The 7th is a slight dogleg right with bunkers protecting the right side of the fairway requiring a 260 tee shot. The wind was behind them, and Buzz decided to go for it. If he made it, he would only have a short wedge into the green. His drive was almost a carbon copy of the drive he had hit a week earlier. He lost it right and ended up in the heavy rough. Dave’s long 3-wood took the bunkers out of play and he ended up in perfect position.
Six months after the lost heroin shipment, Mario and Romano resumed operations. Romano needed an outlet for his raw product, and they both needed the money. Juan and Diego were presumed dead, although the bodies were never found. The source of the leak was never identified.
They started again with tight security and a new plan for getting their product into the United States. This was the 15th shipment, and the third time that John and Edna Farmington assisted.
The 65-foot yacht cruised slowly up the Gulf of Mexico past Sanibel Island and the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge located on the narrow strip of land connecting Sanibel to Captiva Island, before turning east past South Seas Resort which occupied 80 acres on the eastern tip of Captiva. This was a vacationer’s paradise: acres of lush foliage, tropical birds and a seemingly endless supply of seashells.
Despite pressure from developers and sky rocketing land values, the two islands have maintained a pristine environment. With the exception of a single Dairy Queen that has been grandfathered in, there is not a MacDonald’s, Burger King, Chili’s or other chain-restaurant on the islands. There are no JC Penney’s, Sears, Wal-Mart’s. The restaurants and shoppe’s are unique to the islands. It’s not cheap, but it’s real. Captiva Island is as close to Eden as you can get, but with indoor plumbing. It’s the best that Florida has to offer.
The yacht’s destination was the Tween Waters Inn, located on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf of Mexico and Pine Island Sound, just west of the South Seas Resort. The resort is an ideal blend of old and new and offers scenic views of both bodies of water. John and Edna Farmington had been coming here for 30 years. John had proposed to Edna, exactly 30 years ago tomorrow, following one of the most beautiful sunsets Edna could remember. They looked forward to spending a couple nights on shore, cocktails at the Crow’s Nest, dinner at The Old Captiva House and more breathtaking sunsets.
The Farmington could afford it. They were being paid handsomely for delivering the yacht to the American owners in Fort Meyers; $10,000 plus expenses, to pick up the boat in Freeport, Bahamas and deliver it within five days. They had two more days and were only a few hours from their destination. They told the owners they were going to relax and enjoy themselves. The owners agreed.
John and Edna locked the yacht and took a small johnboat ashore, and checked into their special cabin overlooking the gulf. It was the Lindbergh suite, remodeled authentically to capture the essence of the period when Charles Lindbergh stayed at the Tween Waters Inn in 1955 on his way to a National Aviation Show in Miami; antique furniture, an old fashioned bathtub with lion-paw feet and rotary telephones. Edna suggested they try out the 4-poster bed before dinner.
The evening was perfect, even better than they could have hoped. At sunset, almost everyone including many of the locals grabbed their cocktails and went down to the beach to enjoy the sunset. John and Edna had been doing this for 30 years and were seldom disappointed. Tonight’s sunset was especially brilliant. There were a few clouds on the horizon that reflected the sun’s rays and 30 seconds after the sun seemingly plunged into the gulf, there was a second sunset as the clouds on the horizon were illuminated. It was a phenomenon of which they never tired.
By 11:00 PM late that night they were sound asleep in the 4-poster bed after making love once again. It had been a perfect evening. While they slept, a small boat approached their yacht and entered the cabin with a second set of keys. The intruders quickly found the trapdoor located in the closet and entered the secret compartment below. An hour later, ten million dollars of heroin was off-loaded to the small boat and the intruders were gone. $30M of heroin was left untouched.
John and Edna spent the following day enjoying the beauty of this remote island. They rented bicycles and pedaled along the narrow roads to the Ding Darling nature reserve on the causeway connecting Captiva Island to Sanibel. They walked through the upscale Shoppe’s in Periwinkle Circle and looked for sand dollars along the gulf beach. In the evening they enjoyed another perfect sunset and dined at the Bubble Room. They made love again before falling asleep by 10 PM. It had been another perfect day.
Their fantasy world crumbled at 2:00 AM. “Open up, this is the FBI.” There was a loud pounding on their door and lights shining into their beautiful cabin. John opened the door and was almost run over by three men with flashlights that illuminated the guns in their hands. “John and Edna Farmington, you are under arrest for smuggling drugs into the United States.”
John and Edna were in a state of shock and hugged each other as the DEA agents read them their rights; “You have a right to remain silent; anything you say….” Edna had always feared that their arrangement with the boat owners was too good to be true.
The next afternoon Mario received a call from Sam. “Mario, we’ve been waiting all day - the boat has not arrived. The front desk clerk at the Tween Waters Inn said there was a drug bust last night and two guests were arrested. Have you heard anything?”
“I just heard. The DEA just made an announcement that they had seized another drug shipment. Get over here fast. We need to talk.”
Variations of this same plan had worked perfectly for the last 12 months; fifteen shipments totaling over $500M without a hitch - now this. What happened? Mario had no idea what could have gone wrong. He did know that another $40M shipment was lost and Romano would be pissed. His anger grew as he slowly dialed the number.
At the same time, Jack Mathews, DEA Florida Bureau Chief, was congratulating Steve Wilson on a job well done. “Steve, great job, keep up the good work. By the way, who tipped you off?”
“Thanks, Jack. I’m not sure who gave us the lead. Our Miami office got a phone call late yesterday telling us we would find there was a shipment of heroin in a yacht anchored at Captiva Island. The caller even told us about the hidden trapdoor. We just got lucky.”
“Luck or no, this could be the break we have been waiting for. There is obviously someone on the inside that has an axe to grind with the drug cartel,” Jack concluded.
“I hope they live long enough to keep the information coming,” Steve thought.
In Tallahassee, Joe Martinez was entering the TV studio where he would record the spot-ads that would be shown across Florida in the final two weeks of his campaign for Governor of Florida.
Buzz was still looking for his ball in the heavy rough while Bradford hit 5-iron to the front of the green, leaving him a 25-foot birdie putt. Buzz finally found his ball embedded in the front of a small pampas bush. He wasn’t happy. He was only 40 yards from the green, but couldn’t get a club on the ball. His only choice was to take an unplayable lie and drop two club lengths from where the ball had entered the bush, no closer to the hole. His 3rd shot buried in a greenside bunker. After two great holes, the golf gods took their revenge.
Buzz was still away and blasted his 4th shot to within 15 feet. Bradford only needed to 2-putt for the win, which he did. He was back to one up, heading to the 8th tee.
Chapter 8
Par 3 - 210 Yards
The Chairman of the Board