Blowout

by Colleen Cross

  But Raphael’s expression remained blank.

  Harry switched off the TV and they spent the next few moments in awkward silence. Gia emerged on deck moments later in shorts and an oversized men’s t-shirt. “Let’s go.”

  Either Gia was starting a grunge wedding trend or Raphael hadn’t informed Gia of the change in plans. She bet it was the latter.

  Jace picked up on it too. “You’re getting married in that?”

  Gia shrugged. “No time to waste. Harry, you ready?”

  “Wait—I forgot something downstairs.” Kat motioned to Uncle Harry. “Can you help me with something?”

  “I guess.” He shrugged and followed her to the mid-ship staircase. “We’ll never get anywhere at this rate.”

  “Relax, Uncle Harry. We need to talk.” She glanced up at the surveillance camera above the staircase. She had to be careful until they were safely inside the stateroom.

  Five minutes later she had briefed her uncle on everything she knew to date including the stolen yacht and Anne Melinda’s wallet. Enough proof of Raphael’s deception to convince anyone. And enough to make her very worried for Gia. She couldn’t risk telling her friend yet, since any slip to Raphael could be dangerous for all of them.

  “You think he killed his wife and daughter?”

  “I don’t know what to think, Uncle Harry. But consider the facts. He’s claiming this stolen yacht is his, and says he’s a billionaire. He’s either a dead ringer for Frank Bukowski, or he is Frank. Since he has Melinda Bukowski’s wallet, I’d say he’s the real deal. With his daughter dead…” The gravity of their situation hit home. Money didn’t mean a thing if their lives were in danger. “We’re in big trouble. We’re on a boat with a murderer.”

  Uncle Harry voiced the words she couldn’t. “You really think he’s a killer, Kat? That poor little girl. How could anyone do that?”

  “I don’t know what to think, other than we’re in a lot of danger. We can assume the worst but hope for the best.” She couldn’t count on the latter, though.

  Uncle Harry wiped sweat from his brow. “Did I just invest with a criminal?”

  Kat nodded. “I’m afraid so.”

  “The odds of getting my money back are what?”

  “Not great, but it’s not over yet. We’ve got a bigger problem on our hands now. We can’t let on about our suspicions, even with proof. We can’t arouse Raphael’s suspicions until we’re safely off this boat. If he gets wind of what we know, he might do something desperate.” Or deadly. Her mind raced. Was Pete merely an innocent bystander, or was he Raphael’s accomplice? What about the rest of the crew? It was too risky to trust any of them.

  Uncle Harry scratched his bald head. “We still need to prove he’s the same guy, though. How do we do that?”

  “You need identification to marry them, right? Ask him for it.” He might not have any, or whatever he had might be an obvious forgery. It was all she could think of.

  Gia was about to marry a cold-blooded killer, and Kat was powerless to stop it.

  26

  The wedding ceremony was a somber affair, at least for Kat. If the situation wasn’t so grave, the ceremony would have been comical. Gia looked like a vagrant in her baggy t-shirt and shorts. Raphael’s Gap shorts and tank top weren’t even close to Italian designer wear. “Fran—I mean—Raphael…” Uncle Harry’s cheeks reddened as he tripped on his words.

  Raphael’s mouth dropped open but he quickly recovered.

  Kat had confided in Uncle Harry as a last resort, in the faint hope that he wouldn’t go through with the wedding. Her uncle wasn’t much of a bluffer, and he was obviously conflicted. No wonder, as he was about to marry Gia to the very man who had robbed him blind.

  “Raphael and Gia, we are gathered here—” The words caught as Uncle Harry cleared his throat. “Sorry.”

  He had to perform the ceremony or arouse suspicion. Kat and Jace also had to sign as witnesses. They had no choice in the matter. They were all essentially captive on the yacht now. While they could physically leave, Kat couldn’t lose sight of the man that had stolen their money.

  Or killed two innocent people.

  Raphael glared at him. “I thought you did this for a living?”

  “I do. It’s just that—I’ve been doing so many ceremonies lately that I got you mixed up with another couple.” His face reddened. “Let’s start again.”

