Hidden Agemda (Kate Diamond Adventure) (16 page)

She leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. “So where do you fit in?”

“I’m part of
that
investigation too. You know how it is in the FBI, sometimes you gotta work more than one case.”

Kate narrowed her eyes at Ace. “So how does that investigation tie into the ruby theft?”

Ace shrugged. “That’s not really your concern.”

“It sure as hell is. Anything that’s relevant could lead me to the ruby. You can’t hold that information back on me … you have a deal with the museum.”

“I’m fully aware of my deal and I don’t intend to hold back anything that is relevant to retrieving the ruby. Do you?”

Kate’s heart skipped. She couldn’t exactly say she’d been forthcoming with information. Oh, she’d pass it along eventually, but she just wanted a teensy weensy head start.
 

“I believe I’ve passed along everything I know.” Kate winced as she thought about the Testoni shoes. She comforted herself with the fact that she didn’t exactly know that they had anything to do with the case. So telling Ace about them would be premature. And it wouldn’t be nice to send the FBI off on a wild goose chase, now would it?

“Good. So, then I guess we’re both up to date on the case,” Ace said.

“Good. Can I go now?”

Kate glanced back up at Ace and she saw his face harden. His gray eyes held hers, causing her breath to catch in her throat.
 

“Listen Kate, This Benedetti guy … he’s a tough criminal. You don’t want to get mixed up with him. Let me get the ruby—you’ve done a good job following the trail, but I can pick it up from here.”

Kate’s stomach flip-flopped. Ace was being sincere—she could see it in his eyes. He really was concerned about her getting hurt. Then she remembered the whole business with Damien Darkstone, and how she’d
thought
he was sincere then, too.

Kate narrowed her eyes at him. “Oh, no. I’m not falling for that one. You just want to be the one to get the ruby.”

Ace rubbed his hands through his short hair. “Kate, it’s not about that. I don’t care about the ruby … I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Oh sure, Just like you didn’t want me to get hurt two years ago.” Tears pricked the backs of Kate’s eyes and she looked away. “Well, I’m not stupid enough to fall for your empty promises twice.”

“Kate, what went down two years ago didn’t happen the way you think it did,” Ace said quietly.

Kate’s heart pinched at his words.
What did he mean by that?
 

She didn’t give herself time to think about it. That was the past and she wanted to focus on the future. And finding the ruby.

She turned back to him, a triumphant gleam in her eye. “Well, I don’t know what you
hoped
to accomplish by pulling me in here, but I’ll tell you one thing you
did
accomplish. You’ve verified that I’m on the right track … because if I wasn’t, you wouldn’t be so keen to get me to drop the case and go home.”

Kate refused Ace’s insistent offers to drive her back to her hotel and called a cab instead. She didn’t want to have to spend any more time with him than was necessary … and she didn’t want him to see Benedetti’s shoes. She figured he wouldn’t have taken an interest in the personal items they catalogued when she came to the station and the shoes were at least one clue she wanted to keep to herself.

Her hotel room was nice—not the best but not the worst either. It was high on a hill with a view of the ocean from the balcony. Palm trees and flowering shrubs dotted the property. Her room was decorated in a starfish motif with white and light gold hues. She threw her purse on the couch, then sunk down into its white slip-covered depths.

She’d set her laptop on the coffee table when she’d checked in earlier and she pulled it over toward her and tapped the button to bring it to life. She couldn’t wait to call Gideon and see if he could find out where Benedetti had taken his boat.
 

As she tapped the keys, she wondered how Ace Mason had found her so easily. She remembered the tracking device she’d discovered on her car, her lips curling in a smile as she pictured Ace and his team chasing the cat through the back streets of Boston.
 

But if the tracking device was on the cat, how did Ace catch up to her so quickly? It didn’t make sense that he’d track her and have someone following her in person. Her eyes slid over to the purse lying beside her on the couch.
 

No, he wouldn’t have.

She dived for the purse, dumped the contents on the floor and shoved her hand inside to feel the lining against the side of the purse. Anger bubbled up in her chest when she felt a little bump in-between the silk lining and leather outside of the purse. A quick inspection of the stitching in that area proved her suspicions.

