“I was looking for Mr. James. He docks his boat there.” Kate turned to point at the empty slip.
“Yep.” The man sipped his soda.
“Do you know where he went?” Kate squinted into the sun that was hanging low in the sky right behind the man. It would be dark soon and she should probably speed up her investigation.
“I couldn’t say.” His eyes drilled into hers. “What’s your business with him?”
“Oh, just an old friend.” Kate saw something she didn’t like in his eyes. She looked down and noticed he was tying a fly onto his rod. Which was strange, because one rarely used flies in deep sea fishing—and never with the type of rod he was tying it onto.
She backed down the dock. “Okay, then I’ll be going. Thanks.”
The man stood and Kate backed away faster.
“What’s your name?” He called after her. “I’ll tell him you stopped by.”
“Oh thanks. That’s okay,” Kate called over her shoulder. As she hurried down the dock, she cast one last uneasy glance at him and noticed he was staring after her, a cell phone held firmly to his ear.
Kate practically ran back to the scooter, but just as she was about to hop on, she noticed a little open-air bar next to the water. It looked like they served drinks and light meals. That sure would be a convenient place to eat if you had a boat docked here … especially if you were a wanted criminal who didn’t want to traipse around town.
Kate glanced back at the dock and the fisherman had sat back down, his attention on his fishing gear again.
Suddenly she was very thirsty.
***
The smell of fried conch made Kate’s mouth water as she slid onto one of the barstools. The bartender, a dark skinned woman in her mid-thirties, was serving a beer to the man who sat two stools down from Kate. He was the only other person sitting at the bar itself, but half the small square tables that sat under the roof of the open-air bar were full with laughing, boisterous customers.
“What’ll you have?” The bartender asked with a wide smile.
“Lemonade.” Kate didn’t feel confident enough to drive the scooter on anything stronger than that.
“Comin’ right up.”
Kate watched a waitress bring a big plate of fried food to a table and contemplated ordering some herself. The small pack of pretzels she’d eaten on the plane hadn’t been very filling. She checked her watch. Her parents would be here soon and she should probably wait for them before making any dinner decisions.
The bartender came back with a large glass loaded with ice and lemonade and Kate took a sip.
“I’m Emmie,” The bartender said. “Are you docked here?”
Kate glanced back at the dock. “Oh, no. I was just visiting a friend … or at least trying to.”
Emmie gave her a quizzical look and Kate pulled the picture from her pocket. “His boat wasn’t there and, well, we’re kind of worried about him,” Kate said, showing the picture to the bartender. “Have you seen him?”
Emmie’s expression hardened. “Oh, yeah. I’ve seen him.”
Kate raised a brow. “Oh?”
“Yeah, he’s been in the past few nights.” Emmie leaned toward Kate. “Honestly, I have to tell you he’s kind of a loudmouth.”
Kate grimaced. “I know. That’s why we’re worried about where he is.”
Emmie nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that. He was here last night and caused a ruckus.”
“About what?”
“Believe it or not, it was about his shoes.”
“His shoes?”
“Yeah, he had these fancy shoes he was bragging about. But last night, he came in and the shoes were all messed up. Someone commented on it and he had a fit and stormed out of here. He’s real touchy about those shoes, I guess.”
“Do you know where he went?” Kate asked hopefully.
“No, but since you’re his friend and all …” Emmie bent down looking for something under the bar. She stood back up and slapped something on the bar in front of Kate. “Give him these damn shoes. When he had his little fit last night, he threw them across the bar and left them here.”
Kate stared at the shoes. They were the fancy shoes from the photo—the Testoni’s. Soft alligator with a gold buckle. Tiny gems winked in the buckle—diamonds, if her parents were correct.
She could see why he would like the shoes; they were beauties, except for one thing. The bottoms and sides were encrusted with bird poop and feathers. Which made Kate wonder, just where had Jimmy Benedetti been with those shoes?
Chapter Twenty
Kate raced back to the hotel with the shoes. She couldn’t wait to call Gideon. He might have a way to track the boat via satellite and, since he was such a bird nut, maybe he’d be able to determine something about the bird poop on the shoes. At the very least, he could get a picture of the sole of the shoe. Maybe he could match that to some footprints that would lead them somewhere. Kate knew she was grasping at straws, but straws were all she had.
She returned the scooter and was walking happily along, swinging a shoe in each hand when two shadowy figures came out of nowhere. She felt a viselike grip on each of her elbows. Adrenalin shot through her and she tried to jerk her arms free, but a dark car pulled to the curb and the men shoved her inside.
“Hey, just what do you think you are doing?” Kate’s heart thumped against her ribs as she glared at the men who had slid into the backseat on either side of her while the car sped off down the road.
One of the men held out a badge. “Police, Ma’am. We need to ask you some questions.”
“Questions?” Kate narrowed her eyes. “About what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
One of the men raised a thick dark eyebrow at her. “Oh, no? How about messing with a federal investigation?”
“Federal investigation?” Kate stiffened her spine. “I’m an insurance investigator here on official business myself,” she said thinking she really had to get an official badge that she could flash during times like these.
