Chapter 53

  

Tamarind wasn’t happy that she had to stay at work while I left to figure out what I was going to do with the two realizations I’d made. Christine had lied about the map, and the Heart of India might be in a ship once docked along the treacherous coast of San Francisco. What had happened to that ship?

“I have an idea,” Sanjay said. Though he usually hated to be distracted while working on a new illusion, he seemed glad to see me when I showed up.

“You going to share?”

“You’re not going to like it.” Sanjay twirled his hat in his hands.

“I don’t like much of anything right now.”

“I know a magician—he’s not a friend, exactly. I don’t like his methods. He is a crap mentalist, so he uses this drug, kind of like a truth serum, to control people on stage.”

“Does it work?”

“It does put people into a suggestible state, and they don’t remember what happened afterward either. It’s an aid to hypnosis.”

“You think it’ll work?”

“This is me you’re talking to, Jaya. But what I don’t have figured out is how we’ll get Christine in a position where we can get her to meet with us so I can give it to her.”

“I can answer that,” I said. “She wants the Heart of India—andI have a suspicion where the treasure is now.”

  

Christine jumped at the chance to meet us at Lands End the following morning. I didn’t tell her we’d figured out she was the bad guy. I told her the map had led me to the treasure, and that since she’d given it to me I wanted her to be there.

Sanjay had met with his friend and gotten some of the drug the night before, along with champagne and plastic champagne glasses for our excursion. The plan was for Sanjay to pour champagne for us to toast the discovery. With Sanjay’s sleight of hand, he’d get the drug into Christine’s drink.

He picked me up that morning. He was dressed strangely, in a trench coat rather than one of his usual stylish jackets. I supposed he was playing the role of detective or P.I. today. His bowler hat looked appropriate with the 1930s coat.

The fog rolled in across the water as we waited for Christine at the plaque with the information about the ships that had sunk in the rocky waters off the coast. When I had first visited Lands End, I’d noticed the commemorative plaque listing of sunken ships—including one ship that had never been identified. If I was right, this would explain why.

Christine arrived wearing a thick, white wrap in lieu of a coat. She wore matching white shoes that didn’t seem to have accumulated any dust on them in the half-mile walk from the car.

“I was so sorry to hear the police mistakenly thought you had anything to do with my father-in-law’s death,” she said. “I can’t believe I was so wrong about Connor… But it’s best to honor his father’s legacy by finding his treasure.”

“Hear, hear,” said Sanjay, popping the cork on the bottle. The sound of fog horns drowned out the sound of the pop. He set the glasses down on a concrete bench at the overlook, pouring the bubbly liquid halfway. I didn’t notice him put anything into any of the glasses before he scooted one toward Christine. She swung her wrap over her shoulders against the wind, then picked up the glass.

“I’m so glad the map came in handy,” she said, raising her glass and taking a sip. “Where is the treasure?”

“I should back up a little bit first,” I said. “I’m not sure how much you know about the treasure map of your father-in-law’s.”

“Not much,” Christine said. “I knew he was behaving strangely, obsessed with something, but I didn’t know much about it. Only Connor did.”

“Steven came to see me because my Uncle Anand was the one who drew the treasure map that ended up in Steven’s grandmother’s possessions,” I said. “He knew I was a historian and that I might know where the letters Anand wrote to my grandfather were kept. He hadn’t been able to decipher the map, so he thought there must have been a clue.”

“How interesting,” Christine said. “Was there a clue?”

“There was. But the biggest clue wasn’t in the letters themselves.” I glanced at Sanjay. The plan was for me to keep Christine talking until the drug took over.

“The letters did say what to look for on the map,” I continued, “but the biggest clue was that the map itself wasn’t what it seemed.”

“It wasn’t?”

“I don’t know how closely you studied it,” I said, “but it looks like a map of San Francisco.”

“Isn’t it?”

“Yes and no. The city of Kochi, in India, was a major trading center for centuries. It has a nearly identical orientation to San Francisco. Anand worked there as a boat builder before living in San Francisco. Are you feeling all right?”

“Oh yes, just a bit cold.” Christine wrapped her shawl more tightly around her.

“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.