Free Fallen Palm (Jesse McDermitt Series) by Wayne Stinnett

aft, to both sides of the turning basin. Alex was standing on the old barge next to an aluminum gangplank that was connected to the barge with a large hinge pin. She lowered the other end to Art at the stern. I noticed that Art was kind enough to bungee a bumper to the underside of the gangplank, to protect my finish. “Those are some great Sailors you have there, too.”

9
One Week Earlier
    Monday, October 17, 2005
     
    “Hey Sonny, you got a sec?” Lester asked as he entered Sonny’s office. The old loan shark was at his desk in the back office of a junkyard he owned on the outskirts of West Palm Beach, just off US-1. He’d bought it ten years ago, mostly as a front for his other enterprises, but also because it had a dock on a canal that went straight to the water.
    “Got nothing but time, kid. Did you ever find that deadbeat Joseph Whatshisname?”
    “Had a line on him in Riviera Beach on Saturday,” Lester replied. “I waited around where he was supposed to show all afternoon and he never showed. I’ll find him, though. Look, I got this problem and I don’t know what to do about it and I was thinking maybe you could help me out,” Lester was looking at a picture of a naked girl on the calendar by the door. It was dated 1975, but she was still hot, he thought.
    “Whatcha need, kid? An advance? I can probably give you a couple C notes,” Sonny said, as he opened a drawer in the old metal desk and pulled his wallet out.
    “No Boss, nothing like that,” Lester said. “See, it’s like this. You know I took up scuba diving a few weeks ago. Well, I found something the other day and it’s pretty valuable. But, I don’t wanna go to a fence I don’t know and was wondering if you might know someone that could maybe handle it for me.”
    “Hmm, yeah I know some people,” Sonny said thoughtfully. “Been down here for over forty years. Not too many people I don’t know in this town.” Found something valuable in the water, huh, he thought. Some old broads broach, maybe?
    “Thing is, Boss, well, this thing is maybe more valuable than anything I could ever find. I don’t wanna get took by anyone.” With that, Lester closed the office door and opened the green gym bag he was carrying and pulled out a towel. He set it on Sonny’s desk with a heavy thud and unrolled it. “It’s a solid gold bar, Boss.”
    Sonny couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Sure looked like gold and he reached to pick it up, but misjudged it’s weight and it dropped back onto the towel. Using both hands he picked it up. Damn thing must weigh ten pounds, he thought. “Where the hell did you find this, kid? You didn’t knock over a Brinks truck did ya?”
    “Found it in da ocean, Boss,” Lester replied. “Found a few other things, too.” With that, he unrolled the towel the rest of the way. There were four gold coins, one mounted and hung on a necklace and a gold cross, with three big green stones on it.
    “Holy shit,” Sonny said. He recognized the gold doubloons, he’d seen a few of them before. Mostly in museums, but once he saw a guy wearing one on a chain around his neck, like the one that was mounted here. “You mean to tell me that you was swimming in the ocean and just found all this stuff.”
    “Not exactly, Boss. Well, the bar, I found in the ocean, yeah. The other things turned up later. Any idea how I can get rid of them and how much they worth?”
    Sonny thought for a minute, rolling the doubloons in his fingers. Then picked up the cross and looked closely at the stones. There was a setting for a fourth one, but it was missing. “Well, I’m pretty sure I can help ya fence it, but it’ll cost ya. You work for me, so I’m gonna take a big cut. That bar’s gotta weigh at least ten pounds, I’d guess it’s worth $200 thou, by itself. The coins are sometimes called doubloons. They’re two escudo cobs, worth maybe a thousand bucks each. But, this gold cross might be worth more than all the others combined if