Pirate Vishnu (A Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt Mystery)

by Pandian, Gigi

  “Certain locations drawn on the map were meant to be the Kochi that Anand knew, and certain locations were meant to be San Francisco. Anand’s accomplice stole a treasure in India that was crafted at a location marked on the map with the notation “lost,” and Anand had hidden the treasure in San Francisco where he marked “found” on the map.

  “Buried here at Lands End?” Christine asked.

  “Not exactly buried,” I said. “Sunken.”

  I pointed to the plaque commemorating the ships that had sunk off the coast. My research had confirmed that The Siren’s Anchor was an older ship that had been buried along the eastern coast of San Francisco during the Gold Rush and been turned into a saloon. And as I had seen on my earlier walk at Lands End, there was an unidentified ship of unknown origins that sank the day of the Great Earthquake.

  “The treasure was never found,” I said, “because it sank along with the ship it was hidden within on April 18, 1906.”

  “The Heart of India is right here?” Christine ran to the edge of the lookout.

  “You know what the treasure is?”

  “What?” Christine turned. “Oh, you said… No, Connor’s father must have said.”

  “Lands End.” Sanjay giggled, pointing at Christine. “The end of the land. Bye, bye land.” He swayed back and forth, putting his face in his hands.

  Oh no...This wasn’t happening.

  Sanjay had drunk from the wrong glass. He was the one who was drugged. Not Christine.

  “Sanjay,” I said sharply, taking his trench coat by the lapels and shaking him. “You’re in control.”

  Sanjay opened his fingers and peeked through his hands.

  “I’m in control?” he said.

  “Yes. You—”

  Sanjay dropped his hands and wrapped them around me. He lifted me off the ground and brought his mouth down on mine. His arms were strong from the strength training he did for his more complex illusions. He held me in place without effort. I was so surprised that I didn’t resist. His lips caressed mine in a rhythmic motion that was much more skilled than his sitar playing.

  And damn if Tamarind wasn’t right—my thighs did feel like they were on fire.

  Chapter 54

  San Francisco, April 10, 1906

  Mai kissed Anand and held him tight. They were in Anand’s boarding house room. He’d sent a local boy to find her.

  “You must let me fetch a doctor,” she begged. She had already wrapped his wound, but she was not a nurse. She didn’t know what else she could do.

  “It is no use,” Anand said. “I have already lived ten more years than I should have. I lived long enough to meet you.”

  “But--”

  “That is enough.” He wiped away a tear from Mai’s cheek.

  “I’m with child,” Mai said, pausing for a moment to give herself the strength to carry on. “Your child, Anand.”

  Anand’s sharp intake of breath pained him physically, but the psychological blow was greater.

  Anand looked at his beautiful Mai. Brave, happy Mai, who now looked so sad.

  “That changes things,” he said.

  “You’ll let me get a doctor?”

  Anand shook his head sadly. “There is no use. But now, I know I cannot risk Li going to jail for me. I was going to ask him to retrieve the Heart of India from where it is hidden, to return it.” He broke off in pain, taking a moment to compose himself. “Li’s involvement in stealing the ship already puts him in danger of being arrested. He cannot take the added risk. He must be here to help you raise the child.”

  “Is there nothing that can be done?” She squeezed Anand’s so hard that the pain made him smile. He knew it was no act she was putting on. She loved him as much as he loved her.

  “There is something else you can do for me.”

  “Anything, Anand.”

  “Fetch me a pen.”

  “After that, I will also fetch a doctor--”

  “I know what it feels like to die,” Anand said. “It is what gave me so much life these past years. It is also why I know with certainty that death has hold of me.”

  Mai held Anand close, not caring that blood soaked her dress.

  “Please hurry,” Anand said. He coughed, and blood trickled from his mouth.

  Mai fetched a pen, and Anand began to draw a map on a page of the diary he kept with him. She watched, rushing to his side to bring water to his lips when he faltered. Anand’s hand shook as he wrote a few words in Tamil on the sketch. He usually wrote to his brother in English, but he needed to make sure this map would not be understood by anyone before it reached India. Before his strength left him, he wrote a short letter for Vishwan, explaining the map. He then wrote a page in his diary, completing the story of his life that he had been keeping during his travels.

  Anand tore out two pages from the diary and handed them to Mai.

  “You must mail this map and letter to my brother, Vishwan,” Anand said. “Mail them separately. Li need not be involved. Vishwan will take care of the Heart of India.”

  Mai took the letters, then kissed Anand. She tasted blood, but she did not care. Anand rested his head on her shoulder and willed himself one last burst of strength. There was one last thing for him to do.

  Chapter 55

  Sanjay held me so tightly that I could barely breathe. I had a vague recollection that Christine had swept her large wrap around her right before picking up a glass, masking our vision to see which glass she picked up. That was how Sanjay must have mistakenly gotten the glass with the drug in the champagne. But at that moment, with Sanjay’s lips on mine, I didn’t seem to care.

