Black Widow df-15 Read online

  Black Widow

  ( Doc Ford - 15 )

  Randy Wayne White

  Randy Wayne White

  Black Widow

  1

  It was a simple exchange. Clean. So why did things go so wrong for the determined young bride?

  I flew to the Caribbean on a Wednesday, and Thursday morning gave the blackmailer’s bagman a routing number to an account containing $109,000. The bagman gave me a video shot secretly at a party thrown by my goddaughter, Shay Money, for her bridesmaids.

  In the sepulchre chill of a cubicle provided by the Bank of Aruba, I popped the cassette into a minicamera long enough to confirm its contents before nodding at the teller.

  Yes. She could transfer the funds.

  Bagman and teller conversed in patois French as I stowed the cassette in a briefcase, focusing on details to mitigate my nausea. Inside the men’s room, I filled a marble sink with water, then lathered face and hands, but the taint was subcutaneous, associative. Soap couldn’t cut it. I had helped Shay with high school homework. I’d fielded her homesick letters when she was a college freshman.

  After leaving the bank, I pulled my rental around the block, waited, then followed the bagman’s Fiat to a waterfront bar. Big round man, big round head. I battled the urge to snatch him from the parking lot, then drive to a secluded place.

  I’m no longer authorized to do that sort of thing.

  Eight hours later, I landed at Miami International, then caught a commuter flight to Fort Myers Regional, a forty-minute drive from my home and laboratory on Sanibel Island, southwest coast of Florida. Shay, now twenty-six, with a master’s in business, was waiting.

  “Did you check luggage?”

  I was carrying the briefcase and a recent issue of Journal of Invertebrate Pathology.

  “Never.”

  “Ah… I forgot. All those research trips, studying fish in foreign countries. What’s the secret to packing light?”

  “Simple. Wear dark clothes, and always save your second pair of socks for the flight home.”

  The girl laughed as we hugged. “Doc Ford, the mysterious biologist. I picked the right guy.”

  I said, “It’s been awhile. We’ll see.”

  Shay had her arm around my waist, shoulder wedged into ribs, thumb hooked to my belt. She was her usual affectionate, alpha-female self, body docked to mine so she could steer me efficiently toward baggage, or her awaiting car. But there was an intensity to the way she hugged close. This was a frightened women desperate for asylum. Had I provided it?

  Life may be a chemical-electrical process, but living is a procession of uncertainties, one damn thing after another. Somehow, that truth makes lying easier.

  “Did everything… go okay?”

  “Couldn’t have gone smoother.”

  “You feel good about it?”

  “Better than expected. Very businesslike. We’ve been dealing with pros.”

  “The money transferred from my account fast enough. I checked. Geezus, one hell of a chunk. Were you… surprised by the amount?”

  Not surprised, shocked. But I replied, “A lot of money.”

  “My entire savings.”

  “You’ve saved that much since college?”

  “Well… plus Daddy’s life insurance.”

  “Insurance? He didn’t seem like the type.”

  “I know, I know-a man like him being thoughtful was as unexpected as him dying. I thought I told you about the check. After the honeymoon, Michael and I could’ve-”

  “It’s done. You said you weren’t going to beat yourself up when I got back. I’m back.”

  “You’re right. You know the way I ought to see it? Like it’s an investment in the future. I have to keep reminding myself. Our future, Michael and me.”

  We exited the terminal into the sodium glare of asphalt and Everglades heat. It was a Thursday in June, a little before midnight, less than ten days until the girl’s wedding. There were stars up there above palm trees.

  “So he gave you the… thing.”

  “Yes.” The briefcase was on my opposite shoulder, and I tapped it. “In here.”

  I felt her body stiffen. “The only copy?”

  “I don’t know. That’s the deal you made. But it’s his game, his rules.”

  “Do you know why… why I paid the money?”

  “I have a pretty good idea.”

  “So you watched.”

  “Just the beginning. You and your bridesmaids were on a patio by a swimming pool, a view of the ocean below. With three men I assume were locals-so the party was just getting started. That was enough.”

