Maritime Caper (Coastal Fury Book 12), Matt Lincoln [good books to read for beginners TXT] 📗

The company was the real highlight, though.

“So,” Tessa said when we were done talking about all her exploits across Canada. “What’s the plan for this whole museum thing? Are we going to go down there and give that little old lady a piece of our minds? Oh, please tell me that that’s what we’re going to do.”

“I don’t know about that,” I chuckled, giving her a bemused look. “But we do have to figure out what drove her to threaten me like that. It’s such strange behavior, especially coming from someone like her.”

“I don’t know, you live in New York long enough, and you find out that little old ladies are sometimes the most threatening people out there,” Tessa pointed out, flashing me a grin, and I chuckled again.

“I’ll have to take your word for it,” I said. “Though you have to admit that she doesn’t really seem like the type to freak out like that. Does your friend George know her, do you know?”

“No, he doesn’t,” Tessa said, shaking her head. “He called you this morning, right? He told me that he would call you.”

“Yes, he did,” I confirmed. “He basically just told me that his friend Henry at the museum’s been ducking his calls. Did you get a Henry any of the times you contacted the museum? Or someone who sounded like an old man?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Tessa said, her expression one of deep thought. “I got the old woman loads of times, and she’s always a real hoot. And that poor kid who works for her, the intern. I got him a lot. I can’t remember his name.”

“Pierce Leal,” I said instinctively, having memorized the about section of the museum’s website handily by then. “And yeah, I got him a couple of times myself. Not that he was ever any help. He just hung up most of the time.”

“I felt bad for him,” Tessa sighed. “He didn’t strike me as too bright, at least not when it came to this. I got him to talk to me once, and he seemed really confused about why he was being asked to avoid us, but kind of scared, too.”

“Scared?” I asked, leaning forward over what remained of my dinner. “How so?”

“Oh, nothing like you’re thinking,” she said quickly, seeing my expression and no doubt assuming, rightly of course, that I was leaping to the worst-case scenario. “I think the manager… what’s her name again?”

“Martha,” I said with a small smile. “An unassuming old ladies’ name, of course.”

“Right, Martha,” Tessa laughed. “I think he was afraid of her. She controls his internship. I think he’s a college or grad student or something and needs the credit. I don’t think he even gets paid or anything.”

“Probably not,” I chuckled. “Poor kid. Just trying to get his credit hours in and stumbles into this whole mess. Whatever this is.”

“What do you think?” Tessa asked, interlinking her hands under her chin and peering into my eyes. “I mean, you must have some theories sloshing around that head of yours. Who’s behind all this?”

“I couldn’t even begin to tell you,” I scoffed, shaking my head. “I’ve turned it over in my head dozens of times, but it just doesn’t add up. I’ve decided that whoever sent the fake journal must’ve done so to get me to think the real one was destroyed so I would stop looking for it, and maybe even the Dragon’s Rogue itself, which means that someone else is looking for it. But I couldn’t begin to say who.”

“You’ve never run into anyone else on all your adventures looking for it?” Tessa asked. “Maybe someone else with a connection to the ship? Your grandfather spent a lot of time looking for it, after all.”

“That’s true,” I murmured, thinking back to all the times I’d talked about the Dragon’s Rogue with him. “But no, I’ve racked my brain for all of that and come up empty. Whoever’s doing this has managed to stay under the radar for a long time or only started looking for the ship very recently.”

“If that’s the case, they’ve gained a lot of ground in a short time,” Tessa remarked, furrowing her brows together in thought. “To get ahead of you, when you’ve been at this for so long and have so many connections and leads already? And they seem to know an awful lot about you, too. Enough to know that you’re looking for the ship and how to get you to stop, at least.”

“And they know I work for MBLIS,” I said with a nod. “They sent the package to my office there. Not to my home address, though. Neither the houseboat nor my official residence on file. So maybe they don’t know that, at least.”

“I hadn’t even considered that,” Tessa said, her face stricken. “That’s a kind of scary thought.”

“That scares you, but the manager threatening us doesn’t?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at her.

“She’s just a little old lady,” Tessa scoffed, waving her hand dismissively at this notion.

“I thought you said that little old ladies could be more deadly than they appear,” I reminded her playfully.

She just winked at me in response as the waiter came to drop off the check.

“Come on,” I said as I slipped my card into the little black folder and handed it off to him. “We’d better get going.”

“Thank you for dinner,” she said, smiling at me.

“It was the least I could do after you agreed to join me on this trip,” I said, returning the gesture.

“Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she assured me.

9

Holm

I stayed late at the office that night, even though Diane didn’t ask me to. She’d sent both Birn and Muñoz home early, despite their loud protestations, and I didn’t want to leave her alone in case anything came up with the Holland case.

Plus, despite what I’d promised Marston, I wasn’t exactly upset that he was gone. I’d have liked to get my hands on