Hidden Agemda (Kate Diamond Adventure) (15 page)

The plane landed smoothly and Kate congratulated herself on having the foresight to stuff as much as she could into her purse and carry-on bag so she didn’t have to wait for them to unload the baggage from the plane. She was out the door and hailing a cab to the nearest hotel before the first piece of luggage hit the carousel.

Gideon had gotten a lead that Benedetti had taken a cab from the airport to a marina so Kate checked into her room then changed into tan capris, a white tank top and white flat sandals. It felt good to be wearing summer clothes even if her summer tan had faded and her arms and legs where winter-white.
 

The marina was in St. George’s harbor—too far to walk, but Kate had noticed a Scooter rental next to the hotel, so she picked out an environmentally friendly electric scooter and headed toward the marina, remembering to save the receipt for the expense report Mercedes would eventually demand from her.

Kate drank in the warm sunshine and salty ocean breeze as she navigated the winding Bermuda roads. The landscape fell away to her right and she could see the aqua-colored waters of St. George harbor, dotted with boats. The faint cry of gulls filled her ears as she sped past coral colored buildings, her heart racing with the awkwardness of driving on the left hand side of the road as she pushed the scooter as fast as it could go.

The marina was small with three long docks, each containing about fifteen boat slips. Kate parked her scooter and walked into the office.

A stocky man with a beard sat behind the counter. Kate gauged him to be about fifty years old with a bit of a beer belly and a red nose to match. He looked up from the papers on his desk and raised a bushy eyebrow at her.

Kate smiled her most flirtatious smile. “Hi. I’m looking for a friend of mine. He has his boat docked here.”

“Name?”

“Benedetti.”

The man turned to the keyboard on his right and tapped on the keys. His eyes narrowing at the screen. “Nope. No one here by that name.”

Kate pulled a fifty-dollar bill and the picture of Benedetti out of her pocket. She slid them across the counter to him with the fifty on top.

“He might have been using a different name … he’s going through a messy divorce.” She tapped on the picture. “Do you recognize him?”

The man pocketed the fifty, and then squinted at the picture. “Yeah, that looks like Mr. James.” He tapped on the keyboard again. “His boat is in slip nine. Middle row.”

“Thanks,” Kate said, taking the picture back and putting it in her pocket.

The man nodded as Kate turned and made her way to the door. Outside, she glanced toward the docks. This wasn’t the spiffiest marina in Bermuda and the boats were smaller in size. Sailboats and motor boats. A few very small run-down yachts. She made her way to the middle dock and started walking down it, her heart sinking as she got closer to slip number nine.
 

It was empty.

Kate stood at the empty slip and stared into the harbor. Where did he go? Did he have the ruby or was it already hidden or sold? She stepped down onto the part of the dock that would lead to the side of the boat, if there had been a boat there. A rope was piled up next to a post and she bent down to inspect it. She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for. Any type of clue as to where Benedetti was taking the ruby, she supposed.

There was nothing on the dock or in the water that looked like a clue. Kate would have to come up with something else.
 

Maybe someone in one of the other boats knew where Benedetti was? Kate spun around to survey the boats docked nearby. They appeared empty except for a small fishing boat across the dock and two slips up. A man sat on the deck, tackle box at his feet, soda can in his hand—and he was staring straight at
her
.

“Ahoy there.” Kate waved at the man and started up the dock toward him.

He lifted his chin at her. “Hi there.”

Kate studied the man as she approached. Dark skin, dark hair and dark eyes—brooding. Not very friendly. She decided to keep her distance so she stopped on the main dock.

“I was looking for Mr. James. He docks his boat there.” Kate turned to point at the empty slip.

“Yep.” The man sipped his soda.

“Do you know where he went?” Kate squinted into the sun that was hanging low in the sky right behind the man. It would be dark soon and she should probably speed up her investigation.

“I couldn’t say.” His eyes drilled into hers. “What’s your business with him?”

