The China Connection: A Lieutenant Morales Mystery

by Aj Basinski

Overview

A political thriller taken from today's newspapers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781981243143
Publisher:	CreateSpace Publishing
Publication date:	11/28/2017
Series:	Lieutenant Morales Mystery , #3
Pages:	204
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.47(d)

About the Author

AJ Basinski is a retired attorney with over 40 years litigation experience. This is his third thriller in the Lieutenant Morales mystery series. He lives in Pennsylvania and Florida with his wife.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

The day before Sun Li was attacked we enjoyed one of the best days we ever had together. The Mardi Gras docked that Saturday afternoon in Cozumel, Mexico, on the last leg of the five-day Caribbean cruise we were working. Sun Li and I went ashore to spend some time together alone. When you work together on a cruise ship, it's difficult to have any time alone so that was a real treat for us. The weather that day was beautiful, sunny and warm, just as you would expect to find in Cozumel at the beginning of October.

While I had been to Cozumel many times before on other cruises which I had worked, this was Sun Li's first visit there. I was surprised how much she seemed to enjoy looking at the souvenirs and listening to the pitches of the many hustlers outside the honky-tonk shops that crowded the shore. I guess because it was all new to her.

As we were walking among those shops, one of the hustlers shouted to Sun Li in English, "Hey Princess, come on in. Maybe the Admiral can buy you something pretty." We both laughed. "I guess I must be the Admiral," I said to Sun Li and she laughed even harder.

From my prior visits, I knew that some of those hustlers were trying to pass off recently-made trinkets as ancient Mayan jade bracelets. I was sure that authentic Mayan jade would sell for hundreds and maybe even thousands of dollars. Not $29.95. Despite my misgivings, I bought Sun Li a silver chain with a jade cross pendant that she admired in one of the shops. The shop owner claimed that the chain was made by local craftsmen from pure silver, mined not far from Cozumel. Sun Li put the chain on as soon as we left the shop. I told her that the hustler was right: she looked just like a princess, "my princess."

Later that day, after the ship set sail from Cozumel, I examined the silver chain and cross more closely with a magnifying glass. As I looked at it with the glass, I saw that there was a tiny, barely readable engraving on the back of the chain's clasp. It read "Made in China." So much for Mayan treasures and the image of local craftsmen toiling away, hand making the silver jewelry. Sun Li and I had another good laugh when I told her what I found. She said it didn't matter where it was made. She loved it and said that whenever she wore it, it would always remind her of the wonderful day we spent in Cozumel that Saturday.

CHAPTER 2

Around seven o'clock the next morning I woke up to the sound of a loud noise. It was Sun Li screaming, "Help me! Please, Mario, help me!" Still in a daze, my first thought was that she had fallen in the small cabin and injured herself. Most of the night, I felt the ship being tossed about from the late season tropical storm that came from nowhere and that was still pounding the ship. I thought maybe she was still unsteady and taken a fall.

Then, I realized that there was someone else in the cabin besides Sun Li. All I could make out in the dim; early morning light of the cabin was a figure dressed all in black. Except for his eyes, a black ski mask covered his face. He was hitting Sun Li on the top of her head as she lay on the floor of the cabin, screaming.

I yelled, "What the hell is going on here?"

As I started to push myself out of the narrow bed to help Sun Li, instinctively, I reached for my Walther99 handgun, which I always kept in the nightstand next to my side of our bed. But, when I reached for it this time, the Walther was gone.

Before I could do anything else, the masked intruder rushed towards me, hit me on the head with the butt of a gun which he then dropped to the floor. Dazed from the blow to my head, I fell back onto the bed. Before I could make any move to stop him, the intruder pulled open the cabin door and ran into the hall. The door closed behind him with a loud thump. As he rushed past me on his way out the door, all that was visible were his eyes. They had an odd, almost unearthly look to them, which I would never forget.

It was all over in seconds. Now, for the first time, I understood what eyewitnesses meant when they described seeing a crime being committed. They would often claim that the incident seemed to take place in slow motion and yet at warp speed. Until then, I never understood what they meant.

As I lay on my bed, my head spinning from the blow to my head, I had to make a choice: either go after the attacker or help Sun Li. Once I got my bearings, I was able to scramble out of bed. It was then I knew that I had no real choice. I picked up Sun Li who was sprawled on the floor just a few feet away and pulled her into my arms. Blood was pouring down her face.

"Sun Li! Sun Li!" I screamed as I cradled her tightly against my chest. She turned her head slightly towards me as I said her name. Her beautiful, long eyelashes fluttered for just a second or two. To me it seemed like she was trying to open her eyes. But that soon stopped and her eyes closed completely. She started to say something to me very softly. I struggled to understand her. I had to put my ear to her mouth to hear her. It sounded like "B.B.B.B.," but I couldn't be sure. She then turned her face away from me. I began to cry as the enormity of what had just happened began to set in on me.

