by Tom Savage
Chapter 44
When they landed on the beach in front of the guesthouse, Ellie Singer was waiting to drive them to the hospital. But first, Nora delivered Eb to the door of the purple cottage. It was six o’clock in the morning, barely light outside, and Violet was understandably surprised—she’d thought Eb was asleep in his bed all night. His grandfather was less surprised; in fact, he smiled when he heard the news. Nora asked them not to punish Eb until they’d heard the whole story, which included Eb’s saving several lives and helping to stop an international terrorism ring. Violet stared, and Saul smiled some more.
At the hospital, Ralph’s forehead was stitched up and his gunshot wound cleaned and closed. He was wheeled into a nice double room, where Ken Nelson joined him later that afternoon. Mr. Nelson’s leg was set, but his internal damage from the gunshot would take some time and involve at least two operations. Ellie camped out on a chair in the room, playing nurse to both men.
Nora was given a painkiller and an ice pack for her swollen jaw. Then she went back to the guesthouse, where Chloe had breakfast ready. She told her hosts nothing, but they all followed the news from Îlet Naufrage. It wasn’t long in coming: Nora could see a lot of the action from the beach. Helicopters and boats arrived on the little island from all directions over the next hours, and the television news provided a lot of the story, even before Jeff arrived at the guesthouse.
Jeff got there in time for lunch, and Violet set to work feeding everyone. By then, the local news was announcing that seventeen men—mostly Middle Eastern or South Asian, but also two British nationals and three Norwegians—had been found in a makeshift military base concealed by an immense tarpaulin, on a private islet near Martinique. Having no working weapons at their disposal, the men had surrendered quietly, and only one of them was reported injured—a Syrian national who had mysteriously lost an eye.
The seventeen men were being held by French authorities until their identities and their business on the island could be ascertained. The camp would be dismantled by Martinican authorities, and the search was on for the owner of Îlet Naufrage—Carmen Lamont, recent widow of Claude Lamont, who had been the owner until his death two days before. The police sought the identity of a man whose body was found on the rocks near the compound. A boat explosion there was also being investigated, particularly since police found the partial remains of at least two people in the wreckage, a man and a woman.
Two prisoners had been found and rescued on the island, an American private investigator who lived in Martinique and a young woman who claimed to be a Spanish citizen, although she had no identifying papers on her. The prisoners were receiving medical attention in Martinique, and the young woman was being detained by American authorities on undisclosed charges. More details would follow as they became available.
When the announcer had finished and Chloe had translated it all from French to English for them, Jeff grinned at his wife, sitting beside him on the paisley couch in the yellow lobby.
“Gee, Pal,” he said, “you’re a regular G.I. Jane!”
Nora shook her head. “Mrs. John Doe will do, thank you very much.”
Eb’s cousin Lester made a surprise appearance later that afternoon. The seven-foot giant with the impressive cornrows vanished into the purple cottage, where he intended to stay for a while. He was going to teach his young cousin the finer points of soccer and basketball at the local school playground. In fact, he’d coach all the local kids—but Eb would be the team captain. Nora heard all this, not surprised that Lester’s arrival had been prompted by a call from the hospital, from his favorite customer at the parking garage and her new friend from New York.
The British couple, Brian and Melanie Dunstan—or whatever their real names were—returned to London and were soon back at work in MI6. Nora never met them, for which she was secretly grateful. They’d devoted a year of their lives to bringing the Lamonts and Diablo to justice, and they had failed miserably. They’d been chasing the wrong suspect, and they were constantly in the wrong places at the wrong times. When Nora thought of Melanie’s sacrifices, snuggling up to that awful man, she knew that she wouldn’t know what to say to her. But she admired the woman for being so dedicated to her country.
Nora’s involvement in the events that Ham Green would later call Operation Diablo was never disclosed to the press or anyone else. As usual, she and Jeff were never officially there at all, and that was fine with them. Ham would later chastise Ralph Johnson for going AWOL and joining the party, but his heart wasn’t in it. Nora knew he was secretly proud of the young man, as Jeff was. Ralph stayed in Martinique with Ellie Singer for a week before returning to New York, and Hamilton Green himself met him at the airport and drove him home.
