The Pandora Box (26 page)

“I’d hardly call him a friend. And he’s had plenty enough time to check into Wyngate. By now, he should know our only connection to all this was Peterson and his diamonds. He was convinced before we left San Francisco, or he never would have let us go.”

“He let us go because you hit some sort of pay dirt for him, that’s why he let us go. I think the diamonds must be a piece of a bigger puzzle. One that he didn’t exactly feel like telling us about. And I think maybe while you were busy uncovering society’s latest corruption out there at that hospital, you accidentally uncovered some kind of espionage ring.”

“Espionage!”

“Those were the charges they had on you. Espionage. That’s why the big guys are so worked up. But there’s still something not quite right about all this. It bothers me Eddington didn’t confiscate that ring. It makes me think he’s got more at stake here than just a big case.”

“I told you, Marion had my purse and the ring was in it.”

He shuddered at some inner thought. “I hope we’re not being set up to take the fall for this guy while he ends up walking away with the goods.”

“Hawk, that’s an awful thought!” Dee looked up at him with a startled expression. “He’s a law officer, for heaven’s sake.”

“That doesn’t mean a whole lot anymore. You can find corruption as easily in the big places as the small ones. Those guys are like spiders. They’re in the lowest hovels and the richest mansions. All they need is a dark place.”

“I don’t think he’s that type.”

“How do you know?”

“I just know. I get a feeling about things like that. Especially people. And the…” She was about to say the Lord told her, but she didn’t want to bring up another volatile subject. “I just know.”

“Well, those guys can be pretty smooth. And he did too much research on all of us just to brush us off in Frisco and let us go our own way.”

“Maybe he realized he made a mistake,” she suggested.

“If it was a mistake, sugar, he wouldn’t have given you the contact information or put a tracking device in your camera. Not to mention the kind of pull it takes to get somebody reinstated.” He shook his head at the unbelievable thought. “That was a slick move. It’s the only thing that could have stopped me. Instantly. Not just stopped, but turned into one of their pawns.”

“It could be for our safety. We haven’t thought of that.”

“Safety? I’ve been playing the cruising bum for two years and no one so much as cared. Now, all of a sudden there’s a United States ship out there asking for me by name? Like I said, it isn’t me they want, it’s you. You stumbled right into the big time, honey. Just before I went and stumbled into you.”

“Do you think Eddington’s really looking for Keller?”

“He’s looking for Keller, that’s his cover-up. But maybe Keller is just some kind of code name. Or more than one person. Whatever it is, there’s a lot more to it than just an old man and some diamonds. What exactly did you come up with at that hospital?”

“Medical fraud. Some illegal experiments by one of the surgeons. Selling healthy organs on the international black market. With everything together, they’ve probably made a fortune by now.”

“That’s bad, but it’s not the kind of stuff the military gets involved in. Something tells me Eddington isn’t exactly FBI, either. More like CIA.” He ran a hand through his hair again. “If your investigation of the hospital toppled some sort of undercover ring that was embedded, then that boat on our tail could have some dangerous characters on it. In that case, we would be in for something worse than any pirates we might run into.”

“What do we do? Can’t we turn on the motor and try to run the other way?”

“The engine wouldn’t push us along any faster than the sails and maybe even a lot slower if the weather kicks up again. I might have gone for some evasive action a half hour ago, but I don’t have that choice anymore. Now I’ve got to change course and do what I’m told. Should add a little time to our safety factor, though. Other than that, our best bet is to try and stall until
White Fox
gets here. We’re just going to have to ride things out.”

They sat quietly for a few moments, each unwilling to let go of the other.

Finally, Hawk brushed the side of her face with a kiss, squeezed her tight and got to his feet again. “I better go change our heading. Then we should have that hot meal you were talking about, because on top of everything else, the barometer’s still dropping.”

“I’ll make that spaghetti,” Dee replied.

He walked out the door but after a few seconds, returned long enough to stick his head back in again. “And after that, you can move the rest of your things into here, Mrs. Hawkins.
Pandora’s
doing a pretty good clip, so I think we can count on at least eight hours before they catch up with us, even if they are under power. We ought to be able to snatch a couple of those hours to ourselves.” He winked, flashed her that winning smile and left.

