A Coral Kiss Part 26

Business was never the same for her after the Navy pulled out. She lives in a room that overlooks the main street in town."

"Apparently her legend lives on," Jed said dryly. "Guthrie claims some locals told him all about Mattress Matty and implied the business was still, uh, thriving. He went looking for a little action. Guess the nightlife on board the cruise ship wasn't sufficiently exciting. Maybe he's not much into dancing, either."

Amy wrinkled her nose. "I can see some of the local characters deciding it would be a great joke to send a tourist on a wild goose chase looking for Matty. So that's how Guthrie came to leave the ship, hmm?

What about Vaden?"

"Kelso's convinced his original a.s.sumption is the right one. Vaden was just lying in wait, hoping to take a few wallets off a couple of unwary cruise ship pa.s.sengers. When I left the ship and headed up into that deserted warehouse district, I became a very tempting target."

"Yeah?" Amy demanded caustically. "If Vaden was looking for tempting targets, why didn't he pick on Guthrie?"

"Who knows? Maybe he didn't see him. Or maybe I looked easier."

Amy put down her unfinished slice of toast. "Jed, this is all very, very strange."

"Yes," he said. "I agree."

Dan Renner shot out of the shaky wicker chair where he'd been sitting and began pacing the small inn room with his usual sizzling impatience. Guthrie watched him in laconic silence. He'd known from the beginning it was a mistake to actually take the client along on the job. Clients were notoriously unpredictable, emotional and inclined to hysteria. Clients didn't understand true professionalism. "This whole thing is falling apart," Renner accused furiously. "It's cracking like an eggsh.e.l.l. What the h.e.l.l is happening? You and Vaden were supposed to be good. You were supposed to know how to handle this kind of thing. Neutralize Glaze, you said. That was the simplest thing to do. Get him out of the way and then concentrate on using the woman to get the box. What happens? It's Vaden who gets neutralized.

s.h.i.t. Now we're sitting here waiting for Vaden to spill his guts and drag everything out into the open. It's like waiting for a time bomb to go off. Christ. What next?"

"Vaden won't talk."

Renner swung around, his eyes glittering. "How do you know that?"

"I've worked with him before. He's a pro. What's more, talking would only get him into real trouble and he knows it. His best bet is to stick to the story he gave Kelso. He and Glaze had both had a little too much to drink, got into a fight in the parking lot and went up to the warehouse district to settle the matter.

They both got hurt, but since it was Vaden who was unconscious, it was Glaze who got to give his story to Kelso first. Because Glaze was connected to the Slaters, it was Vaden who spent the night in jail. He knows if he keeps his mouth shut he'll be out in a day or so. Kelso can't hold him for long."

"What about Kelso pinning you down? That doesn't exactly give me a warm, comfortable feeling, Guthrie."

Guthrie was unconcerned. "I had the Mattress Matty story ready, didn't I? He bought it."

"But now there's a link between you and Vaden. That's bound to start someone thinking."

"The only link is the one in your mind. Kelso's not going to make any connections. I doubt if that man's done much original thinking in twenty years. You saw him yesterday. He's hooked on rum. Vaden and I each gave him perfectly acceptable stories and the easiest thing for Kelso to do is believe them. He's the kind who will take the easy way out, believe me."

"What about Glaze?" Renner asked challengingly. "He sure as h.e.l.l will think there's a link between you and Vaden. And because I'm connected to you, he'll figure I'm involved, also."

"Maybe. Maybe not. Doesn't make any difference. If we're right and he's after that box, too, the last thing he'll want to do is make waves with the local authorities. He'll stick to his story. Not much else he can do."

"And the woman?"

"You saw the two of them last night. Glaze has her eating out of his hand. She'll believe whatever he tells her." Guthrie leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out in front of him. "It strikes me that the best thing for us to do now is sit tight and wait for Glaze to do all the hard work."

Renner scowled at him. "What do you mean?"