The two men exchanged a glance.
“Insurance investigator?” The man on her right said.
“That’s right,” Kate replied turning to her right to look at him.
“From where?” The man on her left said.
Kate swiveled her head in his direction. “The Ritzholdt Museum.”
“And just what are you investigating?”
Kate swiveled her head back to the man on the right. “The theft of the Millennia Ruby,” she said, refraining from adding ‘so there’.
“So why were you nosing around at the marina?” This from the man on the left.
“Nosing around? I was investigating a lead.” Kate swiveled her head toward him again. “We have reason to believe the person that stole the ruby has a boat there.”
Kate noticed with satisfaction that this caused both men to look confused, but they didn’t have a chance to grill her further because just then the car screeched to a halt in front of the police station. Or at least she hoped the nondescript building in the middle of nowhere was a police station.
The men opened the doors and yanked her out, which was fine with Kate because her neck was starting to hurt from looking back and forth between them. They ushered her into the building, then down a long hallway where they shoved her into a chair in front of a woman who took her purse, watch, sandals and Benedetti’s shoes.
The woman put the items in a box, recording each piece on paper. She seemed bored by the whole thing, although she did lift a brow and look at Kate strangely when she got to the bird poop encrusted Testonis.
When she was done, the bushy-browed man from the car brought her to a room down the hall.
“Someone will be in to talk to you shortly,” he informed her before closing—and loudly locking—the door.
***
For the second time in so many days, Kate found herself on the wrong side of the interrogation table.
She sat down in the folding chair, tapping
her fingers impatiently on the cold metal tabletop. After a while, she looked at her watch, but of course, only found her bare arm. They’d taken her watch, her purse and the Testoni shoes. She hoped they weren’t going to keep the shoes because she had a feeling they held an important clue.
After what seemed like an hour—but was probably only ten minutes—the lock finally clicked again and the door opened.
Kate glanced up hopefully. She was sure once she talked to whoever was in charge, they’d let her go. Maybe she’d even be able to get information out of them.
But the man who came through the door wasn’t some benign officer in charge who would ask a few questions, then apologize and cut her loose. No, it was someone much less agreeable. Someone who made her stomach churn and her pulse race with anger—Ace Mason.
Kate felt her hope deflating as she watched him walk around to her side of the table, a smug smile on his face. She noticed he’d traded his thermal shirt for a navy blue t-shirt, which showed off his muscular biceps and gave just a peak of the bottom of his armband tattoo.
“What are you doing here?” Kate demanded.
How had he tracked her down?
“I might ask you the same.” Ace cocked an eyebrow at her as he leaned his hip on the table.
“I’m following a lead on the ruby,” she said. “I guess you couldn’t come up with your own leads so you followed me.”
Ace chuckled. “If you want to think that, go ahead. The truth is that I do have my own leads.”
“What leads? People spying on me? The guys that pulled me in?”
That would explain how they found me so fast, Kate thought.
“No.” Ace leaned forward. “Actually the guys that pulled you in are investigating Benedetti for something else. They had an undercover guy at the marina and when he saw you asking around, he figured they’d better find out who you were.”
Kate’s mind flashed to the guy with the fly fishing setup on the boat. Of course, that explains why he would be using the wrong rig … and his quick phone call.
She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “So where do you fit in?”
“I’m part of that investigation too. You know how it is in the FBI, sometimes you gotta work more than one case.”
Kate narrowed her eyes at Ace. “So how does that investigation tie into the ruby theft?”
Ace shrugged. “That’s not really your concern.”
“It sure as hell is. Anything that’s relevant could lead me to the ruby. You can’t hold that information back on me … you have a deal with the museum.”
“I’m fully aware of my deal and I don’t intend to hold back anything that is relevant to retrieving the ruby. Do you?”
Kate’s heart skipped. She couldn’t exactly say she’d been forthcoming with information. Oh, she’d pass it along eventually, but she just wanted a teensy weensy head start.
“I believe I’ve passed along everything I know.” Kate winced as she thought about the Testoni shoes. She comforted herself with the fact that she didn’t exactly know that they had anything to do with the case. So telling Ace about them would be premature. And it wouldn’t be nice to send the FBI off on a wild goose chase, now would it?
“Good. So, then I guess we’re both up to date on the case,” Ace said.
“Good. Can I go now?”
Kate glanced back up at Ace and she saw his face harden. His gray eyes held hers, causing her breath to catch in her throat.
“Listen Kate, This Benedetti guy … he’s a tough criminal. You don’t want to get mixed up with him. Let me get the ruby—you’ve done a good job following the trail, but I can pick it up from here.”
Kate’s stomach flip-flopped. Ace was being sincere—she could see it in his eyes. He really was concerned about her getting hurt. Then she remembered the whole business with Damien Darkstone, and how she’d thought he was sincere then, too.
Kate narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, no. I’m not falling for that one. You just want to be the one to get the ruby.”
