“I’ll go check.” Kerry started out the door, only to be hauled to an abrupt halt. ‘Whoa!” She turned to find Dar hanging on to the back of her shirt.
“Not by yourself,” Dar told her quietly. “And before you say it, yes, I know you’re a big girl and you can take care of yourself, and I’m being an overprotective ninny.”
Kerry shut her jaw and her face scrunched into a wry grin.
“I’ll go,” Bud interrupted, going to the door and exiting before Dar could reply.
“B…” Dar looked at the closed door. “Damn.”
“Bet he wanted to get out of talking about pirates.” Kerry sighed. “Dar, would you look at this place? What a bunch of jerks.”
She walked over to their one bag and examined it. The contents had been pulled out, then carelessly shoved back in, and she felt her blood begin to boil.
A soft knock came at the door and Dar went to it, pulling it open to find the hotel manager and a man in a security guard’s uniform standing there. She stepped back and gestured to them to enter. “C’mon in.”
Both men entered and looked around. The manager’s eyes widened at the state of the room. “This is…” the manager started, then stopped. “I’ve never had…”
The security guard seemed just as bewildered. “Sir…” He cleared his throat. “Ma’am, when did you find this?”
“Sixty seconds before I called you,” Dar stated. “I want an explanation.” She folded her arms over her chest and gave the manager a cold stare.
Mr. Brack collected himself. “No one but security and the housekeeper have the keys,” he said. “We have checked the security logs, and no one was allowed into this room. I have called the chief housekeeper. Perhaps she can shed some light on what has happened.”
“Oh!”
They all turned to see a small, wizened woman in the doorway, dressed in a neat, gray uniform. Dar guessed this was the housekeeper. The woman entered slowly and looked around, wide-eyed.
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“What has happened here? Why was this done?” She looked at Dar. “What have you done this for to the nice lady’s room?”
The manager drew breath. “Constantina, this room is registered to these two ladies here. What do you mean?”
The woman drew back in dismay. “These ladies? Oh…but…”
She twisted her fingers together. “Oh, sir, I am so sorry. A very nice woman came to me when I was cleaning, and she said she left her key inside the room. You know so many guests to do that, so…” Her eyes moved over the room. “She said this was her room.”
The manager frowned. “And you didn’t check?”
“She was a nice woman, sir,” the housekeeper protested. “Nice clothes, with rings, and why should I think she was not telling me the truth?”
The manager looked like he’d swallowed a live cockroach and it was crawling around inside his stomach. “Constantina, go to my office and wait there for me,” he said with quiet restraint. “Jan, please bring your camera up here and take photographs of everything.” He turned to Dar and Kerry. “I will have you moved to a new room immediately while we start our investigation. I will also be calling in the police.”
The housekeeper’s eyes widened.
“We can give you the probable identity of the person you’re looking for,” Kerry said. “We’ve been pestered by some people since our arrival in the islands.” She added, “I’d like a chance to discuss that with the police as well.”
The manager nodded. “Certainly. Constantina, please.” He grasped the woman’s arm and steered her outside. “The bellman will be up to move you in just a moment.”
“It’s okay. It’s just this.” Dar held up the bag. “All the damage was done to your hotel, not our property.”
A facial tic started on the manager’s face. He left and took his two employees with him.
For a moment, the room was silent. Dar and Kerry looked at each other, then at the same time, lifted their hands in a shrug and let them drop. “This is nuts,” Dar sighed. “This is just nuts.”
Kerry’s eyes narrowed. “You got that guy Wharton’s phone number?”
Dar regarded her warily. “His office, yeah.”
“Gimme.”
Dar removed a slip of paper from the backpack and took out her own cell phone. “I’ll handle it.” She took a breath and composed herself.
“Dar—”
“I know,” Dar cut her off. “I know you can do this, but I really, really want to.”
Kerry subsided.
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Dar opened the cell and dialed, then put the phone to her ear.
A low, growling voice answered.
Dar started off with being civil. “I need to speak with Mr.
Patrick Wharton.”
“Where the hell did you get this number?”
Okay, so much for that
. “Does it matter? You Wharton?”
“Who the hell is this?”
Dar listened to the voice. It was middle-aged, had a slight rasp, and a distinct New England accent. “Someone who’s been just east of St. Johns,” she replied. “Now, are you Wharton, or not?”
