“Four o’clock. Something broke the surface.”
“I don’t see anything.”
“Fire at it, anyway.”
One of the gunmen obligingly squeezed off a clip. The bullets sprayed into the water, their deadly rain splashing a line across the surface.
They watched for a moment. Nothing appeared. The water smoothed once again into undulating glass.
“I know I saw something,” said Trott.
The captain shrugged. “Well, it’s not there now.” He called to the helmsman, “Return to port!”
Cosima came about, leaving in her wake a spreading circle of ripples.
Trott moved to the stern, his gaze still focused on the suspicious patch of water. As they roared away he thought he spotted another flash of silver bob to the surface. It was there only for an instant. Then, in a twinkling, it was gone.
A fish, he thought. And, satisfied, he turned away.
Yes, that must be what it was. A fish.
One
“A small burglary. That’s all I’m asking for.” Veronica Cairncross gazed up at him, tears shimmering in her sapphire eyes. She was dressed in a fetching off-the-shoulder silk gown, the skirt arranged in lustrous ripples across the Queen Anne love seat. Her hair, a rich russet brown, had been braided with strands of seed pearls and was coiled artfully atop her aristocratic head. At thirty-three she was far more stunning, far more chic than she’d been at the age of twenty-five, when he’d first met her. Through the years she’d acquired, along with her title, an unerring sense of style, poise and a reputation for witty repartee that made her a sought-after guest at the most glittering parties in London. But one thing about her had not changed, would never change.
Veronica Cairncross was still an idiot.
How else could one explain the predicament into which she’d dug herself?
And once again, he thought wearily, it’s faithful old chum Jordan Tavistock to the rescue. Not that Veronica didn’t need rescuing. Not that he didn’t want to help her. It was simply that this request of hers was so bizarre, so fraught with dire possibilities, that his first instinct was to turn her down flat.