“That’s good because you aren’t getting one.”
The guy sitting on a stool to my left, pretending not to listen, let out a snort of laughter. Faust didn’t even blink. “I want the black orchid.”
“I don’t have it.”
His eyes narrowed and he studied me.
“Beat it.” I said it louder this time, in case he was deaf.
He didn’t move. It seemed neither rudeness nor anger was new to him. He said, “I’ll pay you well.”
“Didn’t you hear me?”
“Why were you at the Orchid Ball? You’re the only one who would pull a stunt like that, putting the orchid on the table.” He jabbed a finger in my direction. “It was you.”
I turned away from him, went to the door of the kitchen and pushed it open. “Miguel, come here for a minute.” I started to turn away but pivoted back to add, “And bring your attitude adjuster; there’s a guy out here in need of it.”
Martin Faust may have been a smart man, but he knew nothing about angry women fighting a head cold, bartenders or a Mexican chef who grew up in a really tough neighborhood.
Miguel came through the door with a meat cleaver in his hand, looked around the room and then at me. Miguel raised his eyebrows, asking a question.
I pointed at Faust. “Him.”
“Oh,” Faust said, bouncing on his toes with anxiety. “Oh,” he said again before he scurried away like a rat fleeing a flooding ship.
“He wasn’t much fun,” Miguel said.
“Yeah, don’t you hate it when people don’t live up to their potential?”
Miguel grinned and went back to the kitchen while the three locals at the bar, finishing their two-martini lunches, clapped and cheered. They had one more story to add to their Sherri chronicles. A girl can get a real bad reputation without even trying.
I dug in my purse for more aspirin.
I’d just unlocked the pickup when a voice behind me called, “Hi there.”
I turned to see Ethan coming towards me. “Hi yourself.”
“I was heading in for lunch, but it looks like I won’t have anyone to talk to. It makes my day to lunch with you.”
I smiled. “Sorry, today’s the day we go out to Liz’s island.” I threw my purse onto the passenger seat.
“Ah,” he said, nodding. “I forgot about that.” He bent over a little, gazing up into my face and studying me. “You don’t look too excited about it. Don’t seem happy at all.”
“Head cold.” I slid behind the wheel. “Not much could excite me today.”
He laughed, started to say something and then caught himself. “Have fun.” He walked over to a Cadillac Escalade, digging out his keys. Obviously it took more than the best pastrami on rye in town to make him hang around.
My cell rang while I was packing. I threw my black bikini at my bag, not caring if it made the trip or not, and answered the call without checking the caller ID. The phone is my lifeline to the Sunset, and I pretty much never duck a call.
Sasha said, “You’ve been checking up on me.”
I flopped backwards onto the bed. “Nope, only Willow. I just wanted to know she was okay.” I watched the ceiling fan slowly turn. “Do you mind?”
He took his time answering. When he did, he surprised me by saying, “Bossy, concerned and pushy, just like my mother.”
“Oh, shit, I don’t want to remind any man of his mother.”
He laughed. “Have you found the orchid yet?”
I swallowed a curse and put my forearm over my aching head. “I’m not looking for it.”
“Like hell you aren’t. Why are you hanging with Ethan?”
“He and Clay have business.”
“And how did that come about?”
Did I owe him an answer? Not really, but the sooner I convinced him I knew nothing about nothing, the sooner he’d bugger off. “Ethan came into the Sunset and met Clay, or maybe he met Clay and then came into the Sunset. I don’t know. Ask Ethan if you’re so curious.”
“Like I thought, Ethan came looking for you, and the only reason he’d do that was because he thought you had the orchid.”
Or because he thought I knew Tito. Best to keep that to myself. “Look, instead of wasting my time, just call Ethan and ask him to satisfy your curiosity.”
He gave a harsh laugh and said, “It’s all the same to me how you got in the middle of this. I just want the black orchid.”
I sat up, making the room swirl. “Trust me, if I had that stupid flower I’d sell it to you in a second just to get rid of you all. Everyone at the ball has called, or come by, looking for it. If I knew anything about the freaking thing I’d have sold it already and be on the way to the bank with the money.”
Silence. Finally he said, “Who are you working for?”
I bit back a string of obscenities. “Not buying, not selling, not working for anyone. Cross my heart. Ben got in touch with you and tried to sell it to you, right?”
“Sure, that’s no secret. Half the people at the Orchid Ball were on Ben’s list . . . except Ethan. Ben would never sell to him.”
Or Nina, but there was no need for me to tell Sasha that.
Sasha said, “The orchid was going to the highest bidder. Ben told us that from the beginning. This was the owner’s chance to get his name on a new species; immortality, that’s what we were all buying. And Ben was looking to clear his debt.”
“So maybe Ben got an offer he couldn’t refuse and sold it before he died.”
“I thought about that. If Ben had a really good offer, he would have called us all back and tried to get us to up the price, but he didn’t. That means he still had it, was still collecting names and deals. Trust me; he was going to turn it into an auction with the black going to the highest bidder.”
“So then, it went up in the fire with him.”
