"Cutter will be thrilled," Faxon a.s.sured him dryly. "In the meantime, do you want anything more from me?"

"No thanks, Faxon. Go play with your computer." Jed quietly hung up the phone.

Amy was on him before the receiver clicked in the cradle. "That was your friend? The one who was going to check on Wyman for us?"

Jed nodded. "That was him."

"What about that comment about Cutter? And what's a salesman?"

"Never mind that. The important thing is that Wyman had a son."

That distracted her. "A son?" Her mouth opened in amazement.

"Right. Wyman was apparently sleeping with a woman named Vivien Renner. Shortly before his death, she gave birth to Daniel. Michael Wyman is listed as the father on Renner's birth certificate, although Vivien gave the boy her own last name."

"The blond floozy!"

"What?"

"Rosie mentioned a blond woman who tried to seduce my father. I'll bet it was this Vivien Renner," Amy said. "I'll bet Wyman put her up to it for some reason. Probably just to cause trouble. Rosie said Wyman was jealous of my father. Rosie also said Wyman was the kind who liked to cause mischief." She turned around and began to pace the length of the living room. "So Renner is Wyman's son. And after all these years he shows up on Orleana. Something of a coincidence, I'd say."

"Uh, yes, it struck me the same way," Jed said wryly.

"What do we do now?"

"We get that d.a.m.n box out of the cave," Jed said.

"But what about the silt that's clouding the water?"

"We'll monitor it. As soon as it's reasonably clear, we're going in. In the meantime we're going to buy ourselves a little protection." He reached for the phone.

"What kind of protection?"

"What's the number of Hank and Rosie's tavern?"

She gave it to him and then demanded, "What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to ask Hank to do me a favor." Jed was already dialing. The phone was answered on the other end before Amy could ask any more questions. "Hank? It's Jed Glaze. I need a favor."

"Sure," Hank promised easily. "Like I told you once, any friend of the Slaters is a friend of mine."

"All I'm asking is that you keep an eye on Dan Renner and his friend Guthrie. Give me a call if they leave town, will you?"

"That should be easy enough. What's up?"

"I'm not sure, but I'm still not convinced that Kelso was right in thinking Vaden was working alone the other night. I just thought it would be wise to keep tabs on Renner and Guthrie."

"You got it. I'll give you a holler if they leave town."

"Thanks, Hank, I appreciate it. Does Kelso still have Vaden under wraps?"

"Far as I know. He said he could keep him locked up for a few days on drunk and disorderly charges."

"Good. I'll talk to you later, Hank." Jed replaced the receiver again and looked at Amy. "Let's go check the water in the caves."

"Before breakfast?"

"I'm in a hurry," he told her.

"I noticed," she grumbled. But she turned toward the stairs to go get dressed. On the first step she paused and turned once more to ask, "But what about Cutter and that business of selling a salesman?"

"It's nothing. I'll explain it all later. Move, Amy."

She moved, but it didn't do much good. The water in the caves didn't clear until late that evening.

Chapter Seventeen.

"You don't think this could wait until morning?" Amy asked as she buckled her weight belt. She wasn't expecting Jed to agree to a delay, and she wasn't disappointed.

Jed pulled on his diving gloves. "No. Things are coming together too fast. I don't like it. I just wish to h.e.l.l we'd been able to get that box out yesterday. Having Michael Wyman's son on the island is not conducive to my peace of mind."

"Do you think Guthrie's working with him? Vaden, too?" Amy was only partially aware of his answers.

She stood looking at the night shrouded entrance pool, thinking it looked very much the way it had that night in October. The moonlight was fretful and scattered, just as it had been eight months before. A storm was gathering out at sea.

"Being an engineer, I'm inclined to a.s.sume and design for the worst possible case. Whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Yeah, I think Vaden, Guthrie and Renner are all connected. Vaden, at least, is tucked away in jail. And Hank's keeping an eye on Guthrie and Renner. With any luck they won't move on us until we try to leave the island. Why should they do the hard work if we're willing to do it for them?"

"If you're right, how are we going to get off the island?"

"Very carefully." He picked up his fins. "Are you ready?" Automatically he checked her equipment one last time.

"I'm ready." She wouldn't think about how much this night dive reminded her of the experience last October. After all, Amy thought as she clambered down over the rocks and into the pool, once inside the caves it was night twenty-four hours a day. She could always tell herself the sun was shining brightly just outside the entrance.

