Pearl Cove (5 page)

She met his eyes straight on, as controlled and remote as he was. I didnt kill Len. You
had a better motive than most. If I wanted his death on my conscience, all I had to do was
walk out on him. What does that mean?

Hating me kept him alive. Loving pearls almost kept him sane.

Almost, Archer repeated softly, understanding much of what Hannah didnt say. Even ten
years ago, Len had gone off on rages of laughter or drinking or screwing. Or mayhem. Yet
you stayed with him.

Youre either very brave or very stupid, Hannah.

Im neither. Life happens one day at a time, like water dripping on stone. You dont notice
the change except over years. She rubbed her aching eyes. As for the rest, no one deserves
all the good or the bad that comes their way. You just take it the way it comes, one day
at a time.

Echoes of a missionary upbringing?

She shrugged and stuffed a slippery piece of hair behind her ear. I no longer thank God
for the good that happens or blame my inborn evil for the bad. I just... Her voice faded.

Survive, Archer finished.

Yes. What else is there?

Everything.

For some people, perhaps. Not for me.

There was no self-pity in Hannahs voice, no anger. She accepted, and from that acceptance
she drew the strength to survive. It hadnt always been that way. Len had very nearly
destroyed her.

What do you want from life? Archer asked before he could think better of it.

What Ive earned: the Black Trinity. But to find it, I we will have to find Lens
murderer. Whoever killed him took the pearls. If you help me find what has been lost, Ill
give you half of whatever we get for it.

Hearing all that Hannah hadnt said in the tension of her voice, Archer wondered who else
knew about the pearls, who had killed to take them, and who would kill again to keep them.

She rose, gathered plates, and took them to the sink. When she turned, he was watching
her, waiting.

Whats the Black Trinity? he asked.

An unstrung triple-strand necklace of black pearls. The whole necklace is worth three
million American, wholesale.

Archer whistled softly through his teeth. Three million?

That would be some necklace. Especially since the Aussies took the steam out of the
Tahitian black pearl market when they learned how to make Australias huge silver-lipped
oysters produce big black pearls.

The Black Trinity is worth at least three million, Hannah said evenly. The smallest strand
is twenty inches long, with twelve-millimeter pearls. The middle strand is twenty-two
inches, with fourteen-millimeter pearls. The longest strand is twenty-four inches, with
sixteen-millimeter pearls. All of the black pearls are round and color-matched within and
across their strand.

Luster?

Superb. The pearls have a surface that is as close to flawless as nature gets. If nature
doesnt provide it, I try.

Youre a pearl doctor? he asked, surprised. Softly, softly, sanding a pearl down through
layer after layer of nacre in the hope of finding a less flawed surface was like rolling
dice with the devil. When you lost, you lost it all. It took guts and confidence to peel a
pearl as patiently as the oyster had created it in the first place.

If the stakes are high enough, I doctor pearls, Hannah said. Its rather like sculpting.
You remove whatever gets in the way of the vision. Sometimes your vision is clear and you
end up with something beautiful. Sometimes you end up with a pile of sawdust.

Soapy sponge in hand, she began washing the lunch dishes. The food had helped her
physically. Her hands were much more sure. Not that it mattered. Her dishes were the
high-tech kind that could be shot from a canon without taking a scratch.

Archer watched, thinking about Len and pearls, greed and obsession, cruelty and accident.
Len had loved pearls, but only one kind of pearl had obsessed him enough to make him take
crazy risks. What

shade of black?

For the first time Hannah hesitated. Once she told him, she wasnt certain she would be
able to trust him. But she didnt really have any choice. If she went after the murderer
alone, she would end up like Len, facedown in the warm, pitiless sea.

The Black Trinitys pearls are every color of the rainbow, all at once, she said flatly.
Red, green, blue, gold, all of it gleaming under a clear black surface, like liquid
gemstones under black ice.

So he did succeed. I assumed he had, but I never saw the proof of it. Swiftly Hannah
turned toward Archer. Her eyes were wary. She was very much afraid that she had

just invited the wolf to dine with, and possibly on, the lamb. You knew about the black
rainbows?

I knew Len found an extraordinary pearl in Kowloon. I knew he was determined to discover
where it came from, no matter who got hurt. I assumed he had found what he wanted, put it
to work, and kept the results to himself. It would be like him.

Breath trickled out of her lungs in a hidden sigh. Len found out where that first black
rainbow came from. Then he found out how to culture more.

No surprise there, Archer said. Len could have pried secrets out of the Sphinx.

The casual tone of Archers voice disarmed Hannah. Do you want to know the secret? she
asked, curious.

