Dani shrugged. "Maybe she was nervous about sailing offshore. She said she'd never done anything like this before."
"Could be, I guess, but when she went with me to the market down on Potter's Cay yesterday, it was almost like she was looking over her shoulder."
"Maybe she's leaving an unhappy guy behind or something," Dani said. "She's a good shipmate so far. My favorite guest to date -- hands down."
"Hey, Dani!" Connie's call from the cockpit interrupted their conversation.
"Yes? You okay up there?"
"There's a cruise ship in front of us. What do I do?"
Dani scrambled up the companionway ladder and spotted the ship, well off in the distance. "We'll be fine. He's probably three miles away and he's coming toward us, but on a diverging course. We probably won't get much closer together. Odds are he's headed for Nassau or Freeport, so he'll pass well to the north."
"How can you tell all that, just at a glance?"
"Practice. You'll get the hang of it before you know it. Take a sight on the ship across the compass, and remember the bearing."
Connie crouched and squinted, lining up the pin in the center of the compass card with the distant cruise ship. "340 degrees," she said.
"Okay, now remember that. Take another bearing in a couple of minutes. If it's less than 340, the ship will pass on our port side. If it's more, the ship will be crossing in front of us. Then it will pass on our starboard side. If it's the same, it's either coming straight toward us or going straight away from us; you can tell which, because it will either be bigger or smaller. If it's the same size and the same bearing, it's moving at the same speed we are, on a parallel course."
"Okay. I think I got all that; it makes sense when I picture it in my mind. I'll try to remember."
"Just remember, if the bearing is changing, there's no danger. If it's constant, you need to figure out what's happening; there might be a danger of collision then. It will become instinctive in no time. Why don't you give me the helm for a bit and go below and grab a cup of coffee? Liz just made a fresh pot."
Connie relinquished the helm with obvious reluctance, causing Dani to smile. "Don't worry – you'll have plenty of time to steer; you'll be an experienced hand by the time we get to the Virgins."
****
"He did go to Morgan's Bluff. I'm not sure who the lucky lady was, but the fishermen there know Blacksnake by sight. He got there midmorning of the day before the Nautigal left Chub and he left the afternoon of the next day," Wallace reported to Sam. They were sitting in Sam's office.
"How'd you get such an accurate fix on the date?"
"Easy. It was the day the mail boat came," Wallace chuckled. "Nobody forgets that day. They couldn't tell me which day of the week it came, but that was easy enough to pin down with a call to the ship's agent."
The phone on Sam's desk rang. Wallace nodded and Sam picked it up.
"The yacht anchorage just north of the cruise ship wharf?" Sam asked the caller. He took a sip of tepid coffee as he listened. "Good." He paused, listening again. "Thanks, but no. I'll let you know if I need anything else. Stay away from them." He hung up and swiveled his chair around to face Wallace, a lopsided grin on his face.
"Your boys found Nautigal," Wallace guessed.
Sam nodded. "They wanted to go meet the blondes; must be some kinda babes. He was so excited he could hardly talk."
Wallace repeated the dockmaster's description of the girls for Sam's benefit. "Think we should handle this ourselves, partner?" he asked.
"Probably so," Sam agreed. "Let's take my big Zodiac RIB; we'll invite the ladies to a lunchtime cruise on Rolle's Kate."
****
Connie was sprawled comfortably in a hammock strung from the inner forestay to the main mast, slightly drowsy from the hypnotic, repetitive motion of Vengeance. The hammock was in the shade of the headsails, with nothing to block the cooling breeze that carried the yacht on her way. The sea breeze sighed softly as it kept the sails full, and she watched the masthead trace a long, lazy arc across the clear blue sky as Vengeance rolled along.
They were north of Eleuthera, nearly into the open sea, and she was sure that she was safe. Whoever came looking for the briefcase would never find her now. She reflected upon what she had learned from Dani and Liz about the formalities of yachts entering and leaving the Bahamas. Unlike flying or leaving on a commercial ship, sailing as they had done left no paper trail. The Bahamas didn't require a departure clearance for private pleasure craft, so even if someone managed to track the discarded briefcase to Maria Velasquez, the trail should end there.
