Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

said. “Sometimes, when Len got really drunk, he would scream that the bloody black rainbows had put him in a chair and the bloody things would put him right again.”
    “How?” April asked.
    “He believed in miracles,” Archer said simply.
    April muttered something under her breath.
    Chang thought about miracles and Len, and nodded slowly. “Pearls have a long tradition of being used as medicine. Even today, in India, ground pearls are used to cure rickets. Quite effective, I’m told.”
    “Paraplegia is a long way from rickets,” April said sardonically.
    Archer looked at her. “What would it take to convince you that Hannah doesn’t know how to grow black rainbows?”
    April glanced at Chang.
    Suddenly he appeared both weary and impatient. “I told you. I told my father. The more I looked at it, the less I thought that Hannah knew Len’s secrets. Not before he died. Not after. He didn’t trust her, and she isn’t clever or devious enough to hide a secret that big.”
    Hannah wondered if she had been insulted or complimented. Both, probably.
    Silence stretched while April considered and rejected various scenarios. It didn’t take her long to choose one. “Okay, slick. Here’s the deal. Chang will set a price and both of you will sign over everything you own at Pearl Cove to a person I’ll name. Lock, stock, and barrel. Stuff you know about and stuff you don’t. I’ll put out the word that you and Hannah are off the table.”
    “You’ll do more than that,” Archer said evenly. “You’ll make it clear that anyone who goes after Hannah goes after Uncle Sam.”
    April didn’t like it, but she accepted it. “Agreed.”
    “Hannah?” Archer asked.
    “I’ll sign over everything except the Black Trinity.”
    “So it’s real,” Chang said eagerly. “I’ll buy it from you. Top price.”
    “It’s real,” Hannah said. “I don’t have it to sell.”
    “Why not?”
    “Len hid it. We’ve found other rainbows, but we haven’t found the Black Trinity.”
    “Did he bury it somewhere in Pearl Cove?” Chang asked her.
    “If his murderer didn’t take it, it’s still in Pearl Cove. Except for one trip to Roti just after we bought Pearl Cove, Len never left home.”
    Silently Archer noted that neither Chang nor April appeared surprised by the statement that Len had been murdered. Nor were they interested. But both of them were quietly making plans for a trip to Roti, which wasn’t that far from Kupang, which might, just might, hold the secret of the black rainbows.
    “Buried treasure,” April said, her voice ripe with irritation. She looked at her watch, mentally reshuffling demands for the rest of the day. One of her agents was about to get a rude awakening and a ticket to one of Indonesia’s less delectable seaside villages. “Fine, whatever, keep the Black Trinity if you dig it up. The rest is Uncle Sam’s. That includes Len’s computer.” She looked straight at Archer.
    He nodded. “You’ll get it after we sign the papers.”
    “I’ll have them to you in an hour,” April said.
    “And you’ll put out the word right now,” Archer said.
    “You’re pushing, slick.”
    “It’s what I’m best at.”
    She smiled in spite of herself. “True fact. I’ll put out the word.”
    “Done,” Archer said, holding out his hand.
    April hesitated, then gripped his hand hard. “Don’t disappoint me on this one. I’d hate to cut off your cock just when you’re enjoying it again.”

Twenty-seven
    One does not learn the skills involved
At the drop of a hat.
It’s the slow-learned skills in the depths of love
That I’m working at.
    LADY NAKATOMI
JAPAN, EIGHTH CENTURY
BROOME, AUSTRALIA
    T hough Hannah felt as if she had been away for months, Pearl Cove hadn’t changed. The ocean was still a restless turquoise that was sculpted by wind. The sun still piled clouds upon clouds until the afternoon sky became a sullen quicksilver lid holding in the summer’s tropical heat. Stripped down to shorts, tank top, and sandals, she and Archer looked very much at home on the sultry margin where salt water met land.
    Hannah didn’t feel at home. All the workers had left except Coco, who had stayed on to pack up some of the things in the main house. Hannah couldn’t wait to leave Pearl Cove. Every time she looked at the beach, she saw Len there, his ruined legs drifting like pale ribbons on the water.
    Shivering, she turned away from the sea.
    Archer guessed her thoughts from the grim line