“She thrives on blood?” Vanessa said. “Zoe, when did you start this? How? Why?”
“How? I was chosen, don’t you see? I knew the legend, good God, we all knew the legend. I used to love to come here and wonder what it was like in my own mind. And I sat here once and she came to me, and I knew. I knew what she wanted. She needed to be fed lots of blood. Then there was a bit filmed here for one of the history channels…let me see, that was four or five years ago. Bill was playing a bit part, and I saw that he would have loved to have been a pirate. It was so easy then….” She broke off, laughing softly. “We had to learn, of course. We started with a girl who was diving here…a Bahamian. We didn’t really know what we were doing and it was a very messy murder, but luckily, no one was around. And I’m so good with costumes and makeup, when the film that you and Jay were doing came up, well…it was just brilliant. Wonderful! We became pirates. Travis was easy. We terrified him before we killed him. And then we got on board the boat when Carlos tried to take Georgia away. Oh, it was so much fun. And the more blood Dona Isabella got, the more power she had, the more power she gave to us! But you! You went and found the trunk. That was very tricky, because we had to pretend to be just hanging around Key West while we caught up with that doctor and her assistant and stole it back, then got a boat and dumped it back out at sea…but we’re wonderful at getting rid of things in the sea. The sea is merciless, don’t you agree?”
“A year ago, you killed the people on the Delphi. And you just killed more people, those retired people, on the Happy-Me.”
Zoe appeared indignant. “Dona Isabella needed her strength for this.” She smiled. “Sometimes you have to seize your chances when they appear. Picking off retirees on boats that are just anchored here? Now and then you can have fun. You can do the whole pirate thing. Ghosts rising from the sea in flesh and blood with machetes!” She smiled, so proud of herself. “All you need is a place to run, excellent diving abilities and sheer talent. Oh, Vanessa! Murder is really ridiculously easy. The tricky part, always, was pulling off the crimes and then being back to appear to be innocent as hell. Actually, the hardest night was when we both had to slip out of our tents to catch up with Georgia and Carlos when they left that night. Catch up with them and get back into our own tents so we could wake up in horror and come see what had happened, what was lying on the sand. But it was wonderful!”
Zoe might have been describing an incredible trip abroad, or a loving sexual encounter. She appeared ecstatic.
Vanessa tried to keep her talking.
“Zoe, you need to stop now. I’ll help you. If not, you’ll wind up arrested. You may get the needle instead of life in prison,” Vanessa warned. She could still feel the prod of the gun so sharply against her back.
“No. Dona Isabella will protect me,” Zoe said. “Won’t you?” Zoe smiled slyly at Vanessa, then looked to her side.
Vanessa looked, too.
And there she was. The ghost of Dona Isabella, haughty, proud and cruel, and highly amused as they walked through the pines.
“You,” Vanessa said, “will surely rot in all the fires of hell, and soon.”
Zoe looked shocked. “You see her?” she demanded.
Dona Isabella looked furious. She spoke with a sultry voice, pleasantly, despite her words. “Zoe will kill you slowly, Vanessa. Slowly. You will bleed into the sand and into the sea.”
Zoe looked distracted for a minute. “Where’s Bill?”
“I’m sure he’s dead,” Vanessa said. “You think those men just let a boy playing with a gun stop them?”
The nose of the gun pressed harder.
Vanessa realized that they were coming through the trees to the other side of the island. When they reached the sand, she thought, she would be in trouble.
The moon was out, and they neared the water. She could hear the waves, the sound lulling. They were about to break through the trees. They did.
To Vanessa’s surprise, they came to a sudden halt. “Ah, well, if it isn’t the Spanish whore of all time!” came a voice.
Bartholomew. The ghost was awaiting them.
“Pirate scum!” Dona Isabella said. “Go—out of my way. Push through him. Just push through him. He is nothing but a mass in the air.”
“As you are,” Vanessa said.
She was stunned when the ghost swung about, when she saw hands of mist come toward her and encircle her throat. She felt the pinch…
And then she refused to do so.
“You bitch! You let her go!” Bartholomew said.
Zoe let out a little cry, thrusting Vanessa forward so that she fell onto the sand. She lifted the gun, but her hand was shaking as Bartholomew pitched himself at Dona Isabella and the spirits went flying downward in the night in a mist of white and sand.
And just as they did, Vanessa heard something like a whir, a motion so fast it seemed more ethereal than the ghostly specters in the sand.