'I felt you inside me, I tasted your kisses. You can't tell me '
'Look,' interrupted Nick, clearly irritated. 'What do you want? I don't want to stand here all morning arguing with you about some stupid night five years ago. Now I know that you're here for a reason. What is it?'
Greta backed off a step and her face hardened. 'You are a very difficult man, Nick. It could be such fun doing business together if you weren't such a, how do you say, pain in the ass.' She stopped for a moment. 'I have come from Homer. He has a proposition for you. He wants to see what you found yesterday in the ocean and maybe discuss a partnership.'
Nick laughed triumphantly. 'So I was right all along. You were sent to find me. And now that bastard wants to discuss a partnership. Hah. Not a fucking chance. You won't steal from me again. Tell your employer or lover or whatever he is to cram his proposition up his ass. Now if you'll excuse me ...'
He started to walk around Greta and open his car door. Her strong hand grabbed his forearm. 'You're making a mistake, Nick.' Her eyes bored into his again. 'A big mistake. You can't afford to do it on your own. What you found is probably worthless. If it is, let him spend the money.' Her chameleon eyes shifted one more time. 'And it would be such fun to work together again.'
Nick climbed into his car and turned on the engine. 'No dice, Greta. You're wasting your time. Now I've got to go.' He backed out of the parking place and then drove into the narrow street. The treasure was front and center in his mind again. He had been momentarily depressed by what Amanda had told him about the trident, but the fact that Homer wanted to see it gave Nick a feeling of power. But, he asked himself, how does he know already? Who talked? Or could someone have seen us?
FRIDAY Chapter 5
WHEN Commander Winters returned to his office after a scheduled meeting with the public relations department, his secretary, Dora, was conspicuously reading the Key West newspaper. 'Ahem,' she said, deliberately attracting his attention. 'Is the Vernon Winters starring in The Night of the Iguana at the Key West Playhouse tonight anyone I know? Or are there two of them in this town?'
He laughed. He liked Dora. She was almost sixty, black, a grandmother more than a dozen times, and one of the few secretaries on the base who actually had some pride in her work. She treated everybody, including Commander Winters, like one of her children. 'So why didn't you tell me?' she said with feigned outrage. 'After all, what if I had missed it altogether? I told you last year to make certain that you always told us when you were performing.'
He took her hand and gave it a little squeeze. 'I had intended to tell you, Dora, but somehow it just slipped my mind. And you know that my thespian activities are not exactly embraced by the Navy, so I don't ballyhoo them about so much. But I'll have some tickets for you and your husband in a couple of weeks.' He looked at the stack of message notes on her desk. 'That many, huh? And I was only gone a little over two hours. It never rains but it pours.'
'Two of these are supposedly urgent.' Dora looked at her watch 'A Miss Dawson from the Miami Herald will call back in about five minutes and that Lieutenant Todd has been calling all morning. He insists that he must see you before lunch or he can't be properly prepared for the meeting this afternoon. Apparently he left a long, message on your Top Secret telemail sometime this morning. Right now he's furious with me because I wouldn't interrupt your meetings to tell you about his message. Is it really that important?'
Commander Winters shrugged his shoulders and opened the door to his office. I wonder what Todd wants, he thought. I guess I should have checked my telemail before running off to the meeting with the chief. 'Did you put all the rest of the messages on the computer?' he asked Dora before he closed the door. She nodded. 'Okay, I'll talk to Miss Dawson when she calls. Tell Todd that I will see him in fifteen minutes.' He sat down at his desk and turned on his computer. He