Ace rubbed his hands through his short hair. “Kate, it’s not about that. I don’t care about the ruby … I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Oh sure, Just like you didn’t want me to get hurt two years ago.” Tears pricked the backs of Kate’s eyes and she looked away. “Well, I’m not stupid enough to fall for your empty promises twice.”
“Kate, what went down two years ago didn’t happen the way you think it did,” Ace said quietly.
Kate’s heart pinched at his words. What did he mean by that?
She didn’t give herself time to think about it. That was the past and she wanted to focus on the future. And finding the ruby.
She turned back to him, a triumphant gleam in her eye. “Well, I don’t know what you hoped to accomplish by pulling me in here, but I’ll tell you one thing you did accomplish. You’ve verified that I’m on the right track … because if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t be so keen to get me to drop the case and go home.”
Chapter Twenty One
Kate refused Ace’s insistent offers to drive her back to her hotel and called a cab instead. She didn’t want to have to spend any more time with him than was necessary … and she didn’t want him to see Benedetti’s shoes. She figured he wouldn’t have taken an interest in the personal items they catalogued when she came to the station and the shoes were at least one clue she wanted to keep to herself.
Her hotel room was nice—not the best but not the worst either. It was high on a hill with a view of the ocean from the balcony. Palm trees and flowering shrubs dotted the property. Her room was decorated in a starfish motif with white and light gold hues. She threw her purse on the couch, then sunk down into its white slip-covered depths.
She’d set her laptop on the coffee table when she’d checked in earlier and she pulled it over toward her and tapped the button to bring it to life. She couldn’t wait to call Gideon and see if he could find out where Benedetti had taken his boat.
As she tapped the keys, she wondered how Ace Mason had found her so easily. She remembered the tracking device she’d discovered on her car, her lips curling in a smile as she pictured Ace and his team chasing the cat through the back streets of Boston.
But if the tracking device was on the cat, how did Ace catch up to her so quickly? It didn’t make sense that he’d track her and have someone following her in person. Her eyes slid over to the purse lying beside her on the couch.
No, he wouldn’t have.
She dived for the purse, dumped the contents on the floor and shoved her hand inside to feel the lining against the side of the purse. Anger bubbled up in her chest when she felt a little bump in-between the silk lining and leather outside of the purse. A quick inspection of the stitching in that area proved her suspicions.
“Damn him!”
“Excuse me?” Gideon’s voice sounded from the laptop and Kate turned to it in surprise. She’d been so focused on looking for the bug in her purse she hadn’t even noticed the call had gone through.
She shoved the purse at the camera. “It’s that damn Ace Mason! He put a tracker in my purse!”
Gideon laughed, which made Kate even madder. “That’s sneaky. I can’t believe you fell for that, though.”
Kate made a face. “I figured when we found the one in my car, that was it. I should have known.”
“So he’s there in Bermuda?”
“Yes. I just had a little run-in with him. He knows about Benedetti.” Kate threw down the purse and leaned toward the computer. “I went to the marina you got the tip on and Benedetti does have a boat there. The slip was empty though. Is there any way you can find out where that boat went?”
Gideon twisted his lips together. “I’m not sure. What’s the name of the boat?”
Kate’s shoulders slumped. “Crap. I didn’t get a name. But I know it was in slip nine, maybe we can zoom in with satellite photo and figure it out?”
“Maybe,” Gideon said and Kate could see he was ta
pping away at the keyboard.
“Oh and I have his shoes,” Kate added.
“Pardon?” Gideon raised a brow at the camera.
“The Testonis. Hold on.” Kate got up and retrieved the shoes, then held them up to the camera. “These are the shoes my parents said that Benedetti always wore. The bartender at the Tiki bar in the marina said he left them there.”
Gideon scrunched up his face. “And she gave them to you?”
Kate grimaced. “I said I was a friend.”
“What’s that all over them?”
Kate looked at the bottoms of the shoes. “Looks like bird poop and mashed in feathers.” She held the side with the most poop on it up to the camera so Gideon could get a close-up. “I was thinking that maybe Benedetti hid the ruby some place with a lot of birds or something.”
“Let me see the heel,” Gideon said.
Kate shoved the heavily encrusted heel toward the camera.
“Those downy feathers,” Gideon said. “Are they bright blue?”
Kate looked at the shoe. “Yes.”
Gideon’s face lit up and he got busy typing. “Kate, I think I know where Benedetti has been.”
“You do?”
“Yes. There’s a volcanic island near Bermuda that has a rare type of crow. The Bermudian Blue Crow. In fact, it’s called Blue Crow Island.” Gideon looked up at Kate. “The blue crow hatchlings have feathers just like those on the shoe.”
“So Benedetti might have taken the ruby there to hide it!” Kate said.
“That would explain his shoes,” Gideon said. “But why would he want to hide the ruby on an abandoned island?”
Kate’s forehead creased as she thought about that. Did she really care why? All she wanted was to bring it back to the museum, what did she care about Benedetti’s motives?
“Who cares?” Kate said. “I just need to bring it back. And I know just the people to help me go get it.”
***
Hidden Agemda (Kate Diamond Adventure) Page 12