Dr. Death (11 page)

"Not while I'm around you won't!" Michelle snapped. "I don't like the idea of having her with us."

"You've already told me that," I said.

"Well, I'm telling you again," she responded sulkily.

And she did tell me again. While we were having more of those damned Piña Coladas before dinner. And while we were pretending to be lions during dinner. And while we were in the cab after dinner, driving to the casino.

"Look," I said finally. "She's coming with us and that's that. I don't want to hear about it again."

Michelle subsided into a sulky silence, which grew even sulkier as we left the casino and got into the rented car I'd had delivered. I ignored her, concentrating all my facilities on driving in, through, and around San Juan, until I was sure I had lost anyone who might be tailing us. It was almost midnight by the time I parked the car several blocks from the yacht basin, and we changed into the dungarees and sweaters Td brought along in a briefcase.

"Where do we meet this Kung Fu champion of yours?" Michelle asked, as I took her arm and propelled her through darkened, silent streets toward the yacht basin.

"In a dirty, dark, thoroughly disreputable dive," I told her cheerfully. "You'll love it."

The Puerto Real was a dive. And it was dirty, dark, and thoroughly disreputable. It was also a place where people minded their own business, and made very certain not to look too closely at strangers. In other words, it was the best meeting place I could think of. I brushed aside the bead curtains which hung over the entry and stared into the dingy, smoky interior. A long bar made of cracked tile ran the length of the room, and half a dozen seedy looking characters were drinking at it, some playing dominoes with the bartender, some just staring into space. Across from the bar, set against the crumbling stucco wall, some rickety tables hosted a noisy dice game, a few solitary drinkers, and one drunk who was literally crying in his beer. The whole place smelled of stale beer, stale cigarette smoke, and rum-laden breaths. Michelle grimaced with disgust as I led her to a table.

"This is worse than Tangier," she muttered to me. "How long do we have to wait for that girl?"

"Until she shows up," I said. I was just about to go to the bar for drinks when one of the solitary drinkers got up from a table at the other end of the room and half staggered toward us, carrying a bottle and some glasses. A drunk, obviously, and down on his luck, from the incredibly dirty, paint-stained dungarees, the ripped wool sweater, and the wool cap which half hid the face.

"Hey,
amigos,"
the drunk said, leaning over our table, "lesh have a drink together. Hate to drink alone."

"Beat it, buddy. We…"

I stopped in mid-sentence. Under the cap, one familiar Oriental eye was winking at me. I pulled out a chair.

"Li Chin," I said, "meet Michelle Duroche."

"Hi," said Li Chin, grinning, as she slid into the chair.

"Good evening," said Michelle. And then, in a voice dripping with sweetness, "What a lovely outfit you have."

"I'm glad you like it," Li Chin replied. "But you should have seen the one I had last night. Carter can tell you."

Michelle's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm surprised he even noticed," she lashed out.

Li Chin just smiled.

"Confucius say," she said, putting on the hokey accent again, "good things come in small packages."

"All right, ladies," I cut in. "Save the friendly conversation for some other time. We have work to do, and we have to do it together."

Li Chin immediately nodded. Michelle suppressed her glare. I took the bottle Li Chin had brought, and poured drinks all around. Li Chin drank hers in one easy swallow, then sat looking at me, waiting. I took a sip of mine and almost exploded.

"Good God!" I gasped. "What is this stuff?"

"New rum," said Li Chin casually. "Kind of raw, isn't it?"

"Raw!" I said. "It's… all right, look. Down to work. What we need is a boat big enough for the four of us, with enough power to get us to Martinique fast, but not big enough to attract a lot of attention and require a deep-water harbor."

"The
Lady Day,"
said Li Chin.

I looked at her questioningly.

"It's anchored about a quarter mile out in the harbor," she said. "Owned by an American millionaire name of Hunter. He hasn't been near it in about three months. Just one man aboard, to take care of it, and he's in town getting drunk."

"You've kept busy," I said approvingly.

