Tourist Trap (Kingfisher P.I. Book 3)

By James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn

The search for one of the world’s most wanted fugitives, a swindler who is rumored to have stashed away close to a billion dollars in ill-gotten gains, leads brother and sister private investigators Callista and Joseph Kingfisher to a fabulous, luxurious resort in Mexico. But deep in the jungles of the Yucatan, they discover another secret hidden away, a secret that may mean death for both Kingfishers!
TOURIST TRAP is another lightning-paced, colorful adventure from bestselling authors James Reasoner and Livia J. Washburn, featuring plenty of thrills, humor, and excitement, with suspense and plot twists that will leave readers breathless.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Reasoner
• Release date: Mar 4, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224388912

James Reasoner

A lifelong Texan, James Reasoner has been a professional writer for more than thirty years. In that time, he has authored several hundred novels and short stories in numerous genres. James is best known for his Westerns, historical novels, and war novels, he is also the author of two mystery novels that have achieved cult classic status, TEXAS WIND and DUST DEVILS. Writing under his own name and various pseudonyms, his novels have garnered praise from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Los Angeles Times, as well as appearing on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists.

Book preview

Chapter 1

This is a stakeout, right? Callista Kingfisher asked her brother as they sat in the darkened front seat of his car. An actual stakeout?

That’s right. Joseph Kingfisher frowned. There was never a stakeout in any of those movies you made?

Not that I remember. I was never involved in a scene like that, I’m sure. Of course, I’ve watched movies and TV shows that had stakeouts in them, but that’s not the real thing.

Well, it’s not likely they’d put a realistic stakeout in a movie because that would mean the characters would just do a lot of sitting and waiting, and I don’t think that would be very interesting to watch.

Sitting and waiting and, uh, wondering what you do if you have to go to the bathroom.

There’s an empty two-liter soda bottle in the back seat, Joseph said.

Eww, Callie said. That’s not going to do me any good.

Well, there’s nobody around, her brother told her. You can always go around the corner of that warehouse.

No, no, I’m fine, Callie said. I don’t actually need to go. I was just speaking hypothetically.

Joseph nodded without taking his eyes off the building they were watching. Good to know.

They were parked on the street in an industrial area on the north side of Corpus Christi, a couple of blocks off the interstate. On the other side of the freeway was a field of natural gas storage tanks. At night like this, the area was mostly dark, with only scattered streetlights here and there and some security lights in fenced-off lots. The sky to the south was bright with the glow of the city, but not much of that illumination reached where the Kingfishers were sitting in Joseph’s car.

It was a bleak, desolate, lonely scene, almost enough to give Callie the creeps.

On the other side of the street, at the far end of the block, a one-story brick building sat in front of a large metal building where some sort of manufacturing went on during the day. It was closed for the night now.

Callie didn’t know what was manufactured there, and it didn’t matter. She and Joseph were watching the car that had pulled into the parking lot at the side of the brick building a short time earlier. They had followed it here.

That’s the guy who owns the business? Callie asked.

Yes. Lyndon Hawkins. He owns part of the business.

And the guy you’re after is his partner?

That’s right. William Murphy.

He’s the one who skipped out on his bail, the one Bucko wants you to find.

Joseph sighed. Yes. You’d know all this if you’d read the paperwork.

I’ve never been a big fan of paperwork, you know that.

Yes, I remember your academic career.

Well, we can’t all be valedictorian. Or homecoming queen like Vickie.

You were all-state in softball. Vickie and I never accomplished anything like that. And of course, you’ve gone on to be famous.

Callie blew out a breath. Hardly. Nobody knows who I am but action movie buffs. It had been a mistake to bring up the past, she thought as bad memories began to nibble around the edges of her brain like ducks at a pond. She changed the subject by saying, What makes you think the guy—Murphy—is going to show up here?

I don’t know that he will, but he has to make contact with Hawkins sometime, according to the gossip I picked up from talking to some of the workers from their plant. They think that Hawkins isn’t smart enough to be running things by himself, so he has to be getting instructions from Murphy.

They could do that by email.

Joseph shook his head. And Hawkins is passing on Murphy’s share of the profits, as well.

Again, there’s this thing called online banking.

Murphy’s one of those guys who doesn’t trust it. Always does business in cash. That’s why the employees think Murphy and Hawkins were still meeting up somewhere.

What did the guy do to become a fugitive?

Drove drunk, had a wrong-way, head-on crash on the Crosstown Expressway that killed a woman. Left a husband and three kids under the age of ten. And then jumped bail.

Callie winced in the shadows. Ouch. That’s prison time for sure unless he’s really rich.

Well-to-do. Not rich, rich.

Is he dumb enough to meet his partner right in front of the business they own? No, wait, he was dumb enough to drive drunk and head up the wrong side of the freeway. I guess we can’t rule anything out, can we?