The blood from the gash on her forehead had soaked her white blouse completely through. Her dark black hair also was dripping with blood from a second wound on the back of her head. The blood had streaked her hair a strange, reddish orange color. The blood almost covered the silver chain around her neck that I bought for her in Cozumel the day before. It was a connection to a life for us that I already knew would never be the same again.

I kept asking myself "how could this happen on my watch?" I was supposed to protect her. I was not only her husband, I was also the head of security aboard the Mardi Gras. It was my duty to see that no harm came to her or anyone else on the ship. I had failed miserably.

I sat down on the floor in a pool of her blood. I pressed my right hand hard against her forehead to try to stop the flow of blood that was still gushing from the wound. With my other hand, I gently stroked the back of her neck. As I did this, Sun Li opened her eyes. She turned those beautiful dark eyes towards me and opened her mouth just slightly as if she were about to speak. But nothing came out. Her eyes then fluttered shut again and she lapsed into unconsciousness. As I tried to comfort her. I was afraid that I was going to lose her unless I got help right away.

Just then, I heard a loud knock on the door. I yelled, "Come in." It was one of the stewards who was making his rounds to clean up the rooms. He opened the door and came into the cabin. I recognized Freddy Gonzalez.

"Freddy, did you see that person in black who just left the cabin? Where did he go?"

"No," he said. "I saw no one."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure. I saw no one," he replied.

I shook my head in disbelief. How was it possible that Freddy had not seen the attacker, I asked myself? But I couldn't leave Sun Li to go after the attacker. Instead, I gently laid her down on the couch and grabbed my cell phone and called Doc Phillips, the ship's physician.

"Doc, someone broke into our cabin this morning and attacked Sun Li," I yelled into the phone as soon as he answered. "She's hurt really bad and I need you to come to our cabin right now. She's bleeding from her head and there's blood everywhere. Get here right away. Help me, Doc. I can't lose her. Help me. Doc!"

"What the hell happened? Is she conscious?"

"Someone broke into our cabin and attacked her. I need you right now. She has a couple of head wounds that are bleeding like crazy. Doc, get the hell down here."

"I'll be right there."

"Hurry Doc, please. Hurry."

I then turned to the steward who was wiping the blood from Sun Li's forehead with a bath towel and said, "Are you certain that you didn't see anyone leaving the cabin just now? Someone dressed all in black."

"No, Lieutenant. I saw no one," he responded. Once again, he said "No one."

I couldn't believe that he didn't see the attacker. It seemed next to impossible that the steward hadn't seen him as he left our cabin. Freddy's knock was just seconds later. Unless he was invisible, the steward must have seen him. Or, maybe, I thought that meant this was just a bad nightmare and soon I would wake up and Sun Li would be just fine. Or maybe she was already at work in the bursar's office. Later, we would have lunch together in the crew's mess hall. Fried chicken was on the menu today for lunch. Sun Li loved fried chicken. It was her favorite meal. She told me she ate at KFC often when she was growing up in Shanghai. But I knew this was no mere nightmare that I would wake from and shake-off like water from my shower. It was all too real and there would be no fried chicken lunch together today and maybe never. I had to do everything to save Sun Li's life.

CHAPTER 3

When Doc Phillips arrived a few minutes later, he examined Sun Li. He bandaged the two head wounds to stop the blood from flowing down her face and back. As he did all this, Sun Li did not move. "It looks like she was hit at least twice on the head with some sort of sharp object. I've seen lots of head wounds like this. Even superficial head wounds can bleed like crazy. But Mario, I have to tell you up front, based on her lack of responsiveness, there is a good chance that there is some significant damage to the brain. Obviously, I can't tell for sure without a brain scan. But I know this: we need to get her to a major hospital trauma centre as soon as possible for evaluation and treatment. I really can't do anything more for her now. By the way, Mario, you have a gash on your forehead that's bleeding. Let me take care of it."

When I glanced in the mirror above our dresser, I saw my forehead was bleeding where I had been hit by the attacker as he was leaving the cabin. After I wiped the blood from my face, Doc put a bandage on the wound to stop the bleeding.

While he was putting the bandage on my forehead, I looked down and I saw my Walther on the floor of the cabin, half hidden under our bed and covered in blood. I reached down and picked it up. And then, I immediately realized my mistake in handling it and I let it drop to the floor. I hoped that my touching the gun would not destroy any fingerprints or contaminate any possible DNA.

I was mystified as to how the intruder got into our cabin. Usually, right before going to bed I always check the cabin door to make sure it is locked. As I sat there with Doc Phillips, I began to wonder if I had checked the door last night when I came back from an investigation into a missing wallet around midnight. I also wondered if Sun Li knew the person and had let him into the cabin. I knew that she had to go to work that morning and that was why she was already dressed in her uniform. Maybe she thought it was someone coming for her to go to work together. And that strange sound she made, "B.B.B ..." What did that mean?

