Pirate Vishnu (A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery) (14 page)

It was Lane.

Chapter 20

“I wish,” Lane said, “that you would at least wear proper shoes if you’re going to insist on rooting around at the edge of a cliff.”

He let go of my arm only once he was sure I was standing on stable ground, several feet from the edge. Several large pebbles were lodged in my shoes, but I didn’t care.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. “You dump me, you clear out of your apartment, but
now
you’re following me?”

“Inspector Valdez called me.”

If I didn’t know him, I’d have sworn his voice was calm. Even distant. But I knew him well. He was forcing himself to act the opposite of what he felt. He was full of some barely controlled emotion and was about to burst.

“Sorry he had to trouble you for an alibi,” I snapped. “I know you don’t want anything to do with me.”

“You don’t understand,” Lane said. “You don’t know what’s happened.”

“Then why don’t you tell me?”

“Jaya, I…”

The fog swirled around us as he broke off. I kicked off my shoes to get rid of the pebbles that had lodged inside when I slipped, while I waited for him to say more. But he didn’t go on.

“What?” I said. “What’s so hard to say?”

“I was worried,” he said, a look of deep sadness sweeping over his face, “that someone from my past had found you.”

“What do you mean?”

“I hoped—I wanted so badly to have put my old life behind me.”

“Oh my God,” I said, starting to shiver in the cold fog. “You had something to do with this! That’s why you acted strangely when I came to see you, and why you’re leaving!”

I thought about the treasure we had found in Scotland. Lane had been alone with it for a short time before anyone else saw it. I hadn’t wanted to think he’d taken any of the jewels. But I’d wondered. As he said, it was hard to leave an old life behind.

“That’s not what I meant, Jones.”

“You didn’t used to be this cryptic,” I said.

Though part of my brain told me I was being irrational, I felt completely safe as I stood at the edge of Lands End with Lane. I had no doubt that I could trust him completely with my life. I didn’t believe he would harm me, or that he could have been the person who killed Steven. As for stealing a treasure? That was another story. Since Lane wasn’t opening up to me, what was I supposed to think?

“The details don’t matter,” Lane said.

“They matter to me,” I snapped.

“What’s important is that you’re better off without me—and you’re better off forgetting about this treasure.”

“This is me,” I said. “You can cut out the chivalry.”

Lane smiled, and for a moment it looked like he was going to lean forward to hug me or kiss me. But he didn’t do either.

“When we got back from Scotland,” he began, “I knew I wouldn’t be able to work with my advisor anymore.”

“I get that’s why you’re on leave. But moving out of your apartment so quickly?”

“My past caught up with me, Jones,” Lane said. A pained expression passed over his face. “He found me.”

“
Who
found you?”

Lane closed his eyes, as if the memory pained him. “He’s not someone you’d want to know.”

“You told me you never used violence when you stole things.”

“I didn’t lie to you about that,” Lane said, his eyes snapping open. “Please don’t think I would do that. But some of the people I associated with at the time didn’t have the same code of conduct.”

“He found you because of the picture Fiona took of you,” I said. “She gave it to the press.” I knew I hated that woman.

Lane nodded slowly, a look of resignation on his face.

“Are you in trouble?” I asked.

“I wasn’t sure at first,” Lane said. “One of my past associates wanted me to do something for him. I’m good at disappearing, though. I’m not worried about myself. It’s you I’m concerned about. I thought he might have gone to you because of
me
. If that ever happened—” He broke off.

“You thought if he knew you were in a relationship with me that he could use it against you?”

“I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to you, Jones. Especially if it was because of me.”

“But this map and murder have nothing to do with him.”

“It looks that way,” he said. “I got away before he could tell me what he wanted from me. But it’s only a matter of time before—”

“So you’re okay?” I asked. “You’re not in danger from this guy right now?”

“I’m fine, but you—”

I cut him off by slapping him.

“What was that for?” he asked.

“If you have to ask, then you’re a lot less intelligent than I gave you credit for.”

“You’re right,” he said, rubbing his jaw. “I deserved that.”  

“You should have told me.”

“I thought it would be easier for both of us,” he said.

“You mean easier for
you
.” I had the worst luck with men. Why did they do one thing when they felt another? “You could tell yourself you were making a sacrifice by breaking my—never mind. There are more important things to talk about. Like why you’re following me.”

“After Inspector Valdez talked to me, I got worried. I went to your house, and I saw a guy outside looking for you.”

“A guy?”

“Indian guy in his late twenties.”

“Oh, that’s just Sanjay. You don’t need to worry about him.”

“Sanjay?” he asked.

“My best friend. The guy I called a few times while we were in Scotland. Nothing to worry about.”

“He comes to see you early in the morning?” Lane asked. I thought I detected a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“I don’t have a land line in my apartment,” I said, “and with my cell phone stolen, people have to come see me—”

“Your phone was stolen?”

“I thought you talked to Inspector Valdez?”

“I did,” Lane said, his face dark. “He called about your alibi for this murder. Not about your phone being stolen.”

“He didn’t tell you my bag was stolen, with the map inside?”

“No.” His jaw tightened visibly. “He left that out. That’s how you hurt your hand?”

“It is.”

Lane swore. Vividly. He was losing control of his emotions, and I could tell he wasn’t happy about it. When we’d been searching for the person we thought killed my ex-boyfriend Rupert, Lane had kept his cool in the most trying situations. He’d gotten involved at first because of the apocryphal treasure related to his South Asian art history research, but he stayed involved because of me.

