"It could go one of two ways. Giving Meridio the complete benefit of the doubt and providing what he told you is true, then perhaps two years ago, the Turks found a new supplier and maybe that connection has dried up for them. So now they have to buy from us again."

"Now tell me the scenario you really believe." Casey arched an eyebrow at Tessa.

"That the Turks did start selling, and they became Meridio's big connection. Only Meridio, being the smart man I'm suddenly discovering him to be, keeps it to himself. He does business as usual with the small dealers, I've got a name for every one of them, but he does an extremely private business with the Turks. He makes millions of U.S. dollars reselling things like t.i.tan missiles. He becomes wealthier and wealthier by giving Third World countries the capability of creating their own nuclear holocausts."

"Do you actually keep books with sales receipts and the like?"

Casey asked, somewhat amazed.

"Business is business, whether it's legal or not. The more a.n.a.l and paranoid you are, the better your silent partners like you.

Everything that comes in and goes out gets marked in the books.

*That's why I know we haven't done business with the Turks. It's beginning to look like your father is keeping a second set of books even from me."

"I still don't get the concept of keeping books in the first place. I mean, what if you're caught? Isn't it just fodder for the prosecuting attorneys?"

"When you deal with business people, you have to keep business records. Your father doesn't come up with the cash to buy a weapon the size of an American fighter jet all by himself.

He has silent partners that put up the capital. If those guys feel like you're cheating them, you d.a.m.n well better have books to show them you're not."

"So you're saying he's got invoices somewhere that you haven't seen?" Casey asked for confirmation of her theory.

Tessa leaned forward, and there was a gleam in her eye. "I think this is it, Casey. I feel it. I think the men that are coming to Mkonos for the weekend are the final piece in the puzzle."

"So if we can find some of those invoices, anything that confirms all this, we turn it over to Jack and it's enough?"

"Yes, but that's not going to be as easy as it sounds. Meridio must have a place in his office I don't know about. d.a.m.n, can you believe we find this out now? We just had a whole week without him here when we could have looked through the place."

"Are you sure it's his office? They could be anywhere in his private rooms upstairs," Casey said.

"No, he'd have them somewhere close to where he does business during the day."

"The safe is the obvious choice."

"Too obvious. I'm in there almost every single day. I know every inch of that safe and I've never seen anything out of the ordinary."

"Niko, couldn't we just wait until my father goes out of town again?"

"If the Turks are the ones and we can get proof while they're still in this country, then Jack can have Interpol arrest them and they'll have them here. That way, they won't have to go through the extradition process. I don't have to tell you that the Turkish *government is about as likely to turn them over to the Greeks as we would be if the positions were reversed."

"So we have to find a way to search my father's office before the weekend is over."

"Correction. We have to find a way for you to search his office," Tessa said. "Look. If I get caught rummaging through any place that exceeds my authority as Kare, I'm made immediately.

If you get caught looking in one of your father's desk drawers, you can bat your eyes and say you were looking for a pencil and the chances are good he'll believe you."

Casey nodded in agreement.

"We'll have to figure out a way to slip you away from the party tomorrow night and into his office."

"Where do I start looking first?"

"Let me think," Tessa said, trying to visualize the office in her head.

"Oh, I got it," Casey said excitedly. "I bet he keeps them in a hollowed-out book on the bookshelf."

Tessa didn't know whether to laugh or cry. She settled for a loving smile.

"Casey, this isn't an Agatha Christie novel."

"I don't know. I just figured it works for Jessica Fletcher."

"Who is Jessica Fletcher?" Tessa asked.

"Don't you ever watch television?" Casey said. "You know, Murder She Wrote...Angela Lansbury?"

Tessa couldn't help the grin. Here they were in a most serious and complex situation and Casey was drawing on expertise from fictional crime solvers.

"Yeah, I know who the character is. I always remember thinking that the last place on earth I wanted to be was that little town she lived in."

"Why?"

"Did you ever notice how people had a habit of dying there?"

Both women released a burst of nervous laughter that helped ease the tension of the moment.