There was silence before the voice grudgingly said, “Yeah.”
“Good,” Dar answered. “Then maybe you can explain why I’ve got your hired hands crawling all over my last nerve.”
“Look, lady, I don’t know who the hell you are—”
“
You
…” Dar barked at top volume, “don’t have to know who I am, mister!” She drew in a breath. “All you need to know is that the two-bit amateur you’re paying top dollar for couldn’t find his way out of a paper bag with instructions printed on the inside of it in twenty-four-point black letters.”
“What?”
“I…” Dar dropped her voice to a low purr, “have what you’re looking for.”
“Who the devil are you!”
“You wouldn’t know who I was if I told you my name,” Dar told him quietly. “And I’d have been a much happier person if I’d never heard your name or the name of the jackass you hired, trust me.”
“Now you listen here—”
“No,
you
listen to me.” Dar overrode him. “You get your little paid pirate the hell out of here or I’ll go to the cops and blow your little scheme wide open.”
There was silence, and then a click.
Dar eyed the phone. “Hung up on me,” she commented.
Kerry scratched her nose. “Well, honey, I think you got across the message you were going for.”
“Did I?” Dar mused, as Kerry walked over and slid an arm around her waist.
“Yep,” Kerry assured her. “I wouldn’t want to be a fly on DeSalliers’ boat walls, unless I could swim really well.”
“Ma’am?” The security guard was back with a smaller man.
“Jasar will take you to your new room, okay?”
Kerry picked up their overnight bag. “Lead on.”
Grumbling, Dar put the phone away and followed, shouldering the backpack. Her conversation with Wharton hadn’t been very satisfactory, and she ran over the brief exchange in her head as she walked down the hallway. Should she have started out more 238
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professionally, explained who she was? Full of self-doubt, Dar felt her brow furrowing. Maybe she should have let Kerry handle it after all. Dar felt very off balance, and she wasn’t even sure why she felt that way. She didn’t like it.
They stopped in front of a door, and the desk clerk opened it for them. “Here you go, ladies.” He stood back to let them enter, then followed them in and shut the door.
This room was on the corner of the cliff, and roughly three times the size of the other. It had a wraparound balcony and a general sense of plushness the other room, though comfortable, had lacked. “The manager said he would be up shortly, with the police,”
the desk clerk said softly. “Is there anything else we can get you?”
Dar dropped her backpack on the couch then sat down next to it. “Yeah,” she said. “A pot of strong coffee and a big chocolate milkshake.”
“Make that two,” Kerry added. “Thanks.”
“Right away.” The desk clerk left.
Kerry took her time exploring the new room. She opened the door next to the bathroom, exposing a hot tub neatly sunken into a wooden deck. “This is nice,” she concluded, peeking out the window. “I guess this is the ‘please don’t sue us’ suite.” She turned, leaning against the windowsill and regarding Dar. “Okay, so where are we?”
Dar let her head rest on the back of the couch. “I wish I knew,”
she admitted. “Well, one thing—that idiot woman wasted her time.
Did she really think we’d be stupid enough to leave something…anything…valuable in that hotel room?”
Kerry exhaled. “Good question.” She got off the sill and crossed over to sit down on the couch next to Dar. “Maybe she didn’t. Maybe she was just trying to prove a point. I got…ah…kinda nasty with her earlier.”
Dar’s brow rose. Kerry didn’t usually go the nasty route. “You did?”
“Yeah.” The blonde woman looked a touch sheepish. “I was just so pissed off at her, at them, at…” She let out a disgusted sigh.
Dar turned and leaned forward, gazing at Kerry. “Is this whole thing driving you nuts?”
Kerry nodded.
“So it’s not just me?”
Kerry shook her head. “No,” she said. “I’m just so upset.”
Dar edged closer and took her hands. “About what, sweetheart?” She was more than glad to focus her attention on Kerry rather than their perplexing problem.
“Well it’s… I feel really stupid saying this, but I’m just really ticked off that they’re messing with our vacation,” Kerry confessed.
