Scent of Gardenia (Scott Tucker Series) (25 page)

Chapter
62

I was in
the dining room of my hotel trying to finish my breakfast. I didn’t feel much
like eating this morning. I also didn’t sleep well last night. My mind kept
racing on what I witnessed last night in the ballroom. I still can’t get the
image of Mercedes and Ralph possibly sleeping together, but it wasn’t the
sleeping part that really worried me. For some reason, I felt like I had been
kicked in the gut.
Well, if I hadn’t come to Bermuda, I wouldn’t be bothered
by all of that. So, if you’re really here to find Holly, why are you so focused
on Mercedes? I think I knew the answer to that now.

I
checked out my plate and I hadn’t made much of a dent in my breakfast. Maybe I
should just go over to Mercedes’ hotel and tell her I’m here. No, I think that
would upset her…she is here on official FBI business. I thought about being
here and doing my own investigation, but realized I was only following them.
‘Them,’
I didn’t like the sound of that at all. I should trust her; after all she has
been working with him for years. So, how could he resist her?

*.*.*

I left
my breakfast sitting there and went up to my room. I went out on my balcony and
looked at the many sailboats tied to their moorings. There must be many rich
people here on the island, judging from the size of some of them. Maybe there’s
considerable money to be made selling the missing men’s yachts.
How would
someone go about doing that? That means there might be more than one person
involved in the disappearances of the men…but what about the deaths?

The
sunlight was shining just right and it looked like there were diamonds floating
on the water. A slight breeze must have crossed part of the harbor and all of
the diamonds in that area rushed together. For some strange reason I remembered
my own captivity and was lucky to be enjoying this pretty view. If it wasn’t
for Mercedes I wouldn’t even be here to enjoy it.
Life
is something that
needs to be enjoyed every day…it can be gone in the blink of an eye. Lisa was
here one minute and gone the next. Before last night, I had pictured such a
bright future with Mercedes, and now I’m not sure about any of that.

*.*.*

I drove
my scooter up to Mercedes’ hotel, finding my spot on the veranda. I could view
the dining room from one particular location. I spotted Mercedes’ companion
sitting alone in the dining room reading a newspaper. I wondered if I had
already missed Mercedes. I noticed some heads turning, but I couldn’t see what
they were focused on. Then I saw her. Her red hair was gathered on the top of
her head, but some of it hung down framing her face. I couldn’t tell if her
white shirt was a man’s or not, but it brought back some memories of her
apartment. Ralph immediately stood up to greet her and gave her a kiss on the
cheek.

A well
dressed waiter came over to take her order. Mercedes and Ralph then started
talking; well Mercedes was doing the talking. I couldn’t see his expression,
but she had a frown and she was waving her hands. She gestured with both hands
like she was outlining her body. Even from where I was seated I could see her
face turning red. The waiter came over and she settled back into her chair. She
nodded her head and he left. She was back at the edge of her chair and was
doing all the talking again. Ralph was shaking his head numerous times.
Was
I witnessing a lover’s quarrel? My stomach started to churn and now I wished I
had eaten more of my breakfast.
Mercedes suddenly stopped talking, leaned
back in her chair, and then looked out the window in my direction.

I turned
to focus on the lobby windows, but kept thinking about whether she spotted me
or not. If she did spot me and saw me looking at them, I’m sure, if she was
upset before, she would be furious now.
How could I defend sitting and
watching her, or them, and how would I explain being in Bermuda without telling
her.
I waited several minutes expecting at any moment to see her standing
next to me. When I thought it was safe to look back, her plate was there with
her food, but she was gone. The waiter came over, Ralph waved his hand and the
waiter took the plate away.

*.*.*

A half
hour later, they both came out the lobby door and got into a cab. It was easy
to follow them, but I didn’t know where they were headed this morning. Five
minutes later they pulled into the police station parking lot and went in the
building. Someone noticed me sitting on my scooter and took a picture of me. He
was taking shots of other things in the area, so I thought about a tourist
visiting Bermuda.
Hey buddy…I’m not a local. If I was him, I would wait a
few more minutes and take a picture of Mercedes.
As soon as I thought about
that, she and Ralph came out of the police station and got back into their cab.

The guy
with the camera was in the right spot to get a shot of both of them. Lucky
man…I wish I had a picture of her to carry with me. They were quickly out of
the lot, with me their extended tail. There was some traffic on the road, which
made my following them less noticeable. At one stop sign I had to let them pull
onto the shore road before I pulled up behind them. In fact, I thought I
noticed someone on another scooter pull off the road when I stopped. I
proceeded onto the shore road after they had driven away. The other scooter was
headed our way also, but there were only two directions he could have gone.

