CHAPTER 61
Val found what she’d been looking for. She lifted the amulet out of the bathroom drawer and looked at it. A leather pouch, shaped like a block-headed sperm whale, hung from the thong. She smelled it and winced, jerking it away. It too was making her feel ill. The smell was sweet, almost fruity.
Then she knew.
Ambergris. It smelled like the waxy secretion produced in the digestive systems of whales and used to make perfume. The Obeah woman had probably gotten a chunk from a dead whale, or a globule washed up on the beach. That explained why the pouch was shaped as it was.
She stared at it a moment. She wasn’t sure why, but something had compelled her to find it. She carried it back outside, to where she was working on her laptop and trying to catch up on e-mail. She dropped the amulet onto the table and sat down.
She thought about Sturman. Planning to go back home with Will made her anxious. What would happen when they got back to Monterey?
She heard a distant, high-pitched noise that might have been sirens. She strained to hear more, but there was nothing over the mounting breeze in the palms.
The bank of heavy approaching clouds hid the sun, but she’d seen the black dot of the arriving helicopter appear miles away as it crossed over the broad Tongue of the Ocean from New Providence, from Nassau, and finally reached Andros, descending and disappearing behind the distant towers at Oceanus. Several minutes later, the distant drone of the helicopter had grown louder, and she saw the black dot moving back out to sea. Presumably with the manta ray dangling below it. The operation must have been a success.
She stood and moved to the edge of the patio, looked down the coast of the island. She could see the towers of Oceanus in the distance. Then she heard it again: high-pitched wailing. Yes, they were sirens.
Oceanus looked peaceful from here. Maybe there had been a car accident—
She jumped as her cell phone rang. She turned and picked it up, looking at the display. Mack. She answered.
“Mack, hi. What’s going on? Did they release the—”
“Valerie, get down here. Now.”
“What? Has something happened?”
“There’s been some sort of accident. An aquarium tank collapsed. The big one. Flooded a tunnel, with people inside. I just left the casino a few minutes ago. I’m trying to get down there now.”
“Is Will all right? Eric?”
“I don’t know. I don’t see them anywhere. But people are hurt.”
“Oh, my God.”
“Get down here, Val.”
“How? I don’t have a car?”
“Find a way.”
“Mack, are you okay? Mack?”
But he’d hung up. She ran through the house, found her sandals, and burst out the front door. She paused, and rushed back to the patio. She grabbed the strange necklace and stuffed it into a pocket of her shorts. She found one of the rusty bicycles behind the house and jumped onto the torn seat. She pedaled furiously toward the highway.