“I had the images I took analyzed.” He showed her a blown-up image.
“It’s Malloy’s boat, all right. But I don’t understand. He helped both me and my father.”
“I think it’s clear. He warned you and for good reason. He’s involved somehow.”
“But he delivered the journal back to me. It’s a combination journal now because it includes both my father’s notes and mine.”
“Because he read it first, looking for anything that could help him. I don’t see you as someone who would leave the journal behind.”
“You could be right. Dax, his son, lowered my things to me in the skiff. It’s possible he could have quickly snatched it without my knowledge. But you should know, from the beginning, ever since I took this on, there were pages missing from the journal.”
“Do you think they were related to theSpecter’s Bounty?” Before it got cold, Braden finished his soup while they talked.
“It’s hard to know, but with all that’s happened, I suspect they were related. I don’t know who has them now, or if they were destroyed.”
“As for the journal, my guess is that Malloy or his son, Dax, read it and then delivered it back as if you’d simply left it behind.”
“Isn’t this all an assumption?” she said. “Circumstantial stuff.”
Braden got that she really didn’t want to believe Malloy could be involved. “Possibly. It’s a theory. I have to have theories.”
“So you’re going to try to question him?” Cressida had finished her soup.
He grabbed their plastic bowls and added them to the trash he should take out soon, then washed their utensils and put them away.
“I’ve been trying to find him from the start. After all, he warned you, remember? I want to know why. Want more coffee?”
“Please. I need to stay awake all night, if necessary, and read as much as I can.”
“I saw some cookies in the pantry,” he said. “We can eat those for dessert. Coffee and sugar up so we can work through the night.”
He opened the large pantry and grabbed a box of butter cookies.Thank you, Evelyn Monroe.At the counter, he opened up the box and let Cressida grab some first.
“In the end, all this research will help you understand more about theSpecter’s Bounty. Do you think, in keeping with your father’s book, you’ll stick with the folklore, or will you write in what you learned about the truth, if that turns out to be different than what is shared at the museum?”
Sitting on a stool, she leaned against the massive island and drank her coffee. Nibbled on a butter cookie. “You and I both know there’s much more going on here. I’ll see what the truth is and decide. This isn’t the usual kind of thing. I’m not even sure what Dad would want. His books have previously been published by Anchor Point, and the editor knows I’m working on this last one. I want it to be special. Everything Dad would have wanted. But until I know howhe died, whatever it is that Diggins might tell me, I’m on edge and it’s hard to focus. But that just makes me all the more determined.”
Yeah, he figured. He wasn’t talking her out of this.
“I understand.” More than she knew. He’d always been up-front and honest, and to find himself in this predicament was like being in a moral-dilemma nightmare.
Be honest and up-front, tell her, and she was gone. Done. And what about Elise?
Don’t tell her now, but when she eventually learned the truth, she would be done with him. That shouldn’t be a problem, except he was really into this woman and could see himself falling for her.
“I bet you were a top investigative reporter. What did you work on before you took on your father’s book?”
Crunching on another cookie, she frowned. “I don’t like to talk about it, but for you? Maybe it’s a story you should know. The reason I won’t call my mother. She’s kind of a big deal in her position.” She shook her head, deep lines forming between her brows and around her mouth.
He wished he could take the question back, but he needed the answer.
“She used her power to shut me down. I can’t get a job working in the same world as before. So I took on this project. Afterward, who knows. Maybe I’ll start a podcast.”
“What would the podcast be about?”
“Exposés. See, I was looking into a story about the environment and the fishing industry when I followed the trail to toxic materials leaching from underwater wreckage. I had a source I really needed to interview, and I asked Mom for help. That’s when she learned the details and asked me not to do it.” Cressida rubbed her eyes while she finished talking. “I didn’t stop, and the next thing I know, the magazine let me go for some made-up reason. That’s when I gota clue, and I confronted her. I figured, in the end, it would somehow lead to her.”
“Lead to her how?” He’d considered the same.