  “Just get it over with.” Raphael was the most irritable groom Kat had ever seen. And the worst dressed.

  Gia looked at Uncle Harry oddly. “What about the paperwork? You didn’t mix up any names there, right?”

  Uncle Harry waved her away. “Of course not. Raphael showed me the marriage license. Both your names are printed on it. Which reminds me. I need to see some identification.”

  “But you’ve known me since I was eight years old,” Gia protested.

  “Procedure,” Uncle Harry said. “I’ve got to follow the rules. Identification please. Both yours and Raphael’s.”

  “This is the most bungled ceremony I’ve ever seen,” Raphael said. “Why didn’t you ask for our ID before?”

  Harry didn’t answer.

  Gia rummaged through her purse and tossed her driver’s license on the table.

  Raphael handed an Italian passport and driver’s license to Uncle Harry. “Why do you need my identification? I already provided it when I got the marriage license.”

  “Just crossing my t’s and dotting my i's. Can I see that marriage license again?” Harry licked his finger and tabbed through his Marriage Commissioner handbook.

  “You brought that with you?” Kat was surprised that her uncle had packed his handbook. Or anything at all, since he hadn’t planned on a trip in the first place.

  “Gotta do my job right.”

  Raphael sighed and pulled an envelope from the back pocket of his cargo shorts and extracted the marriage license. He handed it to Uncle Harry. “Can we start now?”

  It was a brilliant stroke of luck. Uncle Harry wasn’t exactly meticulous, but he took his Marriage Commissioner duties very seriously. Each minute he delayed bought them time to stall.

  Uncle Harry studied Raphael’s passport and recorded information from it in a small blue notebook. After an eternity he returned the document to Raphael and repeated the process with his Italian driver’s license.

  Raphael sighed. “We haven’t got all day.”

  “What does it matter, Raphael?” Gia stroked his arm. “It isn’t even ten o’clock yet. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

  Since Raphael and Gia already had a marriage license, they had obviously planned the wedding prior to the trip. The license was good for three months. Of course, a marriage license alone didn’t mean that the couple had planned to have the ceremony on this trip.

  Kat was disappointed that Gia, who told everyone everything, had omitted to mention their intended marriage plans until now. She had never known Gia to keep a secret from her before, let alone something this big. On the other hand, she’d barely had any time alone with her friend since boarding the yacht. Raphael had made sure of that.

  Gia replaced her driver’s license in her wallet. “Ready, Harry?”

  Harry cast a nervous glance at Kat.

  Kat shrugged. Raphael already had the marriage license, so no one except Gia could stop the wedding. Like that was going to happen.

  “Okay, take your places.” Harry motioned for Gia and Raphael to face him in front of the bar. Kat and Jace sat on barstools and watched while Raphael took Gia’s hand.

  “Let’s do it.” Raphael pulled Gia close and the couple faced Harry.

  The ceremony passed in a blur for Kat. Why did Raphael need to marry Gia if he already had her money? As a fraud investigator, she regularly encountered scammers. They didn’t stick around once they had the money, and within a very short time they disappeared forever. Clearly he had targeted Gia, but he also got Uncle Harry and Jace’s money as a bonus.

  Raphael was, at
the very least, a yacht thief who had defrauded Gia, Jace, and Harry. At worst, a murderer. The wallet didn’t prove that, but it was damn incriminating. The television news story left no doubt in her mind that Raphael was really Frank Bukowski. She had to contact the police without arousing Raphael’s suspicions.

  “Kat?”

  “Huh?” Uncle Harry beckoned her to the bar where a file folder sat.

  “Sign here—right on the witness line there.” Uncle Harry tapped a forefinger on the paper. “Now it’s all official.”

  She searched his eyes to see if there was anything she could do. There wasn’t, so she scribbled her signature alongside Jace’s. “Done.”

  “We’re all legal then?” Raphael lightly punched Harry’s shoulder.

  “Yup. I’ll file all the paperwork once we’re back in town. You two just tied the knot. Congratulations!”

