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He began to fade even as she stared at him He had his old baseball cap in his hands, and his hair seemed unkempt His clothes looked mussed and dirty

"Danny," she said softly

He faded away completely

Then he reappeared He pointed to the table

She frowned, looking down

He was pointing at the journal she had taken fro for?" she asked

He faded away again, his ar last

Then, there was no one there at all

13

Craig Beckett wrote a wonderful log It was personal, but she assu such a diary because he’d been a ship’s captain

He had lived a long life, dying at the age of ninety-six in eighteen ninety-five He painted a vivid picture of when Key West had been little roup of settlers working to turn it into a place that would boast, in the Victorian era, the highest per capita incoes she turned to first He wrote about being a young sea captain in the navy and his decision to leave the navy and work for David Porter as a civilian

He described the events she had learned about from Bartholomew in detail Of course, he hadn’t seen the attack that had taken Victoria’s life-the attack that Eli Sination and experience The canons firing and fire streaking through the sails of the ship,as smoke, fire or the te everyone in their path with their broadswords It was an unprovoked attack, and one that shocked the town, because David Porter had all but eli Beckett wrote about his friendship with Bartholomew "A man of ht have reand, but he knew that I spoke to him truly, that I understood how he had taken enemy ships and no others In the city, he was a model citizen, but also a man, who came to love too deeply if not with sense I sincerely doubt that the rascal Smith could have ever started such a rumor, one so vile as to take a life, if Bartholomew had not so deeply loved Victoria It ith the heaviest of hearts that I learned of the crowd that formed, a lynch mob, one with nohere and there at the whied hinity, clai no fear"

Katie was surprised to feel her eyes stinging, and then she realized that tears were da Bartholomew

Not that she knehere he was!

Ah, well, she would do her best when she did see him next

When he had seemed so taken with the woman in white-the one he no to be Lucinda, whose brother had died in a storm-he had told her with a certain wistfulness that Victoria hadthe streets of Key West in any spectral way Shewoher plain of heaven, or wherever it was that the souls of the dead finally found peace

Katie turned a page in the book, careful to dry her hands so as not to ses

Bartholomew’s story was a sad one She could certainly understand it if he was to walk around near the hanging tree, still crying out his innocence

She started reading again The days of the bold wreckers cae divers, builders, settlers…

After a while, she felt a presence near her She looked up, thinking that Sean ht have awakened, even if he had said that he could sleep for a week But it wasn’t her brother

Bartholoe of the table

"I was reading about you," she told him "I’m so sorry"

He waved a hand in the air "Yes, it was quite unjust, but a very long tio"

"Where have you been this time?" she asked

"Police headquarters Apparently, Lieutenant Dryer has been co the streets, and he’s quite irritated by all the shenanigans for Fantasy Fest See he wants at various bars because there are so many people in the streets Anyway, that’s leftat the station in the hands of Mr Lia with all coh"

"Did you learn anything new?" she asked him

"Not at the station," Barthololer is dead"

"I know"

"You’ve seen him, too?" Bartholomew asked

"He was here-for a split second He pointed at the book," Katie said

"And the book is?"

"Captain Craig Beckett started it, and other Becketts over the years have kept it up It’s not exactly a family bible, but it’s history as the Becketts saw it over the years," Katie explained

"There we are-back to the past," Bartholoht

"Where did you see him?" Katie asked