"Sitting around bores me," said Li Chin. "Anyway, I only sleep four hours a night, so I had to have something to do, and I happen to like boats anyway. This one is a beauty, Carter, especially for what we have in mind. It's an eighty-foot brigantine with reinforced hull and rigging, three masts, built low for strength on open water and in high winds. Looks like it sleeps at least four, maybe more. And the harbor master here says it packs a twelve hundred-horsepower engine, not just for getting in and out of harbor, but for speed on the open water, even under sail. It's a beauty, a real dream."

I nodded.

"It sounds good."

"There's only one problem," added Li Chin. "The caretaker. When he comes back, and finds the boat gone, he's bound to go for the police."

"He won't find the boat gone," I said. "We'll have the courtesy to wait for him. When he arrives, we'll treat him to a little trip. Locked in a cabin, of course."

"Adding
another
person we can't trust," Michelle said, annoyed. Her eyes swept over Li Chin.

"It can't be helped," I said. "And we're wasting time sitting here. Let's take a look at the
Lady Day."

I stood up. Michelle pushed back her chair, stood, and stalked out of the bar without looking at Li Chin. We followed. After the foul atmosphere of the bar, the warm Caribbean night air smelled extraordinarily good. Across the yacht basin, boats rode in the gentle waves, their lights blinking. It was a peaceful, pleasant scene. I hoped it would remain like that while we «borrowed» the
Lady Day.

"Look," said Li Chin, pulling small binoculars out from under her sweater. "There."

I took the binoculars and pointed them in the direction she was indicating. After a moment of blurryness and some adjusting, the
Lady Day
jumped into view. I whistled softly in admiration. It was just as much of a beauty as Li Chin had said. Its long, sleek lines were unmistakably those of an ocean-going boat, and the tall mast midships meant plenty of power under sail. From the way it rode I could tell it could easily take a shallow anchorage. I studied it a moment more, than took the binoculars from my eyes.

"There's only one thing I don't like about it," I said.

"What's that?" asked Li Chin, looking puzzled. I could tell she'd fallen in love with the boat on first sight. "It's got a dinghy roped to it's stern," I said.

"What?" said Li Chin, and grabbed the binoculars. She knew very well what I was getting at: If the dinghy was at the boat, the watchman must have already returned. Li Chin studied the
Lady Day
for a moment, then lowered the binoculars, shaking her head.

"My cousin Hong Fat is going to lose a couple of chopsticks over this," she said. "He was supposed to keep an eye on that watchman and tell me when he returned. He's never failed me before."

"It might not be the watchman," I reminded her. "It might be another member of the crew, come to ready her for a voyage. Or even somebody with a little larceny in mind. Someone who's studied the habits of the watchman just as you have. In any case, the
Lady Day
is too good for our purposes to give up. We'll just have to be prepared for another guest on the trip."

Li Chin nodded in agreement. Our eyes met. We must have both been thinking the same thing — if there was someone on the
Lady Day
we couldn't afford to let him see us approaching in a dinghy — because the next thing she said was simply:

"Scuba gear?"

"Right," I said, then turned to Michelle. "Have you ever done any scuba diving?"

Michelle glanced at
Li Chin.

"What about you?" she said.

"I'm okay," Li Chin answered.

"Well, I'm not too bad myself," said Michelle.

I was dubious. If Li Chin had said she was an expert mountain climber, I suspect Michelle would have claimed to have conquered Mount Everest. But I went along with it.

"All right," I told Li Chin. "Scuba gear for three. And a watertight bag for weapons."

"Of course," she said. "Twenty minutes."

And she was gone, fading into the darkness like a moving shadow.

"She has a cousin who can watch the watchman. She can get scuba gear on demand," Michelle said irritably. "Where does she find all these things?"

"The Chin clan," I said, straight-faced, "is a very big clan."

And our particular branch of the Chin clan was back in less than twenty minutes. She was accompanied by a rather stout Chinese boy of about nineteen, who puffed with effort as he set down the gear.

"The tanks are full," said Li Chin. "I could only get one depth gauge, but we can all follow the one who's wearing it. This is my cousin, Hong Fat."

