Heather Graham_Bone Island Trilogy_02 Read online

  She wanted Sean to come back for her. She wanted to be with him.

  “There’s something wrong with it,” Bartholomew said flatly, crossing his arms over his chest. “Can’t you tell? Both Katie and Vanessa reacted to it—and you should trust Katie’s very acute sixth sense!”

  “Well, genius, you were around when it all happened. You tell me what’s wrong with the trunk!” Sean said. He was aggravated. What was the matter with all of them? It was the find of a lifetime. He wanted to be excited about it. In fact, he realized, he’d been so damned excited, they hadn’t filmed any of it, except when Vanessa had first found the damned thing.

  “I was around at the time, yes. I didn’t run in the same circles as Dona Isabella. I knew that she was a beauty—I saw her in the streets. She was surrounded by servants. She had a grand house. Her husband never came from Spain, and she controlled all his properties here. Now, I did meet Mad Miller, and in my mind, he wasn’t so mad. And Kitty Cutlass…well, if she went crazy and killed a bunch of people, it was only because she was madly in love with Mad Miller. But this trunk…you found it away from the ship?”

  “Not far from the debris field. It wasn’t on coral—or in the remains of the ship. But I don’t know what you think that means. Debris travels. It can spread out for miles—you know that.” Sean paused and looked toward the dock. David and Jay were there; they had called Jaden and Ted, and the couple was coming with their truck to bring the chest back to their place of business. They would study and analyze it and figure out how to open it with the most integrity toward the chest itself and whatever just might be inside. Ted also knew a great deal more about reporting finds to the state and the legal filing that needed to be done.

  “I don’t like it, I don’t like it, I don’t like it,” Bartholomew said.

  “What’s not to like about the possibility of a cache of historical coins?” Sean asked.

  Bartholomew shook his head. “You don’t need to make a fortune. You’re a lucky man. You do what you love for a living, and you make a good living at it.”

  “That from a pirate,” Sean moaned.

  “Privateer,” Bartholomew said irritably.

  “You’re right—I don’t need a hoard of riches. It’s not that, Bartholomew. I believe in learning about the past—I believe in museums. I believe in finding out the truth about what happened, and every little clue gives us something more on that end. What’s bothering you? What do you feel?”

  “I’m a ghost. I don’t feel. Well, not really,” Bartholomew said.

  “You’re certainly ready at all times to give an opinion.”

  “Actually, I do have a…oh, all right, I have a feeling. But I don’t really understand it. Is it Pandora’s box?” Bartholomew asked softly. “I don’t think so. But it is something…that may change things. Does that make any sense?”

  “It may change the way we look at the past,” Sean suggested.

  Bartholomew shrugged. “I think your friend onshore is already counting his riches,” he said.

  Jay stood with David, still gesturing, excited.

  As Sean watched, he saw Ted and Jaden arrive with their truck. A fair group of tourists and locals had formed in the parking lot beyond the restaurant and the docks, all looking anxiously to see what was going on.

  “They’re here!” Jay called, spinning around to make sure that Sean had heard him.

  Sean nodded. David and Jay returned to the boat, hopping onto the deck. Now that it was out of the water, the chest was manageable, just awkward, especially with three of them. But Ted came hurrying from the passenger side of the truck, leaving Jaden to maneuver it as close to the end of the dock as she could.

  “Cool! Cool, oh my God! Cool!” Ted announced, jumping on the deck of the Conch Fritter. “Every man to an edge. We’ll get her to our place. I can’t wait, I can’t wait. I want to keep it in a mist until we see how it will do out of the water. This is amazing. Cool, cool, cool!”

  They hunkered down, the four of them. Between them, the weight didn’t seem that bad. Sean estimated that whatever was actually inside the chest weighed between a hundred and a hundred and twenty pounds.

  They moved easily enough with it—moving quickly. They got it onto a tarp Ted had stretched out over the bed of the truck.

  “Sean, your find, you go with Ted,” David said. “I’ll hose down and secure the Conch Fritter. Then I’ll head straight over.”

  “Sure. I’ll help David,” Jay said without enthusiasm.

  David laughed. “No, go with Sean. Never mind—stay with me. We’ll both get there faster.”

  “Yeah, let’s do it!” Jay said.

  Before Sean could crawl into the cab, Jay was racing back to the Conch Fritter.

  Sean slid in next to Jaden, leaning forward between the driver and passenger seats. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and grinned. “You are on a roll!”

  “Vanessa is on a roll. I have no idea how she found it,” he said.

