Twenty Blue Devils

'Ho.'

'But it's got nothing to do with how sexy she is. It has to do with the more pertinent fact that Therese happens to be the person who made Nick call the exhumation off.'

'That did not escape my notice,” Gideon said, “but she also happens to be the person who wrote a pitiful letter to Pele, goddess of fire, a few weeks ago, begging for protection for Brian.'

'In order to make herself look innocent after the fact, maybe?'

'Impossible. She had no idea John's sister would ever see it.'

'And how do you know that, exactly? Because she batted those big, beautiful eyes and said so?'

He paused. “Well, I grant you, that's a point too. It could have been a ploy.'

'Besides, you and John think she's holding things back too. You said so.'

'Well, yes, but...yes.'

But Julie hadn't met Therese, he had. As John had once put it, there were some people in the world who did unto others and other people who got done unto. And Therese was definitely a done-unto. A clinging vine, a model of low self-esteem, a mother's (or rather father's) darling—but not a murderer, never a murderer. Still, he'd been wrong about that kind of thing before...

'Gideon,” Julie said in a softer voice, “when will you be back? I miss you too, you know.'

'As soon as I can, Julie. Now that Bertaud is taking this seriously I feel as if I ought to stick around a few more days in case I'm needed. Tomorrow morning he wants John and me at Nick's office at eleven. He wants to have a few things out with Nick, and I think we're supposed to be there to keep him honest.'

'About what?'

'About the on-again, off-again business with the exhumation, I suppose, but I'm just guessing.'

'You are having some fun too, I hope? Relaxing a little?'

'Sure, I even took a nap in a hammock the other day. And the whole thing is fun in a way. You know me.'

'Do I ever.” They were winding down. “Are you getting all the Paradise coffee you want?'

'Plenty.'

'Good, then maybe we won't have to buy any at home for a while.'

Gideon laughed. Julie, as much of a coffee drinker as he was, generally went for Starbucks or Seattle's Best; all of Nick's coffees, she felt, were overpriced for their quality. It was one of the few differences in their food preferences.

'Well,” he said reluctantly, “I guess I'll get back to my notes.'

'And I'll get to bed. I was staying up, hoping you'd call.'

'I'll call again tomorrow. Any more words of wisdom before I hang up? Anybody else we should be casting a suspicious eye on?'

'Nick,” she said without hesitation.

'Because of the way he waffled on the exhumation?'

'That, and because of how hard he was trying to keep everybody from talking about the Superstar thing in front of you and John. He's hiding something too.'

'But I told you, he was just being a good host. He's a courtly kind of guy in his own way, and he simply felt it wasn't good taste to talk business in front of dinner guests. That's all.'

'And how do you know that?'

'I guess I don't, really,” he said with a smile. “Okay, Julie, I'll admit, you've given me a few things to think about. I'll talk to John about them in the morning.'

'You know what I keep wondering?” she said.

'No, what do you keep wondering?'

'I keep wondering, what the heck would you guys do without me?'

[Back to Table of Contents]

Chapter 24

* * * *

The offices of the Paradise Coffee Company were in a large Quonset but of indeterminate age and origin that had been set up near the drying shed. This musty fossil had originally been found abandoned in a jungly section of the land that Dean Parks had purchased to build the Shangri-La. Nick had bought it from him forty-five years earlier for $100, moved it to his plantation, and set it up as headquarters for his short-lived copra empire. When that had fizzled and he'd switched to coffee he had seen no reason for new office space. Nelson's never-ending arguments that a more civilized habitat was good business practice had finally convinced him to lease a handsome suite of offices overlooking the loading docks in downtown Papeete, but Nelson himself was the only one who used it regularly, along with his staff of four. The Hut, as everyone referred to it, remained the locus of most of the hurly- burly of Paradise Coffee's day-to-day management.

But when John and Gideon arrived the next morning at a quarter to eleven, there was no hurly-burly in evidence. The clerk who generally sat in the anteroom was out sick, Nelson was at the Papeete office, Maggie was