That’s why I followed Hawkins here tonight, Joseph said. I’ve been tailing him more often than not for more than a week now, just on the off-chance that he’ll rendezvous with Murphy. I think the odds are pretty low that we’ll actually find Murphy tonight—

Callie leaned forward and said, Who’s that?

Joseph was instantly alert. Where?

Coming along the street there.

The figure, barely more than a shadow among shadows in the murky light, crossed the intersection from the next block to the one where Joseph and Callie sat. It was too dark to tell if it was male or female, but the progress it made toward the parking lot of Murphy-Hawkins Enterprises was unsteady enough to be noticeable.

A drunk, Joseph said. There’s a bar three blocks up the street and around the corner. He’s just looking for someplace to sleep it off.

Murphy’s a drunk, you said.

He drove drunk. That’s different. That fellow looks like a derelict—Wait a minute. What’s he doing?

He’s headed for Hawkins’ car. Either he thinks it’s empty and he’s going to try to break into it, or—

The passenger side front door swung open. Hawkins was alone in the car, so he must have leaned over and opened it.

It’s him, Joseph said, excitement in his voice. It’s William Murphy. It has to be.

The shadowy figure wasn’t shambling and stumbling anymore as it approached Lyndon Hawkins’ car. Instead, it moved with quick resolve and slid into the front seat. The door closed.

That has to be him, Joseph said.

Callie leaned forward and asked, Now what?

Now we take that fugitive into custody. Joseph started his car and pulled away from the curb without turning on his headlights. Callie knew he didn’t want to draw attention to them until it was too late for the man they were after to get away.

Joseph drove down the block, accelerating smoothly until he was almost to the parking lot beside the brick building. Then he hit the brakes, spun the wheel, and came to a rocking stop so that the car was directly behind Hawkins’ car, which was now pinned neatly with its front end up against a chain-link fence.

Joseph turned his headlights on. The backwash from them was enough to brightly light up the inside of Hawkins’ car and reveal two people sitting in the front seat. They twisted around frantically to look out the car’s back window.

The passenger door of Joseph’s car was only a few feet from the trunk of Hawkins’ car. Joseph threw his door open and called to Callie, Out on this side!

She knew he didn’t want her caught between the vehicles if Hawkins backed his car broadside into Joseph’s. As she slid across the bench seat, she watched their quarry and saw the passenger door on Hawkins’ car fly open. The figure they had seen earlier bolted out of the vehicle and took off up the street, not moving like a drunk now.

He’s running, she told Joseph as she came out of the car. I’ll get him!

Callie, wait! he called as he started to circle the front of his car, but of course, she ignored him and dashed after the fleeing figure.

Her eyes had adjusted well enough to the darkness that she could see the man throwing wide-eyed, frightened glances over his shoulder.

Stop! she shouted. William Murphy, you’re under arrest!

Wait, she thought as she ran. Was she allowed to say that? Would declaring him to be under arrest be considered impersonating a police officer?

Just to be sure she didn’t do anything that would get Joseph in trouble, she added, I’m a bail enforcement agent!

That didn’t sound nearly as cool as bounty hunter, but it was more technically correct.

Unfortunately, it didn’t do a thing to slow down William Murphy’s desperate flight.

Like most athletes, Callie was very aware of her body and how it was working. The smooth play of muscles, the robust, steady pounding of her heart, the swift reaction of her nerves… All of them combined to create the almost effortless speed with which she ran as she closed in on the fugitive.

And best of all, not a twinge from any of the injuries she had suffered months earlier when a stunt she was doing in Hollywood had gone suddenly, disastrously wrong. She had come back to her hometown of Corpus Christi to visit with her brother and finish recuperating from those injuries…

Even though she was healthy again, she was still here. At this point, it was probably time to admit that she wasn’t just helping Joseph out temporarily with his private investigator business. After the Navy, after a couple of years of doing mixed martial arts and UFC fighting, after a considerable amount of success as a stunt performer in movies and TV… but none of it entirely satisfying… she thought maybe she had finally found her niche.

Besides, it was fun, and as William Murphy veered off the pavement into a vacant lot, Callie caught up to him and launched herself in a diving tackle that took him down from behind.

Chapter 2

Callie could have brought Murphy down before now, but she’d been worried that crashing into the street would do too much damage to one or both of them.

The dirt in this vacant lot was packed pretty hard, but not as hard as pavement. However, the impact was enough to cause Murphy to let out a loud Ooof! when he landed with Callie lying half on top of him.

Murphy’s body cushioned her fall so she wasn’t even stunned. She pushed herself up onto hands and knees, scrambled higher, and planted a knee in the small of his back to pin him down. While she held him there, she groped in the pocket of the light jacket she wore for the zip ties that Joseph had given her earlier. She was going to pull Murphy’s arms behind his back and zip-tie his wrists together.

