Swimming With the Dead (26 page)

Lorna Simms was sitting in the cockpit, dressed in that god-awful lime-green running suit.  She held a gun—a .38.  It was pointed at my face.  We were tied to the mooring at the
Chikuzen
,
and Maynard and Acuff were preparing to dive.  The diagram of the ship was spread out on a bench.

“Folks used to call me Lorraine Stepanopolis.  Simms seems a little less ethnic, don’t ya think?  Junior here’s my boy.”

Ralph shot her a look but didn’t say anything.  I could see that he was afraid of her.  It looked like Lorna had not been enjoying quickies down at the marina after all.  Too bad.  It would have taken the edge off the mean streak.  Instead she’d probably been spending her time away from the office plotting with Maynard to recover the jewels.

“So, Junior, is it?” I taunted.  “Should have known you didn’t have the balls to carry something like this off yourself.”

He kicked me hard in the ribs.  I doubled over, writhing in pain and trying to protect myself as he prepared to again insert his shoe into my belly.  Lorna interceded.

“Just get in the water and bring up those jewels.  I’ll take care of Ms. Sampson.”

Maynard took a final look at the diagram.  He had drawn a route on it in red; from the opening in the refrigeration hold it wound through the interior, to a place circled in the galley.  Then he and Acuff got in the water and headed down the mooring line to the wreck. 

Lorna pulled me up to the seat.  I could see that she wanted to talk.  I tried to listen to her in spite of all the static emanating from my bruised body.

“He’s a lot like his father,” Lorna said.  “Needs lots of direction.  Can’t get anything accomplished without me.”

“How did Michael end up in the middle of this?” I asked, hoping to forestall the inevitable.  She was still pointing the gun at me.

“Duvall called the police department same as you.  Chief wasn’t in yet.  I took the call.  He told me everything.  What he’d found out in Saint Martin about Junior and the jewel theft.  Said he had the diagram.  I couldn’t believe he’d found it.  He wanted the chief to meet him out there.  I told him I’d get in touch with Dunn right away.  Course, I didn’t.  Junior was up at Jost Van Dyke, so I sent Acuff,” she said.  “I got your message this morning, too.  It’s been real handy being Dunn’s little gal Friday.

“Got so he depends on me for everything.  I know everything that’s going on.  It was convenient having Acuff on the recovery team and me in the office writing up the reports for the file.  I made sure Carr’s suspicions never went anywhere.  Course, Acuff knew exactly where to find the body and that there was nothing for Carr to find.”

“Were you involved in the jewel robbery with Demitri?”

“Involved?” she said.  “Hell, I was the brains.  Helped him plan the robbery and made sure he hid those jewels where no one would ever find them.  That diagram mapped out every nook and cranny on the ship, and Demitri had labeled every item stored there.  It was easy to mark the place he hid those jewels without anyone noticing.  You’d have to know the jewels were there and what to look for.  Damned if Duvall didn’t figure it out.” Lorna pointed at the place that Maynard had circled.  “Looks like just one more notation, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah.”  It was a tiny outline of a diamond ring, for chrissake.  Cute.  Michael would have realized what it was only after learning about the jewel robbery at the Wilsons’ and then studying the diagram carefully.  Just like a good scientist.

“Why didn’t you get the diagram?” I asked.

Lorna was dying to tell me how hard things had been.  It was easy to keep her talking.  I kept scanning the horizon, hoping someone would show up.  No one.  It was one empty ocean.

“I thought that Demitri had the diagram on him when he was killed.  When the cops never found it, I was sure it had ended up in the water.  I still don’t know when he hid it in the file at the port authority.  Damned Demitri.  He never told me he’d be putting it there.  You’d think he didn’t trust me or something.”

“Yeah, you’d think.”  Obviously, Demitri was well acquainted with his wife’s ruthless tendencies.

“No one ever gave that file a second look after the ship was hauled out of port until Michael Duvall,” she said.

“How did you expect to find the jewels without the diagram?”

“After Demitri was killed, I figured I’d wait for things to cool down.  Then I’d search that ship every night until I found them.  He’d told me he would find a place in the galley or crew’s quarters somewhere.  But I never had the chance to even step foot on the ship.  That hurricane headed toward us and they towed the ship out before I even knew what was happening.  Just my luck.  Not a damn thing I could do.”

“Until now?”

