Just Different Devils by Jinx Schwartz Page A

board."
    "Which brings us full circle. Why is Nacho here, and what does he really want?"
    "I dunno. Let's toss his cabin."
     
    "Ya think Nacho saw this coming?" Jan drawled after we spent twenty minutes searching his cabin.
    I held up the third note we found, this one from under his mattress, each one with the same written message: "Is this any way to treat a paying guest, Hetta?"
    "He's got your number."
    "Obviously we are wasting our time here. Can we bug his boat?"
    "I've got a couple of handy devices with me. Girl can't leave home without a few electronic gadgets, you know."
    I wrote something rude on the note and stuffed it back under the mattress before slamming his door shut.
    Jan headed for what we call our spy locker and unearthed a bag of goodies we had leftover from a previous caper. "Where we gonna plant these? They're designed to plug into a computer's serial port. And he takes his computer with him on the boat, doesn't he?"
    "He has an iPad, and it wasn't in his cabin, so I'd say that's a yes. Paranoid so-and-so probably thinks we'll try to hack him."
    "Which we would. Problem is, he's sure to notice a thumb drive sticking out of his computer anyhow, doncha think?"
    "Okay, then, I have these." She held up what looked like a ball point pen, and a tiny device about the size of a paperclip. "Voice activated. I'll plant 'em on his boat when he gets back."
    "Better than nothing, I guess. However, I think we need to get our bugging guru on the phone."
    Rosario Pardo now lives in San Jose, California, with his sig-other, Doctor Devine, a.k.a. Doctor Diane Powell. She's a marine biologist, and they met at the whale camp when she was hired as Chino's assistant, much to the chagrin, at first, of Jan. First time I ever saw her jealous.
    I met Rosario when he stole my Velveeta cheese, a hanging crime in my book. He was on the lam and hiding on my boat while I was away, but Jan and I trapped and hawg tied him, then learned he thought at least one of the people I was working with at the mine conspired to try and kill him. Which, considering the dearth of Velveeta in central Baja, I felt like doing myself. Rosario turned out to be a computer whiz with a bent toward cyber fraud. It is a trait I can admire when used properly. Jan and I learned a few things from him.
    When we reached him at his home office, Jan explained our dilemma. He told her an iPad didn't take the devices we had, then asked who we were trying to hack. "Are you completely nuts? You're going to bug Nacho? The Nacho who is either a very bad guy, or a very bad guy who kills bad guys?"
    "That would be him. He's, uh, sorta living with us."
    Since we had him on Skype we enjoyed his expression, which was somewhere between disbelief and horror. "I will not be a part of this."
    "You've suddenly developed scruples? You had no problem bugging us , if I recall," I shot back at him.
    "You would not kill me for it."
    "You underestimate me. Come on, Rosario, you owe us."
    He sighed. "An iPad?"
    We nodded.
    He shook his head. "If I had this iPad, I could do something, but otherwise, no way."
    "Crappola. Oh, well, is Doc Delish around? I need to talk to her."
    He left and came back with Di in tow. Even though still drop dead gorgeous in the centerfold vein, Jan's streak of jealousy was water under the whale now that the doctor was with Rosario. In another country.
    "Hey, you two, what's up?" she asked, those enviable green eyes full of curiosity.
    "Bubbles."
    Hearing mention of his friend, Po Thang jumped to his feet and tore out on deck.
    "Huh?" asked Doc Dish.
    "Bubbles is a common dolphin I cut out of a nasty net and now she's adopted Po Thang, or vice versa. Anyhow, she follows the boat around, and she and der hund have a thing going. What's up with that?"
    "She's alone?"
    "Yes."
    "Simple. She's lonely. Dolphins are basically social animals."
    "The Sea of Cortez is chock full of dolphins. What is she, some kind of porpoise pariah?"
    "Nice piece of alliteration. It's not