Waves of Murder (10 page)

“Yes, that would be lovely,” she said, “where is good food?”

“I think the best place is the Sandy Lane Hotel.”

“Taxi,” Jon shouted, and a white Mercedes cab stopped, “Sandy Lane Hotel, please driver.” They both looked fantastic, Katti in a silver knee-length dress with a low cut front that showed her cleavage, and above all, the necklace with the emerald. Fabulous, he thought. Jon himself wore a white silk suit with a royal blue silk shirt. The taxi pulled up outside the hotel, walking into the restaurant the maitre’d asked them, after the greetings, if they had a reservation. “No,” said Jon, “we’re off the Caribbean Star cruise.”

“Well, I’m sorry,” he said, feasting his eyes on Katti’s frontage, “we are fully booked.”

Jon passed a $100 bill to him and said, “Surely you can find us a table for two.”

“If you wait five minutes, I will see what I can do, sir,” he said, pocketing the money.

A table was magically found and the couple turned a lot of heads as they were ushered to their table. Sandy Lane was well known to attract film stars, rock stars, and the famously rich. ‘Who are they?’ people were saying as they walked past.

They wined and dined beautifully, the finest food in the region. After settling the huge bill Jon said, “Let’s dance!” when he saw the sign pointing to the night-club. Heads were still turning as they entered the room, the music was naturally West Indian but the band was good, and the female singer beautiful and had a very good voice. They danced until 2am, and then collapsed on to a long sofa, gasping and laughing at the same time. This would be the last time he would be cosying up to Katti, things would now be a lot cooler between them, but he would still be friendly towards Anna, probably in the casino, but at arms length. No drinks in the bar, just occasionally when playing at the roulette wheel. His plan was to follow her back to her suite, and do the deed, somewhere between Cuba and Florida.

At Katti’s door he kissed her and said, “Tonight I must sleep. Until tomorrow then.”

She smiled and said, “Yes, me too, goodnight,” and kissed him.

He didn’t go to the coffee shop the next morning, he ordered a room service breakfast and decided to spend the day sun-bathing on the balcony and thinking, yes, thinking, about Anna’s diamonds, their value and exactly how he could get his hands on them. The next port of call was .......

Martinique

T
he ship docked at 3 o’clock the next day, not any real time to go ashore, so he took a walk through the shopping mall. In the men’s boutique he bought a pair of white slacks and a bright red shirt, silk of course. The sales girl had trouble keeping her eyes off of him, gorgeous! she thought. She was a pretty young Hispanic girl with an olive skin and deep brown, almost black, eyes. “What time do you finish today?” Jon heard himself say. Through her olive skin, he could see her blushing.

“Ship’s personnel are not allowed to date passengers,” she answered sadly.

“Oh well,” Jon said, “that’s a great shame, you’re beautiful.”

She said, “Perhaps we could meet ashore, you know, by accident, that would be no problem,” she almost begged, “I know this island, it’s my home,” she added, “my brother has a bar called ‘Rodrigos’, I finish at 4 o’clock.”

“Good,” Jon said, “shall we say 5 o’clock?”

Jon caught a cab at the quayside, “Rodrigos Bar please,” he said to the driver whose driving skills left a lot to be desired! How many clutches must he go through in a year? he mused. Rodrigos Bar wasn’t exactly 5*, but it was busy, and Jon recognised some cruising faces and made sure to smile or give a little wave to them, good he thought, they’ll see me with another female. Anita was on time, and out of her work uniform. She was indeed beautiful, now her hair hung down to it’s full length, almost blue-black. Her breasts fighting to break free of the gaily coloured fitted blouse she wore. Her long tanned legs well shown from a white mini skirt. Jon stood up from his bar stool and said, “You look fabulous, thank you for coming.”

Her brother appeared from the other end of the bar, “Anita,” they kissed cheeks across the wicker-work bar, and started speaking in Spanish. He looked at Jon and said, in Spanish, “Who is this man?”

Jon caught the gist of what was said, the word ‘hombre’ being the clue. “I’m Jon,” he said, holding out his hand towards Rodrigo, “ how do you do.”

