Christen laughed. “You think he’ll care?”

“When he gets a call from the executive VP of the company where he gets all his data? Yeah.” Kerry smiled. “He’ll care,” she assured the now not-smiling Christen. “And if he doesn’t listen to me, he’ll listen to Dar.” She watched Christen’s face. “Tch… didn’t do your homework, did you?”

“Your inquiry came back totally negative.”

“Not surprising.” Kerry smiled. “Try it with a last name of Stuart.” She started to close the door. “You, on the other hand, provided us with a lot of information. You and your little partner really should work a little harder, you know? That last job of yours was a real disaster.”

Christen had turned brick red.

“So don’t you mess with me, lady,” Kerry warned her seriously. “You’re an amateur. It offends me that you actually get paid to be an amateur. My Labrador Retriever would do better as a detective, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re just a flashy poser.

Scoot.”

She slammed the door with a sense of guilty satisfaction.

“Jerk.” She turned and started to walk away, then stopped as a 224 Melissa Good knock came at the door again. With a growl, she whirled and yanked open the door, a further stream of invective ready and waiting. Which she swallowed when she found herself facing a doe-eyed, uniformed, room service waitress. “Oh.” She stepped back.

“Hi. C’mon in.”

Christen was nowhere to be seen. Kerry allowed herself a moment of regret for her outburst, wondering belatedly if she shouldn’t have just let the woman in to have her say. Maybe she could have learned something from her.

Ah well. Kerry watched the waitress set the tray down. Too late now. She walked over and took the check, reviewing it and then signing. “Everything looks great. Thanks. ”

The woman smiled shyly. “You are welcome. You are good customers,” she said. “So many bring sandwiches with them, just make a mess.”

Kerry grinned, her good humor restored. “Well, we’ve got sandwiches on the boat, but one of the nice things about visiting other places is getting to sample their culture and foods. You can’t do that with peanut butter.”

The woman nodded agreement, then slipped to the door, backing in surprise when it opened inward to admit Dar. “Oh.”

Dar regarded the woman with a raised eyebrow, then moved aside to let her out. She closed the door after her then walked over to Kerry, setting a colorful, print bag on the chair. “Hi.” Her blue eyes went to the table. “Looks like I’m just in time.”

“Yes, you are,” Kerry agreed, lifting the covers and revealing some intriguing dishes involving eggs, fruit, native spices, and seafood. “You just missed our friend Christen.”

“No, I didn’t.” Dar sniffed appreciatively. “She crashed into me on her way storming out of the building.” She sampled a bit of papaya. “Mm.”

“I think I pissed her off.”

“Good. I made it worse. She fell on her ass,” Dar replied.

“What’d she want?”

Kerry sat down “Unfortunately, I have no idea. I was too busy insulting her to find out.” She gave Dar a mildly regretful look. “In hindsight, maybe that wasn’t such a good idea. She wanted to talk to me, said she could help me out.”

“Out of what?” Dar asked, setting her napkin aside and pouring Kerry some passion fruit juice.

“Well, that’s what I don’t know,” Kerry said. “I told her she was a fraud and sent her packing, actually. I told her if she didn’t leave us alone, we’d call her boss.”

“Ah.” Dar investigated her fluffy shrimp and pepper egg cup.

“Well, I don’t really blame you,” she admitted. “I’m just waiting for it to be nine a.m. over in the States before I put in a call to Wharton.


Terrors of the High Seas 225

Maybe after that, they’ll just disappear.” She opened a crusty brown roll and put some butter on it. “Damn, these people are a pain in my ass.”

Kerry slowly chewed a piece of star fruit. “What do you think he’ll do?” she asked. “Wharton, I mean? From the background information we pulled on him, he seems pretty rough. Is there a chance this is going to backfire on us, Dar?”

“Eh.” Dar put a bit of her eggs on her roll. “I was thinking about that. Maybe I should keep it anonymous instead of telling him who I am.”

“Hm,” Kerry murmured. “Just tell him you’re out here, and you found something? Will that be enough for him to call off DeSalliers and the wonder twins?”

In the light of day, Dar had been wondering the same thing.

Her plan last night had seemed simple and straightforward, but now she was starting to have doubts. “I don’t know,” she answered honestly. “Maybe I’d feel better if I actually had something under my belt before I call him.”

“You want to visit the government offices first?” Kerry asked.

“Maybe we can dig up some stuff there, and you can just fax it or something. Maybe that’ll be enough.”

