085 Sea of Suspicion Read online

  "What about Talia?" Nancy asked. "Where'd she go?"

  "I don't know," Bess said, puzzled. "She got a phone call and left in a hurry." Bess peered down at her shoulder, which was now a bright pink. She touched it with her finger. "Ouch!" she said. "I guess I overdid it in the sun today."

  "Where to now—the Sea Scorpion, as you told Sean?" George asked Nancy.

  Nancy nodded and herded her friends back to the car. "I have a couple of good reasons for checking out Leif Doming. He and Sean are bitter rivals, I also found out from Hank Morley that the bearded guy had been seen on his ship. This all makes me think that Doming might be up to something," she said, nosing the car out of the parking lot.

  "Maybe Doming was working with Rusty and they got in a fight over the gold ingot." George conjectured.

  "Good possibility, George," Nancy said. She frowned thoughtfully. "If Doming is involved, he'd have to have an accomplice on the Lady Jane to set the fire and all. Maybe that's where Rusty came in." She paused. "On the other hand, maybe Rusty stole the ingot by himself, and someone found out about it—someone ready to kill him to get it.

  "Well, we've got to start somewhere," Nancy said. "And Dorning's ship is as good a place as any. Who knows? Maybe we'll see the bearded guy there."

  Nancy followed Sean's directions to the large commercial marina where the Sea Scorpion was docked. She spotted the sleek black boat tied up to one of the slips right away.

  "I just want to look over the ship for now," Nancy explained to George and Bess. "I may need to search it for evidence later, but not now."

  The three friends got out of the car and sat at a dockside cafe. After ordering a light dinner, they surveyed the Sea Scorpion. Leif Doming was having dinner with someone out on the deck.

  All at once Nancy sat bolt upright. "You guys, look who's with Doming!"

  "I can't believe it," George said.

  Dorning's dinner guest was Talia Ortiz!

  Chapter Six

  "Talia?" George gasped out loud. "What's she doing having dinner with that creep Doming?"

  "I don't know, but I plan to find out," Nancy said. As they watched, Doming leaned across the table and handed Talia a bulky white envelope.

  "What's he giving her?" Bess whispered, biting into her fish sandwich. "Money, do you think?"

  Deep in thought, Nancy only shrugged. "Tomorrow I'll have to find a way to get on board the Sea Scorpion," she finally said, ticking the points of her plan off on her fingers. "I also have to start investigating Talia. And at some point I need to talk to the police to find out whether they did an autopsy on Rusty's body."

  A message was waiting for Nancy at the desk when they got back to the inn.

  "Ned called to say hi," Nancy said softly, reading the note. It hit her again how much she missed him.

  There was no answer when Nancy called him back, and she tried to hide her disappointment from her friends.

  Bess understood Nancy's long face. "I'm sorry, Nan," she said soothingly. "I'm sure you'll be able to talk to him soon."

  "Thanks, Bess." Nancy managed a smile. "I just was thinking again how much I wish he'd been able to come with us on this vacation," she said, and slowly climbed the stairs to their room.

  At six the next morning, Nancy and George arrived at the Lady Jane.

  "Hi, girls," Sean said, greeting them on deck. He looked better than he had the day before, but he was still subdued. "Where's Bess?" he asked.

  "She got a little overdone in the sun yesterday," Nancy explained. "So she's staying inside today."

  "Oh, that's too bad," Sean said. Just then Zach and Talia appeared up on the deck.

  "Let's get her under way," Sean said to the first mate.

  Zach silently turned and made his way to the pilothouse with the characteristic rolling walk of a man who made his living on a boat. Talia nodded at Nancy and George before moving off to the bow.

  Everyone's spirits were low, Nancy observed. The death of their friend and mate had cast a pall over the treasure-hunting expedition.

  After proceeding slowly out of the harbor, the Lady Jane surged forward in open waters. Once they were safely under way Nancy sought out Talia to press her about her meeting with Leif Doming. She found the marine archaeologist out on the forward deck, mixing some goopy liquid in a pail.

  "What's that?" Nancy asked, kneeling beside her.

