Fatal Tide

  “I’m fine. And I have to show them I don’t need to stay here.” Her hands tightened on the arms of the chair. “They want me to wait and talk to the police.”

  “Yeah, I’ve already given them my statement. They won’t hassle you, Melis.”

  “They’re already hassling me. The police can’t get here till later this afternoon and I won’t wait. But the hospital is tying me up with such a string of red tape I can’t make a move. I think it’s just an excuse. They say I shouldn’t leave until tomorrow anyway.”

  “The doctors probably know best.”

  “The hell they do. I have to go back to where the ship sank. I have to find Phil.”

  “Melis . . .” Gary hesitated before he said gently, “I was out there with the coast guard. You’re not going to find Phil. We’ve lost him.”

  “I don’t want to hear that. I have to see for myself.” Her glance shifted to the well-manicured lawns outside the window. “What was Kelby doing here?”

  “Mainly turning the hospital upside down. They wouldn’t even let me into your room, but Kelby had no problem. And before he came here, he was out helping the coast guard with the search. You don’t know him, do you?”

  “I never met him. But Phil told me he was trying to contact him. Do you know why?”

  Gary shook his head. “Maybe Cal knows.”

  Melis doubted it. Whatever business Phil had with Kelby was evidently part of this deadly scenario that had taken his life. And it was a business he hadn’t been willing to share with even his closest friends.

  Dear God, she was thinking of him as dead. She was meekly accepting what they’d told her. She couldn’t do that. “Go find Kelby for me, Gary. Tell him to get me out of here.”

  “What?”

  “You said he could pull strings. Tell him to do it. I don’t think you’ll have any problem. He came here because he wants something from me. Well, he can’t get anything from me while I’m in this hospital. He’ll want me out.”

  “Even if it’s not good for you?”

  She remembered the impression Kelby had given her of rock hardness. “He won’t care. Tell him to get me away from here.”

  “Okay.” Gary grimaced. “But I still don’t think you should do it. Phil wouldn’t have liked it.”

  “You know Phil always let me do exactly what I wanted to do. It was much less bother for him.” She had to steady her voice. “So please don’t argue with me, Gary. I’m having a few emotional problems today.”

  “You’re doing fine. You always do fine.” He hurriedly left the room.

  Poor Gary. He wasn’t used to her not being in control, and it was upsetting him. It was upsetting her too. She didn’t like feeling this helpless.

  No, not helpless. She instantly rejected the word. There was always something she could do, another path to take. She was just sad and angry and filled with despair. Never helpless. It was just that right now she couldn’t see clearly what path was open to her.

  She’d better decide soon. Kelby was hovering on the threshold and she’d been forced to let him draw closer. He would use that slightly open door to gain purchase and solidify his position.

  She leaned back in the chair and tried to relax. She ought to rest and garner all her strength while she had the chance. It would take all her resources to push Kelby out and slam that door again.

  Kelby smiled with amusement as he watched Melis Nemid walk toward the front entrance. A nun was trailing behind her with the wheelchair Melis should have been occupying, and she wasn’t at all pleased.

  He had a fleeting memory of his first impression of how fragile Melis appeared. That provocative aura of delicacy was still present, but it was balanced by the force and vitality of her carriage, the way she moved. He’d known from the moment she’d opened her eyes she’d be a force to reckon with. How had a dreamer like Lontana managed to get hold of her? Or maybe she’d gotten hold of him. That was considerably more likely.

  She stopped in front of him. “I suppose I should thank you for cutting through all that red tape and making them let me go.”

  “This isn’t a prison, Ms. Nemid,” the nurse said tartly. “We only needed to know you were going to be well taken care of. And you should have let me follow procedure and wheel you out.”

  “Thank you, Sister. I’ll watch out for her from here.” Kelby took Melis’s arm and gently pushed her toward the door. “You have an appointment to give your statement to the police later tonight. I’ve taken care of all the medical paperwork and picked up your prescription.”

