They came around the corner and headed to the front door of the shop. Sean knocked, since it was closed for actual business, and Jaden came around to let them in. She didn’t seem disturbed at all, but excited.
“They haven’t opened the chest!” she said. “Ricky—he’s our locksmith—he got the old lock open without destroying it. David and Ted are breaking the seal. Oh, lordy, lordy, this is exciting! I’ve never, never seen anything like it! Oh, and Ted called a maritime lawyer he knows, so the claim is being filed. It’s amazing! Just the chest is amazing!”
Vanessa smiled. “Wonderful.”
“Let’s get in,” Sean said. He looked at Vanessa. “Hey, I don’t know your dousing secret, but it’s unbelievable. The trunk, and its contents, are yours.”
She shook her head. “Hey, I’m one of the crew. I’m grateful that we’re doing this. I remain in your debt.”
He touched her face. “No debt,” he said softly. “No one forced my hand—I chose to set off in your direction, and I think it’s going to be a great decision.”
She nodded.
“Let’s go!” Jaden urged.
They walked on through to the workroom. Ricky was working extremely carefully with crowbars, small hammers and chisels.
Katie was standing back with Jay. Her arms were crossed over her chest. She tried to offer a cheerful smile as they arrived.
“Oh, while they’re finishing up, Vanessa, you haven’t even seen the piece you found the other day!” Jaden said.
She went over to a wall safe and spun the lock. She brought out a piece set in a bed of velvet and brought it to Vanessa to show it to her.
Vanessa smiled and looked.
It was the mermaid. The mermaid of which she had bought a copy the other day, the pendant that had hung around the neck of Dona Isabella.
This one was, however, far more ornate. Emeralds blazed from the eyes, rubies adorned her scales. The mermaid was large and heavy, and the gold in the workmanship was rich and deep.
“Here,” Jaden said.
“Oh, I don’t really want to touch it,” Vanessa said. “Sticky fingers—body oils, whatever!” she explained quickly. “Funny thing—I purchased a copy from one of the pirate vendors the other day, and I saw the picture of Dona Isabella wearing the pendant.”
“It really is a museum piece,” Jaden said.
They were all startled by a sudden jerking sound—and a very strange sound, an expulsion of air as soft as a sigh.
Ricky moved back.
A mist of time escaped the trunk, was visible for a split second, and then evaporated into the air.
“Think there might have been a dangerous buildup of gas?” Ted asked. “Wow, sorry, a little late for me to think of that.”
“Crank up the air purifiers,” Sean suggested. “But I don’t think anything lethal just escaped.”
“We can lift the lid,” David said.
“Go for it,” Sean said.
“Vanessa?” David said, looking at her. He smiled. “Your discovery.”
She shook her head. “You and Sean are leading the adventure.”
Sean stepped forward and shrugged at David.
They each reached for a side of the lid. And lifted.
They were both dead silent, staring downward into the chest.
“Well, well, come on, what is it?” Ted demanded.
Still, neither man moved. Ted went rushing over and looked down, as well. “Holy shit!” he exclaimed—his voice filled with horror, not wonder.
“What?” Katie asked weakly.
Jay walked up next. He clapped his hand over his mouth and turned away.
Vanessa knew from Jay’s reaction that it was bad. She steeled herself and walked forward and looked down into a chest.
At first she didn’t realize what she was seeing.
And then she did.
The chest contained the oddly mummified and distorted remains of a human body. The clothing remained; the head was at an awkward angle. A hat still sat upon a skeletal head. The skin was dark and stretched over the frame, and the fabric of the clothing was stained, probably by the body fluids that had oozed from the corpse soon after death.
The eye sockets were empty.
And yet they seemed to stare and tear into Vanessa’s heart.
All she could remember at that moment were Sean’s earlier words.
The trunk, and its contents, are yours.
9
“It’s Dona Isabella,” Marty said knowingly.
“It can’t be Dona Isabella. She wasn’t killed until the pirates reached Haunt Island,” David said. “According to legend, at any rate. Although, frankly, everything about what happened is legend—after the pirate ship attacked the Santa Geneva.”
“We’ll have to wait, and that’s all there is to it—hope that the forensic anthropologist can help us,” Sean said.
“It wasn’t a treasure,” Jay said mournfully.
“If the body sheds light on history, the find is a treasure,” Sean said.