“It’s not a problem at all, really, I don’t mind!” Vanessa assured Kelsey. “I have work with me. Copies of a lot of the film we took, my computer…right now, I’m weeding through, looking for the best footage and clearest explanations of different events we chronicled, along with the main event, the massacre on Haunt Island…so I’ll be fine. And Sean will be fine without me for a night,” she said, grinning. “It’s good to miss each other now and then—it makes you know how wonderful it is when you’re together!”
Kelsey smiled. “Thank you.”
“And I will be with you. I don’t work at all today. I can help you at the house,” Katie assured her.
They were in Avery’s hospital room, and Avery wasn’t pleased.
“I’d be fine alone,” he insisted.
“You’ll be fine giving me your opinions of what we’ve got,” Vanessa said firmly.
He threw up his hands. “I feel useless. I feel worse. I’m taking up time that people need.”
“Avery, please, deal with it!” Kelsey said firmly.
Avery looked at Katie. “You won’t leave her for a minute? I can’t believe that Liam approved this, but…” He lifted his hands in aggravation once again. “I am overrun by women!” he moaned.
“But we all have cute friends,” Katie teased.
“Don’t add insult to injury,” he moaned. “I do not need to be fixed up!”
Kelsey laughed and kissed him on the cheek. “Behave. Promise?”
“I’ll keep him in line,” Vanessa said.
Katie and Kelsey waved, leaving the hospital room at last. Katie O’Hara had driven up, and she and Kelsey would drive back. In the morning, when Avery was released, someone would make the trip back up to bring him down to Key West and the Merlin house. He was stubborn; he was not going to stay anywhere else as long as Kelsey was staying there.
As she drove, Katie said, “So we’ve determined that Avery was attacked. It’s a pity that he didn’t see anything. Or hear anything. Whoever is doing all this is incredibly good, I’ll give him that much.”
“He did see something. He saw a dolphin. Well, we both saw the dolphin. It is a fascinating creature—it observes people as we observe it,” Kelsey said.
“I should have been outside, watching over him,” Bartholomew said from the backseat.
Kelsey saw Katie frown at the ghost in the rearview mirror.
“It’s all right—I see him,” Kelsey said wearily, closing her eyes as she leaned back in the passenger’s seat.
“What?” Katie asked. The car swerved slightly.
“Sorry, sorry!” Kelsey said, opening her eyes and sitting up straight. “I shouldn’t have spoken while you were driving. I can see and hear Bartholomew just fine, thank you very much.”
Katie’s jaw dropped.
“Katie, it’s fine. I’m glad that Bartholomew is such a wonderful ghost, that he’s so watchful. I’m thrilled to know that ghosts exist. I have to believe in a concept of heaven—it’s the only way I can live with everything that has happened in my life. I’m sure many people feel that way, and some scholars say that’s why we invented religions. But Bartholomew is great, he gives me faith and hope and all kinds of good thoughts,” Kelsey said.
“Bravo,” Bartholomew murmured.
Katie still couldn’t find her voice.
“It would be lovely if he had come across my mom, though,” Kelsey said.
“I’m so sorry,” Bartholomew said.
Katie gazed over at Kelsey. She started to speak, then stopped. “Wait! Tell me again—there was a dolphin at your docks. One that watched you. One that seemed intelligent and interested in people?”
“Yes,” Kelsey said slowly.
“Kelsey…oh, never mind! Wait! We’re almost there. You’ll remember when we get there. Never mind,” she repeated excitedly. “Kelsey, your mom was always watching out for injured sea creatures. She helped save all kinds of animals, and instigate legislation, but…I think that dolphin does know you.”
Kelsey frowned. She and her mom had been in a group that had gone out and saved a beached dolphin off of Smathers Beach years ago, and they’d gone north in the state once to help rescue a stranded manatee, too.
Katie turned on her blinker, and they turned off into the parking lot of one of the Keys’s dolphin research establishments, a nonprofit organization that did swims and interaction with the creatures and worked with them on intelligence levels. They also took in old animals that were no longer working at various theme parks across the country.
“You remember this place, don’t you?” Katie asked.
“Yes, of course. We came several times.” She gasped. “Oh, they took in the dolphin we rescued that time! And it somehow made it back to our docks…and came back here on its own. Yes, yes, I do remember! Its name was Morgan. The guys were all drinking Captain Morgan rum after the rescue, and he became known as Captain Morgan!”