“And?” Kerry inquired.
“I had other things to do,” Dar told her. “But I think he’ll be back.”
“Hm.” Kerry finished her drink, sucking the last drops from the bottom of it. She gazed mournfully into the empty glass for a moment, and then looked up at her solicitous partner. “Any chance of getting another one of these?”
“You bet.” Dar grinned, very pleased with her successful plan.
“Coming right up.” She took the glass. “Think you can take some aspirin for your head now?”
Kerry thought about it. “Yeah.” She curled up on her side and watched Dar work. “What’s in the bottle?”
“Chocolate syrup.”
Kerry had to smile. “That’s a chocolate milk soda you just made.”
Dar brought it back to her. “It’s an egg cream,” she corrected.
Kerry took the glass. “But there aren’t any eggs in it.”
“Or cream,” Dar agreed amiably, handing her a couple of pills.
“It’s kind of like Welsh rabbit.”
“Ah.” Kerry swallowed the aspirin and then settled back against the headboard. Rain rattled against the window, and she was more than glad to be nestled in the dim room, with Dar to keep her company. “So you think he’ll be back, huh?”
“Yep.” Dar chuckled softly. “Then maybe we’ll get closer to the truth of this.”
Kerry listened to the thunder, her fingers idly stroking the arm Dar had curled around her.
Maybe we will
, she agreed silently.
But
not right this minute
.
Lightning flashed, outlining the closed shutters.
IT JUST KEPT raining. Kerry was actually kind of glad, feeling they both needed a little down time after the excitement of the previous few days. She was curled up on the bed, with her neatly bound writing diary in front of her. A half finished poem was scrawled across one page and a steaming mug rested on the nearby bedside table.
Dar was sprawled across the couch, one long leg draped along its back, the other propping up a book. She had a glass of milk nearby, and next to it, the bag of Oreo cookies sat neatly peeled open. On the table, her laptop was busily working, streams of data flicking across the screen at an alarming rate.
Kerry nibbled the end of her pen as she watched Dar read, her eyes tracing down the page, then pausing while long fingers turned it. She was dressed in a pair of soft cotton shorts and a T-shirt, and somehow managed to make even that seem attractively sexy.
How does she do that
? Kerry wondered. She cocked her head and regarded her lover with bemused curiosity. What really struck her about Dar, she realized, was just how nicely proportioned she was.
Though she was tall, and her arms and legs were long, her body was also, and everything seemed to fit together just right. The white cotton showed off her tan, and as she scrolled down another page, the subtle shift of muscle under her skin was visible to Kerry’s appreciative eyes.
Kerry sighed and put her chin down on her arm, still feeling a little knocked out from the partying the night before. Her stomach wasn’t in the mood for more than tea, and her head hadn’t quite stopped throbbing. The discomfort was making it hard for her to concentrate on her writing, and besides, it was really a lot more pleasant just to lie around and look at Dar.
She has such a nice profile.
Kerry blinked dreamily. It was all angles and clean, sharp planes, with a nice nose and well shaped lips.
And the eyes, of course.
Kerry smiled.
“Ker?”
Uh oh
. “Hmm?”
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“What’s that goofy grin for?”
“Was I goofily grinning?” Kerry rolled onto her back and tugged the covers over her pajama-clad body. “I can’t finish this poem.” She changed the subject. “I got stuck in the middle.”
“What’s it about?” Dar slipped a bookmark into her book and put it down, turning on her side and focusing her attention on Kerry.
Ah, those eyes
. Kerry suddenly found herself lost in them, until the rising brow over one made her realize she was staring like a loon. “Sorry, what was the question?”
“You still feeling the rum?” Dar asked curiously.
Kerry put her head down on her arm. “Maybe,” she admitted.
“I just feel a little silly, I guess.”
Dar got up and walked over to the bed. She sat down next to Kerry and rubbed her midriff through the covers. “Want to try some toast or cereal?”
Kerry curled herself around Dar instead, and rested her head on Dar’s thigh. “I think I just want you.” She planted a gentle kiss on the tan skin and closed her eyes.
