When I came back out fully dressed, Billy was staring glumly at the kitchen table. One hand tapped to a beat only he could hear.
‘What’s up?’ I sat down across from him.
‘My boss phoned back.’
Relief flooded over me. ‘How long till they get here?’
He shook his head. ‘We need hard evidence.’
I could feel my eyebrows shoot to the top of my forehead. ‘The buggy bomb wasn’t enough?’
‘Could have been anyone. He’s not prepared to pull people off the search he’s got going over there. He reckons he’s got evidence to pinpoint Boris in Las Vegas yesterday.’
‘But he’s here. I saw him.’
His look said that he believed me.
I let out a whoosh of air and slumped back into my seat. ‘So we’re still alone on this.’
‘We’ve got Sal and Nick.’
‘And Alex,’ I reminded him with a grin.
The door to the bathroom opened and Nick emerged. He disappeared into his bedroom and reappeared a few minutes later.
‘Ready for action,’ he said to Billy. ‘Where are we off to?’
‘Tara and Matt’s hotel.’
He was obviously ignoring me. I shrugged. Not much I could do about that. Perhaps tonight he would keep all of his body parts in his bedroom with him.
The three of us traipsed out to our new golf cart. The Golf Club had taken the news of the last one’s demise remarkably well. It could have been because the manager was gay and Billy had told him. He probably could have told him we had just burnt down the clubhouse and the man would have just gazed at Billy and smiled. I know I would have.
I let Nick have the front. It was easier than having golf balls pegged at my head which, after that morning, I was sure was on the cards. I crawled onto the back seat, keeping my handbag with my revolver close. A quick survey of the bag attached to the back of the front seat told me I had made the right decision. It was brimming with golf balls.
‘Let it rip, Billy.’ Nick jumped up and down in his seat.
Billy backed it out of the car park and turned onto the main road. He planted his foot and the cart slowly increased its speed.
Nick sagged back into his seat. ‘Oh man. We got another dud.’
‘We might need to steal Matt and Tara’s,’ Billy said.
‘Can we do that?’ I was pretty sure they were going to notice if their buggy halved its top speed.
‘Nah,’ Billy said. ‘Wishful thinking.’
We pulled up at the hotel a few minutes later. Nick and I went to check out the restaurant while Billy went up to get Matt and Tara. Mum and Harry were already in there, sipping coffee while they waited.
‘Darling.’ Mum threw her arms around me and then air kissed Nick. She’d been doing a lot of air kissing since we’d gotten back from Las Vegas.
‘Hey Chicken.’ Harry pulled me into a hug and I relaxed against him.
A couple of minutes later Matt and Tara appeared with Billy. Matt muttered, ‘Closer to home,’ and the look Billy shot him made me wonder what the first part of the sentence had been.
Mum jumped up and there was more air kissing before she moved over to a microphone that had been set up in the corner.
‘What are you wearing to the rehearsal dinner tonight?’ Tara took my hand and smiled at me.
‘I didn’t bring anything special.’ Well not anything really good. ‘What should I wear?’
Her smile took on a mischievous edge. ‘Something sexy.’
‘I guess that’s not going to happen.’
‘Remember where we got your shoes from?’
I let out a little laugh. ‘How could I forget?’
‘Well, right next door to that is a little boutique, Tall Poppies. You should go there this afternoon and have a look.’
I glanced over at Billy. He was adjusting the height of the microphone for Mum. ‘Maybe I will,’ I said.
She squeezed my hand and then went to sit beside Matt.
I wrenched my mind away from sexy dresses and Billy and back to what I was meant to be doing. Protecting Matt and Tara. ‘I’ll be outside,’ I said, waiting for Billy to nod his head before I opened the door to the pool area.
I heard Nick follow me outside but I ignored him. I didn’t feel like getting into a verbal sniping contest.
A couple sat at the edge of the shade as close to the pool as possible. They held hands across the table and gazed into each other’s eyes. Honey Mooners.
