Sea of Suspicion Read online

  “We’ll use these to stop the bleeding,” she said, pressing a towel gently against Nancy’s arm. “Someone inside already called the police and an ambulance.”

  “I don’t need an ambulance,” Nancy protested, but Ned shook his head.

  “That arm needs to be looked at right away,” he said firmly. “Nan, when I think of what might have happened . . .” Ned choked up and was unable to finish his sentence.

  Within minutes the police and ambulance arrived. As the paramedic bandaged her arm, Nancy described the attack to a detective. She mentioned the case she was working on, including a description of the bearded guy. Nancy and the detective talked with the restaurant hostess. The hostess confirmed that the man who left the note about Nancy’s car lights being on had had a beard.

  The detective dispatched a description of the man and his gray sedan. If spotted, he should be stopped for questioning in connection with the shooting.

  An officer found the bullet that had grazed Nancy embedded in a tree. He dug the slug out and dropped it into a plastic evidence bag.

  “I’ll make a note on my police report about a possible tie-in to Sean Mahoney’s case,” the detective said to Nancy. “That’s about all I can do at this point.”

  The paramedic finished bandaging Nancy’s arm, then handed her a prescription for antibiotics. “There’s a risk of infection, even with a minor gunshot wound,” he explained. “You’ll need to take it easy for the next twenty-four hours.”

  After the police and paramedics left, Nancy returned to the car with Ned, George, and Bess.

  “I still want to check out Hank Morley’s place tonight,” she said to her friends. “Somehow I feel he’s the key to everything that’s been happening.”

  “No way,” George and Ned said in unison.

  “You heard what the paramedic said, Nancy,” Bess said. “Your health could be at stake.”

  “That’s right,” Ned insisted. “We’re going to pick up this medication and head straight back to the hotel.”

  Nancy could see there was no use arguing with them. “All right, you win,” she said. “But just for tonight.”

  • • •

  Nancy was out of bed before anyone else the next morning. Her left arm ached underneath the bandage, but she forced herself to ignore it and pulled on a long-sleeved T-shirt to hide the bandage.

  By eight o’clock, Nancy, Ned, George, and Bess were on board the Lady Jane. Sean was visibly upset about the attack on Nancy the night before.

  “The police called me last night,” he said. “I don’t want you to take any more chances, Nancy,” he said anxiously. “I’d feel awful if anything else happened to you.”

  Nancy brushed off Sean’s concern. “Last night’s attack tells me that the bearded man and his accomplice know we’re closing in on them,” she told Sean. “We can’t afford to back off now.”

  While the crew got the Lady Jane ready to go, and George, Ned, and Bess made a run to the doughnut shop, Nancy went off to survey Hank Morley’s shop and was disappointed to find him already at work. There would be no chance to nose around until that night.

  When Nancy got back to the ship, Zach was just heading for the pilothouse to start the engine and cast off. Nancy looked around. Everyone seemed to be in a lighter mood, maybe because the sun was out.

  Talia was demonstrating to Bess how the submersible worked. Next to them, George and Sean had their heads bent together, whispering. Nancy saw George peer up into Sean’s eyes and smile.

  “How are you feeling, Nancy?” Ned handed her a cool drink that he had just brought up from the galley.

  “Good, thanks,” Nancy replied, taking a sip of the lemonade and sitting in a deck chair. She was watching Talia with a troubled expression.

  Ned followed her glance. “Something’s bothering you,” Ned said in a quiet voice. “What is it?”

  “I still haven’t figured out who’s working with the bearded man—Talia, Zach, or Hank Morley,” Nancy said. “I know that guy wrote the note that lured Sean to the scene of Rusty’s murder, and he’s probably tied in to the sabotage, too. That makes me positive he’s working with someone on the inside. And the fact that Dorning’s ship went down yesterday makes me worry that we’re running out of time.”

  “I know you’ll figure it out,” Ned said. He leaned over and gently stroked her cheek.

  “Thanks, Ned,” she said gratefully.

