A Dangerous Harbor by R.P. Dahlke Read Free Book Online

had to wonder, why not?
    Booth caught her wary look and gave her a friendly smile. "As your official welcoming committee, I hereby invite you to a cocktail party tonight at Spencer and Myne's boat. That's spelled M-Y-N-E and you'll see why when you meet her." He winked at her, a gesture that made her smile. "See, Wally? She likes it here already."
    Wally, and now Spencer and Myne . She should just take out her list and ask if the rest of them would be there, too.
    Booth stuck a thumb over his shoulder. "Can't miss it. It's that big motor yacht on the end."
    "I dunno , Booth," she said, not willing to sound too eager. "I'm really beat and I need a hot shower. Maybe some other time?"
    "Showers are inside the hotel, but you make friends with Spencer and Myne and they'll let you have the run of the place. Hot showers, cold drinks, good food.   Besides, you gotta eat, don'cha ? Get'cher shower, come for the food, meet a few nice folks and then go home. You'll see we're a pretty tame bunch here."
    "Alright," she said, smiling again. "What time?"
    "Six- ish ? When you've had your fill of food or us silly old farts, go home. Ain't that right, Wally?"
    Wally nodded.
    Tame crowd, good food, huh? We'll see about that. By the end of the night she intended to meet most of that list and have at least some of the answers to the chief inspector's questions.

    It was late afternoon by the time she stepped through the airy, open lobby of the resort hotel. Intent on finding the showers, Katy slowed to admire the modern architecture and local art. The place was all high beamed ceilings, glass and chrome blended with sculptures of Aztec warriors that looked to have been quarried out of local stone. The club-wielding Aztecs, she noted, were strategically placed next to exits. Nice touch, she thought . Too bad they can't follow me back to the boat and become my bodyguards.
    She passed a rock wall hugging a seascape the size of a picture window. The artist had perfectly captured that moment when a rapidly changing sky releases its light on an unsettled sea. Thunderous clouds chased the hopeful blue of better weather off the canvas while water appeared to be in danger of sloshing off the canvas and onto the stone hearth.
    Turning left, she found a lineup of land-line phones next to the hotel bar and took out her calling card. Cell phones were great but digital meant nothing if the police used Mexican Telecom to eavesdrop. Plugging one ear against the roar of American football on the TV in the bar next door, she started to call her friend Bruce at the department and see if anyone in a Mexican police department had been asking about her, but at the last minute, changed her mind and punched in the number for her mother's apartment, hoping to leave a message.
    "Hello?" The smoky voice answering the phone didn't match what she knew was her much younger looking mother.
    "Mom. I'm glad I caught you at home."
    "Katrina, darling! Of course I'm home.   I saw David a few days ago, and he seems terribly glum—even for David. Darling, I made a joke. Aren't you listening?"
    "I heard. Didn't he tell you?"
    "Tell me what? Did you start another fight you can't win? If you wanted to argue with him, you should've gotten a law degree. Katy? That was another joke."
    "Mom, David called off our vacation for the Delta and announced we should see other people." She didn't add that all this happened after she was put on leave of absence from the shooting.
    "Good God!" The other end of the line hummed with the sound of her mother's mental arithmetic for what it would cost to cancel the big wedding. "Does his family know? God, I'm getting slow—of course they do. Everyone knows but me. Katrina, you know I love you, darling, but honestly, this is incredibly inconsiderate. The invitations are out, the hotel! The caterer!"
      "Sorry, Mom. Really, I am. I thought surely David would've said something to you by now. I mailed him back his ring before I sailed for