Connie had assumed the Velasquez identity when she changed hotels after she decided to abscond with the diamonds. It wasn't an airtight false identity, but she had reasoned that it would buy her time. She had prepared the papers before she left the States a few years ago, expecting to be on the run. She had crossed some dangerous people during her exit from the States, but she had not needed the false identity until now. She was glad that she had kept the passport and credit cards; they had enabled her to lay a false trail as she left the Bahamas. She had chartered Vengeance under her own name, thinking that it was best if the Velasquez trail ended in Nassau.
She was excited to embark on this new segment in her life, and she felt genuine warmth toward Liz and Dani. She'd had no idea how readily she would take to life afloat; the sense of freedom that she felt on leaving land behind was quite a surprise to her. She had expected to feel anxious about being at sea in a small vessel, but Liz and Dani were obviously at home here and their confidence was contagious. The prospect of several days of slipping quietly through the pristine, indigo water with congenial company was exhilarating.
She had some decisions to make but she felt no pressure. There was enough money in her bank accounts in the States for her to live for a few years, and it was all clean and legal. She could take her time finding a place to live and figuring out the best way to deal with the windfall from the briefcase. She wondered who had owned the diamonds originally and how many different factions might want them back. She didn't think that Joseph Nelson had been dealing on his own account.
She shook off that thought; if her luck held, she would never know the answers to those questions. Meanwhile, she would learn to sail; maybe owning a yacht like this was in her future. She had a fleeting moment of worry at the prospect of finding someone to help her run a big sailboat. She quickly put that anxiety aside as premature, although she did envy the easy friendship that Liz and Dani seemed to share. That sort of relationship was beyond her experience, but then so had sailing been, until just now. The magic of ocean voyaging under sail made all things seem possible, at least for the moment.
Chapter 5
Sam jockeyed his 21-foot-long rigid inflatable boat alongside Nautigal as Wallace grabbed the sailboat's rail to hold them alongside. "Hello, Nautigal!" Sam called above the rumble of his two big outboards.
"Coming!" a well-modulated female voice called from below decks. In a moment, an attractive young woman stepped into the cockpit, an inquisitive look on her face. She smiled invitingly and cocked her head to the side, holding a dish towel to her otherwise bare chest. She had on miniscule bikini bottoms, and seemed completely comfortable with the bug-eyed stares that her appearance elicited. "Yes?" she said, sweetly.
"Good morning," Sam said. "I'm Sam, and my friend here is Wallace. We think you met a friend of ours at the anchorage off the Chub Cay Club a week or so ago."
Before she responded, another equally stunning girl came out of the companionway, but without a dish towel. The first girl moved aside, and they both sat down on the cockpit seat closest to Sam and Wallace, putting their charms at eye level for the two men standing in the RIB. "We met some nice men there, but none as handsome as you," the newcomer said, as the first girl stood and dropped her dish towel. With both hands free, she climbed onto the side deck and bent dramatically over the lifelines, reaching past Wallace to grab at the bow line of the RIB.
>
"Hand me your painter. I'll tie off your dinghy and you can come aboard. We can, like, have coffee or something…" Her voice trailed off suggestively.
"Actually," Wallace said, backing up a bit as she picked up the bow line, her breasts brushing against his hands as he kept a grip on Nautigal's lifeline, "we wanted to invite you over to my boat for a little lunchtime cruise. The chef's got some nice fresh dorado to grill."
"Oh," she said, pirouetting gracefully and extending an arm toward the other girl. "I'm Suzie, by the way, and this is my sister, Kitty. Lunch sounds great. We were just kind of hanging out today. Which boat are you boys on?"
"Rolle's Kate," Wallace said, pointing over his shoulder at the large motor yacht idling in the center of the harbor channel a couple of hundred yards away.
"Oh, wow! She's pretty," Kitty said. "What kind is she?"
"She's custom-built," Wallace answered.
"How long is she?" Suzie asked.
"150 feet."
"I'll get our stuff," Kitty said.
"No need to dress up," Sam offered. "You're fine like you are; we'll probably eat on the foredeck by the hot tub."
