Laura paced the office floor, going through the stack of condolence calls left with the answering service that had been waiting for them after the funeral. "Bernice called, Murphy," she said, and he looked up from his coffee. "She and Felix are at a Jazz Festival in- Australia. She only just got the message. Said she'd call when she could."
Murphy nodded and Laura resumed her pacing, glancing occasionally at Mildred, who was working feverishly on her computer. Daniel's voice could be heard from her own office as he spoke to someone on the telephone. Murphy was standing behind Mildred, watching the results that came up on the monitor.
"Yes, yes, I know . . . I just want to know if you've seen him recently . . . Yes . . ." he glanced up at Laura. "You're certain of that? . . . No, of course I'm not questioning- . . . When did he return? . . . If you hear anything, you can reach me at this number- . . . Are you ready? . . ."
Laura had stopped pacing to watch him, and the moment he hung up the telephone, she asked, "Well? Did he know anything?"
"He said that the rumor going around London is that Nathaniel Gardner was out of the country the last few days. He has no idea where he was- but he's going to try and find out."
"He was in LA," Mildred told them triumphantly.
Murphy leaned over her shoulder again. "He was booked on a flight that got here on Wednesday," he said.
Mildred glared at him as Laura and Daniel joined them at her desk. "Is he still here?" Laura asked Mildred.
Mildred punched a few more buttons. "No. He caught a flight back to London Saturday."
"See if you can find out where he was staying, Mildred," Laura said. "And call Jarvis, let him know what we're onto." She turned back toward her own office to turn on the computer.
"What are you going to do?" Murphy asked, following her, ignoring the look of warning Daniel sent his way.
"I'm going to see what I can find out about that prison that Gardner's son was sent to. Maybe he escaped."
"From an island in the middle of the Pacific?" Murphy asked.
"Leave her alone, Murphy," Daniel said in a quiet voice. "She knows what she's doing."
"I just don't want her taking off on this wild goose chase and being disappointed when she finds out that Steele's dead."
Laura hit "enter" on her keyboard and turned to face Murphy. "He's *not* dead," she declared.
"Laura, the coroner's office records-"
"They were wrong! They have to be wrong," she said. "Because if they're not- then nothing makes any sense anymore. Nothing," she said again, her voice breaking slightly with emotion held tightly in check once more. The computer behind her beeped, and she turned back to it. "If you don't want to help, Murphy, you don't have to."
Daniel lifted an eyebrow in Murphy's direction as the young detective looked at him. Running a hand through his hair, Murphy sighed. "No, I'll stay. What can I do to help?"
"Didn't you have a connection to the prison board when you were here?"
"Yeah- three years ago."
"See if it's still there. Find out what *they* know about this Evergen Prison."
"Okay. I'll be back as soon as I can." He stopped in the doorway and said, "Laura-?" She turned to look at him. "I hope you're right about this."
"I know, Murph," she said, smiling slightly as he left.
Daniel moved closer to her. "He's in love with you, you know."
Laura nodded her head as she looked at the computer again. "I know. It's the reason he left in the first place."
"Are you sure you can trust him to help on this, then? He has a very good reason not to want Harry to return from the dead."
"Murphy? There's not a malicious bone in his body," Laura said. "He'll be okay."
Daniel placed a hand on her shoulder, watching the screen as she scrolled for information. "Then I'll trust your judgment, my dear. Finding anything of interest?"
"Just background so far," she told him. "The island was originally purchased by an Englishman who started a sugar plantation. When he died, his son- who had been using prison labor had more prisoners brought in with a view to turning the island into a tourist's paradise. He ran low on funds, and started taking money from various countries to house their incorrigible prisoners. After all, with the sharks and distance involved, escape would be practically impossible. The United States stopped sending prisoners there in the later forties, and most of the larger nations have since followed suit- only the smaller countries still use the place. There have been several attempts to close it down, but since it's a privately held island there's not much they can do about it."
"So- the current owner would probably be in the market for a source of funds," Daniel surmised. "And what better source than the father of a prisoner?"
Laura looked at him. "What are you suggesting?"
"I'm not sure yet."
Mildred came into the office with a printout. "Jackpot. Nathaniel Gardner checked into the Downtown Hilton on Wednesday afternoon. Room 435. Checked out Friday night at five o'clock."
"Friday night?" Laura questioned. "He didn't leave until Saturday."
"Perhaps he made a side trip," Daniel suggested, his expression still thoughtful. "What access is there to the island?" he asked.
Laura turned back to her computer, pressing another button. "There's an airstrip about a mile away from the main prison compound- and a supply boat visits the place once a week to deliver provisions and new prisoners."
