Zoe looked at her and tried to smile. “And I didn’t find a thing,” Zoe said.
Vanessa tried to brighten. “I did.”
They all looked at her.
“Well, of course you did,” Jay said. “What?”
She looked around at the faces. Sean was just waiting, Liam at his side. Bill, Jake, Jay and Zoe were wide-eyed.
“I don’t know,” she said.
That wasn’t true. She knew that she had found a modern dive knife. Maybe it wasn’t indicative of anything—perhaps a diver had lost it. But for some reason, she decided not to tell them all about the knife—just what was beneath it.
“The floor was uneven, and it was all crusted…I think it might have been what remained of a sword or a cutlass. I didn’t have time to try to figure it out—Barry was hit. But we can find out tomorrow. I know exactly where it is,” Vanessa said. She smiled. She was proud of this find. She hadn’t seen a ghostly figurehead in the water. She had found it on her own.
She saw that Bartholomew was standing just behind Liam and Sean; he watched her solemnly.
“It might have been German, or fairly modern,” she said. “It was impossible to tell.”
“We should go back down right now,” Jay said.
“No. Not today,” Sean said. “Today, we had a member of our crew injured. We’ll head back and let the others know what happened, and wait to hear about Barry’s condition.”
“Oh my God, you are worried he could die!” Zoe said.
“No. He just needs care. But this is it for the day,” Sean said. He headed to the helm. Vanessa came and curled up on the companion seat, hugging a throw around her shoulders—she hadn’t been able to shake the chill that had seized her as she had waved goodbye to Katie.
She was anxious to hear that the Claddagh had arrived safely in Bimini.
Liam was seated aft.
Watching, she thought.
Watching Zoe, Bill and Jake.
They didn’t have far to come in to the island, but she decided that the demand for a freshwater shower on the one boat might be high that night, and she slipped off the seat, telling Sean that she was going to take a quick shower. It was good, though quick. Zoe followed her lead while the guys washed off on the deck, using the equipment hose.
She felt better once she was dressed in jeans and a sweater. And in another few minutes, she heard Sean calling for the ties and the bumpers. They had returned to Haunt Island.
A fire had been built and the barbecue had been set to blaze and dinner put on in their absence. Jaden, busy flipping thin flank steaks, was horrified when she heard about Barry, and Ted had to take the barbecue fork from her hand to save a piece of meat.
“It was an accident,” Jay said, “nothing but an accident.” He set a hand gently on Zoe’s shoulders.
“And he’s going to be all right,” Vanessa added.
“They’ll call soon,” Sean said.
Vanessa felt she had to escape for a few moments at least. She murmured something about needing to put a few things away in her tent. She glanced at Sean, hoping that he would follow her.
She started entering the tent. Bartholomew had preceded her entry and was seated on the ground, Indian-style, hands folded prayer-fashion and tapping his lower jaw. He started to rise when he saw her, but she shook her head and sank down beside him.
“I’ve been thinking all day,” he said.
“And?”
“And your theory is right. It has to be. I told you—I knew them, Mad Miller and Kitty…and they weren’t evil or cruel. Mad Miller must have made a financial agreement with Dona Isabella. She traveled a lot—they could have met at several ports. He was…he was soft. Once he had stopped her ship, she took control. She insisted it be sunk, and she murdered Kitty. It all makes sense now.”
Vanessa shook her head. “It still doesn’t make sense. I kept seeing Dona Isabella’s face on a figurehead—she was the one leading me around.”
The tent flap opened and they started, but it was Sean, and evidently he had heard them.
Sean shook his head. “Whatever type of spirit she is, she’s been playing with you. She’s been leading you. She wanted you to find the pendant, because that lent credence to the tale. That would bring everyone aboard to follow this whole route again. And—just in case it didn’t—she then had you find the body. She probably didn’t realize that a forensic anthropologist would immediately realize that it was the wrong body.”
“But the body disappeared,” Vanessa said.
“She led you—and she’s leading someone else,” Sean said. Bartholomew nodded.
“Oh!” Vanessa said, and dug into her bag. “I did pick up something today, but no one led me to it. It was in the gap in the ship, on top of the object I was describing.” She produced the knife and showed it to Sean. He studied it, rolling it over in his hand and chipping at the crust on it.
“T-B-E,” Sean read. “Tom Essling,” he said.