Anita intervened and said, “I’m sorry Jon, this is my brother Rodrigo.” They shook hands and continued speaking, but this time in English. Rodrigo looked at Jon’s clothes and his Rolex watch and said something in Spanish and laughed. Anita smacked his hand playfully.

“What did Rodrigo say?” Jon asked.

“He said you are rich Englishman, he’s very bold, I’m sorry,” she added.

Jon laughed and said, “No, I’m a car salesman, from London.”

“You have a Ferrari?” Rodrigo asked.

Jon laughed, “Just a small Lexus,” he lied, not wanting to mention his Merc SLS.

Rodrigo had never heard of Lexus, and changed the subject. They drank cocktails, “On da house!” Rodrigo announced, they were called ‘sex on the beach’, fruit juice and rum.

Of all the bars in the West Indies, she had to walk into Rodrigo’s, Katti was suddenly there carrying packages from her shopping trip. When she saw Jon with Anita, her face dropped but she rallied well, smiled and waved. Jon beckoned her over and introduced the two girls. The meeting was cool as they looked each other up and down. Jon, inwardly, was enjoying it! “Well, goodbye ladies,” Jon said, “I’ve got to get back to the ship to do an email to London, business, sorry!” He hailed a scruffy cab outside, with a smile on his face.

Back on board he returned to his stateroom and laid on the bed. He had accomplished, with Katti’s help, what he had set out to do, that was to take any suspicion away. But this was just the first of many to make a distance between himself and Katti, until she would be murdered, he would be forgotten by staff and crew as her escort. That night Jon went to the American burger bar, dressed in jeans and T-shirt, a casual evening on his own, he thought. After his burger dinner he decided to go to the large casino. As it was still early it wasn’t busy, of course Anna was there and Jon sat next to her, saying “Hello Anna.”

Her face lit up as she fingered the large pile of chips in front of her. He wondered how old she was, 50 - 55, but in decent shape. A good skin and well groomed greyish blondish hair, in fact she was quite attractive. “Hef you not being with Kattinaya tonight?” she asked.

“No,” said Jon, “we’re having a rest,” he added, and winked. Anna smiled and winked back. He changed $500 into chips and thought he would follow Anna’s bets. They started to attract a small crowd, Jon’s $500 had grown into $5,000, Anna was almost hidden by her pile of chips.

Suddenly a large man in a DJ came over and said, “The management requests that you vacate your places and give other passengers a chance.” He carried with him a large wooden box for Anna’s chips, and they were escorted to the cashier’s window, inwardly Jon was pleased, he’d had enough and Anna was showing signs of fatigue. She had won $22,000, and Jon had won $8,000.

“Shall ve celebrate with champagne and some caviar?” she suggested.

“Why not!” he said. They found a quiet corner in a ‘quiet’ room and ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon, and a dish of Beluga caviar. They chatted about travelling and holidays, and Jon learned that Anna’s family ran a string of casinos in Russia, ‘the new Russian rich’, he thought. He never dreamed that one day he would meet her two brothers.

“You hef argue with Kattinaya?” Anna asked.

“No, no,” said Jon, “she is a lovely girl, but we are just taking a break or we might get tired of each other,” he said, smiling.

“Perhaps you vood like to escort me to dinner and dancing vun night?” she asked, with a wicked glint in her eye. That night came two days later when the ship had docked at Dominica.

Dominica

A
very hot day, about 100f, the sundecks were crowded as were the pool areas. He saw Anna laying on a sunbed, he walked over to her, his shadow caused her to look up from her fashion magazine. She smiled and said, “ Ello lovely man, you good today?”

“Yes,” Jon replied, “and I can see you are very well,” he added.

“Tenk you,” came the answer to the compliment. Jon looked closely at her body, with great interest. Wearing a one-piece bathing costume, she was lovely, not quite Katti but fairly close. Long slender legs, slim waist and a pair of lovely firm-looking boobs. “Vill you sit with Anna ?” she asked.

“Yes, I’d love to,” he replied.

“Tonight ve hef dining?” she asked.

“Of course,” Jon said, “but I should have asked you!” he replied.

“Oh pfff, in Russia voman ask man to date, no western ideas!” she laughed. He pulled a chair close, there were no spare sunbeds. “Tonight, we will dance the night away.”

