style="font-size:15px;"> “Taff isn’t married, and anyway he hasn’t predeceased—”
“He died two months ago. I only found out after the police called about Dad.”
Rogan’s beer glass hit the table with a thud. “Taff died?” It was almost as big a shock as his father’s sudden demise. “How?”
“Liver disease. They were somewhere way out in the Pacific, and by the time Dad finally got him to a hospital at Rarotonga it was too late to do anything.”
While Rogan digested that, Granger added, “You know how he used to put the booze away. It’s a wonder either of them survived as long as they did.”
“Dad never drank at sea.”
“He made up for it on land. According to the pathologist there was enough alcohol in his body to sink a ship.”
“They cut him up?” Rogan’s voice went hoarse.
Granger eyed him levelly. “They have to do an autopsy in a case of sudden death. Besides, he’d been in a fight.”
“You didn’t tell me that!”
“You’d only have stewed about it all the way home. There could be manslaughter charges at least.”
Rogan’s hand closed tightly about his beer. “Against who?”
“Whom.” Granger shrugged. “The police are investigating but they don’t have any witnesses. He was found in an alleyway near here and he’d probably died in the early hours of Sunday. But the cause of death was a heart attack, not the beating he’d taken.”
He’d taken a beating? “There must have been more than one of them.” Barney Broderick had been a big man, toughened by a life at sea.
“Dad wasn’t getting any younger,” Granger reminded him, “and he’d have been reeling drunk.”
“He never said anything about having a dicky heart…did he?”
“You know he wouldn’t admit to being less than a hundred percent healthy.” Barney had indiscriminately labeled all doctors quacks and used their services only in the direst need. “He might not even have known.”
Rogan hoped that was so. And that Barney hadn’t known he was dying when some thug—or thugs—left him alone and injured in a dark alley. His hand clenched harder on the beer glass. He’d like to beat the hell out of them in retaliation.
“It was probably pretty quick,” Granger assured him. “The way he’d have liked to go. Without any fuss.”
“Yeah.” Rogan tossed off the remains of his drink, trying to drown an illogical remorse. It wasn’t his fault, or Granger’s, that the old man had lived and died far from his family. They didn’t really owe him much at all, except the genes he’d bequeathed to them both, probably more or less by accident—of which Rogan seemed to have inherited the lion’s share.
He signaled the waiter for another beer. “Does Taff have any descendants?” he asked.
“Possibly dozens—” Granger gave him a rare grin “—scattered all around the Pacific, and none of them legitimate.”
The waiter brought the beer and a fresh glass. Pouring the frothing stuff, Rogan looked up quizzically. “You don’t think the old man fathered a few more children too?”
“I hope not. There’s no mention in the will of any secret siblings.”
Their food arrived and Rogan picked up his knife and fork. Real New Zealand wild pork and gravy with roasted vegetables. His mouth watered. He’d let his brother deal with the legal issues. Granger, after years specializing in corporate law with an international legal firm, had just launched his own practice in Auckland.
The thought of spending his days in an office, no matter how plush, made Rogan’s blood run cold, but apparently Granger enjoyed it.
While Granger refilled his own glass Rogan stole another look at the woman he’d mentally nicknamed Ocean-eyes, and watched as she raised her fork to her mouth and opened perfect lips to slip the morsel in. The faintest ripple disturbed the smooth line of her throat, making him wonder how it would feel if he had his hand there, against the fine skin. Maybe with his thumb in the little groove at the base…
She reached for her wine and drank some, leaving a delicate sheen on her upper lip when she put down the glass and smiled at her companion.
Rogan had a dire urge to kiss the wine from her lips and taste it on the soft, warm mouth. A hot bolt of desire invaded his body, accompanied by a sharp envy of the man on the receiving end of that smile.
Too long without the company of women, he told himself, turning his attention to the pork and sawing at it with unwarranted vigor. The meat was tender and succulent, and he was determined to enjoy it to the exclusion of that other, inconvenient and less easily satisfied appetite.
He knew when Ocean-eyes left the dining room, but didn’t look up. By that time Granger was talking about the funeral arrangements, and out of respect Rogan tried to blot everything else from his mind.
“He wanted his ashes scattered at sea,” Granger said, “from the Sea-Rogue.”
Rogan would have wondered at anything else. “What time is the service?”
“Eleven. Some of his old drinking mates have volunteered to help carry the coffin.”
Rogan grinned. “Do you think they can stay sober until the wake? We are having a wake, aren’t we?”
“It seems to be expected. The proprietor here’s offered me a special rate for the private bar.”
He probably wanted to shield his more refined clientele from a gathering of Barney Broderick’s mates. Most of Barney’s life had been spent on the ocean, but Mokohina was nominally his home port. From a sheltered deep-water cove and small shingly beach the old town straggled up the hills behind the bay. Formerly a mixture of settler cottages and modest villas, solid homes built by retired farmers, and a scattering of classic holiday “baches”—knocked-up boxes with few pretensions to architectural style—the port had been discovered in the last ten years by the owners of expensive oceangoing yachts, and land-based refugees from city life.
Semi-mansions had appeared on the higher slopes. New shops and food outlets aimed at the burgeoning tourist trade joined the modest stores that had served the district for decades. Two motels and a few bed-and-breakfasts catered to the summer influx, and trendy café bars had opened along the waterfront. But the permanent residents and regulars like Barney Broderick remained loyal to the old Imperial, a two-story colonial relic, recently enlarged and refurbished, boasting a creaking veranda on the top floor and kauri wood paneling in the interior.
The new owners had wisely left virtually untouched the well-used public bar. Its scarred, varnished timbers reeking of generations of hard-drinking sailors and fishermen, it was within staggering distance of the old wharves and the Sea-Rogue’s preferred berth when she was in port.
Granger picked up the wine bottle and offered it. Rogan shook his head. After whiskey and beer he didn’t fancy adding wine to the mix. He watched his brother empty
