Sea of Suspicion Page 9

  “Maybe he slept through the alarm,” Bess suggested. “I’ll go below and look for him, too,” she said.

  Following George toward the bow with Ned, Nancy suddenly realized that the Lady Jane’s small, motorized dinghy was missing from its berth near the front deck.

  “Look, guys! The dinghy’s gone—and I bet Zach’s stolen it!” Nancy gasped.

  “Gone?” Ned echoed. “Where could he go in the middle of the night?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if he left to contact the bearded guy,” Nancy said grimly. “They must be working together.”

  Bess returned from inside the ship. “Zach’s locker is cleaned out,” she said, “but I found these on the floor of the galley.” She held out a pile of papers and photos. “He must have dropped this stuff on his way out.”

  “Let me see it, Bess.” Nancy took the pile of papers and sifted through them. A photo dropped to the floor.

  Nancy picked it up and peered at it. It was a picture of Zach standing next to Hank Morley and another, younger man.

  “The man in this picture looks familiar to me,” Nancy said, staring at the tall, thin, brown-haired man next to Hank. Then she snapped her fingers. “He’s clean-shaven in this photo, but that’s definitely the bearded man!”

  Nancy headed to the pilothouse, followed by Ned, Bess, and George. Sean was at the helm. She showed him the photo. “Do you recognize the guy in the picture standing next to Hank Morley and Zach?” she asked him. “He’s the guy who took a shot at me yesterday.”

  Sean peered at the photo. “That’s Hank Morley’s son, Marcus,” he said, handing the photo back to Nancy. “I haven’t seen him around for a long time. He never had a beard, so I didn’t connect him with your description.”

  Nancy took in a sharp breath. “Then Hank’s son probably killed Rusty, as well. It was his handwriting on the note that set you up for Rusty’s murder.”

  “I can’t believe Hank’s son and Zach have it in for me!” Sean shook his head. “Do you think Hank is involved in this scheme, too?” he asked her.

  Nancy nodded. “I remember the day I chased Hank’s son—Marcus—into Hank’s shop. Hank totally covered for him. I think that proves Hank is working with them. I’ll bet anything Zach took the dinghy in order to contact the Morleys about the treasure.”

  “Then we have to get back to the treasure before they do,” Sean said anxiously.

  Nancy nodded. “Definitely.”

  Talia came into the pilothouse. She looked shocked when Sean told her about Zach and the Morleys. “I always knew Zach and Morley were friends,” she said. “But I can’t believe he’d plot against you like that, Sean.”

  Using ocean charts, Talia laid out a return course to the treasure. It turned out they’d drifted about three miles from their original location.

  Meanwhile, Nancy asked Sean to replace the radio fuse. “We may need to call the Coast Guard for help if we run into Zach and the Morleys,” she explained. “But I hope that won’t be necessary.”

  While the Lady Jane pounded through the waves back to the treasure, Nancy headed to the lounge cabin with George, Ned, and Bess.

  “Do you really think Zach and the Morleys were behind Rusty Jones’s murder, Nancy?” George asked.

  Nancy nodded. “I still don’t know exactly why Rusty was murdered, but there’s no doubt in my mind that they were in on it,” she said. “Between the three of them, they could have rigged all of the sabotage incidents. They must have gotten access to Leif Dorning’s boat somehow, too. We know that Leif’s boat sank after he stopped to refuel at Hank’s yesterday. My guess is that Hank sabotaged his boat on other occasions, as well.”

  “I see.” Ned’s eyes lit up with understanding. “They rigged it so that Dorning blamed Sean for the incidents on his ship, just as Sean blamed Dorning for the sabotage on board the Lady Jane.”

  “And Zach tried to confuse everything by talking about that ridiculous curse,” Talia fumed.

  The sky was beginning to brighten with the new day. Nancy, George, Bess, and Ned went to the bow to look for the floating ring of salvage flags that they’d set out the day before. No other boats were on the horizon.

  George scanned the ocean with a pair of binoculars she’d borrowed from Sean. “There are the flags,” she said excitedly.

  Sean maneuvered the Lady Jane into position alongside them. “We don’t have an anchor, so we’ll have to use the engine to keep the ship in one spot,” he called forward to Nancy. “Talia’s going to take the helm while I go below to make sure the treasure is still okay.”

