“Of course I’d want to work with you again. I came at Sean O’Hara full blast, but then Jay showed up, and I had no idea Jay was coming, but it looked as if I had planned a way to wheedle everyone in,” Vanessa said. “I’m thrilled now that they’re fascinated by the whole project and want all of us to be crew—and to be interviewed.”
“Oh, so cool. So great,” Zoe said.
“Do they know that you’re here yet?” Vanessa asked.
“Don’t think so,” Barry said.
“We wanted to do some catching up and all. We’ve been on separate projects,” Zoe said. “We’ve all been on separate projects, I guess.”
“Yeah. Why don’t you do some catching up with us?” Barry asked Vanessa.
“I can’t right now. But Sean will be glad to hear that you’re here in Key West and that you’re gung-ho with their plan. Look, there’s a bar called O’Hara’s down on the other end of Duval. Show up down there around ten o’clock and I’ll introduce you.”
“All right, sounds great,” Zoe said.
“Okay, later,” Vanessa said.
Zoe slipped her arm through Barry’s and they headed off, waving. Vanessa wandered back across the street to the patio restaurant.
She felt acutely uncomfortable, and she wasn’t sure why. After all, Sean had said just last night that he’d ask Liam to get hold of the others.
She ordered another drink.
There were the key words. Just last night.
And they were already here.
Well, it made sense, really. She had desperately wanted to reach Sean and David when she had heard about their project and that they were hiring crew. So…
To her surprise, she had to call out to Sean to stop him from heading around her building to the stairs to the upper stories. He had showered and changed into jeans and a short-sleeved cotton shirt, so he had evidently been home.
“Hey!” he said, surprised to see her waiting for him at the bar.
“Did you open the trunk?” she asked anxiously.
“Not yet. Jaden and Ted wanted to call a locksmith, so I decided the group should get together for the grand opening. David and I are partners and Katie is his…well, those two will wind up married, and she’s my sister. You discovered the chest. And Jay—well, as I said, you discovered the chest, and you brought Jay in.”
“I didn’t bring Jay in,” Vanessa protested. She winced inwardly. She was aggravated. Sean kept speaking casually, but it was apparent that he believed that she had brought Jay in on the project. Jay was her friend, but she hadn’t brought him in on the project. “I didn’t mean that in a bad way,” she said. “I’ve known him forever. He is a good friend. But I didn’t bring him in.”
“Well, it would hardly seem fair to exclude one person who was on the Conch Fritter today, would it?” Sean asked her.
Vanessa smiled. The more she was with him, the more she liked him. Which was good, of course. The sexual attraction was so strong, but really liking someone was…important.
Did he really like her? Would he do so if he knew that she saw strange things in the water? He knew about the nightmares, of course.
But she had been through an enormous trauma. Any psychiatrist would say so.
“So let’s head on over to the shop!” he said.
“All right,” she said, but she pulled back a minute, her hand on his arm. “Wait. Zoe Cally and Barry are here.”
His eyebrows shot up with surprise. “Wow. I just asked Liam to try to reach them last night.”
“They were coming here to ask you for work,” she explained.
“So where are they now?” he asked. His eyes were narrowed, and he was staring at her strangely. Maybe he was just staring at her, and she felt guilty. She shouldn’t feel guilty. She hadn’t done anything.
“I told them to come to O’Hara’s tonight,” she said.
“All right. That was definitely fast. Let’s go see about the trunk.”
He slipped an arm around her shoulders. He frowned, and she turned, certain there was someone behind her.
But there was no one.
As they walked, the sun sank completely, and the majestic colors that had filled the western sky faded away. A misty gray followed the sunset, twilight, with darkness coming quickly.
She had never been afraid of the dark.
She was glad of Sean’s arm around her shoulders.
And for how long would that be? she wondered. He didn’t seem to be the type of man who would want a woman long who was afraid of the dark, afraid of her own shadow, afraid of being alone in broad daylight.
She was uncertain about her feelings regarding the trunk. She knew that Sean was excited, and she wanted to feel the same way. The odd thing was that she was now feeling more confused than ever. At first, she had felt that the object was…
Evil.
Now, she wasn’t sure.
Object. Inorganic. Not good or evil!