“Damn him!”

“Excuse me?” Gideon’s voice sounded from the laptop and Kate turned to it in surprise. She’d been so focused on looking for the bug in her purse she hadn’t even noticed the call had gone through.

She shoved the purse at the camera. “It’s that damn Ace Mason! He put a tracker in my purse!”

Gideon laughed, which made Kate even madder. “That’s sneaky. I can’t believe you fell for that, though.”

Kate made a face. “I figured when we found the one in my car, that was it. I should have known.”

“So he’s there in Bermuda?”

“Yes. I just had a little run-in with him. He knows about Benedetti.” Kate threw down the purse and leaned toward the computer. “I went to the marina you got the tip on and Benedetti does have a boat there. The slip was empty though. Is there any way you can find out where that boat went?”

Gideon twisted his lips together. “I’m not sure. What’s the name of the boat?”

Kate’s shoulders slumped. “Crap. I didn’t get a name. But I know it was in slip nine, maybe we can zoom in with satellite photo and figure it out?”

“Maybe,” Gideon said and Kate could see he was tapping away at the keyboard.

“Oh and I have his shoes,” Kate added.

“Pardon?” Gideon raised a brow at the camera.

“The Testonis. Hold on.” Kate got up and retrieved the shoes, then held them up to the camera. “These are the shoes my parents said that Benedetti always wore. The bartender at the Tiki bar in the marina said he left them there.”

Gideon scrunched up his face. “And she gave them to you?”

Kate grimaced. “I said I was a friend.”

“What’s that all over them?”

Kate looked at the bottoms of the shoes. “Looks like bird poop and mashed in feathers.” She held the side with the most poop on it up to the camera so Gideon could get a close-up. “I was thinking that maybe Benedetti hid the ruby some place with a lot of birds or something.”

“Let me see the heel,” Gideon said.

Kate shoved the heavily encrusted heel toward the camera.

“Those downy feathers,” Gideon said. “Are they bright blue?”

Kate looked at the shoe. “Yes.”

Gideon’s face lit up and he got busy typing. “Kate, I think I know where Benedetti has been.”

“You do?”

“Yes. There’s a volcanic island near Bermuda that has a rare type of crow. The Bermudian Blue Crow. In fact, it’s called Blue Crow Island.” Gideon looked up at Kate. “The blue crow hatchlings have feathers just like those on the shoe.”

“So Benedetti might have taken the ruby there to hide it!” Kate said.

“That would explain his shoes,” Gideon said. “But why would he want to hide the ruby on an abandoned island?”

Kate’s forehead creased as she thought about that. Did she really care why? All she wanted was to bring it back to the museum, what did she care about Benedetti’s motives?
 

“Who cares?” Kate said. “I just need to bring it back. And I know just the people to help me go get it.”

***

“Hold on there,” Gideon said. “Blue Crow isn’t some tropical beach island. It’s mostly volcanic rubble and dense undergrowth. It will be rough going … and I think the volcano is still active.”

“Maybe we can make some educated guesses as to the most likely places he would hide the ruby and check those first,” Kate suggested.
 

“I can look at satellite photos of the island,” Gideon said. “In the meantime, I have some gear that will be perfect for the terrain. I’ll send down enough for several people. I assume your parents will be accompanying you.”

“Naturally,” Kate said. “They are coming over on one of their friends’ boats … actually they should be calling any second now.”

“Well, you’re not going to head over tonight in the dark, I hope,” Gideon said. “It will be most dangerous in the dark and I won’t be able to send the gear down until tomorrow.”

Kate frowned. She was impatient to get there right away, but Gideon did have a point. It would be easier to find the ruby in daylight. And she did have the little problem of Ace Mason, who most likely had someone watching her right now.

“Yeah, you’re right,” Kate said. “I’ll wait until tomorrow and that will give you some time to pull everything together and get some satellite photos of the island. Also, I’m going to need a good disguise to slip past Ace Mason and his posse. I’m pretty sure he’ll have someone watching outside my hotel.”

