Still, she couldn’t rationalize that explosive kiss. She’d never done anything like that in her life. She didn’t even like sex—but a howling banshee inside her head warned she’d never had sex with Charlie Smith before. Shutting out banshees while fighting the memory of two dead men was a difficult juggling act.
As the truck rattled to a stop at Soufriere’s version of a farmer’s market, Charlie lifted his head, blinked, scanned their surroundings, and scowled.
Leaping down from the flatbed, he held out his hand to Penelope. “Come on, let’s get out of here. I think we may be a lot better off if we’re not seen.”
She took his hand to climb down, then released it immediately as if she’d held a burning brand. “Don’t be ridiculous.” She spoke more sharply than she’d intended. “We need to go to the police, and we agreed to meet Tammy at five. It’s past that now.”
Aware of the stares their white faces and rumpled clothing attracted, she hurried toward the narrow path she figured was a street that might lead into the town center.
Charlie grabbed her wrist and pulled her toward an alleyway between two narrow houses. “From the looks of those vines, Raul’s been dead for over a week. That dynamite could have been meant for us.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Penelope protested again, mostly because she didn’t want to believe him. Dynamite and murder happened only on TV news, not to her. “No one knew we’d be taking that road.”
“Anyone who knew I was here looking for Raul could figure I would take that road sooner or later.” He pulled her deeper into the darkness of the trash-strewn alley.
“Well, we can’t very well lurk in shadows forever. Let’s go to the police.” Penelope tried to twist her wrist from his grip, but Charlie paid no attention to her efforts. He was busy peering into the yards on the other side of the houses.
“Jacques lives not too far from here. I need to see if he’s back. I’ll trust Jacques over the police any day.”
“He ran away when you needed him,” she scoffed. “Fat big help he is.”
“He was protecting his family. He’ll be back. Come on, there’s no one out there right now. We can get across these yards and go in the back way.”
“I don’t want to. I want to go back to the hotel. I need a shower. Charlie...”
Ignoring all her protests, he yanked her into someone’s littered backyard, through a broken fence, across a vegetable plot, and zigzagged through more fences and empty lots, until he reached the shrubbery surrounding a more secluded home. Pushing underneath a brilliant purple bougainvillea, he stopped and waited at the edge of the next open space.
“Charlie, this is nuts,” she whispered in desperation. “I haven’t played hide-and-seek since I was a kid, and I was never any good at it.”
“Look, I’m sorry I got you into this. I’ll try to get you out. Just be quiet and let me think.”
Heart beating unsteadily, Penelope waited. She didn’t know which she feared more, Charlie or his mysterious enemies. She just had this wild idea that if she could return to the resort, everything would be normal again. That idea was fading as rapidly as the setting sun. Even now, shadows spread beneath the bushes and between the houses where they hid. She could hear laughter floating through a distant window. The house Charlie studied remained ominously quiet and dark.
“Wait here.”
He released her wrist and eased from beneath the bougainvillea branches. Penelope considered following him if for no other reason than that she didn’t like being left behind. But if there were murderers waiting in that house, she didn’t want to encounter them. This was all Charlie’s fault. Let him deal with them.
She picked up a beer bottle lying near her feet and watched intently as Charlie’s silhouette slid between the shadows and toward the back door.
A warbling whistle startled her into almost dropping the bottle until she realized it came from Charlie. Swell. Now he had secret signals.
The back door popped open, and a head topped by Rastafarian braids peered out.
“Get yourself in here, mon, before you get your brains blown out!”
Charlie turned and signaled for Penelope. She contemplated running in the opposite direction. As far as she was concerned, if this was Jacques, he was more terrifying than anyone else they had encountered all day. Reluctantly, she slipped from beneath the bush, still carrying the beer bottle.
The back door had already closed. No light shone from within. Charlie grabbed her arm again and pulled her forward. “Interesting souvenir,” he commented grimly as his fingers brushed the bottle.
She dropped it and glared at him, for all the good it did. “Is this where I get to go home?”
He didn’t answer, but she figured the hug he gave her was answer enough. It was one of those “Sure, honey, whatever you say” hugs that men used when they didn’t have the right answer but wanted her to shut up anyway. She considered taking a large bite out of his shoulder to compensate, but she was too rattled to do more than follow.
Inside, Jacques waited for them at the Formica kitchen table. To Penelope’s utter surprise, Tammy waited for them too.
Charlie’s half sister looked up with relief and a degree of wariness. “Thank goodness! I thought you’d fallen off the mountain. Did you find Raul?”
Penelope bit her lip and glanced at Charlie. They hadn’t discussed this. Maybe Charlie was certain that was Raul up there, but they didn’t have positive identification.
She could see Charlie’s hesitation and held her breath. Surely he wouldn’t blurt it out like this and break Tammy’s heart.
“The shack’s gone,” he finally admitted. “I didn’t find him.”
Penelope let out her breath. The damned man continually surprised her.
“Gone? What do you mean, gone? It was there two weeks ago. He had it all fixed up....” Tammy shut up beneath her brother’s withering glare. Everyone in the room could guess why Raul had fixed up the shack and under what circumstances she had seen it.
