A Dangerous Harbor (31 page)

Raul might still be alive, but the fact that he boasted about the bombing of Raul's home made her anger rise up and she was tempted to smash in his ugly nose.

Spencer simpered and giggled, as if this was all a fun and funny practical joke. "I always wanted to say this," he said, then lowered his voice into a theatrical snarl. "Do as I say and your sister lives. It's so menacing, don't you think? Come now, I don't have all day, so chop-chop."

He exited the room and his guard manhandled her out the door, down the stairs and soon she was standing in the hot sunlight blinking at the foreign landscape. Nothing was the same anymore; not the street vendors with the smell of tacos bubbling in a nearby pot, not the careless motorists speeding by, and nothing was going to matter until she found her sister.

The devil incarnate he might be, but he wasn't going to twist her around his finger. She'd get her sister back and then Spencer would rue the day he ever tangled with her.

 
She swiped at the unshed tears, took out her cell phone and tried Raul's phone again. The line buzzed with a busy signal. She desperately wanted to hear his voice again, to reassure her that he was still alive, still willing to wrap his arms around her and tell her that there was still hope for them. The last honest policeman in Ensenada, and he wasn't going to be able to help her. She snapped the phone shut. Time to go find her sister.

Chapter Twenty-two:

All the way back to the marina, Katy continued to try Raul's cell. She hopped out of the taxi, paid the driver and power-walked the distance from the hotel to her marina gate, hoping against hope that Spencer Bobbitt had been lying, or that Gabe had somehow foiled Spencer's henchmen and at this very moment they were sitting in her boat, laughing about high-school antics.

Raul's cell phone finally connected to voicemail. Breathless, she slowed her pace and with the minimum of details told him what she was doing and where he could expect to find her within the next hour. If it was nothing more than wishful thinking, it still gave her a sense of hope. If Raul
Vignaroli
was still alive he would come for her, she knew it.

She clicked the cell phone closed and willed him to call her back, then hurried through the gate and ran for the boat. It was empty, the hatch board out, the lock hanging off the hasp. Leila's big white sun hat was on the settee, her tea mug still warm on the counter as if she'd just laid it down to answer a knock on the hull. Where was Gabe? Off someplace counting the blood money he got for selling her sister to Spencer?
Myne
. Could she be in on this with Spencer? Although nothing so far indicated
Myne
would go along with a kidnapping plot, she might have caved under the pressure from Spencer, especially if the threat came with a promise of some much needed cash.

She ran to Spencer's yacht, pounded on the locked salon door then took the stairs down to the lower level, counting portholes until she came to
Myne's
room. The room was dark and empty.

Back on top again, she looked across the marina parking lot and saw Gabe casually sauntering through the parking lot as he made his way to her gate. She ran down the dock and opened the gate.

"Uh, hi," he said, showing her a pack of cigarettes. "I know you told me not to leave, but Leila was out and we both…what's wrong?"

"Where's Leila, you bastard!"

"Whoa," he said, putting up his hands to wave at the heat of her anger. "What're you talking about?"

"You sold my sister to Spencer so I'd get him out of jail," she said, grabbing his left thumb and forcing his arm behind his back and up to his scapula.

"Ouch! That hurts, Katy. I promise you, had no idea. Where's Raul?"

"Like you didn't know. Spencer had Raul's home blown up to create a diversion for his escape."

She was listening to him grunt and swear and make excuses for himself and… "What did you say?"

"I
said
, she asked for cigarettes and I went back to my trailer to get some. Katy, please, you know me, I wouldn't hurt a hair on Leila's head."

She let go of his thumb and turned him around to face her. The only thing on his face was worry, not guilt.

"Come on," she said, "I'll apologize later, after
you
help me find my sister."

Inside the boat, she gathered her police ID and the
Glock
she had taped under a floor board. She shrugged off Gabe's stuttered amazement that she dared to stash a weapon on her boat. "If it comes to killing the bastard to get my sister back, I'll deal with the charges later."

"Fire extinguishers and baseball bats be damned, huh? You sure have grown up, Katy. So, what's next?"

"The police station was crawling with federal police and I don't have time to wait anymore.
 
It's you and me, Gabe."

"I'm in, you know I am. Tell me what you want me to do."

Katy was thinking she was going to need someone at the airport for backup. "Have you got access to a car? Someone you can borrow one from?"

"Not today. All the guys are at jobs."

"Fred's got a car, we'll ask him."

"But isn't he still on the inspector's list of suspects?"

"It's time I found out who I can trust and right now I need the help."

Gabe followed her to Fred's boat and Astrid, her cheeks red and her face blotchy from crying, motioned them inside and closed the slider. "We were just having a father-daughter talk about Jeff Cook."

Fred stood up when he saw Katy. "What's wrong?"

Choosing her words carefully, she addressed Astrid. "Remember how I told you that sisters don't always do it right? Well, my sister picked yesterday to come down for a visit. Only problem is, Spencer had her kidnapped right off my boat while I was on my way to see him in jail. I've been instructed to help him escape or he's going to have her killed."

