Black River

SEVENTY-NINE

All heads began to turn. The guests were looking toward the bow, chuckling, and some pointing, the sailboat rocking slightly moving through the inky current. “Now that’s a great performance,” said a twenty-something actor to his friend, winking and gesturing toward a naked blonde woman slowly walking across the bowsprit, the wind billowing her long hair, the river beneath her, the woman’s bare breasts pointing in the direction that America II was sailing.

O’Brien approached the bodyguard, the man using his thick index finger to push the tiny earpiece deeper into his ear canal. O’Brien stepped up to him and shouted, “She may be a jumper! She didn’t get the part and is overcome with depression.”

“Not on my watch!” He took off, running down the ship’s deck toward the bow. O’Brien could see two other guards doing the same thing. He waited a few seconds, opened the wooden door near the wheelhouse and entered. O’Brien remembered the video footage from the newscast when the reporter and camera crew, led by Sheldon, walked through the interior of the ship. Low-wattage lamps designed to mimic flickering candlelight, giving the illusion of shadows dancing over the wooden floor and roughhewn walls, lighted the hallways.

He heard the muffled voice of the man before he saw him. Past the galley, past the crew’s quarters, further into the bowels of the ship. The man said, “If she jumps, somebody’s got to go after her. There’s no way in hell that we’re gonna have a suicide tonight. You need me up there?”

A long pause. The man listening. O’Brien removed his shoes, walking in his socks down the hallway. Then the man was back on the radio. “When you grab her, take her to the guest’s quarters. Give her the Gettysburg cabin. Maybe she’ll sleep it off until we get back to Jacksonville.”

O’Brien turned the corner, the man’s back to him. Wide shoulders. Big hands. Ears that protruded slightly from his skull.

The wood floor creaked.

O’Brien saw the man reach into his coat, reaching for his sidearm. The man turned, trying to level the pistol.

O’Brien was faster. He stepped to within three feet of the bodyguard, a hard right fist connecting directly to the man’s left jaw. The impact sounded deceivingly subtle, as if someone had cracked an egg on the lip of a cast-iron frying pan. The sound of bones splintering. Muscles dislocating. Lower teeth uprooting. The man fell where he stood. O’Brien reached in, removing the gun. It was a 9mm Beretta.

He walked farther down the hall, stopping to listen. Could barely hear the calypso beat, like steel drums in the distance. As he rounded another hall, he saw the closed door. Above the door was a hand-carved sign that read: Captain’s Quarters — Private. O’Brien placed his hand on the brass doorknob and slowly turned. Locked. He could see light coming from the large, antiquated keyhole. He knelt down, looked into the keyhole. There was no sign of James Fairmont. Could he be standing near the door? Anywhere in the room outside of the tunnel vision through the keyhole?

Frank Sheldon was there. Sitting behind an antique French desk, an opulent chandelier above him, and someone below him. The brunette in the small black dress that O’Brien had spotted on deck, Sheldon had whispered in her ear. She was now on her knees giving Sheldon oral sex as he sipped whiskey from a leaden crystal glass while staring at something.

It was the painting of the woman. Hanging on Sheldon’s wall. Next to it in shadow boxes lit with small direct lamps, was the diamond and what appeared to be the Civil War contract. O’Brien bent one of the two prongs on the small cocktail fork and slid it into the keyhole. He slowly rotated the fork. Stopped, feeling for the metal. Then he twisted the fork to the right, felt the metal move. O’Brien stood, one hand on the doorknob, the other holding the Beretta. He dropped the fork into his pocket and pulled out his phone, pressing the video record button, quietly stepping inside the cabin.

The woman’s back was turned toward O’Brien. Sheldon had his eyes closed. It appeared that no one else was in the spacious cabin adorned with Civil War memorabilia. O’Brien recorded the sex for twenty seconds, Sheldon’s groans, the woman’s sloppy murmurs. And then O’Brien said, “I spotted Mrs. Sheldon only once. She was deep into conversation with the art director for Back River. I don’t think the young lady here is part of Mrs. Sheldon’s decoration plan.”

Sheldon pushed the woman away, quickly pulling up his pants. He started to reach for a drawer on the desk. “Don’t!” O’Brien said. “You open the drawer and you won’t live out your maiden voyage. He turned to the woman, red lipstick smeared. Eyes wide. She stared at O’Brien’s gun. He said, “Go stand in the closet over there. Shut the door and don’t say a word. Can you do that?”

She nodded, eyes watering. She stepped quickly across the cabin and shut herself inside the closet.

Sheldon stared at O’Brien, unbelieving. Muscles knotted on both sides of his lower jaw. “Who the hell are you? How’d you get in here?”

O’Brien saw Sheldon’s cell phone on the desk. “Where’s Fairmont?”

“Gone.”

“Where?”

“On deck.”

“So you finished your transaction.”

Silence.

“I asked you a question.”

“Yes.”

“What’d you buy?”

Sheldon hesitated, glancing at the diamond under glass and the old document. “The stuff you see under the glass.”

“Describe them.”

“What? Why?”

“Do it!”

“The fuckin’ diamond and the Civil War contract between England and the Confederacy. You won’t make it off this yacht alive, asshole.”

“Oh, I will make it out.” He gestured at his phone. The quality of high-definition video that these phones record is stunning…and, the audio, amazing fidelity. It can even pick up grunts and groans across the room. Right now, Sheldon your little rendezvous was uploaded and living in a hidden spot on the cloud. To keep it forever in the cloud, and out of the media, or the eyes of Mrs. Sheldon, you will give up some toys. The first one is the painting on the wall. It was stolen. You bought stolen goods.”

“That’s news to me because—”

“Shut up. It was stolen. The diamond you bought was stolen. As was the Civil War contract. Sheldon, you’re like a fat cat pawnbroker. Buying stolen things that were never for sale by the real owners.”

“I’ll return them.”

“Yes, you will, but I’ll do it for you. With the exception of the painting. I have your number. I’ll text you the return address. The owner is Laura Jordan. You had her husband, Jack, killed.”

“No! No, I didn’t. It was James Fairmont. It was his idea after Jack reached out to the British consulate, trying to find someone to quietly return the contract and diamond to the Royal Family. Fairmont set up a bidding war. He said I’d won. He planned the whole thing. I’m just a buyer, and investor.”

O’Brien stepped closer to Sheldon. Sheldon backed away, holding up his pants, staring at the Beretta. He looked at O’Brien. “I’ll pay you. Five million. Destroy the video and just go away. Tell me where to deposit the money.”

“You’re fly’s open.” When Sheldon looked down at his zipper, O’Brien hit him on the jaw with the pistol grip. Sheldon fell back into his leather chair, eyes rolling. Out cold.

O’Brien opened the shadow box. He reached in and removed the diamond. Never in his life had he seen such a striking gem. Under the small, intense lights, it radiated splendor, colors off the chart of the rainbow, fireworks that seemed trapped inside the time capsule history, cut and carats that was the Koh-i-Noor, the Mountain of Light.

He lifted out a large Ziploc bag from his coat pocket, unfolded the bag, dropping the diamond inside. Then he gently placed the old contract in the bag, sealing and putting it in his coat pocket.

He looked up at the painting on the wall, looked into the intelligent and beautiful eyes of Angelina Hopkins. “And there you are,” he whispered. “We’ll get you home.”