And then what? “Okay, that sounds good,” Dar agreed. “You know, Ker, I was thinking—what if the old man was nuts?”

“The thought had crossed my mind,” Kerry admitted. “But leaving your fortune to charity doesn’t sound very nutty to me, Dar. If he’d left it to Greenpeace after spending a life trolling a net, maybe, but…I checked out the charities. Fisherman’s Home, local firefighters in Boston…a lot of community stuff,” she said. “So I don’t know—maybe he had reason to cut the kids out.”

Dar selected a strawberry, took a bite, and then offered the rest to Kerry. “Money sometimes ruins a family,” she observed. “It changes everything, doesn’t it?”

Kerry didn’t answer immediately. “I guess it does,” she said.

“In my family, it was kind of taken for granted.” She sounded a little surprised. “No one really thought about the money part of it.

It was the power that attracted the attention.” A faint chuckle emerged from her throat. “You know something? They’re executing my father’s will this week, and I never even thought twice about being cut out of it.”

“What would you do if you weren’t?” Dar asked curiously. “I mean, if you found out you were getting something?”

“Donate it to charity,” Kerry answered instantly. “I don’t…want anything from him, from them.” She studied her fork.

“I have everything I’ve ever wanted or needed in you.”

Dar reached over and clasped Kerry’s hand. “Ker, you know I feel the same way. But don’t be shocked if you end up with 226 Melissa Good something in that will after all.” She spoke softly. “But it might not be money.”

Kerry was briefly silent, then she lifted her eyes and met Dar’s.

“Do you know something, or are you just guessing?” she asked quietly.

Dar shook her head. “Just guessing.”

“Or is it because you have the father you do, that you cut mine some slack?” Kerry rested her chin on her hand. “People are bastards, Dar. Fatherhood doesn’t grant them nobility if they didn’t already have it in them.”

“True,” Dar said. “But most people aren’t either totally good or totally bad. You never know.” She eased off the subject, seeing Kerry’s discomfort with it. “At any rate, I think a visit to town is probably a good idea. I’ll hold off contacting Wharton until we’ve got more data available to us.”

Kerry wasn’t quite ready to abandon the conversation, though.

“Do you really think my father had redeeming qualities?” she asked Dar seriously.

“I think he was your father, and that’s enough of a redeeming quality for me,” Dar replied.

Kerry sighed. “I used to think that,” she said. “Maybe part of me still wants to believe it. But…if I believe that, then it makes it all the more difficult for me to accept what I did.”

“Mm.” Dar chafed Kerry’s fingers with her own.

“So it’s easier for me to believe otherwise,” Kerry went on. “I’d rather hate him than hate myself.” She sighed heavily. “So, frankly, I hope I get a sack of coal if I get anything, Dar.”

Ah. “I gotcha.” Dar squeezed her hand.

“Maybe after some time’s passed, I’ll feel differently. But right now, I can’t deal with it.”

“Okay.”

Kerry looked at her. “That’s pretty chickenshit, isn’t it?”

“No.”

“Yes, it is,” Kerry said with a wry chuckle. “But you know, that’s the first time I’ve been able to talk about that since he died, so maybe it’s okay to be a chickenshit for a while.” And it was, she realized. It was as though she’d taken a step back and gained at least a tiny measure of perspective. Was it part of some healing process? Maybe. Kerry felt obscurely better all of a sudden, and she picked up her fork and went after the remainder of her breakfast.

“I’ve got to go to the bank and get that cash out,” Dar suddenly remembered. “Damn, I forgot about that.” She took a mouthful of eggs and chewed them. “Get that done before we go hunting for information.”

“I can’t believe you got Bud and Charlie to agree to let you do that.” Kerry smiled. “I’m glad you did, though.”


Terrors of the High Seas 227

“Well, it’s going to be a loan. They won’t let me get away with giving it to them as a gift,” Dar said. “But the terms’ll be a hell of a lot better than they had.” She shook her head. “Want to come with me?”

“You bet your butt I do.” Kerry finished her fruit juice and stood up. “Be right back.”

Dar watched her duck into the bathroom, then concentrated on clearing her plate as the sound of running water filtered through to her. The decision to do some data mining before confronting their putative adversary was, she thought, a good one. They might find some facts. Dar liked facts. She put them in her pocket and used them like darts, flipping them out and nailing people with them when they least expected it. Facts were good.