"The island is how far from the mainland?" he asked.
She consulted her screen again. "Almost fifteen hundred miles. Why?"
"A small jet could easily make it in a couple of hours- Mildred, is it possible to check any flights of small jets out of the LA area on Friday night?"
"I might be able to get in touch with an old friend at the FAA," she told him.
"Out of LA going where, Daniel?" Laura asked.
"To Evergen Island," he told her.
"See what you can find out, Mildred," Laura said, looking at Daniel. "You think Gardner took him to the Prison, don't you?"
"It's a possibility," he said. "What better way to have his revenge on Harry for sending his son to prison than to send him to the same prison?"
Laura turned off her monitor and grabbed Daniel's arm. "Come on."
He followed her into the reception area, where Mildred was on the telephone. "Where are we going?"
"To see if we can't track Gardner's movements in LA. Mildred, Daniel and I will be at the Hilton if you need us."
Mildred nodded. "I think my friend might be able to help."
"Good. Keep at it. If we don't find him soon, it might be too late."
***
Daniel hung back as Laura approached the desk clerk. "Excuse me," she said, opening her ID for him to see. "I'm Laura Holt. I'd like to ask you a few questions about one of your guests who checked out on Friday evening-"
"Laura Holt?" the clerk asked. "I just spoke to a Miss Krebs-"
"Yes. She made the initial contact.-"
"I was sorry to hear about Mr. Steele," he said.
"He might be alive, Mr.-" she glanced at his name plate, "Davis. And the more information you can give us about Nathaniel Gardner's activities during his stay here- the better."
"I'm really not supposed to give out that information without a search warrant," he began, and jumped as a piece of paper was slapped onto the desk before him.
"You've got one," Jimmy Jarvis said, and Laura turned to look at him with a grateful smile.
"You make a very good cavalry, Jimmy."
"After Mildred called, I made a few calls of my own and got it. Figured you'd need a little backup to get the information." He turned to Davis. "I want a record of all phone calls that Gardner made while he was here- every room service charge, the whole thing. Now."
Davis looked nervous as he picked up the telephone and dialed a number. "Bookkeeping? . . ."
"Thank you, Lt, Jarvis," Daniel said. "It's imperative that we find Harry as soon as possible-"
"Harry?" Jarvis questioned, looking from Laura to Daniel.
"A nickname," Laura explained quickly. "Short form of his middle name."
"I didn't know Mr. Steele had a middle name," Jarvis commented.
"He's never used it," she said, forcing herself to use present tense and not past. "I mean, Remington is pretentious enough without adding Harrison onto it."
"Remington- *Harrison* Steele?" Jarvis asked.
Daniel managed a smile. "Family name."
Jarvis nodded, his expression clearly revealing his doubt, but the clerk cleared his throat to get their attention. "Here you go. Two copies of all of Mr. Gardner's bill."
Daniel read Laura's copy over her shoulder, pointing to an entry. "An aircraft rental firm," he noted.
"Aircraft?" Jarvis asked, frowning.
"Daniel has a theory," Laura explained.
***
Murphy returned to the office and found Mildred just hanging up the telephone. "Where's Laura?" he asked, looking into the empty office.
"She and Daniel went to check out the hotel where Gardner stayed," she told him. "What'd you find out?"
He put a folder filled with information on her desk. "The prison board's had Evergen on their watch list for years. They can't get *in* there to shut it down, since it's privately owned. All they can do is work with international groups to try and apply pressure on other countries not to send prisoners there. No one has escaped the place in all the time it's been opened. And once you're sent there- you're there for good. No chance of parole or early release." He sighed. "Still not sure why Laura was so insistent on trying to find out about the place. Even if Gardner's son is there, there's not much he can do to hurt Steele."
"He can if Mr. Steele is *in* Evergen," Mildred pointed out, then nodded at Murphy's surprised expression. "Daniel thinks that Gardner sent Mr. Steele to the prison so that his kid could get his revenge. And he might be right."
"Why?"
"I just finished talking to a friend of mine at the FAA. He cut a little red tape and looked through the flight plans for Friday evening out of LA airports. A small jet took off from a private field about ten minutes from where Mr. Steele's car went over that cliff on Friday night, headed for Evergen Island."
"So? All that means is that Gardner went to Evergen, probably to visit his son and tell him that Steele was dead."
Mildred stared at Murphy for a long moment. "You're in love with Miss Holt, aren't you?"
"Does it show that much?" he asked.
She laughed softly, gently. "I'm not sure that *she's* noticed. But she's had a lot on her mind the last few days."
