Clearwater Kiss Off

By Al Rennie

Their injuries have taken a toll but life goes on for Joe and Mia. Lola, the child Samantha was trying to adopt has been kidnapped and Joe turns to brother Frank for help. His scheme to recover Lola puts Frank into a jam with the dark side. Joe and Max are under the gun and Billy Ray finds himself in big trouble again. The bad guys come for Mrs Thornberry's head. Just another crazy day in paradise

• Language: English
• Publisher: Al Rennie
• Release date: Sep 10, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301411382

Al Rennie

I was born and raised in Toronto. I attended Upper Canada College before taking a degree at Queen's University. I have worked as a lifeguard for the Toronto Harbour Police, a youth worker for the Toronto YMCA, and an English teacher in Lakefield. I am married with two great daughters and an extended foster family. My interests include Maple Leaf hockey - this is our year - New England Patriot football and writing.

Book preview

Clearwater Kiss Off

By Al Rennie

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 by Al Rennie

All Rights Reserved.

Image Credit: Photographer – Marsha Rennie

Cover Credit: Rita Toews – probably the most caring, patient and inventive cover creator ever!

And she’s tough too!!!! She has to be – she lives in Winnipeg!

Formatting Credit: L.K. Campbell – as always just great – and thank you for the Kindle stuff!

Dedication

For my wife – Marsha

Always there for me and

always keeping my moral

compass headed in the

right direction!

And Ilker

Of Altin Bilek Yaylinlari

Who liked Clearwater Journals enough to get

it published in his home country of Turkey.

Thank You

Acknowledgements:

I’d like to thank my wife, Marsha and Annmarie Schwanke for their masterful work editing this novel. Their efforts have made the story much better and the content easier for you, the reader, to decipher. I would also like to thank them for a couple of their suggestions, but maybe not all. A few of their ideas were just plain weird.

I like that you have cut back on a lot of the cussing and fornicating, but maybe you should include a few more thee and thou type words for the church group folk. Maybe include some more Biblical imagery… or how about if Joe and Mia do a tour of the Holy Land?

Jeez!

Warnings:

Note to would-be young readers:

As a former teacher – and therefore someone sworn to be concerned about the minds of our youth – I have to warn the under eighteen group that Clearwater Kiss contains a number of four letter words – it also has some with two and three and a few with five and even six letters – so watch out. I must also tell you that you will come across some pretty suggestive scenes and some very bad people – but nothing is likely to overly stimulate you or disgust you – sorry. If you are under eighteen and read this book – you may go blind – or – you may win the lottery if you can get your hands on a ticket. In any case, I hope you enjoy this book – good reading bubba.

Best Regards,

Doc

August 30th, 2012

(in Clearwater Beach, Florida – and loving it.)

P.S. – If any of you feel a strong need to communicate with me – try

[e-mail]

or visit my revised website

courtesy of Chance Faulkner Photography

alrennie.com

Note: Clearwater Beach and the area surrounding it is truly my idea of paradise. It is a beautiful place to visit and live. The violence depicted in the Clearwater series is just fiction – i.e. – it never happened. Go there and find out for yourself. You’ll love it.

A few Reader Responses to Clearwater Journals and the Clearwater Series:

If you like Jack Reacher, then you’ll like this. I enjoyed this book very much. It was well written and tense with a dash of humour and kept me involved throughout. If it had been written by Lee Child, it would be an international bestseller. – Morris Kenyon

Brilliant! Couldn’t put it down, thanks – Catherine Cooke

What a riveting story with bouts of wry humor. Again Please. – Bruce

Excellent read with more twists and turns than a road through the mountains. Enjoyed every minute! – Kingstonbears

A really well written book. Loved it a bunch. Hope he does another soon. Maybe a series??? – Wa6ype

A truly fun read, great sense of humor and a good plot. I recommend this author with pleasure. – Evelyn

Excellent writing, fast paced, liked it a lot. – Toerien

Gripping story, believable characters. Would definitely recommend. Very well written. Thoroughly enjoyed it. – Rachel Caldicott

Put my life on hold until I finished it. Great read! You live the character’s emotions and you can’t be sure of the outcome until the last page. – Charles Hough

Great read! Interesting characters and twists – not to mention just enough quirky to make it more real. – Holly Atkisson Gilmer

Enjoyable reading – a combination of a thriller and a love story – Pentii Grant

Easy reading – I look forward to another from Rennie. A book you don’t want to put down; a book you don’t want to end. – Annie Welch

Fantastic, loved it, couldn’t put it down, and didn’t want it to end! – Eloise

Thanks! Great book – I can’t wait for more! – Abu Hamzah

What a great book! Fast paced and great characters. – Sara Walsh

And from few reviewers who have read the entire Clearwater series and evidently enjoyed it:

"What a cliff-hanger!! Please tell me the next one is coming out sooner rather than later. Love the Clearwater Series – Jackie K

I have read all of the Clearwater books and enjoyed them all. Clearwater Heat is such a cliff hanger that makes it mandatory to read the next book. I hope you are writing fast and will have it available soon. – Cynthia Brooks August 28, 2012 at 9:22 pm

"I just finished Clearwater Heat, and can’t wait to see what happens, in the next book. Al, you are a dog for leaving us hanging, but, great series of books, have read all of then now! Which brings up the question, when are you going to let us off the hook for the next book? Dude – this series rocks!" – Dwight Masson September 1, 2012 at 11:28 pm

Chapter 1

Monday, April 30, 2012

Back in the Land of the Living

Someone kissed my forehead gently. There was the slight odour of the expensive French aftershave my brother favours.

My eyes did the flutter thing and I moaned softly. The lips quickly disappeared. I lay quietly trying to remember where I was and how I got here. It wasn’t coming back to me, but I did know that my tongue was stuck to the roof of my mouth. That can’t be a good thing. I tried to open my eyes but it was way past too bright. Sometime later, I carefully opened them again. I was once again aware that there was someone else in this room with me.

Water… I managed to mumble.

A large thick hand decked out with a diamond ring the size of a robin’s egg on its pinky finger held a chilled glass of ice water to my lips after his other hand reached beneath the pillows and raising my head a few inches.

Sure Doc, a voice said.

Is that you Frank?

Yeah…

Did you kiss my forehead a little while ago?

Don’t think so…

You did so. Why did you kiss my forehead?

Cause I love you like a brother, nothing strange about that is there? I thought maybe you were dying.

I am your brother Frank.

I know that. Are you okay Doc? I thought the bullet hit you in the hip not the head, but maybe when you did your face plant into the hotel parking lot like that, you shook something up in the old brain pan. Maybe you’re hallucinating. Maybe I’m not even here.

Where are we Frank?

Don’t you know Doc?

Really…? Would I ask if I did Frank?

You get grumpy when you get shot eh Doc?

There were three guys all in their late twenties waiting in the older blue Ford van that had been stolen for them a day earlier. The licence plate on the van had been lifted off a car in a shopping mall only two hours before this little adventure had started. These guys were not pros – not even close. They didn’t have to be for what they were about to do, but the one guy sitting in the back was starting to look a bit shaky – the oxycontin was wearing thin in him. He needed this to be over soon. They had been parked up and across the road from their target zone for the last hour. No one had noticed anything strange about them being parked there. It was that kind of neighbourhood.

They had been told that when their window of opportunity happened they had to act fast or take the consequences. But the rewards made it all worthwhile. A thousand apiece with five hundred up front was not something to be sneezed at when you weren’t certain where your next meal was coming from or where you might be sleeping that night.

All three of them were starting to get edgy as the time approached. But it wasn’t happening the way they had been told it would. Should they drive away; should they stay? Should they make the call? And then, ten minutes after they had been told it should happen, the front door of the small house opened. They perked right up; they were in business. This was what they had been waiting for.

A forty something woman wearing cheap tan leather sandals, pink framed prescription sunglasses, blue shapeless cotton pants and a beige blouse emerged from the aluminum door. Right away, she started to load the two little kids – a boy age two and a girl age three – each wearing shorts and a T-shirt into a double seat stroller. The baby buggy had been anchored with a flexible blue plastic covered bicycle chain lock to one of the two upright four by six inch white painted wooden front porch supports. It was that kind of neighbourhood.

The guy who was paying for this operation had said, Wait until she unlocks the chain. Be patient but get ready.

As the woman finished securing the kids in the stroller, the driver started the van. As the woman moved down the short broken driveway pushing the stroller and cooing to the babies to get them settled, the van started to creep forward. Their instructions had anticipated which direction the woman would go on the sidewalk. Someone had done their homework for them. The woman steered her load onto the cracked decayed concrete and started on her way. She had only made it about ten feet into her trip when the van pulled to an abrupt stop beside her. She just had time to look up and over before she was sent sprawling to the ground by the first guy in.

Two guys wearing dark sunglasses and ball caps under loose fitting dark ‘hoodies’ had jumped out of the van. The lead guy roughly pushed the woman to the ground causing her to lose her glasses. He screamed at her to ‘don’t move – stay down’. He turned and with his buddy picked up the stroller and loaded it quickly through the side port of the van. One of the guys yelled ‘go’ and the driver floored it out of there. The woman was crying and shaking badly as she adjusted her glasses and fumbled in her oversize canvas beach bag trying to find her cell phone. She was still trying to get to her feet two minutes later when she heard the distant sirens coming her way. No one had come to help her, and when the cops canvassed the area in a search for any witnesses, no one had seen a thing. It really was that kind of neighbourhood.