“I’ve got just the thing,” Gideon said. “I’ll send it down with the gear on the first museum freight flight to that area tomorrow and arrange for courier delivery to your hotel room.”

“Perfect.” Kate smiled and gave Gideon the thumbs up. “This time tomorrow we could be kicking back and celebrating the recovery of the Millennia Ruby … and Ace Mason will be standing outside my hotel wondering what happened.”

Gideon was true to his word and a courier showed up at ten the next morning with a package. Kate’s parents had arrived in the evening with a crew of reinforcements from
Golden Capers
and their small yacht was docked a few miles away.
 

They’d wanted to meet for supper, but Kate had declined. If Ace discovered her parents were here in a boat, he’d have someone watching the boat and then he’d follow them to Blue Crow Island and try to get the ruby first.
 

Kate figured it was better to stay at the hotel all night and then sneak out in the morning—leaving the tracking device in the hotel room, of course.

She ripped open the box. Inside were special vests, shoes and gloves that were designed for use in the type of rocky, volcanic terrain found on Blue Crow Island. There was also a satellite communication device that looked pretty much like a tricked out wristwatch, which she could use to communicate with Gideon since there were no cell phone towers in range. Gideon had thoughtfully packed enough for the entire crew and included a duffel bag. Kate packed the gear into the bag before changing into a light summer outfit of lavender plaid shorts and a lavender tank top.

There was one more thing in the box—the disguise. It was one of Kate’s favorites.
 

A smile curled on her lips as she tucked her hair up under the long dark red wig. Ace Mason and his cohorts would never recognize her. She’d be able to sneak right past them and all the time, he’d be thinking she was in her room.

Taking out the contact lens case, she made her way to the bathroom, then plopped the sapphire blue lenses into her eyes. She painted her lips with extra deep red, put on a generous amount of lavender eye shadow and plastered mascara on her naturally long lashes. Blinking at her own reflection, Kate had to admit she barely even recognized herself.

Slipping into a pair of lavender cork wedge-heel sandals, she emptied her purse into the duffel bag, which she slung over her shoulder. Heading for the door she shoved a pair of oversized sunglasses on her face, then glanced back once at the empty purse—with the tracking device still intact—opened the door and slipped out into the warm Bermuda sunshine.

She was sure someone from the FBI was watching, but she had no idea who. She kept her head forward—she didn’t want to give herself away by looking like
she
was looking for someone looking for
her
. Her eyes though, hidden behind the sunglasses,
 
darted wildly from side to side trying to spot the tail but no one stood out.
 

The taxi she’d called for pulled up to the curb and she got in, giving the driver the address to the marina where her parent’s boat was in. She didn’t relax until they were a mile away and her constant backward glances satisfied her that she wasn’t being followed.

***

The
High Jinx
was a small fifty-foot Viking convertible yacht owned by Gertie. Kate had sailed on it many times and she recognized the sleek profile as soon as she got out of the cab. The occupants of the yacht, however, did not recognize her, which delighted her to no end. Kate loved it when her disguises did their job, and if she weren’t in such a hurry to get to Blue Crow Island, she would have had her fun with them and played an elaborate charade pretending to be someone else.
 

But, as it was, she whipped off the wig and sunglasses amidst the shocked look of Sal, Benny, Gertie and Frankie. Her mother and father claimed to have known it was her all along.

“Gideon sent down some equipment to help us navigate the terrain on the island.” Kate lifted the bag off her shoulder and swung it onto the bench seat on the back of the boat. Gertie and Frankie went through the motions of untying the boat and pulling it away from the dock.

“Let’s go into the salon and take a look.” Vic picked up the bag and headed inside. The salon wasn’t terribly huge. It had a kitchenette, ‘L’ shaped leather sofa and a separate dinette. The walls were shiny teak and windows lined three sides, giving Kate a breathtaking view of Bermuda as they sped away into the Atlantic.
 

Vic tossed the bag on the tan leather couch, then unzipped it, leaned over and took the items out one at a time, lining them up across the sectional.
 

“These are great. That Gideon really knows how to come through,” Vic said sitting down and trying on one of the shoes. “He called me to see what shoe sizes we would need.”