Get Charlie Noah

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

'She shot me with a spear gun.' Stephen Pope coughed. 'It was just through the arm but it's become infected. I can't risk going to a hospital.'

'What do you expect me to do?' asked Reginald Noah on his new mobile phone. 'Make this quick by the way. I can't allow anyone to pick up on these calls.'

'Transfer fifty grand into my account and I'll sort out my own problems. That will end our arrangement. I'm not fit enough to chase her and there is little doubt she's gone overseas.'

'Why do you think that?'

'Because she was born in Hawaii and that is where her mother and father lived and died.'

'She has other favourite places in the South Pacific,' said Noah. 'I'll find her and by the way...you won't be getting another cent from me. Is that clear?'

'You have no idea who you're dealing with,' said Pope.

'Neither do you.'

Reginald Noah paid quite a deal of money to make sure that Stephen Pope didn't live to experience lunch the following day...either at the Mantra hotel restaurant where he was staying in Port Douglas, or by way of room service. Stephen Pope felt that room service lunch was being delivered but when he stumbled to the door and unlocked it, he was pushed back into the room and had his throat cut so quickly that he didn't have the time to reach for his own knife. Two men then quickly but carefully searched the room. They found two pages which had been torn from Rick Turner's dive rental receipt book and examined the names recorded on those pages.

'I know this Ben Hood,' said the taller of the two with bright red hair. He had pure white skin and a very muscular build. 'He used to be a cop from Sydney. Not too many names like that.'

The smaller man who had dispatched Stephen Pope looked at the two receipt pages. 'They were living together. That's going to mean two kills and the price has just gone up.'

'The tall man folded the receipts and put them in his pocket. 'Hood is a nasty piece of work. He's got a reputation. I think he's working private and he's not an easy mark.'

'Ex cops are always an easy mark.'

'Not this one. I'll need to check on him. If he's protecting Noah's wife it will make things a lot more difficult.'

'It's done. Pope is dead.'

'Thank you,' said Reginald Noah.

'Now we'll pay Mr. Turner a visit at the Cairns hospital and see if he can tell us exactly where your wife has gone.'

'I'm not sure that turning up pressure on Rick Turner is going to help,' said Noah, 'but I'll leave that to your judgement. I don't want people like him flapping their jaws with damaging information that might land back in my lap if you know what I mean.'

'We'll take care of Mr. Turner but there seems to be another problem and it may cost you a lot more for us to actually get your wife.'

'What are you talking about?' asked Noah.

'She may have employed the services of an ex Police Detective named Ben Hood.'

'Never heard of him.'

'He may be quite a problem. He's apparently well skilled in fighting and not uncomfortable about killing people who make his life uncomfortable.'

'Just get Charlie. I don't care what you have to do or what it costs but she has to be silenced.'

'Alright, we'll fly to Vanuatu although I think Hawaii would have been my choice of destination to look for her first.'

'No. She is an expert SCUBA diver and loved diving on the wrecks around the islands of Vanuatu, especially the wreck of the SS President Coolidge which sank off the island of Espiritu Santo. You couldn't keep her away from all the war wrecks in the ocean up that way. She bores easily so she won't go anywhere where she can't be active, especially if underwater diving is on offer.'