1979 - A Can of Worms Read Online Free Page B

these rich creeps. It just needs some thought. Come on, let’s get upstairs or my mood will fade on me.”
    As I followed her into the elevator, I began to think about what she had said. I was still thinking when we rolled into bed, but once her arms and her legs wrapped around me, I stopped thinking.
    There is a time and a place for everything.
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    S outheast of Paradise City, some thirty miles out in the Gulf, there is a chain of small islands extending down to Key West.
    Sitting beside Nick Hardy in his helicopter, I looked down on this chain of islands that looked like green blobs in the blue, glittering sea.
    Nick had no trouble spotting Hamel’s yacht. We were already circling the harbour when the yacht slipped its moorings and headed out to sea.
    There were other helicopters up: taking the rich on sightseeing tours, so I had no worry that Nancy nor Josh Jones would suspect we were shadowing them.
    I used Nick’s field glasses. I could see Nancy on the flying bridge. Jones must have been in the wheelhouse. I couldn’t see him from my position.
    “They’re heading for the Keys,” I said. “Head back to the harbour and circle. We can’t lose them, and I don’t want them to catch on we are tailing them.”
    Nick, bulky with a red, good-natured face, did as I asked.
    “That’s Mrs. Hamel down there,” he said. “What’s the idea, Bart?”
    “Since when did you start asking questions? Ask the Colonel if you want to know.”
    He grinned.
    “Okay. So I don’t want to know.”
    The yacht was now approaching the Keys. It slowed, turned and began running along the coastline until it reached Matecumbe Key, then it headed towards a group of tiny islands about five miles east.
    “What are those islands?” I asked.
    “Used to be pirate strongholds,” Nick told me. He was well versed in the history of Florida. “The pirates used to hide up there and pounce on any passing vessel. Blackbeard is supposed to have had his headquarters there. The islands are uninhabited now.”
    The yacht slowed and began to edge its way into a wide creek, between two of the islands, half concealed by dense vegetation. Then it disappeared under an umbrella of Spanish moss and grapevines.
    I decided it would be too risky to circle and wait to see it the yacht reappeared. Nancy or Jones, or both of them, might guess we were showing too much interest, and that was to be avoided. “Okay, Nick, back to the pad,” I said, “and if you don’t want the Colonel on your neck, say nothing about this.”
    He gave me a puzzled stare, then shrugged.
    “You’re the client.” He headed back to the mainland.
    “All the same, Bart, she’s a nice girl.”
    “How do you know? Have you ever met her?”
    “Sure, and Mr. Hamel. I took them to Daytona Beach last month and brought them back. I don’t dig Hamel. He’s a stuffed shirt, but she’s a real charmer: too young to have married him.”
    “Did they seem to you to be getting along together?”
    “I wouldn’t know. He sat at the back and never uttered. She sat where you are sitting and chatted all the time.”
    “About what?”
    “She was interested in the chopper: her first trip. She asked all kinds of questions: good questions. She’s no fool.’
    So Nancy was nice and no fool, but even nice girls screw around. I changed the subject. I talked to him about his business and asked how he was doing. We were still talking when he landed. As he walked with me to my car, I said, “Keep this close to your chest, Nick.”
    “Sure.”
    We shook hands, and I drove back to the office. Glenda said the Colonel was tied up, and how did I get on?
    I was about to tell her of Nancy’s visit to the pirate stronghold, when I heard, inside my head, Bertha’s voice saying: There’s big money to be made out of these rich creeps. It just needs some thought.
    I shifted fast into a lie.
    “I followed her in the chopper. She spent the whole afternoon, fishing. A dead waste of