  “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Another lie. The video had been queued to footage that was unambiguously graphic. I’d watched for a few seconds, skipped ahead, then couldn’t hit the power button fast enough.

  Yes, we had been dealing with a pro, but there were also symptoms of pathology. Voyeurism plus cruelty. Her blackmailer enjoyed humiliating his victims.

  Shay laughed to disguise relief. “Thanks for being a gentleman. Not that there’s anything really bad. Just stupid. The sort of things we did in college-smoke grass, smooch with strangers. But Michael wouldn’t have understood. None of our guys would, even though it seemed harmless at the time. We tried to turn the clock back-Liz, Corey, Beryl, and me-and have one last fling… only now, I wish we’d never heard of that damn island. By October, we’ll all be married. And we’ve got professions. We’re grown-ups now, not sorority girls.”

  I’d just lied to Shay, so why did I find it so irritating that she was lying to me? My own moral code varies with time zones and border crossings, plus I do not accept the premise that human behavior can be separated neatly into columns of right and wrong. So who the hell am I to judge? But I am neither so jaundiced nor naive that I don’t know the difference between a kiss and a blow job.

  “Aren’t grown-ups also supposed to accept responsibility for their behavior?” I said.

  The woman stopped walking for a moment, her expression indignant, then sped ahead. “I don’t care for your tone, buddy boy.”

  “Then stop treating me like I’m stupid.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about!”

  “Really? You didn’t pay a hundred thousand dollars to spare your future husband seeing you smoke dope and kiss a stranger.”

  “I just told you: Michael’s the jealous type. Like most guys, there’s a double standard. It doesn’t matter if it was innocent fun. He wouldn’t have understood.”

  “I flew halfway to the equator and back because of innocent fun? Knock it off, Shay. I know better.”

  “Damn it! You said you didn’t watch the video!”

  The woman slowed enough for me to catch up, eyes searching. The footage I’d seen was disturbing. What I had not seen was there in her eyes, and it sickened her.

  I said, “I don’t give a damn what’s on this tape. Whatever perceived sins, your girls’ weekend couldn’t have been any worse than a lot of bachelor parties. Okay? And it sure as hell doesn’t compare to some of the things I’ve done in my life.” I cut her off before she interrupted. “Don’t ask. We’re all entitled to our secrets. The point is, I’m your friend. As of today, I’m also your partner. So no more evasions.

  “When you asked me to fly south and make the exchange, I did-no questions asked. Now I expect the truth. Because there’s a chance we’re going to hear from him again.”

  Shay stopped and faced me. She took a shuddering breath, and in a voice I hadn’t heard since she was a teen, she whispered, “Oh… Ford, I hope… I so hope you’re wrong.”

  I swept the girl into my free arm and held her, thumping my hand on her back. “Me, too, Shay. But if i
t happens, no surprises, okay? Because it’s started.”

  “What? What’s started? I don’t understand.”

  I meant the lie we’d created. It now had a life of its own. Unlike the truth, lies can’t survive independently. They’re quasi matter, like something sewn together in a lab, and require monitoring.

  "If we’re not straight with each other,” I told her, “our friendship will be the first casualty. Your marriage could be the second.”

  “My God, Doc,” the girl said, pushing away, “don’t even say that. Damn it! I did what I was supposed to do. I paid the money. I’m safe now, aren’t I? We deserve to be safe!”

  “This has nothing to do with what you deserve. Fairness isn’t bankable. Right now, the guy may be rethinking your payment schedule because fear has an exact dollar value. He’s a pirate, not an entrepreneur.”

  I put my arm around her waist, and we continued toward the parking garage. “You’re saying he’ll want more money after the wedding.”

  That’s what I was thinking. She was marrying Michael Jonquil, a third-generation Swiss-American whose family was regal, Lear jetwealthy, and politically connected-Michael was running for a state house seat in the fall.

