THREE

A FRESH START

“Wake the fuck up, will ya?” Jimmy’s voice jolted Ellie awake.

“Wha—what’s wrong?” She sat up and looked wildly around her father’s loft, one of his hideouts in the city. Unpainted brick walls and sparse furniture littered with random items like clothes and books surrounded her. Everything seemed to be just as it should be. She rubbed her eyes and tried to focus on Jimmy, who was standing at the end of the couch that she’d passed out on last night.

He pushed his black-framed glasses up his nose and glared at her. “What the hell did you do?”

“What? Nothing. Did something happen?”

Jimmy waved the pile of papers in his hand. “Do you know what this is?”

“I’m guessing it started its life as a tree before it ended up in your printer.”

“Oh, very funny. You should take that show on the road.”

Ellie straightened up and tried to look alert. Jimmy was clearly upset. He thrust the sheaf of papers at her. “This is the call log for your burner phone from last night. I printed it to show you how insane the activity on it is. Along with someone testing out all your numbers, there’s a trace on your phone, and Meyer’s been calling me all night. I thought you said you got away scot free?”

She stared at Jimmy. His dirty blond hair was a mess, sticking out all over the place under his black trilby. His thin black tie hung loosely around the collar of a crumpled white shirt. There were dark shadows under his usually bright blue eyes.

“Did you stay up all night?”

“Yes, I did. I was trying to save your idiot arse again. What the hell happened?”

“Calm down. It’s fine. I got away with it.” She flopped back onto her pillow. “It’s done, but there have been a few small changes to the plan.”

“Oh, really?” He pulled a newspaper out of the pile of papers and dropped it on her chest.

Ellie sighed and picked up the paper, rolling her eyes. Jimmy worried about everything. If a tree fell in the Amazon, he’d start wheezing and complaining about a lack of oxygen in the room. She glanced at the front page, and her blood froze in her veins. There was a large passport photograph of her. Under the photo, a headline screamed off the page:

HIGH SOCIETY VANDALISM!

She frowned and read the story:

POLICE ARE LOOKING FOR THIS WOMAN IN CONNECTION WITH AN ACT OF VANDALISM COMMITTED DURING THE ARCHEOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL BALL AND CHARITY AUCTION AT HAWKINS HALL LATE LAST NIGHT. THE WOMAN, IDENTIFIED AS JEMMA JENKINS, IS SUSPECTED OF DESTROYING A PRICELESS INCAN ARTIFACT.

“Oh, fuck.”

“Vandalism? I thought you were supposed to steal it, not break it. And do I even want to know how they got your photograph and the name Jemma Jenkins?” He folded his arms and scowled at her. “It’s not just your arse on the line. If they find you, they find me.”

“Crap.” She dropped the paper, rolled over and put her pillow over her head. “This is a nightmare.”

“That’s right. Hide under your pillow like a little girl. That’ll fix it. God, how did I end up working with a child?”

Ellie narrowed her eyes. She rolled over, sat up and threw the pillow at Jimmy’s head. “You’re younger than I am!” she cried. “I need a moment to think.” Then she groaned.

The phone was in my handbag. My handbag is on Jacob’s bed. Did Jacob put a trace on my phone? Crap!

“I left the burner phone at Hawkins Hall. Please tell me you didn’t answer Meyer’s calls.”

“Of course, I didn’t! I hate that arsehole. What do you mean you left your burner phone there? The one you called me from, the one with my phone number in it?”

“I left my bag on Jacob Hawkins’s bed with the phone in it.”

“What the fuck were you doing on his bed? No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. What about the tablet? Tell me you got it, after all this.”

Ellie winced.

Jimmy took off his hat and ran a hand through his rumpled hair. “So, Meyer has been calling my phone non-stop because you botched the job? Do you at least have the pieces of the tablet?”

“I left them behind, but there was a map inside it. I took the map.”

Jimmy slumped down onto the couch and sighed. “A map?” He closed his eyes, shaking his head.

“A treasure map.” She grinned.

“Like the kind Tommy sells to the tourists?” he asked in a dead voice.

“No. This one is real!” She dragged her black hoodie off the floor and opened the pocket in the arm. She unfolded the old leather and showed him the map. “Look.”

He studied for a moment. “You don’t know it’s real.”

“This is a map to the Heart of Fortune, a huge diamond that went down with the Henry Rose. Look.” She pointed to the flag. “That’s the ship’s insignia. Dad researched this for years. And why hide it inside a bogus Incan tablet if it’s fake?”

“Your dad might have been obsessed with this treasure, Ellie, but you know he never intended you to do this. How many times did he tell you to quit the life and go to college?”

She waved the comment away. She was never going to be a good girl, and any chance she had at having a straight life had disappeared the first time she took a job with Meyer. “Come on, this could be our big haul. It’s an adventure.” She tried to persuade him. “White beaches, sunken ships, and the Corazón de Fortuna.”

“I wither in direct sunlight,” he muttered. “And you don’t even know if the Heart exists. It’s just a legend.”

“This map says it exists.” She pointed to the roughly drawn heart on the map.

“And what is that a map of, exactly?”

She scrutinized the rough outlines of a coast as she tried to remember everything her father had ever told her about the Heart. “Somewhere in Central America, I think?”

Jimmy sniffed. “I am not going to a third-world country.”