  Ted climbed in and slammed the door. “Drive, woman, drive!” he said.

  In a matter of minutes they were back at the shop. They didn’t have to worry about weight or statistics; Ted and Jaden had carts and ramps, and they quickly had it down, still on a tarp, in one of their temperature-controlled rooms where the air was heavy with moisture.

  Jaden and Ted looked over the trunk and discussed the best way to attack it. Obviously, they didn’t have a key, and if they did, the lock was probably too degraded to open with it. They did, however, have a friend who was a locksmith.

  He was called.

  They were going to have to wait.

  If they were going to have to wait, Sean wanted to bring Vanessa back.

  “All right, I’m going to call David,” he told Ted. “I’ll run and grab a quick shower, stop by for Vanessa, and we’ll all meet back here in an hour. How’s that?”

  “An hour?” Ted said. He loved the old, treasure and a mystery.

  “Ted, we have to wait for the locksmith,” Jaden reminded him.

  “We could just need a little oil,” Ted said hopefully. “You know what works wonders? Olive oil, not that I was really thinking about olive oil on this. WD-40.”

  “We’ll do it right. Run on, Sean. I’ll chill some champagne!” Jaden said happily.

  Vanessa told herself that she wasn’t afraid of her own room. She was. She didn’t want to be alone anymore. She just wanted to go back to Sean’s. She’d get the rest of her things later.

  She showered fast, scrubbed her face, towel dried her body and her hair, dressed in an A-line knit dress and sandals and ran back down the stairs. The sun was setting, and it would be dark soon. She was glad she was on Duval Street—and that pirates and wenches and drunken frat boys were plying the sidewalk.

  She headed into the little bar again but ordered a soda. She could still feel the warmth of the whiskey and didn’t want to appear to be as inebriated as the frat boys. It was while she was there, idly sitting on one of the four stools in the place and watching the crowd, that she nearly choked and fell off.

  She wasn’t seeing any kind of an apparition.

  No one dressed in pirate attire.

  To her amazement, Zoe Cally and Barry Melkie, props, costumes, makeup and sound on their ill-fated film, stood in front of the Irish bar, drinking beer, deep in conversation.

  She jumped up and ran across the street. “Hey!”

  Zoe turned to look at her. She was a pretty girl, small and delicate, with large brown eyes and light hair. She smiled, and the smile was bright and welcoming.

  “Vanessa!” Zoe cried with pleasure.

  “Hey, you!” Barry said. He picked her up to give her a huge bear hug. He was a big man, about six foot three and well muscled, in his midthirties.

  Barry set her down, grinning as broadly as Zoe. “This is unbelievable! How cool. We were just talking about you and Jay, and thinking that we should call you.”

  Zoe laughed. “We were talking because we read an advertisement. T
here are these guys planning a documentary on weird stuff in Key West and environs,” Zoe said.

  “I know, I know!” Vanessa said. She started to speak again, but Zoe interrupted her enthusiastically.

  “Imagine our surprise when they called us!” Zoe said.

  “Hey, let me buy you a beer, Vanessa,” Barry said. “We’ll explain.”

  Vanessa explained how she and Jay were already working with Sean and David. “Sean just called you and my Lord, you got here quickly!” she said.

  Zoe giggled. “We were close. We got here last night.”

  “And guess what? I mean, I think this was all really supposed to happen. I have already called the kids,” Barry said proudly.

  “The kids?” Vanessa said.

  “The kids—our kids, our grad students. You know, both those bozos managed to graduate and get work, can you imagine?” Barry asked.

  Vanessa felt her heart sinking. “You mean Bill Hinton and Jake Magnoli?”

  “Well, of course, what other kids did we work with?” Zoe asked, confused.

  “Vanessa, come on, let me buy you a beer,” Barry said.

  “I—I can’t right now. I’m waiting for Sean,” Vanessa explained.

  “And Jay?” Zoe asked, grinning.

  “And Jay,” she said.

  Zoe smiled. “I am so glad. I’m so glad we were already heading here. This is going to be so important, so cathartic, for all of us. We were there! We saw Travis and Georgia. Vanessa, you of all people must understand how we feel!”

  “Of course,” Vanessa agreed softly.

  “This is an amazing opportunity. We’ve all been ripped apart by nightmares. We’ve all been like zombies since it happened,” Barry said.

  “And you’re happy, right?” Zoe asked. “You want to work with us again? We were all giving our hearts to that project of Jay’s!”

  “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 car
efully 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.