"Glaze has the inside track with the Slater woman. From what you've told me that was going to be LePage's approach last year. Sounds workable. Let Glaze talk the woman into showing him the location of the caves. h.e.l.l, let him go down and get the box, for that matter. No sense risking our necks if we can get him to do it for us. We'll keep an eye on him. Get to him before he leaves the island."

"Then what?"

"Then I think it would be best for all concerned if Glaze and Ms. Slater have an unfortunate accident while doing a little cave diving." Guthrie smiled. "h.e.l.l, everyone knows how dangerous the sport is."

Renner hesitated and then slowly nodded his head. "Yes, I think that would be the neatest way to tie this up." He was profoundly grateful to have Guthrie with him. It was Guthrie who would do the killing.

Guthrie was the professional.

"There's just one thing," Guthrie said coolly.

"What's that?"

"We'll have to watch ourselves around Glaze. He took Vaden last night. From what Kelso told me, he could have killed him easily. Apparently, Glaze deliberately stopped just short of finishing Vaden."

"So? Vaden blew it."

Guthrie shook his head. "You don't understand. Vaden is fast. Very, very fast. But last night Glaze was a little faster."

Amy uncurled from the chair where she had been making notes on the last half of Private Demons and went to peer over Jed's shoulder. He was completing the bird cage design he'd started a few days earlier.

The precision of the drawing and the neat block printing Jed used for making notes made Amy shake her head in wonder.

"I would never have the patience for such detailed work," she observed. "It's perfect. Every little hinge, every connecting point, every bend in the wire. It's all there on paper."

Jed gave her an amused glance. "I wouldn't have the patience to construct a hundred thousand word story out of thin air, even if I had the imagination to do it. So I guess we're even."

"Are you going to build this cage when we get back to Caliph's Bay?"

"Think it would sell?"

"In a flash! Jed, I think there's a huge, untapped market for your cages. Putting them on display in one little gallery in Caliph's Bay isn't even scratching the surface. You need to get them into other shops, maybe some pet stores. People spend hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars on exotic birds. They wouldn't flinch at the idea of getting a beautiful cage to go with the bird."

"The Caliph's Bay Gallery handles my total output as it is," Jed reminded her calmly. "I don't have time to build enough cages to put into other outlets."

Amy braced herself and then took the plunge. "You would have the time if you quit your government job."

There was an acute silence. Jed was watching her but his gaze was unreadable. Amy held her breath.

At last Jed said slowly, "It bothers you that much?"

"It could get you killed one of these days."

"It's what I do, Amy."

"It's what you did last month and last year and seven years before that, but nothing says you have to keep doing it."

Jed stood up slowly until he was towering over her. His hands closed around her shoulders. "Tell me something," he asked softly, "when I've cleaned up the mess you're in here, are you going to call off our affair because of the way I make my living?"

Amy drew a shocked breath. "Is that what you think? That I'd let you use your... your peculiar talents to help me and then, when I was safe again, tell you good-bye?"

"You never wanted to know what I did for a living. But now you do know. Sooner or later you're going to have to deal with it and with me." His words were low and slightly roughened by an emotion she couldn't define.

"Jed, stop it, I'm suggesting you quit your job for your own sake. It's dangerous. There's no future in it."

He gave her a slight shake. "Would you leave me because of it?"

"Jed, please, you've got it all wrong," Amy wailed.

"Would you leave me because of my job?"

Amy stepped back, out from under his painful grip. Her eyes were burning with a clear, green flame.

"No, dammit, I wouldn't leave you because of your job. I think it's a terrible job. I think it's done some terrible things to you and will probably continue to do terrible things to you. But I won't leave you because of it. We're friends, remember? Friends don't desert each other because they disapprove of each other's jobs. There. Are you satisfied? I think we'd better change the subject. How about a walk down to the cove?"

"Amy, wait-"

"I'm going to put on my sandals." Amy retreated up the stairs. She felt his eyes on her until she disappeared down the corridor toward her bedroom. Friends, she repeated silently. That was a joke.

Friendship didn't begin to cover what she felt for Jed, although it was certainly part of it.