  Nancy rose from her chair. “I’m going to find Zach,” she said to Ned. “I never had a chance to talk to him about the scorpion incident the other day. I want to make sure he didn’t have a hand in it.”

  Nancy went to the door of the pilothouse and opened it to find Zach using the ship-to-shore radio. He appeared startled to see Nancy and stopped talking abruptly. He hung up the radio mike.

  “I was just getting a weather report,” Zach said quickly. “Do you need something, Nancy?”

  “I wanted to ask you about that scorpion we found in my trunk the other day,” Nancy said. “Does that sort of thing happen often around here?”

  Zach nodded. “Scorpions are kind of shy little creatures. That’s why you usually find them in dark, out-of-the way places, like closets.”

  “I think someone may have put that scorpion in my trunk deliberately,” Nancy said slowly.

  “Then I’d say you’ve jumped to conclusions,” Zach said, his eyes flashing. “And if you’re thinking that I had anything to do with it, you’re dead wrong.”

  Just then Sean entered the pilothouse, interrupting their conversation. “I want to take another look at the Ninfa Marina’s anchor on the scanner,” he said to Zach. “We’ll fan out from this spot in concentric circles to search for the treasure.”

  As she listened to them talking, Nancy considered Zach’s reaction to her questions about the scorpion attack. She had barely pressed him about it when he had turned angry. That was the reaction of someone with something to hide, she thought to herself.

  Sean was bent over the subbottom profiler. “I see something kind of unusual right down below us,” he said. “Look at this, guys.”

  Nancy and Zach checked the scanner. The screen was showing the outline of a series of some vaguely squarelike shapes on the ocean floor.

  “I’ve never seen anything quite like that before,” Sean said slowly, “but I think it’s definitely worth checking out.”

  Bess wasn’t certified for scuba diving, and they had no wet suit for Ned, so those two had to stay on the boat with Zach while Nancy, George, Sean, and Talia dove.

  “Should you be diving with that arm injury, Nancy?” Sean said doubtfully.

  “It’s nothing more than a scrape now, Sean,” Nancy assured him.

  Sean looked worried. “All right, but I’m going to keep a careful eye on you,” he said, picking up a black specimen bag. “I don’t want to lose anyone else to the treasure of the Ninfa Marina.”

  Talia picked up a gadget that looked like a saucer stuck on the end of a stick. “This is an underwater metal detector,” she explained. “Over the years, things get so encrusted that it’s hard to know what you’re looking at. This tells us what’s metal and what isn’t.”

  The four divers double-checked their scuba gear. One by one, they plunged into the ocean.

  As Nancy descended she found that she was happy to be in the water even though her arm ached a little.

  She, George, and Talia followed Sean down toward a cluster of strange-looking mounds. At first the whitish formations looked like coral.

  Nancy was struck by the beauty of the undersea scene. Delicate, transparent jellyfish hovered above the white mounds like sea ghosts, Nancy thought.

  Sean increased his speed as he approached the mounds. Excitedly he motioned to Talia, and she nodded and swam over to him. Nancy watched as she clicked on the metal detector and passed it over one of the mounds. The metal detector emitted a loud screeching sound that made everyone jump.

  Following Sean’s lead, Nancy started scraping back
the surface of one of the white mounds. Then she gasped. Her scraping had revealed the unmistakable glitter of gold.

  Nancy soon realized that the mounds were actually stacks and stacks of gold and silver bars!

  Talia reached down and picked up one of the silver bars—it was as big as a loaf of bread.

  Nancy exchanged an excited look with George. All around them were at least fifty mounds like the one they’d just found—each one probably containing heaps of gold and silver bars.

  The discovery was staggering. Spread out on the sand was the long-lost treasure of the Ninfa Marina!

  Chapter

  Thirteen

  NANCY FELT totally overwhelmed. The gold had to be worth millions of dollars.

  Sean and Talia hugged each other joyfully. There could be no doubt—the treasure of the Ninfa Marina had been found!

  Nancy felt a tingling rush as she took in the treasure lying before them. She reached down and picked up one of the golden bars. It was as long as her hand, and it felt smooth and heavy.

