Unlucky 13(20)
From this windswept point of view, they could see all of the Seattle shoreline to the north and south, Elliott Bay and Puget Sound extending out to the west. Seabirds dove into the waves and then Yuki covered her ears as four long horn pulls signaled that their ship was ready to depart. Harbor Police and Coast Guard boats scurried to escort the cruise ship out of the port.
All along the dockside railing, passengers waved good-bye, took pictures, and shared the moment with other guests around them as the ship pulled slowly away from the moorings.
Yuki touched the little card in her pocket.
It had been on the tray with the bottle of champagne that had been waiting for them in the cabin. It said, Dear Mr. and Mrs. Brady. Thank you for spending your honeymoon with us. I look forward very much to meeting you over dinner this week.
And the captain had signed his name, George Berlinghoff.
“I’ve got something here,” Brady said. “It’s, uh, a wedding present.” He took a longish black box out of his Windbreaker pocket.
“I saw this,” Brady said, “and it looked like you, and I don’t know what the hell to do in a jewelry store, so I hope you like it.”
Yuki said, “I do.”
“Open the box, smarty.”
She smiled, then opened the long clamshell box. She sucked in her breath when she saw the strand of pink coral beads the size of marbles.
“How absolutely perfect.”
“It’s called ‘angel skin coral.’”
“These are beautiful, Brady. I can’t believe how beautiful they are.”
Yuki stood on her toes and kissed her brand-new husband, kissed him again, thanked him, and then handed him the necklace. She turned so that he could fasten it around her neck.
He swore at the clasp, apologized, then managed to close the necklace on the third try. He leaned down and pressed his cheek to Yuki’s.
“Happy honeymoon, Mrs. Brady.”
Yuki was too moved to speak, but she knew this. She was both happier than she’d ever been, and confident that she and Brady were meant to be together.
PART TWO
LOOK OUT. OL’ MACKIE’S BACK.
CHAPTER 23
I WAS ALREADY awake when Clapper called.
He said into my ear, “Glad I got you, Boxer. We’ve got breaking news on the belly bombs.”
At 7:15 or so, I texted Claire, and within an hour she and I were high on caffeine and optimism, on our way out to San Francisco’s Police Department Crime Lab at Hunters Point.
We met Clapper on the ground floor of the 13,500-square-foot lab. In answer to our questions, he said, “Keep your lids on. You’ll hear all about it in another couple minutes. And better from her than from me.”
Clapper walked us through the lab’s labyrinthine corridors and between rows of cubicles until we reached a corner office at the back of the building that was pretty much crammed with lab furniture and shiny high-tech equipment.
At the center of it all was Dr. Damaris Cortes, lab manager and point person working with the FBI on the belly bomb case. Cortes was a radiant forty, with short blue hair, large diamond studs, and a tattoo of an atom in the cleft between thumb and forefinger of her right hand.
She almost shimmered with energy.
Cortes offered us small chairs in her cramped office, while Clapper stood in the doorway, saying, “I’m pretty sure the three of you could speed up the rotation of the earth.”
Cortes said, “Fasten your seat belt, Clapper. Buckle up.”
Clapper laughed and said, “Copy that,” then disappeared down the hallway.
Cortes fixed her big gray eyes on us and said, “Claire, Lindsay, you understand this belly bomb is impossible, right? And yet—it was done. The FBI gave me a few cc’s of stomach contents—about one tablespoon. And, guess what? I found something.”
Cortes spun her chair around and began clicking open files on her computer.
“Nope, nope, nope—there you are, you little stinker,” she said. “Come look at this.”
Claire and I peered over the doctor’s shoulders and looked at the screen, but I had no idea what I was supposed to be looking at within this splotchy pinkish smear.
“Is that it?” Claire said. “That little oblong shape there?”
I squinted and said, “Why don’t you tell us ordinary folks what you’ve got?”
Cortes had a wild, untethered laugh that totally suited her mad-scientist personality.
“That, my friends, is your smoking gun.”
CHAPTER 24
DR. DAMARIS CORTES looked luminous and had a pleased ta-dah look on her face, as though she’d just discovered the eighth wonder of the world.
“Smoking gun?” I said. “How so?”
She was happy to explain—at length—which only told me how much work had gone into finding what was revealed to be a miniature gel cap. And, most important, it was intact.