  Nancy, Ned, George, and Bess met up with Sean on the aft deck, where Sean was pulling on his wet suit. George helped him double-check his equipment before he fell into the sea. Nancy watched a pool of bubbles rise from the spot where he descended.

  Nancy scanned the horizon. “Hey, there’s a boat!” she said, pointing west. “Lend me the binoculars, George,” she said. When George handed them over, Nancy raised the glasses to her eyes. She could make out an old wooden boat. Three men were standing on its deck.

  Nancy felt her pulse quicken. “Oh, no, that’s Hank Morley’s boat,” she announced in a tight voice. “And he’s got his son and Zach with him.”

  “Looks like we’re in for a showdown,” Ned said grimly, squinting to see the other boat.

  “I’ll say,” Nancy said. She looked at the men again. “Ned, they’re carrying guns.”

  “Guns!” Bess’s face turned white. “What are we going to do?”

  Nancy turned to Ned. “Ned, I want you to go to the pilothouse and tell Talia to radio the Coast Guard. Tell them it’s an emergency!”

  “Okay,” Ned said.

  Nancy watched nervously as Hank Morley pulled his boat within a few hundred feet of the Lady Jane. Then he stopped and dropped anchor.

  “What are they doing?” George asked. Morley and his son were unhooking a small, cigar-shaped craft that was tethered to the side of the boat. Zach stood behind them, wearing a wet suit.

  With a start, Nancy suddenly realized what the smaller craft was. “It’s a submersible!” Nancy exclaimed, lowering the binoculars. “I saw it at Morley’s shop the other day. So he was lying when he told me it belonged to one of his rich customers.”

  “They’re going to try to grab the treasure,” George said in a worried voice. “Nancy, Sean’s down there alone. He could be in danger!”

  “I know,” Nancy said, frowning. “We have to help him.”

  Talia joined them. “Ned’s got the helm,” she said to Nancy. “He’s trying to contact the Coast Guard, but so far we can’t raise anyone. I came back here to see if I could help.”

  Nancy said, “Talia, you and I need to go below in the sub. Morley’s about to go down in his sub, possibly to hurt Sean. We may have to scare Morley off.”

  “Okay,” Talia said. She swiftly readied the submersible for launching. Bess and George helped them swing the sub out over the waves and lower it into the water. Then Talia and Nancy climbed over the side and into the sub.

  “We don’t have time to go through the safety checklist,” Talia said as she sealed the hatch. “We’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope that all systems are go.”

  “Consider them crossed,” Nancy said grimly as the sub plunged under the waves.

  Once they were underwater, Nancy peered through the view window for any glimpse of Sean or the treasure. All she could see was shimmering expanses of water.

  Finally they neared the ocean floor. There at last was Sean, swimming just below them near one of the treasure mounds.

  “Sean looks okay,” Nancy said with a sigh of relief. “I don’t see Morley’s sub anywhere around.”

  Just then a dark shadow moved across Sean. Her pulse quickening, Nancy spotted a diver closing in on him, clutching a lethal-looking fishing spear in his fist.

  “Where did that guy come from?” Nancy exclaimed to Talia. “I thought Morley was in his submersible.”

  “That’s Zac
h,” Talia announced grimly. “I recognize that yellow stripe on his wet suit. He must have gone into the water while we were busy launching the sub.”

  Nancy could see that Zach was closing the distance between himself and Sean. He raised the spear to strike, its tip a foot from Sean’s back.

  Chapter

  Fifteen

  NANCY KNEW she had to do something to stop Zach, and fast!

  “Talia, can you maneuver the sub so that we move right behind Zach?” Nancy asked. “Let’s give that rat a taste of his own medicine.”

  “Great idea,” Talia said, nosing the craft down. She pushed the throttle to maximum speed to overtake Zach.

  Zach appeared to be startled as the sub appeared overhead. He dropped the spear and moved slowly toward the surface.

  “Good work, Talia!” Nancy cried. Sean raised his head to them and waved. He was safe for the moment.

  Suddenly Nancy saw Sean begin to point and wave more frantically. “It looks like he’s trying to warn us about something,” Nancy observed. “Talia, I think we’d better—”

  Nancy was suddenly thrown back against her seat hard.