  Talia stirred the stuff with a stick. "It's a waterproof polymer we use for preserving underwater artifacts," she explained. "This allows us to remove items we find without disturbing them."

  "I remember yesterday Sean said that Leif Doming was a blow-and-go kind of treasure hunter," she said. "What does that mean?"

  Talia dropped her eyes. "Doming used to be notorious for destroying coral beds and fish habitats while he was treasure hunting, but I think he's changing his ways," she said carefully.

  Nancy couldn't read Talia's attitude toward Doming, and before she had time to ask any more questions, Sean tapped her on the shoulder.

  "Come with me, you two," he said excitedly. "I want to show you something interesting on the subbottom profiler."

  Nancy had meant to tell Sean about Talia's meeting with Doming, but she forgot in the excitement of the moment. She and Talia followed him to the pilothouse, where George and Zach were monitoring a small screen that resembled a video game.

  "This machine shows us an outline of what's underneath us," Sean explained.

  "Look, you can see a school of fish passing right below the boat," he said, pointing to a group of moving white flecks.

  Next Sean drew their attention to a large object on the ocean floor. Its curved outline resembled a ship. "That's what we want to check out," he said. "It could just be a bed of coral, or it couldbe a ship. I have extra wet suits and tanks for you girls. George says you're both accomplished and certified divers."

  Nancy shook her head. "I think I'll sit this one out," she said, noticing George throw her a surprised look. "I'm feeling a little seasick," she fibbed.

  George drew Nancy aside. "What's going on, Nancy? You never get seasick," she whispered.

  "I know," Nancy replied under her breath. "I want to check out Talia's things while she's underwater."

  George, Sean, and Talia put on their wetsuits, air tanks with regulators attached to vests with buoyancy-control devices, and masks. Nancy helped them with the equipment, which was very heavy on land. Then the three crawled over the side of the boat and fell into the water.

  As soon as the divers had disappeared below the surface, Nancy looked for Zach. He was nowhere in sight.

  She slipped quietly into the main cabin and searched. Opening a series of storage bins, she soon found what she wanted—Talia's boat bag. Inside the bag were Talia's wallet, sunscreen, and a change of clothes.

  Nancy plucked out the wallet and flipped it open. A folded paper fluttered to the floor. It was a letter that Talia was writing to her mother.

  I know I should be more forgiving, but I hold Sean responsible for Jaime's death. He should have known that Jaime was too inexperienced for such a hazardous dive. Sometimes I wish Sean would suffer for what he did—the way we have!

  Mentally, Nancy compared Talia's letter with the note Sean had found on his windshield the day before. Talia's delicate script did not match the heavy scrawl on Sean's note, though Nancy knew that whoever had written the note could have disguised his or her handwriting.

  Just then a sudden noise right behind Nancy startled her, and she hastily replaced Talia's letter and shoved the boat bag back into its storage bin.

  "Are you feeling better?" Zach had seemed to materialize out of thin air.

  Nancy bent over and pretended to be tying one of her sneakers. "Much better, thanks," she said.

  "It's better to stay topside in the fresh air if you're feeling seasick," he said slowly, appraising her.

  "Thanks, I'll do that," Nancy said. She brushed past him, hoping that he hadn't seen her going through Talia's things.

&n
bsp; Nancy seated herself in a deck chair to get some sun and think. It was clear that Talia blamed Sean for her brother's death. Could her bitterness have driven her to work with Leif Doming? Nancy wondered. If so, could Talia be the one sabotaging Sean and his hunt for the Ninfa Marina? She might even be linked to Rusty's murder because it was possible that the cook had been working with Talia and Leif Doming. Perhaps they had a falling out over the stolen gold ingot, and he was killed during a quarrel. They could have set up Sean as the murderer to clear themselves.

  There was a great rushing sound, and Nancy saw the bubbles that preceded Sean and the other divers to the surface. A few seconds later they broke the surface, and Sean lifted up his mask. His expression reflected his frustration.

  "It was just a big mound of coral," he said. "But we'll keep searching. My research makes me positive the Ninfa Marina went down right around here."