She found her sandals and stepped into them, thinking once again of how she would never have become friends, let alone lovers, with a man like Jed Glaze eight months before. But then, she was a different woman than she had been eight months before.

Jed was waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs, his expression stark and intent.

"Amy," he began as she lightly descended the stairs, "do you mean it?"

She frowned. "Mean what?"

"What you said about my job not making any difference. That our friendship is going to hold after we leave Orleana."

"I mean it." She eyed him quizzically. "Why should it make any difference in our friendship?"

"Because you're not the kind of woman who gets involved with a man like me," he told her through clenched teeth.

"But I am involved with you," she pointed out sweetly, her sense of humor revived. "Therefore, we have to a.s.sume that there is either something screwy with your reasoning or else you don't know me quite as well as you think you do."

He was silent for a few seconds. "We're learning a lot about each other these days, aren't we?"

"A great deal. Are you ready for that walk?" Without waiting for confirmation, she headed toward the door.

Jed followed, falling into step beside her as they left the veranda and headed toward the path that led down to the cove. "Thanks, Amy," he finally said quietly.

"For what? For not threatening to break off the affair because you won't promise to quit your job?"

"For accepting me the way I am." He was close beside her but he didn't touch her. His attention was on a wheeling sea gull. "Not everyone would or could."

"Is that why you've gotten so good at playing chameleon?"

He gave her a strange sidelong glance. "Chameleon?"

"You seem to be able to slip into certain social roles whenever you want to. You do it the way a chameleon changes colors, instinctively. The way you handled my parents, for example. You let them treat you as though you were an earnestly aspiring, financially secure suitor for my hand. Connie at Caliph's Bay Gallery and just about everyone else in town thinks you're a struggling, eccentric artist who has to do some engineering on the side in order to make ends meet. Hank and Rosie think you're a friend of the family who happens to be sleeping with me and whose intentions, they hope, are honorable. Dr.

Stearn thinks you're a suitably macho, world-weary type who knows how to handle himself in a knife fight."

"So?" Jed challenged softly. "You want the real Jed Glaze to stand up and show himself?"

Amy smiled and shook her head. "There's no need. I've decided that the real Jed Glaze includes all of the above and maybe a few more interesting persona I have yet to discover."

Jed reached out and took her hand, lacing her fingers through his. "You want to watch out for that imagination of yours, woman. Sometimes it takes control."

"You want to watch out for that streak of cynical realism that runs through you, Jed. Sometimes it takes control."

"Maybe your fantasies make a good counterbalance for my realism."

"Maybe." They walked in silence until they reached the sandy cove and then Amy said gently, "There's just one thing I'd like to make very clear."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah." Deliberately she mocked his laconic tone. "I would never call a halt to our relationship because of your job, but that does not mean I approve of it. I still think you should quit."

"Let's talk about something else," Jed suggested coolly.

"Such as?"

"Such as going down into the caves."

Amy nodded unhappily. "I was hoping you'd want to put off the dive for a while until your wound healed."

"I'll take my chances. Vaden's knife didn't do that much damage. It looked worse than it is. A little blood goes a long way. By tomorrow or the next day I should be ready to go back into the water. I'll put a plastic bandage around my arm if it makes you feel any better. That should keep most of the water out."

"You're determined to do this dive, aren't you?"

"It has to be done, Amy. I've already explained that you can't leave that kind of loose end lying around.

It's already attracting trouble."

"Vaden?"

Jed nodded. "It's too much of a coincidence that he picked me to roll last night."

"Maybe he was working alone. After all, LePage came alone. Maybe Vaden was a friend of LePage's and therefore knew about the box," Amy suggested urgently as her agile brain went to work creating a scenario that would provide an excuse to postpone the dive indefinitely. "It makes sense. He just decided to make a try for the box himself. But he blew it because you stopped him. With him in jail we can relax.

Even if Kelso releases him, he'll kick him off the island. Kelso doesn't let troublemakers hang around long."

Jed's mouth curved briefly. He freed her hand and ran his fingers teasingly through her windblown hair, shaking her gently. "Like I keep saying, lady, you've got a truly creative imagination."