"She knows," Murphy said. "I've been in love with Laura since we were at Havenhurst. For all the good it did me. She's never looked at me as anything more than a big brother. Just once, I'd like for her to look at me the way she looked at him," he sighed. "When I heard he was dead, I hopped the first plane out, thinking that maybe I had chance. That once she'd recovered from her loss, she'd finally realize I was here."
"And she might have- if he were really dead."
"You don't know he's alive."
"Not up here, maybe," she said, touching her head. "But in here-" her hand moved over her heart, "I know. He's alive. And he'll be grateful for all the help you've given her during all of this."
"I don't want his gratitude, Mildred. Anymore than I want Laura's." He sat on the edge of her desk. "I guess I should have known that I wasn't keeping it a secret. Not with the looks Daniel Chalmers has been giving me. He's been protecting Laura like she was his daughter."
"Make that daughter in law. And that's almost funny, considering how competitive they are for Mr. Steele's attention when they're both around. But I think he's realized that this is where Mr. Steele belongs. He's made a life for himself, he's respected. And he loves Miss Holt."
"Yeah. That's the only thing I can't argue against," Murphy agreed, and stood up as the lady herself pushed open the door to enter, Daniel close behind. He picked up the folder and held it out. "Everything my friend had on Evergen is in here."
"Thank you, Murphy," Laura said, flipping through the file. "Did you find anything, Mildred?"
Mildred held out the notes she'd made. "Mike verified that a twin engine small jet filed a flight plan from a privet strip around seven-thirty on Friday- heading for Evergen Island. And that's not all. The plane made *two* trips to the Island. One on Friday morning."
Laura frowned. *Two trips?"
Murphy sighed. "Laura, as much as I hate to say this, isn't it just possible that Gardner just decided to pop over and see his son that first time, to let him know their plan was on track, and then after he killed Steele-"
"He didn't kill Remington," Laura said. "Don't say it again, please."
Murphy nodded. "What's our next step?"
"According to Gardner's hotel bill, he called a place in the Valley about renting an airplane. Care to drive out there with me and talk to them?"
"Sure you trust me?"
"Of course I do," she said. "Mildred, I need you and Daniel to go over that hotel bill and find anymore connections. Check all the phone numbers."
"Will do, hon," she said, picking the bill up from her desk.
***
"Yeah, we rented one of our Citations out on Friday," the man at Valley Jet Rentals informed Laura and Murphy. "To a-" he consulted a record sheet. "A Nathaniel Gardner. He made two trips to some little place out in the ocean. Evergreen or something like that."
"Evergen Island?" Laura asked eagerly.
"Yeah, that was it. The pilot that flew him out said he was a strange one. But he paid well. Gave Nick an extra hundred when they landed here Friday night."
"The pilot wouldn't by any chance be here, would he?"
"I think he's just come in from a flight- Why don't we go find out?" he suggested, extending his hand toward a door that led into the hangar beyond.
"I don't usually rent jets to out of towners," he told them. "Too risky, what with the drug trade and all. But this guy was willing to pay half of his fee in cash before the plane left the ground Friday morning-" he opened a door to a room built into the far side of the hangar. "Nick?" he called.
"Here," Nick answered, coming out of another room. He was middle aged, with salt and pepper hair and a boyish grin that widened as he nodded at Laura and Murphy. "Need something, Steve?"
"This is-"
Laura held out her hand. "Laura Holt," she said.
"Murphy Michaels," Murphy said, shaking Nick's hand as well.
"Miss Holt was-"
"*Is*," Laura corrected. "I'm with Remington Steele Investigations. I'd like to ask you a few questions about your flights to Evergen Island on Friday."
"I don't know. The guy gave me good money to keep my mouth shut. Implied that if I didn't, I might not live to regret it."
"He threatened you, Nick?" Steve asked, sounding concerned. "You didn't tell me that."
"I don't think he meant it," Nick said. "He was just a little eccentric. You know how some of those rich guys are."
"You say he was eccentric," Murphy questioned. "How?"
"Well, for one thing, he insisted that I stay in the cockpit when we landed until he gave me the all clear. And once we got there, a guy wearing a uniform of some kind came into the cockpit and made sure I didn't give in to temptation and look anyway."
"Could you tell what they were doing?" Laura asked. "Especially that first trip?"
"Sounded like they were loading something onto the plane. And when I went out to do a pre-flight walk around after they gave me the all clear, I could see something laying in the back of the cabin, wrapped in black. Looked- I know this is gonna sound strange,- but it looked like a body bag. Saw a lot of those in Nam."
"It doesn't sound crazy at all," Laura assured him, exchanging a knowing glance with Murphy. "What happened when you arrived back here?"
"We didn't land here. We landed at a private strip out near Gorman. Place was barely big enough to land and take off."
