Risky Business

along the sea wall. The scene had been almost the same the day he’d arrived on Cozumel. Some things remained the same; others altered constantly. “What happened?”
    “He had a hard time following orders. He wanted to push them too fast too far. He told me once he had something to prove, to himself and to the other part of him. The better part of him.”
    Jonas turned slowly. The pain came again, an ache. Liz saw it in his eyes and went to stand with him. “Go on.”
    “He got the idea into his head to rip off the money from a shipment. I didn’t know about it until he called me from Acapulco. He figured he’d put the head man in a position where he’d have to deal personally. I told him to stay put, that we were scrubbing him. He’d have been taken back to the States and put somewhere safe until the job was over.” He tossed the match he’d been holding into an ashtray on Moralas’s desk. “He didn’t listen. He came back to Cozumel and tried to deal with Manchez himself. It was over before I knew. Even if I’d have known, I can’t be sure I could’ve stopped it. We don’t like to lose civilians, Mr. Sharpe. I don’t like to lose friends.”
    The anger drained from him degree by degree. It would have been so like Jerry, Jonas thought. An adventure, the excitement, the impulsiveness. “Go on.”
    “Orders came down to put the pressure on Liz.” Scott gavea half laugh that had nothing to do with humor. “Orders from both sides. It wasn’t until after your trip to Acapulco that we were sure you weren’t involved in the smuggling. You stopped being a suspect and became the decoy.”
    “I came to the police.” She looked at Moralas. “I came to you. You didn’t tell me.”
    “I wasn’t aware of Agent Scott’s identity until yesterday. I knew only that we had a man on the inside and that it was necessary to use you.”
    “You were protected,” Scott put in. “There wasn’t a day you weren’t guarded by Moralas’s men and by mine. Your being here complicated things,” he said to Jonas. “You were pushing too close to the bone. I guess you and Jerry had more in common than looks.”
    Jonas felt the weight on the chain around his neck. “Maybe we did.”
    “Well, we’d come to the point where we had to settle for Manchez and a few others or go for broke. We went for broke.”
    “The drop we made. It was a setup.”
    “Manchez had orders to do whatever he had to to get back the money Jerry had taken. They didn’t know about the safe-deposit box.” He blew out a stream of smoke. “I had to play it pretty fast and loose to keep that under wraps. But then we didn’t know about it either, until you led us to it. As far as Ambuckle was concerned, you had the money, and he was going to get it back. He wanted it to look as though you’d been running the smuggling operation together. When you were found dead, the heat would be off of him. He planned to lie low a while, then pick up business elsewhere. I had that from Manchez. You were set up,” he agreed. “So was he. I got to Merriworth, made enough noise about how Manchez was about to double-cross to set him off. When Manchez wassnorkeling to your boat, I was on the phone with the man I knew as Clancy. I got a promotion, and Clancy came back to deal with you himself.”
    Liz tried to see it as he did, as a chess game, as any game with pawns. She couldn’t. “You knew who he was yesterday morning and you still had me get on that boat.”
    “There were a dozen sharpshooters in position. I had a gun, Ambuckle didn’t. We wanted him to order Liz’s murder, and we wanted him to tell her as much as possible. When this goes to court, we want it tidy. We want him put away for a long time. You’re a lawyer, Sharpe. You know how these things can go. We can make a clean collar, have a stack of evidence and lose. I’ve watched too many of these bastards walk.” He blew out smoke between set teeth. “This one’s not walking anywhere but into federal prison.”
    “There is still the question of whether these men will be tried in your country or mine.” Moralas spoke softly, and didn’t move when Scott whirled on him.
    “Look, Moralas—”
    “This will be discussed later. You have my thanks and my apologies,” he said to Jonas and Liz. “I regret we saw no other way.”
    “So do I,” Liz murmured, then turned to Scott. “Was it worth it?”
    “Ambuckle brought thousands of pounds of cocaine into the States. He’s