Beside her in the water Jed put on his fins and adjusted his mask. "Let's go."

He was all business, Amy realized as she turned on her light and dived under the pool surface. He had been all business all day, in fact. There had been no light moments, no teasing, no time set aside for sketching bird cages. Jed had walked down to the pool to check the clearing water every hour. In between checks he had been nearly silent. Amy had sensed his controlled impatience, his icy tension that seemed to sizzle just under the surface. He reminded her of a large hunting cat pacing its den, waiting to go out on a kill. She wondered if this was the way Jed behaved when he was on one of his terrible a.s.signments.

They pa.s.sed through the gaping cavern entrance and angled down to follow the pa.s.sageway. The beam of her dive light revealed water that had cleared almost completely. Amy kept one hand in contact with the nylon line that was spinning out behind Jed and wondered again about the conversation she had overheard that morning.

Faxon, she knew, was the computer whiz, the one who had pulled up the information on Wyman and Renner from the data bank. She seemed to recall Cutter's name from the first telephone conversation.

Jed had told Faxon to give Cutter the message that he was almost ready to go back to work. Cutter must be Jed's boss.

Jed had promised to "sell the salesman" for Cutter. Amy had seen the chilled, remote look on his face when he had made the promise. She didn't want to think about what the words might mean.

Jed was right: Things were closing in. One of those things was his job. When this was all over, Amy thought, she would be forced to watch him return to the pattern of frequent absences, phone calls from the airport asking her to pick him up because he was too injured to drive, a future that he never discussed and for which he never made plans.

It was ironic, Amy thought, that Jed was rapidly taking steps to restore her own future to her. He had broken the time loop with the past in which she had been caught. But nothing had changed for him. Amy knew she would give everything she possessed to free him as he had freed her.

Maybe he didn't want to be free. Jed was well adapted to the way he lived. The potential for violence didn't seem to bother him. He didn't question his own lack of interest in the future. As far as she could tell he tuned out everything but the present. He seemed content to keep their affair relegated to a separate portion of his life.

Who was she to try to change his world?

Amy swam cautiously around a collection of delicate stalact.i.tes hanging from the ceiling, following the white nylon line. At least thinking about Jed kept her from dwelling on what had happened before in the cave.

Jed paused briefly when they reached the fall of gravel that had trapped him the previous day. He played the light over the debris and Amy saw that there was still room to squeeze through the narrow entrance into the corridor that led to the skeleton's cave. She shuddered at the memory of hollow eyes and teeth that had been grinning for twenty-five years. Amy was relieved when Jed turned to swim further along the main corridor.

The pa.s.sageway twisted to the right a few feet beyond the gravel fall. The curve in the corridor struck a familiar chord in Amy's brain. Jed stopped to tie off the line. He looked at Amy, silently asking if the scene appeared familiar. She shone the light on the walls of the cavern and nodded uncertainly. This had to be the right direction, but her memories of the cave's layout were vague.

But as soon as she followed Jed around the curve in the corridor, a few more stray recollections clicked into place. She kicked forward a little harder and touched Jed's leg. He glanced back inquiringly and she signaled vigorously that this section was familiar.

When they aimed the dive lights on the side wall of the cavern they saw the opening that led into another branch tunnel. Amy's breath sounded momentarily harsher in her regulator as she realized it was the corridor where she had left the box. She pointed to it and Jed obediently swam forward.

The metal box was sitting right where she had left it eight months before. It was nestled into a small gouge in the cave wall, sharing the s.p.a.ce with a cl.u.s.ter of tiny blind fish. The pale creatures scattered as Jed put his gloved hand into the opening and pulled out the box.

Amy stared at it, all the terrifying images she a.s.sociated with these caves crowding back into her mind.

Two men, Wyman and LePage, had died because of this box. In that moment it was easy to believe that one of them, Wyman, still haunted the caves, protecting his treasure.

Because of this box she had almost been killed. Because of this box she had looked into the staring eyes of a dead man. Because of this box the past had intruded on the serenity of Orleana Island.

It took all of Amy's willpower to respond to Jed's rough demand for attention. When she met his eyes through the mask she understood he was ordering her to carry the box out of the caves.

Belatedly she realized there was no other practical alternative. Jed had his hands full with the dive light and the reel.