  I had to focus. Really. Truly. I was going to focus. Any second now. A gust of cold wind swept around us. I pulled away. Our lips broke apart, but Sanjay still held me off the ground.

  “I’m in charge now,” I said, catching my breath. “Put me down, Sanjay.”

  He dumped me unceremoniously onto the ground. I fell to my knees. Not my most graceful moment. I stood up and brushed the dirt off the knees of my jeans. When I looked up, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

  Sanjay pulled a gun from the pocket of his trench coat. Where the hell had he gotten a gun?

  Christine screamed. I might have done so, as well.

  “Why did you do it?” Sanjay asked, waving the gun at Christine.

  “Sanjay,” I said, trying to keep my voice level. “You don’t want to do this. This isn’t you. You’re drugged. You drank from the wrong glass.”

  Sanjay ignored me, his attention fixed on Christine.

  “It was all Steven’s idea,” Christine said, staring at the gun. “He’s the one who came to me.”

  “Why would he come to you?” Sanjay asked, the gun flailing precariously in his hand.

  It was a good question. Maybe Sanjay was more lucid than he appeared. I hoped he was, considering how much the gun swung in his hand.

  “Last year,” she said, answering him quickly, transfixed on the gun. “When he was moving into a bigger house, before he got disbarred. He found a box from his grandmother, Maybelle. He found this map, and a letter from his grandmother explaining how this treasure, the Heart of India, was stolen and hidden. Your great-granduncle had fathered a child with Maybelle—”

  “Wait—what?”

  “Her maiden name was Mai Fong,” Christine said. “She explained everything in the letter she left for Steven. Your great-great uncle died before the child was born, and she later married Steven’s grandfather. He was a spiritualist, which is how he knew my family.”

  “Spiritualist Samuel,” I said.

  Christine nodded. “Real name Samuel Healy.”

  “He knew your family?”

  “The treasure was meant for the Lancaster family,” Christine said. “
My family.”

  “You’re a Lancaster?” I said.

  I hadn’t looked into any family connections because I thought Steven Healy had lied to me about this being a family treasure. But he hadn’t lied. He hadn’t told me everything, but in a way, it was truly a family treasure. And not just a family treasure for Steven Healy, but for me too, in more ways than I ever imagined. If Christine was telling the truth, that meant I was related to Steven and his son Connor.

  “That’s why Steven thought I might know something more about where the treasure was hidden,” Christine said, pulling her eyes away from Sanjay’s gun and looking at me. “He was desperate to restore his reputation after he was disbarred. He wanted to find the treasure to redeem himself.”

  “Your marriage to Connor was about the treasure?” I asked.

  Sanjay looked from Christine to me. His eyes were glazed, but he looked like he was following the conversation. He wouldn’t shoot anyone, would he? Even when under the influence of a persuasive drug, someone wouldn’t do anything that wasn’t in them, would they?

  “Steven introduced me to his son,” Christine said. “Connor was working at his father’s law firm at the time. Connor and I fell in love. Or at least, I thought we did… He and I are very different people. He didn’t care about the treasure, even from the start. It was left to me and Steven.”

  “You had Naveen translate the map.”

  “Steven read about him,” Christine said. “We knew he was the best person to ask.”

  “But Naveen didn’t do a good translation. He did a literal translation, but that wasn’t right.”

  Christine nodded. “It didn’t get us any closer to finding the Heart of India. But then Steven read about you this summer, and made the connection. He thought you’d provide the missing piece to help us find the treasure.”

  “Why did you want an old treasure, anyway?” Sanjay asked.

  Christine laughed a bitter laugh. “Steven wanted accolades, but I wanted something more practical. Money.”

  “A reward?” I asked.

  Christine looked at me with cold eyes. “I told him he could return the symbolic statue and we could keep the pearl.”

  “But you have money,” I said.

  She laughed again, stopping herself as Sanjay waved the gun. “We used to have money. My great-grandmother wasted a good bit of the family fortune financing this stupid expedition, then the Great Earthquake’s aftermath ate up most of the rest. My father tried to turn things around, but we’ve been living on credit for years. And after Steven’s law firm went under, Connor decided he didn’t care about money. Said he wanted to follow his childhood dream and be an artist.” She laughed spitefully. “An artist! Is there any profession that makes less money? But Connor didn’t care about that.”

  “It was you who killed your father-in-law,” I said, “not Connor.”

  Christine gasped. “What are you talking about? I didn’t kill anyone. Neither did Connor. We were together that night.”

  “But—”

  “Wasn’t it you?” she asked me, her eyes narrowing. “Isn’t that why you tried to drug me? I was suspicious when you asked me here, but I couldn’t resist the temptation of finding the treasure after all this time… I thought you might try something, so I took a different glass than the one you offered me.”

  “You really thought I killed your father-in-law?” I asked.

  “I brought mace in my purse, but I didn’t expect that.” She looked from me to Sanjay’s gun and gave a nervous laugh. “Silly me, bringing mace to a gun fight.”