  I replied, “Possibly. Depends on the fear factor. That’s why you have to be honest. I don’t need details. Just a realistic understanding of how much leverage the man has.”

  “Fear, huh?”

  “Isn’t that what business negotiation is all about?”

  “Guilt’s more like it. Or shame.” She was talking about herself.

  I said, “Then let’s hope he didn’t keep a copy of the tape.”

  Randy Wayne White

  Black Widow

  2

  It wasn’t until we were in Shay’s toy-sized convertible, traveling west, top down, that she spoke again. The long silence suggested a prelude to confession-not without reason.

  “Remember the first e-mail demanding money? I told you he sent video samples as an attachment.”

  I remembered. It was eight days ago. Less than a week after Shay and friends returned from Saint Arc, an island only a few miles from Saint Lucia, off the coast of South America. Shay had downloaded the video files, but the files were corrupt, she said. The clips wouldn’t open.

  I’d urged her to contact the FBI, but she refused. I should’ve insisted. I didn’t.

  I asked, “What about the files?”

  “They weren’t corrupt. What he filmed was corrupt-things the girls and I did on Saint Arc. I trashed the clips because I knew you’d want to see everything when I asked for help. Like it was evidence.”

  “It was that bad?”

  “Bad enough. Michael and I won’t be getting married next week if he gets hold of the tape. Beryl and Liz’s wedding plans will be wrecked, and Corey’s husband-he’s such a violence freak-he’d kill someone if he finds out. Maybe he’d kill Corey. And she didn’t even do anything. Not really. Just the fact she was with us, he’d go orbital.”

  Shay paused to turn south, downshifting as she slalomed between slower vehicles, picking lanes then accelerating: a decisive female whose driving mirrored her personality-not always good in an overpowered, undersized car. I no longer lectured her on the dangers of tailgating and accelerating through intersections. Putting my hands on the dash had become my way of saying Slow the hell down.

  When traffic thinned, though, she lost her edge. She sat back and let the night sky tunnel above us, thinking things through before giving me her attention.

  “Who’m I kidding. Of course you’re right. I wouldn’t let someone con that much money if all we’d done was smoke and play kissy face with the local cabana boys-which would’ve been bad enough as far as Michael’s family is concerned. I was too embarrassed to give you the details. Sorry.”

  “Don’t apologize. It was the smart way to deal with it. At first.”

  “Really?”

  “Sure. There was no reason for me to know. But now-”

  “Okay. So that’s why I’m telling you. Truth is, the three guys in the video? We all ended up in the swimming pool. Naked-except for Corey, but even she took her top off. The cameraman must’ve been hidden on the hillside above our rental house. It looked like jungle, but that’s where he had to be.” Shay lowered her voice to a whisper. “Doc, you’ve got to swear you won’t tell a soul about Corey. Ever. Vance is nuts. Seriously.”

  I’d never met Corey’s husband. He was a bodybuilder; a sometimes actor. I’d heard the stories of his steroid rages and cocktail-party dramas. His temper had gotten him fired from his job as a firefighter.

  I said, “Don’t worry.”

  Shay nodded, concentrating on her driving again. “There were only a couple shots of Corey, but enough to make him crazy. Beryl and Liz took their suits off, too. But most of the close-ups are of me. In fact, the asshole cameraman made me the star.”

  Before I could catch myself, I said, “If your girlfriends were nude, why pick on you?”

  If the question offended her, she didn’t react. Or maybe she was confident enough to be unfazed. Shay was no longer the pinch-faced teen I’d met eight years ago. The adolescent brown hair was now a luxurious maple, the baby fat was gone, the clothes stylish. She was attractive in a solid, assertive way, but our instinctual perception of beauty has to do with symmetry and proportions. Shay’s facial proportions were off-nose a little too thick, lips too thin, and the columella, the divider that separates her nostrils, was creased.