They came around the corner and headed to the front door of the shop. Sean knocked, since it was closed for actual business, and Jaden came around to let them in. She didn’t seem disturbed at all, but excited.
“They haven’t opened the chest!” she said. “Ricky—he’s our locksmith—he got the old lock open without destroying it. David and Ted are breaking the seal. Oh, lordy, lordy, this is exciting! I’ve never, never seen anything like it! Oh, and Ted called a maritime lawyer he knows, so the claim is being filed. It’s amazing! Just the chest is amazing!”
Vanessa smiled. “Wonderful.”“Let’s get in,” Sean said. He looked at Vanessa. “Hey, I don’t know your dousing secret, but it’s unbelievable. The trunk, and its contents, are yours.”
She shook her head. “Hey, I’m one of the crew. I’m grateful that we’re doing this. I remain in your debt.”
He touched her face. “No debt,” he said softly. “No one forced my hand—I chose to set off in your direction, and I think it’s going to be a great decision.”
She nodded.
“Let’s go!” Jaden urged.
They walked on through to the workroom. Ricky was working extremely carefully with crowbars, small hammers and chisels.
Katie was standing back with Jay. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She tried to offer a cheerful smile as they arrived.
“Oh, while they’re finishing up, Vanessa, you haven’t even seen the piece you found the other day!” Jaden said.
She went over to a wall safe and spun the lock. She brought out a piece set in a bed of velvet and brought it to Vanessa to show it to her.
Vanessa smiled and looked.
It was the mermaid. The mermaid of which she had bought a copy the other day, the pendant that had hung around the neck of Dona Isabella.
This one was, however, far more ornate. Emeralds blazed from the eyes, rubies adorned her scales. The mermaid was large and heavy, and the gold in the workmanship was rich and deep.
“Here,” Jaden said.
“Oh, I don’t really want to touch it,” Vanessa said. “Sticky fingers—body oils, whatever!” she explained quickly. “Funny thing—I purchased a copy from one of the pirate vendors the other day, and I saw the picture of Dona Isabella wearing the pendant.”
“It really is a museum piece,” Jaden said.
They were all startled by a sudden jerking sound—and a very strange sound, an expulsion of air as soft as a sigh.
Ricky moved back.
A mist of time escaped the trunk, was visible for a split second, and then evaporated into the air.
“Think there might have been a dangerous buildup of gas?” Ted asked. “Wow, sorry, a little late for me to think of that.”
“Crank up the air purifiers,” Sean suggested. “But I don’t think anything lethal just escaped.”
“We can lift the lid,” David said.
“Go for it,” Sean said.
“Vanessa?” David said, looking at her. He smiled. “Your discovery.”
She shook her head. “You and Sean are leading the adventure.”
Sean stepped forward and shrugged at David.
They each reached for a side of the lid. And lifted.
They were both dead silent, staring downward into the chest.
“Well, well, come on, what is it?” Ted demanded.
Still, neither man moved. Ted went rushing over and looked down, as well. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed—his voice filled with horror, not wonder.
“What?” Katie asked weakly.
Jay walked up next. He clapped his hand over his mouth and turned away.
Vanessa knew from Jay’s reaction that it was bad. She steeled herself and walked forward and looked down into a chest.
At first she didn’t realize what she was seeing.
And then she did.
The chest contained the oddly mummified and distorted remains of a human body. The clothing remained; the head was at an awkward angle. A hat still sat upon a skeletal head. The skin was dark and stretched over the frame, and the fabric of the clothing was stained, probably by the body fluids that had oozed from the corpse soon after death.
The eye sockets were empty.
And yet they seemed to stare and tear into Vanessa’s heart.
All she could remember at that moment were Sean’s earlier words.
The trunk, and its contents, are yours.
9
“It’s Dona Isabella,” Marty said knowingly.
“It can’t be Dona Isabella. She wasn’t killed until the pirates reached Haunt Island,” David said. “According to legend, at any rate. Although, frankly, everything about what happened is legend—after the pirate ship attacked the Santa Geneva.”
“We’ll have to wait, and that’s all there is to it—hope that the forensic anthropologist can help us,” Sean said.
“It wasn’t a treasure,” Jay said mournfully.
“If the body sheds light on history, the find is a treasure,” Sean said.