It was decided that Lew, Marty, Ted, Jaden and Zoe would stay behind to keep an eye on the encampment. They would take out Jamie’s boat, the Claddagh, because he had recently purchased new sonar equipment, and Sean and David were eager to see if his calculations might be right, if they might find some of the debris from the pirate ship in shallower water.
There was an hour of busywork, coming and going from the Conch Fritter and the Claddagh as they transferred dive equipment and supplies from one boat to the other, but in the end, once again, it seemed that they all moved smoothly.
As the divers and crew climbed aboard, Vanessa noted that Bill looked forlornly back at Zoe, and that Zoe smiled and waved.
The romance was blooming.
Bartholomew seemed torn. At the last minute, however, he came aboard the boat.
They set out, running slowly due southwest of the island. Sean grew excited at a blip on the screen, but a study of the sea charts showed that it was a World War II ship that had gone down in 1943; at war’s end, it was already becoming part of a growing reef.
“Wait,” Sean said. “Uncle Jamie, let’s bring her around. If there is something here, that could be a reason that it has never been found!”
“Sean, good call—worth an exploration, at least,” David said. “That happened with the old British ship Renegade in the Bay of Bengal. She had twisted beneath a trawler that went down several hundred years later.”
Barry was filming the discussion. “Wow, yeah, we might have found something!”
His excitement was such that he forgot that he was filming.
“Ahem, camera, my friend!” Jay reminded him.
“Let’s break out the diving gear and the casements for the cameras,” Sean said. “David, obviously, you and Katie. Jamie—”
“I’ll be aboard, keeping watch on the line and my boat!” Jamie said firmly.
“You want me on board or in the water?” Jay asked.
Sean seemed to hesitate for just a second.
He doesn’t trust Jay! Vanessa thought.
“What about me?” Barry asked.
“Barry, you’re up here, camera ready, with Jamie,” Sean said.
Barry frowned. “I—”
“You’re the soundman, Barry, and you’re good with a camera, too. Be ready when we come up,” Sean said.
“Where do you want me?” Bill asked.
“Make it a threesome with Vanessa and me,” Sean said. “And, Jake—you tag on with Katie and David.”
He had done it again, Vanessa realized—divided the old group. Jamie would watch Barry. Marty was onshore, along with Ted and Jaden, keeping an eye on Lew and Zoe. Liam—David’s cousin and Sean’s close friend—would be watching Jay. David would have his eye on Jake.
Barry seemed unhappy but resigned. He brightened while the others got into their gear and asked Jamie if he had any fishing equipment.
Jamie scowled. “You’ll be catching the divers!”
“No!” Barry protested. “I’ll be catching fresh fish for dinner!”
Jamie shook his head but assured Barry he had fishing equipment, but that Barry needed to remember that he was in charge of filming when the divers surfaced.
As Vanessa slipped her mask and regulator on and held the mask in place in order to slip over the hull backward, she noticed Bartholomew. He was standing aft, looking back at the island.
As they descended, the water was clear and beautiful until they reached thirty-three feet and paused to pressurize. Another twenty feet down, and while visibility was still good, the sunlight didn’t penetrate as well.
Vanessa saw the hull of the old World War II vessel and followed Sean around the portside, aware that Bill was keeping pace with her. Sean had the camera, and Vanessa was glad.
It was the camera lens that seemed to play tricks on her.
Sean motioned Bill, instructing him down to the sand where something peculiar seemed to be stuck just beneath the vessel.
It was while they were occupied that Vanessa saw the figurehead.
It was just feet in front of the men. She wouldn’t be leaving her partners to follow it, to see if it was real.
To see if it led her to an old treasure again, a pendant.
Or a dead body.
She moved toward it in the water and realized that it was actually within a torn segment of the World War II ship’s hull. No. She wasn’t going to follow—not without her fellow divers knowing that she was entering the wreck.
She turned, giving a massive kick with her flippers, only to realize that she was already inside the ship. She moved toward the hole through which she had entered, only to discover that the ship seemed to have shifted; the entryway—the exit!—was no more.
And there was no figurehead to be seen.
For a split second, she nearly panicked.
It had all scrambled her mind; she was going ever-so-slightly crazy—and now it was going to trap her and kill her.
