“My father was always obsessed with the fact that we are descendants of a great maritime family. If you go back another hundred years, there’s another famous Captain Dare in history. You may have heard of Captain Antoine Dare, the only captain to steer a boat in the 1715 fleet out of the storm that took down eleven Spanish galleons off the coast of Florida.”
He nodded, dividing his attention between the diamond and her face.
“The 1715 galleon wrecks are all up and down this coast, and every few years another one is uncovered. Years ago my father found one, and because a Dare had been part of the armada, the wreck meant a great deal to him. Long story short, Judd Paxton swooped in and claimed it as his own. He’s got the reputation and he’s got the money, and he’s ruthless like that. Other people find the wrecks, and he takes the credit and the cash. He steals as much as any pirate. He just does it by buying off half the officials in the state of Florida.”
Con held the stone up to her, his expression still troubled. “You can’t keep this diamond on this boat.”
“I know that. Can you imagine if news got out? We’d be attacked.”
“I will help you.”
She almost sighed with relief. “Good. Because I can’t bring that scepter up alone at night.”
He shot her a disbelieving look. “I meant I’ll help you hide this. I can get this to the mainland, and get it somewhere safe.”
“What?” She tried to grab the diamond, but he held it tight. “I know where it’ll be safe-in my family’s safe-deposit box.”
“How are you going to get it there?”
“I’ll figure that out. You just have to help me get the scepter out of the water.”
“Lizzie, it’s worth millions-”
“Many of them,” she agreed. “And even more with the scepter, and I will not, under any circumstances, for any reason, separate that diamond from its scepter. It killed me to leave it down there in the ballast pile.”
“That’s what you were afraid I was going to find when I looked in the ballast, weren’t you?”
“Of course I was. And obviously someone will, if I risk too many more days. I have to get that scepter up without anyone seeing, then get them both to the mainland. I need you to work the air hose while I dive at night, when everyone is asleep.”
He just stared at her. “You’re going to night dive and get the scepter?”
“Yes.” To make her point, she got up and sat on the bunk very close to him, turning his sizable shoulders so he’d face her and listen. “And that’s all I need from you, Con, I promise. You don’t have to get in any deeper than that. I’ll handle getting them both to the mainland and hidden.”
He didn’t say anything, but finally set the diamond down on his pillow behind him, then picked up the journal. “What kind of proof is in here that all this is true?”
She didn’t like his tone but understood the skepticism. “Notes, copies of documents and letters, proof that Captain Aramis Dare sailed to Portugal to sell the scepters and quite a bit of other treasure that he had legally purchased in Havana. Some paperwork that supports the theory that he had a buyer lined up in Portugal, that that buyer tried to swindle him, and Aramis took off with a lot of the treasure still on board. They chased him down to here.” She pointed down, indicating the very water they floated on. “And shot El Falcone down.”
“Surely, if that’s true, they boarded the ship and took the bounty.”
“He threw it overboard as they were being attacked. It’s deep here, almost fifty feet, and they probably didn’t have any diving equipment on board. Salvaging was done in shallow waters back then. The guy who chased him-and before you ask, I don’t know who that is, because Aramis only refers to him as CB-might have gone back to land or even home to put together the equipment necessary to salvage the area. But whatever happened, no one ever recovered the Bombay Blue scepters. At least, they’ve never turned up in the past hundred and fifty years.”
He fluttered a few pages. “How did you get on this dive if you hate Paxton so much? How did you know that this was El Falcone?”
“A little serendipity, a little hunch, and friends. Before he died, my father developed the cannon theory, and surmised that the ship wasn’t in shallow water, and knew it had probably been about ten miles off the coast. He was killed before he could figure out a way to finance a site exploration, and I decided if I ever could figure out a way, I would do it. But, man, does that take money! So when Sam Gorman called and told me about this secret, high-paying dive, I was interested.”
“But you couldn’t have known that it was El Falcone.”
“No, but then I found this.” She opened to the last page and pulled out a sketched oceanic chart and pointed to a spot in the Atlantic Ocean. “The map my dad had. Out of curiosity, I called Sam and convinced him to tell me the exact location of this salvage effort. When he did, I said I’d go.”
“Does Sam know?”
She shook her head. “And believe me, I’ve been tempted to tell him.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I don’t want to get him involved. I could get into a boatload of trouble, and he has a reputation to maintain.”
“And I don’t?” His half smile was so droll, her heart rolled over at it.
“You seem like you could handle a little controversy. Plus, I told you, I’ll keep you out of it. All you have to do is work the air hose for me on a night dive.” She dug her fingers into his arm. “I swear, that’s all.”
He didn’t say a word.
She pulled him closer, drawing him around to face her again. “My father died with this one dream that mattered to him. I’m all he has to make that happen. I mean, I didn’t promise him, because he died when I wasn’t there…” She fought the lump in her throat, the strangling guilt and remorse. “But if I had been, I would have sworn on our name that I would do this for him.”
“Lizzie, does anyone else know what you’re doing?”
“My sister, Brianna. And believe me, she’s batshit that I’m here without her. But I couldn’t risk bringing her into this, plus she had to stay home and go through all of Dad’s files. I convinced her that was as important as what I’m doing. And we’re keeping each other posted when we find anything important.”
For a long time he didn’t respond, but paged through the notebook, glanced at the diamond, considering it all. Finally he shook his head, and disappointment lurched in her.
“No, you won’t help me?”
“You can’t dive with no blower down to the ballast pile in the middle of the night and bring up an eighteen-inch-long hunk of gold and hide it.”
“I can’t,” she agreed, hope making its way up into her chest again. “But we could.”
“Will you answer a question for me, entirely honestly?”
“I’ve been completely honest with you,” she said defensively. “You can ask me anything.”
“Have you taken anything at all from the treasure hold?”
“I’ve taken pictures, so I could match items to the sketches I had. And I’ve taken that diamond and hidden that scepter. That’s all, I swear.”
“Then there is a thief on board this boat.”
“Flynn Paxton would be my guess.”
“The boss’s stepson?”
She rolled her eyes. “The boss’s albatross is more like it. Have you ever seen a company dive manager do a more pathetic job? He’s not even on the boat, sleeping in his own cabin cruiser like some kind of royalty.”
“I got the impression he was being groomed to head the company when Judd retires.”
She snorted softly. “There’s no love lost between those two. Flynn was sixteen or seventeen when Judd married his mom, and though he took his stepfather’s last name, there’s a lot of animosity there. I don’t like Judd Paxton, but I give him grudging respect for being a hard worker. Flynn? He’s like a rich kid, breezing in and out of dives, never serious except to get the treasure off and out as fast as he can. If anyone is dipping into the gold till, I bet it’s him.”