“If that’s true, there’s no use looking any further. You were my last chance.”
“Sorry to disappoint you. Goodbye.”
“Wait, wait,” he said before I could put the phone down. “It couldn’t have gone in the fire. There was that bloom at the Orchid Ball. How do you explain that?”
“I don’t.”
“Are you certain Ethan doesn’t have the black? If Ethan has it, no one will ever see it again.”
I sighed. “Ethan didn’t know it existed until after Ben died.”
“Not quite true,” Sasha said.
“What do you mean, not quite true?”
“Ethan knew Ben had a black orchid.”
“How?”
“I told him. I called Ethan three days before Ben died. Ethan told me he knew nothing about any black orchid, said he and Ben hadn’t talked in years. I checked around after I talked to Ethan and he was telling the truth. The brothers had a nasty breakup, so it was unlikely Ethan knew what was happening at Osceola Nursery. All the same, once I told him about it, he would have checked it out.”
My head, already swollen with a virus, couldn’t take it in. “Ethan lied?”
“If he told you he didn’t know about the black until after Ben’s death, he lied.” His laughter had a spiteful, grating edge to it. “I’m positive Ethan didn’t know about the plant until I told him. I thought he was going to stroke out.” He laughed again, like he enjoyed upsetting Ethan.
I planted my elbow on my knee and put my head in my hand, staring at the floor and trying to decide if I really believed Sasha.
Sasha said, “Are you still there?”
“Yeah.” It was all I could manage.
He said, “Call me if you find the orchid.” It was more a demand than a request.
“Yeah, and I’ll call if I find an alien spacecraft or Bigfoot.” And just to annoy him, I added, “What happens when Willow gets out?”
“I’m through with her.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Well, I would have expected you to just kick her to the curb when her bad habits got out of control, but you put her in rehab. Doesn’t sound like you’re done.”
He hung up. How many men did that make who’d hung up on me this week? I was losing my appeal.
CHAPTER 33
I flopped back on the bed and tried to make sense of it all. Someone had searched my home looking for the orchid. I was pretty sure of that.
And the search had taken place right after Sasha came to the Sunset for the first time. But why had someone done a financial check on us? The answer came quickly: to see if we’d had a big fat bonus going into our account and to see if we’d paid off some debts. And what else?
I closed my eyes. I wanted to stay in bed for about a year. Just stay there and not think.
Clay came in an hour later and woke me. “C’mon, sleepyhead, let’s get going.” He pulled a carry-all from the bottom of his closet. Either our scene that morning didn’t matter to him or he was trying to patch things over. “I thought you’d be excited to go back to the island again.”
“Maybe not as excited as you, not quivering with anticipation.”
“You should be. This is the beginning of great things.” He dropped the bag on the bed beside me and headed back to his closet. “If this goes the way I think it will, the sale of Dancing Lady will set us up for a new life.”
It was the old life, the one I’d been born with, I was worrying about. I dragged myself upright and sat on the edge of the bed, arms dangling down between my legs in the most unladylike pose possible as I waited for the world to stop whirling around and watched Clay pack. “Ethan lied to me,” I said
Clay didn’t look up from the freshly laundered pale blue shirt he was folding. “About what?” His voice was neutral, underlined by a trace of, “Oh, here we go again.” He tucked the shirt gently into the bag, patting it down and smoothing out the edges.
“Obviously your idea of a night away is far different than mine. I threw a change of underwear and a bathing suit inside my bag.” I didn’t add that it was mainly to hide an item I was supposed to have returned to Tully. It was one of the few things I’d lied to Clay about. Actually, it wasn’t a lie. I just hadn’t done what I’d promised to do.
“Ethan knew about the orchid before Ben died. Sasha told him.”
He carefully folded another shirt, concentrating and not looking up as he said, “And you believe Sasha?”
“Ah, the big question.”
His hands stilled and he glanced over at me. “Does it matter when Ethan found out about the plant?”
“Maybe.”
His eyes went back to consider his neatly folded shirts. “Do you think two shirts are enough?”
I wanted to scream—and would have except then my head would have exploded. “It makes it possible that Ethan killed Ben.”
I had his attention now. “That’s crazy. Why would Ethan do that? The man has everything. What could he have possibly gained from killing his brother?”
“How about a black orchid?”
“People don’t kill their brother for a flower.”
“Not people like you, or people like me. Look at Martin Faust, risking jail and his reputation for a few plants. Some of these people go beyond crazy, smuggling plant material through customs, spending tens of thousands of dollars on foraging trips into the wilds of foreign countries and risking their lives.” I yawned again, stretching away sleep. “There’s an international trade in endangered species of wild animals and plants. Where do you think all that material goes to? Collectors.”
I could see on his face that he wanted to argue. Instead, he went back to packing his immaculately arranged bag. In truth, I didn’t believe it myself. It was just that everything seemed wrong and suspect these days.
On the way to the dock, while we were stopped at a red light, Clay looked straight ahead and said, “Are you sure you want to come?”
I studied him, a sudden realization dawning. He didn’t want me there, was afraid I was going to mess up his deal of a lifetime. I didn’t bother answering.