We’re on the boat – don’t you remember anything Doc?

And then I did. I remembered Max and Billy Ray and they were telling me something about Mia and the babies and there was a little doctor guy with thick lens glasses holding a hypodermic needle and fiddling with a plastic tube that ended up at a needle held in place by sticky white adhesive tape on the back of my hand.

I tried to focus as Frank took the glass of water away for a second time and lowered the pillows supporting my head to the mattress.

Where’s Mia?

In a special hospital; she’s not handling things too well Doc, but there’s no surprise there I guess. When the air bags exploded during the collision with that truck – well – it was a damn good thing she was trying out that Cadillac Escalade. If she had been driving that old Corvette or dad’s Jaguar, she would have been toast. As it was, she lost the babies Doc. Sorry.

I started to tear up and then the little doctor guy stepped up to the plate and the lights went out again.

Frank filled me in on a few more details during my three subsequent trips back to the land of the living. The hospital Mia was in was really a very expensive private psychiatric rehab clinic but she was there on a twenty-four seven suicide watch. She was making progress and starting to feel better. ‘She sends her love.’ Frank had said. I was pretty certain the last part was a Frank embellishment to make me feel better. He had probably not even talked to her. The Escalade Mia had been driving was a write off and the sales guy who had been with her during the test drive was in rough shape but would survive. My lawyer, Bob Morse had sent his best regards and a written update on the final disposition of the Harold Messon situation. I could read it when I wanted to but basically, all the charges had been dropped against him. Morse went on to say that the Cooper Holiday Investigative Services were still his ‘go to guys’ and would be for as long as we wanted to be. Fred Cooper, my partner, had come by to see me a few times, but each time he did I was somewhere else or sleeping quietly. He was holding things together with the help of his daughter, Samantha, and our researcher, accountant, executive assistant, Mrs. Thornberry. They were using Billy Ray as a stand in for me while I was recuperating. Frank warned me that Max was still pretty ticked off at me for not just shooting Nelson Carling. Max gets ticked off pretty easily lately. That was not a Frank embellishment but a simple statement of fact.

On my fourth return to the land of the living, Frank was talking on a satellite phone and Max was sitting by the head of my bed reading Siddartha by Herman Hesse for about the tenth time since I had known him.

Want to talk with Mia? Max asked quietly.

Yeah…

I’ll set it up on Skype. Just relax.

How long have I been here Max?

Almost a week now, and then Max went real sotto voce, as soon as you promise him that you are not going to off yourself or do something else truly stupid, you will hear the helicopter taking him back to his jet parked at the Clearwater – St. Pete’s Airport. From there he should be back in Toronto in two and a half hours. He’s going nuts here Doc and he’s driving everybody else there with him. Somebody in the media back home found out that one of his companies has bought up all the legal marijuana grow-ops to go with all the other ones he has. Frank is not a happy camper Doc, but he loves you and thinks you need him here with you now.

Got it… Frank, hang up the phone man.

I’ll get back to you, Frank said. Yeah Doc, do you need something?

No, Frank, but I want to thank you for everything that you’ve done for Mia and me.

Max excused himself and left us alone in the room. For the next fifteen minutes, my brother and I talked about Mia and the babies, his business problems, the Leafs missing the play-offs for yet another year and finally what was happening in the moment. He had been busy looking after my life while he had been here on his yacht with me. I learned that he was having our condo done over so that there would be no memory of babies or pregnancy. The nursery was gone.

We also took a pass on the expensive nanny Doc. No need now right eh? Max will be moving into the B unit of the condo on your floor to look after you guys and keep me up to date on your progress.

You shouldn’t have Frank, I said quietly and meant it quite literally.

But Frank got it twisted and said, You’re welcome Doc; that’s what brothers are for eh? And Max talked to me about your new business. Cooper Holiday can use the yacht as its office, rent free, as soon as you get docked back at the Clearwater Beach marina. I think I’ll get the copter to take me to the St. Pete’s-Clearwater Airport. My jet is on stand-by and I really need to get back home to the business. I got a lot of stuff needing my personal attention.

Before Frank left in his helicopter, I also learned that my physiotherapist, a former German Olympic tri-athlete named Henrich – the best there is Frank said – would be working with Max and me for two hours each morning until I was okay again.

The big guy, Billy Ray, can work out with you guys too. I’m paying for the whole deal, so get better man. If there is anything else you want or need Doc, just ask bro, and it’s yours. I promise.

Bro…? Thank you Frank really, was all I could say.

"But don’t do anything stupid Doc, like last time when Annie got killed. Mia is going to need you to be patient. The psychiatrist said that she will go through her own form of grieving process for quite a while. No matter what that looks like, she won’t be easy to live with for