But it went against everything she had been fighting to do!
Maybe she had let it all play on her mind too much; the nightmares were always tearing into her life, and she wasn’t crazy at all, she was simply finding ways to seek and find anything that she could.
The image of the figurehead was probably some other minor clue that went into the fantastic computer of the human brain and manifested in an eerie manner.
She had to believe that, and she had to follow the figurehead, because, so far, it had led her to a mermaid pendant, and it might lead her to…
She couldn’t let it scare her. She had to believe in a logical explanation.
She kicked, and her body surged into the depths rather than surfacing.
She was about fifty yards west of where she had found the locket. She eased more air out of her BCV to settle on the bottom. It seemed that she was near the body, or actual remaining structure of the wreck. Jagged and beautiful coral rose to her right—the drop-off pitched to a hundred feet and then two hundred feet to her left.
She began to move the sand, not knowing what she was looking for. There wasn’t a spark of light—the reflection of the sun on an object—or anything to suggest that she would make a find.
She felt Sean come down near her, concerned—she had made a swift descent, but they were still no more than fifty feet down.
He tapped her shoulder.
She looked at him and smiled, and returned to her task of shifting sand.
Her heart skipped a beat and thundered. After several minutes, she touched something. Something hard.
She turned. She could see Sean’s eyes behind his mask. He was staring at her with great concern. She caught his hand and brought it down to the sand.
He felt what she felt. He still frowned, but he seemed incredulous, as well.
He began working in the sand. She carefully set the shoulder strap of the camera around her and began to dig, as well.
Whatever they had discovered, it was large. A fair amount of work brought them to realize that they had found the top of something. It was about five feet by three, and appeared to go deeply into the sand. With what they had—their hands—they weren’t going to be able to dig it out.
Sean motioned to her that they needed to surface. She nodded.
He went up first on the dive ladder; she knew that he did so should she need help with the weight of her tank. She was good, though, and seldom needed help, but she allowed him to steady her as she climbed up. Katie came aft where they stood, helping each other remove their tanks and vests.
“I was about to come after you,” she said sternly. “David and Jay have been up—they’re in the cabin. David was convinced you knew your air consumption…. I guess you did.”
“We found something,” Vanessa told Katie breathlessly.
“What?” Katie asked.
“Ah—something?” Sean said, smiling.
“As in? A cannon? An anchor? A big fish?” Katie asked, exasperated.
“I don’t know,” Sean said. He went over to the ice chest for water, brought out two and tossed one to Vanessa. “We have to go back down. I have two blowers. I don’t know if it will be enough, but it will definitely help. Whatever it is, it’s buried deep. I honestly think it’s a treasure chest. To the best of my knowledge, gold and jewels have been brought up many times, but treasure chests…I think only one or two have ever come up. This is buried. It’s like it sank into the sand, and because of that, it’s preserved. It’s the right size, and it seems that it was wood, covered in leather. I believe the leather is disintegrating, but the chest is very solid. Lead-lined maybe. I’ve got to tell David.” He paused, turned, took Vanessa’s cheeks between his hands and kissed her quickly on the lips.
Katie stared with surprise.
Sean, oblivious, headed for the cabin.
Katie stared at Vanessa. “I guess you two are getting along all right.”
Vanessa nodded. She felt something at her back and swung around, but no one was there. Katie, watching her, looked guilty suddenly.
“Is everything all right?” Katie asked.
“Yes, of course. This boat just gets…strange drafts, I guess,” she said.
Katie gasped suddenly. “A treasure chest! Do you think he’s right?”
Vanessa shook her head. “I don’t know. It’s something—it’s hard.”
“How did you find it?”
“Digging in the sand.”
“How did you know where to dig in the sand?” Katie asked.
“I don’t know. Something just led me there.”
“Wow. Like…something led you to the mermaid pendant?”
Vanessa shrugged, wishing that Katie wasn’t looking at her so probingly. “I don’t know—I really don’t.”