“I feel like they’re robbing me, robbing us, and it’s making me very
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mad.” Inexplicably, she felt tears welling up. “It’s not fair, Dar. I know we didn’t get into this on purpose, and we’ve just been reacting to all this stuff, but…”
Reacting
. Dar felt a puzzle piece slip into place. “I know,” she murmured. “I think that’s part of the problem: we’re not in control of any of this; it just keeps rolling over us.”
Kerry sighed. “It’s not that I don’t want to solve this stupid thing.”
Dar decided Kerry needed a hug. Accordingly, she slid an arm around her and pulled her closer, then enfolded her in both arms.
She felt Kerry’s exhalation warm against her skin. “All right,” she murmured. “Let’s hold on a minute and see if we can get a handle on this.”
“Buh.” Kerry buried her face into Dar’s shoulder. “I want my milkshake.”
Dar chuckled faintly. “Listen.”
“I’m listening.”
“We fixed Bud and Charlie’s problem.”
Kerry nodded. “Right.”
“We ticked off Wharton, and maybe now he’ll call DeSalliers on the carpet.”
“Right.”
“Here’s what we’re gonna do. The cops are on their way here to talk to us. We’re gonna tell them the whole seven-layer Mexican bean dip these last couple days have been. The pirates, DeSalliers, the works.”
“Okay.”
“Then we’re gonna go out, and dive a gorgeous blue hole and see that cave I was telling you about before we left Miami.”
“Ooh. This is getting more interesting.”
“Then we’re gonna have dinner on the boat under the stars.”
Dar rubbed Kerry’s ear gently. “And when we get back here, we’re going to enjoy that hot tub with a bottle of cold wine and a big bowl of strawberries.”
“Mm.” Kerry relaxed against Dar’s body. “That sounds awesome,” she said. “But you know what?”
“What?”
“I’d be just as happy to spend the entire time just like this instead,” Kerry said. “I like the idea of telling the police everything, Dar. Even if they are in on whatever is going on with the pirates, it would make me feel better just to say it.”
Dar nodded. “So here’s how I think we should play it.” She felt a little more stable. “Let’s not mention that we know who the pirate is, or that we know it’s not the first time. We’ll do the outraged-American-executives-on-interrupted-holiday routine.”
“Gee, that’s a stretch.” Kerry chuckled.
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“You know what I mean.”
“Like we did with the hotel manager.” Kerry nodded. “I get it.”
She considered. “Because if we tell him all we know, the first question they’re going to ask is why didn’t we come forward before?”
“Mm.”
“And, why we didn’t just leave the island and get out of the situation.”
Dar sighed.
“Wish we had?”
“Yeah.” Dar nodded. “But you know what? Once they’d gotten it into their damn stupid heads that we had something from that wreck, I’m not sure we could have.”
No
. Kerry thought back over the last few days. Their big mistakes were diving the wreck, and saving Bob. She straightened a little inside the circle of Dar’s arms, not sure she would have avoided either event, despite what they were going through now.
She thought about Dar’s observation. “You know, I think you’re right.”
Dar grinned. “However, if you want to go on feeling crummy about it, I’ll be glad to sit here and comfort you all day long.”
Kerry started laughing. “God, you know, this whole thing is just so ridiculous,” she said. “The only thing that could top it, is if it started snowing.”
Dar glanced at the window in pure reflex. “Right.” She unclipped her phone and dialed a number. “Better tell Bud what room we’re in.” She listened, but after two rings the phone switched to voice mail. “Hm.” Dar waited for the beep, then spoke.
“Bud, it’s Dar. Give me a buzz when you get this, and I’ll tell you where we are.” She closed the phone.
Kerry eyed her. “You don’t think he’s going to run off, do you?
He seemed really spooked about those men who were following us up the hill.
“I don’t know.” Dar cocked her head as she heard footsteps approaching. “Ah. That’s either room service or the cops.” She reluctantly released Kerry and went to answer the knock. “Or both.”
Outside the door were the manager, a tall, thin man in a khaki uniform, a room service waiter, and most importantly, two chocolate shakes and a pot of coffee. Dar opened the door and waved them all in, neatly stealing one of the shakes as the waiter passed by.
The manager waited until the waiter put down the tray and Dar signed the check. After the man left, the manager cleared his throat.
“Ms. Roberts and Ms. Stuart—this is Captain Alalau, who is in charge of the police. I have asked him to come and investigate this
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