What will it cost me?

Oddly, his answer reassured her. She had seen enough envy, enough obsession to possess,
enough plain greed, to recognize their presence at a glance. Archer was interested, but he
wasnt avid.

Even so, she hesitated. It was one thing to know your life was at risk. It was another to
simply hand over the means of your own destruction.

It wont cost you a cent, Hannah said, her voice low. I dont know the secret of producing
the rainbow pearls. She took a broken breath, let it go. And if the vultures circling
around Pearl Cove discover my ignorance, I suspect that my life wont be worth a handful of
broken shell.

This time Archer couldnt resist offering some comfort, however small. Gently he put his
right hand on her cheek. Her skin was cool, too cool. On some cellular level, Hannah was
running on empty. But there was nothing he could do about that right now.

He had an urgent appointment with a dead man.

Can you stay awake for a few more hours? he asked.

She shivered and raised her chin. Of course. The children will help.

Children?

When I have time, I teach English to some of the workers children.

He almost smiled. For a few hours, kids would be as good as an armed bodyguard protecting
Hannah. Ill leave when the kids get here and Ill be back as soon as I can.

Where are you going? Broome. Hannah didnt ask why. She knew. Len McGarry.

Before Hannah called the children, someone knocked on the front door. Reflexively Archer
stepped to the side and stood deep in the shadows, invisible against the brilliance of the
light outside.

Uncertain, Hannah looked at him. He jerked his head, silently telling her to answer the
door. She went through the front door, crossed the verandah in a few steps, and opened the
screen door that offered a thin, useful shield against the blazing light.

Christian, she said, surprised. She noted the cuts, scrapes, and bruises on his arms.
Fighting with sunken oyster cages wasnt easy work. Is something wrong?

Hello, luv. Christian Flynn looked her over thoroughly. Cutoff jeans, a tank top the color
of a peach, and full lips to match. Eyes a blue so deep it slid off into purple. Breasts
that would just fill a big mans hands. Bare, narrow, arched feet. Pretty as a pearl. How
do you do it?

I sleep with oysters.

She retreated across the verandah into the relative coolness of the house. He followed her
without waiting to be asked. His sandals made faint slapping sounds just behind her heels.
With his tall, athletic body, quick grin, and rugged Outback blond looks, he went through
women like a home-grown Australian flu.

Hannah found Flynn almost amusing, as long as he wasnt turning those cobalt blue eyes in
her direction. Of course, there could be another, more sinister reason that Flynn was
watching her with predatory interest. Two days ago he had offered to find a buyer for
Pearl Cove. She had refused.

The thought that she might be in danger from the genial Aussie made Hannahs stomach twist,
so she concentrated on doing what she was good at: keeping a man at arms length without
making an enemy of him.

You want your usual mud tea? she asked neutrally, leading Flynn away from the front door
and toward the kitchen. Or are you ready for a beer?

Tea or beer, whatever is cold.

Is something wrong? she asked again. More injuries?

Nothing new. I came to see how you are.

Shes fine, Archer said from behind them. With a smooth, balanced movement, he stepped out
of the shadows by the front door. Anything else on your mind?

Flynn spun around, half crouched in a fighting stance, weight poised on the balls of his
feet. The sight of a big, handsome, confident male in Hannahs house made the Aussies blue
eyes narrow. Who the devil are you?

Hannahs partner, Archer said calmly. He hadnt missed the automatic movements of someone
trained in unarmed combat. Beneath that charming grin and shoulder-length, sun-bleached
hair lurked a fighter. Archer knew how bad his mood was when the thought of testing the
young Aussies fighting skills appealed to him.

Partner! Flynns head snapped around toward Hannah. Did you sell to this bloke?

No. Mr. Donovan has been a partner in Pearl Cove since it was founded. She looked at
Archer. This is Christian Flynn. He manages the water end of Pearl Cove.

Len never mentioned a partner, Flynn said. His voice was even less welcoming than his
expression.

Archer just stood there, taking in the good-looking, angry Australian. He wondered why Len
had put up with having the muscular young stud around Hannah. Len hadnt wanted Archer
within seventeen thousand miles of his wife, and had said so in words that still echoed
bleakly deep in Archers mind.

Get the hell out of my life and stay out. All the way out. You think you can have her now
that I m paralyzed, but youre wrong. You come near her and III get even. Not with you.
With her.

At the time Archer had told himself it was just the drugs, just the fear, just the rage of
a newly paralyzed man speaking. He had tried to get through to Len, to reassure him that
he had no intention of seducing Hannah. All he wanted to do was help his brother.