A lone woman – overweight, mid-fifties, who should reconsider her swimwear choice, lay on the far side of the pool. As I watched, she sat up, stared at the sun and then shifted the angle of her sun lounge to better track its rays. Apart from the sunbaker and the honeymooners the area was empty.
Mum’s voice broke out from within the restaurant; her melodious tones making even the honeymooners turn to find its source. The woman on the sun lounge’s leathery, brown face relaxed into a smile and one hand started to tap in time to the music.
I walked to the edge of the pool and stared out to sea. No boats within view.
I turned and stared up at the hotel. Nobody rappelling down the side of the building. Excellent. It looked like it was all clear.
I was about to head inside when I heard one of the pool gates click. A man was coming in the northern gate.
My whole body tensed as I turned towards him. Dark hair, freakishly-white skin, light eyes. I recognised him.
He saw me and paused and then backed back out of the gate as I stalked towards him.
We needed hard evidence, hey? Well, I was about to get it.
‘Stop,’ I called as he turned and hurried away. I broke into a trot.
‘Chanel,’ I heard Nick call after me. ‘Wait up.’
I raced to the gate and pulled it open. The man was nowhere to be seen but there was only one way he could go – down the windy path towards the golf course.
I bolted down the path, glad I had chosen my sensible shoes that morning, and not the ones I was meant to be wearing in. That would have made hurdling the low hedge at the end of the path that much harder.
I caught a flash of black and white as I cleared the hedge and took off across the grass of the course. The man glanced over his shoulder, saw me, and broke into a sprint.
I hadn’t spent the last two months running on the treadmill at the gym for nothing. I was going to take this guy down if it was the last thing I did.
‘Chaneeelllll.’ Nick’s voice echoed behind me. I dismissed him from my mind and concentrated on my quarry.
He kept his lead for about half a minute but then slowly I started to gain on him. His insistence on shooting me wide-eyed looks over his shoulder only served to slow him down.
Twenty metres. I could hear him gasping in time with his staggering run.
Ten metres. I could taste victory.
Five metres. I sprinted the last couple of steps and launched myself through the air, crash tackling him around the waist and riding him to the ground.
‘Aghhhhhhhhhhh.’ He let out a shriek worthy of a sixteen-year-old girl being assaulted.
‘Who sent you?’ I bent his arm up behind his back and his shriek intensified. ‘Where’s Boris?’ I increased my pressure and his shriek turned to a sob.
‘Crazy bitch,’ he spat out. ‘Get off me.’
‘Not till you tell me.’ No way was I letting him get away before Billy could get here.
‘I don’t know what you’re talking about.’
‘Hah. Any criminal would say that.’
And then something dawned on me. He didn’t have an accent. Either he had had excellent tuition in Australian accents, or he was Australian.
Uh oh.
I released his arm and clambered off his back, letting him roll over. It was probably a good thing my weapon was at the restaurant in my bag.
‘You’re not Russian?’
‘What on earth made you think that?’
‘You’re very white.’
‘It’s a cold climate. Anyway,’ I said, ‘you obviously don’t like the sun. You’re freaky white. That’s pretty suspicious seeing that you came to a tropical island for holidays.’ I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at him. I’d like to see him get out of that astute observation.
‘I’m an albino.’
I let out a snort. ‘Albinos have white hair.’ I mean even I knew that.
‘Oh and you’re an expert on albinos are you?’ He climbed to his feet and dusted his pants off. ‘If you must know,’ his voice said he didn’t see why I had to, ‘I dye my hair.’
I peered at his head. Sure enough a few millimetres of white roots showed below the black.
Oh great. I had humiliated a dwarf and an albino in one morning. I was on a roll.
‘I tried to make it brown, but it went green.’
The hairdresser in me kicked into action. ‘That happens when you go from light to dark without enough of a red base.’ I stepped closer and picked up a few strands. ‘Although I’m surprised you got away with the black.’
‘What are you? A hairdresser?’
I paused. It was a cover I could carry off. ‘You got me.’ I gave him a two-finger salute. ‘And as a professional I would like to say that the black looks very natural.’ I narrowed my eyes to see if my nose had gotten any longer.
