The Pandora Box (32 page)

“I did try to talk you out of it.”

“No diamonds!” Dee was shocked. “If you’d have told us there were no diamonds, we’d have been talked out of it! How could you do something like that? Especially if you already knew Heinrich Keller was dead.”

“I didn’t know he was dead until after San Francisco. I just knew you were the vital link. And if he still thought the diamonds were there, I figured he’d stay in touch with you. It wasn’t until we looked into Wyngate that we realized they were so far ahead of us. Been following right behind you the whole time.”

“We were nearly killed!” Marion pushed her colorful drooping scarf out of her eye and gave him a piercing glance.

“I’m sorry about that, ladies, I really am. If I’d have known what you were really up against out here, I’d never done it. That’s a fact. I still don’t know how you two managed to overpower them before they got rid of you. They didn’t leave any witnesses, anywhere else, not even Keller’s own son.”

“We have the help of angels, Mr. Eddington,” Marion informed him. “On account of Dee’s father is a pastor.”

“Marion, that isn’t why we have angels,” Dee objected, “everybody has at least—”

“Angels or no angels.” He grinned. “The thing is, it looks like Keller even did away with Anna’s son, at some point, because he hasn’t been on the radar for years.”

“You mean Peterson’s grandson?” Dee took a deep breath before she could steady herself enough to explain. “I know where he is, and Peterson didn’t kill him, Mr. Eddington. He fell overboard because I was trying to throw the journal in the water.”

“Dee!” Marion gasped at the thought.

“Well, I knew I couldn’t stand up under any kind of torture, and—”

“Dee Parker!”

“Marion, you know what a baby I am when it comes to pain. That awful thing had a curse on it! I thought sure he would climb back up on the lifeline, but when we got out on deck, I found half of the line in the cockpit. Von Hayden must have cut it off before he even—”

“Hold it!” Eddington dropped the drooping sandwich he was still hanging onto back on the plate, got to his feet, and started pacing back and forth, as if he was about to come undone. “Are you telling me they were both using that name? Like some code word to communicate with?”

“For the last five years, it was only Scott”

“He was on that boat with you, too.”

“He’s been working at the desk across from mine for the last five years,” Dee went on. “Under the name of Scott Evans. Anna was his mother, and Peterson—my Peterson—was his grandfather.”

“That whole family was rotten!” Marion declared.

Eddington stopped in his tracks. “There’s the last piece of the puzzle, right there. Anna Keller was married to some Dutch fisherman after the war. She was only fifteen. Public records say his name was Nelson Peterson. Heinrich Keller killed him and assumed his identity. This is the first I heard about Anna’s son working with them, but it makes all kinds of sense. He was just the type they needed to make international connections for the organ donor ring. Spoke several languages, too.”

“I don’t think he was doing it willingly, though,” Dee reasoned. “He and Von Hayden were too much at odds with each other. It was the diamonds that had the hold on him, though, and he could never get the location out of his grandfather. But that does explain why Anna hated her father so much.”

“That’s no excuse to go around killing and stealing other people’s body parts!” Marion huffed.

“Of course not, but it makes sense.” Dee pulled her black knit cap off, realized her clip was missing, and began shoving the damp, unruly curls back up into it again.

“I’m just surprised she let Ms. Bates go. That isn’t her style.”

“They didn’t know I was there, I was hiding out in the bilge.”

He looked from one to the other, as if he hadn’t heard right. “Between you hiding out in bilges and Dee tossing over the only thing that could buy her more time, I know I could get you both on at the agency. Well…you’ve got a friend anyway, ladies, I’ll say that much. And if there’s ever anything I can do for either one of you—anything—you just let me know.”

“Hopefully, we won’t ever get into a fix like this again,” Dee replied.

“Probably not, but…” Eddington sank back into his seat, picked up his drooping sandwich, and then tossed it aside. “There is one last thing I have to discuss with you.”

“For heaven’s sakes, now what?” Marion took another half sandwich, opened it long enough to remove a wilted piece of lettuce, and then closed it up again before taking a bite.

“What else could there possibly be? As it is, I’ll never forgive myself for everything that’s happened.” Dee lamented.

