Bahama Crisis

So I told him and it was long in the telling, and when I had finished he said, "Jesus, I've never heard of anything like that!" He picked up the photograph I had taken from the safe.

"You mean this son of a bitch killed your family?"

"That's the general theory. If he's still alive he did, and if he's dead who took his boat from the marina here?"

"This is a crummy picture," said Billy.

"I think we can do better than this?"

"How?"

"You know we have the Space Center in Houston. I know a lot of the guys there because we do business with NASA.

When they shoot pictures back from space they're pretty blurred so they put them through a computer which sharpens them up; makes a computer-enhanced image, as they call it. " He tapped the photograph.

"I think they could do the same with this, and if they can't you're no worse off. Mind if I take this back to Houston?"

I thought it was a good idea.

"Take it."

Three days later we signed papers and I was President of a $50 million corporation.

Time passed.

I had a heavy workload as I buckled down to making the Theta Corporation work. I began by activating some of the suggestions I had outlined to Billy, beginning with the construction division. Jack Foster was a childless widower who ran a construction company based in Nassau. He was past sixty and wanted to get out, not seeing the point of working himself into the grave when he had no one to leave the company to, so I flew to Nassau and we did a deal, and I got the company for a quarter-million less than I expected to pay. Since this was the company that was building the hotel on Eleuthera things started to move faster there because I saw to it that the Theta Corporation got first choice of materials and manpower. The sooner the hotel was completed the sooner the cash flow would turn from negative to positive.

The quarter-million I saved I put into a geographical and economic survey of the Bahamas, hiring an American outfit to do it. I did not expect them to come up with anything that would surprise me, but what they found would buttress my ideas with the Cunninghams.

I flew to Abaco at least once a week to see Karen, even if only to stay an hour. She seemed to have settled down completely and seemed none the worse for her bereavement. I wished I had her resilience; I stopped myself from brooding only by hard work and keeping occupied.

But there were times in the small hours..

I discussed the question of taking Karen home but Peggy counselled against it.

"Tom, you're working all the hours God sends. How do you expect to look after a little girl? Let her stay here until things ease off for you. She's no trouble."

Peggy and Bob were over the moon because I was funding them to a golf course to compete with the one at Treasure Cay. I also told them I was having joint meetings with the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Tourism and the Department of Public Works to see if anything could be done about the God-awful road between Marsh Harbour and Treasure Cay. I told them I had produced the Pilot's Bahamas Aviation Guide the bit where it says that if anyone wants to get from Treasure Cay to Marsh Harbour they'd better fly.

"I asked them, " What sort of tourist advertising is that? " I think we'll get our improved road."

"It would help our lunch trade a lot," said Bob.

"People coming on day tours from Treasure Cay."

"The hell with lunch. You'll be running a car hire service." So I was keeping busy and the time passed a little less painfully.

I made a point of dropping in to see Perigord from time to time. The computer-enhanced pictures ofKayles came back from NASA and I gave them to him. He took one look at them and blinked.

"How did you do this?" he demanded.

"Ask no questions," I said.

"Remember discretion." There was no sign ofKayles.

"If he's still alive he could be anywhere," said Perigord.

"Yachtsmen are mobile and there's no control over them at all. For all I know he's in Cape Town right now."

"And he'll have changed the name of his boat again."

"And perhaps his own," said Perigord.

"He'd surely have passport difficulties there."

Perigord looked at me a little sorrowfully.

"It may come as a surprise to you to know that the skipper of a boat, no matter how small the boat, doesn't need a passport; all he needs are ship's papers and those are easily forged. In any case, getting a passport is easy enough if you know where to look." Perigord was stymied.

Three months passed and Debbie came back bringing with 74 her two black American girls of about her own age. She blew into my office like a refreshing breeze and introduced them.

"This is Cora Brown and Addy Williams; they're both teachers, and Addy has nursing qualifications. We're an advance scouting party."

"Then I'd better fix you up with rooms." I stretched for the telephone.

"No need," she said airily.

"I made reservations."

I made a mental note to tell Jack Fletcher to inform me any time Debbie Cunningham made a reservation.

"So you're going ahead."