The Vision by Heather Graham
“Yes, a ghost.”
“Josh Harrison, son of Adam, ghost,” Thor murmured. “I guess you’re going to tell me you’ve seen him, too.”
“I’m seeing him right now.”
“Excuse me?” Thor demanded, his brow furrowing.
“He’s in the back seat.”
“What?”
Thor turned around.
He nearly drove off the highway.
Brent was telling the truth.
The boy was seated in the back seat, right behind Brent.
“Shit!” Thor gasped.
“Maybe I should drive,” Brent said.
“All right,” Jack said, rising. “I can’t do this. I can’t just sit around. Anyone want to join me? I’m going to hit some of the bars and find out myself if anyone has seen Audrey anywhere, or if she said anything to anyone.”
“I’m going to try Audrey’s numbers again, just in case,” Genevieve said. She pulled out her cell, since she felt the need to pace while she talked.
All three numbers rang until Audrey’s recorded voice asked for a message.
Genevieve flipped the phone shut, shaking her head.
“So we look for her,” Jack said.
“If she had her phone…if she were reachable…she’d answer. She’d call me,” Genevieve said. “I’m so worried.”
“C’mon, she’s a brunette, not a blonde. Just like you, Gen,” Alex pointed out.
“And she’s a quack, not a hooker,” Jack reminded them cheerfully.
“I’m still worried,” Genevieve said.
Jack walked over and gave her a hug. “We all are. And I’m restless. I know she’s probably not barhopping, but we’re not doing any good, all of us sitting around here, just waiting. We’ll see if she did run into someone else. Who knows, maybe there’s a relative somewhere we don’t know about who suddenly called because they needed her. Maybe she had to go to the aid of one of her clients. Maybe she really conjured up a ghost or…well, who the hell knows. But maybe, just maybe, we can find something out. Anyone want to join me?”
Zach rose, reaching a hand down to his wife. “Sure. Though we don’t know the locals like you do.”
Alex rose. “Yeah, we need to do something.” He looked at Genevieve ruefully. “I think I need to move, too. I’m going to go with Jack, too, if you’re okay.”
“I’m fine. But I’m going to hang in here until I hear from Victor or Thor.”
Bethany laughed. “I’m staying with my new best friend,” she said, indicating Adam.
“We’ll call you if we hear anything,” Jack promised as he and the others filed out.
There was silence for a minute after they left. Then Genevieve picked up the plates. Adam had concocted an interesting hash out of the leftovers from the barbecue, and everyone had eaten heartily. “I’ll just put these in the kitchen,” she said.
Nikki rose with her. “I’ll help. Move it along.” She glanced at Adam. “Actually, Gen, there’s something we’d like you to try.”
“Oh?”
“Hypnosis,” Adam said, rising.
Genevieve nearly dropped the plates she was carrying, staring from one of them to the other.
“Past-life regression, or something like that,” Bethany said.
Adam hesitated. “I don’t know exactly what we’ll discover. But I can question you while you’re under, and maybe…. Don’t be worried. We choose a safety word before you go under. That word will bring you back to the present, wide-awake, if you find yourself under duress.”
Her hands were shaking and she didn’t know why. Bethany stood and took the plates she was holding from her. “No reason to break the china,” she said cheerfully.
“I won’t do this unless you’re entirely willing,” Adam said.
“I…I am willing. If it can help. I’m willing to do just about anything,” she said. She lifted her hands. “What do I need to do?”
“Just relax, and trust me. Nothing more,” Adam said.
“That’s what all the guys say,” Bethany teased.
They all smiled. Then Genevieve looked seriously at Adam.
“I do trust you,” she said.
“Then we’ll begin.”
Terrified he was going to kill himself and Brent and whoever else might be on the road, Thor forced himself to stay calm and drove onto the shoulder. They were almost at the lab, but he needed a break.
Throwing the car into Park, he looked in the back seat again.
It was empty.
He stared at Brent.
“There was just someone in the back seat,” he said.
“Yes,” Brent agreed.
“He’s gone now.”
“He probably thought you were about to have a heart attack.”
“I nearly drove off the damned road.”
“Yes, I noticed that.” Brent smiled.
“I don’t fucking believe in ghosts! What the hell is this bull you all are pulling on everyone? Smoke and mirrors. How the hell are you doing it?”
Brent didn’t flinch. He just stared at him. “You tell me,” he said, calm, quiet. “You’re a logical man. You figure it out. Maybe there are things in this world that you can’t explain. Maybe there really was a ghost in your back seat.”
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” Thor repeated stonily.
“Okay. Don’t believe in them. But shouldn’t I drive?” Brent asked.
“We have about four blocks to go,” Thor said. “I can drive.”
He pulled back out onto the road. He didn’t want to look into the rearview mirror, but he couldn’t help himself.
The kid was back, staring at him.
“You’re not there,” he snapped.
And then he drove on. Cautiously.
