Donovans 03 - Pearl Cove

kitchen. And it had worked well enough for him on Pearl Cove’s accounts. Hannah’s simple password “Today” had opened up everything on the hard drive.
    It had taken less than an hour to verify that, as a business, Pearl Cove was ninety-eight percent in the toilet. Len had borrowed against everything at least twice, and that included pearl futures.
    Of course, there could be another set of books somewhere. In fact, Archer would have bet a lot on it. The question was where.
    He glanced at Hannah. Her nap had helped to focus her, but she was still nearly dead on her feet. “So you both used this computer?” he asked, hardly able to believe it.
    “Yes.” She poured more coffee in her own cup and held the pot out to him, silently asking if he wanted more. Her eyes looked huge and dark against her pale skin. Despite her fragile appearance, she handled the coffee pot and cup without clumsiness.
    “No, thanks,” Archer said, shaking his head. He looked back at the computer screen. Caffeine could only go so far in curing jet lag. He was well past that point. “I’m surprised you didn’t have separate computers. Len didn’t like sharing.”
    Hannah shrugged. “Money. Every penny we had went into his pearl experiments.”
    “I went through all the files on the hard drive while you were asleep. I didn’t see any that were Len’s. Frankly, I would have expected him to booby-trap his computer.”
    “He kept his work on a separate storage disk.” She went to what looked like a cookie jar, took off the scarlet lid, fished around for a few moments, and pulled out a disk that fit easily in her palm. The disk had been wrapped to protect it from cookie crumbs. Absently she wiped the package on her thigh.
    “Chocolate chip?” Archer guessed, looking at the dark smear on her skin. The thought of licking it off sent a shaft of heat through him. He wondered when he would get too tired to respond to her or if exhaustion, like time, wouldn’t be enough to kill his response to his half brother’s wife.
    “Yes, it’s chocolate chip,” Hannah said. “How did you know?”
    “Len’s favorite. Mine too.”
    Smiling rather sadly, she smoothed a spike of chestnut hair behind one ear and rubbed a sleep crease on her neck. “They’re a little stale. I haven’t made cookies since Len . . . ” Her breath went ragged. “Anyway, if you want some, feel free.”
    “I’ll take homemade chocolate chip cookies any way I can get them.”
    Without a word she set the jar on the floor next to Archer. He reached in and came up with a fistful of cookies.
    “Did Len have any particular ritual for loading the disk?” he asked around a big bite of cookie.
    As she had said, the cookie was stale. It tasted wonderful, like childhood, when he and his brothers had hidden cookies everywhere in the house to make sure they got more than their fair share. Sometimes they didn’t find all of the cookies for days.
    “Len turned on the computer,” Hannah said, “put his disk in the drive, typed in something, and went to work.”
    “Code word. Or words.” Archer wiped his fingers on his shorts and then rubbed his palms over his eyes. They couldn’t possibly be as dry as they felt.
    After hours of staring at computer screens, the last thing he wanted to do right now was have a go at Len’s records, but there wasn’t much choice. Uncle hadn’t returned his call. Until he knew whether his half brother had been working for the U.S. government when he died, Archer couldn’t realistically assess how dangerous staying in Pearl Cove was. If the motive for killing Len had been politics rather than business, Hannah might not be in danger.
    “Don’t suppose you know what his code is?” Archer asked, biting back a yawn. Maybe he should take her up on that coffee. Or maybe sugar and grease would get the job done. He finished off the second cookie and started in on a third.
    “Like you said, Len wasn’t big on sharing. Once I got the disk for him, I left. His code was his secret.”
    Archer would have been surprised by any other answer. That didn’t mean he liked it. Kyle was across the biggest ocean on earth and sound asleep again. Archer’s hacking skills were distinctly average. Knowing Len, average wouldn’t get the job done.
    But he would try anyway, because he didn’t want to examine the pearling shed where Len had died until tonight, when it was full darkness and there was no excuse for any of Pearl Cove’s employees to be