Minutes
later their cab pulled into the same dive shop as yesterday. I pulled over,
watching what they were going to do today. The cab quickly pulled away. Mercedes
and Ralph walked over to the rustic shack and went in. I noticed there was no
traffic on the shore road at all.

Several
minutes later I heard an engine start and then another. I saw the boat head out
into the open ocean just a minute later and observed Mercedes seated in the
back of the boat. They must be headed back to where Shawn’s body was
discovered. They would be gone for hours. Now I had to decide what I was going
to do on
my
investigation.

*.*.*

I
considered what little I knew at this point. Many men were missing, Holly was
missing, two men were found murdered, three yachts were nowhere to be found,
one other yacht had a man and three women on board and hadn’t been seen since
they fueled up, and two men were found in dive cages. I decided to just drive
the shore road thinking about those facts and speculating on what I was
missing.

The
breeze felt good on my face as I headed south along the shore. At one point I
had to stop along with several other scooters and vehicles, as there was a
migration of crabs across the short span of sandy beach and across the road. I
had never seen anything quite like this before. One man got off his scooter,
taking a picture of all of us waiting for the impromptu parade to finish. It
was the same man I saw at the police station. He must have recognized me,
waving as he headed back to his scooter.

We had
to maneuver around some of the crabs, but we were all moving again. There was
now considerable traffic following me. I felt uncomfortable leading the pack. I
looked for the first available place to pull off the road. It was a small
parking lot. I pulled in and went up to the small shack on the property. The
sign read;
‘Rusty’s Dive Excursions.’
There were two vehicles in the
lot, but I didn’t see anyone around.

I went to
the building and tried to enter, but the door was locked. I noticed the sign,
which indicated
‘Sorry, we’re down at the moment.’
There was a glassed
in bulletin board on the side of the building right near the door. The pictures
showed many different groups of men and a few women and most were in scuba dive
gear. The common thread behind every one was a tall redheaded woman. She was
very attractive and much of her body was there…not adequately covered by her
bikini. There were two pictures where she was wearing a wet suit, but there
wasn’t much left to the imagination there either.

I
studied the pictures again, realizing ‘Rusty’ must be the woman in the
pictures. Whoever took the pictures did a good job of capturing her character.
In every picture, she was either smiling or laughing, and every man’s head was
focused on her. The smell of the ocean, the building, the ropes hung on the
side of it, all reminded me of my own kidnapping. That woman was also a
redhead. She was fairly attractive as well, but not as beautiful or endowed as
the woman in the pictures. The hairs on my arms were standing out straight up
and I had goose bumps all over.

There
was nobody around. When I had been captured I had heard a noise behind me and
the next thing I knew was I was tied to a platform and naked. She was too.
Despite that entire bad situation, I was real lucky that day. Mercedes had
figured out things and tried to rescue me.
I couldn’t get my mind off the
missing men and what they might be going through.

Was I
thinking about that time when I heard a noise, or did I just hear a noise
behind me? Not wanting to turn around I braced for the worst.

Chapter
63

Mike
could only watch as Sam pulled the cab off the road, into the small parking
lot. For some reason he thought about the large vehicles back in the states and
what they would look like on these small roads. He smiled at the thought.

Sam
spotted the smile and asked, “What is making you smile like that, Mr. Mike?”

“I just
had a thought about what our large vehicles in the states would look like on
these small roads.”

“That would
be quite a sight…talk about scary on the corners. Here we are Mr. Mike. This is
the address we were given.”

Mike
looked at the two other vehicles parked in the lot, along with a motor scooter.
Well, I don’t see any boat at the dock down there, but I suppose we should see
if anyone’s here. They both got out of the cab and walked to the small shack.

*.*.*

Mike
spotted a blond man kind of crouching near the front door…he looked frozen in
place…even from the back he resembled somebody he knew. Sam touched him on the
shoulder and the man jumped a mile and then ducked covering his head.

Sam saw
his reaction and spoke up, “Mister, I’m sorry I scared you.”

I heard
the man’s voice and turned. I couldn’t believe my eyes. “Mike?”

“Scott?”
What the hell are you doing here?” Mike asked, with a huge smile.