“That’s right.  When I heard where she’d sunk, I moved up here.  Got the job with the chief when his secretary came down real sick all of a sudden,” she said, smirking.

I didn’t give her the satisfaction of asking for details.

“I tried to find the jewels before Ralph got here,” she said.  “Brought in a fellow who could dive.  Had to kill him when he decided he could find them and keep them all for himself.  Funny how folks underestimate a woman like me.  Would never think I could get the best of him or put a bullet through him.  Guy actually laughed in my face.  Well, I shot him in the leg first so’s he could see it coming.  Then I walked right up to him and put that gun between his eyes and watched that smirk turn to pure terror before I pulled the trigger.  Demitri always said to keep it in the family.  Well, after that I decided he was right.

“If those batteries hadn’t started leaking, Duvall wouldn’t have gotten on to us.  Demitri put anything on that ship that he damned well pleased.  Always trying to make a buck, taking old batteries, huge cans of hazardous waste.  Anything anyone wanted off their hands, he’d store on the ship for a price.  Just about ruined everything.  Duvall was always out at the wreck, testing, trying to figure out why those fish died.  Started to get suspicious about Junior and Acuff diving out there all the time.  Then he goes to Saint Martin and talks to Rose.  Damn Rose.  Once she started talking, it was all over.  That photo, though.  Don’t know what he saw in that picture.”

“It was the medal,” I said.  I’d noticed it as Maynard was suiting up to dive.  “Probably not another one like it.  Michael would have seen it every time he and Ralph dove together.”

“Course,” she said.  “Ralph never takes that thing off.  Says it’s his good-luck charm.  Only thing left of his daddy’s.  Guess it’s not so lucky after all.  But that Duvall boy did find the diagram for us.  Without it, we’d probably never find those jewels.  Junior and Acuff have been combing that damned ship, but it’s huge and turned all topsy-turvy now.”

“Why didn’t Acuff wait for Michael to find the jewels before he killed him?”

“Acuff’s not real creative.  I’d told him Duvall would be out at the
Chikuzen
waiting for Dunn.  He was supposed to go out there, kill Duvall, and get the diagram.  But when he got there, Duvall wasn’t on his boat.  He was in the water diving the wreck.  Acuff panicked and went in after him.  When Duvall spotted him, Acuff killed him.  Unfortunately, Duvall had not yet found the jewels.”

“And then Acuff couldn’t find the diagram.”

“That’s right.  When Acuff didn’t find it on Duvall’s boat, we were sure it had been shipped back to the States in Duvall’s effects.  I couldn’t believe it.  First the ship ends up here; then the diagram ends up in the States.”

“You arranged the break-in at Duvall’s father’s office?”

“I went myself.  Only way to get it done right.  Told Dunn my sister was real sick, had to go up to Denver to see her.  Damn secretary nearly scared me to death coming out of that file room.  Thought everyone was gone for the weekend.  She saw me, thought I was some old bag lady wandered into the wrong office.”

Of course, Lorna was the homeless woman who had been sitting outside George Duvall’s office.  Not panhandling but waiting for the boxes to be delivered.  So much for sick sisters.

“I tore those boxes apart and grabbed a couple of the files to check more carefully later.  The diagram wasn’t there.  I froze my ass off in front of that office for nothin’,” she said, dismayed by her continued bad luck.  “Then you came down here and found it for us.  Probably woulda been hidden in that cushion for years.  We really appreciated your help.  About time things turned my way after going so wrong for so long.”

I could tell Lorna was winding down.  She was done talking, and damned if I could come up with another inane question.  I should have asked her how she’d poisoned the secretary.

“You know I hate to kill you, Hannah.  I kind of like you.  Remind me of myself when I was young.  You don’t take any grief from anybody.  Thing is, you’re real persistent.  And Acuff—too stupid to run you down, or drown you, or even get Reardon to kill you.  I knew you were trouble the minute you walked into Dunn’s office.” 

God knows how I was going to get out of this.  I was on a boat in the middle of the ocean with a woman who had just admitted to killing two people pointing a .38 at my chest.  Had Robert thought anything about my failure to return?  I clung to the hope that he had notified Dunn.  But there was still no sign of any boats. 

Just then, Ralph surfaced.  Acuff didn’t follow.

“Did you get them?” Lorna asked.

“Yeah!” he said, lifting the bag up to her and climbing into the boat.