Astrid gasped.

Fred raked Gabe with his hooded glare. "And where were you when all this happened?"

Gabe shot back, "I was out, picking up cigarettes."

Katy turned to Gabe and tilted her head as she thought out loud. "Even with Gabe off the boat, there are all sorts of people on the dock this time of day. I still don't understand how they could do it. Wait—uniforms, they had to be wearing marina or police uniforms. They came to my boat, told her I was waiting for her and they'd take her to me. Leila wouldn't go more than a few feet without becoming suspicious, asking unwanted questions. She'd want to call me. If they objected… Oh my God." Katy walked out onto the deck of Fred's yacht and they all followed.
 
She pointed out her boat, measuring off the distance someone would have to go with an unconscious woman over their shoulder, through the gate, to a waiting car.

"She's right here on this dock. Astrid, do you know where
Myne
is?"

"I'm here, Katy." Katy turned around to see
Myne
, her long blond hair wet from a recent shower.

Astrid went to her sister and protectively put her arm around her shoulder. "She wouldn't have anything to do with your sister, Katy, she's been here all day."

Myne
 
processed her sister's words, then let out a squeal. "Your sister… Leila
Standiford
is here? Where? What's she
wearin
'? I can't wait to meet her. Oh, Astrid, you won't believe this… Katy's sister's a movie star!"

Astrid looked fondly at her younger sister. "Hon, I think we need to find her first. Seems Spencer had her kidnapped."

"He wouldn't!" Looking from her sister to her dad to Katy and seeing the grim looks on their faces, she said, "That bastard! Does he have any idea who she is?"

Katy said, "My sister would not go willingly with kidnappers. Not after all she's been through."

"She'd kick up a fuss, huh? I knew it. She's as tough as her character on TV."

Katy wasn't about to ruin
Myne's
hero worship, not when she needed
Myne
to help her find her sister. "I'm thinking she's still on this dock. Maybe even on Spencer's yacht."

Myne
turned her head to look at the long expanse of Spencer's boat and said, "I locked it up before I left. You took Wally's key, Katy, but there's still one left."

Katy nodded. "And he would wear his captain's uniform."

Fred said, "Just a minute. I'll be right back."

When he left, the two girls started chattering.

"Daddy was right about him…"

"And to think we both…"

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you…"

"I'm sorry too…"

Katy held up a hand. "Ladies! Can we leave it for later? My sister's life is hanging on a thread. I have to find her before Spencer has her moved to the airport."

Myne
dug into her pocket and came out with her key. With her arms around her sister, she said, "We'll help you find your sister, Katy, it's the least we can do."

"Now girls," said Fred, holding a machete. "If anyone gets to punish that good-for-nothing Jeff, it's going to be me. Then it's Spencer's turn."

 
"Daddy," Astrid said, "you don't have to go that far. Katy's a policewoman and she knows what to do."

Fred looked down at her from his considerably long nose. "Well, do you? Know what you're doing, Miss Hunter?"

Katy lifted a finger and they all stopped talking. "
Myne's
got a key. If we get started now, we can find out if my sister is where I suspect she is, on Spencer's boat."

Gabe touched her arm. "This could go either way, couldn't it?"

"He's counting on the pandemonium at the police station to cover a getaway." She looked at her watch. "We've got thirty minutes, tops. She may have been gagged or drugged and unable to respond. We'll break up and go through every room."

They went in different directions, the girls with their dad and his machete, Katy with Gabe and her
Glock
.
  
Katy quietly opened doors, went through closets and turned on lights. With time running out, and her search of guest and crew cabins showing nothing, she and Gabe went to the lowest level and to the heavily insulated engine room.

"This would be the perfect place to hide Leila," Katy said, switching on a light. "No one could hear her scream for help."

There was a metal grate walkway down the middle of the room with engines, lockers and work benches on both sides. Katy had Gabe wait by the door at the opposite end of the room as she looked into lockers and under tables. She stepped off the metal grate and wove through the machinery, looking around and under conduits and pipes, softly calling her sister's name.

About twenty feet away, next to some machinery, was a dark shape. She hurried the four yards until she was standing over what she thought might be a body under a pile of rugs. Instead, it was a lumpy pile of oily carpet. Picking up a corner, she pulled it up—exactly as advertised—two oily old carpets bunched together, but no Leila.

She signaled to Gabe that the carpet didn't have Leila in it.

Then she heard a break in the hum of the air conditioner and a hiccup in the pressurized compartment as the entry door opened.

She waved a warning at Gabe and was relieved to see him quietly slip out the other exit, closing it behind him. She rolled herself under the dirty carpet, holding up a corner so she could peek out.

Two men walked past her narrowed line of sight but all she could see were legs; one with long pants and huaraches and the muscular legs and sailing white shorts of Spencer's boat captain—Jeff, the rat, was her sister's kidnapper and he'd brought someone with him to pick up Spencer's get out of jail prize