A strange wind was blowing. She was accustomed to the sea, loved the sea, and yet today something in the air was disturbing…frightening.
Or was fear creating the disturbance within her own spirit?
No one believed her, not even her own father. But then again, he was such a liar. Yet, she dared not decry him too passionately, lest the truth be known. And the truth was far worse….
She stared toward the horizon, certain help would come.
Then she turned and looked nervously at the ship’s guns. There seemed to be so many. She was a proud ship, but the ocean was vast, and any ship, no matter how proud, was but a speck on the sea.
She turned around, aware of the wind, and also aware of something else.
Silence.
A strange and eerie silence. The ship shouldn’t be quiet.
A sensation of evil crept along her spine. She looked slowly around her. There should have been men in the rigging. The wind was changing and the men should have been shouting to one another, hurrying to trim the sails.
Not a single sailor was topside.
But he was.
Staring at her. With that smile she hated so much.
“What’s going on? Where is everyone?” she demanded.
“Gone,” he said simply, and smiled more broadly.
The chill along her spine became glacial.
“What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“They wanted to swim,” he said pleasantly, approaching her. Slowly. Still keeping his distance. He was enjoying himself.
She watched him very carefully, then looked to the horizon again.
Maybe she was hoping, maybe it was real, but she thought she saw another ship on the horizon. But the weather was changing so quickly. Calm seas began to roil. A mist seemed to have suddenly sprung up over the water, a sure sign of changing temperatures.
She was worrying about a storm, she realized, while he…
She was worrying about a storm rather than face the truth.
“You have…you have taken over the ship? But…the men are loyal to…”
“Seamen, dear girl, are most often loyal to the highest bidder,” he commented. “You forget the port from which we have just come. And that new men had to be hired on t
“I forget nothing! You, sir, lived in the recesses of your mind and imagined truth where there was none.”
“You betrayed me.”
“Never.”
“You betrayed us.”
“There was no ‘us’ for me to betray.”
He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter anymore. History will tell the tale. And it will be the truth. The pirate destroyed all.”
Her eyes widened.
It was then that she saw what he was about. Saw the two men emerge from behind a pile of rigging.
One was huge, with burly arms. She’d seen him before, when the first mate had been railing at him for some dereliction of duty.
He was winding a length of thick rope.
The second man dragged a canvas bag of ballast with him.
“You should have loved me,” he said softly.
She turned, desperate to crawl over the railing and cast herself into the sea while some margin of hope remained.
Too late.
She felt their hands, dragging her back.
She screamed. Screamed as if the sound could break the heavens, penetrate earth and sky, somehow bring salvation. But they were on her. Huge and heavily muscled. She had not a prayer. She knew that when the first blow struck her cheek and she went reeling. She fought the loss of consciousness, knowing her fate, disbelieving, and yet still…
Knowing.
There was a ship on the horizon. A distance away, still, but closing. Oh God, oh God, dear Father in Heaven, forgive me…
The rope was tied securely around both her ankles and the bag of ballast. Still, she bit, scratched, screamed, cursed….
She was lifted.
As she hit the water, she heard the first boom of cannon fire.
17
Sheridan’s real facilities were in the northern part of the state. Still, he had managed to do a good job of making it look as if he had kept a research lab in town for at least a decade.
A grad student sat sentinel in the antechamber; specialists the professor had called here were busy at various locales throughout the complex of rooms—too many, Thor thought, considering the few artifacts they had turned up thus far.
Sheridan led Thor and Brent into his office, ignoring his people as if they were no more than honeybees buzzing around, expected to produce.
“The letter was written by Anne, and signed with a flourish. She had lovely penmanship,” Sheridan told them, warming to his subject. His desk was laden with papers and books. Thor wasn’t quite sure how the man could find anything.
Sheridan looked up at them triumphantly. “There was far more going on than one might have expected,” he announced.
“Like what?” Thor asked.
“I’ll read you my translation. The ink was poor in a few spots, but…imagine, almost perfectly preserved after all these years.”
“Professor, if you would?” Thor said, trying to hide his impatience.
He didn’t need Sheridan going all intellectually ADD on him at the moment. He’d been trying to keep it together since he’d slammed his way out of the car.
Who would have expected this dive would be the one on which he found the woman he loved.
And lost his mind.
If he’d seen a ghost, he should be considering a long vacation. If he hadn’t seen a ghost, something criminal was going on with Adam Harrison and his gang.
He stopped thinking and started listening when Sheridan began to read.
Today I awoke afraid, as I had not been before. I was aghast at the lies being told, yet did not dare to utter the truth.
But I know he will come.
And for all that is reputation and all that is legend about the man, I know that one thing is true: his love for me. He will see the battle is swift and sure. He will see that the good do not die. He will be merciful. For me.
But while I wait, I am afraid, so I will write my prayers.
Sheridan stopped speaking and looked up at them as if he had just translated the Dead Sea Scrolls.
“That’s it?” Thor asked.
