BLACK MONEY LOVE

Chapter 3

Roma considered working in the dive shop the next thing to taking a day off. Staying away from the shop and the boats, was a luxury she allowed herself rarely, and only when Faith was home on holiday.
When she'd started eight years before,Roma had stocked enough tanks and gear to outfit twelve divers.  It had taken every penny she'd saved-- ever penny Khalil had given a young, dewy-eyed girl pregnant with his child. The girl had become a woman quickly, and that woman now had a business that could accommodate fifty divers from the skin out.
The first boat she'd gambled on,a dive boat,had been christened Faith, for her daughter. She'd vowed when she'd been eighteen, alone and frightened that the child she carried would have the best. Ten years later,Roma could look around her shop and know she'd kept her promise. She no longer looked back at the education she'd barely begun,or what she might have been. She'd stop pinning for a man who didn't want her or the child they'd made. She'd never go back. But Faith could. Faith could learn how to speak French, wear silk dresses and discuss wine and music. One day Faith would go back and mingle unknowingly with her cousins on their own level.
That was her dream,Roma thought as she carefully filled tanks. To see her daughter accepted as easily as she herself had been rejected. Not for revenge, Roma mused, but for Justice.
" Business is good."
She jolted at the voice and looking up again starred at Zack Alpha.  She'd never again mistake him for Jerry, though his eyes were almost hidden this time with tinted glasses that he wore. There was a long gold chain around his neck with a small coin dangling. She recalled Jerry had worn one. But something in the way. Zack stood, something in the set of his mouth made him look taller and tougher than the man she'd known.
Because she didn't believe in polite fencing,Roma finished relocking the cash box and began to check the straps and fasteners on a shelf of masks. No faulty equipment went out of her shop." I didn't expect to see you again."
" You should have." Zack watched her move down the shelf. She seemed stronger,less vulnerable than she had when he'd seen her a week ago. Her eyes were Cool, her voice remote. It made it easier to do what he'd come for. "You have quite a reputation on the island."
She paused long to enough to look over her shoulder. "Really?"
" I checked," he said easily. "You've lived here for ten years. Built this place from the first brick and have one of the most successful businesses on the island."
She examined the mask in her hand meticulously." Are you interested in renting some equipment,Mr. Alpha? I can recommend the snorkeling right off the reef."
" Maybe. But I think I'd  prefer to scuba."
" Fine. I can give you whatever you need."
He smiled at her for the first time,a slow, appealing curving of lips that softened the toughness around his mouth. "I might take you up on that. Meantime, when do you close?"
" When am ready to." The smile made the difference, she realized, and she couldn't let it. In defense, she shifted her weight on one hip and sent him a look of mild insolence. " This Cozumel,Mr. Alpha. We don't run nine to five here. Unless you want to rent some equipment or sign up for a tour, you'll have to excuse me."
He reached in to close his hand over hers. "I didn't come back to tour. Have dinner with me tonight. We can talk."
She didn't attempt to free her hand but stared at him. Running a business had taught her to be scrupulously polite in any circumstances." No thank you."
" Drinks then?"
" No."
" Miss.Altergracie..."  Normally, Zack was know for his deadly, interminable patience. It was a weapon, he'd learned,in the courtroom and out of it. With Roma,he found it difficult to wield it." I don't have a great deal to go at this point, and the police haven't made any progress at all. I need your help."
This time Roma did pull away. She wouldn't be sucked in, that she promised herself, not by quite word or intense eyes. She had a life to deal,a business to run, and most importantly a daughter coming home in a matter of weeks. " I won't get involved. I'm sorry, even if I wanted to, there'd nothing I could do to help."
" Then it won't hurt to talk."
" Mr. Alpha." Roma was know for her patience." I have very little free time. Running this business isn't a whim or a lark, but a great deal of work. If I have a couple of hours to myself in the evening, I'm going to spend them grilled by you. Now---"
" How many boats?"
" What?"
" How many do you have?"
Sucked in a deep breath and decided she could humor him another five minutes." I have four. The glass bottom, two dive boats and one for deep- see fishing."
