“They have one room left, so I reserved it in your name. Are you really going to buy me a cruise ticket? I have never been on a ship before.” She was clearly excited.
“Loni, we have come so far, we can’t miss talking to Sofia because of some cruise ship policy. I’ll take you on a tour of the ship if we have time. Maybe someday you might take a cruise on your own.”
“Or you might take me on a cruise,” she replied under her breath.
“What? Did you say something?”
“No,” she smiled.
Chapter Fifty
Binh Handa stood on the dock. He knew he had to get onto to the ship. He also knew there could be no record of him. He decided to enter through one of the many supply bays that were open. The ship needed to replenish at the home base and all the crews were working frantically to get the cargo and bags aboard. He noticed all of the workers had picture IDs. There were several Oriental-looking men on the loading crew. Binh bumped into one and copped his ID. He then picked up some luggage and carried it aboard. It was so easy. He then found a laundry area and changed into a porter’s uniform. He could now patrol the ship without suspicion.
***
Duggan was raging mad. He realized that waiting for a tow truck to replace his slashed tires would waste too much time, so he grabbed some gear and waited to flag down a taxi. It had taken almost an hour before a taxi had come by. He told the driver to take him to the cruise ship dock.
At the service desk, he found out he could not board the ship and the next cruise was completely booked. He thought about sneaking aboard but realized that it was a big ship and he would have to be lucky to find Sofia Kerns before it sailed. He never depended on luck. But he hated to lose even more. He rationalized that Banyon and the girl would leave the boat before it sailed and while he had a bug on the jeep, he would need his wheels to follow them. He could always stage an accident later and collect whatever they had learned. He took a cab back to his car and called a tow truck on the way.
He was waiting for the tow truck when his cell phone rang. “Duggan,” he answered.
“What kind of crap are you trying to pull, Duggan?” It was Billy Bond and he was angry.
“I’m kind of busy now,” Duggan replied, frustrated. “What do you want, Billy?”
“I just got back from Argentina. The addresses you gave me are false. There are no banks there.”
“Billy, I gave you the addresses that Jones gave me. I swear,” Duggan was stunned by the development. He also was concerned because Billy had gone to Argentina without him.
“Well, good thing you didn’t kill him—yet. Drop everything and get to Jacksonville as soon as possible and get me the names.”
“He’ll be waiting for me this time,” Duggan calculated.
“Well, God damn, aren’t you an ex-marine? Do I have to take care of everything? Don’t forget that I can put you away in prison if I want to expose your file.”
“I’m doing this for the cause, Billy. Shove your threats up your ass.”
“So, get going and call me when you get to Jacksonville,” the lawyer snapped, and then hung up.
Chapter Fifty-One
It took Loni and Colt more than an hour to work their way through the long lines and onto the boat. A porter took them to their cabin, one deck above the water line. The porter inserted the card key and opened the door. Loni rushed into the room and immediately began to open cabinets and drawers. Colt turned to the porter and handed him a ten-dollar bill. He started to leave, but Colt stopped him.
“Hey, can you do us a favor?” Colt asked, knowing that tips were a large part of the porter’s compensation. He would do many things for cash.
“Your bags will be here shortly,” the porter said. He’d often been asked to facilitate the delivery of bags to passengers. “Most first-time cruisers don’t realize that it sometimes takes several hours to deliver their luggage. Experienced cruisers always bring a small bag with bathing suits and necessary stuff on board with them. Then you can be out on deck sunbathing before the ship even leaves port.” He spoke from rote as he noticed that these people carried nothing with them.
“No, it’s not about the luggage,” a patient Banyon replied, pulling an extra twenty had out of his wallet.
“My job is to make sure that you have everything you need,” the porter said, his hand out.
“I have an old aunt who lives on the ship. She has been here for over a year. We want to surprise her. Can you find out which cabin belongs to Sofia Kerns? He took a piece of paper from the desk and wrote down the name. He handed the porter the paper and the twenty-dollar bill.
“No problem,” said the porter. “Give me ten minutes and I’ll be right back.”
“Then you will get another twenty,” Banyon said.
Banyon knew that the porter could get the suite number in a matter of minutes and wanted him motivated to return as soon as possible. He checked his watch and calculated that they had a little over three hours to find and visit with the elusive Sofia Kerns. All they had to do now was to wait for the porter to return. He turned to look for Loni. She was kneeling on the bed and looking out the porthole.
“We are just above the water,” she declared. “What if we hit a storm and the window leaks?”
“They don’t leak,” he said. “Besides, we are leaving the boat as soon as we interview Sofia.”
“This bed is only a twin size,” she commented. “I’m not sure if we both could fit on it, anyway. Come on Colt, lay down on it with me. Let’s find out if we fit.”
“Why?”
“Please. Do you have something better to do?” she asked. She then bounced off the bed, grabbed his hand, and pulled him over. He didn’t know what to think as he crawled into the small twin bed. He turned onto his side and Loni nestled inside his body in the “spoon” position. His bigger body engulfed her as she wiggled to get the best fit.
“If you continue to wiggle, there will be less room on the bed,” he told her.
