On December 25, 2019, Steven Kerry Brown passed away. He left behind a loving family and a legion of friends, and I will sorely miss him. This is one of his last blogs.
All in a Day’s Work
Steve Brown is someone I keep on speed dial, not that he’s readily available. He’s kind of busy conducting capers like these. He’s been an instructor for RWA®’s Kiss of Death Chapter as well as entirely generous in answering mine and other authors’ questions. Please welcome Steven Kerry Brown to Help From My Friends Friday.
By: Steven Kerry Brown
It’s no secret that private investigators find themselves in all kinds of predicaments in the course of their work, and my experiences have been no different. As a private investigator for thirty-five years, I am changing the names and locations to protect my client’s privacy, but the facts are true as related.
Several years ago, “Mary”, a PI who worked for me, brought in a case in which the client wanted her to follow his wayward spouse. According to the client, his wife regularly ordered their captain to sail the couple’s 120-ton motor yacht from Florida to a small island in the Bahamas. Shortly afterward, the woman’s sorority sisters would fly in and the fun would begin.
Because I have a 100-ton coast guard captains’ license, and know the Bahamas very, very well, Mary enlisted my help. I chartered a 40-foot motorboat in Miami. Then, with the help of my crew (my wife), we sailed to Nassau to pick up more crew members, (Mary, Mary’s partner, and her son).
Thanks to Lisa Larson & Pixabay
The plan underway, we traveled from Nassau to the destination island, located our quarry and docked at the same marina. The water in the Bahamas is so clear you can see a dime sparkle on the sand bottom, see the trails that conchs leave as they move across the bottom, and better yet, we were able to get a pristine view of the yacht’s comings and goings.
What wasn’t so easy was surveilling her after she left the yacht.
Photo: 123rf
There aren’t a lot of vehicles on the island and most folks drive around in golf carts. For that reason, Mary and I got one, too. And since there are virtually no crowds to hide in on the island, we had to practice a higher level of discretion—you know, not get made. (PI term for screwing up surveillance).
Also, I should mention when you work in the Bahamas, the Bahamian officials require a work permit. Without one, Mary and I could’ve easily wound up in jail. (Very gross, you don’t want to go to jail in the Bahamas. I did that once for three days. Not fun. And very expensive to get out. But that’s another story.)
Anyway, we followed the wife for about a week, only to learn the husband’s suspicions were correct.
I got video of her and a guy (a mate on a fishing boat) walking down the streets, holding hands and enjoying frequent kisses. On two occasions we saw him board the yacht after the sorority sisters had gone to bed. Then he and the subject would walk down the gangplank, each with an illicit grin on their face.
On the last evening of her stay, the subject drove him in her golf cart back to his boat. But before they reached the marina, they veered off into large stand of trees. Mary and I followed in our own golf cart where we sat close enough to record their panting admissions of I love you and When can we do this again?
A solid win for our side until the client’s wife looked straight at us. Mary quickly reacted by throwing herself into my arms and started kissing me. A ploy that obviously worked because the subject’s wife went about her own business at hand.
What was it like to kiss a colleague? All right. What made it even better was our fee and a chance to enjoy the sun in the Bahamas. The ultimate reward, though, was we saved our client $40 million dollars. Yep, you read that right. Amazing, huh? All in a day’s work.
About: Steven Kerry Brown began his investigative career as a special agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As a special agent and supervisory special agent he worked in Phoenix, Chicago, and San Juan, Puerto Rico. During his 11 years with the FBI he was assigned a multitude of different cases, ranging from bank robberies and theft of government property, to foreign and domestic terrorism, and foreign counter-intelligence matters, particularly the Cuban Intelligence Service (DGI).
For the last 34 years he has successfully managed his own private investigative firm. During this time, his clients have called upon his expertise for every conceivable investigative need—from simple pre-employment background checks to sophisticated white-collar thefts, from murders disguised as suicides to the returning of parentally abducted children from foreign lands, and environmental contamination cases.
Steve also is an avid sailor and held a one hundred ton U.S. Coast Guard Captain’s license, sailed throughout the Caribbean, and spent two years as captain of a sixty-foot ketch running sailing charters in the Bahamas.
He authored The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Private Investigating (now in its seventh printing)-3rd edition and been on the book shelves for 16 years), non-fiction magazine articles on gambling, and has appeared in the local and national press and television including Hard Copy and A Current Affair. He appeared with Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes. Another non-fiction work is 5 Things Women Need To Know About The Men They Date. His fiction includes the PI murder mystery novel Redeeming the Dead and a soon to be released PI novel, Resurrecting Hemingway. He also instructs a month long online instructional session for the Romance Writers Group, The Kiss of Death.
Steve lectures on all aspects of the private investigative business and lectures to writers on The Seven Worst Mistakes Writers Makes with Their Fictional Sleuths. He is also authoring a series of adventure/thriller novels set in the Bahamas and a PI series set in St. Augustine, Florida.
Love his story. Thanks for sharing.
[…] Steven Kerry Brown was a dear friend I connected with on Crimescenewriter. Steve passed away on Christmas Day 2019. He was completely generous in answering my insatiable questions and I am heartbroken still. I had just done a beta read for him, which an agent had requested an exclusive. I’m hoping that his heirs will have it published posthumously. Two months before he died, Steve wrote a blog for me called “All in a Day’s Work.” Readers can find it here: https://donnellannbell.com/help-from-my-friends-friday-2/ […]