His mouth half-quirked into a smile. ‘What was all that stuff about Boris?’
‘Chaneellll,’ Nick wheezed.
I looked over my shoulder. He was almost there. ‘Oh just something I made up to try to get you to tell me why you had been watching us.’
‘It’s pretty convincing.’ He ran a hand through his hair. ‘I wasn’t watching you. I was watching your tall friend with the husky voice.’
And the Adam’s apple? ‘Martine?’
‘Is that her name?’ He smiled for the first time.
‘Yeah. So, urrr, no hard feelings?’ I held my hand out.
He stared at it for a second and then said, ‘On one condition.’
‘Chanel.’ Nick reached my side and bent over, clutching his knees as he sucked in air.
‘What condition?’
‘A drink. With your friend.’
I stared at him for a second. Martine would kick my arse if I tried to set her up with this guy. I mean he was the arch-nemesis of all that she liked in men. Bronzed, beefy and brown. ‘Tonight. Six o’clock at the bar we were at the other night,’ I said.
‘Deal.’ He reached out and took my hand, looking as if I had just offered him a million bucks.
He started walking back to the hotel, leaving me there with Nick who was still panting.
‘Was that?’ He took one hand off his knee and flicked it at the albino.
‘My bad,’ I said. ‘Turns out he’s just a tourist.’
He started to laugh. ‘And you tackled him.’ He leant back over while he laughed. ‘You had him in an arm-lock.’ He collapsed onto the ground and waved his legs in the air while he laughed.
I took advantage of the time to examine my nails. I really needed a manicure.
He hooted with laughter.
‘Are you right?’ I finally said.
He wiped his eyes with his hands and sat up. ‘Did I hear you just agree to set him up with Gigantore?’
I grimaced. ‘Maybe.’
He lay back down and kicked his heels in the air while he giggled. ‘You gotta let me come,’ he begged. ‘I want to be there to see the look on her face. I mean that guy is freaky.’
I looked down at my little side-kick. Oh hell. If he thought the albino was freaky, I was in even bigger trouble than I thought.
***
Billy raised an eyebrow at me as I slid open the door from the pool area, but said nothing. Oh goody. Nick hadn’t alerted him to my desperate chase.
Matt, Tara and Mum were up to the negotiations part of the deal.
‘Absolutely not,’ Mum said. ‘Think of it as a wedding gift.’
‘But you hardly know us,’ Matt said.
‘And your voice.’ Tara said the word ‘voice’ reverently.
I surmised that Mum had wowed them.
I wasn’t really paying attention because something had occurred to me during the walk back to the hotel. We were now further from convincing the FBI Boris was here than we had been.
If the albino wasn’t an operative then all we had to go on was my word. Had I really seen Boris? Suddenly, I was besieged by self-doubt.
I thought about the face I had seen through cucumber-clogged eyes. Had it really had pointy teeth? Or had I conjured it up in a paranoid mind?
And then I remembered the voice. I would never forget that voice. So, yes, he was here. And we still needed hard evidence. I let out the breath I had been holding.
‘What’s up?’ Billy had sidled up beside me during my moment of introspection.
‘Martine’s going to kill me.’ I sighed. Now, if I had set her up with Alex, well, that would be another thing entirely. Maybe I should work on that.
‘Did you set all her wigs on fire?’
I snorted softly and looked over at him. ‘You know that vampire?’
He nodded.
‘Well,’ I pulled a face at him, ‘turns out he’s not Russian.’
He grasped my upper arm and dragged me toward the door to the pool area. When we were beyond earshot he said, ‘What has that got to do with Martine?’
‘I kind of set them up.’ I shrugged my shoulders, relieved when a grin rather than a grimace lit up his face.
‘Constable Smith,’ he said. ‘Please start from the beginning of this fascinating story.’
‘It’s Probationary Constable,’ I mumbled to the floor. When his grip didn’t let up I said, ‘Oh fine. About ten minutes ago he perpetrated the area through the northern gate. I may have chased him and during questioning found out he was an Australian, albino tourist.’