“Well, don’t take it too hard,” Eddington replied. “You were up against professional criminals. They were plotting against you for over a year before they even made their move. And, as often happens with these types, they were at odds with each other. Seems that colleague of yours really was trying to make a change. He was going to pull out after he got hold of the diamonds. Left an account of the whole story in his personal effects on the other boat. Hawk sent it in with the helicopter, thinking it might help locate you if we couldn’t catch up.”

“But I thought you said you didn’t know Scott was with them,” Dee reminded him.

“I didn’t. He signed his name as Scott Evans, so I didn’t know the connection. Said he and his fiancée, Jennifer Young, had just signed on as crew. But when Jennifer started complaining about some of the activities they were involved in… like following you around back in San Francisco, dressed as a couple of old people…”

“Oh, gosh—that was her I saw in the restaurant.”

“What restaurant?” Marion asked. “The only person you pointed out to me, that day, was Mr. Eddington, here.”

“The day after that, when I was in the Fish Grotto with Hawk.”

“She caused more trouble than they wanted to deal with, so they poisoned her. I figured they did the same to Scott, until Hawk said he was aboard
Pandora
with all of you. Jennifer, was a decoy, dead or alive, for slipping out from under
White Fox
.”

“Which they used me for instead. Oh, it’s all so awful.” Dee put her head in her hands and suddenly felt exhausted. “I’m ashamed we ever got caught up in something so―so sordid! I really don’t know what came over us. It’s like we were all...”

“Possessed,” Marion finished for her.

“Maybe it’s a good thing the diamonds are gone,” Dee reasoned. “Who knows what depths we would have sunk to if we still thought they were out there.”

“All this for something I’ll never see,” Marion sighed.

“Actually,” Eddington said in a lighter tone, “I think that could be arranged. Now that we’ve got the bad news over with, let’s get to the good part. The wealthy Japanese collector who bought the Strassgaard Jewels, when they were recovered back in seventy-three, is interested in finishing out the collection. In case you’d like to sell that ring.”

“You mean I get to keep it?” Dee raised her head to look over at him. “I don’t have to turn it over for evidence or anything?”

“I could confiscate it for evidence,” he admitted. “But it isn’t an integral part of the case. You came by it honestly, and there’s no one else left to claim it. So after months or even years in litigation, it would probably come back to you anyway. And since you’ve both been so instrumental in all this, and…”

“Saved your hide,” Marion finished for him.

He laughed. “You’ve done that, all right. I think it’s only fair you hang onto it. Unless you’re ready to sell, that is.”

“Oh, I am ready to sell,” Dee insisted. “I can’t wait to sell it. That ring has brought us nothing but bad luck from the moment I first took it out of the box!”

“All right, then. The man’s name is Kim Yakawa. He’s a businessman in Tokyo. Made his money in high tech electronics, and he’s willing to pay a million point five for it.”

“A million point five.” Dee whispered.

“It’s worth more because it once belonged to a cousin of the Russian royal family. Historical value and all that. Not such a bad profit for your efforts. Right? He owns the Blue Moon. A fancy, upper class resort over on the coast there. I talked to him last week, and he said if I could get my hands on it, he’d be willing to talk.”

“I’m so happy we’re all alive, I’d split five ways if you wanted to.”

“Dee Parker.” Marion objected. “We have to have a round table with the other partners before you go agreeing to anything like that.”

“I couldn’t take the money, Miss Dee,” Eddington smiled warmly. “It’s illegal for me to accept any monetary reward in connection with a case. But I do appreciate the vote of confidence.”

“What did you have in mind, then?” she asked.

“Just a little favor. That’s how we do things like this. But I do feel responsible to let you know”—he warned with a teasing twinkle coming into his eyes—”that it could be a little dangerous.”

40

Assignment to Danger

“I answered the summons with pleasure because I longed to help those of God’s most unfortunate children whom I had left prisoners behind me.”
~
Nellie Bly

Dee put on a mint green kimono, took the towel from her head and shook down her hair. The last of her rose water bath was trickling through the drain of the oval-shaped, jade green tub, in the luxurious bathroom of an executive suite at the Blue Moon resort.

“I’m back,” Marion called cheerily from outside the door.

“Let me see,” Dee replied.

The door opened and Marion stuck her newly permed head in, with its stylish wave. “It isn’t quite me, but it covers the crack.”

