The Payback Assignment (44 page)

           
“Who the hell are you?”

“Daily News,” the man said, not even bothering to offer his name.
 
Instead he pushed a pocket tape recorder toward their faces.
 
“Fires happen every day.
 
You guys are the story here.
 
From what the other woman said, you two are real heroes.”

-34-

           
On a cool spring evening, a sleek black Corvette slid into a parking space in at an exclusive marina on the ocean side of Long Island.
 
The passenger side door opened and a tall, powerfully built black man got out.
 
He appeared vaguely uncomfortable in a navy blue suit and tie.
 
His shoes were hand made Italian slip-ons.
 
He walked around the car and opened the door for the driver, a slender, stately redhead.
 
She was dressed simply in a jade silk gown that matched her eyes.

           
“That’s her boat,” Felicity said, pointing down a long pier.

           
“Boat?”
 
Morgan snorted.
 
“Red, when they get into the two hundred foot class, I don’t think you call them boats.
 
They become yachts.
 
This old girl’s two hundred eighteen feet from stem to stern.”

“I just love that nautical talk,” Felicity said.
 
Arm in arm the couple walked slowly up a long gangplank.
 
Its guide ropes were strung with small electric lights.
 
As they got closer to the deck the subdued chatter of polite celebrants greeted them.
 
The vessel ahead was jammed with smiling faces.
 
Felicity scanned the tuxedo and gown crowd, but saw no familiar faces.
 
As they were about to step aboard the vessel, their hostess appeared as if from nowhere.

           
“Thank God you came.”
 
Marlene beamed as she literally dragged them aboard.
 
“My first party on my own and I’m a wreck.
 
I would have died if you didn’t show up.”

           
Felicity took a good look at their hostess, as if for the first time.
 
Marlene was somewhat older than Felicity, a little shorter and stockier.
 
Still, she looked several years younger than the night they met.
 
She had lost weight over the last two months.
 
She may never be beauty pageant material again, but even in a tight fitting black evening gown, her figure was now nothing to be embarrassed about, and flattering highlights danced in her honey blonde hair.

           
“Well, did you enjoy your vacations?” Marlene asked as she hustled Morgan and Felicity into the center of the party.
 
A buzz of polite, happy conversation enveloped them.
 
A tray went by, and Marlene made sure they all collected drinks.

           
“You’re certainly popular,” Felicity said.
 
“I have to apologize for Morgan.
 
Tried to get him into a tux, I did, but he flat out refused.”

           
Marlene turned to her, then paused, and the festive glow momentarily left her face.
 
She forced the smile back into place and nodded toward Felicity’s throat.

           
“I see you do wear it, at least.”
 
Felicity expected this moment.
 
Marlene was looking into the antique brooch pinned at the top of her gown.
 
It was the item that had driven the bizarre sequence of events that brought them together.
 
And she saw that her friend was wearing a bittersweet smile.

           
“Wear it every chance I get,” Felicity said.
 
“Hope I didn’t offend you by wearing it tonight.
 
Guess I wanted you to know it wasn’t just, I don’t know.
 
I didn’t think of it bringing back bad memories.”

           
Morgan leaned forward, interposing his body between the two women.
 
“Why don’t we go up top?”

           
Three minutes later they were standing alone on the upper deck at the stern of Marlene’s motor cruiser.
 
A warm wind whipped the women’s hair and carried both the ocean’s salty scent and the sounds of passing sea birds.
 
Felicity’s martini had started a glow in her stomach, matching the moon overhead.
 
With her back to the shore, she was able to get lost in the endless black of the night sky.

           
Felicity stared into the faces of her two friends, and there was an undeclared moment of silence.
 
They had not all been together since the excitement sixty days before.
 
Two months had passed since that awful day of danger and the following day of police reports and news reporters.
 
That had been a day of torture as well, a day of minute public scrutiny for three exhausted individuals who all had secrets to keep.
 
Three, because the camera shy man known only as Paul had somehow slipped out of the hospital unobserved and disappeared, saving them the trouble of explaining a bullet wound.
 

           
“So?”
 
Marlene said at last.
 
“How did you enjoy your vacations?”

           
“Morgan just got back a couple of days ago.”
 
Felicity turned to watch the lights of an unknown nearby town.
 
“He says he has a secret place he goes to after a bad time.
 
An island he actually owns in the Pacific somewhere.
 
Just a cabin he says.
 
No electricity or plumbing or anything.
 
Doesn’t that sound romantic?
 
Wouldn’t take me, the git.
 
Says no one else has ever been there.
 
But he sure came back looking good.”

           
“And yourself?”

           
“Oh, I had fun,” Felicity answered.
 