  “What was that?” Nancy exclaimed. She turned in time to see Hank Morley bearing down on them in his own submersible!

  “Morley just rammed us!” Talia said. She maneuvered around a rocky outcropping to escape Morley.

  Nancy felt something cold and wet on her arm. Looking down she realized that a trickle of seawater was leaking into the tiny cabin.

  “Talia, we’ve sprung a leak!” Nancy cried.

  “Something ruptured during the collision,” Talia said tensely. “We’ll have to make an emergency ascent, otherwise we could drown.”

  Nancy shook her head. “We can’t just abandon Sean. Hank Morley will kill him,” she said. “We have to find a way to stop that leak.”

  More water was trickling in now—they didn’t have much time. Nancy glanced around the inside of the sub. Her gaze fell on the vat of liquid plastic that Talia had placed in there the day before. “What about this?” she asked Talia, pointing to the vat.

  “The polymer—great idea!” Talia exclaimed. “It should plug up the leak, like glue.” She reached behind the seat to open the vat.

  Nancy spotted Hank Morley’s sub gliding silently around the rock pile. “Uh-oh. It looks like Morley’s going to charge us again,” Nancy said. “We’ve got to stall for time.”

  Just then her eye fell on the radio microphone, and she picked it up. “What radio channel would Morley use?” she asked Talia.

  “Probably just the standard open channel,” Talia replied. “Just key the mike and talk into it.”

  Nancy depressed the mike key. “Morley, are you there?” she spoke slowly. Through the window, she could only make out a shadowy outline of someone sitting inside the other sub.

  There was a moment of silence. Then Morley’s voice came over the speaker. “You might as well give up and go back to the surface, Nancy,” Morley said. “The treasure’s already mine.”

  “What makes you think you’re going to get away with stealing it from Sean?” Nancy countered. “There are too many witnesses who’d testify that he found it first.”

  “Unfortunately for you, the Lady Jane is about to have a bad accident—and all hands on board will be lost,” Morley said with a chilling laugh. “So much for witnesses.”

  Nancy felt cold sweat form on her brow. It was clear that Morley would stop at nothing to get his hands on the treasure. She glanced at Talia, who had just finished plastering the leak with the liquid plastic.

  “We’ll need a few minutes for it to dry,” Talia whispered.

  “I’m curious, Morley,” Nancy spoke into the mike again. “What kind of accident are you talking about?”

  “The kind that sends you all to the bottom of the sea,” he growled. “Of course, everyone will blame your deaths on the curse of the Ninfa Marina.”

  Suddenly all the strange incidents on board the Lady Jane made sense to Nancy. “Is that why you and Zach staged all those accidents on board Sean’s and Dorning’s boats? So that people would start believing in the curse?” she asked.

  “That’s right,” Morley said smugly. “Zach did the sabotage on the Lady Jane, and my son and I rigged the accidents on Dorning’s boat. We had to escalate things when you started nosing around,” he continued. “Zach put the scorpion in your trunk, and Marcus followed you to the inn to plant the skull as a warning. Too bad you didn’t get the message. You were lucky to escape when he took that shot at you outside the restaurant, but you won’t get away this time.”

  Nancy tried to stifle a prickling sense of fear. “I’m sure you were responsible for the sinking of the Sea Scorpion,” she prodded.

  “That was easy to set up,” Morley boasted. “I disabled Dorning’s pump system when they were refueling. Then I drilled a small hole in the outer hull. It was only a matter of time before she went down. I thought Dorning was about to discover the main treasure pile, so I wanted his ship out of the way—permanently.”

  “Very clever,” Nancy said. “And you managed to set things up so that Sean and Dorning would accuse each other of sabotage.”

  “They were already so competitive, it was easy to play them against each other,” Morley explained.

  “And what about Rusty?” Nancy pressed. “You killed him, but why?”

  “Unfortunately, Rusty discovered our scheme when he caught Zach setting the engine fire on the Lady Jane,” Morley said. “Zach scared him into staying quiet, but we knocked him off later, anyway. Marcus and I lured Rusty to the boat house on a ruse. After we killed him, Marcus tracked you down and left the phony note for Sean.”

