Sea Red, Sea Blue

by Jean James

  “I’ve been investigating your real estate office for the past few months. I thought they were mixed up in something…bad, extremely bad. I had reached a dead end until you and Johnny showed up here on almost the same day.”

  “And that made you suspicious of me?” She leaned forward and put down her almost empty cup.

  “Not at first. I had been suspicious of Johnny for quite a while, but I couldn’t find him. No one knew where he was, or else no one would tell. Then I got a hint that he might work at a certain bank in Chicago. It wasn’t much of a hint, but it was all I had to go on, so I went up there to see for myself.”

  “And you met a rude customer who came out of Mr. Pinkston’s office. I apologize, but I was extremely angry with Mr. Pinkston, and then you…you thought I was his secretary.”

  “So, you did remember me from that day.” He brought the coffee pot over and refilled their cups.

  “Not until you followed the Miss Iris home in the rain and wind. I looked at you through my binoculars, and your hair was horizontal—like it had been that day in Chicago. Did you discover anything while you were up there?”

  “I discovered I should have taken a heavier coat. That’s about all. I couldn’t get any information on Johnny, so I came back. And then Johnny showed up and so did this girl in a car with an Illinois tag.”

  “And you thought we arrived together?”

  “I thought it might mean something. I followed you and learned you frequented the beach in the early mornings—and that you were the same girl I’d seen at the Chicago bank. That’s when I planned to get to know you better, but I wasn’t really suspicious of you until that morning you ran past me from your office. You looked so guilty.”

  “But you were spying on me, then.”

  “I was spying on the Amanos. I’d gone out early to fish and saw them pull into the office. I was curious about what they might be up to at that hour of the morning. You were the surprise—coming out right after them.”

  “May I ask what this bad thing is that you think they did?”

  “I guess I owe you that.” He put down his cup. “This has to do with my aunt. I’ve mentioned her to you—Aunt Molenda. She was one of the few relatives I had left, and we’d always been close. She planned to move nearer to me—didn’t tell me outright that she was moving to Naples, but I could tell what she had in mind. She was always very independent and liked to run her own affairs. Well…I was on a three-month diving expedition—I have projects like that from time to time—and she had my expedition address and wrote regularly. The last thing I got from her was this.”

  He handed Katherine a worn card with small, attractive handwriting.

  Dear Lee,

  By the time you’re back in home port, you’ll have a new neighbor—not close enough to be a nuisance but close enough to share dinner and talk now and again.

  Found a lovely little condo today that I can just afford right now with the discount I get for paying cash. Closing this afternoon!

  Love, Molenda

  “You haven’t heard from her since this?” Her grip on the card became tense.

  “Not a thing. And she was in perfect health—intelligent too, but a trifle naive about business matters. I guess she wanted to surprise me.”

  Immediately all business, Katherine looked at the envelope.

  “It has a date. Did you check old newspapers and the Internet to see what they advertised at that time? Did you check the real estate Multiple Listing Service?”

  “Affirmative to both questions.”

  “It’s a Naples postmark. There’s not much chance she would buy in another town—especially since she was closing the sale that afternoon. Did you check Marco?”

  “Checked everything in this area of the state.”

  “Was her money gone from her bank account?”

  “She had about four thousand dollars left in her account. The bank’s been very helpful. They said she’d just transferred her money to their bank. Consequently, no one knew her. She personally withdrew forty four thousand dollars—in cash. When the teller suggested a cashier’s check, or something safer, my aunt explained that the real estate office had arranged for a security agent to escort her to her closing. That was all the bank knew, and it was so like my aunt. She was tight-lipped about her affairs. I checked security agencies. It was obviously a phony agent.”

  “Did you come up with any leads regarding condos?”

  “Here’s the list of ones available at the time. The most obvious choice was a one-bedroom condo near Golden Gate for forty-seven thousand. It was a large ad and the real estate office was Amano’s.”

  “That sounds about right,” Katherine agreed. “Since she supposedly got a discount, it could easily come out to about the sum she withdrew from the bank. Or the salesperson she contacted could have made up any amount for a cash discount price.” She suddenly shivered and tears filled her eyes as she remembered Buzzy and Johnny’s conversation. She looked up at Lee.

  “It’s all right,” he said sadly. “Months ago convinced myself she was dead. She was a saintly woman, and it was my loss, not hers. I would’ve loved having her close by. Once I invited her to live with me, but she wouldn’t consider it—didn’t want to impose. She had always lived by herself.”

  “It would have been Johnny,” Katherine said simply.

  Lee’s eyes smoldered with unspoken fury.

  15

  “Johnny! My gut feeling told me he had something to do with it, Kate.”

  “He had everything to do with it.” She looked down, trying to decide where to begin. “There’s a lot to tell, but let me start with what I know for sure about Johnny.”

  “That he’s Jack Evans when he’s in Chicago? And that he worked at that bank there, just like I’d first figured?”

  “Yes, and also that he did something despicable, for monetary gain, directly before he left for Chicago. That’s why Buzzy sent him up there—to protect him in case of discovery.”

  “But why did he come back? Did he think the heat was off?” Lee spat the words out and tightened his fists.

