“Perfume,” Dar replied quietly. “Our little friend Christen’s perfume.”
Kerry stared at her. One blond eyebrow lifted slightly. “Are you sure?” she asked. “I didn’t even notice she was wearing any.”
“I noticed,” Dar replied. “Because I hate the brand. It’s the same one Eleanor uses.”
“Ah!” Bingo. Kerry slapped her head. “No wonder it seemed familiar.” She paused. “Are you saying she was here in our room?”
Dar sat down on the bed, letting her elbows rest on her knees.
“Can’t think of any way for her perfume to get here without her, so yeah.”
“Ew.”
“Yeah.” Dar frowned. “I’m going to go check the boat.” She got up and headed for the door.
“Dar.” Kerry unzipped Dar’s overnight bag. “Here. Not that I mind you storming around like an escapee from the swimsuit competition of the Ms. Aggressive America, but…” She tossed her lover a long black T-shirt with a snarling tiger on it.
“Thanks.” Dar pulled the shirt on over her bathing suit and picked up the pouch in which she’d carried their keys. “Be right back.”
“Be careful,” Kerry called after her, watching as the door shut behind Dar. For a moment she just stood there, then she put her hands on her hips and shook her head. “Boy, this sucks.” She opened her own bag and riffled through its contents, wondering what the creepy woman had been looking for. They’d only packed a few shirts, their swimsuits, and some other casual wear, and even the most avid of detectives probably couldn’t have gotten much information from their choice of bathroom toiletries, other than the fact that they had a preference for mint toothpaste and apricot body scrub.
Of course, the laptop was a mine of information, but it might as well have been in Fort Knox for all the good its presence could have done anyone. The security on the machine that held the keys to the company was so anally extensive, even Mark couldn’t break into it.
Even removing the hard drive wouldn’t do a thing for the potential hacker. Without Dar’s encryption algorithms, the data was scrambled past recovery, and she never kept much locally anyway.
So, if not information, what were they looking for?
Another thought occurred to her. What if they weren’t looking for anything? What if they planted a bug? “Son of a bitch.” Kerry sat down and flipped open the laptop, and waited for the log-in to come up. When it did, she logged in, waited for it to validate her, then started up the broad spectrum data analyzer program Dar kept on the drive.
120 Melissa Good Bugs weren’t really that complex, and one of the first things Dar had taught her was how to find them. She’d felt a little funny knowing how frequent their use was in their particular trade, but competition was fierce, and salesmen were not above using them to get any advantage they could.
Dar, she’d been told, never bothered with them. Sometimes when she knew a bug was there, she’d have fun with the planter by passing along the most outlandish information, then waiting for it to come back in a bid meeting—which it sometimes did.
The program started up and she configured it, setting it to scan using two specialized ports for all frequencies across the bandwidth used for radio transmission. She started it running and propped her chin on her fist, waiting. You could do that with cell phones, too, and anything else that used electronic signals that went through the air—like wireless networks, which was what the program had really been designed to analyze.
It showed nothing until she started reciting the pledge of allegiance. Then the program picked up scans on two frequencies, and Kerry shook her head in irritation. She left the program running and slowly walked around, continuing her oration and watching the screen. Near the ornate lamp, the signal peaked.
Kerry regarded the lamp, then she simply unplugged it, picked it up, and carried it outside. She set it in the far corner of the porch and went back inside.
Now the program showed a clean scan again. Kerry gave it the acid test—she started singing. Even at her top volume, the scan remained quiet. With a nod of satisfaction, she went back outside and picked up the small hose attached to the spigot, turned the water on, and rinsed off their wetsuits with careful thoroughness.
There is nothing, Kerry sprayed the inside of the suits, nothing on earth that smells worse than a dirty wetsuit.
After a moment, she glanced over, then sprayed the lamp for good measure. Except scuzzy, rose water wearing, obnoxious detectives, that is.
DAR HEADED FOR the docks, conscious of a growing anger.
She hadn’t been asking for trouble out there; in fact, she’d gone out of her way to avoid it, but damn it, the bastards kept coming after them and now she was starting to get really pissed off about it. She made her way down toward the slip in which they’d docked and used the key she’d been given to unlock the steel gate that blocked off the slip. It appeared undisturbed, but so had their hotel room door, and Dar wasn’t stupid enough to think whoever got paid off to let the slimebags in there hadn’t also done the same for the gate at the marina.
Terrors of the High Seas 121
The boat was floating quietly, tied to its pylons—the umbilicals plugged into dockside power to run the few things they’d left on, like the refrigerator. Dar stepped onto the deck and dropped down onto the stern, looking around carefully before she went to the cabin door.
It was a small brass lock, not really intended for serious security, and Dar fitted her key in and turned it without encountering any resistance. She peered at the brass plate, then pushed the cabin door open and slipped inside, quickly closing the door after her.
She relaxed at once. Just as the faintest hints of strange perfume had triggered her senses in the hotel room, the absence of anything she hadn’t expected reassured her here. Dar inspected the interior anyway, moving into the very front of the bow, then checking the master bedroom where the scent, since the hatches were closed, was definitely very familiar to her. “Well,” she spoke into the silence, “as long as I’m here, might as well shower and change.”
She went to the dresser and took out a pair of stone-washed shorts overalls and a dark blue shirt, leaving them on the bed as she went into the bathroom and flipped on the water. She slid out of her swimsuit, ducked under the water, and quickly scrubbed the salt off her skin. A moment more, and she’d rinsed the soap out of her hair and was stepping out of the shower, turning off the water, and grabbing one of the towels draped over the holder in the small space. She dried herself off and wrapped the towel around her, then emerged and headed back to the bedroom.
Now that she was sure the boat was secure, she started considering both what had happened, and her options. She dressed as she thought, tucking the shirt into her overalls and buckling the shoulder straps. When she finished, she reviewed the results in the mirror. “Cute and conservative. You’re starting to look like Kerry.”
Dar sighed, then unsnapped one of the shoulder straps and let the front of the garment rakishly hang half down. “That’s better.” She added her wraparound sunglasses, then grunted, satisfied with her changes.
As she passed back out through the living area, she paused, then sidetracked to the equipment locker. She opened the top, moving Kerry’s shotgun aside to get to a blue milk crate underneath. Inside there was a thick piece of hardened steel chain and a padlock. She pulled out the chain and looped it around her neck, then picked up the padlock, hefting it as she left the cabin and locked the door behind her.