  After boarding the Lady Jane, Talia attached a box-shaped gadget to a towline and dropped it into the water behind the Lady Jane.

  "This is the proton magnetometer," Talia explained. "It will give out a signal if we pass over anything large and metallic—like a ship's cannon, or even the treasure itself."

  They spent the next two hours trolling with the proton magnetometer. During that time Nancy caught Sean alone. "I need to talk to you, Sean." She wanted to tell him about Talia's meeting with Leif Doming and the letter she'd found, but before she could say anything more, she was interrupted by a wild clacking. The noise was coming from the proton magnetometer that Talia was monitoring.

  "We've got something big and metallic, right under us, Sean!" Talia shouted in an excited voice.

  "Sure doesn't seem like a mound of coral this time," Sean said. "Let's check it out on the profiler."

  He ran into the pilothouse, followed by Nancy. Everyone was clustered around the subbottom profiler, which indicated that there was another large object directly beneath the boat.

  "Let's go down and check it out," Sean said.

  "If you have one more suit, I'll go with you this time," Nancy said, picking up on the excitement. They all hurriedly got ready. After double-checking their air tanks and buoyancy-control devices, the four divers plunged into the ocean.

  Four white trails of bubbles rose up from them as they descended through the crystalline depths.

  Nancy breathed steadily through her regulator. It felt great to be diving again. The ocean was surprisingly shallow, even this far out from land. Nancy thought it was only about forty feet deep at the most. Shafts of sunlight pierced the water all the way down to the ocean floor.

  Below them, Nancy could just make out something large and dark resting on the sandy bottom. Her heart skipped a beat.

  Once on the bottom she could see that the object was a long and rusty chain lying on the sand. The chain was tangled around a hill of boulders and rocks. At the end of the chain lay an old ship's anchor.

  Talia and Sean quickly swam forward to inspect the anchor up close. Nancy and George watched as they gently scraped away algae and residue that had built up on the anchor.

  Sean pointed excitedly at the area he had just finished cleaning. The spot was imprinted with the letters N.M. —for Ninfa Marina!

  The divers gave one another slow high fives and exchanged smiles behind their masks and regulators. The Ninfa Marina —or part of it, at least—had been found!

  After a few moments to savor their find, Sean and Talia started to search the immediate area for the treasure. After half an hour with no luck, Talia signaled that she was going around to check the far side of the rock pile. Kicking away from the heavy anchor, she immediately disappeared behind the rocks.

  Nancy gazed around. Although there was fairly good light, she decided to use her flashlight to probe the dark crevices of the rocky pile in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that George and Sean were about ten yards off to her right, using small brushes to sweep back the layers of sand around the anchor.

  Nancy was swimming around a large boulder at the base of the rock pile when she heard and felt a low rumbling. Raising her head, she became terrified by what she saw. A cluster of large rocks had dislodged themselves from the pile just above her. The boulders were tumbling straight at her—she was about to be buried by an undersea avalanche!

  Chapter Seven

  Nancy knew she had just seconds before she would be crushed by the falling rocks.

  Summoning all her strength, she kicked back powerfully with her legs. A tumbling rock missed her by a fraction of an inch as she shot out from under the path of the avalanche. The boulders landed with sickening thuds onto the ocean floor, throwing up a cloud of sandy debris.

  As soon as she knew she was out of danger, Nancy hung suspended in the water and drew in shaky gulps of air through the regulator. Fm lucky to be alive, she thought, her pulse racing from the near-miss.

  George and Sean quickly swam to her side. George tapped her, indicating her concern. Nancy nodded that she was all right and gave the thumbs-up sign.

  Talia reappeared then from the other side of the rock pile. The marine archaeologist seemed to be shaken by what had happened. Sean signaled for them all to return to the surface and sunlight. They rose slowly and made sure they breathed the whole way up to prevent air embolisms.

  "It was just an accident," Nancy insisted again to Zach when she was on board the boat. "No person could have triggered it, and I just can't believe that an avalanche could be caused by a curse."

