“I’m afraid it is. Dartmouth.”
“Ivy League, huh? What’s an Ivy League boy doing dealing drugs?”
“Like I said, it was the thrill.”
“Let me guess: It was Jake who introduced you to drugs and dealing.”
“Everything I did was my choice. I can’t blame anyone but myself.”
“All the same, it’s the Townsends of the world you have to watch out for.”
“That your opinion?”
“No, it’s the truth. Townsend is one of those careless people in the world who doesn’t know luck has a shelf life. It’s the ones who care, the ones who give a damn, that always end up at the short end of the stick.”
“You make it sound like he’s irresponsible.”
“That’s exactly what I mean to imply. Did you ever stop to think what the SEC would do to your stockbroker’s license if they caught you? Did Townsend? Who stands to lose more if you get busted? You or him? Ask yourself that.”
“All the time. That’s one reason why I was planning to make this my last job. I’m through after this.”
“Do you think that the mob is going to give you a choice?”
“I might just run. I’ve got a considerable amount of money saved up. I’ve got it somewhere they can’t touch it.”
“Where’s that?”
“Banks in various places: the Caymans, the Isle of Wight, Geneva.”
“You just bolt on them, and they’ll track you down. Trust me. It happened to a friend of mine. Another pilot. His name was Dick Downey. He washed up on the beach somewhere on the north of the Everglades. Rumor has it that he refused to fly anymore for the mob. He even faked his own death. They still found him. It was in the Miami Herald about a year ago. Before I take on this job with the Sicilians, I plan to write down all the names and features of the members of the mob so that if something untoward happens to me, it will go to the authorities. Make that explicitly clear to your boss in the mob. Having told you all this, Mr. Hewlett, just how precious is this cargo to you?”
“That’s an interesting question. Everything and nothing. It means everything and nothing.” Davis, sitting as he did before, took another gulp, set the bottle down on the desktop.
“That’s an honest answer I suppose. Time to see if our clothes are dry.” Davis stood up and walked out to the dryer.
Having taken the clothes out of the dryer, Davis walked over to the refrigerator and took out two more bottles of beer. “Want another beer? It’ll take the edge off the headache. You look like it’s coming back.”
“How can you tell?”
“Tess, my daughter squints when they are bothering her.”
“Sure.” Usually alcohol just made Hewlett’s migraines worse, but sometimes they made them better. He felt so emotionally wrung out by the mob’s demands that he felt he could use one. “I want to hear the story of the thousand dollars.”
“I’d offer you a glass, but wife no. 5 broke all the glasses I had in the place when I served her with divorce papers.”
“Mine took all the glasswork along with everything else. Even my air miles.”
“Now about the thousand dollars. I had just delivered a load of coke to one of your partner’s associates in the Glades. I still had several ounces of the stuff as I took off for home. The fellow that owns and runs the FBO is a friend of mine. We have a set of codes worked out. If the DEA is out at the FBO, if there’s any chance of them searching a plane, he says on the FBO channel that ‘there’s a chance of rain despite clear skies.’ When I called into the FBO, he said just that: ‘there’s a chance of rain despite clear skies.’ I took it to mean that the DEA might be at the hangar waiting to check the plane. That’s just what I needed to make my day. Finding that the feds were searching the planes that were landing, I made a critical decision. I dumped your cousin’s marijuana. As it turned out, the feds were gone by the time I landed, and it was just so much lost weed. Your brother refused to pay me the entire sum that we had agreed on before I left the field to maker the haul. I even had to eat the cost of the aviation fuel. I tried to explain what happened, but the more I talked, the more irate he became. Now you tell me. What you would have done?”
“I would have done the same thing,” said Hewlett. “Any fool would have.” His headache was getting worse. “Look, I’m going to have to excuse myself for a minute. I’m really sorry. I’ve got quite a migraine. My neurologist has me on Imitrex and Tylenol and Codeine. Reaching down to his backpack, he took out a small nylon case where he kept a few of his pills. Taking a couple of the tablets, he swallowed with a long pull from his Michelob.
“Look Skeeter. This is all pretty upsetting. Not only did Jake short you the money, he moved on this project without telling me. I’m the senior partner in this business endeavor. I don’t think he even ok’d it with the mob. I am supposed to know about anything illicit or illegal that he does before he does it. I was more than a little upset when I returned from my trip and found out about all of it.”
Davis smiled. “That story — that make your headache any worse?”
“Sure doesn’t make it any better.
“It’s been quite a stressful week. We can talk about it if you want. I know these people. Townsend’s like that old Excedrin commercial. Excedrin Headache #103. He didn’t tell anyone what was going down. Typical.”
“Just who is this man from the mob?”
“It’s best if you didn’t know. If you insist on it, I’ll tell you when we fly down to Colombia. Just remember a name by any other name is still a just a name.”
“You should run while you still have time. The thought of doing business with them one more time again doesn’t do anything to warm my heart right now. You understand. I don’t work for people I don’t know. At least their names.”
“In this case, you’ve got to make an exception. It won’t help or mean anything. Do you mind if I lie down on your army cot for just a bit. This headache’s a nasty beast. ”
“Of course not,” said Davis, holding a cat that Hewlett hadn’t noticed until he looked over at the cot. It was the black and white tabby. “You might just have to let Oscar there share your bed. I keep him to keep the mice population down.”
“No, I’ll be okay. They usually come and go within a half hour or so. Besides, I’m going to take a few more T#3s.”
“Yeah, why don’t you. You don’t look so good. Your face is the same hue as the belly of a trout.” Anytime he had a migraine, he looked pale. Then he drifted off to sleep on the old cot. Within minutes, he was sound asleep. He awoke with the headache nearly gone.
“Sorry to be out like that.” He rose from the bed and put his Top-siders back on. From his watch, it looked like almost an hour had passed while he was asleep. He got up from the cot and slowly walked to where Skeeter was working on the motor.
“Well, I wasn’t going anywhere. How’s the head.” Davis was still working on the motor at the other end of the hangar.
“Better.”
“I made some coffee.”
“Thanks. Caffeine seems to help these little bastards.” Hewlett paused and yawned. “Just where were we?”
“I