"Call me Jim," said Hong Fat. "Listen, I never left that watchman's side. I'm half clobbered myself, just from smelling his breath from ten feet away. And he's conked out with his head on a table sleeping like a drunken baby right this minute."

"We'll just have to take our chances on whoever's on the
Lady Day,"
I said. "Come on. We'll suit up down there on the quay, behind that pile of cinderblocks."

We lugged the gear down onto the quay, stripped, and started struggling into wet-suits. They were new, and smelled of rubber. I put on my fins, then tested my mask and oxygen as the others did the same. Hugo and Wilhelmina went into the watertight bag, along with a deadly-looking little derringer which Li Chin produced. Pierre continued to nestle comfortably along my inner thigh, under the wet suit.

"Wow," said Hong Fat. "The creatures from the black lagoon strike again."

"Listen, cousin," said Li Chin, "you get back to that bar and keep eyeballing that watchman, or I'll take away your Honda. If he starts to head back to the
Lady Day,
give me a buzz."

Hong Fat nodded respectfully, and trundled off into the darkness.

"A buzz?" I said.

"My earring," Li Chin said tersely. "Electronic receiver. Handy, sometimes."

"No doubt," I said drily. T checked to see that all three of us were ready, then motioned Li Chin and Michelle forward to the edge of the quay. It was a night of bright moonlight, but I could see no one watching us.

"Follow behind me," I said. "V formation. Stay at my depth."

They both nodded. I slipped the mask over my face, turned on the oxygen, and lowered myself into the water. A moment later the three of us were gliding smoothly, fin-propelled, through the greenish-black depths of the harbor, toward the
Lady Day.

Most of the Caribbean is shark-infested, and the area around San Juan harbor is no exception, so I kept the spear gun Li Chin had provided at the ready. An occasional glance over my shoulder reassured me about Michelle. She was moving through the water effortlessly, with a smooth strength that showed years of familiarity with diving. If anything, she was a match for Li Chin, and through the glass of her mask I thought I could detect a smile of satisfaction at this. I didn't glance back often, though. The harbor was crowded with boats, and we had to thread our way among, and sometimes under them, keeping careful watch for lines, anchors, even an occasional overnight fishing line. And, of course, sharks. The water was greenish black, and murky with night, but I glimpsed an occasional school of tiny fish fluttering away from us, the spiky balls of black sea urchins on the sea's bottom, and once, the bulky, surprisingly graceful and fast retreat of a squid. I surfaced once, briefly, for direction, then dove again and moved along close to the bottom. The next time I surfaced, it was to cling to the anchor line of the
Lady Day.
Seconds later, and inches away, Michelle's head popped up, then Li Chin's. We all turned off oxygen and slipped our masks from faces, then clung there in a huddled group, listening.

There was no sound from the
Lady Day.

I put my finger to my lips for silence, then pantomimed that I would go up first, and they were to wait until I signaled. Both nodded in agreement. I pulled off my flippers, handed them to Li Chin, and started hand over hand up the anchorage rope, the watertight bag gripped between my teeth, swaying as the boat swayed in the swells.

There was no one on deck. The mooring light glowed steadily aft, but the cabin was dark. I pulled myself over the rail, extracted Wilhelmina from the watertight bag, and crouched silently on the deck for a moment, listening.

Still, no sound.

I leaned back over the rail and motioned for Li Chin and Michelle to join me. Li Chin came up first, as fast and agile as an acrobat. Michelle came after her, slower, but with surprising sureness and ease. By the time I had lowered my oxygen tank and mask to the deck, the two women stood dripping beside me, their fingers working at the tank harnesses.

"You stay here," I whispered to Michelle. "Li Chin and I are going to say hello to whoever's in the cabin."

And, I hope, asleep, I added mentally.

Michelle shook her head violently.

"I'm coming with…"

I grabbed her face in both hands and stared at her hard.

"We've been through this before," I whispered, through gritted teeth. "I said stay here."

She glared back defiantly for a moment. Then her eyes dropped and she gave a barely perceptible nod. I released her face, motioned to Li Chin, and crept silently forward across the deck. At the door to the cabin I stopped, and crouched motionless, listening.