bundle of rags that was her sister, and almost started crying again. She grabbed another bottle of water and helped Sara drink. She gagged on the water and started coughing just as Taco Bob came back inside.

  “This phone ain’t going to do us any good out here. I guess Lydia is gonna know we found her when we get back.” He knelt down by the two sisters just as Sara got over the coughing and made a loud fart.

  “That a girl, Sara! No need to show off for us though, you’re going to have to try to save your strength.” He was smiling, but he seemed worried. She did look bad. “See if you can get her to drink a little more of that water. We’re doing good on time and I want to take a quick look around here before we start back.” Josephine didn’t say anything, she just held her sister’s head again so she could drink.

  ♦

  The little cabin with the mangrove trees grown up around it didn’t look any different, but the boat Sara had bought in Key West was full of rainwater and mostly sunk in the shallow water by the little cabin. She’d either been sick for a while, or just didn’t care about getting back out again someday. Inside the cabin it didn’t look like anyone had done any cooking with the little stove for a long time.

  “Sara, we’re going to carry you on out of here, take you back to Key West and get you well. Okay?” Josephine had her stripped and was checking her over. Sara looked up at worried faces and tried to smile.

  “S-she’s really th-thin, but s-sound. I don’t th-think she’s eaten in w-w-weeks. M-must have s-starved out the f-f-fever.” After Josephine had cleaned her up a little and dressed her in some of the clothes she’d brought along, Taco Bob carried his sickly friend out to the boat. He’d made a makeshift bed in the bottom of the boat with the life jackets and blankets he had on board. As they tried to get her comfortable for the ride back in, Sara motioned to him to come close so she could whisper.

  By the time he came back out of the cabin, the two sisters were as ready as they were going to be.

  “I’m glad you remembered this Sara, I’d forget just as sure.” He set a small, but heavy, dirt-gray bag down next to her, she smiled and gave him a slow wink. Josephine looked in the bag.

  “G-g-gold!” She gave one of the long chains of heavy gold an astounded look.

  “I told you she was doing all right financially. Not much to spend it on out here though.”

  Josephine checked out more of the contents of the bag while Taco Bob poled the boat back towards deeper water. It was all gold treasure.

  “Y-you’re rich! Wh-where?”

  “I’m sure your sister will be glad to tell you the story when she gets to feeling better. Right now we need to be concentrating on getting her, and us, back to civilization in one piece. That wind’s coming up.”

  Though they couldn’t feel much breeze in the dense mangrove swamp, up above they could see the tops of the trees moving. When they got out to where they could use the motor, Taco Bob showed Josephine how to operate the bo
at. There was going to be a lot of rough water, and he wanted her checked out on running the boat in case she needed to do something like turn around and get him if he went overboard. Josephine picked it up fast and steered them out the last of the river to open water.

  ♦

  No one fell out of the boat, but it was a long, rough, and bruising ride back in. They took a few waves over the bow, and all three were wet and exhausted by the time they got back to the marina at Key West. The pounding ride hadn’t done Sara any good, in spite of her sister sitting on the deck holding her head in her lap most of the way. She was unconscious when Taco Bob laid her on the bed in the guest room of his houseboat.

  “What do you say to us getting her on over to the hospital, Josephine?” He was pretty sure what the answer would be, but asked anyway.

  “N-no!” Josephine had looked like she was going to get seasick at first, but pulled through, and even ran the boat once to give him a break on the way back. She’d come through the ordeal determined.

  “L-let’s c-call Lydia!”

  ♦

  I spent most of the day in the garden at the hotel collecting treats for my Josephine. I’ve noticed that not only am I invisible to most humans, but bugs can’t see me either. Makes it easier to sneak up on them.

  I just hope Lydia didn’t see that plastic bag of flowers and crickets sliding across the floor towards Josephine’s room. Not to mention the mango that rolled in the front door and across the lobby.

  ∨ Key Witch ∧

  11

  Quarantine

  The sun made its usual departure, casually making the rounds across the planet like it had for millenniums. A strong young wind had shown up earlier, and was itching to go. The sun had seen it all before. It wasn’t much impressed with show-offs.

  “Key West Manor Hotel. Hey, Sis! Did you find her?”

  Lydia was not having a good day. The cops were being a pain about letting Consuelo go. Some crap about court and judges or something. She was pretty sure they were just being hard-asses because officer Sanchez had taken a fall. Even Brad’s lawyer-friend couldn’t talk any sense into them.

  Then, when she’d gotten back to the hotel, Brad was gone. He was such a conscientious person, she couldn’t believe he would just take off like that without at least leaving a note. Maybe some kind of emergency had come up at work.

  Not to mention the whole town was going nuts since she’d gotten back from the jail. The weather service had issued a hurricane watch that included Key West, so non-residents were being advised to leave as soon as possible. There were several guests milling around in the lobby and the rest had either left already, or were in their rooms packing.

  At least they’d found Sara. But from Josephine’s phone report, it sounded like she was in a bad way.

  “Josephine, ask Taco Bob to help you with Sara and bring her here to the hotel. They’ve got an evacuation going on because of the hurricane, so everything is pretty crazy. Be careful.”

  ♦

  Brad was coming around. The taser had really kicked his ass, and it had taken him a while to figure out what was going on.

  He was lying on the floor of a really small motel bathroom, and had an excellent view of the areas that never got cleaned. The place was obviously one of the older motels on the island and long overdue for a remodel. From his vantage point, it looked and smelled like a long war had been fought between pine-oil cleaner and every imaginable filth, with the former in dire need of reinforcements. Despite his hands and feet being wrapped with duct tape, he managed to get into a sitting position. The smell wasn’t any better, but the view wasn’t quite as bad.

