“Wow. You did that just shooting with the two of you?” Jay said. “Hey, what am I talking about? I was doing a motion picture with a small crew that did extra duty as stunt doubles!”
“You’re a walking wonder, Jay,” Vanessa said, teasing him, and yet, she realized, her tone was dry. She was still angry with him. He shouldn’t have just shown up. He should have called her.
But then again, she had barged in. No, she had set up an appointment. Jay had used her.
“I am a walking wonder, Nessa,” Jay said, grinning. But then he sighed. “I just wish I knew what had happened.”
“All right,” Sean said. “Tomorrow, we’ll get together and go through everything you did from the time you came to Key West to start filming. Since this was planned as a documentary, there’s an outline and a list of shoots, but no actual script. Things will change now, some, but I don’t want to make the changes until you’ve given me your story from start to finish.”
Jay nodded gravely. “All right.”
“We might make another dive where the Santa Geneva went down, too,” he said.
“Hey, you’re the boss. Bosses,” Jay said, looking from Sean to David.
“What now?” Vanessa asked.
Sean smiled. “Dinner. No one has had any.”
“Oh, man, great idea. I’m starving,” Jay said.
David rose and said, “How about Turtle Kraals? Tourists are out, but it’s a guaranteed relaxed atmosphere and it’s on the water.”
“Sounds good to me,” Sean agreed.
They walked the back streets down to Turtle Kraals and the docks. The air was pleasantly cool and the walking was beautiful. She was next to Sean, who was somewhat quiet, while Jay walked next to David, talking enough for everyone.
“Beginning to end,” he said. “You know what I remember, clearer than anything? Just how annoyed I was with Georgia. If I’d only known…if we’d only looked for Travis. But we weren’t expecting anything. I’d been on Haunt Island dozens of times. Boaters come and go. And of course we did everything by the book, notifying the Bahamian authorities, even hiring Bahamian tour guides just to keep everything legit. And that on our budget. I still can’t figure it, I just can’t figure it. I didn’t see any other boats during the day. I know that most of the authorities believe that Carlos Roca killed Travis earlier in the day, and killed Georgia when he pretended he was going to take her home. Why? I can’t begin to fathom. And why stage the bodies in the way that he did? None of it makes any sense. You’d think there had been a ghost,” he said with disgust.
Then, oddly, he jumped and spun around.
“What the hell was that?” Jay demanded.
“We’re in front of you,” Vanessa reminded him.
“Must have been the wind,” Sean said, still walking and not looking back.
“That was one hell of a wind,” Jay said.
“Oh, we get those now and again down here,” David said.
They walked on and arrived at the restaurant. Sean knew the right people. He smiled and chatted with the hostess, and they wound up with a perfect table, one that overlooked the water of the historic seaport. It was a pleasant place, named for something not so pleasant, really. It was where turtles had once been stored until it was time for them to be sent to whatever restaurant or manufacturer or distributor of turtle soup and turtle steak was ready for them. Nowadays, turtles were protected, and the wildest events here that included the reptiles were the turtle races held on certain days of the week.
They ordered, and Vanessa excused herself, saying she wanted to look at the moon over the water. She walked out and realized someone was behind her. She turned to see that Sean had followed her. “Beautiful night,” he said. “Perfect weather. Calm seas and a full moon.”
“Yes, perfect,” she agreed.
There was a silence between them for a moment. It wasn’t awkward, and yet Vanessa knew he was about to say something. And he did.
“You know, there’s something underneath everything here. On the surface, what happened was a horrible, gruesome tragedy, a heinous crime. The kind that couldn’t be repeated. But now we’re about to go the same route. Have you ever wondered if the person—or persons—responsible might find out what you’re doing, be afraid that you know something and come after you?”
She inhaled deeply. “I did my best to convince you to make your film following our route. But it might have been the wrong thing. If you’re afraid in any way—”
He shook his head impatiently, interrupting her. “I’m not afraid. We’ve been on a dangerous route before. I’ll have myself, David, Liam and maybe a few other people I know well and trust with my life. I’m worried about you. All right, I don’t think you ought to be in that room on Duval Street. Yes, it’s Duval, yes, there are cops around. If you don’t want to stay at my house—or Katie’s house—go and stay with Katie and David at David’s house.”
“It just…it would be awkward, either way,” she murmured.
“I can ask Jay to stay, as well,” he said.