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 Melissa Good 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 Terrors of the High Seas 239
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.
240 Melissa Good