'Deep- sea fishing." That was the one, Zack decided." I haven't done any in five or six years. Tomorrow." He reached in his wallet." How much?"
" It's fifty dollars a person a day, but I don't take the boat out for one man,Mr. Alpha." She gave him an easy smile." My schedule tomorrow is set. I'm afraid i---"
" It doesn't make good sense to turn down profit,Miss Roma." When he only moved her shoulders, he smiled again, but this time it wasn't so pleasant.
Roma picked up the money, one bill at a time. " What business are you in,Mr. Alpha?"
" Law."
She made a sound that might have been a laugh as she pulled out a form. " I should have guessed. I knew someone studying law once." She thought of Khalil with his glib, calculating tongue. " He always got what he wanted,sign here. We leave at eight tomorrow, one of my dive boats is coming back. You'll have to excuse me."
" Miss Roma..." He wasn't sure what he wanted to say to her or why he was uncomfortable having a successful maneuver. In the end,he pocketed his receipt. " If you don't mind about dinner---"
"I won't."
*****
He was going to get her involved. Even now,Roma could imagine those dark, patient gray eyes staring into hers. Zack Alpha was the kind of man who took no for an answer but was dogged enough to wait however long it took for the yes. Under other circumstances, she'd have admired that. Being stubborn had helped her start a business when so many people had shaken their heads and warned her against it. But she couldn't afford to admire Zack Alpha. Budgeting her feelings was every bit Important as budgeting her accounts.
She couldn't help him,Roma thought again,as the soft air begun to play around her face. Everything she'd known about Jerry had been said at least twice. Of course she was sorry, and had grieved a bit herself for a man she'd hardly know, but murder was a police matter. Zack Alpha was out of  his element.
                *****
" I'll take care of everything here. Go ahead and open the shop. The glass bottom should be ready to leave in half an hour."
But he wasn't listening. Standing on the deck,he stared back at the narrow dock. She saw him raise a shaky hand to cross himself.
" Luis?" She came down the short flight of stairs to join him." What---"
Then she saw Zack,a straw hat covering his head, sunglasses shading his eyes. He hadn't bothered to shave, so that light growth of beard gave him a lazy, vagrant look accented by a faded T- shirt and brief black trunks. He didn't, she realized, look like a  man who'd play bridge. Knowing what was going through Luis's mind, Roma shook his and spoke quickly.
" It's his brother, Luis. I told you they were twins."
" Back from the dead," Luis whispered.
" Don't be ridiculous." She shook off the shudder his words brought her. "His  name is Zack and he's nothing like Jerry at all, really. You'll see when you talk to him. You're prompt,Mr. Alpha," she called out, hoping to jolt Luis out of his shock." This is Luis--- he works for me.you gave him a jolt just now."
" Sorry." Zack glanced at the slim man hovering by Roma's side. "You knew my brother?"
" We worked together,"Luis answered in his slow, precise English.
" Why did you come to Cozumel?if you have been here for ten years,you'd have been a child when you left the states."
" No I wasn't a child." Something in the way she said it had him watching her again, looking for the secret she held just beyond her eyes." I came because it seemed like the right thing to do. It was the right thing. When I was a girl, my parents would come here almost every year. They love to dive."
" You moved with your parents?"
" No I came here alone." This time her voice was flat." You didn't pay two hundred dollars to talk to me, Mr. Alpha."
" It helps to have some background. You said you had a daughter. Where is she?"
" She goes to school in Houston--- that's where my parents live."
" You miss her."
" Horribly," Roma murmured." She'll be home in a few weeks, and we'll spend the summer together. September always comes too soon." Her gaze drifted off as she spoke almost to herself. It's for the best. My parents take wonderful care of her and she's getting an excellent education-- taking piano lessons and ballet. They sent me pictures from a recital, and..." Her eyes filled with tears so quickly that she hadn't any warning. She shifted into the wind and fought them back, but he'd seen them.  He sat smoking silently to give her time to recover.
" Ever wanted toget back to the States?"
" No." Roma swallowed and called herself a fool. It had been the pictures, she told herself, the pictures that had come in yesterday's mail of her little girl wearing a pink dress.
