Treasured Secrets (23 page)

‘He knew about the shark attack —' As she realised what she'd said, she broke off.

‘What shark attack?' Alessandro gripped her arm, but she yanked it free and dashed up the hill towards the taxi.

Archer had asked her to keep the shark attack a secret. She groaned inwardly at how easily she'd vandalised Archer's trust.

***

Archer asked the taxi driver about the island's graveyard. He was disappointed to learn there were two. Without any real plan, he directed the driver to the nearest one. As they drove along the road he looked across the ocean at the numerous islands in the distance. How many would they need to visit before they found anything? It could be months of disappointment. His thoughts went to Rosalina and her insistence that this treasure hunt was his salvation. He wasn't so sure.

The taxi stopped at the top of the hill. The graveyard stretched along the side of the street behind a stone wall with a wrought-iron gate marking the entrance. He asked the driver to wait, then stepped out and went inside the fence, with Ginger following behind him.

He was surprised at how scattered the gravestones were. There was no semblance of order. He'd expected them to be in neat rows, but this was far from it. As he strolled towards the headstones, he found himself holding his breath. He wiped his sweating palms on his shorts and breathed out slowly. Ginger left his side and walked towards a large headstone in the distance.

‘So we're looking for Wade or Helen Mahoney. Right?' Ginger's chirpy voice was out of place with their surroundings.

‘Yes.' Hearing their names turned a heavy knot in his stomach. At thirty-one, Archer was nearly the same age as his mother had been when she'd died. The realisation hit home. She'd barely lived. Coincidently, the first headstone he reached was for a man who was also thirty-one years of age when he died in 1893. The next one was decorated with a cherub and he didn't really need to read it to know it was for a baby.

He fought sadness as he moved from one headstone to the next. Ginger called out a few names and dates as she continued to move further away. Archer's focus was drawn to another taxi coming towards the cemetery. It pulled into the kerb and his heart lurched when Rosalina jumped from the vehicle. The wind billowed in her hair, making it dance in long ribbons behind her as she dashed towards him. The urgency in her stride scared the hell out of him.

‘What's wrong?' He reached for her outstretched arms.

‘The man at the museum knew your father. He mentioned the shark attack.'

Archer gripped her elbow and spun her towards the taxi. ‘Tell me what he said.' It was only then he noticed Alessandro. His wide eyes indicated he had no idea what was going on. ‘Alex, you stay here with Ginger.' He quickened his pace.

‘Where are you going?' Ginger called from the middle of the gravestones.

‘Just keep looking. We'll be back later.' He squeezed Rosalina's hand. ‘Tell me exactly what he said.'

They climbed into the taxi's back seat and Archer directed the driver back to the Maritime Museum. As the car followed the winding road around the cliff, Rosalina told Archer what the old man had said. Archer's mind was a scramble as he tried to fit the pieces together, barely convinced this was actually happening.

Rosalina was already on edge, but the second she re-entered the museum she froze. Archer felt it and halted, too. The museum was still and quiet. Too quiet. Even the howling wind outside failed to penetrate these concrete walls. He stiffened with awareness as a smell, as distinct as it was offensive, invaded his senses. The smell was like no other. It couldn't be a coincidence.

Could the priest from Florence really be here?
He shuffled Rosalina behind him.

He stepped further into the room. ‘Hello?'

Rosalina pointed at the glass-topped tables. ‘Alessandro was looking at these maps when the man took me into the kitchen for tea.'

Archer's neck hairs bristled against his collar as he stepped towards the kitchen. ‘Hello?' he called again.

He stopped at the sound of voices in the back, and moments later a man in overalls stepped from a hallway.

‘That's Yanis, the man I told you about,' said Rosalina.

Archer sighed relief but didn't settle his guard.

‘Oh, it's you,' Yanis said. ‘The way you raced out of here, thought I'd never see you again.'

‘I'm sorry, but —'

‘Have you got someone with you?' Archer interrupted.

‘Yes, Nathan is out the back. I'll let him know you're here.'

‘Who?'