Because of the change in course, it was well after ten by the time a sleek-looking forty-eight foot sloop with a broken mast finally limped up alongside
Pandora
. Since they were so far north, it was barely after sundown. The name
Seascape
painted in dark lettering along the hull could still be made out in the gathering dusk.

“Ahoy the boat!” a shadowy form with a man’s voice shouted to them as the three stood watching warily from the cockpit. “I say, could you give us a hand? We’ll toss a line over.”

“Not so fast,” Hawk held the rifle in the crook of his arm. “We’re not taking on boarders.”

“Oh, come on, man, can’t you see we’ve had a rough time of it? Lost our mast in the storm. We’ve had a terrible accident, and one of our crew was injured!”

“Oh, no,” Dee whispered, “we’ve got to help!”

“Lay off about fifty yards,” Hawk said firmly. “We can talk in the morning.”

“But we’re taking on water! Knee deep in it over here and I’ve only got two women aboard.”

“Hawk, please.”

“Shhh.” Then loudly, “You’re not sinking, and we don’t have anything in our medicine box you wouldn’t have over there. So lay off and we’ll talk in the morning.”

“How about just taking the injured girl aboard?”

“Not a chance.”

There was an uncomfortable silence broken only by the sound of Starr spitting over the lee rail.

“Not very decent of you, captain,” the stranger spoke again, “seeing we used most of our fuel to get over to you.”

“You should have called first.”

“We tried VHF but you didn’t seem to be monitoring. Can’t you see we’re desperate over here? You’ve at least got to let us raft alongside. I’m throwing you a line.”

“You throw anything over here…” Hawk raised the rifle to his shoulder, “and I’ll shoot you right off that deck, mister.”

32

Gunfire

“It was too dark to see each other, but I know our faces were the picture of dismay. “
~
Nellie Bly

After a long and uncomfortable silence, the sloop backed off. The three of them stood there, watching the distance between the two boats widen, as if by some magic the intruder might change into a thrashing sea monster should they take their eyes off it.

“All right,” Hawk said when they were a safe distance away. “I’ll take the first watch. I want a gun on deck all night long.”

“I feel just awful turning them away,” Dee pulled the hood of her jacket up to keep off the cold wind.

“It’s too shady, Dee,” he replied. “Any self-respecting yachtsman would have limped his way into the nearest port, not waste time chasing another boat around. They weren’t sinking and they never called in a mayday. It’s our fellow treasure hunters trying to move in because they can’t keep up with that kind of damage. And if they tried motoring all the way, they’d run out of fuel.”

“How do you know they didn’t call in a mayday? We didn’t have our radio on.”

“It’s common practice for anyone in the area to aid another boat in distress. Since we were closest,
White Fox
would have informed us if they knew about it. They didn’t.”

“I’m with Hawk.” Starr turned toward the companionway. “That’s the oldest trick in the book, pretending you’re in trouble. They’re either pirates or crazies. You wouldn’t want either kind coming aboard. I’m going to make a pot of chili and put it in thermoses. It looks like we’re going to be back on cold sandwiches again before long, and I need something to do.”

“See if you can get Marion to eat something,” Dee suggested. “She hardly ate a bite all day.”

Hawk went to sit on the top of the cabin house where he could see the sloop as it lumbered along behind them, under reduced power. He rested the rifle across his knees while he put up his hood against the wind. “Marion’s not coming around as fast as she should be. What’s she so upset about? It can’t still be the way I treated you that day.”

Dee was startled that the dreaded subject had come up so casually. Especially since she had subconsciously pushed even the desire to know those answers to the back of her mind. Her complete acceptance of Hawk during the last twenty-four hours had given her an alliance with him that she dared not undermine. She had been given a second chance, and she was determined not to fail, this time. No matter what things looked like, she would believe nothing other than the fact that God was in control. Working things out for them, in spite of all her mistakes. Whether she saw any evidence of it or not.

Yet, she knew that honesty, no matter how difficult it might seem at the moment, was always best in the long run. She settled herself into the corner seat below her husband, where she could be close enough to talk but still out of the wind and decided to come right to the point.

