Audrey felt a strange weakness in her knees. Her mind was sluggish as the woman's smoky voice and unblinking eyes pushed away all outside thoughts.
'What do you want me to do?'
Marcia took the younger woman's hand and drew her down on the wicker settee. As she spoke, Marcia let her hand rest lightly on Audrey's thigh. Audrey was intensely aware of the heat of the hand through the thin material of her robe.
'I have learned that the woman Karyn is out now in the glass-bottomed boat,' Marcia said. 'When she returns you will give her a message.'
'A message,' Audrey repeated dully. The strange woman's touch was awakening new, wild sensations in her.
'You will tell her that Chris Halloran returned while she was out, and could not wait for her. You will say that Chris wants her to come at once to the cabin of the gypsy. He will be there waiting for her.'
'The cabin of the gypsy? Where's that?'
'She will know,' Marcia said. 'Tell her it is of life-and-death importance that she go there at once to meet him.'
'I don't understand,' Audrey said.
Marcia's hand moved along her leg. 'When this Karyn arrives at the cabin, there will be a surprise waiting for her. Someone from her past. Someone who will see to it that she breaks up no more happy couples.'
The woman's words had little meaning for Audrey. The important thing was the delicious touch of her hand. When Audrey spoke, it was in a throaty whisper. 'What if Chris comes back before I can give her the message?'
Marcia turned on the sofa to face her. As though by accident, her hand slipped under the edge of the robe. For a moment it rested there on the smooth, bare flesh of Audrey's inner thigh. Then the hand moved, now with more assurance, sliding up to the moist nest of hair between her legs. Audrey sucked in her breath.
'Chris won't come back early,' Marcia said. 'I have seen to it that he will be detained.'
'All right,' Audrey said. Her hips rolled, moving against the light pressure of the woman's hand.
'The boat will return in less than an hour,' Marcia said. 'You will give Karyn the message as soon as she steps off.'
'Yes,' Audrey whispered. Her mind swam. Her body was responding to this woman as though with a will of its own. Her own hand moved down and covered Marcia's. Together, their fingers slipped in past the moist vaginal lips.
Breathing rapidly, Audrey said, 'Will she believe me?'
Marcia's slender, sensitive fingers found the secret place, and Audrey gasped.
'You can make her believe you,' Marcia said. She probed deeply, gently, insistently. 'Have you something that belongs to Chris Halloran? Something very private and personal? Something he might send to this Karyn to convince her his message is genuine?'
Audrey tried to think. It was difficult with the waves of sensation that pulsed through her from the other woman's caress. 'I–I do have one thing. I can show it to you.'
She moved to rise, but found she could not. She looked helplessly into the green eyes.
Marcia smiled at her., 'It's all right, dear. We have enough time.' Slowly she drew her hand from between Audrey's legs with a soft, sucking sound. With her green eyes never leaving Audrey's face, she raised her fingers to her lips and tasted them.
Feeling unsteady on her feet, Audrey walked carefully across the room to the bureau. She pulled out the top drawer and removed her jewel box. With numb fingers she fumbled through the rings and bracelets, and finally came up with what she wanted — the misshapen silver bullet that had fallen out of Chris's pocket the other day.
Marcia rose from the sofa and walked over to stand beside her. 'Did you find it?'
'Yes. I don't know why, but this seemed to have a special meaning for him.' Audrey held out the bullet in her open palm to the other woman.
Marcia recoiled as though it were a tarantula. Audrey looked at her in surprise, but she recovered quickly.
'That will serve very well,' Marcia said. 'Yes, that will be perfect.'
She smiled a dark, secret smile that frightened Audrey for a moment, but then it was gone, and Marcia was again looking at her in that knowing woman's way.
Audrey set the lump of silver down gently on the bureau and turned so she was facing Marcia. She could not speak, but her body cried out its need.
The tip of Marcia's tongue slipped out and ran around her pale lips. She reached out and undid the belt of Audrey's robe. The robe fell open, and Marcia's eyes moved over her body like a caress.
'Yes, dear Audrey,' she said, 'we have almost an hour to spend together.' She slipped an arm around the girl's naked waist and led her to the bed.
27
ON CALLE VERDE, the minutes dragged slowly on into the afternoon. Nervous sweat soaked through Chris Halloran's shirt under both arms and between the shoulder blades. He paced constantly about the big musty room while Tulio Santos worked with saw, hammer, and file to fashion a knife blade from the silver tea tray.
He came to a stop behind Santos and watched the man slowly, slowly shape the cutting edge of the blade. 'Can't you speed it up?' he said, then groped for the Spanish words. 'Puede usted trabaja mas rapido?'
Santos turned and looked at him with an injured expression. 'Senor,' he said formally, 'estoy un artesano, no mecanico.'
'All right, all right, I'm sorry,' Chris said. 'Just — continue.'
Santos nodded gravely and went back to his work.
At the small dock below the Palacio del Mar Hotel the glass-bottomed boat eased into its mooring. It stopped with a soft bump as the wooden dock nudged the old automobile tires lashed to the side of the boat. Karyn stood up on the deck and searched the faces of the people waiting on shore, looking for Chris Halloran. He was not there. Karyn was surprised, however, to see Audrey Vance. The girl was standing apart from the people waiting to take the next cruise. She looked directly at Karyn.
The gangplank was lowered and Karyn crossed to the dock. Audrey came toward her at once. There was an odd brightness in the girl's eyes, but Audrey did not seem to have been drinking.
'Hi,' Audrey said. She smiled tentatively.
Karyn did not return the smile. She nodded in greeting and waited for the girl to say whatever was on her mind.
'Karyn, I don't blame you for thinking I'm a bitch,' Audrey said. 'God knows I've acted like one. It was plain, childish jealousy. I'm ashamed of myself, really I am. I didn't understand the way it was between you and Chris.'
'Don't worry about it,' Karyn said.
'I'm awfully glad you feel that way. I wish you and I could have got off to a better start. I think we might have been friends. I was just telling Chris that.'
'Chris is here?'
'No. He came back from town while you were out on the boat, but he had to leave again right away. He asked me to give you a message.'
'What message?'
'He said he wants you to come and meet him at the cabin of the gypsy. I don't know what he meant, but he said you would understand.'
Karyn stared at the younger woman. Why would Chris trust her with an important message like this? Maybe there was no one else…