  “What prescription?”

  “Just some sedatives in case you need them.”

  “I won’t need them.” She pulled her arm away from him. “And you can send me the bill.”

  “Fine. I always believe in keeping everything on an even playing field.” He opened the door of the car parked in front of the hospital. “I’ll have Wilson bill you on the first of the month.”

  “Who’s Wilson? He sounds like a butler.”

  “My assistant. He keeps me solvent.”

  “Not much of a job.”

  “You’d be surprised. Some of my explorations are a big drain on the corporations. Get in.”

  She shook her head. “I’m going to the coast guard station.”

  “It won’t do you any good. They’ve dropped the search.”

  It rocked her. “Already?”

  “A few questions have come up regarding Lontana’s state of mind.” He paused. “It wasn’t an accident. They’ve recovered traces of plastique and a timer among the salvage timbers. Do you think he may have set that charge himself?”

  Her eyes widened. “What?”

  “You have to admit it’s a possibility.”

  “I won’t admit any such thing. It’s not a possibility. Phil was worried when his ship just went dead in the water. He was going below to try to find what had gone wrong.”

  “That’s what Gary told the coast guard, but Lontana didn’t say anything definite enough to rule out the possibility of suicide.”

  “I don’t care. Phil loved every minute of his life. He was like a child. A new adventure was always just around the next corner.”

  “I’m afraid this was his final adventure. No one had much hope of his surviving from the beginning.”

  “There’s always hope.” She started to turn away. “Phil deserves his chance.”

  “No one’s cheating him of his chance. I’m just telling you what— Where are you going?”

  “I have to see for myself. I’ll rent a motorboat at the dock and—”

  “Your friend Gary St. George is already waiting for you on the Trina. He said you were determined to go and search. We can be at the position where the Last Home blew within an hour.”

  She hesitated.

  “What can it hurt?”

  “A foot in the door.”

  He chuckled. “True. But you knew what you were getting into when you told St. George to go and get me to spring you from the hospital. Play the game.”

  “This isn’t a game to me.”

  His smile faded. “No, I can see it isn’t. Sorry. You’re an unknown quantity to me. Maybe I’ve mistaken toughness for callousness.” He shrugged. “Come on, I’ll let this trip be a freebie. No obligations, no payoffs.”

  She studied him for a moment and then turned and got into the car. “I’ll believe it when I see it.”

  “So will I. This is a surprise to me too.”

  They searched the disaster area all afternoon and found only a few scraps of debris. With every passing hour her hope gradually faded.

  He wasn’t there. No matter how determined she was, how hard she looked, he would never be there again. The turquoise sea was so serene and beautiful here, it seemed obscene that it could hold such horror, she thought numbly.

  But it wasn’t the sea that had killed Phil. It might be his burial place, but it was not his killer.

  “Do you want to make another pass?” Kelby asked quietly. “We
could widen our perimeter again.”

  “No.” She didn’t turn to look at him. “It would be a waste of time. He’s not here. Are you going to say I told you so?”

  “No, you had to see for yourself to make it real to you. I can understand that. Are you ready to go back to Athens now?”

  She nodded jerkily.

  “Do you want anything to eat? I had Billy make some sandwiches. He does a pretty miraculous job. Wilson and your friend Gary are in the main cabin practically inhaling them.”

  “Billy?”

  “Billy Sanders, the cook. I stole him from a top restaurant in Prague.”

  Of course a luxury yacht like the Trina would have a cook. She’d read somewhere he’d purchased the yacht from a Saudi oil sheik. It was absolutely huge, and its two state-of-the-art tenders were also very impressive. The Trina herself was sleek, modern, with all the latest scientific equipment and bells and whistles. This ship was light-years different from the Last Home. Just as Kelby was different from Phil. Yet Phil had thought Kelby had something in common with him.

  He’s got the same passion I have and the drive to make it happen.