“Yes, that’s it!” Sheridan exploded. “Can’t you see? There was a conspiracy going on aboard the Marie Josephine. Of course, I don’t know why Anne was afraid, who she feared, or who she thought would come to her rescue, but…we will know more. I’ll continue translating what I have, and you’ll bring me more.”
“Professor,” Thor reminded him, “another body has been discovered.”
“Yes, yes, sad.”
“There’s a killer loose in the Keys,” Brent commented.
Sheridan stared at him, frowning. “And you’re professional salvage divers. What’s going on is sad, but I don’t see why it has to delay your work.”
“I’m afraid it’s going to have to, Professor,” Thor said. “The police have asked us to keep the area clear until they’ve had time to look for evidence.”
“But you can help them—while you look for the Marie Josephine,” Sheridan said.
“I’ll get back to you as soon as I have more information,” Thor told him, cutting the conversation short.
Sheridan rose. “We’re working on grant money, you know. This lab…it costs a fortune to run. We’ve got to get back to work. We’re going to need much more to justify our expenses.”
“I’ll keep you posted, I promise,” Thor told him.
As they left the offices, Thor tossed the keys to Brent, who caught them, looking surprised. “Just drive,” Thor said wearily.
To Victor’s amazement, they didn’t arrest him. Even after they had said they were going to do so.
Suarez was the one who let him go, after having shut him in the interrogation room alone for at least an hour.
He released him simply, opening the door, popping in his head. “You can go.”
“What?” Victor said sharply.
“Leave. You can go.”
“I thought you were pressing charges against me?”
Suarez shrugged. “Change of heart. I just work here.”
Victor rose, telling himself that they didn’t have a damn thing on him, and they couldn’t get the owner of Key Klothing to press charges.
As he walked past Suarez, he felt his every muscle tightening, and he couldn’t stop himself from saying, “I may be suing. False arrest!”
“You were never arrested.”
“Police brutality, then.”
“We never touched you.”
“Mental cruelty.”
“Hey, buddy, we’re not getting divorced or anything here,” Suarez protested.
“I promise you, I’ll have my eye on you,” Victor threatened.
“Funny. I was about to say the same thing.”
Victor lifted his chin. He decided it was time to beat a hasty retreat before the detective found another reason to detain him.
Audrey awoke. Her mind was in a pea-soup haze. She was tied up, nearly smothering, and in pain, but she couldn’t figure out where she was, or how she had gotten there.
Then it all began to come back to her.
She was terrified, trapped in tight quarters, a gag in her mouth, the lingering thud of the drug in her head, and the bindings chafing at her wrists and ankles.
As the fog cleared, she became more aware of her position.
She could barely breathe, down here in the hold; she needed to keep still, to save her oxygen.
Despite that, she cried. Wet tears that slid down the grime on her cheeks.
She remembered how it had happened, step by step.
And realized she was going to die.
So far…just the torture. Inflicted because her attacker had an ego that seemed to know no bounds.
How much more torture?
Could she do anything…play into it?
She wondered if air could get in? She realized all the things she didn’t know about the sea, about boats.
She was going to d
She could only put it off….
She resolved to herself that she would put it off. She would play along, say anything—good God, do anything—if it could keep her alive for one more minute.
Someone would finally figure it out, surely.
She wasn’t the one he had really wanted, she knew. She was just a poor substitute.
Substitutes were so expendable….
No!
She had to fight, had to stay alive, say anything, do anything….
Oh, God.
Genevieve. Eventually she, too, would be here.
And she, too, would die.
Despite the circumstances, Genevieve appeared to be in the best of spirits as she opened the door to see Thor and Brent standing on her porch.
“Victor is out,” she said first, without preamble.
“Oh?” Thor asked cautiously.
“They have nothing on him, of course,” she said indignantly.
He cleared his throat. “He was the last one seen with her.”
“But ask Bethany—he couldn’t have been with her long because he got back to his cottage too quickly,” Genevieve said with a wave of her hand. “I’m onto something, though, but first—” she looked past him, smiling at Brent “—what did Sheridan have to say?”
“That there’s more to this than meets the eye, basically. Our Anne left letters in the box. She was afraid of someone. And she was waiting for someone else to come and give her assistance. It’s kind of convoluted. She goes on about some truth, but the truth is worse than a lie. He’s only translated one of the letters so far.”
Genevieve smiled. “I have the truth,” she told them.
“Oh?” Thor said.
“Come on in and sit down,” she said.
“Any word of Audrey?” Brent asked.
Genevieve’s brilliant smile collapsed. “No.”
Adam, Nikki and Bethany were in the parlor. Someone had apparently just brewed tea.
“Want something?” Genevieve asked.
Thor’s stomach was growling, but he shook his head. Information first. “Give us what you know,” he told her.
“Anne wasn’t desperately in love with Aldo. She despised him,” Genevieve announced.
“Oh?” Thor said skeptically.