‘Your brother. He said you'd be back.'

Archer grabbed the old man's arm. ‘That man's not my brother. He's very dangerous. Where is he?'

‘He's in the back room. What's going on?'

‘Stay here,' Archer instructed Rosalina. He walked towards the back, clenching his fists and thinking of Rosalina's black eye, and the emotional scars that ran even deeper.

The sound of shattering glass broke the silence and Archer raced towards it.

‘I'm calling the police,' Yanis yelled after him, and Archer heard the old man's shuffling footsteps. Archer's first reaction was to stop him, but then he realised there'd be no harm in the law investigating the crazy priest.

Archer arrived at the back to see a small glass panel within the door broken and the shards scattered over the floor. But the door was still closed. His whole body was on alert as he turned.

He saw the chair a second too late. The blow stuck him square in the forehead and knocked him flying. His head hit the concrete floor. Pain rippled behind his eyes then everything went black.

The priest came out of nowhere and ran straight for Rosalina. His hooded cape was now replaced with a flannel shirt and he wore a tattered beanie over his bald head, but there was no mistaking his evil eyes. She didn't have time to scream as she scoured for a weapon, anything to attack him with.

Fear drove adrenalin into her veins. What had he done to Archer?
Oh God, is he hurt?
The realisation that Archer might be seriously injured forced the fear out of her and replaced it with pure anger.

She gritted her teeth, and without any plan, she snatched a picture off the wall. With the determination of a snared animal she smashed the frame over his head, shattering the glass and trapping his neck within the jagged wooden frame.

The priest tumbled to the ground. His agonised screams made her pause but when he got onto his hands and knees she dived onto his back, clutched at the picture frame and pulled back with all her might, determined to strangle him.

But despite her full weight on his back, he continued to rise. His stench made her gag, but she pulled even harder on the frame, like it was a harness around the neck of a bucking bronco. She felt him change direction and braced for the impact that was coming.

He slammed her backwards into the wall and the wind exploded out of her lungs. The wood fell from her hands and she tumbled to the floor, her hip taking the full brunt of the fall. She turned to see the priest running from the building. A trail of blood marked his escape.

‘Archer!' She jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain in her hip and ran towards the back of the museum. The silence was deafening and her heart was in her throat as she prepared herself for what she was about to see.

Archer lay sprawled on the floor, his mouth slightly ajar, a lump swelling on his forehead. She fell at his side, scooping him into her arms. His eyes flickered, and with relief she saw he was breathing.

‘Archer, wake up.'

‘I'm okay.' He rolled to his side and tried to push up on his hands but tumbled back to the floor.

She adjusted her legs so his head fell into her lap. ‘Don't move. I'm getting a doctor.'

‘I don't need a doctor.'

‘Yes, you do. You were unconscious and there's a huge lump on your head.'

He reached up as if to touch his forehead, but his hand wandered towards her breast instead. ‘I'm fine now.' He smiled a cheeky grin as he fondled her.

‘Stop that.' She guided his hand to her lips and kissed his fingers, one by one. The redness of his eyes failed to mask his desire for her. ‘You're obviously not feeling too bad.'

‘Told you. Help me up. We need to find out as much as we can before the police get here.'

Rosalina hooked her arm around his waist and they hobbled up the hallway. ‘What's all this glass?'

‘I smashed a picture over his head.'

He turned to her, his eyes filled with curious amusement. ‘Hope it wasn't a priceless artefact.'

She shrugged and scrunched up her nose. ‘Ummm, no idea.'

He pointed at the trail along the hallway. ‘Blood?'

‘It's his.' This was the first time she'd inflicted harm on anyone. Strangely, she felt no remorse.

‘I wonder if the police can use it.'

They rounded the corner and spied Yanis still on the phone in a front office. He cupped the mouthpiece. ‘They have me on hold.'

Archer indicated to the leather lounge that Rosalina had originally found Yanis asleep on and they hobbled to it. Rosalina flopped into the chair and yelped in pain.

‘What's wrong?'

‘I bruised my hip.'

