Metro Girl (Alex Barnaby 1)

on. I’ll call you when we get there.” And Rosa hung up.

I rolled out of bed and followed my nose to the kitchen where Hooker had coffee brewing. He was dressed in wrinkled board shorts and a T-shirt that advertised motor oil. His hair was uncombed and his feet were bare. He looked very island, and I hated to admit it, but he also looked sexy…in an unkempt, fashion-disaster slob kind of way.

“We have coffee and creamer,” Hooker said. “The only other food in the house is some microwave popcorn. Usually I have wasabi peas and beer nuts for breakfast when I stay here, but we ate them last night.”

I poured myself a mug of coffee and added two packets of creamer. “Do you think that guy with the slicked-back hair was for real yesterday?”

“Yeah. I think he was for real. I think the night watchman was really dead. I think Maria Raffles is really screwed up. And I think your brother is an even bigger moron than I am when it comes to women.”

“Anything else?”

“I think Maria and your brother are trying to bring something up from Cuban waters.”

“Don’t say that out loud. I don’t want to hear that! Americans aren’t supposed to go to Cuba. Cuba is closed to American citizens.”

“There are a lot of people who think we’ll resume relations with Cuba in the near future, and it’ll create economic havoc for south Florida. The island is only one hundred and sixty-five miles from Miami. Ninety miles from Key West. It could steal away a lot of tourism and manufacturing dollars. I know a guy who’s brokering a land deal for future development.”

“Isn’t that risky?”

“Sure, but I guess you weigh the risk against the potential payoff.”

“I’d think it was impossible for an American to make that sort of deal.”

“Apparently there are ways if you know the right people.”

I took my coffee into the shower with me, and a half hour later Hooker and I were ready to roll. The streets were much less crowded. It wasn’t quite 8 AM and the shops were closed. A few bars were open, serving breakfast. We got breakfast burritos to go and ate them as we made our way to the docks. A giant cruise ship sat offshore. In a couple hours it would dump thousands of people into Key West, and Key West would be like the old lady in the shoe who had so many children she didn’t know what to do. Personally, I didn’t think it would be such a bad thing to divert some of the cruise ships to Cuba.

“I guess this isn’t much of a vacation for you,” I said to Hooker.

“It’s not that bad,” Hooker said. “I’m in Key West with a pretty girl. So far you haven’t put out, but I still have hopes. Someone’s threatening to kill me. I’m on sort of a treasure hunt. And the breakfast burrito was first-class.”

“My fantasy is that we’ll walk along these docks and stumble across your boat, complete with Bill and Maria.”

“That’s a decent fantasy. Want to hear mine?”

“No.”

“It involves wild gorilla sex.”

“Gee, that’s a surprise.”

Hooker grinned. “I didn’t want to disappoint you.”

We walked the entire marina, but we didn’t see Hooker’s boat. We showed Bill’s picture to a couple people, but no one recognized him. We stopped in at the dockmaster’s office and got a hit. The boat came in on Tuesday and stayed one night. Bill paid for the space with a credit card Hooker had left on board.

Hooker called his credit card company to see if there’d been any further charges or cash withdrawals. There hadn’t.

“Now what?” I asked.

“Now we hope Rosa’s map is worth something.”

We were at the edge of the marina parking lot, debating a latte and a bag of doughnuts when my phone rang.

“We’re here,” Rosa said. “We just crossed the bridge onto the island.”

“Tell her we’ll meet her in the marina parking lot,” Hooker said. “Uh-oh.”

“What uh-oh?”