Jacques waded into the ripples of silence. “Get yourself and your ladies from here, mon. Sell that land and don’ come back. You don’ need this.”
Penelope watched in fascination as the two men exchanged glances. She had the oddest feeling that Jacques knew what Charlie had found up on the mountain.
“I’m not leaving,” Charlie insisted. “Take us to the airport and I can get Tammy and Penelope out of here. They can take your family too, if you want. But I’m staying.”
“You crazy, mon. There nothing you can do. Go home where you belong,” Jacques insisted, though his protests had lost their luster beneath Charlie’s determination.
“I can’t go home yet.” Penelope tried to be reasonable in the wake of Charlie’s sudden desire to be rid of her. “I have work to do. I have nothing to do with whatever’s going on. Just take me back to the hotel, and I’ll be happy.” She didn’t want to whine. She just wanted her sane life back.
“I’m not going until we find Raul.” Tammy crossed her arms in imitation of her brother.
“Jacques?” Charlie waited, but the demand was in his voice.
“If you stay, those around you are in danger too. The stakes are much too high.”
The man’s singsong voice could have been repeating some pleasant island refrain if one didn’t listen to the words. Maybe she shouldn’t listen to the words. But if Raul was really dead, if someone had killed him and—she’d rather not think of this—tried to kill Charlie by blowing up a road, then the stakes were pretty darned high indeed.
“What if Tammy goes back to the house? No one will know she’s involved.” Charlie sounded slightly desperate.
“I had to run away from Mama when you weren’t at the dock,” Tammy replied coolly. “I’m not going back. They’d never let me out again. I want to help find Raul.”
Charlie dug his hands into his hair and tugged. Penelope could almost feel sorry for him if she didn’t have the resentful notion that this was all his fault. Since sh
e didn’t know precisely what was going on, she could refuse to help. Or she could sort out the problem, solve it, and go back to work.
“Perhaps it’s time that we clarify a few things here,” she declared in resignation. She’d brought worse meetings to order in her time. “What, precisely, are we in danger from? Does anyone know?”
Jacques sat back in his chair, unwilling to offer more.
Charlie tossed her a quick, jerky glance after she said “we,” then continued digging his hand into his hair. What had possessed her to say “we,” as if she was actually working with him? Damn, but she was losing her mind. Or her usual set of principles.
She lifted a questioning eyebrow in Tammy’s direction.
“It has something to do with that land Raul was clearing,” Tammy answered boldly. “They blew up the trailer he used as an office. They shot at his truck. Someone wanted him out of there.” She threw a swift look to Jacques. “I’d say it was the naturalists who don’t want more development, but guns and explosives aren’t their usual style.”
Jacques frowned but didn’t contradict her. “There are bad men all over. You never should have come here.”
“You’re Raul’s friend,” Tammy said defensively. “I had to go somewhere.”
Penelope kicked Charlie beneath the table. His head shot up and he glared at her.
“Who wants the land, Charlie? Did anyone else bid on it?”
“The Resort Foundation,” he said with a sigh. “They’re behind most of the development in Castries. They’re turning the place into a concrete carnival. The naturalists don’t have any money. They couldn’t bid on a palm tree.”
“Would the Resort Foundation use violence?” If she couldn’t pry information out of them any other way, she’d pull it through their noses. She’d never seen such a taciturn lot.
“No,” Tammy said adamantly.
“Yes,” Charlie replied at the same time.
“Daddy owns part of that company,” Tammy said indignantly. “They’re perfectly proper. Don’t be ridiculous, Charlie.”
“Stockholders are not part of a company.” Wearily, Charlie slid back in the chair. “The management of the Resort Foundation would string up their own mothers if they stood in the way of making money.”
“Sell to them and go home,” Jacques advised.
“I’ll be damned if I will!” Charlie pounded the table, rattling the empty glasses. “This town needs houses, not amusement parks and concrete palaces for tourists. And if they had anything to do with Raul’s disappearance, I’ll have them nailed to the damned wall.”
“And how do you plan to prove they’re behind anything?” Penelope asked. “Maybe the neighbors object to a subdivision. Maybe you have street gangs with nothing better to do than blow up things.”
“How in hell do I know? I’ll just start moving heavy machinery in and post guards on the perimeter to shoot anyone who comes near. Sooner or later I’ll have them.”
Penelope couldn’t quite determine if the silence following that declaration was shock or agreement. She just knew Charlie danced on a dangerous edge right now, and he wasn’t in any mood for reason.
“Fine, then. Live behind barbed wire. What about your family? If these people are desperate enough to do something to Raul, who do you think they’ll pick on next? The guy behind barbed wire or his innocent, unprotected family?”
“Dammit!” He smacked the table again and glared at her. “What do you suggest?”
“Finding out who’s behind the Resort Foundation, who has the power, who has the ability, who has the strongest desire and motive to commit acts of violence.” She kept skirting around Raul’s death for Tammy’s sake, but it was becoming harder and harder.
Jacques looked at her with new respect. “Who can do this? These people are not from here. They know nothing of the island but the money.”
