The Pirate & The Adventurer & The Cowboy

point."

    "Yeah, but I like it here. I hope we come back to Seattle, soon."

    "So do I," Sarah said from the other side of the room.

    "You and Margaret will have to come on out to Amethyst one of these days," Jared said easily. "Don't worry, we've got plenty of room."

    "A whole resort," David clarified. "I'll show you how to snorkel, just like I showed Kate."

    "Sounds terrific," Sarah said.

    "Promise me you'll both make plans to visit us soon," Kate said. "I miss you both."

    Jared's brows climbed as he glanced at his wife. "I don't see why. You spend enough time on the phone talking to them."

    "Got to keep in touch with the business," Kate informed him loftily.

    Jared grinned at Sarah and Margaret. "As I said, come on out for a visit. The airfare's bound to be less than the phone bills the three of you are running up."

    Kate wrinkled her nose. "That's not true."

    "Wanna bet?" Jared moved toward the pile of luggage in the corner. "Come on, Dave, give me a hand with this stuff. You know Kate never travels light."

    "Okay, Dad." David threw a quick grin at Kate as he hurried toward the luggage.

    Sarah hugged Kate at the door. "Don't worry, we'll get to Amethyst, one way or the other," she promised as she blinked back a few tears.

    "Thanks," Kate whispered. "And thanks again for sending me on that first trip to the island. I owe all my happiness to you and Margaret."

    "Oh, Kate, I'm so happy for you." Sarah smiled mistily and stepped back as Jared and David started through the door with the luggage.

    "It's been great to see you these past two weeks, Kate," Margaret added, getting to her feet to give her friend a farewell embrace. "It's good to know we'll be able to visit with you at least once a year when Jared brings his son to the States to see his grandparents."

    "Don't worry, you'll see her more often than that," Jared said from the doorway. "But right now I'm taking her home to Amethyst. I've got a resort to run. Place has probably started crumbling into the sea during the two weeks I've been gone."

    "It wouldn't dare." Kate slung her purse over her shoulder and followed Jared and David through the doorway. "Goodbye, you two. It's been a wonderful visit. Can't wait to see you on Amethyst. Sarah, good luck with your treasure hunting. Margaret, take care. And thanks again."

    Sarah went out into the hall to wave the small family into the elevator and then she returned to her apartment. She shut the door behind her with great care and walked over to where Margaret stood at the window.

    "Well, you were right when you said AmethystIsland was the place to send Kate," Margaret remarked. "She looks radiant."

    "She's happy and relaxed." Sarah watched Kate, Jared and David pile into the waiting cab.

    "Good for her. Now, about your plans for the immediate future…"

    "What about them?"

    Margaret frowned, turning away from the window. "You're really going to look him up?"

    "Gideon Trace? Absolutely. I'm driving over to the coast at the end of the week to try to find him."

    "You've got an address?"

    "Just the post office box number on the envelopes he's sent me. The towns on the coast are all small. The one he's in is barely a dot on the map, the kind of place where everyone knows everyone else. Someone will be able to tell me where the publisher of
Cache
magazine lives."

    "You haven't told Trace you're coming, have you?"

    "No, I plan to surprise him."

    Margaret looked at her ruefully. "You're always so blissfully sure of that intuition of yours, aren't you?"

    "It's only failed me once. And that was my own fault. I wasn't paying attention to the warnings it was giving me." Sarah walked toward the kitchen. "How about a glass of wine before dinner?"

    "Sounds good. Well, at least Trace hasn't tried to talk you into investing a few thousand dollars in some crazy expedition to find a lost World War II plane that supposedly crashed on a Pacific island with a load of gold on board."

    Sarah giggled. "You mean the way that guy Slaughter did?" Jim Slaughter, owner of a business called Slaughter Enterprises, had been one of the professional treasure hunters she had contacted five months earlier. She had found his ad along with several others in the back of a sleazy adventure magazine for men.

    He had written her several letters on impressive letterhead and tried phoning a few times in an attempt to interest her in his scheme to find the plane full of gold. Sarah had politely declined several times.

    "He was a