The waiter seated them by the window with Gretta facing the table occupied by Luane. The two women took the other's measure and both instantly recognized their respective determination.

"I think we have a new player in the game." She spoke softly to Arny.

He glanced over his shoulder and his mouth hung open.

"Okay Arnold, turn around, drool doesn't look good on your sleeve."

"Wow. Present company excepted, but wow."

"Present company is not amused. This is serious business, Arny. That woman is not just eye candy. My guess is that she is down here for the same reason we are; the stamp, and possibly because of the disappearance of that third man."

"How do you know he disappeared?"

"Constable Phati advised me that only two men were escorted to the boat after the incident in the hotel; that's what the clerk blurted out, remember?"

"Yeah, okay, but why do you think she is anything more than a tourist?"

"Arny. I had you pegged as an intelligent man. Without being overt, take another look, if you can contain your saliva. That is no tourist."

Arny looked again and Luane met his eyes, delivering a very solid signal that she was no tourist, moreover, she wasn't hiding it either. She opened her purse and took out her phone, listened for a brief period and hung up.

"She is definitely watching us, Gretta. You most likely."

"You shouldn't sell yourself short, Arny; you're not that homely."

"Hilarious, just hilarious. What are you going to do?"

"Have my dinner, that's why I'm sitting here in the dining room."

The waiter returned with a basket of bread and a pitcher of ice water. He quickly took drink orders and zipped away again. They nibbled at the bread, drank their drinks and when they arrived, both dug into their meals like it was the last supper.

"My God, I was hungry." Arny belched into his napkin.

"Did you notice our company had departed?"

Arny's head snapped up and he looked around. "When?"

"When your face was buried in the baked potato. She went right by our table and out the front door."

"I must have really been hungry."

"I want to talk to our waiter; stay here for a minute." Gretta rose from the table and walked out to the lobby.

Arny patted his stomach and sagged back in the chair. His napkin slipped off his lap and he bent down to retrieve it. The wine glass shattered sending red wine all over the cloth and glass from the window spraying across the table and the floor. He sat back up and stared, bewildered. Gretta raced back from the lobby and dragged him from the table and onto the floor. Another shot took out the sugar bowl and then, except for the screaming of Melane Hantoi, the desk clerk, a stark silence.

"Guess that settles the tourist question eh, Arny?"

"Is this the wild west? Where are the police? What's with this hotel?"

"Let's just look out for ourselves right now." She pulled him to his feet and headed, in a running crouch, back through the lobby to the elevator. The waiter was consoling Melane and looking haplessly about; the absence of a manager or any authority was unusually noticeable.

Luane closed her phone and waited in a darkened office doorway until her limo arrived and then she climbed in and vanished into the night.

"That was pretty bloody bold." Hunter observed.

"And not what I would call all that professional." Arlo added. "Something isn't right here." The two men left their drinks and headed back to the small dock and their boat anchored off shore.

-----------------------

"What the hell is going on, Gretta? That was right out in public with all kinds of witnesses." Arny flopped on the bed.

"You're right; it was not what I expected from her. Something changed her plan. You said she was on the phone?"

"Yeah, but just for a minute."

"And then she left shortly after, she hadn't ordered her food at that point, her bread basket was open but untouched."

"Who are you, Sherlock Holmes?"

"If I had to pose a theory, Arny, I would say that the call was from whoever hired her and that made her step up her plan."

"You mean her plan was to kill me?"

"Us. You just happened to be the first target. You were just sitting there."

"Okay, so now is when you tell me it was Gravestone."

"I'm not so sure. I think the other three guys were his people; somebody else is in the picture that we don't know about yet. I need to know who she is."

"So how many women are there in your assassin's hall of fame?"

"Not many. You've met a couple already and they are now out of the game."

"There's that word again." He pouted.

"Relax, Arnold, chess is a game too but it is a very serious one."

"Check."

She swung a pillow at him.

------------------------------

Gravestone listened to Arlo's report and cursed inwardly. Every time he mounted a campaign he was saddled with incompetent fools that needed to be led around by the nose. What kind of amateur had April Weston hired, that would start shooting up a hotel dining room. Arlo confirmed that Gravestone's temporary partner had hired her and sent her after Lawrence.

Bishop gulped a half a tumbler of his whiskey, ignoring the fiery path it took to his stomach. Treeline was no amateur. She would want to scope out the situation, study her prey and choose the optimum moment. April had her try some preemptive move... but why? Shoot up a public place! On an island! He slapped his head and winced. She was going for the stamp and she was trying for a head start.

He quickly called Arlo back and gave him new instructions. He told Arlo to get after the guy with the stamp immediately; their timetable had changed, and if circumstances allowed, he was to get rid of both the women... but the stamp came first.

"Hunter, my man, we are going to pay what's his name a visit now. Cecil's boss. The guy with the stamp, and we are going to make a deal either mutual or ours." Arlo opened the bench seat in the cabin of the boat and took out a nasty looking gun that had a suppressor the size of a soup can.

"This is an, 'or else' call is it?" Hunter strapped on his shoulder holster, hefted his own ugly looking automatic and jammed it home before swinging into his jacket.

"Depending on how they react, I might not even offer the option."

"Well we have to get the stamp first, or at least know where it is."

"They'll tell us." Arlo went topside and unfastened the outboard from the swimming platform. "We'll grab something to eat first; I don't like fighting on an empty stomach."

"Do we know where he is right now?"

"Somebody in town will know, and when we've got the stamp we might just continue our action and find that broad that shot up the hotel. Gravestone says she was sent here to get that Lawrence dame, but I have a feeling he thinks it's more than that."

"You think she was supposed to get the stamp as well? Maybe she was sent down here to do everything because we failed." Hunter steadied the boat while Arlo climbed in and then followed with a dainty jump. "Maybe she's supposed to do us too."

"In that case we better move first. I think Lawrence is still her priority but if your theory is right, we better skip food." He started the motor and turned the outboard away from the boat and aimed for the shore.

The first person they asked was more than delighted to direct them to the home of the famous Arlinu Tomambou. Did they know he was the most renowned lawyer on the island and even had great recognition in New Zealand? It was a few minutes before they could pull themselves away from the avid descriptions of the man.

"Shit, knockin' this guy off might stir up a lot of mud." Hunter said.

"We'll be gone before it settles, partner. Guy that revered doesn't suffer a lot of local attention; he aims a lot higher. Nobody will know until he's actually missed." Arlo stated.

"You say so. Let's get to it."