CHAPTER 4

Before the attack on Sun Li, the cruise earlier that October week was uneventful. Usually, there are several incidents aboard the ship that require my attention or that of one of my deputies. Sometimes it is a fight in one of the bars between two drunken guests that we have to break up. Often, it is a fight over one of two things: money or a woman. I'm not sure which is generally the most violent fight. Other times, it might be a seven or eight-year-old boy who goes off to play with some new friends without telling his parents where he is going. When his parents can't find him, they become hysterical and contact security and we search the ship for him. Usually, we find the missing child as happy as can be, laughing and having fun splashing in one of the ship's swimming pools with his new-found friends.

Up until that Saturday night before the attack, nothing like those type of incidents had occurred on this cruise. And I was glad because it gave me the opportunity to spend more time with Sun Li. We were still technically newlyweds and learning about each other. But just as I thought we would make it through the cruise incident-free, something odd did happen.

Late that Saturday night, just before midnight, one of the guests in a penthouse suite called the security office where I was on duty. When I spoke with the man, he was hysterical. He claimed that the steward assigned to his cabin stole his wallet containing a large sum of cash. I tried to calm him down and suggested that maybe he had just misplaced it in his cabin or elsewhere on the ship. But he was insistent that the steward stole the wallet. He was yelling into the phone so loud that my ears hurt. I had no choice but to investigate.

When I got to the penthouse suite, I knocked on the door and I was greeted by a rather short man of about sixty, with grey hair pulled back in a sort of a bun arrangement. He also had on horn-rimmed glasses that had a purplish tint to the lenses, something I had never seen before. He was wearing blue and gold silk pajamas with several large red, fire-breathing dragons embroidered on the back of the top of the pajamas. For some reason, I took an instant dislike to the man. Maybe it was those pajamas. To me, they seemed too feminine for a man of his age to wear. Perhaps a younger man could carry it off, but not this man. No, not this man.

The man said his name was Ali Kahn and he claimed that while he was taking a nap, the steward had apparently entered the suite to make up the cabin for the evening. The man said when he woke up from his nap, he looked for his wallet, but it was nowhere to be found. He concluded that the steward must have taken his wallet, which he said he had left on top of a nightstand next to his bed. I asked him if he heard the steward in the room while he was napping. He said "no" but claimed he was a very heavy sleeper and that it was unlikely that he would have heard him. After speaking with the man who still was quite upset, I called the head steward and asked him to send the steward in question, Freddy Gonzalez, to the penthouse suite.

When Freddy arrived a few minutes later, I questioned him for about half an hour as we sat in the suite. He was in tears as he vehemently denied taking the man's wallet. He was virtually incoherent as he sobbed in English and Spanish, "No steal. No steal."

I felt sorry for him and I also believed him. I had come to know Freddy quite well during the two years that we had both worked on the Mardi Gras. I knew that Freddy was employed by the Mariner cruise line for over 20 years and was considered one of the best stewards on the ship. He told me once that he had a large family back in the Philippines who depended upon him for support. Each month he would send most of his paycheck and tips back to his family there. It seemed unlikely to me that he would risk his job and freedom by stealing this man's wallet. But Kahn insisted that the steward had taken the wallet, which he said contained over $5,000 in cash.

Shortly after I had finished questioning Freddy and as the three of us were sitting there in the suite while I thought about what to do next, Mr. Kahn's wife came into the suite. She was a few years younger than Mr. Kahn and appeared to be Chinese. It was only then that I noticed that Mr. Kahn also looked like he might be Chinese as well. She said that she was playing blackjack in the casino for the last several hours. She told me she was surprised that I was there with the steward. When I told her why we were there, she laughed. I asked her why and she explained that it was all just a big misunderstanding.

"Because my husband was sleeping when I left the cabin, I hid my husband's wallet in the bathroom behind the toilet. I know he always carries a lot of money in his wallet and I wanted to make sure it was not stolen if someone did enter our cabin. I thought that was the safest place to put it." When I checked behind the toilet with the Kahns, I saw a brown, trifold wallet sitting on a small ledge. Mr. Kahn opened the wallet and counted out the cash on the countertop next to the sink. When he was done counting, he confirmed that it was all there, all five thousand dollars in hundred dollar bills.

So much for the alleged robbery. Because it was now late, rather than go back to my office, I went back to the cabin which I shared with Sun Li. She was just returning from her job at the bursar's office where she had been working the late shift. She told me that she had an early shift the next morning and would be going to work around 7 a.m. I fell asleep right away and remember having a strange dream in which I, not Mr. Kahn, was counting the hundred dollar bills. "One hundred, two hundred, three hundred."

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "The China Connection"
by .
Copyright © 2017 AJ Basinski.
Excerpted by permission of CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
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