Gift of Fire

but this wasn’t the time to explore them. It sounded as if Verity was all right, but he had to get back to the villa and make certain. Then he had to find poor Maggie Frampton.
    “You crazy son of a bitch,” Jonas said. “You killed Hazelhurst, didn’t you?” He unbuckled Spencer’s belt as he spoke. “You were the student who showed up two years ago to help him look for the treasure. Maggie finally recognized you this morning, didn’t she? Is that what happened? She said she knew who you were?”
    “I had to kill Hazelhurst,” Spencer explained, his expression suddenly, chillingly sane. “He was afraid, you see. Lost his nerve. Wouldn’t tell me what he’d done with the treasure, said no one must ever touch it. All that was left in the chest was a ring, a scrap of metal, and a stiletto. I knew Hazelhurst had gotten there first and found the rest. I tried to make him tell me, but he wouldn’t. The old bastard just kept saying the chest was empty when he found it. But I knew better.”
    “So you killed him with the stiletto you found in the chest, right?” Jonas dragged Spencer to his feet and secured his wrists behind his back with the belt.
    “I had to kill him. He was so freakin’ scared. The old fool wouldn’t tell me a thing, but I knew I could find it on my own. It had to be there in the villa. I didn’t need him to tell me where it was.”
    “But you never found the treasure, did you?” Jonas asked as he jerked Spencer back toward the villa. “You’ve killed two people but all you ever got was a ring, a drug and alcohol problem, and a few loose screws. Maybe Hazelhurst was right. Maybe the treasure is cursed. You should have left well enough alone. Tell me something, how did you get that rental boat over here? Doug brought you here in his launch, didn’t he?”
    “That was easy. As soon as I knew about the plans to spend a week at the villa, I rented the boat. Then I hired a kid who had his own boat to follow me here. I hid the boat in that first cove and the kid gave me a lift back to the other island. I told him I planned to use the skiff for a fishing party this week.”
    “Why did you think you’d need a boat?”
    Spencer looked at Jonas as if he were the crazy one. “To get off this damned island in case things went wrong.”
    “The way they did this morning?” Jonas asked harshly.
    “I got scared after I had to hit that old busybody. But you know, now that I think about it, there’s no need to be afraid, is there? Nobody can prove I killed Hazelhurst, even if someone does find his body. Except the old bag. When she recognized me, she started getting suspicious. Told me she’d been watching me, even went through my things one night. She found me in that torture chamber this morning.”
    “What were you doing in the torture chamber at this hour?”
    Slade wiped the back of his hand across his mouth, his eyes haunted. “I finally decided I had to have another look at that goddamned treasure room. I didn’t want to go back into that horrible tunnel but I had to. The secret’s in there somewhere, I’m sure of it. I was awake all night thinking about it. I’ve been afraid you might stumble onto the tunnel somehow, even though I tore the last pages out of Hazelhurst’s diary. I finally figured out that I had no choice but to go back inside. Jesus, I hate that tunnel. So much darkness.”
    “And Maggie found you there?”
    “She must have been watching me all night, waiting for me, the bitch. Accused me of having done something to Hazelhurst a couple of years ago. Started screaming like a madwoman, wouldn’t shut up. The damn bitch would not shut her goddamned mouth.”
    “So you hit her.”
    “Had to.” A twisted craftiness appeared in Slade’s eyes. “I got scared. There was so much blood. Knew I had to get out of there, so I ran back to my room to pack my things and get out. Then I realized I could just hide the body in the tunnel—no one would ever know. I went back down to the torture chamber but I was too late. The light was on and I knew someone had found her. Verity was in there. I saw her when I dumped Maggie’s body in the tunnel. She must have run in there to hide when she heard me coming.”
    Jonas froze. He swung around, his eyes threatening violence.
“
What have you done with Verity?
”
    Spencer peered at him, blinking rain out of his eyes. An insane intelligence blazed in his eyes. He grinned slowly. “I left her in the tunnel with the old