Tears of the Moon - Di Morrissey [143]
It was a Koepanger in a bosun’s chair hoisted to the masthead who caught the first glimpse of something in the water and called for a change of course. More wreckage, they thought, until, drawing closer, they saw the body of a man collapsed in the tattered dinghy. He had secured himself to the broken seat by his shirt and the exposed skin of his back was blistered raw. They had no idea if he was dead or alive.
Ahmed stood to one side, praying desperately as they dragged Tyndall on board.
They rolled him over and found he was still breathing. Water was dribbled into his mouth and the dried sea salt rinsed from his face. He coughed and spluttered, his eyes rolled back in his head, then slowly refocused. Through sunburnt lips he tried to speak but only an incoherent babble of sounds escaped from his swollen mouth. They treated him as best they could and Ahmed set a course for Broome.
Amy met Karl Gunther on two more occasions. To some who saw them together, they seemed an unlikely couple—the coarse adventurer with an unsavoury reputation, and the stylish, if overdone, beauty who was used to men of some substance fawning over her. But it was apparent to Gunther and Amy that they had much in common.
They saw themselves as gamblers prepared to take risks, provided the stakes were high enough. They used people. That was just part of the philosophy of grasping opportunities as they presented themselves, feeling no remorse or guilt if the other party suffered. Each acknowledged that they put themselves before all else and saw this as a virtue.
Gunther had never met a woman like this before. Women were chattels, useful for tending all his needs, available anywhere, any time he wanted them. But he soon realised Amy was as used to calling the shots as he. She had a strong will and he suspected that despite her pretty trappings, she would just as readily tough it out under rough conditions if it meant getting what she wanted. She was impatient and was looking for quick and easy money. He couldn’t see her sitting it out in Broome much longer. But plotting to peel Tyndall’s wealth off him was obviously proving harder than she anticipated. Amy would use her body just as readily as her head to get what she wanted. She had played rough in her time he had no doubts, but she’d met her match in Tyndall.
‘That Hennessy woman has some hold over him,’ she told Gunther over a late afternoon tea at The White Lotus.
‘What are you going to do about it?’
‘I thought I held the trump card, being his legal wife, but it’s not doing me much good when all his assets are tied up in the business.’
‘What about the pearl harvest? I heard he’s had more than a fair season.’
Amy gave him a rueful smile. ‘That’s more the sort of asset I was hoping to get my hands on.’
‘Ah, you see yourself strutting around this small town—or elsewhere—wearing strands of fabulous pearls.’
‘No, not at all. I see them as a means to an end.’
‘You have an idea or plan in mind?’ He raised an eyebrow.
‘Not yet. But I’m open to suggestions.’
‘If you could get this asset, would you consider a business proposition?’
‘From you?’
‘Does it make a difference?’ he grinned.
‘On the contrary, I think it would have definite advantages.’ Her bantering mood hardened. ‘However, I have to, er, acquire the capital, shall we say.’
‘That’s your problem.’
‘Well, give me some helpful advice. When are pearls sold? Where are they kept?’
‘Star of the Sea use Metta for their cleaning. I’d say once he’s done with them, they sit in the office safe till they’re shipped south for sale.’
‘That gives me a little challenge then, doesn’t it?’ She smiled at him.
Amy did her homework, visiting Tyndall’s office on her rounds about town. A sleepy Koepanger sat by the stairs but leapt to his feet at Amy’s arrival. ‘Nobody here, mem. All outside … at sea.’
‘Everybody?’
‘No, some work at foreshore camp. Me help, mem?’
‘Give me the