  He assumed the muffled voices he heard through the bathroom door were the two men he remembered just before everything went bad.

  ♦

  “Okay, we’re looking good here Louie. I’m gonna go give the boss a call and tell him we got his boy. I gave that André clown enough cash he shouldn’t bother us, but if he comes by again saying we gotta leave the motel because of the storm, just tell him to go fuck himself. I’ll be right back.”

  Louie was still wound up from the grab. As soon as Gus went out to use the pay phone, he went to his room next-door to freshen-up. The palms around the old motel were making a lot of racket from the wind, and that didn’t help his nerves any. On the way back from his room Louie could see the main road leading out of town was jammed full of cars. It was a little weird the way they got the green light on the grab about the same time the word came down to evac the island. It was time to get Gus to spill what he knew about the job.

  ♦

  “Mr. Dent? Mr. Greenfield will see you now.”

  Fred Dent, formerly Derek Thurstron, formerly of the CIA, nodded to Greenfield’s secretary and went into the big man’s office. Like all your better New York offices, it had a spectacular view of Central Park, but the most noticeable thing in the room was the giant map showing MegaDrug’s holdings across the world. There were thousands of different-colored lights across the map. Some were blinking.

  “Fred, come on in. Have a seat.”

  Fred took the seat in front of the huge desk. The old man was wired, as usual, pacing in front of the window looking down on the world below. He was running his hand through his perfect gray CEO hair and chewing on an unlit cigar stub. He pointed at one of the blinking lights on the map.

  “Got that little problem taken care of in Kansas City this morning, Fred. Got some dirt on one of the nuns. Harold says the contract went through for less than our original offer. Damn smart boy, that Harold.”

  Fred didn’t say anything. He knew the old man would wind down eventually. Always liked to play the people in Acquisitions against each other. Old Greenfield was a brilliant businessman, but he was also an asshole.

  “It’s people like Harold who are making MegaDrug what it is today, Fred. Harold is one of those rare visionaries who sees that people are not only living longer these days, but they’re getting weaker. Most of them sit on their ass all day at work, drive home, and then sit on their ass in front of the television!” Greenfield gestured towards the window. “Whole damn country is full of people falling apart! There’s so many things wrong with them, it’s easier for the doctors to just prescribe some pills!”

  The old man was even more worked up than usual. Fred had often wondered what kind of free experimental drug samples were available to the head of the second largest drugstore chain in the country.

  “Harold can see the future, Fred. He can see the day when there will be more drugstores in every town than there are gas stations!”

  Fred had heard it all before, but he knew the real score. One, Harold was a no-class Neanderthal who got kicked out of one of the big crime families for his overly brutal nature. Two, an independent contractor working one of Harold’s jobs in northern California flipped out completely and old Greenfield woke up in his bed one night with a metallic taste in his mouth. The cold, steel barrel of a .44 would do that, especially while still in the hand of a cracked professional with a message to deliver. The old man was even more nuts since that little incident.

  “But enough about Harold, what have you got for me, Fred?”

  Fred had been with MegaDrug for a couple years now. Worked his way up to Regional Director of Acquisitions for the Southeast US quickly after losing his job with the CIA in Central America. He’d been a rising star with The Company in Resource Distribution before some of the promising young revolutionaries he’d supplied with automatic weapons decided to try them out on some US missionaries.

  “Mr. Greenfield, we’re moving on the Key West thing. We have contractors in position, and have completed phase one in Operation Get Outta Town.” The old man took a seat behind the desk and seemed to become aware of the unlit cigar in his mouth for the first time. He threw it away and took a fresh one from the humidor on his desk. Fred noticed the little facial twitch the old man had sometimes was starting. He usually got that when he was making plans to fuck somebody. Greenf
ield smiled severely and gestured for him to continue while he went through his usual cigar-lighting ritual.

  “A hurricane watch was issued for the lower Keys a few hours ago, sir. Non-residents are already leaving the island, and if the storm continues its current path, the next step would be a mandatory evacuation order for everyone in the lower Keys and Key West. It’s looking very likely this will happen, sir.”

  Greenfield finished sniffing and licking, and had a gold lighter on the end of his cigar. He puffed away. “Run the whole thing by me, Fred, the big picture.”

  “Yes sir. It doesn’t really matter if the hurricane hits the island or not. Once most of the people are off the island, we fax the report to the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. A new, even deadlier, strain of West Nile Fever has been discovered to be the cause of several recent deaths in Key West. Since the report will be from the head biologist and director of the Health Department, the authorities will have no choice but to quarantine the island. No one will be allowed back into Key West.”

  “I like it, Fred. Go on, tell me the rest.” He was sure the old man knew the rest, after all, it was mostly his idea. Greenfield never tired of hearing about one of his sleazy plans working. The cigar lighter went back on the desk. It looked like a giant gold pill.

  “Certainly, sir. Key West is one of the tightest real-estate markets in the country. If we can keep the island quarantined for a few days, there should be a significant decline in property values. Most of the businesses there are running such a close overhead that a few days without cash flow will put them under.

  “Business owners will panic. Our advance strike force from Purchasing is standing by to move in on your orders, sir. They’ll field-coordinate the deployment of the other teams while Legal and Financial do the follow-ups from here. We’ll have some serious deals already in the oven before anyone else even comes in. It should take a few weeks for the CDC to be sure there isn’t any fever outbreak. By then MegaDrug will be a major player in Key West real estate, just in time for prices to go right back up.”