Smugglers 1: Nikki by Gerald McCallum Page B

started on the blood. It took him all day to clean up the mess.
    On the day Nikki got her new shag carpet installed, she went out on the dock to meet Jerry from the Sea Cactus to tell him her story. She had to tell her story over and over to everyone she met on the dock. They all wanted to know what happened and they all wanted to see her face.
    About a week went by when Mercedes called. She didn’t know anything about Glenn or the fight that killed him. They talked for hours.
    “Nikki, I’m going to move back down to Harbor Marina,” said Mercedes.
    “You’ll have to move back into your old apartment until things get better,” Nikki said.
    “That’s a good idea. I’ll call you tomorrow night. It will be about a week,” and she gave Nikki her phone number.
    Nikki’s attorney called her. He had just heard about Glenn. Nikki stuck to her story, the same one she told the cops and everyone else. He asked if there was anything he could do, and she told him no. She would get over this and be fine. After they said goodbye, Nikki went back out on the dock to go to work. The next week went by fast.
    She was busy and the cops were there to go over her story. She just remembered what she needed to. For the rest, she faked amnesia as necessary to make her story ring true. She never saw the cops again, but she did run into Dave, the town cop. He asked all kinds of questions about Glenn and why he came back if he had been safe in the Bahamas with his boat and his money. Dave had found out from some of the locals that Glenn was in the drug running business and had been for years. They all thought he had ten or twenty million dollars put away. So why did he come back? Did he fall in love with Nikki or was it something else?
    Nikki kept going over Dave’s questions in her mind. There was something wrong with that old drunk. Something he kept to himself. Something he said just didn’t sit right with her. Something about her fight with Glenn that didn’t sit right with Dave, she thought.
    The week went by, and the cuts and bruises started to disappear. On Friday Mercedes pulled in and moved back into her apartment in the four-plex. That night she went to dinner at Nikki’s. They hurried to the bed, where they embraced and kissed and caressed one another until they came together, stifling their cries of ecstasy in a wide open kiss, their tongues dancing together, a dance that kindled another round of lovemaking.
    Later, Nikki told Mercedes about Glenn and the fight from beginning to end. Mercedes had been shocked when she first saw Nikki, but the worst was over. It had been a week since the fight, and Nikki was starting to heal. Mercedes touched Nikki’s cheeks, kissed her eyes and nose, then kissed the fading bruises with incredible tenderness, feathering the wounds with her tongue which explored new and exciting places on Nikki’s body.
    Mercedes went home about six the next morning, and Nikki did not see her again until about one o’clock that afternoon when she looked down the dock and saw Mercedes standing in front of the four-plex talking to Dave. Nikki frowned as she watched them. Maybe it was nothing. She prayed it was nothing.
    About ten or fifteen minutes later Dave went to work and Nikki walked down the dock to Mercedes.
    “What did Dave want?” Nikki asked.
    “He told me the story about your fight with Glenn,” Mercedes answered, “and said that his contacts in town said Glenn had been in business with Jim. They had both been in the running business for twenty years, and Glenn had to have twenty million dollars put away when he went to the Bahamas. The DEA found two million under Jim’s name in assorted banks. Then Dave said something at the end that was very strange. He said if Glenn was safe in the Bahamas with his money, why did he come back here to fight with you?”
    Nikki lifted a hand and caressed Mercedes’ cheek. “We have to talk. Come by tonight about six o’clock. I’ll make dinner. Right now I