“That blanket you gave her came from Wyngate,” she finally replied. “It has the name stamped on the hem. She thinks you must have worked there or something. That you’ve been using us all along.” She sighed and turned to glance at the other boat, but couldn’t see over the canvas windbreaks from where she was sitting. “That you may even have been the person who was blackmailing Peterson, right from the beginning. That’s how she thinks you got the yacht’s papers.”

He was so quiet Dee looked up at him. But the dark and the hood of his jacket hid his face from her.

“What do you think?” he finally asked.

“I can’t think anymore, Hawk.” She leaned her forehead against his knee with a sigh. “I just know I love you, and you wouldn’t hurt any of us. No matter how much money is involved.”

She could sense his relief in the reassuring way he put his hand on her head. “I don’t know how that blanket got here,” he said. “Peterson must have brought it aboard himself, somehow. On a pass maybe, I don’t know. I never noticed it before. As for the papers, I found them with the logbook, and I just wrote my name in. What does she think I am, some new version of Dr. Frankenstein?”

“Something like that.” She replied with his own familiar phrase.

“No wonder she turns white every time I go in there.”

“Oh, Hawk, this whole thing has brought the absolute worst out of all of us. Suspecting each other like this. I don’t know if it’s even worth it anymore. What good is all the money in the world if something happens to any one of us?”

“We’re not exactly in a position we can turn back from, sugar. We’re locked into this thing now. Especially with
White Fox
telling us what to do. Did that guy who asked for help look familiar to you?”

“I don’t know. It was too dark to tell. But don’t you think he acted more scared than dangerous?”

“He was too pushy to be that scared. Something odd about him. And they didn’t have any lights on down below when they pulled up alongside.”

“Neither did we,” she reminded him.

“We have our nav lights on. You can always see a red glow from the ports if they’re on. They don’t have any.”

“Maybe they lost electrical power. They definitely lost their mast.”

“I think the storm caught them by surprise. Otherwise, they’d have waited until we got the diamonds to make their move. This way...” He set the rifle aside and slipped down onto the seat beside her. “Dee, listen to me. If anything happens and things get out of hand…”

“Oh, Hawk!” She shook her head at the thought. “I’m not even going to think like that!”

“Listen now. I want you to stay with
Pandora
.
White Fox
will find the boat. But it’s almost impossible to find someone in the water. You understand me, sweets? You’ve got to promise me.”

“What makes you think I have any more chance than the rest of you? I wouldn’t take it even if I had it. I wouldn’t! This whole situation is my fault, and I’d rather—”

“You’re the one with the information they want. Hear me? And you may be able to buy yourself some time with it.”

“Well, I wouldn’t. And I refuse to talk like this, Hawkins. We’re all in this together, you said so yourself.”

“We have to talk like this, sugar. There has to be a plan B.”

“Radio for more help, then. Tell
White Fox
what’s going on.”

“They’re on their way. Making radio contact now would only spook our visitors into doing something hasty. I don’t, for a minute, believe he’s only got two women with him over there, and I don’t want to get anyone killed. They’ve got to be monitoring. Which means they probably even heard our conversation with
White Fox
, this morning.”

“Oh, I’d never forgive myself if something happened to any of you. And when we get out of this mess, I promise—”

“Shhh.” He pulled her close. “We’re all consenting adults here, Dee. Responsible for our own decisions. You just made things a little more hair-raising, that’s all.” The spicy aroma of Starr’s chili began to waft up from the companionway. “Cheer up, sugar. At least we bought ourselves a little more time for
White Fox
to get here.”

“Till morning anyway.”

****

At dawn, Dee went below, with orders to stand by the radio to call in a mayday in case anything went wrong, as Hawk and Starr began to catch lines thrown over from the other boat in order to pull the sloop up alongside.
Seascape
had taken on so much water during the night that
Pandora
could no longer refuse assistance. But Hawk was still cautious. He insisted the sloop’s skipper come aboard first so that Starr could hold him at gunpoint while he made an inspection of the other craft. If the situation turned out to be irreparable, he would let the remaining crew aboard
Pandora
. The man readily agreed.