  "Maybe you should start believing in curses," Zach muttered darkly. His usually impassive face was agitated. "I know it sounds nuts, but look what's happened since we started searching for the Ninfa Marina. First Jaime was killed, then we had all those accidents, and then Rusty was murdered," he said. "Not to mention that you nearly got crushed in a rock slide."

  Nancy was sitting with Zach and the others around the galley table. They were huddled over bowls of steaming soup and thick slices of bread and were discussing Nancy's close call.

  "Talia, did you see any sign that the rocks were about to tumble?" Nancy asked the marine archaeologist, who had been on the far side of the rock pile when the avalanche occurred.

  Talia shook her head. "I didn't realize what was happening until I heard that horrible rumbling. It sounded like an earthquake." She shuddered. "As I was swimming back, I was terrified that I'd find you all crushed."

  For a brief moment Nancy wondered whether Talia could somehow have rigged the avalanche. She banished the thought almost immediately— it would have taken superhuman strength to topple those boulders.

  Nancy decided to change the subject. "So we've found the Ninfa Marina's anchor, but about the treasure?" she asked. "Do you think we'll find it as well?"

  "Absolutely," Sean said with a spark of his old enthusiasm. "It may take a while, though." He bit into a piece of buttered bread and stared at the others with a serious expression. "Let's keep a tight lid on the news. I don't want Doming muscling in on this while we're still searching for the treasure. I've noted the location of the anchor in the log so we can continue our search tomorrow in the right place."

  "So you do expect to find the treasure nearby?" Nancy asked Sean.

  Talia shook her head. "The treasure from these old ships is rarely in one spot—the years and currents spread it over many miles," she explained. "But the fact that we found the anchor means we're getting closer to the mother lode."

  "Mother lode?" George echoed. "What's that?"

  "It's the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow," Zach said softly. He leaned back and folded his arms behind his head. "The main pile of treasure —chests of gold and silver bars and chains. It's what every treasure diver spends his life dreaming about."

  "What happens after you find the treasure?" Nancy asked, taking a sip of her soup. "Do you share it?"

  "Some get more than others," Zach snapped, glowering at Sean. "Most of us work for pennies and promises." He rose from the table. "I've got work to do," he said, and hea
ded for the compan-ionway that led up to the deck.

  "What was that about?" Nancy asked in the silence that followed his exit.

  Sean shifted uncomfortably. "Zach feels he's entitled to a larger share of the treasure than I've promised him," he said. "The lion's share of it will go to taxes and the investors. I couldn't afford to give him a bigger share, even if I wanted to." He heaved a sigh, and Nancy knew that the pressure of the past couple of days was weighing heavily on him.

  George reached over and playfully shook Sean's shoulder. "Come on, Mr. Mahoney," she said, stacking the dirty bowls. "Let's drown our troubles in a sink of soapy dishwater."

  "You've got a deal," Sean said, managing a grin.

  While he and George started clearing the table, Nancy turned the case over in her mind. Zach's outburst made her think. Perhaps she shouldn't be concentrating wholly on Talia as a suspect. It was obvious now that Zach had his own ax to grind when it came to Sean.

  She stood up abruptly and joined George and Sean at the sink. "Ill give you a hand with the drying," she said, grabbing a towel. She continued drying dishes until she saw Talia get up and head topside. "I'd like to look through Zach's things," she said quietly to Sean.

  "Why?" he asked in a surprised tone.

  "He was pretty upset when he left the table," Nancy explained. "It just makes sense to check him out."

  Sean shook his head. "Zach's an old buddy of mine from way back—I don't think he could be involved in any of this," he said. Then he shrugged. "But if you insist. . ." He tried unsuccessfully to open a nearby storage cabinet. "I guess he locked his stuff up today. He doesn't usually do that," Sean said, puzzled. He reached in his pocket and dug out a small silver key. "Fortunately, my master key opens everything on board."

  "Thanks," Nancy replied, glancing back to make sure they were still alone.

  Sean understood her concern. "George and I will go up top and make sure Talia and Zach are kept busy," he told her.

  As soon as she was alone in the galley, Nancy unlocked Zach's locker and rummaged through his things. She found a "To Do" list that the mate had written and could see right away that Zach's handwriting didn't match that on Sean's note.