“Oh, just an old friend.” Kate saw something she didn’t like in his eyes. She looked down and noticed he was tying a fly onto his rod. Which was strange, because one rarely used flies in deep sea fishing—and never with the type of rod he was tying it onto.
 

She backed down the dock. “Okay, then I’ll be going. Thanks.”
 

The man stood and Kate backed away faster.

“What’s your name?” He called after her. “I’ll tell him you stopped by.”

“Oh thanks. That’s okay,” Kate called over her shoulder. As she hurried down the dock, she cast one last uneasy glance at him and noticed he was staring after her, a cell phone held firmly to his ear.

Kate practically ran back to the scooter, but just as she was about to hop on, she noticed a little open-air bar next to the water. It looked like they served drinks and light meals. That sure would be a convenient place to eat if you had a boat docked here … especially if you were a wanted criminal who didn’t want to traipse around town.

Kate glanced back at the dock and the fisherman had sat back down, his attention on his fishing gear again.

Suddenly she was very thirsty.

***

The smell of fried conch made Kate’s mouth water as she slid onto one of the barstools. The bartender, a dark skinned woman in her mid-thirties, was serving a beer to the man who sat two stools down from Kate. He was the only other person sitting at the bar itself, but half the small square tables that sat under the roof of the open-air bar were full with laughing, boisterous customers.

“What’ll you have?” The bartender asked with a wide smile.

“Lemonade.” Kate didn’t feel confident enough to drive the scooter on anything stronger than that.
 

“Comin’ right up.”
 

Kate watched a waitress bring a big plate of fried food to a table and contemplated ordering some herself. The small pack of pretzels she’d eaten on the plane hadn’t been very filling. She checked her watch. Her parents would be here soon and she should probably wait for them before making any dinner decisions.

The bartender came back with a large glass loaded with ice and lemonade and Kate took a sip.

“I’m Emmie,” The bartender said. “Are you docked here?”
 

Kate glanced back at the dock. “Oh, no. I was just visiting a friend … or at least trying to.”

Emmie gave her a quizzical look and Kate pulled the picture from her pocket. “His boat wasn’t there and, well, we’re kind of worried about him,” Kate said, showing the picture to the bartender. “Have you seen him?”

Emmie’s expression hardened. “Oh, yeah. I’ve seen him.”

Kate raised a brow. “Oh?”

“Yeah, he’s been in the past few nights.” Emmie leaned toward Kate. “Honestly, I have to tell you he’s kind of a loudmouth.”

Kate grimaced. “I know. That’s why we’re worried about where he is.”

Emmie nodded. “Yeah, I can understand that. He was here last night and caused a ruckus.”

“About what?”

“Believe it or not, it was about his shoes.”

“His shoes?”

“Yeah, he had these fancy shoes he was bragging about. But last night, he came in and the shoes were all messed up. Someone commented on it and he had a fit and stormed out of here. He’s real touchy about those shoes, I guess.”

“Do you know where he went?” Kate asked hopefully.

“No, but since you’re his friend and all …” Emmie bent down looking for something under the bar. She stood back up and slapped something on the bar in front of Kate. “Give him these damn shoes. When he had his little fit last night, he threw them across the bar and left them here.”

Kate stared at the shoes. They were the fancy shoes from the photo—the Testoni’s. Soft alligator with a gold buckle. Tiny gems winked in the buckle—diamonds, if her parents were correct.
 

She could see why he would like the shoes; they were beauties, except for one thing. The bottoms and sides were encrusted with bird poop and feathers. Which made Kate wonder, just where had Jimmy Benedetti been with those shoes?

Kate raced back to the hotel with the shoes. She couldn’t wait to call Gideon. He might have a way to track the boat via satellite and, since he was such a bird nut, maybe he’d be able to determine something about the bird poop on the shoes. At the very least, he could get a picture of the sole of the shoe. Maybe he could match that to some footprints that would lead them somewhere. Kate knew she was grasping at straws, but straws were all she had.
 

She returned the scooter and was walking happily along, swinging a shoe in each hand when two shadowy figures came out of nowhere. She felt a viselike grip on each of her elbows. Adrenalin shot through her and she tried to jerk her arms free, but a dark car pulled to the curb and the men shoved her inside.