“Turn onto your back,” she ordered. “I want to try that position.” She then turned toward him and placed her head on his left shoulder. Her left arm explored his broad chest and swept down to his stomach. He felt her warm breath through the fabric of his shirt. The scent of her hair drifted up to his nose. His heart started to pound in his chest. He could tell she felt it, too. She lifted her head and he stared into her deep, dark eyes.
“I want to be on top,” she said in a husky voice. He couldn’t have protested, even if he had wanted to. She slithered onto his body, resting the top of her head just below his chin. Her legs began spreading slowly, each knee eventually resting on the bed. Then she pushed against his chest with both hands. She sat up and straddled him. Her hands remained on his chest and supported some of her weight. She had positioned herself perfectly and now held him hostage. Her hair had fallen around her face. Colt saw that her eyes were narrow and slightly glazed. Her mouth was set in a pout, her face passive. She had not said anything and remained completely still as she stared into his eyes. He kept still, as well.
His mind suddenly exploded with a mixture of pain and pleasure. He could feel it emanate from his groin. His eyes stayed locked on hers as he felt it again. By the third time, he knew that she was making small pelvic thrusts along her hostage. A wrinkle had appeared on her smooth forehead as her eyes closed for just a second. Her hands started to clench and gathered his shirt material as they closed. Her long hair started to sway forward and back. Her movements became more urgent. She threw her head back. Her eyes were narrow slits. She laser-beamed them at him. He could see the tension build in her lithe body. It was at that moment that a knock at the door penetrated their voyage.
Loni acted as thought she had gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Her eyes went wide and she leaped off him and rushed to the bathroom, slamming the door. Colt remained vertical for a few seconds.
“Just a minute,” he bellowed. As he rose, he glanced in the mirror to make sure he did
n’t look too disheveled, and then headed to the door. He opened it and found the porter grinning.
“Here is your suite number,” he said as he eyed the rumpled bed behind Colt. He accepted the twenty and asked, “You want turn-down service now?”
Ignoring his meddling, Colt demanded, “Which deck is this?”
“Says right there,” the porter pointed to the paper. “B is the deck number and 103 is the suite number. It’s the top deck.”
Colt closed the door as the porter tried to take one more peek into the room. I bet he sees a lot of things, he thought. “You can come out now,” he said to Loni.
The bathroom door opened slowly and Colt could see that she had washed her face and run a comb through her hair. She sheepishly moved across the room and kept looking at the bed as if it would bite her.
“Colt, I don’t know what to say.”
“Loni, don’t say anything. I could have stopped you but I didn’t want to. Does that tell you something?”
“I never did anything like that before. Really. Never,” she insisted. “I don’t know what happened. All of a sudden, I just wanted you there between my legs. Maybe it’s the boat. This is very exciting for me.”
“Maybe it is your choice of movies lately,” he commented, referring to the movie on her laptop.
“I don’t know. They didn’t have any clothes on in the movie.”
“But, you did get excited, right?”
She was blushing now. “Yeah, a little, I guess.”
“So, we will just pretend that it was an extraordinary circumstance, okay?” He tried to deflect any feelings of guilt.
“Colt?”
“What?”
“Was I any good?”
“Sweetie, you are a born natural.”
“As good as the Patel sisters?”
“Better. You were seeking pleasure for yourself. They are mechanically correct. They service; you enjoy. There is no comparison, to me.”
“I almost…you know.”
“Yeah, me, too.”
She was stunned by his remark. “But I hardly did anything. Usually I have to do a lot of work and different positions and—”
Colt cut her off. “Loni, sex is a physical thing. Making love is an emotional thing. They are different.”
“I never had an orgasm with a man before,” she confessed.
“Well, that explains your interest in tongue studs,” he replied.
“I don’t have an interest anymore.” She batted her eyes. “I found a bigger replacement.”
“Sweetie, we need to talk. We need to talk about Carl.” Colt knew that this might be the wrong time to bring it up, but he was compelled.
“This has nothing to do with Carl,” she said. “This has to do with you and me.”
“Carl is my friend. I can’t go around playing—and we have been playing—with his girlfriend and not feel guilty.”
“Do you think that I am just playing with you?” she yelled. “For your information, Carl and I have split up. It happened weeks ago. There is no Carl, or anyone else. Carl and I are just friends. I feel free again, happy and spontaneous. I thought you liked that about me.”
Colt was surprised by this knowledge and his expression showed it. However, he quickly recovered and said, “Loni, I love everything about you. I’m thrilled to know that you care for me. But can we discuss this later? We only have a couple of hours to talk to Sofia Kerns. I promise to talk about this on our trip back to Chicago. Deal?”
She stepped forward, grabbed his face, and placed a hard kiss on his mouth. This time, her tongue darted between his lips.
“Deal.”
***
Colt spent a few minutes in the bathroom and made use of the cruise line supplies. Then they left the cabin and headed out to find Sofia Kerns.
She answered their knock on her door dressed in a spandex jogging suit. She had blonde hair and a nice figure. Remarkable, thought Colt. She must be near eighty years old.
“Yes? Can I help you?” she asked in a cultured, slightly accented voice.