“Treasure hunting is a dangerous business,” he said. “What is it you’ve gotten yourself into?”

“If you’re going to make a one-sided decision to stay out of my life, you don’t have any business knowing.” I felt awful fighting with Lane. But it was his fault.

He started to reply with something harsh, but the words caught in his throat. He broke off, but his eyes never left mine. A range of emotions crossed over his face before he finally spoke.

“You’re right,” he said.

“I am?”

Instead of answering, he walked a few paces away from me. He looked out at the ocean.

“You could help me—” I said.

“I don’t have it in me to argue with you anymore,” he said, a defeated man speaking to the wind, before turning to face me. “Seeing you… All I want to do is take you away with me.”

“You do?” His words weren’t what I had expected, but at the same time felt oddly natural.

“Can’t you tell?” he asked.

“You could have told me.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to ask you to go with me,” Lane said. “You have a life here.”

“So do you.”

“Not any more, Jones. Not anymore.”

I tried to think of something to say to him, to make him see that he was wrong. But as much as I didn’t want to admit it to either of us, I couldn’t see how he was wrong.

“I told myself I wasn’t going to see you again,” he said. “But you forced my hand.”

“By almost falling over the edge? I wouldn’t have fallen too far, you know. I would have gotten a few scratches but been fine.”

“I know,” he said, smiling a sad smile and running a hand through his hair. “That’s why I know you’ll be fine without me.”

With that, he turned to walk away. I reached down to slip my shoes back on. When I looked back up, he had already disappeared into the fog.

By the time I reached the theater to meet Sanjay, my stomach was growling loudly enough to rival the voices of the men shouting at each other on the stage, and I was almost angry enough to join them. At least I no longer looked disreputable, having stopped at home long enough to change.

I had no idea where he came from, but suddenly Sanjay was standing next to me.

“I hate it when you do that,” I said. “What’s going on here?” I indicated the men arguing on the stage.

“Problem with the lights.”

“Have you eaten breakfast?” I asked.

“No,” Sanjay said.

“Then let’s go. But, just so you know, you’re buying. I don’t have my replacement credit card yet.”

“Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“I’m fine,” I snapped. “Just fine.”

We walked down the street to one of the numerous cafés lining the nether regions between SOMA and the Mission. While I ate a croissant and plenty of bacon, Sanjay drank coffee and listened to me go over the latest I’d learned. I don’t know why, but I felt extremely awkward mentioning Lane, so I left him out of it.

“You went to the cliffs of Lands End?” Sanjay bellowed. “By yourself?”

“I know you just came from practicing on stage,” I said, “but you can cut out the theatrics.”

“I am
not
being overly dramatic,” Sanjay said through his teeth. “This is a treasure
that people have been killed over.”

“Sanjay—”

“I’m not going to let anything happen to you, you know.”

I rolled my eyes at the stilted dramatics.

“This isn’t funny!”

“Sorry,” I said. I’d never seen Sanjay like this before.

“If you’re not going to back off, then I’m going to help you figure out what’s going on.”

“Really?”

“I’ve been thinking about it already,” he said. “You said that there are locations on the map that don’t exist—both the picture of the Chinese fishing nets, and the names of those locations in the center of the city.”

“That’s right.”

“What if,” Sanjay said, “it’s
a code
.” He sat back, looking very pleased with himself.

“Anand wasn’t a
spy
.”

He frowned. “You’ve got a better idea?”

“Sanjay!” I said.  I said it louder than was strictly necessary, but I couldn’t contain my excitement. I did have an idea. “Give me your phone.”

“What for?” he asked, but handing me his phone all the same.

“Because you’re brilliant.”

“I know. But what does that have to do with this?”

“The map,” I said. “I think you’re onto something, but not in the way that you meant. Not with Anand being a spy, and not with a code in his letters—but something hidden in plain sight.”

“You’re losing me.”

“Why would someone need to draw a treasure map?” I said.

“Um, because they had a treasure?” Sanjay looked at me as if I was going crazy.

“Because they were
hiding something
,” I said. “Meaning they would also need to disguise the map in some way.”

I clicked on a map of Kochi, on the northern edge of the old Kingdom of Travancore. I zoomed into Fort Kochi, the central land mass of the port city. It was a perfect fit. I held the screen to Sanjay.

“Why are you showing me an old map of San Francisco?” he said.

“This isn’t San Francisco.”

This was it, I could feel it.

“This,” I said, “is Kochi. The famous spice trade city on the western coast of southern India.”

“I know what Kochi is,” Sanjay said. He grabbed the phone.

“Anand worked there after he left home as a teenager, before he came to America. He built and fixed boats there, just like he did in San Francisco.”

“It’s the same,” he whispered. “They’re the
exact same
shape and orientation. The peninsula with similar land masses to the north and the east. Even the same islands in between.”

“And more than that,” I said. “Chinese fishing nets line the north coast of Fort Kochi.
This
is what Anand was drawing. The connection he was making. Anand drew this map of Kochi, not San Francisco. Steven said Anand had written to his brother Vishwan about the treasure. He knew his little brother would recognize Kochi if he saw this map.”

“That is one good trick,” Sanjay said.

“Since Anand had lived in both port cities, he would have realized that their layouts were eerily similar. If his treasure map had fallen into the wrong hands in San Francisco, nobody would have guessed it was a map of a different city.”

“And nobody did.”

“That,” I said, “is why nobody has found Anand’s treasure in over a hundred years. They were looking on the wrong continent.”