“Fine. You stay here. Please give me a call before Meyer feeds you to his pigs.” She flashed her sweetest smile. Jimmy had been her friend for a lifetime. Both of them had been lost since her father had died. They needed each other, and he knew it.

“Why do you always drag me into your nightmares? Fuck! Fine, I’ll come with you,” he grumbled.

She threw her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. “You won’t regret it. I promise!”

“I already do. And Jesus, woman, brush your goddamn teeth. What, did you eat a keg and an ashtray last night?”

She jumped up from the couch, smiling. “Okay, what do we need to do first?”

“We need to get out of the UK, right now. If the people looking for you keep digging, they’ll find this place. For all we know, Meyer is on his way here himself right now. We need to get rid of anything that might identify us. We need to disappear. That means phones, identities and connections. We need to get rid of everything.”

She felt a moment of sorrow. The ramshackle loft had been a safe haven for as long as she could remember. But Jimmy was right. There was nothing here for her anymore. She could either wallow in regret or start a new life somewhere else. “Let’s do it.” She nodded.

Jimmy gave her a hug. “We better move fast. But, first on the agenda, we need to make you into a new woman, or you know, into something remotely female.” He waved his hands over her jogging bottoms and camisole with a look of distaste.

“I don’t want to!” Ellie stared at the scissors in Jimmy’s hands.

“You need to change your look. The hair has to go. It’s either slice-and-dice or go blonde.” He shook the scissors and the hair bleach at her.

She lovingly curled her long dark locks around her fingers. “I’m not doing it.”

Jimmy sighed. “Would highlights be too much of a problem?”

She considered the idea. Highlights wouldn’t be so bad as long as she didn’t come out looking like a zebra.

“Sit down, and let me work my magic.” He pointed to the chair in front of the sink.

She sat in the plastic chair and leaned her head back over the sink. “You better not make my hair pink.”

He lifted the shower head and soaked her hair. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I mess it up, it’ll go green.” He flashed a wicked grin.

“Green will be the last thing you see if you do.” She sighed, resting her head against the hard porcelain rim of the basin. It had to be done. It wasn’t the first time she’d dyed her hair for a job, but she preferred wigs. They were easier to change in an instant. Dye seemed a bit too permanent.

She closed her eyes as the warm water rushed over her scalp.

This new life is going to be permanent, too. I might as well get used to the idea of that now, new hair for a new Ellie.

After an hour of washing, waiting and drying, she peered at her new look in the mirror. Her dark hair had been lightened to chestnut brown with blonde highlights speckled through it.

Okay, it isn’t so bad.

She didn’t look as dramatic as before, but at least it matched her hazel eyes.

“Hey, my eyes look greener with this hair color.” She called out after she’d put down the hair dryer.

“Good. We’ll change your eye color to green then,” Jimmy called from the adjoining room, where he was working on their passports.

She stepped out of the bathroom to find him hunched over his laptop.

He’d made himself at home in the loft with wall-to-wall electronic devices. “Dude, you have gotta get out more,” she said while staring at the three monitors he had hooked up to his laptop.

“If getting out more involves ending up on the front page of the newspaper for high society vandalism, I’ll skip it, thank you very much,” he muttered while typing away on what looked like a command prompt that was displayed on his screen.

“You know there are things out in the world that are more exciting than that, don’t you?” She pointed to the black screen. “Culture, life, treasure, a girlfriend.”

He spun around in his seat and glared at her. “You know that I have a girlfriend, right?”

“The one from that game? She could be a forty-year-old dude.”

“Cheryl is a twenty-two-year-old woman from Florida, not a dude.” His cheeks flushed with indignation.

“Great, I look forward to meeting her when we’re in Florida.”

“I know what game you’re playing, so don’t even try it.” He turned back to his screen and pulled up a new window on his computer before starting typing.

“Hey, if you’re too chicken to meet the girl of your dreams, it’s not my problem.” Ellie shrugged. She was playing him, but the guy really needed to go out on a real date. He was the little brother she’d never had, and it was about time he got out in the world, rather than hide behind a computer screen.

“You’re starting to get on my last nerve,” he said.

“You’re scared to meet women,” she countered. “Online relationships don’t last, but hey, maybe Cheryl isn’t worth it, huh?”

He paused in his typing and glanced back over his shoulder. “Do you really think she’ll like me in real life?”

“She likes you now, doesn’t she?”

“Damn it, Ellie, you always get me caught up in your stupid fantasies.” He shook his head.

“So, you’re going to meet her?” She grinned.

“Yes. But only so you’ll shut up about it, and when it turns into a disaster, I’ll know who to blame.”

“The only thing you can blame in that situation is your mouth.” She wandered over and ruffled his hair. “Hey, does that mean I get to dye your hair and dress you up, so you look like a date and not a fashion disaster?”

He brushed her off. “No, it doesn’t. I’m not on the run, and I would never let you near a man’s wardrobe. Last time you dressed me up for one of your jobs, you made me into frumpy security guard with a receding hairline!”

She chuckled. It was a fair point. She was the last person in the universe who should be giving makeovers. She used them for disguise, not to appear esthetically pleasing.

She smiled as a burst of optimism about the future filled her with warmth and hope. This journey was going to be an adventure. The idea of leaving the grim, gray skies of England behind and jetting off to the sunny isles of the Caribbean to hunt treasure was exciting. Everything she really cared about was coming with her. She had her father’s research, the map, and her best friend. What could possibly go wrong?

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