The Cursed

Since he couldn’t call to say he was there, he stopped at the patrol car. The officer had just come on duty and quickly dialed for him, too well trained to ask about Dallas’s condition. The front door opened as he approached the house, his feet sloshing in his shoes.

 

 

Hannah stood there watching him approach, Kelsey right behind her.

 

“You decided to go for a swim?” Hannah asked casually, but he saw the concern in her eyes and heard a deeper question in her tone.

 

“Hey, it’s a beautiful day, right?” he asked drily. As he stepped inside, though, he set his hands on her shoulders. “We’re getting closer. I found Blade.”

 

“Oh?”

 

“I’m going to clean up and get down to the station. I have him on hold until I get there,” he said.

 

“So you caught him in the water,” Kelsey said.

 

“Uh-huh.”

 

“Hand me your phone,” Hannah said. “I’ll put it in a bowl of rice right away to dry it out. Believe it or not, it usually works.”

 

He produced his phone—and then his wallet and keys. She smiled as she took them.

 

“Thanks,” he told her briefly.

 

“Anything else we can do?” Kelsey asked him.

 

“Have you heard from Logan?” Dallas asked.

 

Kelsey nodded. “He’s fine. He’s on his way back. He says you should go up there with him tomorrow.” Kelsey inhaled deeply, then let her breath out in a sigh. “Also, I got a call from Mark Riordan, Yerby’s boyfriend. He wants to know when he can have her body.”

 

Dallas paused, frowning. He’d been so intent on the hunt that he’d forgotten about Yerby’s boyfriend, along with Judy and Pete Atkinson. As far as he knew, Shelly Nicholson and Stuart Bell were back in Miami, and none too anxious to return to Key West anytime soon.

 

“Mark Riordan called you here?”

 

“He tried the police station, and all they told him was that she was still at the M.E.’s office up in Marathon, and they would provide more information in a timely manner. Then they referred him to me and gave him my cell number. He sounded pretty broken up. Yerby’s parents died when she was a baby, and she bounced around from foster home to foster home. He’s all she had.”

 

“I’ll talk to him. Not a bad thing to talk to him anyway,” Dallas said. “He and the Atkinsons are still down here, I take it?”

 

Kelsey nodded.

 

“Would you mind giving him a call and telling him I’ll see him in the morning? Right now I’ve got to get back to the station,” Dallas said.

 

He looked at Hannah again. She seemed grave and quiet. He wanted to hold her and tell her that everything was going to be all right.

 

He didn’t touch her.

 

And to be honest, he didn’t know if things really would be all right. The Wolf had been operating Los Lobos for quite a while, and they hadn’t so much as laid a hand on him.

 

But they were getting closer.

 

Maybe the Wolf was finally losing control and they would get the break they needed.

 

“Are you all right?” he asked Hannah.

 

“Yes, of course,” she said, and offered him a smile. “Go get changed, and I’ll go take care of your phone.”

 

She turned away, and he hurried up the stairs to shower and find clean, dry clothing. As he got dressed, he noticed the books on his bed. Someone had been doing research.

 

He couldn’t stay; he needed to get to the station before Billie Garcia bashed his head into a wall or injured himself in some way so he wouldn’t be able to talk.

 

Hurrying back downstairs, he found Hannah and Kelsey in the kitchen. “Was that you doing research earlier?” he asked Hannah.

 

“I’m looking for any clue I can find, but so far I haven’t found anything that gets us any closer to solving Jose’s death. There may or may not have been a treasure. It may or may not have been found by Commodore David Porter. It may or may not have been kept at Fort Zachary Taylor. It may or may not have been on the Wind and the Sea when she went down. Oh, I did find out that part of the treasure is supposed to be a medallion called the Zafiro de Seguridad. A massive sapphire set in gold and surrounded by diamonds. Priceless, I imagine.”

 

“That means something like sapphire of safety, doesn’t it?” Dallas asked.

 

Hannah nodded. “Didn’t do much for Hagen Dundee, assuming they were both aboard the Wind and the Sea,” she said drily. “But I suppose if it was going to protect you, you probably needed to be wearing it.”

 

“A priceless gem of protection that did nothing against a curse,” Dallas said.

 

“No object can guarantee your safety,” Hannah said. “Not even a gun.”

 

“Or a knife. And speaking of knives...” Dallas glanced at his watch, glad it was a diver’s watch and his recent dousing had done it no harm. “I’ve got to get going and talk to our buddy Blade. I’ll be back as soon as I can, and I’m sure Logan will be, too, but even with both of you here, no one for the ghost tour comes in until we’re here, okay?”

 

“You got it,” Kelsey agreed.

 

“Come with me and—”

 

“Lock the door,” Hannah said. “I know.”

 

He smiled at her, but she didn’t notice. He knew something was disturbing her, and he didn’t think it was him. Unfortunately, he had no idea what it was. No matter, it had to wait. First things first.

 

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