“A corporation has to be registered somewhere. It just takes a little digging. If you want to avoid whatever the island calls a courthouse, you could use a computer and modem.”
Charlie straightened and looked more alert. “Find the major stockholders, board of directors, and top management. Is that possible?”
Penelope shrugged. “Can’t say unless I try.” She couldn’t believe she’d said that. She didn’t have time for massive computer searches.
“That’s it, then. We’ll go back to the hotel and get your laptop.”
Charlie was half out of his chair before Jacques halted his escape.
“No, mon, do you not remember Michel? He was a warning. They know where you stay. They will be waiting. You cannot go back there.”
Penelope stared at him, speechless. She had to go back. She had no clothes. She needed that job. Where would she go?
Charlie dropped back into his chair. “Help me get the women to the airport. The resort can ship Penelope’s things back to Miami later. Where can I find a computer around here?”
“And what would you know about computers?” Penelope asked with disdain. “I bet you have a bookkeeper or secretary who handles computer entries.”
Charlie shrugged. “So, I’ll learn. It can’t be all that difficult.”
“I’m not going without Raul,” Tammy repeated stubbornly. “If you stay, I stay.”
Penelope had about reached the point where she’d agree to leave on the first flight out if that was the only way she could get a bath, but the memory of that poor old man held her back. It shouldn’t take her long to poke around the Internet and come up with something. She had contacts. She could network a little.
She had this wide-screen vision of cornering the villain in cyberspace and Charlie riding to the capture on horseback, six-guns firing. She needed sleep.
“All right. Let’s do it this way. Find me a computer. I know the island has an Internet server because I connected with it before I came out here. I’ll need a hookup.” She looked at Charlie’s little sister. She couldn’t let the girl sit here in anticipation of Raul driving into town when this was over. It wasn’t going to happen. Distraction was needed.
“Tammy, I hesitate to ask this, but my sister is expecting me home in a few days. She’s blind. She fares pretty well on her own, but she can’t pick up groceries by herself. And it’s possible some of the information I dig out will need confirmation from court records. Chances are that we’ll find most of these guys operate out of Miami. Do you think...?”
Tammy’s eyes widened in surprise. “You want me to help dig out the records? And look after your sister?”
“She won’t appreciate the ‘looking after’ part,” Penelope said wryly. “She thinks she’s doing just fine on her own.”
“And she probably is.” Tammy sprang to the defense of a woman she didn’t even know. “But she’s probably worried about you. Have you called?”
“My cell phone doesn’t have an international connection. I’ll send her e-mail just as soon as I get that computer.”
Charlie ran his hand over his face and looked back and forth between the two women. “Does this mean one of you is staying and the other is going?”
“Men.” Penelope shrugged. “They’re a little dense sometimes.”
Tammy’s eyes were shining as they fell on her half brother. “I have my passport in my purse. How will you get me out of here?”
Charlie groaned and turned to Jacques for guidance. “One’s better than nothing, I guess. You got a boat?”
“I have a boat,” Jacques agreed. He turned a serious gaze to Penelope. “You would do well to go with her, miss. This is no computer game.”
“I doubt your bad guys have the know-how to trace computers. You could stick me in an office anywhere and no one would ever notice.”
Slumped in his chair, arms crossed, Charlie snorted loudly at this last but didn’t comment.
“But I want a bath,” she warned him. “And some clothes.”
“That, I can promise you.” Slamming his feet back to the floor, Charlie stood up. “Come on, Jacques, let’s haul P
rincess Tamara Louise out of here before the evil witch finds her. Her ugly stepsister can just blow off the dragons if they show up while we’re gone.”
Penelope wished she had something to throw at him.
FOURTEEN
Hands full, Charlie slipped through Jacques’s moonlit garden. A faint light glittered behind wooden shutters, but it held no guarantee that anyone waited inside.
Penelope was quite capable of changing her mind and running as fast as she could in the opposite direction while he’d been hauling Tammy to the airport.
Her managerial analysis of their situation earlier had thoroughly impressed him. Now that she had thrown in her lot with his, he had to admit that beautiful head on her shoulders had brains.
He also had to admit that her “we” earlier had darn near brought him to his knees. He’d thought he had lost everything when he found Raul’s body. But Penny offered to fill some of the emptiness. It might be only a temporary repair, but it had prevented him from ripping the whole town apart with his bare hands.
He didn’t have much experience with women of intelligence though, so he didn’t know how long this “partnership” would last. The construction business didn’t cater to women, not the kind of women he enjoyed anyway. If he hung around her much longer, he might have to reconsider his personal prejudice against both society women and career robots.
Damn, but she’d felt powerful in his arms earlier. It was a wonder she hadn’t run when he’d practically attacked her like that. He wouldn’t have blamed her. He’d sure as hell scared himself.
But if she was still here, if she really meant it about helping him, he would do his best to behave. He couldn’t afford to lose the kind of high-tech maneuvering Penelope offered. He didn’t want to scare her off.
He couldn’t figure out how in heck to get in the house without doing just that though. Would she recognize his whistle as Jacques had?
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