  Sean opened the specimen bag and loaded two gold bars into it. Then he signaled for everyone to return to the surface.

  As soon as Sean broke the surface, he yanked the regulator out of his mouth. Then he reached into his bag, pulled out a gold bar, and held it up.

  “We found it!” he shouted to Zach, Ned, and Bess, who were watching from the deck. “We found the treasure! It’s right underneath us.”

  “I don’t believe it!” Bess exclaimed.

  Nancy, George, and Talia surfaced behind Sean, each carrying another gold bar. “I’m so happy for you, Sean,” George said excitedly. He grabbed George and happily hugged her in the water.

  Zach’s jaw was hanging open. He reached over the side of the boat and took the bar that Sean held in his outstretched hand. Then he sank weakly into a deck chair, staring at the bar.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this day for more than a year!” Sean crowed happily as he, Talia, Nancy, and George climbed from the water and slipped off their wet suits.

  Then everyone was hugging everyone. They all seemed awestruck by the discovery.

  As the celebrating continued, Nancy approached Sean and drew him aside. “I hate to be a wet blanket, Sean, but I think we should take some precautions right away.”

  “Um—what precautions?” Sean responded in a slightly dazed manner. Nancy could see that he was having trouble focusing on anything other than the treasure.

  “We need to make sure that no one outside this ship finds out about the treasure tonight,” Nancy said. “You could be in danger.”

  Sean paused and took a deep breath. “You’re probably right,” he agreed. “I got so caught up in the moment, I forgot that someone may be plotting to get his hands on it. I’ll go down and put salvage flags around the treasure. That’s the first step in making an official claim. I’ll call Karen, my lawyer, tomorrow and have her file a claim with the state. In the meantime, I’d like to anchor here overnight. I want to bring up as much treasure as possible over the next day or so.”

  “That sounds good,” Nancy replied. Then she remembered Zach’s interrupted conversation on the ship’s radio. “I know this sounds drastic, but I think we should disable the radio for tonight,” she said. “That way, nobody can relay our position to anyone off the boat.”

  “All right,” Sean said. “I’ll take care of that myself. Anything else?”

  Nancy shook her head and checked to make sure no one was listening. “Just keep your eyes open tonight for any unusual behavior. If either Zach or Talia is going to make a move, they’ll do it now that the treasure’s been found.”

  “I’ll go remove the radio fuse.” Sean nodded and then headed for the pilothouse.

  Nancy and Ned strolled toward the bow, talking about the treasure. Nancy watched as Talia loaded a vat of liquid plastic into the submersible.

  “We use this goop to coat some of the more delicate things we’ll bring up from below,” she explained. “It helps us keep the pieces as intact as possible.”

  “Nancy, Ned—can we talk to you for a second?” Nancy saw George and Bess standing at her side.

  “Sure, let’s go below,” Nancy replied. They went downstairs through the galley and into a tiny bunk room. Nancy shut the door.

  “What’s on your mind?” she asked her friends.

  George spoke first. “We saw you talking with Sean and figured you must be thinking about what’s going to happen next. We wanted to know if we could help.”

  “Thanks, guys,” Nancy felt a warm rush of affection for her friends. “Actually, I’ll need help staking out the pilothouse tonight. I have a feeling that either Zach or Talia will try to radio the news of the treasure to someone on shore—maybe the bearded guy.”

  “All right,” George said. “We can take turns guarding the radio.”

  “Great.” Nancy smiled.

  For the rest of the afternoon the crew of the Lady Jane worked to secure the treasure. Zach set out a floating ring of red-and-green salvage flags. Talia made several dives to the bottom with the submersible to help Sean photograph and tally the treasure mounds.

  By supper time everyone was exhausted from both the excitement and hard work. As soon as the sun sank below the horizon, Bess and George set out a meal they’d made from what was left in the galley.

  “Sailor’s stew!” Sean exclaimed happily. “Thanks!” He smiled at George.

  “Bess gets most of the credit,” George said, blushing. “But I did chop the vegetables.”

