LC 04 - Skeleton Crew (37 page)

"If it were social, he would be a friend. But this isn't. He suspects everyone."

"Even you?"

"I'm sure it crossed his mind that I may have sent myself that
note to throw him off guard. It happens. I don't think he seriously
thinks I did, because it doesn't fit the facts as a whole. For one
thing, Teal was dead before I arrived on the scene, and I'm sure he
tracked my movements before I arrived."

"Mine, too?"

"Yes. I'm sorry, Lewis, yours, too."

"I thought he was on our side."

Lindsay did laugh this time. "Don't tell me that you never operate that way?"

"Does this mean you don't trust me?"

"I never trust anyone who always gets what they want."

Lewis grinned at her.

Debriefing was short and focused on the excavation. Neither Trey,
Lewis, nor Steven mentioned the break-in at the warehouse. It was
not the finds that got everyone's attention. It was Terry Lyons, the
meteorologist.

"It looks like Tropical Storm Harriette has turned into
Hurricane Harriette-a category one hurricane. Category one
means wind speeds of no more than ninety-five miles an hour. It's
heading northward. That's typical. The steering winds are not
strong; that means tracking it is difficult. Right now it's far to the
south, but we will get some high wind and waves."

"If you can't track it, what are we paying you for?" called Jeff
from the back of the room.

"So we can warn you in time to get your butts out of the way."

When John spoke, he had everyone's attention.

"You've all heard us test the alarm a few times. We will be testing once a day from now on at eleven in the morning. The test will
be two long signals. The real thing will be the same signal over and over. It won't stop. When you hear the signal, it will be because the
waves are getting too high. It doesn't mean the hurricane is upon
us. You will have plenty of time."

"If the alarm sounds for real," said Trey, "the evacuation plan
will go into effect. You should have had a copy of the evacuation
plan in your original packet of materials. I'm handing out additional copies in case you can't find yours. Read it over. The general
procedures are as follows: Everyone but the skeleton crew-you
know who you are-will leave the dam immediately. The skeleton
crew who remain behind will stake screening material over the
wreck. Hopefully the screen will hold it in place. And we will flood
the site at the last minute. Being drowned in water again won't
harm it and the covering of water will protect the excavation from
the force of any storm waters. John's crew will be the last to leave.
They will remove the roof so that the wind doesn't uproot it and
damage the dam. We are very optimistic about the survivability of
the dam in high winds. The important thing is not to worry. We
have plenty of time. If evacuation of the dam is necessary, you will
not go to the island. The boats will take you straight to the mainland, and from there to an inland shelter we have arranged. Now,
go have dinner and don't worry. The storm is a long way off, and
there's no indication it's coming here."

"Yeah, right," someone muttered. "That makes me feel great. If
it's not murders, it's hurricanes."

"And all diving is suspended until further notice. Is that understood? No diving for any purpose-except John's crew," Trey
ordered. "The dive teams will either help Carolyn and Korey in the
lab, or work on the excavation."

"We got a third choice?" asked one of the divers.

"Yeah," said another. "How about we do a little anthropological research on River Street in Savannah."

"Yes, there's a third choice," said Trey. "You can write reports."

The divers groaned.

John made his way to Lindsay. "You going to have dinner with
Nate and Sarah on the barge?" he asked.

"Yes, want to join me?"

"Sure, but I can't stay long. There's a lot to do at the dam."

"I can imagine."

Lindsay put her arm through his and walked out with him.
Everything will be all right, she said to herself. The hurricane will stay out in the ocean and John's dam will be fine and the ship will
be fine. She searched his profile to see what he was feeling, but he
wasn't showing any emotion.

"Are you all right?" she asked.

He took her hand and squeezed it. "Fine. This is one of the dangers of building in the open ocean. Hurricanes come with the territory. My dam will hold."

"Hey, Lindsay." Bobbie came up behind her. "You staying on
the barge or at Harper's tonight?"

"The barge. We're going there to eat. Want to join us?"

"I heard it was macaroni and cheese." She wrinkled her nose.
"Luke's taking me to a little restaurant on the mainland."

"You tell Luke to watch the weather," John said.

"We will. Lindsay, I found this diving today." She gave her a
long, slender spike tied with fishing line to a quarter with a hole in
it. "The rod or whatever was stuck in the sea floor. It looked like a
trap of some sort for something. I know you said you found a
quarter like this. Thought you'd like to have it."

"How odd. Thanks. Have a good time and watch the weather."

Bobbie trotted off toward the dock.

"You know, after you raise them, they're on their own," John
said.

"And who said that, Father Knows Best?"

"My aunt. Let's go eat."

Lindsay sat down with a plate of food across from Sarah and
Nate. The galley was not as big as she had supposed for the number of crew the barge held. She wondered if the designers meant
for the sailors to eat in shifts. The tables were plain metal with
matching hard metal chairs. Nothing fancy on a barge. John sat
down next to her. It would have been a good night to go out to eat
on the mainland. The barge bobbed up and down and Lindsay felt
a little queasy.

"We don't have an alibi, neither of us," Sarah said.

"Join the club," Lindsay replied, opening a carton of milk. "No
one does. You expect everyone to be in bed at night."

"But what surprises me," Nate said, "is that everyone appeared
to be sleeping alone. What does that say about us?"

Lindsay laughed at him. "Look, I'm sorry about this." She
looked down at her plate. Macaroni and cheese, green beans, and
applesauce. She felt as though she were back in junior high. But then again, macaroni and cheese was always soothing to her when
her stomach was unsettled.

"It sticks to your ribs," said Nate, as if reading her mind.

"How's your arm?" Lindsay asked.