  Her maid of honor, Beryl Woodward, though, was an auburn Grace Kelly who radiated ice when she entered a room, then slowly filled the space with heat. Her bridesmaid Liz made extra money modeling swimsuits. Corey was about to sign a film contract when she met the domineering man who became her husband. Yet the voyeur had singled out Shay?

  “Maybe it had something to do with the guy I was with,” she said. “He was the leader… that was my impression. He wore a pirate bandanna and was a little too good-looking. Like a fashion model, but nice-or so I thought. He was younger… twenty-one. We flirted. He was a good dancer, and dancing is something I never get to do since I got engaged.

  “In the pool, he and I… the two of us drifted off into a corner and… we played around for a while, then… and then the three guys got dressed and left. And that’s all that happened.”

  She was having second thoughts. This amended version had been assembled as she talked.

  There was a bottle of water in the cup holder. I took a long drink, then opened my briefcase and began to separate travel documents from travel trash. We were on Summerlin Road. The causeway that links the mainland with Sanibel was ahead, the new skyway bridge arching into summer darkness. To the south, Estero Island was a yellow necklace of condo lights. We were through the tollgate, halfway across the bay, before Shay broke the silence.

  “Why don’t you say something?”

  “I was waiting for you to finish.”

  “I did. That’s the whole story. Nothing sexual happened because that’s a line we didn’t cross. None of us girls did. Not technically sexual, I’m saying.”

  “Technically sexual,” I repeated.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “Nope, I’m a biologist, and I wouldn’t attempt a guess. But it doesn’t matter. If the blackmailer kept a copy of the video, how much power does it give him six months from now? Or a year from now if Michael’s elected to the legislature? Or in six years if you start a company, and it’s about to go public?”

  “Jesus Christ, what a nightmare even to think about.”

  “Maybe. But it’s better to deal with it now.”

  “Why? I just told you-we didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “All right. In that case, there’s no reason to worry.”

  “You say that like you don’t believe me.”

  “I choose to believe you because you’re too smart to risk giving me bad information. I just explained what’s at stake.”

  “You don’t believe me!”

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sp; “I’m discussing security. You’re fixating on morality. Why? That’s not my engagement ring on your finger.”

  “Don’t be nasty.”

  “I’m not.”

  “Bullshit, buddy-ruff. If you want to draw blood, you need heavier ammo. Maybe you forget I come from redneck country, the toughest and nastiest sort. I’m not bulletproof, but the small-caliber stuff bounces off.”

  I smiled. “Oh, I see. So now I’m talking to the real Shay Money. Not the faker who earned scholarships, graduated cum laude, won umpteen awards, and is fast becoming the administrative darling of a Sanibel clothing company.”

  "That Sanibel clothing company,” she replied, her tone icy and impatient, “happens to be an international company listed on NASDAQ.”

  I said, “Sorry. The founders of Chico’s used to keep me updated. We’ve lost touch.”

  “Is that another jab about how I got my job? Maybe I haven’t thanked you enough. Okay, I’ll say it again: Thanks.”

  I was still smiling. “Do you realize your piney-woods accent comes back when you’re mad? File that tidbit away so all the people you think you’re fooling don’t stumble onto the truth about the real Shay Money. Or have you gone back to using Shanay?”

  The woman growled in frustration. “Don’t call me that. You can be such an asshole.”

  “It’s the only way I can relate to anal-retentive friends.”

  Bridge lights shadowed her scowl in rhythmic panels as we descended onto the island. “Okay, okay. So I’m not proud of what’s on the video. I’ve spent the last seven years trying to become someone I’m not. Maybe the mask finally slipped when we were on Saint Arc. White trash, that’s what the camera captured. Me. Yeah, the real me, and cameras don’t lie. What do you expect from the daughter of Dexter Ray Money?”

  The late Dex Money, Shay’s father, was one of the foulest men I’d ever met.

  "Excuses,” I said. "Self-pity and excuses-that’s what I’d expect. .. if I didn’t know you so well.”

  I watched the girl straighten. After a moment, she whispered, “My God, that’s what I’m doing, isn’t it? I’m acting just like him.”