He let go of me and squeezed the bridge of his nose. ‘Let me get this straight,’ he said. ‘While I have been enjoying listening to your Mother sing, you have chased down and interrogated a potential member of the Russian Mafia.’
‘I’ve already heard Mum sing.’
He glared at me.
‘Okay, fine. Yes. That’s exactly what happened. Nick was there.’ I spun around but Nick was nowhere to be seen. Coward.
‘What would you have done if he was part of the mob?’
‘Sat on him until you got there.’
There was more of that nose squeezing. Maybe he was getting a cold.
‘Have I ruined everything?’ I said in my best little-girl voice.
It worked and I was rewarded with a half-smile and shake of his head. ‘We are still exactly where we were.’
‘We need hard evidence.’
‘Exactly. Although I’ve got to tell you, I’m looking forward to watching this guy try to chat up Martine.’
I gave him my biggest smile. ‘It will make the pain worthwhile.’
***
‘I need to go dress shopping,’ I said to Martine. Of course what I had meant to say was, ‘I need to tell you something,’ but there would be plenty of time for that during the dress shopping.
‘I think you just uttered my favourite words.’ She jumped into the front of the cart and then looked suspiciously over her shoulder at Nick. ‘What, no fight for the front?’
He smiled and put his hands behind his head. ‘It’s all yours.’
I pulled the cart out from the front of her hotel and headed for Tall Poppies.
‘Well,’ she said, ‘it’s nice to see that you have recovered your gentlemanly skills.’
‘Oh I have indeed. Chanel, tell her about the other gentleman you…’
‘Oh look,’ I interjected, ‘a rabbit.’
‘Really?’ Martine peered out the side of the cart. ‘I thought rabbits were nocturnal.’
&nb
sp; I flashed a quick look over my shoulder at Nick and mouthed, ‘Shut up,’ at him. I was rewarded with a magnificent view of all the teeth on his denture.
We were silent as we whizzed past the site of the buggy bomb and pulled into a spot out the front of Tall Poppies.
‘Tara said I needed to wear something sexy tonight,’ I said to Martine.
‘Oh really,’ Nick said, ‘is she trying to set you up with somebody?’
He was like an annoying insect. Always hanging around and buzzing when you least wanted it.
‘Sexy,’ Martine said. ‘Excellent.’ She brushed her hands together and then marched into the shop, a woman on a mission.
Tara had been right. Tall Poppies had some excellent stock. Most of it sparkled in one way or another. Sequins, glitter, metallic prints. I moved to the back corner of the shop in my bid to get away from Nick.
‘What time do we have to be out?’ Martine asked.
‘Six.’ I ignored Nick’s snort. The dinner, which Tara had kindly invited Martine to as well, didn’t start till seven-thirty.
‘That doesn’t give us much time.’ She shot me a disapproving look. ‘I mean honestly Chanel, how are we meant to find you a dress and get our hair done in that time?’
I rolled my eyes. I was sure her hair was already done. I was just going to let mine down and hope for the best.
‘Here.’ She lifted a dress triumphantly into the air. ‘This is it. Oh Chanel, you have to try this on. With your new hair colour this will look amazing.’
It was black and sparkly and cut so low I wasn’t sure if what I was looking at was the back or the front.
‘I’ll fall out of it,’ I said.
‘Nah ahh.’ She shook her head and marched to the front of the store. ‘You need this.’ She plucked a packet off the counter and held it up. ‘It’ll stick your dress to your skin.’
The storekeeper had been keeping a low profile but now she said, ‘Oh yes. That tape is miraculous.’
‘Here.’ Martine shook the hanger at me.
‘Okay, okay,’ I said,’ taking it from her. ‘If it makes you happy.’
Nick opened his mouth, but before he could say anything I held my hand up with the palm facing out and hissed, ‘Later.’ Then, hoping he would behave himself, I darted into the dressing room.
Two Weddings and a Fugitive (The Chanel Series Book 4) Page 11