“It’s a formal night, DJ and party frock,” he spouted.

“Goot,” said Anna, “and then ve hef some love, yes?” Jon then did something he hadn’t done for years, he blushed! “You don’t fancy Anna?” she asked.

“Er, yes, but let’s see how the night goes,” he responded.

“Goot,” she said, “I need a men, and in my country, ven a voman wants a men she, how you say, goes for him, okay?” she said, patting his hand.

Perhaps this will be more entertaining than he first thought, after all she is a damn good looking woman, he was quite looking forward to this evening, the ‘Black and White Ball’.

Not many people ventured into the town, they probably thought the same as Jon ‘seen one hispanic market place and you’ve seen the lot’, the souvenirs, the vendors pushing their wares into your face, he didn’t fancy it. He was concentrating on Anna and her diamonds, but he would stick to his plan and wait to get to get his hands on them. He would wait until their was a greater time at sea, on the way from Cuba to Miami, he mused, the ‘Bermuda Triangle’, people, planes and ships have been known to disappear there!

He didn’t have a white DJ, but he had a white silk suit jacket, with a black silk shirt and black bow tie, he was sure to look good, and he did. He met Anna in the ballroom bar which was very luxurious. She looked amazing, did he think 50 - 55, she looked more like 35, beautiful. He bowed when he stood, as she walked in wearing a long low-cut black dress slashed up to the thigh, with a white zig-zag pattern across it. Fabulous, he thought, and of course, diamonds, lots of them, wow! there must be 200 grands worth there, he assessed.

“You are hensom tonight,” Anna said, “I am lucky voman to be vith yoo,” she added, “ve vill hef a goot time tonight, I think,” she said, looking him up and down. They had dinner in the ‘West Indies’ restaurant and then went to the ‘Jamaica Night Club’. “Ve are now goink to hef fun, yes?” she said to Jon, who was looking at her beautiful cleavage, and oof course, the diamond necklace.

“No gambling tonight?” Jon asked.

“No, I hef plenty of money, perhaps next veek, yes?” she answered.

“Yes,” said Jon, thinking ‘I’ll soon have all that money from you’ and wondering how much she had stashed in her suite, 50k, 60k ? He’d find out in a few days. His eyes lit up when he saw Katti enter the ballroom with a young man who was smart and good looking. Good, he thought, bloody good!

They didn’t dance every dance, but almost, Anna stood up and took Jon’s hand to lift him off of the comfortable settee, “Now ve hef more fun,” and started to lead him out of the venue. He made sure that Katti saw them leave together. He looked over towards her and her escort, and waved, Katti gave a half-hearted smile and waved back. “Kattinaya is jealous thet she sees us together, yes?”

“I don’t know, she has a man that’s all she really cares about,” he said.

Anna laughed out loud. They’d had some drinks, but they weren’t drunk, Jon had purposely stuck mainly to Perrier water, he’d only had one large gin and tonic. Anna had a little more, but not much. They went into suite B220, and immediately she threw herself at Jon, kissing his mouth and face, he responded by doing similar and undid the zip at the back of her dress. To his surprise, she wasn’t wearing a bra, her breasts were round and firm, it was the expensively made dress that created the cleavage. Then the penny dropped, she’d had surgery, but he didn’t give any indication that he’d guessed until she herself said, “London last year, ‘arley street men, £15,000, they are very goot, yes?”

“Beautiful,” Jon said, ‘deja vu’ he thought, as she undid his trouser zip and fell to her knees taking his manhood into her mouth. This must be a Russian thing, but it was fantastic, he reached a climax quickly, with a groan. Anna went into the bathroom and re-appeared completely naked, but where were the diamonds?

They were both naked by now, on the kingsize bed, “Now we fuck, yes?” she said laughing. The sex was fantastic, she romped like a girl in her 20’s, as many positions as the human body could manage, for three hours.

Jon was exhausted, but Anna still had energy, “I must sleep now,” he said.

Anna laughed and said,” I vill be beck for more in ze morning!” and laughed again as she put her head on his chest.

He excused himself to go to the bathroom, laying on the little side table was his quarry, all the jewellery, just casually slung with abandon! Her attitude made Jon feel easier about taking them, the uneasy part would be her disappearance.