She braced herself, checked her air gauge and her compass, and knew that her partners weren’t far away. She moved in the opposite direction from the false lure of the figurehead with the face of Dona Isabella that didn’t really exist.
The tear in the giant craft was just ahead of her. As she reached it, she saw that the ship had probably been sunk by a torpedo—there was a giant hole extending beneath its watery graveyard in the sand. And beneath it…
There was something.
It looked like a broken shaft of wood. There were clumps and lumps all over it, encrusted in barnacles and sea growth. She reached for it with gloved hands and struggled to pull it free. It gave, but it was heavy.
She banged against the hull of the ship with her dive knife. A second later, Sean came through water toward her, his eyes showing concern through his mask.
She’d never let him know that she had nearly panicked, and thought herself trapped!
She smiled around her regulator and gave him an okay signal. He saw what she had.
He lifted the camera as Bill moved himself through the water to help her grasp the heavy object. He signed to her, and they carried it between them with Sean following. They made their way to the anchor line and moved up to thirty-three feet, waited and moved up again, following the line.
The others had seen them. They begin to ascend, as well.
Jamie was at the dive platform, ready to help them. Vanessa heard Barry say a quick “Oh, shit!” And then he had a camera rolling. Bill climbed out first and shed his tank and BCV in order to help Jamie shift the piece from the dive platform to the boat. Katie followed, throwing her flippers on board and hauling herself up. Sean was quickly behind her, and she reached for the camera. Soon, they were aboard, and the piece she had found was lying on the stern section of the deck with the group gathered around to stare at it.
“It’s a piece of a mast,” Jamie said.
“And the clumps?” Barry asked.
Jamie stared at Barry, grinning, and then looked at Sean. “Ted and Jaden will have some work to do tonight. Look at the circular patterns. You’ve found a stash of coins, my friends. Gold and silver, I’d wager. And if I’m right, and if our experts can clean them and give us some dates, I think we’ll find that you’re right, Sean. We’ve come upon a debris field of the pirate ship, if not the pirate ship itself.”
Sean turned to Vanessa and pulled her close, planting a huge kiss on her lips.
“You’re amazing!” he told her.
She smiled uneasily.
She had followed the figurehead again.
But the figurehead had nearly trapped her that day. Had it been leading her to treasure?
Or trying to lure her to her death?
15
“Oh my God!” Jaden cried, delighted with the discovery. “Ted, look…it’s definitely a cache of coins. I’d say it is a piece of the mast. Maybe the new wreck crushed the old wreck. I think that Sean was right, and that it was a long debris field…and still, what’s left of the pirate hull might be there…it’s possible. It’s certainly not impossible!”
“This is really fabulous,” Ted said. “The last time I saw something like this it was…wow, it was a display from the Atocha.” He turned to Jaden. “We can get started. We brought supplies. I can’t wait to see the dates on the coins and find out what was on that ship. I can’t wait to see the coins. I think there are definitely some cobs attached there—those are bits taken off the gold bars. They could have been stolen from anyone, French, English, Spanish or Americans!” he said excitedly.
They were back on the beach and the heavy piece of mast with its encrusted treasure lay in the center of a tarp while they gathered around it and stared.
“It’s amazing,” Zoe breathed, looking at Vanessa. “And you found this, too?”
“More or less. I was diving with Sean and Bill,” Vanessa said.
“You really missed your calling,” Zoe said.
“Hey, Bahamian or International waters?” Jay asked, looking at Lew.
Lew smiled broadly. “Bahamian! Yeah!”
“Ah, there goes the treasure,” Jay said sadly.
Vanessa stepped back, not really thrilled with the fact that she had once again discovered a find in the water. She couldn’t help but think about Lew’s story—and the things Bartholomew had said.
But…
Say there was a ghost that somehow haunted her in the water. First off, why would Dona Isabella, so cruelly taken and murdered, want to cause evil to anyone?
And second, ghosts didn’t have the power to do what had been done.
She realized that she had backed out of the group, and she was sorry that Sean was so concerned with safety that they couldn’t possibly have a minute alone. Not alone, maybe. But…with just Katie and David.
She started as she stood in the back of the group—something had hit her on the back. She spun around and looked down. A tiny pinecone lay there in the sand. She frowned, and then looked up.
Carlos Roca.
She stared at him. He was real. Alive—and on the island. She couldn’t begin to fathom how he had followed them so easily.