  After dinner Nancy found Ned staking out the radio in the pilothouse. “Have you seen anyone yet?” she asked him.

  Ned nodded. “Talia came by a little while ago,” Ned said. “She looked surprised to see me sitting in here. She said she wanted to check a chart in here. Zach came in at one point, too. He said he needed to check some instruments.”

  Too bad there was no way to know which of them might have been planning to use the radio, Nancy thought.

  Next it was Nancy’s turn to keep watch. By then it was almost ten o’clock. The ship was quiet as everyone retired to his or her bunk.

  Bess and George appeared at the door to the pilothouse. “Sean fixed up spare bunks for us,” Bess said to Nancy, stifling a yawn. “We’d like to turn in.”

  Ned, who was sitting next to Nancy in the pilothouse, stretched and rubbed his eyes. “I guess we’re all pretty wiped out by all the excitement today,” he said.

  “Get some sleep, Ned,” Nancy said to him. “I’ll stay on the stakeout.”

  “Thanks.” He leaned over and kissed her gently. “Call me when it’s my turn to stand watch,” he said, and headed out the door.

  Nancy made herself as comfortable as possible on the chair in the pilothouse. Her mind was focused on the treasure and their situation on board the Lady Jane. It’s possible I was wrong in thinking that the bearded man was working with someone on board, Nancy reminded herself. Perhaps Rusty was his only accomplice. The bearded man could have killed Rusty over the gold ingot. But somehow Nancy was certain that someone else was involved.

  She could feel how tired she was all the way down to her bones. It was quiet except for the sound of waves lapping gently against the side of the boat. Despite her best efforts to stay awake, she finally fell into a deep but fitful sleep.

  • • •

  Nancy awoke with a vague feeling that something was wrong. She pressed a tiny light on her wristwatch. It was 5:30 A.M.

  Getting up, she wandered out on deck. It was pitch-black, and she couldn’t see a thing.

  “Ouch!” Nancy muttered as she stumbled over something on the deck. She looked down and recognized the Lady Jane’s anchor line. “Wait a second, what’s this?” Bending forward, Nancy saw that the metal links of the anchor line had been cut with a pair of metal clippers that were lying nearby. The boat must be adrift! she realized with a jolt.

  Alarm spread through her as she felt her way along the railing toward the bow. She searched the d
arkness, at last making out the outline of some black shapes looming in front of the boat.

  Nancy’s heart leapt. The Lady Jane had drifted almost all the way back to shore. The boat was about to crash into some huge rocks!

  Chapter

  Fourteen

  NANCY COULD SEE the jagged boulders just a few yards ahead of the Lady Jane. Quick as a flash, she raced back to the pilothouse.

  She winced as she stumbled over something in the darkness and felt a twinge in her arm under her bandage. Picking herself up, she groped along the wall until she found the door to the pilothouse.

  The instrument panel gave off just enough of a glow for Nancy to see the control switches. She spotted a red alarm button and pressed it. A high-pitched siren began to sound throughout the ship.

  Please let me be able to get the engine started before we hit those rocks, Nancy thought. Adrenaline pumped through her as she twisted the ignition key, just as she had seen Zach and Sean do. To her relief, the engine sputtered, then roared to life. Nancy grabbed the steering wheel and threw the throttle into full reverse, bracing herself for the sudden lurch of the boat. The helm responded quickly, allowing her to back the boat away from the rocks.

  Then Sean burst into the pilothouse, with Ned close on his heels.

  “What’s the problem?” Sean demanded. “Why are we moving?”

  “The anchor line’s been cut,” Nancy explained. “I’d say we’ve been drifting for quite a while. We narrowly missed hitting those rocks over there.” She pointed through the window toward the shore, which was lit by the first streaks of dawn. Sean’s and Ned’s faces blanched when they saw how narrow their escape had been.

  Turning the helm over to Sean, Nancy went outside with Ned to look around. Bess, George, and Talia were huddled together, talking in anxious tones.

  Nancy checked to account for everyone on board. “Where’s Zach?” Nancy asked Talia.

  “I’ll look for him,” George said, heading for the bow.