“Why don’t you stay home and rest? You can drop me off and come back for me tomorrow night.” The light turned green. “A day’s rest will make a difference to the way you see things.”
I felt like hell, and normally I would have been only too happy to beg off. But the thought of being separated from Clay right now gave me a bad case of the worries, scared for him and dreading being by myself. There was no way I was ever going to spend another night alone in that half-deserted subdivision. “It might be my only chance to see this fine place. Besides, I can rest there better than I can in Jac. I’ll tag along.”
“You can’t fool me. You’d rather we weren’t going.” Clay slowed and put on the blinker for a left turn through the gates of the marina. “What’s got you so bothered about this trip?”
I waved to a kid with a skateboard under his arm standing just inside the gate and waiting for us to pass. “Oh, I guess I’m just a herd animal. I don’t like to be cut off from the rest of the pack, like to be right there in the middle of things where no one can get at me.”
“Ah, in other words, the Sunset.” He pulled into a parking space and waited while the window slid silently up. “One day I expect you to put a bed in your office and move right in, never leave the place again.” He grinned at me and cut the engine.
“There’s a lot to be said for that idea: no rent, food at my command and company always available.”
“Is that how you want to live your life?” His gaze was intent, his eyes fixed on mine as if his very life depended on my answer.
I shook my head and put my hand on his. “No, that’s not what I want. I want a life with you and a family of our own. It’s embarrassing, but now I want all those things I used to make fun of.”
He smiled into my eyes and said, “Yeah, me too.” He squeezed my hand. “So, no more jumping at shadows today, okay?”
I pulled my hand away. “You’ve got it wrong. It’s not shadows that have got me jumpy. It’s a murderer.”
I heard his sharp intake of breath.
We sat in silence for a minute, and then Clay said, “Okay, let’s look at this logically.” He pulled my left hand towards him, rubbing it gently between his fingers as he spoke. “Ethan came to the Sunset because his brother had died and the police told him Tito had your card. Okay?”
I nodded.
“Everything else flowed naturally from that. Ethan gathered together some collectors who wanted Ben’s black orchid for the ball. Right?”
Again I nodded.
“But maybe none of those people were part of what happened to Ben.”
I turned to him and started to object, but he raised his hand and cut me off. “Yes, they all want the orchid, but there is no reason to think any of them are involved beyond that. It’s only Ethan’s suspect list. Maybe the person who killed Ben is someone we’ve never heard of and what happened at the nursery had nothing to do with orchids.”
“Oh, shit, I hadn’t thought of that.” It was an astounding idea. “The first day Ethan came to the Sunset, he said he thought it was about drugs.”
“Now do you see why you need to turn this over to the police and let them sort it out?”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, I need to talk to Styles.”
“And do you really think you are the only person that these plant collectors are calling? The news from the Orchid Ball spread like wildfire. Orchid collectors will be checking out every possible source for Ben’s black flower. Ethan told me the CEO of a bank phoned from New York and offered a bundle for the orchid.”
I pulled my hand away from him, feeling stupid. “But why are they calling me?”
“They’re calling you because you gave them your card.” He so
unded totally exasperated. “They thought you were promoting something besides a restaurant. Now that you’ve made it clear you haven’t got the plant, they’ll leave you alone.” He opened his door. “Now, let’s go have some fun and forget about everything else for a day.”
I didn’t point out to him that his scenario didn’t cover the return of my sandal. There was no use in starting that argument again. I’d never convince him someone had really sent it to me, and bringing it up now would only convince him I was either lying or crazy—possibly both.
I got out of the car and smiled across the roof at him. The sun was shining and a slight breeze was blowing across the water to cool us off. I hadn’t done anything just for fun since my trip to Miami, so a day on the water was just what I needed to clear my head and heart of a lot of things. “Okay, a day off from worries. I’ll call Styles tomorrow and let him figure it out.” I threw my boat bag onto my shoulder and followed Clay down the dock to the berth where the boat from Dancing Lady waited.
CHAPTER 34
Liz had sent her launch—at least, that’s what she’d told Clay she was sending. It turned out to be an eighteen-foot white runabout with a Bimini top. The man driving it was named Silvio Rozelli. He had beef-jerky skin, a long gray braid down his back, and a green-and-red mermaid tattoo swimming up his forearm. You’ll find a guy like him, pumping gas, delivering boats and emptying trash bins, in every marina in Florida. Always ready to take off at a minute’s notice as crew on a boat for parts unknown, men like Silvio will never be far from the water. Boaters depend on guys like him.
We motored slowly away from the dock, easing out into the channel and barely gaining speed when we were clear of the marina. Silvio was a careful boater, respectful of the fact that inland waters are a no-wake zone, so it was a slow trip out to the open waters of the gulf. I didn’t mind. I studied the few houses on the gulf side, playing the when-I-win-the-lottery game of choosing a house, until the long point of land turned into a state park. Now Australian pines grew along the shore, and here and there, boaters had pulled up to enjoy a picnic in their shade, living the dream.
6 Martini Regrets Page 18