Kitty smiled enigmatically and stepped below decks, returning in a moment with a straw beach bag. She made a show of climbing over the lifelines into the RIB while her sister locked their companionway. "Why did you name her Rollerskate?" Kitty asked, settling herself against one of the inflatable tubes near the bow and stretching out her long, shapely legs as she leaned back, pulling her thick, curly blond hair back into a ponytail.
Wallace chuckled as he gave Suzie a hand, helping her over the lifelines. As Sam put the boat in gear to pull away, Suzie contrived a stumble that landed her in Wallace's arms. "Not Rollerskate," he said, around a mouthful of blond hair. "It's Rolle's Kate." He enunciated carefully, emphasizing the two words. "My family name is Rolle; Kate was my mother."
"I've been called Kate," Kitty offered. "But I just feel more like a Kitty." She purred for effect, looking coyly up at Wallace.
"So, who was your friend?" Suzie asked as she sat down on Sam's right thigh, wedging herself between him and the steering wheel and putting her left arm around his neck.
"What?" he asked, concentrating on weaving through the crowded anchorage.
Suzie giggled. "The friend you think we met in the anchorage off the Chub Cay Club. Or did you just make that up so you had an excuse to talk to us?"
"Oh. No, one of our associates was there last week, in a go-fast boat called Blacksnake."
"Joseph?" she asked.
"Right. So you did meet him, then."
"He's lots of fun. You know where he is? We're kinda waiting for him."
"No, we're kinda waiting for him, too. He's bringing a package to us."
"Are you in the diamond business too?" Suzie asked.
"What?" Sam asked, alarm in his tone.
Suzie shook her hair back and reached around behind her head with her free hand to expose her left ear – the one closest to Sam's face. He had to lean away to focus, noticing the two-carat diamond earring for the first time, a credit to her other attractions. "Well, Joseph told us about being a diamond dealer, and all. He gave us some samples of his merchandise." She giggled. "And his diamonds, too. Samples, that is."
They were pulling up alongside the boarding platform across the stern of Rolle's Kate. Sam shifted the twin outboards into neutral and coasted expertly to a stop as Wallace passed a line to the uniformed crewman who was waiting. The man tied the line to a cleat and came aft, where he caught the stern line Sam tossed him. Sam and Wallace helped the two girls out of the RIB and ushered them up the stairs to the aft deck. The crewman rigged the RIB for towing and spoke into his handheld radio. Without a sound or even a hint of vibration, Rolle's Kate began to move forward.
Wallace gave the girls a brief tour of the main deck as they made their way forward and up one level. In a couple of minutes, they emerged onto a sundeck with a hot tub and a dining table set for four. "Shall we have a little pre-prandial refreshment?" he asked, as he and Sam seated the girls.
Sam took in the puzzled looks that passed between the sisters. He smiled and said "Mimosas, perhaps?"
Recognition lit their faces, and they both nodded eagerly.
Sam and Wallace took their places, and a steward in a crisply starched white uniform approached the table. "Mimosas for everyone, Jackson," Wallace said.
"Very good, Mr. Rolle." The man disappeared around a corner. In less than a minute, he returned bearing a tray with the drinks. As soon as he had placed a glass in front of each of them, he disappeared again.
"To new friends," Wallace proposed, holding his glass out toward the center of the table. The others clicked his glass with theirs.
Before anyone could take a sip, Sam interjected, "Good friends -- and diamonds."
They clicked their glasses again. As they tasted the chilled drinks, Wallace looked at Sam and raised an eyebrow.
"So you got a sample of Joseph's merchandise," Sam reminded Suzie. She promptly raised both arms, pulling her hair back and thrusting her chest out. Sam smiled at Wallace's reaction. "Nice," Sam said.
Wallace nodded, transfixed. "The earrings, Wallace," Sam said, choking back a laugh.
"Oh," Wallace said, a flush of embarrassment spreading over his mocha complexion.
Both girls laughed at his discomfort, and as if on cue, they removed the earrings, each passing a pair to the man on her right. "We each have another one, in a, um, more private place, too," Kitty giggled.
That brought color to Sam's face, too. "So these were 'samples' that Joseph gave you?" he asked.