Len hadnt listened. The harder Archer tried, the more wild Len become. So Archer did as
his brother asked. He got the hell out of Lens life. All the way out.

There was no reason to talk about having a partner, Hannah said warily, sensing the
currents of tension coiling between the two men. Archer wasnt an active partner.

Something shifted in Flynns stance. Archer? Would that be Archer Donovan?

Yes, she said.

Bloody hell, Flynn muttered. Anybody who knew anything about buying pearls had heard of
Archer Donovan. The man was a legend. He had a shrewd understanding of pearls, people, and
the marketplace. Unhappily Flynn kneaded his neck with his left hand while he thought
about how Archers presence changed an already fluid situation. None of the possibilities
made him smile. But he turned to Archer anyway, smiled, and held out his right hand. Sorry
if I was rude, mate. Im short on sleep. After the big wind, things are a right bitch
around here.

Archer smiled from the teeth out and took the other mans hand. No worries. Im short on
sleep, too.

The ridges of callus on Flynns hand told Archer a lot about the other mans training.
Whether he could put that training to effective use in face-to-face combat remained an
open question.

The sudden flare of speculation in Flynns eyes told Archer that his own calluses had been
noted. How long before Pearl Cove is up and running? Archer asked, distracting the other
man. Flynn looked sideways at Hannah. She was watching Archer. It rankled the Aussie.

I dont know, he said carefully. We had just moved the newly implanted oysters to the
grow-out areas. Some of those rafts broke loose and sank. We repaired the floats and lines
and have been stringing up the cages as fast as we find them. Were losing shell, though.
Too much jigging around.

How much of this years shell is a total loss? Again Flynn looked uneasily at Hannah. Tell
him, she said without looking away from Archer. Sixty-five percent. Maybe more. How much
more? Archer asked. Worst case? Flynn asked. Archer smiled like a wolf. Its the only case
that matters, isnt it? Ninety-five percent, Flynn said.

Hannah made a harsh sound. She had been told fifty-five percent loss, sixty percent tops.

Total loss, in other words, Archer summarized.

Flynn hesitated, looked at Hannahs drawn face, and wished Archer Donovan was the kind of
man who could be intimidated into not asking uncomfortable questions.

It could be a write-off, Flynn admitted finally. Frankly, were not recovering as many of
the rafts as we hoped.

Why?

Archers cool, neutral question made Flynn wish that Hannahs partner was someone else.
Anyone else. He was certain his bosses would feel the same way. The cyclone had seemed
like such a perfect solution to a sodding impossible problem.

Bloody big wind, bloody big mess, Flynn said, his voice clipped. This one was a
destructive bitch. He looked at Hannah. Sorry, luv. I didnt want to tell you until I was
certain.

What about next years oysters? Archer asked. How did they fare? We havent finished our
recce yet, so we dont know. Guess.

The cool command irritated Flynn. He started to push right back in automatic response to
another man testing him. Then he looked at Archers measuring eyes and remembered the
ridges of callus on the side of his hand. It might come to a fight with Archer, but before
it did, Flynn would have to have permission from his own bosses. The thought grated worse
than crushed shell.

Theyre probably better off, Flynn said. The worst hit were the rafts of experimental
shell. I told Len we should put them in a less exposed place, but he wanted them close
enough to watch. He was a paranoid bastard. He heard his own words and winced. Sorry, luv.
I

Hannah knew her husband better than you did, Archer cut in. What of the pearls in the
sorting shed?

Theres an American book, Flynn said with a thin smile. Gone With the Wind.

Pearl Cove isnt Tara. I find it hard to believe that every last pearl vanished in the wind.

Believe it anyway.

Oh, I believe the pearls are gone, Archer drawled. I just dont believe the wind took them.

What do you think happened? Flynn asked angrily.

I think theyve been... salvaged.

Are you trying to tell me something, mate?

Hannah touched Flynns arm. Archer isnt accusing anyone.

The Australian looked at Archer with unfriendly eyes. It doesnt sound that way to me.

Ill need a written summary of what was lost, what was found, and what youre doing about
the missing, Archer said.

I dont have time for

Make time, Archer cut in.

The command took Flynn right up to the edge of his self-control. Archer watched the
process with cool interest. Even eagerness.

I dont take orders from you, Flynn said. He turned to Hannah.

Wrong, Archer said. When Hannah would have intervened again, he confronted her. Changed
your mind?

What does that mean? she demanded. You made a call. I came. I can leave just as fast.

Anger snapped along nerve endings that were already frayed raw. Hannah started to tell
Archer to leave if he wanted, and go to hell while he was at it. Then she glanced at her
foreman and saw his barely concealed satisfaction.