She carried the d.a.m.n thing in, she could carry it back out, Amy thought. She took it from Jed and turned around to leave the side corridor ahead of him. A few minutes later she was in the main pa.s.sageway, aware of Jed swimming strongly behind her, reeling in the line.

The box wasn't really very heavy. How much could six emeralds, a pile of letters and a few d.a.m.ning photographs weigh? But Amy felt as though she were holding a live grenade. She retreated eagerly along the white line, anxious to get out of the cave before the thing in her hand exploded.

Amy rounded the deep bend in the main pa.s.sage and found herself blinded by the full glare of another dive light in the distance.

For an instant she couldn't figure out what it meant to be staring into an oncoming light. It was not unlike being in a railroad tunnel and encountering the glare of a train light. Full realization set in just as Jed yanked violently on her leg.

Startled, Amy glanced back, wondering what he wanted. She tried to point out the oncoming diver and then realized he was well aware of the intruder. When he yanked again she realized he was urging her through the narrow entrance that led to the skeleton's cave.

The last thing she wanted to do was return to that morbid cavern, but Amy quickly made another discovery about her friend and lover: When Jed Glaze gave a command, he expected to be obeyed.

Even as her mind protested Amy found herself swimming through the small hole in the wall.

Half expecting to elicit another dangerous shower of gravel, she was vastly relieved when nothing happened. When she glanced back she saw that Jed was following her. He urged her forward, handing her the reel of line because she was now in front. He took the box from her.

Unable to think of any convincing arguments under the circ.u.mstances, Amy grimly swam forward into the darkness. She began watching for the flat, silvery mirror that indicated the air pocket.

How far away had the other diver been? She'd seen nothing but the glare of his light, and distances were tricky to judge underwater. Objects were magnified by about twenty-five percent, making them seem closer than they actually were.

Still, she calculated that they had a little time before the other diver found the point where the nylon line vanished into the branching pa.s.sage. Jed obviously wanted to spend that time getting to the only source of air inside the flooded caves.

It made sense, Amy thought, but she dreaded the prospect of getting up on the ledge where the skeleton had been all those years.

She found the air pocket and surfaced. Jed was beside her at once.

"Up on the ledge," he snapped. "Hurry."

"What are you going to do?" she asked breathlessly as she swam toward the skeleton's resting place.

"Prepare a welcoming committee."

"Jed, who is it?"

"How the h.e.l.l should I know? Guthrie, maybe. Or Renner."

"But Hank was going to keep an eye on both of them." Her hand rammed painfully into the cave wall just under the ledge. "Uh, we're here. I take it you want me to climb out?"

"As fast as possible. Move, lady." He was already lifting the box out of the water and setting it on the ledge.

Amy heard something crunch as the metal box struck the rock. Probably just a little loose gravel, she told herself bracingly, not bones. Taking a deep breath she put her light on the rocky surface and reached up to plant both palms on the ledge.

"Watch your head." Jed gave her a strong boost that lifted her high out of the water.

Amy closed her eyes in brief horror as she found herself looking down at the rib cage of the skeleton.

The glare from her dive light shone up through what had once been the chest cavity, revealing the rows of bones.

She managed to turn herself into a sitting position on the very edge of the ledge, her legs dangling over the side into the water. Jed heaved himself up beside her and casually kicked the bones out of the way to make a s.p.a.ce for himself.

Amy was quietly grateful when the skeleton disappeared into the darkness at the back of the ledge.

"Now what?" she whispered.

"Now we turn out the lights. No sense pinpointing our location for him. Ready?"

"No, but I never will be, so you might as well do it." Amy braced herself for the dense blackness that descended immediately.

The darkness inside the cave was like no other darkness on earth. There were no shadows, no tiny c.h.i.n.ks of light, no hint of a moon, just total, endless nothing.

Amy groped for Jed's hand and found it just as a tiny glimmer of light appeared underwater far down the pa.s.sageway. The other diver had entered the side pa.s.sage.

"Get your feet out of the water," Jed muttered softly, rising to his knees on the ledge.

He felt her changing position and knew she was curling herself into a kneeling pose. It wasn't easy maneuvering out of the water with the full weight of the diving equipment bearing down on them. Amy was wearing nearly twenty pounds of lead in the weight belt alone. The additional burden of the tank and a.s.sorted gear made a very uncomfortable package out of the water.