  “Partly, I guess, but mainly because he became involved in a new scheme in Chicago—small money, ridiculously insignificant, but it almost exposed something bigger that the bank was involved in.” Katherine filled him in on all the details of the bank problem and her involvement with it. When she related the details of her narrow escape from Johnny’s car and explained how Lloyd had secured her a job with Buzzy, Lee’s eyes narrowed.

  “They really shipped you out of there in a hurry, didn’t they?”

  “I rather had that feeling at the time. I think it’s possible that Lloyd Lucas is involved, but that’s just conjecture. What I’m going to tell you now would get me killed if any of them knew. It’s not conjecture; it’s what I heard with my own ears.” She related all she heard from inside the garbage barrel.

  Lee shook his head in amazement. “No wonder you looked startled when you saw me there.” He buried his face in his hands and groaned.

  “Yes, and that made you suspicious of me, so you played up to me for information,” she said accusingly, thinking of their pleasant times together at the restaurant and the beach.

  “Just like you did me,” he answered.

  “Like I did with you.”

  Lee rose with a deep frown on his face. He paced back and forth, apparently lost in thought. “We need to get you away from here, far away. You need police protection.”

  “But Lee, I didn’t actually hear anything that would help much. I don’t know who the boss is. I don’t know what their business is. I’ve wanted to go to the police, but I figured they couldn’t do anything with the foggy bit of information I had to offer.” She looked down at the briefcase before looking back up at Lee with some degree of excitement. “Now, with what you’ve just added, I know a heap more, don’t I?”

  “Considerably.” he said dryly. “Listen Kate, I’ve been working with an FBI agent for the last two months
. We haven’t gotten anywhere. Now you come here and almost have it figured.”

  The sudden praise made her hope she wasn’t blushing.

  “I can still cast better than you.” He ducked the pillow she threw and immediately became serious again. “I’d like you to go with me and meet this man. I want you to give him all the information you just gave me.”

  “I would love to do that.”

  “Good. Now what else do you have suspicions about? Anything?”

  She opened the briefcase and showed him the information she collected.

  “My friend, Laura, is trying to get more information about Johnny—Jack Evans to her. She’s the one who had the bank problem in Chicago. Tonight, I planned to go back and look at maps and try again to get into those locked files. I also thought I’d investigate behind that refrigerator. After that, I meant to check at the courthouse and see what names I could find on deeds and such, and maybe locate the cabin Buzzy and Johnny mentioned. And I intended to go back to Buzzy’s house and see if I could overhear anything.”

  “You what? You went to Buzzy’s house?”

  “Night before last…in his bushes…and at his windows.”

  “Do you realize what risk you took?” he asked roughly.

  “Do you realize you’d just told me to disappear, or else? I didn’t know if you intended to kill me or if you’d get Johnny to do it. I was trying to save my life by getting information. I came by your house, too.”

  He looked astonished. “What a mess. Did I cause all that? What haven’t you done yet, besides the list you just gave me of pending activities?”

  “I’ve done nothing, except try and convince Buzzy and Johnny I’m totally unsuspecting. I thought I’d succeeded until I found you following me.”

  “Do they have any clue of your involvement…besides when you helped your friend in Chicago?”

  “None whatsoever. I’m sure no one saw me enter or leave the office the last two nights.”

  “Excuse me a minute. I need to call Rob. He’s the agent I told you about.”

  He reached the man immediately and arranged to meet with him in a couple of hours.

  “Lee, I need to get back to my boat, now. I’ve been on the run since Thursday and need to do a few things. I especially need clean clothes.”

  “I don’t think you should go back to your boat, back to work, or anywhere else. Surely you realize you’re in danger?”

  “I would be in danger if they knew I’d overheard their conversation that morning, but now that I know you’re not involved with them, I feel safe enough.”

  “I highly doubt you are, but we’ll talk with Rob about it. There’s one other thing that bothers me. I think you should call your friend, Laura, and tell her to cease on the information hunt.”

  “I agree. She was my only hope, or I’d never have involved her.” Katherine tried unsuccessfully to reach Laura.

  “You can try her later. Let’s swing by your boat so you can do whatever needs done. Leave your car here and ride with me to Fort Myers. We’ll meet Rob there.”

  ****

  Halfway to Fort Myers, Katherine’s phone rang.

  “Laura? Where are you now?”

  “I’m at a restaurant. We’re ready to eat, but I thought I’d give you what information I’ve gathered so far.”

  “Laura, make sure no one can hear you.”

  “No one’s near. My, this is exciting!”

  “Laura, listen to me, it’s so exciting that I want you to take every scrap of paper that has anything to do with this and burn them, or flush them, as soon as you can. I don’t want you to check on anything else, and if anyone asks about me, don’t give even a hint about this. Just try to forget everything I asked you.”

  “Can I tell you what I’ve already found out, before I start forgetting everything?” She giggled nervously.

  “Yes, go ahead if you’re still alone.” She put her phone on speakerphone so Lee could hear the conversation.

