“A boat like this. What are the running costs?”
“Jenna, you’re asking the wrong guy. I’ve never even owned a boat.”
“But you’ve checked.”
“Well, sure. What I’ve heard, it varies tremendously. How far you’re traveling, the number of guests, the quality of things like wine and booze. And crew. Then there’s insurance, regular maintenance, dockage. Those are the big-ticket items on a boat like this.”
“Ballpark.”
“Okay, say it’s just us and a few guests. No extra crew. We hold to cruising the west coast.” He was silent, thinking. Then, “Call it three, maybe four thousand dollars.”
“Per day?”
“Per day that the boat’s in use. Yeah, something like that. At a minimum.” He turned toward her. “Where are you going with this?”
“I was just thinking about the money Dino left me.”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
“Plus the money I earned watching the house.”
“Which you sunk into this craft. And which you are getting back. Every penny.”
“That’s not . . . It isn’t like Dino to hand over a gift like this boat and not factor in the running costs. Which I couldn’t afford in the best of circumstances.” She sat up. Crossed her legs. “Thinking out loud here.”
“Go for it.”
“Dino insisted I be there for the reading of his will. Which made no sense. But something he had written in there . . .”
“About what?”
“The secret safe. That it was hidden behind a panel, in the deepest part of his special home. Below his fuel.”
Noah sat up. Facing her. “For real?”
“Dino loved his wine. Right to the very end. But he never called it that. Fuel. Not ever.”
Noah watched her. “You thinking . . .”
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
He was already moving. “Let’s go see.”
CHAPTER39
It was a clear, crisp night, but the bilges still held some of the previous day’s heat. Ethan’s newly finished main floor rested on a repaired fiberglass sheet that formed the bilge’s ceiling. The open space ran from the engine room’s reinforced wall all the way to the bow. Down here, the yacht’s full size was evident. A huge space, made larger by the low ceiling. Jenna could walk upright so long as she stood next to the tanks. Noah had to crouch.
She knew the fuel tanks served as a major part of the ship’s ballast, the weight that helped keep the boat stable. These tanks ran the entire length of the boat, gradually diminishing in size as they approached the bow. They looked like massive whitewashed chests, with flat, stable walkways about fourteen inches wide running down either side.
The boat’s lights were not hooked up. Noah gave her the flashlight and took the battery lamp as he crawled to the tank’s other side. “What are we looking for?”
“I have no idea.”
“Tell me what you found at the house.”
“A secret safe. Hidden right where he said it would be, behind the central panel. Above it were the wine racks.”
“So let’s start in the center and work back. Then forward.” He moved forward. “How did the panel come off?”