“I’m sorry?” Vanessa asked.
“Tom Essling—he was captain of a boat that disappeared in that area just last year. If we further our search, I have a feeling we’ll find his boat, the Delphi, too,” he said grimly.
“So…someone has been pirating other vessels near here. Someone maybe using Haunt Island as their base, as if it’s their…their home fort,” Vanessa said.
“I don’t know. It’s all supposition,” Sean said.
“She’s right. I know she’s right,” Bartholomew said. “But I’m watching…I’m always watching, and I can’t figure it out yet.”
“Well, it has been figured out to this,” Sean said. “Someone here knows much more than he or she is saying. Someone is—” He broke off, looking at Vanessa. “A killer, I believe,” he said softly.
From outside the tent, they heard Jaden call out loudly. “Dinner, folks, dinner! Come and get it now!”
“Let’s go on out,” Sean told Vanessa. “We’ll keep up all appearances.”
As they walked over to the barbecue area, Vanessa asked Sean, “David hasn’t called yet. Why hasn’t David called?”
“He will,” he assured her.
Unless what Barry had done had been an act. Barry was a big man, muscular, powerful. The kind who could wield a knife and a bone saw, if needed. What if he had been pretending the entire event, and he had known that they would save him, bring him to the surface.
And rush him to a hospital.
She began to fear that Barry would suddenly rise, taking David and Jamie by surprise. He would attack from the rear, when they weren’t expecting it. He would toss them overboard as he had done with Carlos, and then he would come for Katie….
She clenched her fists, knowing that she was letting her imagination run away from her.
But she was scared.
And she wanted David to call, or Katie, or anyone.
Jaden and Ted tried to be cheerful and upbeat as they doled out dinner. Marty, however, appeared wary and watchful.
Lew Sanderson sat on the beach alone, watching the others as they ate.
Liam stayed on one side of the group and Sean on the other.
When Sean’s cell phone started ringing, they all jumped. He answered it quickly, and then breathed a sigh of relief as he looked at the others.
“They are in Bimini, and the doctors believe that Barry will pull through,” he told them.
It seemed that everyone let out a sigh. And then they began to chat with relief, and in a few minutes, they were even joking with one another.
David, Jamie and Katie wouldn’t return until the next morning, which meant that Sean had lost three of the people he trusted most for the night.
Lew—he thought he trusted, but he didn’t know.
Ted and Jaden he trusted, but they were really scholars, not fighters, though Ted did know how to use a speargun.
Carlos was an unknown element in the whole game.
Still, he had himself and Liam and Marty. And they were guarding a tiny blonde woman and two twenty-somethings who didn’t appear to be musclemen.
Maybe there was something he still wasn’t seeing. One of the group had been involved, but they’d had outside help.
Everyone seemed tired that night. He told Liam about the knife they had found, and they both knew that they’d be searching for the Delphi the next day.
“Tonight?” Liam asked.
“We all stay on guard. Marty, Ted, you and I. And Lew. But I’m uneasy now, and we’ll actually be watching Lew, as well. I’m thinking that when David and Katie and my uncle Jamie return, it may be time to put an end to this. I think a killer is in reach, but I don’t want to risk anyone else’s life. We need a larger crew—a totally trustworthy crew. Anyway, we’ll each take a few hours, and stand guard in threes through the night,” Sean said.
“You want some time first?” Liam asked.
“Sure. Thanks. I’d like that,” Sean admitted.
Vanessa was already in their little tent. She had seemed chilled during the day, and was wearing her flannel nightdress again. He smiled at her, coming in to zip the flap on the tent.
He came to her, taking her by the shoulders, and she looked up at him expectantly.
“These are really tight quarters,” he whispered. “And we are really, really close to other tents, but…”
He loved her smile, loved her eyes. “We’re very good at whispered conversations,” she said.
“There are many ways to communicate, you know.”
Her arms wrapped around him. She drew him down with her to the thin mattresses on the canvas floor of the tent and he reflected that it was really one of the finest beds he’d ever seen. Any bed was fine, if Vanessa was there. He cupped her face in his hands and kissed her slowly, and she slid her fingers beneath his shirt, teasing the flesh of his abdomen, then drawing the shirt up and over his head. They came together again, and she felt his blood begin to burn as her fingers dipped into the waistband of his jeans. She went still as she felt his gun.