  “Well first, Jack Evans went to work in the bank around the middle of February. Some of the guys there didn’t like him, but he had a gorgeous new black car that was the envy of many. He liked to spend money, too. I have a friend who’s a teller there, and she actually got on the subject by herself—well, I may have led her a little. I think she had a crush on him. She kept talking about how tall and good-looking he was—great body and all that. Once I got her started, I just kept my mouth shut and listened.

  “Also, when I met with Mr. Pinkston a short while ago to make changes in my house insurance, he told me a little about Jack Evans, though he didn’t mention his name. He told me that the insurance goof was the employee’s only error, and that he didn’t want to publicize it because he knew the man’s family and didn’t want to cause them embarrassment. He said the bank let him quit, instead of firing him, and that he’d moved away because he was ashamed.”

  “Him? Ashamed? That’s a hard picture to conjure up.”

  “That’s all I’ve had a chance to check.”

  “That’s enough. What you’ve just told me will help enormously. Now remember what I said about destroying everything. I’ll talk with you later about all this. Thanks loads. Goodbye, Laura.”

  “Great work.” Lee said with enthusiasm. “That date coincides with everything else that’s happened. And her tip about the vehicle could be our best evidence to date. Rob can discreetly find out what Johnny drove. According to the conversation you overheard, it was a new purchase with my aunt’s money. When Rob knows the make and model, he can have people check into sales at that time, both in this area and in Chicago. He has the manpower and connections for that type of work.”

  They met with Rob Preston in an unpretentious office in Fort Myers. The small, slightly balding man looked about fifty and acted polite and composed. No one would ever have pegged him as an FBI agent. When Katherine gave him all the papers she had collected, he carefully labeled them and put them in a file that already bulged with documents.

  Katherine related everything that she knew and everything that had happened.

  He taped her conversation and took notes at the same time. Occasionally he would stop her to ask a pertinent question. His perfect poker face never changed until Katherine described the garbage can incident. He grinned and shook his head. When she had finished he turned to Lee.

  “I’m not sure how to advise you. Katherine needs protection, but if she disappears right now, it might ruin everything. They might become cautious and—”

  “I don’t want to stop until this is finished,” Katherine broke in. “With what I know, I’d never feel safe again.”

  “Actually, you wouldn’t be,” Rob agreed. “This involves more than two or three people, more than a handful. We need to come down on the entire operation at once, if possible.”

  “Is it a real estate scam?” Katherine asked.

  Rob looked down at his papers, and Lee walked over to a window and looked out.

  “It may involve real estate,” Rob said, noncommittally, after a minute’s silence.

  She guessed they knew more and it irritated her. After all, she had risked the most danger and had trusted them with all her information.

  Rob looked questioningly at her.

  “You still work for Big Buzzy and still have a key to his office, right?”

  “Yes, but…”

  “It wouldn’t be breaking in, it wouldn’t even require a search warrant, if you brought a couple of prospective buyers to your office some evening to discuss real estate, would it?”

  She looked at him in amusement.

  His face showed no emotion except for a slight twinkle deep in his eyes.

  “I have a busy real estate schedule and rarely have any daytime hours free. I could possibly make time for you if we set up an appointment for very late in the day, say around midnight. Would that do?”

  “That would do nicely. How about tomorrow night? Can you meet with two of your clients then?”

  “That s
ounds perfect.”

  “I want to speed things up before it becomes too dangerous for you. I’ll put some people to work right away on this new information you’ve given me. Now—I think you two should avoid hanging around together for a while, especially when you’re in Naples. We believe they already know Lee’s been snooping around.”

  “No doubt. That Jeep of his sticks out like a red bikini,” Katherine said, not able to resist a taunt.

  After she and Rob enjoyed a good laugh at Lee’s expense, Rob turned to Katherine.

  “Keep your phone with you at all times. I’ll give you a number to memorize. Call me if you find the slightest bit of information, even if you think it’s unimportant. Call if you feel you’re in any danger whatsoever. Give your location first in case you don’t have time for more. I want you and Lee to continue your daily schedules as naturally as possible—no sneaking around at this point. That especially goes for you, Lee.” He gestured towards Lee’s beat-up face. “It seems you have a tendency to run into things in the dark.”

  “Don’t I, though.”

  “I think you both realize what kind of people we are investigating. You know they wouldn’t hesitate to perform any act to protect themselves. Johnny, especially, has no code of morals. That fact, coupled with his unpredictability, makes him extremely dangerous. We have almost put this together, so don’t either of you do anything foolish. Lee, I’ll call you with instructions about our real estate meeting tomorrow night. I’ll probably bring along a search warrant as a precaution. Keep an eye on Katherine, but not too closely.”

  On the trip back to Naples, Katherine had just dozed off when her phone rang again.

  “Hey, Miss Katherine, glad I could reach you. Need you to take a party out Monday at one o’clock. It looks like we’ve scheduled a full week of trips. You know, my dear, this is the quickest we’ve ever sold a new condo development, and it’s all because of your efforts.”

  “I’ll be ready for them. Thank you, Mr. Amano. I’m glad my boat helps.”

  “Oh, by the way, Katherine. Things aren’t so formal here as in Chicago. Just call me Buzzy.”