  Jace pulled two bottles of champagne from behind the bar. “Let’s celebrate.” He filled their glasses.

  “A toast to the happy couple.” Harry’s voice was uncharacteristically flat. “Here’s to happily ever after.”

  More like happily never after. The couple were now married, and without a pre-nup, everything was community property. Gia’s property was also Raphael’s. Whatever he hadn’t already gotten from her was half his now.

  “Bellissima, my wife.” Raphael lifted a lock of Gia’s hair and whispered in her ear.

  Gia sealed her own fate with a kiss on Raphael’s cheek. She turned to face them. “I can’t wait for Costa Rica and the next chapter of my life!”

  Kat just hoped it wasn’t the last chapter. She had no doubt that Monday morning was zero hour. Raphael would extricate himself from Gia and disappear, taking her money.

  Kat had less than twenty-four hours to build a case against Raphael and get the money back.

  And break her friend’s heart in the process.

  27

  The best-laid plans often go awry, and the De Courcy Island hike was no different. Immediately after the wedding ceremony, Raphael announced that they wouldn’t be going ashore after all. Instead, they set sail for Valdes Island, where they would search for the cave and connecting tunnel there instead.

  The Valdes Island cave wasn’t exactly a well-kept secret. The cave’s mouth was right on the beach, visible to anyone in the harbor. The entrance was at least ten feet wide, and even from thirty feet away Kat saw that it was tagged with graffiti. Judging by the empty bottles and garbage strewn around the entrance, it was popular with local partygoers too.

  They cut across the rocky beach to the entrance. Pete and Jace were in front with Uncle Harry and Gia close behind. Kat trailed behind everyone and kept a close watch on Raphael. She was both surprised and nervous that he had invited Pete along. Pete claimed to be a casual worker, but maybe that was part of Raphael’s bigger plan. She simply didn’t trust anyone right now. She couldn’t afford to, especially since Raphael was almost certainly a murderer.

  “Are you sure this is the place?” Jace walked slowly around the entrance. “It hardly looks like a secret.” Logs surrounded the blackened remains of a bonfire that scarred the sand a few feet away.

  “The entrance is well known to everyone,” said Pete. “Locals party here, but they don’t venture much further than the first cave chamber. The deeper chambers are blocked, but there is a secret passage.”

  Kat didn’t think she could handle another secret passage, especially with Raphael lurking nearby. She motioned to Pete and Raphael. “You two go ahead. We’ll follow.”

  Jace nodded while Uncle Harry bent down to tie his shoe.

  “Suit yourself.” Pete turned away and headed for the cave entrance. “We’ll wait for you outside the second chamber.”

  “What are we waiting for?” Gia placed her hands on her hips. “Why can’t we all go together?”

  Kat didn’t have an answer.

  “We shouldn’t all go together for safety reasons,” Jace motioned them over to the circle of logs. “Two groups are better than one.”

  Kat brushed dried kelp off one end of a log and sat down. Harry, Gia, and Jace followed suit.

  “What’s the big deal? I thought the cave was safe,” Gia turned to Jace. “Why is Raphael going first instead of you? Since you’re the search and rescue expert and all.”

  Jace frowned. “This isn’t a search and rescue; it’s just common sense. No one even knows we’re here exploring the cave. All the crew knows is that we’re exploring the island. If we get lost and no one knows about the hidden chamber, then we’re all in trouble.”

  “We’ll let them go ahead,” Kat added. “No point in a bunch of us charging inside and getting into trouble.” Jace was a genius to think of the accident angle. Raphael’s eagerness to explore the cave gave her the creeps, especially after her earlier close encounter. She wasn’t going near the cave with him around.

  “Okay.” Gia sighed as she sat down on a large boulder. “I never wanted to explore the stupid cave in the first place. It’s the last thing I expected to do on my wedding day.”

  “At least you’ve got a nice honeymoon to look forward to,” Harry said.

  “Lucky me.” Gia sighed and stared off in the distance.

  “Cruising down the west coast to Costa Rica is a lot better than what those Brother XII women experienced,” Harry said. “That guy destroyed a lot of lives. Fooled more than one woman, too.”

