Chapter 33 - STAKEOUT

Sumner took off his go-to-hell hat and wiped his forehead with the sleeve of his Radcliffe sweatshirt. He and Sidearm and Nicky had been cruising up and down the reach, checking all the usual yacht anchorages for a big Concordia. He'd told his old wrinkling partners the whole story, about finding the barrel and seeing the sailboat, and finding the note at his house. They'd decided to take Nicky's runabout and scout for the yacht. She had an old Corson with the seats taken out, pallets laid for a floor, and a 45 horse Evinrude on the stern. They'd poked into all the nearby gunkholes but the sailboat was nowhere to be found, close to Smithport.

"Whatdaya suppose Chinetti will do?" Sumner asked, scratching his goatee.

"He ain't got much to go on," Sidearm replied. "He's got you and me, and he seems to know about the sailors." He paused. "We tole him bout Sonny, but he don't know if that's for real. I guess he'd stake out your place. He wouldn't go back to Nick's in the daylight...?" Sidearm shrugged.

Nicky was steering, and the three of them were standing up behind the windscreen. The runabout was threading it's way through the tidal flats alongside Carver's Island.

"Chenetti could afford to wait, couldn't he?" Sumner reasoned. "We got nowhere else to sell the coke."

"I dunno," Sidearm said. "Riz the Wiz seemed pretty worried about this guy Mainardi. I think he's a big mob guy, and it's his coke. Bobo and Monk work for him, and the Riz was hot to get the man's product back asap, Cap."

"So mebbe we should give it to 'em. Let them get it straight with Cyr and them," Sumner argued.

"If they don't go in shootin," Nicky said. "Wouldn't want Liz to get shot."

"You got fine points, Nickalicious, and they look good in that T-shirt, too," Sidearm said, looking at her chest. Nicky jabbed him with her elbow. She was wearing a blue pocket T-shirt, now soaking wet from the fog, and Sumner was surprised, again, at how this great big woman seemed oblivious to the weather.

"So we should try and get Liz and Jesse away from them first," Sumner concluded.

"Like by givin the sailors the dope," Sidearm said.

"If Sonny and them'll go for it," Nicky pointed out.

"Right you aren't, Nicks. Mebbe we oughta find Sonny," Sidearm proposed. All three nodded, and Nicky pushed the throttle lever forward. Her little Corson slalomed around the buoyed channel across the Back Pasture.

They weren't eager to land on the mainland, just in case Chinetti was hanging around by the docks, although he probably wouldn't dare do anything with witnesses around, so they motored along the Island shore until they came to Tink's old float, where they secured the runabout. Sidearm and Nicky stayed in the boat while Sumner climbed up to the fishouse, and crossed over to Sonny's back door.

Sonny wasn't home. Sumner went into his kitchen and called out for him, but he could see that Sonny's Ford was gone from the dooryard. Sumner picked up the phone and dialed Buster's number. After 8 rings someone on the partyline picked up and snapped, "nobody's home to Busters," and then hung up. Sumner dialed the number for Jumbo's sister, which is where Jumbo usually stayed when ashore.

Jumbo's sister answered, but wasn't much help. Jumbo had come in yesterday and gotten all spiffed up, she reported, but he hadn't been back since. She thought maybe she'd seen him riding through town earlier today with Sonny, in Sonny's pickup, with some woman between them. Maybe it was that Janet who'd gone for a nurse. She didn't know, and didn't want to be nosey, but... could she give Jumbo a message?

"No.. no, thanks," Sumner said. He hung up the phone, and stood in the silent kitchen thinking.

Finally he left Sonny a note saying: "Big trouble. Mob wants drum. Sailors have Liz and Jesse. We need to talk. Don't call my house. Call Nicky's. Sum." He folded it, wrote SONNY on the outside, and put it on the kitchen table, holding it down with an ashtray.

"Not that that'll keep anyone who comes in from readin it," Sumner thought, "but it's the best I can do." He shut the backdoor behind him and went down through the fog to Nicky's boat. He relayed what he'd found out, and the message he'd left.

"Whadaya wanna do?" Sidearm asked him.

"I don't know," Sumner admitted. "I guess we have to wait until the sailors make a move, but they said to wait by my phone, and Chinetti may be up there."

"We could go up by Sawyer's landing and check it out," Sidearm suggested. So Nicky ran the Corson back along the island shore and down the reach until they were off Sawyer's, then she idled into the cove and rubbed up beside the dock, leaving the motor running.

"Be right back, Jack," Sidearm said to Nicky, and the two men climbed the ladder and crossed the meadow toward Sum and Liz's house. It was late in the day, and getting dark early because of the fog. When they got close to the road, Sumner could see there were lights on in the house, shining obscurely through the mist. They stopped and Sidearm waited while Sumner crept through the puckerbrush until he could see the Lincoln parked in the dooryard. He crawled back to Sidearm.

"It's them. Not like they're hidin," Sumner whispered.

"Not their style," Sidearm concurred. "They gonna sit on your head til you cry Uncle."

"Or Cyr and them call," Sumner said. "or come for me."