“Finally!  Guess it was worth the wait,” she said, never once taking the gun or her eyes off of me as she dumped the contents of the bag on the deck.  A fortune in diamonds and emeralds lay glistening in the sun.

“Now, that there is a beautiful sight,” she said. “You took care of Acuff?”

“Sure did.  He never saw it coming.  Got him as we came up the mooring line.  Left him dead and bloody on the bottom.  Sharks and fish will take care of him,” he said, removing his gear.  “Why haven’t you taken care of her?”

“Just a bit of fun and company till you got back,” she said. “Guess that’s about it, though, Hannah.  Want to take it in the face or in the back of the head?”

“Very considerate,” I said.  I was running out of options.

“Least I can do,” she said. “You finding that diagram for us and all.”

I raised my hands, moved to the side of the boat, and turned slowly to take one last look at the sun-drenched sea.

Chapter 26

I had one choice.  I jumped.  Bullets streaked by me as I dove beneath the surface.  Lorna was reloading when I came up behind the mooring ball.  I was a sitting duck.

“Ain’t got nowhere to go, Hannah.  I’m sorry I’ve got to shoot you,” she yelled, taking aim.

A bullet plunged into the mooring ball, a sickening thud into hard foam just inches from my skull.  Maynard was maneuvering the boat around for a better shot.  I kept the mooring ball in front of me as he swung the boat around, grasping the line that held it to the bottom and treading water.  Another thud and a chunk of hard Styrofoam stung my cheek.  I tasted blood.  A couple more well-placed bullets and the ball would be reduced to shreds.  Lorna was right; I had no place to go.  I was alone in the middle of the ocean, not another boat in sight, and in a few minutes my only protection would be floating in pieces around me.  I took in as much air as my lungs could hold and dived.

Acuff’s body had to be right below me, at the bottom of the mooring line.  How far down?  At least fifty feet, more like sixty or seventy.  My only chance was to get to his air tanks.  I was pretty sure I could make fifty, but seventy?  I would have to be good.

I grabbed the mooring rope and pulled myself down hard, hand over hand, eyes closed against the sting of salty brine, clearing my ears quickly between pulls.  I developed a rhythm—pull, pull, clear; pull, pull, clear.  I tried not to think, not to panic.  Something big brushed against me.  Shark?  Barracuda?  Had Harry’s blood already drawn a host of predators?  I kept my eyes closed and kept going, down, down.  I’d done plenty of dives in dark, murky water.  I could do this.  God knows it was all I could do, my only chance to survive.  Definitely a long shot.

I was beginning to lose my sense of time and space.  I had no idea how deep I was or how far it was to the bottom.  My lungs were bursting, and the deeper I got the more my body craved oxygen.  It took every ounce of will to keep pulling on the line.

Suddenly I hit bottom.  I opened my eyes.  No body.  Where was he?  I was beginning to feel panic take over.  I shut my eyes against the stinging salt, and forced myself to take control.  I felt around me and touched something soft.  Acuff.  Lying right behind me.

I ran my hands across his body, locating the air hose.  I followed it up to his head and ripped the regulator out of his mouth, jammed it into my mouth, and sucked in.  The remnants of panic subsided as the relief of that breath filled my lungs.  I would live a little while longer.

I sat on the sandy bottom breathing, trying to regain my equilibrium.  Then I slipped off Acuff’s face mask, snugged it on my face, tipped my head back, and blew air into the mask to clear the water out of it.  Next I retrieved his vest and tank and snapped it around my body.

Acuff had several gaping wounds in his chest, and the water around him was tinged pink.  Three or four sharks were darting around the periphery.  I pulled on his fins, grabbed the knife he had strapped to his ankle, and got out of there.  When I looked back the sharks were tearing him apart.  A couple of them were fighting over the torso.  Another was swimming away with an arm hanging from his mouth.  I felt my throat constrict and I stifled a sob.  Acuff had been a nasty human being, but he had been human.  Now, he was reduced to a meal.  I pulled my mind away from the horror.  I had to figure out what to do next.

I could see Maynard’s boat circling above, waiting for me to surface.  By now they would have seen my bubbles and realized I’d gotten to Acuff.  They weren’t about to let me go.  They knew I could survive in these warm Caribbean waters for hours, and that a fisherman or recreational craft would come by eventually.  And they knew I would track them down.