“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.