" Hiding from something?"
She whirled back, tears replaced with fury. Her body was arched like a bow ready to launch. Zack held up a hand.
" Sorry. I have a habit of poking into secrets."
She forced herself to relax.
" They call you Roma, don't they?"
Her brow lifted under the fridge that blew around her brow. "My friends do."
" It suits you, except when you try to be aloof. Then it should be Rosemary."
She sent him a smoldering look, certain he was trying to annoy her. " No one calls me Rosemary."
He merely grinned at her." Why weren't you sleeping with Jerry?"
" I beg your pardon?"
" Yes, definitely Rosemary. You're a beautiful woman in an odd sort of way Jerry had a... fondness for beautiful women. I can't figure out why you weren't lovers."
" For a moment, only a moment, it occurred to her that no one called her beautiful in a very long time. She needed words like that once. But she didn't need them now.
" I didn't choose to sleep with him. It might be difficult for you to accept,as you share the same face, but I didn't find Jerry irresistible."
" No? What did you find him."
" He was a drifter, and he happened to drift into my life. I gave him a job because he had a quick mind and a strong back. The truth was,I never expected him to last over a month."
" So you did know him,"Zack murmured." What was he looking for here?"
" I tell you I don't know! For all I know he was looking for a good time and a little sun." Frustration poured out on her as she tossed a hand in the air." I let him have a room because he seemed harmless and I could use the money. I wasn't intimate with him at any level. The closet he came to talking about what he was up to was bragging about diving for big bucks."
" Diving? Where?"
Fighting for control, she dragged a hand through her hair." I wish you'd leave me alone."
" You are a realistic woman, aren't you Rosemary?"
Her chin was set when she looked back at him." Yes."
" Then you know I won't back down,where was he going to dive?."
" I don't know. I barely listened to him when he got started on how rich he was going to be."
" What did you say?"this time Zack's voice was quite, persuading." Just try to think back and remember what he told you."
" He said something about making a fortune from diving, and I joked about sunken treasure. And he said..." She strained to remember the conversation.
" And what did he say?"
" Sometimes you make more putting stuff in than taking it out." With a line between her brows, she remembered how he'd  laughed when she'd told him to sleep it off." He made a pass neither of us took it seriously, and then...I think he made a phone call. I went back to work."
" When was this?"
" A week, maybe one week after I took him on."
" That must have been when he called me." He reminded himself. Jerry talked about coming home in style. But then he had always been talking about coming in style. And the call,as usual,had been collect.
" Did you ever see him with anyone? Talking, arguing?"
" I never saw him argue with anyone. He flirted with the women on the beach, made small talks with the client and got along just fine with everyone he worked with. I assumed he spent most of his free time in San Miguel. I think he cruised a few bars with Luis and some of others.
" What bars?"
" You'll have to ask them, though am sure the police already have." She took a deep breath. It was bringing it all back again,too close. Mr.Alpha, why don't you let the police handle this? You're running after shadows."
" He was my brother." And more he couldn't explain, his twin. Part of himself had been murdered. If he were ever to feel whole again,he had to know why. Haven't you ever wondered why Jerry was murdered?"
" Of course." She looked down at her hands. They were empty and she felt helpless." I thought he must've gotten into a fight ,or maybe he bragged to the wrong person. He had a bad habit of tossing what money he had around.
" It wasn't robbery or a mugging, Rosemary. It was professional. It was business."
Her heart began a slow, painful thud." I don't understand."
" Jerry was murdered by a pro, and I'm going to find out why."
" Because her throat way suddenly dry, she swallowed." If you're right,then that's all the reason to leave it to the police."
" Police don't want revenge. I do."
Staring, she shook her head. Even if you found the person who did it, what could you do?"
" As a long lawyer,I suppose I'd be obliged to see they had their day in court. As a brother...."
He trailed off. " We'll have to see."
" I don't think you are a very nice man, Mr. Alpha."
" I'm not." He turned his head until his eyes locked on hers." And am not harmless. Remember,if I make a pass, we'll both take it seriously."