Duma Key

"Hurricane season officially starts June fifteenth down here and lasts about five months. Out-of-season storms with torrential rains and high winds... as far as the old-timers are concerned, they're all Alice. As in Hurricane Alice. It's kind of a joke."

"You're making that up."

"Nope. Esther - the big one in '26 - missed Duma completely, but the Alice in March of '27 hit it pretty much dead-on. Then it blew inland and drowned in the Glades. It did the damage you see in this picture - not much, really; blew down some palms, knocked out some glass, tore up the lawn. But in another way, its effects are still being felt. Because it seems pretty certain it was that Alice that led to the drowning deaths of Tessie and Laura, and that led to everything else. Including you and me standing here now."

"Explain."

"Remember this?"

He took another photo from his folder, and I certainly did remember it. The big one was on the second-floor landing of the main staircase. This was a smaller, sharper copy. It was the Eastlake family, with John Eastlake wearing a black bathing singlet and looking like a Hollywood B-list actor who might have specialized in detective movies and jungle epics. He was holding Elizabeth. One hand cupped her plump little bottom. The other held that harpoon pistol, and a face-mask with an attached snorkel.

"Judging just by Elizabeth, I'm going to guess this might have been taken around 1925," Wireman said. "She looks two, going on three. And Adriana" - he tapped the eldest - "looks like she might be seventeen going on thirty-four, wouldn't you say?"

Indeed. Seventeen and ripe, even in her it-covers-damn-near-everything bathing suit.

"She's already got that sulky, pouty I-want-to-be-somewhere-else look, too," Wireman said. "I wonder just how surprised her father was when she up and eloped with one of his plant managers. And I wonder if he wasn't, in his heart of hearts, glad to see her go." He put on his Chris Shannington drawl. "Run off to Atlanta with a boy in a tie and an eyeshade." Then he quit it. I guessed the subject of little dead girls, even ones lost eighty years ago, was still a tender one with him. "She and her new hubby came back, but by then it was just a hunt for the bodies."

I tapped the grim-faced black nanny. "Who was this?"

"Melda or Tilda or maybe even, God save us, Hecuba, according to Chris Shannington. His father knew, but Chris no longer remembers."

"Nice bracelets."

He glanced at them without much interest. "If you say so."

"Maybe John Eastlake was sleeping with her," I said. "Maybe the bracelets were a little present."

" Qui n sabe? Rich widower, young woman - it's been known to happen."

I tapped the picnic basket, which the young black woman was holding with both hands, her arms bunched as though it was heavy. Heavier than just a few sandwiches could account for, you'd think... but maybe there was a whole chicken in there. And maybe a few bottles of beer for ole massa, as well - a little reward after he'd finished his day's dives. "What color would you say that hamper is? Dark brown? Or is it red?"

Wireman gave me a strange look. "In a black-and-white photograph, it's hard to tell."

"Tell me how the storm led to the deaths of the little girls."

He opened the folder again and handed me an old news story with an accompanying photograph. "This is from the Venice Gondolier, March 28th, 1927. I got the original info on the net. Jack Cantori called the paper, got someone to make a copy and shoot me a fax. Jack's terrific, by the way."

"No argument there," I said. I studied the photo. "Who are these girls? No - don't tell me. The one on his left's Maria. Hannah's on his right."

"A- plus. Hannah's the one with breasts. She was fourteen in '27."

We studied the fax sheet in silence for a few moments. E-mail would have been better. The fax had annoying dark vertical lines running through it, blurring some of the print, but the headline was clear enough: STORM PROVES TREASURE-HUNTING BOON TO AMATEUR DIVER. And the picture was clear enough, too. Eastlake's hairline had receded a little. As if to compensate, his narrow bandleader's mustache was now closer to a walrus. And although he was still wearing the same black bathing singlet, it was now under severe stress... and actually popped under one arm, I thought, although the picture's resolution wasn't quite good enough to be certain. It appeared Dad Eastlake had packed on some pork between 1925 and 1927 - the B-movie actor would have trouble getting roles if he didn't start skipping desserts and doing more work in the gym. The girls flanking him weren't as sloe-eyed-sexy as their big sister - you looked at Adriana and thought about hot afternoons in a haymow, you looked at these two and wondered if they were getting their schoolwork done - but they were pretty in a not-quite-there-yet way, and their excitement shone out in the picture. Sure it did.

Because, spread before them on the sand, was treasure.