She chose not to mention exactly how she went off to relax as well.
 
She spent three weeks at her Riviera place, wearing her newly acquired brooch at every opportunity.
 
She gambled.
 
She sailed.
 
She took a lover.
 
And she returned mentally and emotionally refreshed.

           
“Okay, what about the future?”
 
Marlene asked.
 
“When you left New York, you were talking about starting a business.
 
Have the two of you discussed those plans further?”

           
“Extensively,” Felicity said, her voice filled with energy and enthusiasm.
 
“I’ve made contact with a number of security equipment manufacturers.
 
And I’ve got to admit, the publicity after the fire helped a lot, especially when you publicly declared us your personal security advisors.
 
I’ll be marketing my services as a designer of security systems for businesses, museums, and the homes of the very wealthy.
 
I’ll be in the business of protecting the art and jewelry that I used to nick myself.”

“And this will content you?” Marlene asked.

“Well, I suppose.
 
And if one of my clients does take a loss, who better to recover what’s been taken?
 
That part sounds like fun.
 
And with Morgan’s help, I’ll be able to provide security for major events too.
 
He’ll be training our security force, you see.”

           
“Really?”
 
Marlene turned to Morgan.
 
“Do you have any experience in that sort of thing, or will you just fake it?”

           
“Actually, I’ve trained personal protectors and executive drivers in anti-terrorist tactics in the past,” Morgan said.
 
“I just haven’t done it in the U.S. before.
 
Overseas, a lot of that work is done my people with military experience.
 
To tell you the truth, private companies do a lot of security work in other countries, often in conjunction with the U.S. military.
 
Civilian paramilitary companies supplying contractors to Uncle Sam is a billion dollar business and I plan to take my share.”

           
“Sorry, but you just don’t strike me as the business type,” Marlene said with a smile.

           
“Well, maybe I figure its time for me to settle down.
 
A little.”
 
Morgan glanced at Felicity with a lopsided grin.
 
“Besides, who says I won’t be out there with my guys in Bosnia or Colombia or wherever?”

           
“I see,” Marlene said, leaning back against the railing.
 
“Well, I certainly wish you both success.
 
I’ve learned a great deal about business in the past month, and I can tell you it’s not easy.”

           
“Well, don’t get mad, but I did a bit of checking when I got back in the country,” Felicity said.
 
“It seems to me you’ve done all right by the Seagrave Corporation.”

           
Marlene gave a short, sharp laugh.
 
“I read a bunch of books on business.
 
I was determined not to lose what I suddenly had.
 
I’ve streamlined my husband’s holdings and somehow managed to maintain control of it all.
 
It’s very exhilarating, really.
 
I seem to have found some excellent managers.
 
And, I find myself to be, after all the dust settled, quite wealthy.
 
Oh, and my first official act as president of the company was to fire Stone.”
 
She paused, clearly steeling herself to launch into an unpleasant subject.
 
Her voice lowered and lost much of its energy.
 
“I’ve also learned a great deal about my husband’s business dealings.”

           
Felicity saw her partner looking more closely into Marlene’s eyes.
 
She could not, and ended up looking down at the deck.

           
“Yes, I know it all now,” Marlene continued.
 
“Or, at least, I think all.
 
Anyway, I know how he cheated each of you.
 
I know that he paid men to, um, to put you in danger.
 
I guess I suspected for some time that he did this type of thing.
 
But you’ve got to understand that to a twenty-six year old, over the hill beauty queen who hadn’t done too well in school, who hadn’t managed to get a modeling career going, who hated her parents, who was looking for a fast track to the upper class, well, Adrian Seagrave was a hard offer to refuse.
 
And that was a lot of years ago.
 
That’s not by way of an excuse.
 
It’s just the way it was.”
 
Her lower lip was quivering, and she took a deep breath to regain control of herself.
 
Felicity felt the chill that was shaking Marlene.
 
She looked up, started to speak.

           
“Please don’t say anything,” Marlene continued.
 
“I didn’t ask you to come here to say that.
 
Aside from just wanting to see you again, I really just wanted to thank you for saving my life now that I know all the reasons you had for not doing so.
 
And to let you know there’s no bad feelings here.”

           
Morgan, leaning against the lifeboat, squirmed under her gaze but maintained eye contact.

           
“I know my husband’s death was an accident.
 
I blame you for nothing.
 
And I wanted to help you get started in your future business.
 
I wanted to give you this.”
 
Her voice sped up on the last sentence, and she rummaged in her purse, producing a small white envelope.

           
“And whatever might this be?”
 
Felicity asked, without raising a hand to accept the offered envelope.