“Hey, just what do you think you are doing?” Kate’s heart thumped against her ribs as she glared at the men who had slid into the backseat on either side of her while the car sped off down the road.

One of the men held out a badge. “Police, Ma’am. We need to ask you some questions.”
 

“Questions?” Kate narrowed her eyes. “About what? I didn’t do anything wrong.”

One of the men raised a thick dark eyebrow at her. “Oh, no? How about messing with a federal investigation?”

“Federal investigation?” Kate stiffened her spine. “I’m an insurance investigator here on official business myself,” she said thinking she really had to get an official badge that she could flash during times like these.

The two men exchanged a glance.
 

“Insurance investigator?” The man on her right said.

“That’s right,” Kate replied turning to her right to look at him.

“From where?” The man on her left said.

Kate swiveled her head in his direction. “The
Ritzholdt Museum.”

“And just what are you investigating?”
 

Kate swiveled her head back to the man on the right. “The theft of the Millennia Ruby,” she said, refraining from adding ‘so there’.

“So why were you nosing around at the marina?” This from the man on the left.

“Nosing around? I was investigating a
lead
.” Kate swiveled her head toward him again. “We have reason to believe the person that stole the ruby has a boat there.”

Kate noticed with satisfaction that this caused both men to look confused, but they didn’t have a chance to grill her further because just then the car screeched to a halt in front of the police station. Or at least she hoped the nondescript building in the middle of nowhere was a police station.

The men opened the doors and yanked her out, which was fine with Kate because her neck was starting to hurt from looking back and forth between them. They ushered her into the building, then down a long hallway where they shoved her into a chair in front of a woman who took her purse, watch, sandals and Benedetti’s shoes.
 

The woman put the items in a box, recording each piece on paper. She seemed bored by the whole thing, although she did lift a brow and look at Kate strangely when she got to the bird poop encrusted Testonis.

When she was done, the bushy-browed man from the car brought her to a room down the hall.

“Someone will be in to talk to you shortly,” he informed her before closing—and loudly locking—the door.

***

For the second time in so many days, Kate found herself on the wrong side of the interrogation table.

She sat down in the folding chair, tapping her fingers impatiently on the cold metal tabletop. After a while, she looked at her watch, but of course, only found her bare arm. They’d taken her watch, her purse and the Testoni shoes. She hoped they weren’t going to keep the shoes because she had a feeling they held an important clue.

After what seemed like an hour—but was probably only ten minutes—the lock finally clicked again and the door opened.
 

Kate glanced up hopefully. She was sure once she talked to whoever was in charge, they’d let her go. Maybe she’d even be able to get information out of
them
.
 

But the man who came through the door wasn’t some benign officer in charge who would ask a few questions, then apologize and cut her loose. No, it was someone much less agreeable. Someone who made her stomach churn and her pulse race with anger—Ace Mason.

Kate felt her hope deflating as she watched him walk around to her side of the table, a smug smile on his face. She noticed he’d traded his thermal shirt for a navy blue t-shirt, which showed off his muscular biceps and gave just a peak of the bottom of his armband tattoo.

“What are
you
doing here?” Kate demanded.
 

How had he tracked her down?

“I might ask you the same.” Ace cocked an eyebrow at her as he leaned his hip on the table.

“I’m following a lead on the ruby,” she said. “I guess you couldn’t come up with your own leads so you followed me.”

Ace chuckled. “If you want to think that, go ahead. The truth is that I
do
have my own leads.”

“What leads? People spying on me? The guys that pulled me in?”
 

That would explain how they found me so fast
, Kate thought.

“No.” Ace leaned forward. “Actually the guys that pulled you in are investigating Benedetti for something else. They had an undercover guy at the marina and when he saw you asking around, he figured they’d better find out who you were.”

Kate’s mind flashed to the guy with the fly fishing setup on the boat. Of course, that explains why he would be using the wrong rig … and his quick phone call.