“Are you Sofia Kerns?” Banyon asked.
“Yes. What is this about?” she replied with caution in her voice.
“My name is Colton Banyon and this is my partner Ms. Loni Chen,” he replied. “We are an investigation team hired by the Museum of History in Chicago. Recently, a copy of Mein Kampf surfaced and we found a picture of you and your sister inside it. We think you are the rightful owner of the book and want to talk to you about it.”
A glint of recognition surfaced in her eyes. “Please come in. I was just about to have some tea. Would you like some?”
“Yes, thank you, Ms. Kerns,” Banyon politely answered.
“It’s Sofia,” she said as she led them to a comfortable couch. The suite was large and bright. On the wall behind the couch, sliding-glass doors opened onto a balcony. Colt noticed a doorway that probably led to a bedroom off to the right. The furniture was new and modern with a built-in, wide-screen TV and stereo system in a corner. The cabin seemed to be just like a suite in any good hotel.
“This is much nicer than our room,” Loni said.
“One room, eh? I thought as much,” Sofia said.
Banyon quickly asked a question. “I’m told that you live onboard ship. Is that correct?”
“Oh, yes,” she said. “I’ve spent over fifteen years living on ships. When I get tired of one, I just book another. It is not that expensive and I can afford it. I’m not a hermit or anything. I have lots of friends and they come and spend three or four days at a time with me. I make new friends every week, as well. And I don’t have to cook or clean. Someone evens picks up my mail.”
“We know,” Loni interjected. “So, that would explain why you lived in Miami, New York, San Francisco, and now Mobile.”
“You do your homework. But you forgot Galveston, my dear.” The reply was touched with frostiness.
“Have I offended you, Sofia?” Loni inquired with genuine concern.
“No, no you haven’t. It’s just that you are Chinese and that along with the mention of the book has brought back a flood of sad memories.”
That was when she started to cry.
Part Four
Sofia’s Story
Chapter Fifty-Two
“It is all a lie,” wailed Sofia. Loni had moved to her side and was comforting her as best she could. “I don’t have any friends. Most of them have died. The rest can’t travel. I see new people every day, but no one talks to me.”
“We’re here. Talk to us,” Loni said, suddenly producing several tissues, which she handed to Sofia.
“I know that I should be grateful. I’ve so much. But I feel like I have nothing,” she continued.
“You have lived a long and remarkable life,” Banyon reasoned. “Loni and I’ve tried to piece it together. We even traveled to Shanghai. People there still remember you there.”
“You’ve been to Shanghai?” Sofia softly asked.
“We found the synagogue in the picture of you and your sister. It was in the book. We also found a constable who knew you, and the herbalist.”
“Sun is still alive?”
“Still selling herbs and curing people. He said he missed you.” Banyon stretched the truth a little, but it worked, as Sofia started to calm down. Loni was rubbing her back, and Sofia was returning to normal.
“The constable was a pig, you know.” She threw it out as an aside.
Loni nodded and smiled. “I had firsthand experience with him.”
“Can I ask a question?” Banyon said.
“I’ll try to answer as best as I can without embarrassing myself,” Sofia replied as she continued to sniffle.
“Are you Jewish?”
“Of course. Can’t you tell?” Sofia gave him an I-don’t-believe-you-asked-that-question look.
“So, why on earth did you keep a copy of Mein Kampf?”
“It was Eva’s. She got it from a man in Austria. We were supposed to keep it
until he came to pick it up in Shanghai. He was the reason we were able to go there. Otherwise, I don’t think we would have survived much longer.”
“According to the constable, a German soldier came looking for you and your sister around 1943, but couldn’t find you and no one would tell him where you were,” Banyon informed her.
“That would have been George Gerut,” she replied. “He lusted for Eva while we were in Austria.”
“So, you didn’t like him?”
“He was a Nazi. We were Jews. He thought that we were his sex slaves. It was that kind of relationship.”
“Can you tell us anything about George Gerut?” Banyon asked.
Sofia seemed a little confused by the questioning. “Maybe I should start at the beginning,” Sofia said. “But I don’t want to bore you.”
“I don’t think your story would bore anyone,” Loni said as she returned to the couch and perched at the front of the cushion next to Banyon. She sat, leaning forward.
Sofia took a deep breath and started her story. “My family had lived in Austria for many generations. Father was a tailor and Mother stayed home with us. Eva was five years older than I was. I was born in 1925. We had a nice life and were happy. In 1938, the Nazis came. They took over Austria without a single shot being fired. Many Germans already lived in Vienna and the government just gave up when Hitler threatened to invade.
“Just weeks after the Nazis came to town, everything changed for us. Jews were suddenly being blamed for everything that was wrong in Austria. Our synagogue was burned to the ground a month after the start of the new government. Father’s business slowed down as people didn’t want to be associated with a Jew. There were armed military men in the streets. Then the riots started. Father didn’t come home one day. Mother left to find him. She didn’t return, either. Eva was just eighteen at the time and was beautiful. I was thirteen. We stayed in the apartment for a week before there was a knock at the door. When I opened the door, George Gerut was standing there with three soldiers.”
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