Dar had never considered herself a sentimental person, but since she’d met Kerry she’d felt like she was living inside a circle of perpetually adorable Golden Retriever puppies all the time. It worried her sometimes. Dar felt parts of the image she’d always had of herself falling away and disappearing, and it was a little unsettling to know it was happening and be helpless to stop it.
Ah well
. Dar draped her arm over Kerry’s shoulders and resigned herself to it. “Tell you what,” she said. “Let me go get my laptop, and we can take a look at what we’ve got so far.”
Kerry reluctantly released her and sat up. “Okay.”
Dar got to her feet and retrieved the device, then returned. She sat down on the bed and leaned back, resting the laptop on her thighs. Kerry squirmed over and settled next to her. They both looked at the screen as Dar smoothly keyed in a request.
“Okay.” Dar reviewed her programmatic results. “What I was looking for—”
“Was a link between the piracy and DeSalliers,” Kerry murmured, reaching out and touching the screen. “Nice code, honey. I like that recursive parse.”
“You always say such romantic things to me,” Dar remarked. “I love that.”
“Nerd.”
“Thanks.” Dar smirked at the screen a little. “Let’s see what it found.” She brought up two screens and locked them into concurrency, scrolling down evenly and looking from one to the other. “That bartender said there had been six; there’ve been more than two dozen. Damn.”
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Kerry was shocked. Two dozen hijackings in the area, and no one had said anything. That information bordered on substantiating a definite collusion. “Are those from the police files?” she asked, pointing to the piracy records.
“You’re joking, right?” Dar looked at her. “No. Those are the insurance filings.” She nudged a key. “Ah. Looks like the insurance underwriters are starting to get suspicious. This one’s pending investigation.”
“Hm. So the hijackers will get their money, but the guy they hit might not?”
Dar shook her head. “No, they’ll have to pay out, unless they think the owner’s in cahoots with the pirates just to make a claim.
Most of the guys who can afford to buy boats like that wouldn’t bother.” She ran a cross-check. “I was hoping I’d see a correlation between DeSallier’s salvage operations and the missing boats, but it looks like this is the first time his bunch has shown up in this area.”
“Mm.” Kerry frowned. “Yeah.” She rested her chin on Dar’s shoulder. “Can you plot the piracies graphically?”
Dar studied the data, then she brought up a code screen and started typing rapidly, stopping only to tab to a different window and clip some data before she resumed programming. After a few minutes, she ran the program and a new window appeared with a somewhat rough outline of the islands, the space around them dotted with ominous little plus signs. “Ain’t pretty, but there ya go.”
“Hmmm.” Kerry studied the graphic, then sighed. “No real pattern, huh?”
“Nope.”
“We’re hitting big nulls here, Dar.”
“Yeah,” Dar had to admit. “So much for being a nerd.”
A knock startled them both. Kerry felt Dar’s body stiffen, and she put a hand on her arm. “I’ll get that.” Before Dar could protest, she rolled off the other side of the bed and walked to the door, running the fingers of one hand through her hair self-consciously.
She peered through the peephole, relieved to see one of the hotel staff outside. Kerry opened the door and issued an inquiring smile.
“Hi.”
The man held up an envelope. “Ma’am? I have a note for a Ms.
Roberts?”
“I’ll take it.” Kerry extended her hand.
Reluctantly, he gave it to her. “The gentleman said to make sure Ms. Roberts got that note.”
“She’ll get it. I promise.” Kerry pulled her head back inside and closed the door firmly. She turned and nearly jumped right out of her T-shirt when she found Dar standing silently in back of her.
“Yipes! Jesus, Dar!”
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“What?” Dar took the note. “You didn’t expect me to be in the room? What’s up with that, Ker?”
“I didn’t hear you come up in back of me, you fink.” Kerry peered past her shoulder as Dar opened the envelope. It was standard hotel stationery, and the note was written in black ink in a distinctively strong script. “Who’s it from?”
Dar’s eyes dropped the bottom, then lifted. “DeSalliers,” she answered briefly. “Looks like he wants to set up a meeting to talk.”
Kerry read the note. “Arrogant SOB, isn’t he?”
“I nearly knocked him on his ass outside,” her partner murmured. “I don’t think he likes me much.”
Ms. Roberts.
I will omit any polite preambles. I have business to discuss with you.
