Клэр Донелли - Hiss And Tell

“I thought it would work perfectly. I’d even be on hand to deal with any last-minute glitches.” Cale might as well have been discussing a repair project on his boat. “Bellingham would provide the drug, and all Eliza had to do was persuade him to bring her along. As for the rest, she’d been indiscreet in front of a camera before. But this time, for whatever reason, Eliza balked. Worse, she confronted me. She’d had her suspicions, it seems, and it all came to a head when she went for a late-night swim. Maybe I’d overreached, by setting it up to happen while we were all together up here. In the end, well, it went badly. She’d been drinking and started to make a ruckus.”

“So you used your knowledge of the rum-running passageways to get into and out of the house unseen. It was just a short stroll from the gazebo to the point, where you tossed Eliza’s body off the cliff and then vanished back down the gazebo hole. As far as anyone knew, you were in the house the whole time, with a wall of external surveillance cameras to back up your alibi.” Sunny’s voice was dry and tight as she spoke, but Cale just responded with a matter-of-fact nod.

“I planned to just step back and let the police follow their routine. I was disappointed at having to scratch my project, and I realized that there might be some bad publicity for the upcoming wedding, but hey, the Kennedys have endured worse.” His eyes flicked over her. “There was even the possibility of restarting when you turned up. Bellingham had enough doses for two people.”

If Sunny could have gotten a hand free, she’d have gone for him. But, while the tape gave a little, it still resisted her best efforts. So she used her mouth instead. “What happened with Nesbit?”

Cale’s busy eyes kept scanning the horizon, but his lips quirked. “We’d known each other since I ran for Congress,” he said. “But Nesbit had me all wrong. He suspected that I was the most blackmailable person on Neal’s Neck, so he started to ask me leading questions. I denied the whole idea, but I knew he’d keep digging—and worse, he’d probably tell other people. So I arranged a meeting, and came prepared. When I went off to get the supplies for that beer pong tournament, I considered buying a knife. But I couldn’t risk some shopkeeper remembering.” That bad-boy grin crept onto his face. “Then I remembered my brother Lem’s old tackle box.”

“You got the knife from there, used the passage to the dock, and set off for a quick row in the dark to make the meeting.”

Cale nodded with a flicker of anger. “Nesbit thought he held all the cards; that he was dealing with some screwup who’d roll over and tell him whatever he wanted. He was so surprised when I slit his throat.”

“Arrogant,” Sunny said. “Like you.”

Cale’s face was expressionless as he turned toward her.

“What,” Sunny burst out, “I should worry about what I say to you? I can pretty much figure how this twilight cruise is going to end. You’ll come back short an extra anchor or something. But I’m not coming back at all.”

“I thought we might be able to at least keep it polite,” he said.

“Real life is a lot messier,” Sunny told him. “People wind up chasing a cat with a fishing net, and the cops are put onto a box of tackle that nobody had thought of in years.”

“Yes,” Cale said. “That damned cat put quite a crimp in things, bringing attention back to the house.” Then he broke off. “Excuse me a moment. The going gets a little tricky here.” He reached over to a set of marine charts set up at the side of the wheel—and yelped in surprise to discover Shadow standing over them. “What the hell is that cat doing here?”

Shadow showed him, sending the charts flying as he left a set of bright red claw-marks on the back of Cale’s hand. Quickly lashing the wheel in place with a one-handed knot, Cale lunged for Shadow, only to end with his fingers just inches short as the cat used one of his prime evasion moves.

Cale hauled himself out of the cockpit in pursuit. Shadow led him a merry chase back and forth, but Cale managed to slam the hatch that led below decks before Shadow could reach it. “I want you out in the open,” the man growled. “When I catch you, you mangy little so-and-so, you’re going for a swim.”

They continued to play a vigorous game of pounce and skitter, but Sunny could see that Cale was driving the cat toward the bow. Sooner or later Shadow would run out of yacht.

Sunny frantically fought with the tape holding her prisoner. Shadow’s teeth had managed to pierce the stuff in several places. It was sort of like a perforated line. But it took a lot of effort to tear it open. Pull, twist, pop a section apart. Then pull, twist, and pop the next.

Meanwhile, Sunny could only watch helplessly as Cale backed Shadow to the very bow of the boat. Somehow, I don’t think he’s going to play “King of the World” up there, Sunny feared.

“So now what are you going to do, cat?” Cale demanded. “I’ve got you—”

Shadow responded by going straight up, leaping past the dumbfounded Kingsbury to land against the bellying sail with his claws out. As Cale snatched after him, Shadow climbed up the sail and out of reach.

Swearing furiously, Cale started letting down the sail as Shadow kept climbing. Just as the cat was running out of room, the Merlin suddenly came to a jarring, grinding stop that nearly sent Cale off his feet.

Sunny could do the math and grinned savagely. A boat that falls off to port plus tricky sailing equals running aground.

Cale let rip with an even stronger expletive, abandoning the sail and stomping back toward Sunny.

Is this where I get off? Or is he going to start the engine and try to back away from these rocks under us? Sunny sincerely hoped he was going with Plan B, but Cale surprised her, coming up with Plan C. He rummaged down in the cockpit and came up with a pistol.

Barely giving Sunny a glance he set off for the bow of the ship again, apparently determined on a little target practice with Shadow. Cale Kingsbury barely got a few steps, however, before a powerboat came thrumming up, and a cheerful voice shouted, “Hey, there! Can we give you a hand?”

Sunny found herself speechlessly staring at Ben Semple’s smiling face—and at Will Price already jumping for the deck of the Merlin .

Cale Kingsbury brought up his gun almost as a reflex action, but Sunny’s reflexes were better. She tore her way through the last of the tape, braced her arms on the deck, and scooted forward, aiming both of her bound feet behind Cale’s left knee. He stumbled forward directly into the roundhouse right Will was already unleashing. Cale flew back, his head smacking against the sail’s boom, and he slithered to the deck, stunned.

After kicking Cale’s pistol out of the way, Will knelt down, reaching into his back pocket. He might be out of uniform, but he’d come prepared, with his handcuffs at the ready. As soon as Kingsbury was safely restrained, Will turned to Sunny.

His lips turned in a sour smile as he used a pocketknife to get the tape off her ankles. “Part of a cop’s continuing education is learning to identify the latest looks in illegal drugs. The stuff in the picture you sent me came from Thailand. We just recently learned it was coming on the market over here. So what was the deal, a sex scandal to stop the marriage?”

“No, a sex scandal to blackmail a possible president,” Sunny told him. “Cale Kingsbury is the Taxman.”

Will turned to stare at the groggy Cale. “Keep a careful eye on this one,” he shouted to Ben. Then his gaze came back to Sunny, the wheels obviously turning behind his eyes. “Sounds like you caught a big fish this time.”