"Yeah," Suzie agreed. "They weren't mounted, though. He told us about a jeweler in Nassau who mounted them on the gold studs for us."
"That's beautiful work," Wallace said, finally regaining some poise. "Can you tell me who the jeweler is?"
"Better than that," Kitty said, reaching for the straw bag. "He gave us a discount, 'cause we agreed to show off his work. I've got a bunch of his cards." After fumbling in the bag for a moment, she passed a business card to Wallace.
The steward looked around the corner of the deckhouse and saw that the drinks were finished. In a moment, he appeared with four steaming bowls of conch chowder, placing one in front of each person. "Wine is coming right up, Mr. Rolle," he said, at Wallace's nod of acknowledgement. "And the dorado is on the grill; should be about ten minutes."
"And Joseph gave you the stones," Sam prompted.
"Uh-huh," Suzie agreed. "He let us pick them out. He had, like, a whole briefcase full. He spread them out on our dining table; they covered the whole top. But we couldn't tell one from another; they were all just like these."
"What was it the jeweler called them?" Kitty asked. "Flawless, colorless, something, something?"
"Yeah. I can't remember. He said that Joseph always had about the best diamonds money could buy, though. He offered to buy these from us before he set them," Suzie said.
"He said they were worth more than he could pay. But he still offered us $20,000," Kitty said.
"For all six?" Sam asked.
"Uh-huh. But we think they're worth more. Besides, we don't need the money right now, and it's fun to wear them," Suzie said.
"So this guy knew Joseph?" Wallace asked.
"Yeah. He said he bought all his loose diamonds from Joseph. So are you guys in the diamond business with Joseph?" Kitty asked.
"Oh, we dabble in it with him occasionally," Sam said.
By this time, they had finished the main course of grilled dorado and the girls had declined dessert and after dinner drinks. They opted instead to cavort in the hot tub, putting on a display for the men while they finished their meal. Sam and Wallace, sipping brandy and puffing on Cuban cigars, were too distracted by the news to pay much attention to the antics of the sisters.
"That little shit's been stealing from us all along," Sam grumbled.
"Looks that way," Wallace agreed. "A few stones out of a shi
pment, and we just wrote it off to market fluctuation, I guess."
"No. I think he was craftier than that. I had the carat weight and the quantity on every shipment, remember. And Joseph knew that." Sam studied the ash on his cigar. "My bet is this jeweler was in it with him. They probably substituted some inferior stones; that way, they kept the weight and quantity the same so we didn't notice. You're right about writing off the price variance to market fluctuation, but we would've noticed if they were short of diamonds in St. Martin."
"Yep. You're right. So what next? We done with these bimbos?"
"Yes. I am. Looks inviting, but no telling who's been there before. You feel like living dangerously, then just help yourself, Wallace."
"Not me. I'm a one-woman man; that's how I've stayed married for 30 years." Wallace caught the steward's eye and waved him over. "Ask Pietro to join us, please, Jackson," he said softly. Turning back to Sam, he said, "You'll no doubt want to invite the jeweler out for a cruise this evening. I think I'll just stay aboard until you come back with him."
Sam nodded, studying his cigar. "Fine with me. I'll take the RIB back in once my lunch settles. I'll pick him up and bring him out after dark. He must be a scammer, just like Joseph. Can't believe he only offered them $20,000 for those six stones."
"Yeah. They're worth a half a million easy, even on the black market," Wallace mused.
A minute or two later, a tall, slender man in white linen slacks and a flowered silk shirt came to the table. He was movie-star-handsome, and not in the least deferential to the two men at the table. He cast no more than a passing glance at the two girls, who were sprawled seductively on cushions beside the hot tub, rubbing oil over their glistening, tanned bodies, now completely naked. "Yes, Mister Rolle? Jackson said you wanted me."
"Get rid of the girls," Wallace said softly.
Pietro turned to give them a careful inspection this time, smirking as his eyes took in all the toned flesh on display. "My pleasure. They're exquisite. Too bad my taste doesn't run to women," he said softly. "Still, the Arab in Caracas will…"
Bluewater Ice: The Fourth Novel in the Caribbean Mystery and Adventure Series (Bluewater Thrillers Book 4) Page 3