"What happened?"
"We waited for awhile. Everyone except Gardner and one of the men he'd picked up at the island- and the mysterious package. They left in a car that was waiting. It was dark by the time he came back and told me to file another flight plan for Evergen, and sent me back up into the cockpit again. It sounded like they were loading something again, and when I went out this time, the package was there- but it looked different- like someone had just thrown a blanket over this. It wasn't- the same."
"And then you flew back to the island?" Murphy asked.
"Yeah. And they unloaded whatever they'd loaded at that airstrip, and then we took off. After the guard left the cockpit the last time, I snuck a glance out and saw a jeep in the runway lights. There was a short little man who got into the passenger side, and the package looked to be in the back."
"Then you came back here," Laura said.
"And Gardner gave me a hundred dollar bill and told me to forget I'd ever been to Evergen Island. Does this have something to do with your boss's death?" he asked.
"Very likely, Nick," Laura said. "Could you tell us exactly where that strip is?"
"Sure," he said, crossing to a map on the wall. "Right here. Just off the I-5."
"Thank you." She pulled a card out of her purse. "If you remember anything else, give me a call."
"Sure thing. Hope you catch the guy- if it's him."
"Thanks." As they left the hangar, Laura said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Tell me what you're thinking, first."
"What if that first trip out to the island was to pick up the body of an inmate that fit Remington's general description? They brought it back here, and after neutralizing Remington somehow, they put that body- with Remington's jewelry on it- into the car and sent it through that barricade, setting off the explosion to cover up the fact that it *wasn't* Remington Steele at all."
"What about the dental records?" Murphy asked. "They were a perfect match."
"Gardner had to do *something* between the time he got back from the island and the time he left for London. Maybe he broke into Donald's office and switched records-"
"I think you're reaching, Laura-"
"It's possible."
"How would he know that your brother in law was Steele's dentist?"
Mildred answered that question. "I must've told him," she said, wincing upon hearing Murphy's question when they got back to the office.
"You?"
"Some guy called here on Thursday afternoon. Said he was with a Dental outfit and was doing a study on what dentist people used. He asked, I told him. I'm sorry, Miss Holt- If I'd known-"
"It's okay, Mildred," Laura assured her. "Just remember, next time, no personal information goes out about anyone in this office."
"I'll remember."
"Okay, we know that Gardner took Remington to Evergen Island and left him there. The question is, what are we going to do about it?"
"Get him out," Daniel said.
"That place is locked up tighter than a safe," Murphy pointed out. "They don't just let people walk in. How do you plan on getting access and finding Steele?"
Daniel smiled. "Leave that to me. I think I can manage it. You forget that some of us are used to breaking into safes."
Laura looked at him. "Daniel, I'm not sure you need to-"
"Harry's my son, Laura. If I didn't help to get him out of there, and something happened to him- it doesn't bear thinking about. Call that pilot you spoke to- see if he's available to fly the three of us back to Evergen tomorrow morning. In another aircraft, if possible. Murphy- do you think you could manage to look a bit- menacing? Like a bodyguard, perhaps?"
"I think I could manage," Murphy told him, sounding a bit lost.
"Excellent. I have to contact an old friend- he has access to a short wave radio-"
"Short wave?" Laura questioned.
"Evergen's only contact with the outside world is via short-wave and the aircraft/marine radio. I need to set that Warden- what was his name, Mildred?"
She looked through the papers. "Jenks. Harvey Jenks."
"I have to set Warden Jenks up for a visit by the representative of a potential customer-and his bodyguard."
"What about me?" she asked.
Daniel frowned, as did Murphy. "Laura, my dear, a prison is hardly the place for-"
"You're not keeping me out of this anymore than I can keep you out, Daniel," Laura said in a determined tone that Murphy recognized- but had to argue against anyway.
"Laura, as much as I hate to agree with Chalmers, Evergen isn't a place for you. There aren't any women on the island as far as we know. It's one of Jenks requirements for guards, to be unmarried."
Laura looked thoughtful. "If I've learned anything from Remington over the years, it's that every con needs a good distraction to pull it off properly. And what better distraction than a woman in a prison, hmm?" she asked. "They'll be so busy watching *me* that they won't even notice that the two of you are there."
Daniel sighed regretfully. "I said once that the three of us could have turned Europe on its ear," he reminded her. "I think I'll rephrase that to include the entire world."
"Then I'm in?"
"I suppose so," Daniel agreed.
Laura began to smile. "I never thought I'd see the day that I'd be grateful for knowing you, you old con artist," she told him. "You really think it will work?"
"It had better," Daniel said, his smile fading. "For Harry's sake."
To Be Continued---