  Phil had said that about Kelby during the last telephone conversation she’d had with him.

  He was right. She could sense both Kelby’s passion and drive as if they were a living force.

  “Food?” he prompted.

  She shook her head. “I’m not hungry. I think I’ll just sit here for a while.” She sat down on the deck and wrapped her arms tightly around her knees. “It’s not been an easy afternoon for me.”

  “Do tell.” His voice was suddenly harsh. “I’ve been expecting you to break down for the last two hours. For God’s sake, no one is going to think less of you if you do.”

  “I don’t care what anyone else thinks. And my weeping and wailing wouldn’t do Phil any good. Nothing will help him now.”

  He didn’t speak for a moment, and when she glanced at him she found his eyes narrowed on the horizon.

  “What is it? Do you see something?”

  “No.” His gaze shifted back to her. “What are you going to do now? Do you have any plans?”

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do. I can’t seem to think clearly right now. First I have to go home. I have responsibilities. Then I’ll decide what comes next.”

  “Where’s home?”

  “An island in the Lesser Antilles, not far from Tobago. It belonged to Phil, but he deeded it over to me.” Her lips twisted bitterly. “He left me the Last Home too. It would only take the next decade or so to retrieve the parts floating out there.”

  “He must have cared very much for you.”

  “I cared for him too,” she whispered. “I think he knew. I wish I’d told him. Christ, I wish I’d told him.”

  “I’m sure he felt richly compensated.”

  There was an inflection in his tone. “What do you mean?”

  “Nothing.” He looked away from her. “Sometimes words don’t mean much.”

  “And sometimes they do. Phil told me he couldn’t get you to return his calls. What did he say to you to get you to come here?”

  “He sent me a letter with just one word.” His glance shifted back to her face. “I imagine you know what that word was.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Marinth.”

  She gazed at him, silent.

  “I don’t suppose you’d care to tell me what you know about Marinth?”

  “I don’t know anything.” She stared him directly in the eye. “And I don’t want to know anything.”

  “I’d be willing to give you a good deal of money for any information you might be willing to share.”

  She shook her head.

  “If you’re not willing to admit Lontana committed suicide, has it occurred to you there might be another explanation?”

  Of course it had occurred to her, but she’d been pushing the thought away all afternoon. She couldn’t cope with analyzing anything right now. And no matter how Phil had died, she wasn’t aligning herself with Kelby.

  “I don’t know anything,” she repeated.

  He studied her. “I don’t think you’re telling me the truth. I believe you may know a good deal.”

  “Believe what you like. I don’t intend to discuss it.”

  “Then I’ll leave you alone.” He turned away. “See how sensitive I’m being? If you change your mind about the sandwiches, come to the cabin.”

  He was joking, but he had been surprisingly sensitive since they’d boarded the Trina. He’d set to the job at hand with brisk efficiency. He’d let her run the show and taken orders without complaint. He’d made this agonizing search bearable.

  “Kelby.”

  He turned to look at her.

  “Thank you. You were kind to me today.”

  “Hey, everyone gets ambushed occasionally by an attack of sentimentality. It doesn’t happen often with me. I got off easy.”

  “And I’m sorry you came to Athens on a wild-goose chase.”

  “I’m not.” He smiled. “Because I have a hunch it wasn’t a wild-goose chase. I want Marinth. I’m going to have it, Melis.”

  “Good luck.”

  “No, luck’s not enough. I’m going to need help. I was going to get it from Lontana, but now I’m left with you.”

  “Then you have nothing.”

  “Until you get off the ship. I made you a promise that I’d make no demands today. All bets are off once you step onto dry land.”

  She felt a surge of panic as she watched him walk away from her. It was difficult to ignore that absolute confidence in her emotional state.

  Difficult, not impossible. All she needed to do was go home and heal her wounds and she’d be as strong as ever. She’d be able to think and make decisions. Once she reached the island she’d be safe from Kelby and everyone else.