‘Did he do it?' Rosalina saw a look of hatred darken Archer's eyes and harden his features. It was a side of him she'd never seen before and she realised that driven by hatred, Archer might be capable of dangerous things.

‘I tried to strangle him with the picture frame, but he threw me against the wall. I'm okay. I think he's worse.'

‘I hope he bleeds to death. Save me the job of killing him.'

Archer was serious and she knew it. And as much as it horrified her to admit it, she would do the same if Archer were being threatened.

Yanis finished the phone call and walked towards them. ‘The police are on their way. Are you two all right?'

‘We're fine, Yanis, but we need to know what he wanted?'

‘He wanted to know what you were asking about.'

‘What did you tell him?' Archer was forceful and Rosalina squeezed his hand.

‘We didn't get very far, actually. I was telling him about Petro Zeno, the leader of Andros in 1349, and about The
Flying Seahorse
, and how — ‘

‘Um…the
Flying Seahorse
?' Archer scratched at the stubble on his chin.

‘Yes, it's one of the oldest maritime mysteries we have here. It was a ship that was carrying a priest who Zeno had commissioned to build a church, but it disappeared out there, somewhere between Malta and Rhodes.'

Her breath caught in her throat, and as her pulse headed into overdrive, Archer squeezed her hand.

‘Rosalina tells me you knew of another man who was searching for that boat.'

Yanis cocked his head at Rosalina and she assumed he was wondering what to say, most likely unsure about mentioning the shark attack again. She nodded at him. ‘Yes, I remember him well. He was such a lovely guy, so full of excitement, a real charmer; and his wife, she was beautiful. Wade and Helen, if I remember correctly. I'll never forget —' Yanis froze and his hand snapped to his mouth. He blinked, then he lowered his hand. ‘He was your father, wasn't he?'

Archer nodded.

‘You look just like him.'

***

Jimmy returned the tender back to the dock, and once the foursome climbed in he motored back to
Evangeline
. They re-boarded as the sun glided into the horizon. Pink hues coloured the low-lying clouds and blue sky morphed into violet. It wasn't until she was on board that Rosalina's hip began to seize up. She was exhausted too, but still didn't want to miss out on what was going to be an exciting rehash of the afternoon's events. Determined to hide her pain, she went straight to her room to check her wounds and freshen up.

She turned the shower faucet to hot and for the second time in a month examined an enormous bruise on her body. The blue stain covered her hip, buttocks and most of her thigh, and looked as bad as it hurt. She cringed as she touched it and was shocked at how dark the bruise already was.

After a brief shower, she dressed and chose a pair of silver drop earrings. When she'd spied these earrings from the feeble man at the markets in Bali, she didn't think they were real silver, but she couldn't resist the smile from the little girl sitting on the man's knee, and in the end she refrained from bartering with him. As it turned out, they were real silver, and every time she wore them she thought of that little girl and how happy she'd looked, even though she'd had no shoes on, her dress had been filthy and she'd looked like she'd needed a decent meal.

Rosalina turned off the light and went to find Archer. As she stepped into the bar area, Archer swivelled in his stool towards her. ‘I thought you'd be in the shower for hours.'

‘Are you kidding? And miss all the excitement?'

‘Do you want champagne?' Ginger offered from behind the bar.

‘That would be lovely.' Rosalina accepted the fluted glass Ginger held towards her. Alessandro and Jimmy were seated on the white leather lounge and, judging by Alessandro's pink cheeks, he was already a drink or two ahead of her.

Archer guided her to one of the bar stools and she was careful to put her weight onto her good side as she slid onto the chair. ‘What did I miss?'

Jimmy grunted. ‘Nothing much. Just Alessandro gloating about being right about Andros Island.'

‘I
was
right.' Alessandro wiggled his head in proud defiance.

‘Hey, Ginger, better pour me another rum. It's going to be a long night.' Jimmy chuckled.

Before leaving Andros, Yanis had helped them make copies of maps, captains' logs, transcripts from ancient diaries and any other document that might've contained information to help them with their search. Now the entire assortment was spread out across the bar.