Divide and conquer. The oldest game of all.

Because it worked.

Hannah faced Flynn with a smile that would have frozen fire. The Yank is a bit
overbearing, but he has a point. Ill need that report for my own records. By supper should
do it.

By supper? Flynn said in disbelief. I cant do a proper job in that short a time!

Then do an improper one. You had answers quick enough when Archer asked.

That was different.

Because hes a man? Hannahs smile widened to show lots of teeth. No worries, mate. I wear
pants, too. Ill see you before supper.

Flynn made a rough sound and stared down at his employer. Whatever the situation might
have been when Len was alive, Hannah was in charge of Pearl Cove now. And she knew it.
Flynn hadnt expected things to turn out this way when he dropped by to console the sexy
widow.

Right, he said. Supper.

The front door and then the verandah door closed behind Flynn. Hard.

Hands on hips, Hannah turned on Archer. Why were you so rude?

Any manager worth his pay would have had a report on your desk within twenty-four hours of
that cyclone.

But A knock at the verandah door cut off her protest. She spun around, expecting to see
Flynn again. Oh, Tom. Come in.

Archer watched as Tom Nakamori opened the verandah door and then the front door. He was
wearing the uniform of the day: shorts, tank top, sandals. In his case, all of them were a
faded navy blue. His hair was thin and white. His eyebrows were a startling midnight
black. A thin scar went from his collarbone to his chin. His knuckles were enlarged, but
the hands themselves were still flexible. Like most of the workers, he showed the nicks,
cuts, and bruises of trying to save Pearl Cove from the cyclone.

Nakamori paused to make certain that the screens closed gently. He moved with the care of
a man who had spent too many years dangling from a dive rope being towed over shell beds.
If the physical labor itself didnt get you, nitrogen bubbles in the blood would. Sooner or
later, the bends crippled most divers. A special few, it killed.

Forgive the upset, Nakamori said, half bowing. The Perfect Pearl repairs better. With
permission, I take divers and search lost shell early tomorrow.

Of course, she said quickly. But check with Christian first. Hes preparing a report for
me, so he might want you to start in a particular area.

Nakamori nodded and tilted slightly forward again.

Archer had two distinct impressions. One was that English wasnt Nakamoris preferred
language. The second was that the wiry, barrel-chested Japanese didnt care much for
Christian Flynn.

Is there room for another diver? Archer asked Nakamori. He hesitated, then nodded. Hoi.
Okay. When do you leave? After dawn. One hour.

Is there extra dive gear?

Nakamori looked at Archer from head to heels. Mr. McGarry gear fit chest. But bottom...
The Japanese shrugged. Sorry. No fit.

If I get too cold, Ill sit up top until Im warm again. Make sure theres room for Hannah,
too. Archer looked at her. I assume you dive.

She smiled, thinking of the hauntingly beautiful ocean beneath the surface, where colors
flowed into a thousand shades of blue and all was grace. I havent really been diving since
the storm. Christian said there wasnt room, and I didnt want to get in the way of salvage
work. Then the engine started having problems. Its fixed now? she asked, turning to
Nakamori again.

Not now, he corrected. Tomorrow. Right, she said. Tomorrow. If calm, he added. She looked
out at the sky. No huge clouds loomed or gathered in a solid western wall. It will be
fine. Nakamori went through the front door, paused on the verandah, and looked back. Mrs.
McGarry? Yes?

My divers must feed families. They ask if need find more work.

Everyone who works for Pearl Cove will be paid, Archer said, understanding the question
Nakamori was too circumspect to ask outright. Tell your men.

Nakamoris black eyes scanned Archer with shrewd intelligence. Flynn say Pearl Cove ffft
no good. Banks not build again.

If you work, you get paid, Archer repeated.

How? Nakamoris voice was polite but insistent.

By a check drawn on a Hong Kong bank.

Mr. Donovan, Hannah said quickly, is a partner in Pearl Cove. He is underwriting what
needs to be done.

Surprise flicked like a whip over Nakamoris face, followed by no expression at all. Pearl
Cove okay?

Pearl Cove is a mess, Archer said, but youll be paid for every hour you work. Okay. I
tell. Nakamori bowed slightly and went out into the yellow violence of the sun. I dont
want to leave you alone while I dive, Archer said. Are you comfortable diving? Is an ama?
she asked, smiling slightly, thinking of the famous female pearl divers of Japan. A smile
split the darkness of Archers beard. An ama? Do you wear what the amas wear, too? White
blouse and trousers? No.