  Nancy suddenly recalled how uneasy Rusty had been after the engine fire that first day on Sean’s boat. Now she knew why—he was being threatened by Zach.

  “And you set Sean up for Rusty’s murder. That was clever,” Nancy replied.

  “Yes. Zach grabbed the ingot and we planted it at Rusty’s to give Sean a motive for going after the old guy. We figured the police would suspect Sean right away, but Sean even helped us more by putting his fingerprints all over the murder weapon,” he said, cackling.

  “My plan all along was to let Dorning and Sean lead me to the gold,” Morley continued. “Now all that’s left is for me to arrange the final, fatal accident and claim the treasure for myself.”

  Nancy could see Morley’s sub was moving closer. It was close enough now for her to see his cruel expression through the window.

  “Let’s get ready,” Nancy whispered to Talia. “When the moment comes, we’ll need to attack him before he attacks us.”

  Talia nodded and swallowed nervously. She poised her hand over the throttle.

  “Enough talk.” Morley’s voice was a harsh rasp over the radio speaker. “Time to die.”

  Nancy felt a surge of fear as Morley’s sub lurched toward them. “Now, Talia!” she yelled.

  Talia depressed the throttle so that they shot straight for Morley’s sub. Then she veered slightly upward so that her sub’s robotic arm smashed against Morley’s view window like an iron fist.

  The blow cracked Morley’s view window in half. Through the glass they could see Morley frantically trying to stop seawater from leaking into his sub.

  “We got him!” Talia cried happily as Morley pulled away and made an emergency ascent to the surface.

  Nancy let out a huge breath of relief. Morley was out of the way—for a moment, at least. “We’d better go after him,” Nancy said. “But first I want to make sure that Sean is all right.”

  She spotted Sean swimming toward them around the rock pile. He was holding Zach’s spear in his hand. He gestured to indicate that he was on his way back to the surface.

  “Sean’s all right,” Nancy said to Talia. “Let’s go see what Zach and the Morleys are up to on the surface.”

  Nancy nosed the submersible upward. As soon as they surfaced alongside the Lady Jane, Nancy opened the hatch and cautiou
sly poked her head out.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t Nancy Drew,” she heard a man announce.

  Nancy turned in the direction of the voice and found herself staring down the barrel of a pistol. Zach Hardwick and Marcus Morley were aiming guns at her from the deck of the Lady Jane. Behind them, huddled together, were Bess and George. But where was Ned?

  Nancy looked back at the armed men. Her worst fears had come true. Zach and Marcus Morley had taken the Lady Jane by force!

  Chapter

  Sixteen

  GET ON BOARD, you two. Now!” Marcus Morley snapped at Nancy and Talia. He waved his gun at them from his position on the Lady Jane’s deck.

  What’s happened to Ned? Nancy kept repeating to herself. She tried to control her terror as she and Talia climbed slowly out of the sub onto the ship.

  “Welcome aboard,” Zach said sarcastically. He prodded Nancy with the gun’s muzzle until she reached the spot where Bess and George were being held at gunpoint.

  “Is Ned all right?” Nancy whispered anxiously.

  “Oh, Nancy,” Bess’s voice squeaked with fear. “Ned tried to fight them off. Marcus knocked him out cold and took him below.”

  Talia’s face darkened with rage as she glared at Zach. “What’s gotten into you?” she asked angrily.

  Zach shrugged. “I tried to warn you away from Sean, Talia,” he explained, “but you wouldn’t listen.”

  “You didn’t tell me that you were a murdering thief!” Talia retorted.

  “Calm down, Talia,” Nancy whispered. “You’ll only make things worse.”

  “Where’s Sean?” George asked as if she were afraid to hear the answer. “Is he—”

  “Sean’s all right,” Nancy said under her breath. In the distance, Nancy could see Hank Morley’s sub tied up to his wooden boat. Hank was moving about on the deck of the other vessel. He’s probably collecting what he needs to sink the Lady Jane, Nancy thought uneasily.

  George now followed Nancy’s glance. “The bearded guy—Marcus—threatened to shoot us unless we let him on board,” George said under her breath. “He held a gun on us until Zach and Hank Morley came back to the surface.”