  “I met Steven for the first time that night,” I said, more confused than ever. “Why would I kill him? You and Connor were the ones after the treasure with him. He didn’t even tell me this was about the Heart of India.”

  “Yes, I was trying to find the treasure,” Christine said. “I went back to Naveen for more help, but he was useless. He had the technical skills to help us translate the map, and to work with anything handed to him, but he couldn’t come up with any ideas on his own. That’s why he followed your leads.”

  I would have felt a lot more self-satisfied that I’d been right about Naveen’s shortcomings if I wasn’t being told about them under these circumstances, standing at blustery Lands End with Sanjay out of his mind and waving a gun.

  “That’s why I wanted your help,” Christine continued. “Why do you think I was so shocked when I first met you and you told me about the map being stolen? I came to see you because I wanted to feel you out.” She took a deep breath.

  “Connor was devastated by his father’s death, and I was telling you the truth that he believed you might have had something to do with it. I thought so myself. Who else could it have been? Though Connor didn’t care about the treasure, he didn’t want you to have it because he thought you killed his father. That’s why he stole the map from you. Naveen doesn’t have it in him to kill anyone.”

  Christine looked me in the eye.

  “But you’re tougher than him. Tougher than both of them. I could tell when I met you. When I learned from Naveen that you were on to something, I wanted you to have the map back. Regardless of what you’d done, I wanted you to lead me to the treasure. It belongs to my family. They were the ones who financed the expedition to procure the Heart of India. I deserve it.”

  “So neither of you killed your father-in-law?” I said.

  “No,” Christine said. “But you don’t have to take my word for it. Our alibis are airtight.” She glanced nervously at Sanjay, who was beginning to sway back and forth.

  “I don’t feel well,” Sanjay said. “Take this,” he said, and thrust the gun into my hand.

  The gun felt light in my hand. Too light.

  It was a plastic prop from the theater.

  Sanjay left the plastic gun in my hands and proceeded to faint.

  Chapter 56

  San Francisco, April 10, 1906

  When Li returned to his rooms from his night working in Chinatown, he found Mai waiting for him, crying. But Li did not notice her tears at first. Though Mai had washed her hands, blood covered her neck and the front of her dress. Li rushed to her, sure she had been assaulted.

  “I’m not hurt,” she said between sobs. “It’s Anand.” Mai told Li what had happened.

  “I’m going to kill Samuel,” Li said. “And I don’t care if I’m arrested. I’ll see through returning the Heart of India.”

  “You can’t,” Mai said. And she told him why.

  “A child?” Li said after she’d told her story. “Anand’s child? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I’m telling you now. Please do not do anything else to risk yourself, brother. I need you. The child needs you.”

  Anand did not wish for Mai to see him die. After he kissed her goodbye one last time, he took his bound diary with him. He was headed to the ship he had disguised with the name of the saloon ship that had been the center of his life in San Francisco: The Siren’s Anchor.

  He was weak with blood loss, but he no longer felt any pain. He walked with purpose. With his last breaths he was setting the stage for the return of a meaningful treasure. Though he would not live to see a unified India free of British rule that the Heart of India’s creators hoped for, he felt blessed with the meaningful life he’d been given.

  The ship was in rocky waters, but it would hold until Vishwan came. He had hoped it would not have come to this, but he knew what he needed to do. He wrapped his diary tightly in a leather satchel and left it inside a trunk in the hull of the ship with the Heart of India.

  As he climbed to the bow, he felt his body grow numb as it shut down. Anand smiled. He did not fear death. He had been given ten years longer than his due. He had cheated death once, and it had allowed him to travel the world and to find Mai. Though he would never see his brother Vishwa
n again and would miss meeting his child, it had been more than he had dreamed possible when he lay dying of typhoid ten years before.

  He took one last look at the world before jumping into the freezing waters below.

  Chapter 57

  “You don’t remember anything?” I asked Sanjay.

  “Nothing. Did I really faint?”

  “For the second time this week.”

  Sanjay groaned. He lay back on the modern black couch in the main room of his apartment and covered his face with his bowler hat.

  “But it was after you heroically captured one of the bad guys at gun point,” I said. “Even if it was plastic gun point.”

  “I didn’t do anything too stupid, did I?”

  “That’s not the word I would use.” I felt my cheeks flush as I remembered Sanjay’s kiss. It was so intense that it surprised me he’d forgotten it, regardless of the drug. It must have been, because he thought nothing of it. It was nothing of consequence to him, only something he’d done because he was drugged. Otherwise he would never have dreamed of kissing me.

  I, on the other hand, found myself wondering what it would feel like if he kissed me again… I pulled my thoughts back to the present. It was the day after our adventure at Lands End, and Sanjay had slept off the remaining effects of his accidental drugging.

  I went over what we’d learned from Christine, spelling it out for Sanjay since he said he didn’t remember anything. How Christine had confessed to plotting to find the Heart of India and steal the valuable pearl before returning the statue, and how she told us that Connor had stolen the treasure map because he didn’t want the person who killed his father to get the treasure.

  But neither one of them was Steven’s killer. So who was?