  “She’s giving up.” Archer’s hands tightened on the rail of the cruiser. “Dammit, they’re going back to Athens.”

  “Maybe she’ll come back and search tomorrow,” Pennig said. “It’s getting dark.”

  “Kelby has enough strobe lights on that ship to light up the entire coast. No, she’s giving up. She’ll be running back to that damn island. Do you realize how difficult that’s going to make it for us? I was hoping for just one more day here.” Well, he wasn’t going to get it. Nothing was going as it should. The woman should have been vulnerable. It was what he’d planned. But Kelby had stepped into the picture and formed a protective barricade around Melis Nemid by his very presence. “I need to get to the bitch.”

  “What if she doesn’t go home? Kelby might have paid her enough to have brought her on board with him.”

  “Not if Lontana couldn’t get her to go with him. He told me she wouldn’t have anything to do with it. But she knows, dammit. The bitch knows.”

  “Then Tobago?”

  “Tobago’s a small island and she’s a familiar face there. That’s why I wanted to get her here.” He drew a deep breath and consciously smothered the rage surging through him. He’d been hoping to go the simple route and avoid complications. Patience. It would all come out right if he didn’t make any foolish moves. “No, we’ll just have to find a way to make her leave the island and come to us.”

  And make sure she broke down and gave him what he wanted before he put an end to her.

  Kelby stood at the rail and watched as Gary helped Melis from the tender to the dock. She didn’t look back at either him or the ship as she moved quickly down the dock toward the taxi stand.

  She had dismissed him. The realization brought Kelby a mixture of amusement and irritation.

  No way, Melis. It’s not going to happen.

  “I didn’t think she was going to hold up.” Wilson had joined him at the rail. “Today had to be damn hard for her.”

  “Yes.”

  “Her friend Gary didn’t have any doubts. He said he’d known her from the time she came to live with Lontana when she was a teenager, an
d she was always the toughest little scrapper he’d ever run across. You’d never guess it. She looks like she’d melt in the rain.”

  “No chance of that.” He watched her get into a taxi. Still no look back. “And that air of fragility can be a powerful weapon for a woman.”

  “I don’t think she’d use it. I think she’d hate to admit that she wasn’t strong.” He glanced at Kelby. “Not everyone’s like Trina. So don’t be so damn judgmental, you cynical bastard.”

  “I’m not judging. I couldn’t care less. I just have to take stock of any ammunition she might have.”

  “You didn’t get what you wanted from her?”

  “Not yet.”

  “So what do we do?”

  “I take the next plane to Tobago. And you find out everything you can about Lontana and Melis Nemid.”

  “How far back?”

  “All the way, but concentrate on the last year. He only tried to contact me in the last month, and according to what you found out from St. George he wasn’t acting normally for the past six months.”

  “If the suicide theory is correct, his mental state may not have been—”

  “Discard theories. Get me facts.”

  “How quick do you want the report?” Wilson asked.

  “Fast. Have the preliminary findings waiting for me when I reach Tobago.”

  “Fine. Anything else?”

  “Yes, there was a cruiser out there this afternoon while we were searching. I saw it several times. It never got close enough for me to get a number, but I think the first three letters of the name on the hull were S-I-R.”

  “Great. That’s giving me zilch. And that’s a popular cruise area. Maybe a fisherman? Or someone from the insurance company?”

  “Find out if there were any cruiser rentals.”

  “Even if it was rented, it could have been leased anywhere along the coast. I suppose you want that by the time you get to Tobago too?”

  The taxi was pulling away and Melis was still staring straight ahead.

  “Don’t be sarcastic, Wilson.” Kelby turned and headed for his cabin. “You know you enjoy doing the impossible. It’s great for your ego. That’s the reason you’ve stayed with me all these years.”

  “Is it?” Wilson was already reaching for his phone. “That’s news to me. And here I thought it was because I wanted to gouge enough loot out of you to retire on the Riviera.”