Protector, Lover...Husband?. Heather Graham
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“Come on, out here, and you can eat while you talk.”
He didn’t let her answer but exited the room. Just after he had closed the door, he heard the pillow crash against it.
He turned and opened it. “No temper, huh?” he queried.
She still wasn’t up. Tangled blond hair was all around her face, and she was in a soft cotton T-shirt that didn’t do a thing to make her any less appealing. It should have been loose, but somehow it managed only to enhance her curves.
He closed the door quickly before she could find something else to throw.
In the kitchen, he poured two cups of coffee, then hesitated where he stood, tension gripping his abdomen in a hard spasm.
What the hell had gone so wrong between them? He’d never met anyone like her. He loved everything about her, from her eyes to her toes, the sound of her voice, her passion when she spoke about dolphins, teaching, the sea, and the way she looked when they made love, the way she moved, touched him, the smell of her, sight, sound, taste…
He’d never fallen out of love with her. When he’d received the divorce papers, he’d been stunned. She hadn’t said a word. But it was what she had wanted, so, bitterly, silently, he had given it to her.
He started, putting the coffeepot back as she stumbled into the kitchen, casting him a venomous gaze and reaching for the coffee he had poured for her. She took a seat on one of the counter bar stools, arched an eyebrow to him and poured cereal into a bowl and added milk.
“All right, let’s get to it. What was my relationship with Danny Fuller supposed to have been? Did I have a thing going with the old guy or something?”
“Don’t be flippant.”
“I don’t know what the hell else you want me to be. Of all the stuff you’ve come up with since you’ve been here, this is the most ridiculous. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“All right, I’ll tell you. Alicia Farr spent all the time she could with Danny Fuller during his last days at the hospital. And in their conversations, two things kept coming up, dolphins—and your name.”
She stared at him. He couldn’t believe she had been hiding anything, not the way she was looking at him.
She shook her head at last. “Danny Fuller came here, yes. I liked him. He really liked dolphins, and you know me, I like anyone who likes my dolphins. Sometimes we talked casually in the Tiki Hut. He told me about some of his adventures, but if there was something he wanted to do but never attempted, I swear to you, I don’t have the faintest idea what it was.”
“Did he ever mention a ship called the Anne Marie to you?”
Staring at him, she gave it a moment’s thought, then shook her head slowly. “No. He never mentioned it, and I never heard any stories about a ship named the Anne Marie from anyone else.”
David lowered his head. Too bad. It would have helped if Alex had known something.
He gazed up at her again thoughtfully. Either she really didn’t know anything or she had added acting to her repertoire of talents. Which might be the case. He had just about forced his presence here. And last night…
Well, according to her, it had been the situation, nothing more. Too many days spent on an island.
“So?” she said. “Is that all you wanted? Is that why you were so insistent on ‘protecting’ me? If so, honest to God, I can’t help you.”
“No. You’re in danger. If two corpses haven’t proven it to you, nothing will.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Forget that. You, apparently, have heard about a ship called the Anne Marie.”
“Yes.”
“Well?”
“She was an English ship that went down in the dying days of the pirate era, in 1715. Records have her sinking off the coast of South Carolina. But the story of her sinking was told by a pirate named Billy Thornton—a pirate who apparently expected a reprieve and didn’t get one. As he was about to be hanged, he shouted out, ‘She didn’t really—’”
“She didn’t really what?” Alex demanded.
“Well, people have mused that he was about to say she didn’t really go down anywhere near South Carolina. You see, before he was caught, he claimed to have seen the ship go down in a storm that ravaged the Eastern Seaboard, but some historians believe he attacked the ship himself.”
“He couldn’t have attacked the ship alone,” Alex pointed out.
“Some legends suggest that since he was off the Florida coast, it would have been easy for him to go ashore, and kill his own men with the intent of going back himself for the treasure.”
“And what was the treasure?” Alex demanded.
“There are full records in the English archives somewhere,” he said, “but basically, tons of gold buillion, and a cache of precious gems that would be worth millions today.”
Alex shook her head. “I don’t understand. There must be hundreds of ships with treasures that sank in the Atlantic and are still out there to be found. Why would people kill over this one?”
“Most people wouldn’t kill over any treasure. But the bounty to be found on this particular ship would be just about priceless.”
“Did Alicia think she knew where to find the Anne Marie? If so, she should have announced an expedition and gathered people around her. No matter what, she’d have to go by the laws of salvage.”
“Yes. But she was afraid, I think, of letting out what she knew. Afraid that someone would beat her to it.”
“Why would Danny Fuller have hidden whatever information he had for so many years? If he knew something, why wouldn’t he have gone after it himself?”
“I wondered about that myself. Maybe he just found out. It’s my assumption that Alicia learned something from Danny Fuller about where the Anne Marie went down. She intended to set up an expedition, and that’s why she wanted to meet me here. But she must have talked to other people, as well. And I think someone she brought in on her secret decided that they wanted the secret—and the treasure—for themselves.”
“The thing is,” David said, hoping he was making an impact on her, “someone is willing to kill for that treasure. And I don’t think this person wants the government involved in any way. If he—or she—thinks he can bring up a fortune without the authorities getting wind of it, then I’m assuming whatever information Danny Fuller had, suggested the vessel went down in shallow waters, and that the tides and sand have obscured her. You know, kind of like time itself playing a joke, hiding her in plain sight.”
“So…you believe Seth Granger was involved—invited here to meet Alicia, too, and that he didn’t just drown, but was killed?” Alex asked.
“It’s a possibility,” he said. “A probability,” he amended.
“How? He was in the bar with everyone else. And he’d clearly been drinking too much. And if someone did kill Alicia, and it was her body that I found…how in the hell did it just disappear?”
“Obviously it was moved.”
“Have you talked to Sheriff Thompson about this?”
“Not directly. I haven’t had a chance. I had Dane call him, though, and give him all the information he acquired when I asked him to check into things.”
“Great,” Alex murmured. “Do you have any idea who this person is?”
“Someone with an interest in the sea and salvage. I thought at first that it might have been Seth, but now…apparently not.”
“Who else might Alicia have invited here?” Alex asked. “Or who else might have gotten wind