I will be available this afternoon to meet with you and determine if this
business can be handled between us, or will be remanded to the
authorities. Be at my dockside at three.
J. DeSalliers.
“You should have knocked him on his head. Maybe it would have let some sense leak in.” Kerry shook her head. “Did he forget he was chasing us?” she added. “Or is this something else?”
Dar folded the note and put it back into the envelope. “Guess we’ll find out,” she remarked. “Though, if you’re not feeling up to it—”
“Ah ah ah.” Kerry clapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t you even try that,” she said. “You’re not leaving me behind.” Blue eyes widened above her fingers and Kerry removed her hand. “Isn’t going onto his boat a little risky, though?”
“Might be,” Dar acknowledged. “We’ll have to play it by ear.”
She tossed the envelope onto the desk and went to the window, gazing out at the still stormy weather.
Am I crazy to be doing this at
all?
They were away from home, and operating all by themselves.
Dar wasn’t stupid, and if she had to look logically at the scenario of two women executives out in the Caribbean playing with fire like this, she’d be forced to admit it wasn’t the smartest idea in the world.
Damn it
. Dar knew herself to be a risk taker, and she had a lot of confidence in her judgment and ability to take care of herself, but was this taking it too far? Was she just indulging her own ego?
“You know what?” Kerry had wandered over and leaned on the sill next to her. “I think we’re just natural troubleshooters.”
Dar looked at her.
“We’re so used to problem solving, we never really stop to think about it, even if the problem really should be solved by someone else.”
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A little unsettled, Dar turned and folded her arms. She was surprised to hear her own thoughts so eerily echoed back at her.
“You think someone else should be solving this one?”
Kerry kept her eyes on the horizon and nodded slightly. She turned to face Dar. “But the people who should be the solution might be part of the problem,” she said. “That’s what you think, isn’t it—that the cops are in on it?”
Dar nodded. “I think they are, yeah.”
“Everyone’s attitude seems to be to hush it up. Let the fat and happy tourists keep coming, and if a few get hit, well, then that’s okay because most won’t and we need their money,” Kerry said.
“They didn’t hit us, so we could go along with that, Dar. Just take our boat and cruise on out of here. Let them solve their own problems.”
“We could.”
The green eyes glinted. “Fuck that.”
Dar smiled.
“I lived the first twenty-six years of my life maintaining the status quo, Dar,” Kerry said, in a firm tone. “I want to rock boats and make a difference, even if that means taking a risk.” She pointed at Dar, poking her in the arm. “And you, Paladar Roberts, are a natural-born caped avenger, no matter how much you deny it.”
Dar rubbed her neck. “I’m not sure I’d put it like that,” she protested. “But I like to fight the good fight, and win it, if that’s what you mean.” She glanced out the window. “And I don’t trust people to fix things just because they’re supposed to.”
“I know.” Kerry eyed her with gentle amusement. “I always get a kick out of seeing your log-in checking up on me.” She saw Dar stiffen and realized she’d caught her flat-footed. “It’s like passing a senior exam,” she went on quickly. “Because I know if you don’t say anything to me, I did it all right.”
Dar turned, her expression a mixture of consternation and sheepishness. “I trust you,” she said. “You just do things so differently than I do, it’s…”
“Dar, we’ve had this argument already,” Kerry interrupted her quietly. “It really is okay. You’re my boss, and it’s your job to make sure things happen.” She sensed the upset in the woman next to her. “I know you trust me.”
“It has nothing to do with trust,” Dar muttered. “I was just curious.” She sighed. “I like to know how things work, so I was curious as to how you did what you did. So, after you were all done, I went in and looked.”
Kerry blinked. “You mean you weren’t—”
“No.” Dar shook her head. “I’m sorry you thought that.”
“Oh.” Kerry sat down on the sill, her head cocking to one side 152
Melissa Good
as she absorbed this new information. “Wow.”
“I checked up on you the first couple of times, but that was before you went to closure on anything,” Dar said. “So if there was a problem, I could fix it. After that…no.” She sat down next to Kerry. “You didn’t do things the way I would have, but it worked, and that’s all I really care about in the long run.”
Kerry scratched her jaw. “Um.” She cleared her throat. “Sorry for assuming.”