Risky Business

three hundred thousand our friend Jerry slipped out from under my nose. Cast off, Scott.”
    “No!” Thinking only of survival, Liz made a lunge toward the dock. Ambuckle had her on the deck with one shove. He shook his head, dusted his hands and turned to her. “I’d wanted to keep this from getting messy. You know, I switched gauges on your tanks, figuring you’d back off. Always had a soft spot for you, little lady. But business is business.” With a wheezy sigh, he turned to Scott. “Since you’ve taken over Pablo’s position, I assume you know how to deal with this.”
    “I certainly do.” He took out a revolver. His eyes locked on Liz’s. When she caught her breath, he turned the barrel toward Ambuckle. “You’re under arrest.” With his other hand, he pulled out a badge. “You have the right to remain silent…” It was the last thing Liz heard before she buried her face in her hands and wept.

12
    “I want to know what the hell’s been going on.” They were in Moralas’s office, but Jonas wouldn’t sit. He stood behind Liz’s chair, his fingers curled tight over the back rung. If anyone had approached her, he would have struck first and asked questions later. He’d already flattened the unfortunate detective who’d tried to hold him back when he’d seen Liz on the deck of the Expatriate with Scott.
    With his hands folded on his desk, Moralas gave Jonas a long, quiet look. “Perhaps the explanation should come from your countryman.”
    “Special Agent Donald Scott.” The man Liz had known as Scott Trydent sat on the corner of Moralas’s desk. “Sorry for the deception, Liz.” Though his voice was calm and matter-of-fact, it couldn’t mask the excitement that bubbled from him. As he sipped his coffee, he glanced up at Jonas. Explanations wouldn’t go over easily with this one, he thought. But he’d always believed the ends justified the means. “I’ve been after that son of a bitch for three years.” He drank again, savoring triumph. “It took us two before we could infiltrate the ring, and even then I couldn’t make contact with the head man. To get to him I had to go through more channels thanyou do with the Company. He’s been careful. For the past eight months I’ve been working with Manchez as Scott Trydent. He was the closest I could get to Ambuckle until two days ago.”
    “You used her.” Jonas’s hand went to Liz’s shoulder. “You put her right in the middle.”
    “Yeah. The problem was, for a long time we weren’t sure just how involved she was. We knew about your shop, Liz. We knew you were an experienced diver. In fact, there isn’t anything about you my organization didn’t know. For some time, you were our number-one suspect.”
    “Suspect?” She had her hands folded neatly in her lap, but the anger was boiling. “You suspected me.”
    “You left the U.S. over ten years ago. You’ve never been back. You have both the contacts and the means to have run the ring. You keep your daughter off the island for most of the year and in one of the best schools in Houston.”
    “That’s my business.”
    “Details like that become our business. When you took Jerry Sharpe in and gave him a job, we leaned even further toward you. He thought differently, but then we weren’t using him for his opinions.”
    She felt Jonas’s fingers tighten and reached up to them as she spoke. “Using him?”
    “I contacted Jerry Sharpe in New Orleans. He was someone else we knew everything about. He was a con, an operator, but he had style.” He took another swig of coffee as he studied Jonas. “We made him a deal. If he could get on the inside, feed us information, we’d forget about a few…indiscretions. I liked your brother,” Scott said to Jonas. “Really liked him. If he’d been able to settle a bit, he’d have made a hell of a cop. ‘Conning the bad guys,’ he called it.”
    “Are you saying Jerry was working for you?” Jonas felt hisemotions race toward the surface. The portrait he’d barely been able to force himself to accept was changing.
    “That’s right.” Scott took out a cigarette and watched the match flare as he struck it. “I liked him—I mean that. He had a way of looking at things that made you forget they were so lousy.”
    That was Jerry, Jonas thought. To give himself a moment, he walked to the window. He could see the water lapping calmly against the hulls of boats. He could see the sun dancing down on it and children walking