The Reef

grandfather’s tales, Jos Baltazar washed ashore on the island of Nevis. He was a seaman on the Isabella, and he watched her go down as he clung half conscious to a plank probably from the wrecked Santa Marguerite. Matthew, I think your father had traced this same clue.”
    “If that’s true, what was he doing in Australia?”
    “He was following Angelique’s Curse.” Ray paused for effect. “But he was a generation too soon. A British aristocrat, Sir Arthur Minnefield, had acquired the amulet from a French merchant.”
    “Minnefield.” Buck narrowed his eyes in concentration. “I remember seeing that name in James’s notes. The night before he died he told me he’d been looking in the wrong place. He said how VanDyke had it wrong, how that damned necklace had gotten around. That’s how he said it, ‘that damned necklace,’ and he was excited. When we were finished on the reef, he said how we were going to shake loose of VanDyke, turn the tables on him before he turned them on us. Said how we had to be careful of VanDyke and not move too fast. He had a lot more studying and figuring to do before we went after her.”
    “My theory is he found another reference to the amulet, or to Baltazar.” Ray set the book carefully on his desk. “You see, the amulet didn’t go down on the reef, the ship did, Minnefield did, but Angelique’s Curse survived. Details are sketchy for the next thirty years. Maybe itwashed up on the beach or someone found it while exploring the reefs. I can’t find any mention of it between 1706 and 1733. But Baltazar saw it around the neck of a young Spanish woman aboard the Isabella. He described it. He heard the legend, and he recounted it.”
    Far from convinced, Tate folded her hands. “If there’s a reference to the amulet that places it on the Isabella, why hasn’t VanDyke found it, and gone after the Isabella himself?”
    “He was dead sure it was in Australia,” Buck told her. “He was fired up about it, obsessed. He got it into his head James knew something more, dogged him about it.”
    “And killed him for it,” Matthew said flatly. “VanDyke’s had teams working that wreck and that area for years.”
    “But if my father found a reference that indicated the necklace was elsewhere,” Tate continued with stubborn logic, “and your father found a reference, it’s only reasonable that a man with VanDyke’s resources, and his greed, would have found it as well.”
    “Maybe the amulet didn’t want him to find it.” LaRue spoke passively as he patiently rolled a cigarette.
    “It’s an inanimate object,” Tate retorted.
    “So is the Hope Diamond,” LaRue said. “The philosopher’s stone, the Ark of the Covenant. Yet the legends surrounding them are vital.”
    “The operative word is ‘legend’ ”
    “All those degrees made you cynical,” Matthew commented. “Too bad.”
    “I think the point is,” Marla cut in, recognizing the warrior light in her daughter’s eyes, “that Ray has found something, not whether or not this amulet holds some sort of power.”
    “Well put.” Ray rubbed the side of his nose. “Where was I? Baltazar was captivated by the amulet, even after word began to pass about the curse, and the crew became uneasy. He believed the ship was wrecked because of the curse, and that he survived to tell the tale. He told it well,” Ray added. “I’ve copied several pages of his reminiscences of the storm. You’ll see when you read themthat it was a hellish battle against the elements, a hopeless one. Of these two ships, the Marguerite succumbed first. As the Isabella broke up, passengers and crew were swept into the sea. He claims to have seen the Spanish lady, the amulet like a jeweled anchor around her neck, go down. Of course, that tidbit might have been for artistic effect.”
    Ray passed out copied pages. “In any case, he survived. The wind and the waves carried him away from land, from St. Kitts, or St. Christopher’s as it was known then. He’d given up all hope, lost his sense of time when he saw the outline of Nevis. He didn’t believe he could make it to shore as he was too weak to swim. But eventually he drifted in. A young native boy found him. He was delirious and near death for weeks. When he recovered, he had no desire to serve the Armada. Instead he let the world believe him dead. He remained on the island, married and passed down his stories of his adventures at sea.”
    Ray took another paper from his pile.