Sean nodded.
Neither of them had accepted an interview, and to Sean’s knowledge, neither had Katie, Jay or Vanessa. But it had been apparent yesterday that they had made a discovery, and there was an article stating that local divers had found a historical artifact and the object was under investigation now.
That afternoon, one of them would take an interview so that the concept that they were “treasure hunting” would not be taken out of context.
David’s cell phone rang and he picked it up. He listened for a moment and looked at Sean, nodding.
He hung up.
“That was Liam. They checked out—the film crew, that is. The two grad students, Bill and Jake. And Barry Melkie has worked for several major motion-picture companies, and Zoe, though not as well-known, has certainly had an excellent employment record. There’s not so much as a night in jail, a dismissed charge or a single mark.”
“They’re just seeking truth,” Bartholomew said.
Sean started to speak, but he could have sworn that he heard Bartholomew mutter, “Dumb ass!” just beneath his breath.
“What was that?” he demanded.
“Pardon?” Bartholomew said innocently.
“You just called me a dumb ass!”
“Did I? I didn’t mean to speak aloud, which, sadly, in most cases, with most people, I actually don’t,” Bartholomew said.
Sean rose and approached Bartholomew. “Is it possible you could go haunt someone else for a while?”
“Of course. There seems nothing I can do about the fact that you—behave like a dumb ass.”
Sean let out a groan of aggravation. “Because?”
“That young woman did nothing to you.”
“Wow, excuse me. Are you missing the fact that two people were heinously killed?”
Bartholomew looked away. “Yes, there is that. But you know that she had nothing to do with that.”
“And how do I know that? Maybe she was the murderer, maybe Jay is a maniacal killer—maybe one of the others,” Sean said.
“They were there,” David agreed.
“But do you really believe that bringing them all in was some kind of a setup?” Bartholomew said. “If so, you are certainly thinking and behaving as—a dumb ass.”
“Bartholomew—” Sean began.
“Yes, yes, fine! Remember, my friends, you may need me. But for now, I’ll go haunt someone else!” Bartholomew responded, aggravated. Shoulders high, posture proud, he strode through the room—and through the front door.
“They check out,” David said to Sean, when Bartholomew was gone. “So what do you want to do?”
“Two boats,” Sean said. “Which is what we’ve always planned, Conch Fritter and Jamie’s Claddagh. Jamie can captain his own boat, and he’s a hell of a dive master. Katie and you with Jamie, and I’ll take Ted and Jaden, and we’ll bring Marty along, as long as he’s still interested, and, of course, Liam. Four of us on each boat. We’ll split up the six from the original trip.”
“You think that they were involved in a conspiracy—all of them—to kill their leading couple and leave them outrageously staged in the sand?”
“No. But two people died. Somebody killed them.”
David shook his head. “There have been a lot of disappearances and bad things happening out in that area—we’ve just dug up reports of several that occurred in the last couple of years. And it’s not like there’s one bad guy out there. There are probably a lot of less than honest people plying a pirating trade in the straits. Drug runners, people who smuggle cargo, taking them for whatever they might have, to get them into the United States. Whoever committed the crimes may be long gone, killing people in the streets of Venezuela for all we know.”
“Those two weren’t just murdered,” Sean argued. “They were displayed. They were displayed in a way that played into the movie being made.” He hesitated. “As if someone didn’t want the movie made? God knows—but whatever did or didn’t happen, I think we need to keep the original six split up.”
“Agreed,” David said. “So when do you want to head out?”
“Day after tomorrow. I want to revise the original shooting schedule and make sure that we have both boats stocked. And—” he hesitated and shrugged “—I want to spend some time at the shooting range with Liam—it’s been a long time since I shot at something with anything other than a camera.”
“You really think we’ll come across trouble?” David asked.
“I really want to be prepared—hell, in the last few years, from what we’ve seen, too many charters and pleasure boats have been lost. Even without what happened with the film crew, I think it might have been a nice wake-up call to be ready—for anything,” Sean said.
His cell started ringing. He picked it up. Liam was on the line.
“Is David with you?” Liam asked.
“Yes.”
“Anyone else?”
“No,” Sean said.
“Put the phone on speaker, will you, please?”