“At this moment, he is, I believe, en route back from Connecticut, where he has been attending to his father’s death for the past two days. The father is one Warren Keating, who was murdered a couple of days ago. Evan informed me that he will be back in Key West tonight or tomorrow sometime. He is anxious to speak with you about the drugs we found on his boat.”
“There has been progress in the Warren Keating investigation,”
Dino said. “It appears that Mr. Keating was murdered by the same man who tried to murder his son, Evan, in Key West. The descriptions match, and when you get back to your office, Tommy, you should have the ballistics report for comparison with your bullet.”
“Good,” Tommy said. “I’ve sort of brought Tabor and Corelli up to date on all that.”
“Agent Corelli,” Stone said, “Evan Keating maintains that when he and his girlfriend left his boat, after hearing of the death of his 2 04
L o i t e r i n g w i t h I n t e n t
father, the stern locker contained nothing but a rubber dinghy, which he took with him, and his mooring lines and fenders, and that it was not secured with a lock. He will tell you this himself after his arrival in Key West.”
“And he has no idea why the locker was full of twenty kilos of pure cocaine, with a street value of millions?”
“None whatever. I should also tell you that Evan Keating is personally wealthy, and that he is anticipating a fi fty percent share of the proceeds of the sale of his family’s business, which will make him some hundreds of millions of dollars wealthier. I can attest to this, because I have reviewed the contract for the business sale. Thus, he has no motive to make money from the sale of drugs.”
“That’s very interesting, Mr. Barrington,” Corelli said. “Does he have any other explanation for why the drugs were present on his boat?”
“No, but I can posit an answer to your question.”
“Please do so,” Corelli said.
“It seems likely that drug smugglers, who work regularly in and out of Key West, spotted Evan’s boat, which is well known on the island, having been previously owned by the local tennis pro, Chuck Chandler. Perhaps this person or persons thought the drugs might arrive in Key West with less chance of being found if they entered the harbor on a well-known local boat instead of whatever drug-running rocket ship they were traveling in.”
“I do know of a couple of cases where smugglers tried to move drugs on the boats of unsuspecting owners,” Corelli said, “so your supposition is not entirely beyond reason. However, I will still need to question Mr. Keating and his girlfriend, Ms. Jones.”
“If you’ll give me your card,” Stone said, “I’ll arrange a meeting as soon as Evan arrives back in Key West.”
“Tommy,” Corelli said, “you know this gentleman. Is his word to be trusted?”
“Yes,” Tommy said.
2 0 5
S t u a r t W o o d s
Corelli stood up, and so did everybody else. “In that case, I’ll look forward to your call,” he said, handing Stone his card. They all shook hands, and Tommy and his party left.
“You up for some conch fritters?” Dino asked.
“Always,” Stone replied.
2 0 6
45
STON E A N D D IN O were polishing off their usual dessert of key lime pie.
“I think we should go to Miami,” Dino said. Stone blinked. “Why?”
“To talk to our erstwhile colleague Manny White.”
“Why?”
“Because we don’t have anything else to do, and visiting Manny will keep us busy.”
“What do you hope to learn from Manny?” Stone asked.