  “You got that right,” Jace said. “He used Mary Connally’s money to buy 400 acres right here on Valdes Island. He also bought three islands in the De Courcy group. To add insult to injury, he used her money to buy an engine for the tugboat he ultimately escaped on. Even though he left her and everyone else stranded, she said she’d finance him all over again.

  “Then there was Myrtle. She failed to do what a so-called goddess of fertility should do; produce offspring. It turned out that Myrtle wasn’t fertile after all.”

  If Jace realized the irony of his story, it wasn’t apparent by his expression. Two women had been duped by a man. A century later, the same story played out with Gia and Raphael. Love is so blind.

  They sat silent for a few minutes. Though no one said so, Brother XII’s story had lost its cachet now that they had their own mess to deal with.

  Pete and Raphael hadn’t returned, and even Jace and Uncle Harry were reluctant to follow in their footsteps. Raphael had sensed a change in the air, and his reaction to Uncle Harry’s slip-up during the wedding ceremony worried Kat.

  “Brother XII sure destroyed a lot of lives,” Uncle Harry said. “Sounds like he pretty much ruined everybody he came in contact with.”

  “He wasn’t the only one,” Jace said. “His third mistress wasn’t a victim like the other ones were. Mabel Scottowe was also known as Madame Zee. She was more like a sadist, and Brother XII was happy to let her run the show. She was a cruel overseer and struck people with her bullwhip at the slightest provocation. The followers weren’t much more than slaves at that point. They were hardly fed, and the women were forced to haul 100-pound sacks of potatoes. They worked from 2 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day.”

  “They should have just refused,” Harry said.

  “Impossible,” Jace said. “He threatened to send the husbands and wives to separate islands. What would you do?”

  “I wouldn’t fall for any of that,” Gia said. “I hate to say it, but it just serves them right for being so gullible. Who would let themselves get duped like that?” She shook her head.

  “You’d be surprised. The smartest people were fooled. Apparently Brother XII was very charismatic. Somehow he still found new followers and the money kept flowing in, even after he was exposed as a criminal.”

  “Not very smart,” Gia said.

  “No, but some crooks are very convincing,” Kat said. “I can’t imagine letting someone treat me that way.”

  Jace shot her a warning look as Raphael and Pete emerged from the cave. Neither looked happy.

  “Why didn’t they all just g
ang up on him and escape?” Gia shook her head. “I can’t believe they would spend years slaving away like that.”

  “Don’t forget the whole mysticism angle. Aside from having no way of getting off the island, they truly believed their souls would be destroyed. Besides, where would they go? They had nothing but the clothes on their backs.” Kat glanced at the two men, who had stopped just outside the cave. Raphael gestured angrily to Pete, who just shook his head. They were still out of earshot.

  “It’s astonishing how so many people can be controlled by one man. They were totally brainwashed. Someone figured things out eventually, right?” Harry poked at the charred firewood with a stick.

  “Not until it was too late.” Jace shifted his position on the log. “They didn’t want to believe they were tricked. They were all smart successful business people, so even admitting to themselves that they had been taken in a scam was difficult. They were ashamed.

  “They didn’t realize the extent of his deceit even after he took everything of value from them. It wasn’t until he had set fire to all the buildings and disappeared on the tugboat that they came to terms with what had happened.”

  “Couldn’t they catch him and bring him to justice?” Gia asked.

  Jace shook his head. “He transacted everything in cash, remember? No paper trail. And there were no photographs of him, either. Cameras weren’t exactly common in those days, but he was a well-known person. Yet he flew into a rage if anyone tried to take his picture. Too bad. I would have liked a photo for my story.

  “There are some drawings of him, though. He had a satanic-looking goatee, not exactly a fashion trend at the time. He looks a bit ridiculous, like a devilish magician. Probably trying to look like a mystic or something.”

  “Those poor people,” Gia said. “If only they had a crystal ball to see into the future. They never would have gotten messed up with that guy.”

  “What are you guys doing here?” Raphael’s face was flushed. “We’ve been waiting inside for you.”