“It isn’t always going to be a crack. Before you know it, you’ll have a barely detectable scar there. Anyway, you look ten years younger, Mare. I think it’s wonderful.”

“Thanks. That’s what the lady at the shop said, but I figured she said that to everybody. Any calls?”

“Only from me to Eddington.”

“Dee, you’ve got to quit bothering the poor man. He said he’d let us know the minute he heard anything. Let’s think of something to do. Go shopping...or out to eat or something.”

“That’s all we’ve been doing for four days. I can’t make myself get interested anymore. Especially when they could call any time now. Two or three days, Eddington said. It’s been four, Marion. Four and a half to be exact. I’m starting to worry.”

“Well, it doesn’t help to—”

The phone rang and Dee ran passed by Marion to snatch up the pearl-white receiver on one of the nightstands. “Hello?” And then less enthusiastically, “Yes…yes, thank you,” before hanging up.

“Not them, I take it.” Marion guessed.

“Not them. The boat’s ready, though, and we can move back aboard anytime. You know, as much as I’ve enjoyed all this pampering, I really can’t wait to get back to it.”

“You’re bitten, Dee Parker.” She picked up a magazine from her own bedside table that was open at a half-finished crossword puzzle. “Bitten with the treasure hunting bug. You’ve got all the signs.”

“Hawkins, now. Remember?”

“It’ll take a while, I still can’t believe it. And I still think he’s bipolar, even if he did do all those glowing things Eddington said. He’s going to hit the roof you know, when he sees what you’ve done to his boat.”

“It’s my boat, too, and I’ve improved it. He can hardly be mad about that.” She took a few tissues from a decorative box and sat at a small table to remove her nail polish and then paint more on.

“What’s a five letter word that means to acquire knowledge?”

“Learn.” Dee rummaged through her make-up bag for the polish.

“Nope, it has a “u” in it. I think we should move back to
Pandora
today, or we’re going to have to take out a loan to pay the bill on this place. Especially with all the room service we’ve ordered. We’re rich, but we’re not fifteen hundred dollars a day rich. It’s a once in a lifetime fling.”

“At fifteen hundred dollars a day, Marion, we don’t pay for room service. We don’t pay for the sushi or the fruit or anything else we ordered. It’s included in the bill. We even get to keep these kimonos.”

“That’s a relief. At a hundred and twenty dollars a day for snacks, I was starting to worry. How about the word, study...that fits.”

“All compliments of Mr. Yakawa.” She dipped the small brush into the opaque liquid and began to paint. “Including the hotel bill.”

Marion’s mouth dropped open. “You took his offer! I wondered what you two were whispering about when I was looking at the Strassgaard jewels—oh, those jewels!”

“We weren’t whispering. And from now on, I’m steering clear of anything that even comes close to having a curse on it. Believe me. One pass was plenty good enough for me.”

“Well, you really missed something because they were so breathtaking; I could swear they were breathing all by themselves, right there on that pillow.”

“Double shudders. Did you pick them up?”

“Good grief, no. I didn’t want to be some electrical socket for evil.” She plucked a perfectly ripe, red grape from a nearby fruit basket and popped it into her mouth. “I can see right now, though, I should have been listening closer to you two, so I could have jabbed you in the ribs when you agreed to do something like this again.”

“It isn’t just the necklace. Mr. Yakawa is a very persuasive man.”

“Sure he is. Him and Eddington together. But it’s like a vampire curse, all this mystery stuff. Keeps popping up, after you think it’s dead. Look at yourself! Two months ago, you would have been head over heels about a million point five. Not given the time of day to any hoo-doo story of some Ming Dynasty necklace, lost during—”

The phone rang, and Dee leapt for it.

Seascape
had finally docked in the seaport town of Akkeshi, on Alsukeshi Bay, at the eastern tip of Japan’s Hokkaido Island. Because of damages, they had been unable to hold their course through the recent storm and had not returned to it until the weather died down.

The two men were exhausted but well and so relieved over the news that Dee and Marion were safe, that they accepted their quarantine from customs with relatively good humor. Since they had arrived without papers, and
Seascape
—chartered out of San Francisco for a week―was now listed as stolen, they had to remain aboard the yacht until Eddington could fly in and straighten things out. At the same time, the agent was convinced Hawk was going to greet him with a well-deserved punch in the nose, so wisely asked that Dee and Marion go first.