Sidearm gestured they should retreat toward the landing. "If they were to show up at the dock now..." he pointed out. But nobody was at Sawyer's except Nicky.She shut off the motor while they conferred. Nicky passed a pack of Camel Filters around, and they all lit up.

"We need a way to make signals," Sumner observed. "We don't know if they'll leave here by car or by boat. I figure Cyr and them came by boat, and are hid out somewhere close."

"Who is this Cyr," Nicky asked.

"I went to school with him," Sumner explained. "He was always playacting some role or another. I wouldn't have thought he had the guts to play in this league. But people change."

"We don't know who's with him," Sidearm remarked.

"Right," Sumner agreed. "Could be some very bad actors."

"Chinetti's are bad enough," Nicky pointed out.

"Say they come by boat to make a deal with me," Sumner theorized. "If I don't head them off, they run smack into Chinetti."

"Leaves one of them with sweet Lizzie and the kid... but we don't know where," Sidearm said.

"And they've got nothing to bargain with with the mobsters," Sumner went on.

"Unless they offer to use Liz and Jesse as bait to get the coke," Nicky said.

"So then Chinetti'd want the hostages, and wouldn't let the sailors out of sight," Sumner suggested.

"We could follow their boat.. . maybe.. if the fog don't lift," Sidearm said.

"Still be better to trade with the sailors before the mob gets to them," Sumner remarked.

"But we don't know how to find them, or Sonny," Sidearm said. "So let's go through it. If the nappers call for a meet, or come by car..."

"Chinetti might leave by car," Sumner finished for him.

"Right as a Republican," Sidearm agreed. "Be harder to tail 'em."

"Yeh," Sumner said.

"How bout this," Nicky interjected. "Summy waits in the boat where he can see this dock. He's got the CB to call us." She tapped the radio under the dash. "Spinball takes my car and parks where he can see if the Lincoln goes to town. He's got the CB in the car. I wait at my house for Sonny to call, listening to the base radio."

"Pretty smart, for a tart," Sidearm remarked.

"So what happens?" Sumner went on. "Cyr comes by boat and the thugs go back with him. I follow them carefully, and let you know where they're headed. How do you get there?"

"With Sonny, if he calls first," Sidearm suggested. "Or maybe we borry Kinky's wrinkle wagon." Wild Bill also has a picker's boat, which Sidearm has used before. "I could go get it and stash it at Nick's before I go parkin... shame you can't be with me, Hot Lips," Sidearm puts an arm around Nicky and grabs for her breast.

"Hands off, Sidewinder, or I'll fang you,' Nicky said, pushing him away with an elbow.

"OK," Sumner said, to get back on track, "If they go by car..."

"I call Nickles and you, and try to follow them," Sidearm continued.

"They'll still end up at the sailboat," Sumner said.

"Trick is to figgah where they're leavin from, so we can folly their boat," Sidearm said.

"I'll run alongshore toward town in the boat, and we can follow each other by CB," Sumner said.

"Sounds like a plot, Scot," Sidearm said, flicking his cigarette butt into the water.

"If we can get hold of Sonny, he can be there to deliver the dope, or agree to bring it somewhere. If we can't..." Sumner continued.

"We string 'em along," Sidearm said. "Promise delivery as soon as we find Sonny."

"And try not to get shot," Sumner observed.

"That, too." Sidearm agreed.

It seemed like the best plan they could cook up. They agreed it wasn't real likely any stranger in a small boat would try and find their way to Sawyer's landing in the fog at night. It was now bagend dark. So they all motored up to Wild Bill's, and quietly borrowed his winklewagon, then caravanned to Nicky's little dock.

When they got to her house, they discovered that Monk had gotten unwired, with or without help, and he'd gone in and trashed Nicky's kitchen. Food had been dumped out of the cupboards and fridge and all stomped together, china had been smashed, one wooden chair lay in splinters, and someone had taken a shit on top of the table.

Nicky flipped. She was very houseproud, and this was the worst thing anyone could have done to her. Sidearm had to herd her into the front room, and corner her to get her from doing herself a hurt. Sumner shoveled out the worst of the mess, scrubbed the table, and was picking up the pieces when Nicky came back in, tears running down her face. Sumner had never seen Nicky cry, and it upset him more than he would have imagined. He'd been thinking about Lizzie and Jesse, and he was on the edge of tears himself.

"Better try Sonny," Sidearm recommended. He could see a sob session coming, and didn't want anything to do with it.

Sumner grasped at the straw, and dialed Sonny's. But there was no answer. "We could call Chinetti," he said.

"And say what?" Sidearm asked.

"I don't know. Tell him we'll make a deal tomorrow. To stay by the phone. That might keep one of them pinned down," Sumner suggested.

Sidearm considered. "It might make them move," he argued.

"They want to be in control," Nicky sniffed.

"Yeh. Guess you're right," Sumner said. "Listen, I think I want to get back there right away, just in case something happens."

But Nicky wouldn't let him rush off with putting on a windbreaker over his sweatshirt, and filling a thermos of coffee.

"Be a long night," she said. She also found one of the kid's thermoses and filled it for Sidearm. All three agreed to check in on channel 13 as soon as they were in position, and they parted at Nicky's back door. It was around 10 o'clock.

"Kick that Monkey in the bananas for me," Nicky called out as they set off.