I was so
glad they were not who I was thinking of. “Well, I’m here trying to find
Holly.”

Mike
came over and gave me a big hug. “Well, a second ago, you looked more like you
thought we were going to cut your head off.”

“Actually,
it was something like that.”

“How
long have you been here, and does anyone know you’re here?”

“I got
in yesterday. No, right now you’re the only one who knows I’m here. Speaking of
knowing things, why are you here?”

“A
better question is how you beat us here. Are you still going to be one step
ahead of me, even here? Oh, Scott, let me introduce Sam…Sam, this is Scott
Tucker. Scott works in our office and should be taking care of his projects
back in New England.”

“It’s nice
to meet you, Sam.” I offered my hand, and Sam shook it. I addressed Mike, “My
projects are okay at the moment. I thought I could be of more use here, than
there.”

“Well
Scott, to answer your question—we learned that the operator of this dive shop
is a redheaded woman who may have purchased six dive cages recently. We wanted
to talk with her.”

“Well,
you can’t talk to her at the moment, but you can see what she looks like in
those pictures over here.”

Mike
looked at the pictures without saying anything, and then looked at them again.
“She looks like she could give Mercedes a run for her money.” He looked at the
pictures a third time. “Her supplier indicated yesterday she’s a strange duck,
and also said she was a looker, who liked to show off her body. I see what he
means.”

I asked,
“What do you want to do now? Are you going to wait here for her to return?”

Mike
looked at his watch and towards the ocean. “No, they could be gone for hours. I
say we go someplace to talk about all of this, and see how best to team up.”

“Powerful
words, ‘team up.’”

“Oh, why
the hell did you jump a mile when Sam touched you?”

“To be
honest, my mind was back on my own captivity. The tall redhead in the pictures
brought back some ugly memories.”

“Yes,
you were one lucky puppy, if I remember correctly.”

“Mike,
if you hadn’t found Mercedes and me that day, both of us wouldn’t be here
today.”

“Speaking
of Mercedes, have you seen her since you’ve been here?”

I took a
deep breath before answering. “I’ve seen her, and I’ve seen both her and
Ralph…her
companion
.”

“Sounds
like you’ve got some sensitivity there. Care to share?”

“No, not
really.”

“Okay
then. Why don’t we go back to my hotel and map out a plan to find these men. I
think we may have found someone who bears some looking into. We can’t risk
spooking her. She could possibly dispose of all of them.”

I took
one last long look at the pictures.
I guess it was her stature and red hair
that looked familiar, but there was something about her eyes. Maybe it was how
she looked at the men when the pictures were taken. It was like she was sizing
up her next meal, or her next victim.

*.*.*

Sam left
in the cab when we arrived back at Mike’s hotel. We went into Mike’s room to
talk about what we needed to do next.

“Scott,
the first thing we’re going to do is to call Paddy and let him know you’re
here. I also want him to be aware of what we’ve learned so far, and to have him
call Mr. Nielsen to tell him we seem to be getting closer.”

Mike got
off the phone about a half hour later and said he told Paddy about the
redheaded woman who purchased six dive cages, and operates a dive excursion
business. Paddy told him they had learned about Shawn Dustin’s body being
discovered. He also mentioned to Mike that the FBI had been informed that one
of the missing yachts was found in the Bahamas. A man was taken into custody
and was being questioned by several different authorities. Paddy shared with
Mike that Mr. Dustin’s body showed signs of torture, including a broken fish
hook where no man would want it.

My
stomach was doing flip flops and I needed something to eat. “Mike, I didn’t eat
well this morning, do you think we can get something to eat?”

He offered,
“How about the following. You go over and check out of your hotel and move in
here, which will save you some of your money. Call me when you’re leaving the
hotel and I will order room service and it will be ready for you when you get
here.” Mike looked outside. “It’s still light outside, but it will be dark
shortly. It will be an early dinner, and we won’t have to dress for dinner
either. I told Sam to pick us up here in the morning, and we can have breakfast
downstairs.

*.*.*

I was
glad Mike had located me, and it would make more sense to operate as a team. We
did it twice before and it worked out to our benefit.
On the way to my room, I stopped at the desk to tell them I
would be moving in with a friend at the
Hamilton
Princess.
The
clerk was very courteous, asking if their service had been satisfactory. They
were concerned I was making a change because of something they might not have
done correctly. I reassured them it was nothing like that.

I had my
small amount of stuff packed in no time. I also realized I needed to turn in my
scooter at the rental shop.