"Okay, once you get into the room, go for the desk drawers *and the small file cabinet just to the right of the safe. They should at least be good places to start. Casey?" Tessa asked.

Casey looked at Tessa expectantly. "Yes?"

"I want you to remember to be very careful. Please remember this is not James Bond stuff. It's serious and people have been killed within the Meridio organization for less. If you're caught doing anything, just keep denying until you're blue in the face.

Okay?"

"Niko, do you think my father would have me killed if he found out what I was doing?" Casey asked softly.

Tessa leaned her elbows on the table and bent her body toward Casey. "You've heard the saying blood is thicker than water? You've disproved that theory by choosing me over your father, realizing what I intend to do. I just don't want to find out what Meridio will do in the position of having to choose you or the money."

Casey looked down at her hands. She looked up again at Tessa.

"How do you know so much about what my father will do?"

"Because I was your father." Tessa didn't have to think about it before she answered. "I was just as heartless and every bit as cruel."

Tessa paused as Casey looked down once again. Tessa waited for her to say it. Tessa dropped her own gaze into her lap. Go ahead and say it, Casey. If I was just like your father, then why does he deserve to die and I don't?

Tessa was almost afraid to look up, afraid of the judgment she would find in Casey's gaze. Tessa willed her eyes to meet Casey's, but what she saw nearly stopped her heart from beating.

There was that smile, that wonderfully bright smile.

"I'm still hungry...let's have dessert," Casey said matter-of- factly.

Tessa couldn't help but smile, mostly at the irony of the whole situation, her whole life for that matter. The smile creased into a small frown as Tessa thought about her own past. I've killed men in cold blood before. Did any of them ever leave a wife and children behind? What makes me so different from him? Am I any better?

The smile Casey flashed only for Tessa turned brighter.

*Tessa's frown disappeared as she stared at her. What are you doing to me, Casey? For twenty years, I've had only one thing to keep me focused. Now you walk in and suddenly nothing else is as important.

"Come on, let's go." Tessa smiled, rising and throwing a generous amount of bills on the table.

"Hey," Casey complained, "what about my dessert?"

Tessa put on a seductive grin and leaned down on the table.

"Let's go home...I've got something you can have for dessert."

Tessa walked away without looking back, a.s.sured Casey would follow closely behind. Casey jumped from her seat and was on Tessa's heels, a smile filled with antic.i.p.ation on her face.

"Don't you look nice?" Casey looked at Tessa's reflection through the mirror.

Tessa stood behind Casey and ran a brush through her hair as Casey finished applying her makeup. Tessa wore a cream-colored suit and a burgundy silk blouse.

"Admit it , " Casey teased, walking to the bedroom of the guesthouse to get into her clothes. "You're just wearing such dressy slacks so you can wear heels. You love intimidating the h.e.l.l out of those men by towering over them."

"Hey," Tessa called from the bathroom, smirking into the mirror. "I use what I got."

"Is that what you're wearing tonight?" Tessa asked dumbfounded as she walked into the bedroom.

Casey stood there, indicating Tessa should zip up the back of the short black dress. The neckline plunged a little more than Casey was used to, but she figured if she could keep their eyes there, she would have a better chance at getting what she needed.

"No, I thought I'd go bowling in this and wear jeans to the party. What kind of a question is that? Doesn't it look good?"

"No, it looks great...too great. Now I'm going to have to spend all night worrying about you and keeping guys from hitting on you," Tessa said with a crestfallen look.

Casey chuckled and turned her back. Tessa slowly zipped the dress and slipped her arms around Casey's waist.

*"Just remember, I better not see you using any of what you've got tonight," Tessa whispered in a husky voice. "At least until we get back here."

"Only for you." Casey turned in the embrace and lightly kissed her.

"You remembered to e-mail Jack, right?" Tessa asked as an afterthought as they headed out the door.

"I did it as soon as I woke up this morning. He knows what we know."

"Which isn't a whole heck of a lot." Tessa held the door open for Casey. "Shall we?"

The evening went by quickly. The Turkish men were a great deal more cordial to Tessa than their Libyan counterparts. The men, who appeared to be the leaders, seemed quite interested in the Meridio Kare. Tessa suspected they were looking to hire her based upon her reputation, and she wouldn't be surprised if an offer came before they packed up at the close of the weekend.