Nora and Jeff weren’t there to join them in the reunion. They spent one more night at Dirk and Chloe’s guesthouse before grabbing an island-hopper to Trinidad, where they rejoined the cruise aboard the Tropic Star. They sailed to Rio and spent an extra week there. They learned how to rumba, and Nora showed Jeff an interesting variation on the dance that she’d witnessed in Îlet Naufrage. Jeff decided that dancing wasn’t such a bad thing after all.
When they returned to New York, Nora was called into Ham Green’s office for a Skype session with several very impressive personages. She told her story as clearly and succinctly as she could, and they congratulated her. Then she went home to Long Island and began preparing acting lessons for the fall semester at the university.
In all the uproar about the secret island compound, one name was never mentioned by anyone. The speedboat was found abandoned on a remote beach in Dominica, but its occupant had vanished from the earth. Nora remembered the hubbub that morning on the island: Carmen Lamont rushing down to the guard station to alert the two assistants, and all three running off to pack their bags and get to the one remaining boat in the bay. Carmen had just discovered that her lover, the fearless leader of their exalted cause, had left her and the assistants and Carmen Mendoza and everyone else high and dry. When trouble arrived—first Ken Nelson of the CIA, then Nora Baron of the CIA—he’d got out of Dodge. The pimp of pimps was also a coward.
And his name was Diego Ventura. The American secretary of state loudly announced that fact—with photos of Diego Ventura from childhood to manhood in Colombia—to the international press three days after the incidents on the island. His handsome, scowling face stared out from every front page and home page on earth for weeks, and soon that face was as familiar to everyone as a favorite movie star. When asked how the intel had been obtained, the secretary of state smiled and mentioned “a lady, a particular asset of the United States.”
The secretary never named Nora, of course, but it wasn’t necessary. Diablo—Diego Ventura—knew very well who had exposed his identity. He was out there somewhere, changing his face and changing his plans. When Carmen Mendoza finally gave up the location of the secret offshore account, it had already been cleaned out and canceled; the hundred million was gone for good. Nobody in the Company was in any doubt as to what he planned to do with it. He would already be setting up more invisible training camps in other parts of the world, finding greedy men and gullible women to help him.
And he would be looking for Nora Baron.
Nora knew that, and it didn’t bother her at all. She’d made a silent promise to a young woman named Mary Ross. She was looking forward to her next meeting with the Devil.
For Robin Rue
Acknowledgments
In this adventure, Nora Baron visits my neck of the woods. I grew up in St. Thomas, USVI, so this part of the world is familiar to me. I’ve taken liberties with certain geographical aspects of Guadeloupe and Martinique, placing imaginary hotels, guesthouses, restaurants, shops, and even a CIA field station in actual locations. My biggest creations are the Tropic Star and Îlet Naufrage, the fictitious cay off the eastern coast of Martinique.
My editor, June
ssa Viloria, continues to guide and inspire me, for which I am grateful. I’m grateful for everyone at Penguin Random House/Alibi, especially Tom Cherwin for his brilliant copyediting and Caroline Johnson for her beautiful cover art.
As always, I wish to thank Beth Tindall for my website, Betsy Harding and S. J. Rozan for our writing group, my family and friends, and everyone at Writers House, particularly Beth Miller and Dan Berkowitz.
I’ve dedicated this one to my agent, Robin Rue, because she has made all this possible, including Nora Baron. Nora and I are eternally indebted to her. Thank you, Robin!
BY TOM SAVAGE
The Nora Baron Series
Mrs. John Doe
The Woman Who Knew Too Much
The Spy Who Never Was
The Devil and the Deep Blue Spy
The Joe Wilder Mysteries
Dance of the Mongoose
Woman in the Dark
Other Novels
A Penny for the Hangman
Arden Court
Scavenger
The Inheritance
Valentine
Precipice
Collected Stories
Jumbie Tea and Other Things: 8 Tales of Mystery and Suspense
About the Author
TOM SAVAGE is the USA Today bestselling author of A Penny for the Hangman, the Nora Baron series, and many other novels and short stories. His books have been published in fifteen countries, and his novel Valentine was made into a Warner Bros. film. Raised in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands, he now lives in New York City, where he worked for many years at Murder Ink®, the world’s first mystery bookstore.
tomsavagebooks.com
Facebook.com/Tom-Savage
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