But where were the blasted zip ties? Had they fallen out when she tackled Murphy?

Callie was still trying to find the ties when Murphy yelled and bucked up off the ground as much as he could with her weight on top of him. At the same time, he reached back and dug his fingers into the flesh of her inner thigh through her jeans. Desperation fueled his strength enough to make the claw-like grip painful. Callie pulled away from him instinctively, and that threw her off balance and made her topple off him.

Murphy twisted around on the ground and kicked her in the left side. She gasped and grabbed at her ribs. His hands and feet scrabbled at the dirt as he tried to crawl away from her.

Callie rolled onto her right side with her left hand still pressed against her ribs. She got her right hand underneath her and tried to push herself to her feet. A few yards away, Murphy was clambering upright, too.

Anger filled her. She had been kicked plenty of times during her MMA career, but she wasn’t going to take that from an amateur. Ignoring the pain in her side, she went after Murphy and grabbed his shoulder as he tried to stumble away.

Hey! she said as she jerked him around. She belted him in the jaw with a hard right. He staggered back a couple of steps but didn’t go down.

Callie pivoted, bent at the waist, and snapped a side kick into his belly. Murphy grunted and doubled over. Callie grabbed him by the hair and threw him to the ground again.

She saw Joseph coming and stepped back. I can’t find my stupid zip ties, she told him. They must have fallen out of my pocket.

Don’t worry. I’ve got him.

Joseph bent over, jerked Murphy’s arms behind his back, and in a matter of moments had his wrists fastened together with the plastic restraints. Murphy was too sick from the kick in the stomach to put up any resistance.

Joseph took hold of Murphy’s shirt collar and lifted him to his feet. Then he asked Callie, Are you all right? You’re rubbing your side like you’re hurt.

He kicked me, but I’m fine. I’ll just have a bruise. No broken ribs, or even cracked ones.

You’re sure?

I’ve had enough cracked ribs to know. Even a few broken ones. I had foul tips that hurt worse than this when I was playing catcher back in high school. Callie glared at Murphy. But that doesn’t mean I like it.

Joseph shoved the prisoner toward the cars. Come on.

Where’s Hawkins?

Secured in his car. The police will want him, too. He’s been aiding and abetting a fugitive.

I never meant for any of this to happen, Murphy said with a whining tone in his voice. It was an accident. You shouldn’t have your whole life ruined because of an accident.

You may not have meant to drive the wrong way on the freeway, Joseph said, but it was no accident you were too drunk to know the difference. You did that all on your own, Murphy. And that poor woman lost her life because of it.

Murphy had no answer for that. He just stumbled along with his head drooping far forward.

When they got back to the parking lot, Joseph opened the front passenger door of Hawkins’ car and put Murphy inside. Hawkins sat behind the wheel with his wrists zip-tied to it, looking just as disconsolate as his partner. His shoulders slumped and his head leaned so far forward it was almost resting on the steering wheel.

Joseph stepped back and pulled out his cell phone.

Bucko, he said into the phone a moment later, this is Joseph Kingfisher. I have William Murphy in custody. Do you want me to take him to the jail?… All right, we’ll wait here for you. We’re at Murphy’s company, the one he owns with Lyndon Hawkins.… That’s right, that’s where we found him.… We have Hawkins in custody as well… I know. See you in a little while.

Bucko’s coming to get him? Callie asked as Joseph slipped the phone back in his pocket.

Yeah, along with a couple of his guys. And if I know Bucko, he’ll tip off the press, so there’ll be people from the newspaper and the TV stations there when he marches Murphy into the jail. It’ll be good publicity for him.

But not for you, Callie pointed out.

Joseph shrugged. That doesn’t matter. I already have as much work as I want. If a lot more potential clients started trying to hire me, I’d have to bring in some associate investigators and secretaries and accountants and—

"And you’d rather be a lone wolf with a part-time, unofficial helper who happens to be your sister, so you don’t have to, you know, actually pay her anything."

You know good and well I’ve offered to give you a share of the fees. Twenty-five percent, as I recall. And you’ve turned it down flat.

Callie laughed. No, that’s all right. I was just harassing you. You don’t have to pay me. I’m getting room and board out of the deal.

Well, it’s your home, too, you know. I’d say you have a right to live there.

I kind of gave that up a long time ago, didn’t I?

Not as far as I’m concerned, he said.

That’s nice of you, she said with a smile. I appreciate it.

But if you continue working with me, eventually we’re going to have to come to some sort of official arrangement. You really ought to be licensed as a private investigator, even if it isn’t an actual requirement.

Fine, but we can talk about that later. She waved a hand at the large metal building looming nearby. What do these guys make here, anyway?

I don’t know. Some sort of electrical doodads, I think.

The car door was still open, so the prisoners could hear what Callie and Joseph were saying. Hawkins straightened a little from