Tessa did something she rarely did. She took center stage and entertained, as well as informed. She not only talked about being a woman in this business, but also told of her experiences when she ran the docks in Athens. Within two hours, she was plying them with ouzo and challenging a few of them to a drinking game.

Casey caught Tessa's eye just before Casey slipped from the party. She had already made up a story in case her father caught her.

Just say you wanted a few minutes of silence...you were looking for something to write with, that's why the drawer is open. Casey said it over and over to herself so it would sound natural and not forced. She silently entered her father's office, never seeing the figure that shadowed her.

"Okay...you're Jessica Fletcher," Casey whispered aloud.

Tessa told her not to be gone more than ten minutes at a time and she'd been in here for fifteen already. Unable to find anything that looked like it had a Turkish name printed on it, she stood in the center of the room and looked around. Her father's bookshelves were in perfect order, nothing out of place. Perhaps that was why *the large, leather bound copy of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales seemed so out of place with its spine pulled out about an inch farther than the other books. Casey pulled the large tome from its resting place and opened it. Casey smiled brightly. Uh-huh...this will teach her to laugh at me.

She opened the volume and there resting inside a hollowed- out cavern of pages, were three packets of yellow slips. Quickly leafing through them, she recognized one of the names as a man she'd been introduced to earlier that evening. Jackpot! She carefully removed the rubber bands. Tessa told her if she found anything not to take the first or the last one, take some from the middle. That way, they wouldn't be missed for a while. She quickly took two slips from the middle of each bundle. Folding them over carefully, she lifted her dress and tucked them into the waistband of her panties. Smoothing the dress back down and carefully replacing the book exactly as she had found it, Casey turned in time to see the door to the office opening.

Casey could feel the heat in her face, and she was sure whoever was there could hear the furious pounding of her heart. She willed her breathing a little slower and nearly cried in relief when she recognized one of the Turkish men from the party.

"I thought perhaps we could share a dance," he spoke haltingly in Greek.

"Of course." Casey smiled nervously. "Why don't we go back to the party and I'd be happy to."

Casey noticed the man's bloodshot eyes and could smell his breath. She knew he'd had more than his share of drink already.

Casey started to walk past the man, but he put his arm up against the door.

"I was thinking of a private dance," he slurred.

"Tessa, where's my daughter?" Meridio asked .

That's just what I'd like to know.

"I honestly don't know, Mr. Meridio." Tessa led Meridio from the dining room out into the hall to talk. "She said she was going to the powder room."

"I'm depending on you to keep an eye out for her." Meridio *was getting an exasperated edge to his voice.

"I know, I-"

Casey walked out of her father's office, not seeing Tessa or her father down the hall.

"Look, no means no, okay?" Casey said forcefully to the young man who made a move for her anyway.

That's when Casey saw her father and Tessa staring at her.

Tessa's gaze darted back and forth as if looking for a way to get them out of this.

"Kiss me," Casey whispered to the delighted Turk. He didn't have to be asked twice. With his back to the onlookers, he slipped an arm around Casey's waist and pulled her in for a kiss.

Casey pushed the man away with a powerful shove. Drawing back her hand, she slapped him hard across the face. The stunned man reeled back from the force of Casey's blow and cursed in Turkish. He grabbed Casey's arm but neglected to see Tessa, who was suddenly towering over him.

Tessa had no idea if Casey planned it or not, but she was down the hallway in a half-dozen strides. She struck a forceful blow to the man's wrist. He howled in pain, releasing Casey's arm. By the time he looked up, Tessa had her arm c.o.c.ked back. Tessa's fist connected, and the man stood there, teetering back and forth, looking in amazement at Tessa's fist, which was drawing back for another blow. He stared at her like she'd hit him with a bar of lead instead of her fist. That's when his legs got the message and crumpled underneath him, and he fell into an unconscious heap on the floor.

"Ca.s.sandra, are you all right?" Meridio rushed up and pulled Casey into his protective embrace.