"Fine. You did a good job, Doc." Nate took a drink of milk out
of the carton.

"What happened to your hands?" asked Lindsay.

Nate looked at the rash and his Calamine lotion-covered
hands. "I think it's poison ivy, but I'll be damned if I know how I
got it out here on the water. But it's just on my hands, thank heavens. I was in misery with it every summer as a kid. All I had to do
to get infected was walk past the stuff."

Lindsay couldn't help but think about the other evening and
the person fleeing into the woods. Had Mike Altman not confessed, she would have suspected Nate.

"Tell me anything you know about Denton or Teal," Lindsay
said.

"Didn't know Denton," Nate replied, "except from the correspondence Trey let me read. He was raising all kinds of ruckus
over John here winning the contract. We're all lucky the university didn't go with the low bid. We'd all be drowned rats by
now."

"I didn't know him, either," Sarah said. "I'm glad I didn't. He
seemed thoroughly disagreeable, from what I've heard."

"How about Keith Teal?" Lindsay asked.

"Yes, we both knew him. Trey had us trying to socialize him in
the ways of archaeologists. I'm afraid we failed."

"When was the last time you saw him?" Lindsay asked.

Nate looked at Sarah. "I don't know. Sometime after the big
storm a few months ago-sometime in May. I guess that'd be
about two months. He helped us with some boat repairs."

"Did you ever hear from the Coast Guard about who attacked
you?"

Nate shook his head. "I haven't. I think they told Trey that the
Jones woman denied any connection. But we know that. I suppose
without more to go on there's nothing they can do. If the biology
people scuba dived, I'd think it was them. I heard that the FBI's
talking to Mike about stealing diary pages."

"Who told you?"

"Trey, just a while ago. I tell you, if I run into Mike-"

"You'll let the FBI handle it," Sarah interrupted. "I don't suppose we can talk about something more pleasant?"

"Do either of you fish?" Lindsay asked. Neither Sara nor Nate
did. Lindsay looked at John. He didn't either.

"Did you say fish?" Steven Nemo sat down with them. "I love
it."

Lindsay tried to remember back when she went with her father
and brother. "You know those spinning blades?"

"Spinner blades. What about them?"

"How much do they cost?"

"You want to go fishing? I have a bunch I can give you."

"I was just wondering. Are they more than twenty-five cents
each?"

"No, that'd be kind of high. I get them by the tens. They come
to about fifteen cents apiece, I would guess."

"What do you catch with them?"

"Well, bass, trout, crappie-a bunch of different fish."

"Do you ever stake them out on the bottom and let the fish
come to them, then go pick the fish up?" Lindsay had never heard
of that kind of fishing before, but she wasn't a fisherman.

"What?" Steven laughed until tears formed in his eyes. "Who
told you that? They taking you snipe hunting?"

"Hello, guys." Lewis pulled up a chair on the corner between
Nate and Sarah. "What's so funny?"

"Don't ever take Lindsay fishing with you," Steven replied.
"She's got some funny notions about how to do it." Steven took a
bite of food, still laughing. The others joined in, including Lindsay,
mainly because he was laughing so hard.

"Nate," Lewis said, "how's the computer program coming?"

"Great. I recalculated the Estrella finds. Out of seven items, two
came within twenty yards of the Estrella, two within fifty yards,
one within a hundred, and two within a half-mile."

Lewis slapped him on the back. "That's great, Nate, great.
That's much closer, that's significant."

Nate didn't seem to enjoy praise from Lewis. Lindsay knew
how he felt. Praise from Lewis meant more work at a faster pace.
Steven was thinking the same thing, apparently, from the eye contact he made with Lindsay.

"I've put in a lot of new data that I'm getting from different
places," said Nate.

"Have you tried the other?" asked Lewis.

Lindsay understood the 'other' meant the gold coins she had
found.

"You know," Nate said, "the last time I tried to get computer
time, there was a problem, and I've got more variables now."

"I had a long talk with Easterall today. I don't think there will
be a problem. You can get on it this evening."

"I have a lot more data I'd like to plug in. The more data, the
closer to the target, and the less time we spend on the diving end
of it."

"Do you need help keying in the data? I can hire-"

Nate was shaking his head. "I'd just have to double-check their
work. I'd rather do it myself. I have to have confidence it's right.
Accuracy is essential."

"I'm glad it's going so well." Lewis turned to Lindsay. "Do you
have a drawing of the last sailor yet?"

"No, but I have a plan. I can draw with my feet and one eye and
examine bones with my hands and the other eye."

Lewis stood up, flashing his white teeth. "If you can do that,
it'd be great." Lindsay and Steven made eye contact again.

When Lewis left, Steven asked John if Lewis had been that
pushy with him when he was building the dam.

"Once," John said.

"What did you say to him?"

"I told him he could have quick or he could have dead."

They laughed.

"I suppose that had a lot more impact coming from an Indian
than it would from us palefaces," Steven said.

John grinned. "I think it probably did."

"I think I've had my fill of macaroni and cheese." Lindsay
picked up her dishes and took them to the kitchen, followed by
John.

"I have to go soon. How about we take a walk on the deck?" he
said.

"1'd love to." Lindsay thanked Nate and Sarah as she left.

"You know, Lindsay, I have this fish whistle you can call them
with. I'll sell it to you," Steven yelled as they were leaving.

The sun was near the horizon, bright orange against a sky that
had all the shades of blue. Dark clouds were moving across the
face of it, and the wind blew so hard it whipped their long hair. In the opposite direction, seaward, the sky was a navy blue and dark
with more clouds. Lindsay looked over at the cofferdam, shining
like a jewel in the crown. John stood behind Lindsay and put his
arms around her, shielding her from the biting wind.