“Is the sunken treasure what Zsóke was on the ship looking for?”

“I asked Ryan that, too. He said no, definitely not. Zsóke was looking for something that went overboard. Apparently Ryan hinted he knew about those statues...” DeAnna made the wide-eyed horror face. “He broke a sweat telling me about it. He’s still freaked about what Zsóke might do to him.”

“If he’s so freaked out, why tell you?”

“Because.” She made a drinking motion with her hand.

Daniel groaned. “He keeps talking, he really is going to get in trouble.”

“I told him that.” When Daniel looked at her, she said, “Yes, I can be as smart as you! Anyway, he seems to think since I know what happened with Zsóke, he can confide in me. It’s not like I believed him right off the bat, anyway. Once I knew who I was looking for, I found Elladora online. She’s an archaeologist based out of South America. Guess why she was doing the search?”

Daniel shook his head. “No idea.”

“The people who were piloting in the boat were her great-grandparents.”

Daniel sped up to a fast walk, then slowed down again. “I don’t care. I don’t believe in a treasure hunt. Penderghast is rich. He doesn’t need gold. What he doesn’t have is the brainpower that goes with the smart sciences.”

DeAnna made a scoffing sound.

“Why else does he hang around on the ship so much? He loves to have us fawn over him, explain what we’re doing, justify our existence. He loves to play God, and we let him because this is one plush situation and the only place in the world I can actually complete my study.”

“All that. But think. Think, Daniel. Who does he hang with most?”

Daniel started to answer and froze with his mouth open.

“That’s right. Stephen loved to sit in the crawler room with Elladora Varela—and not because he’s hot for her. I mean, you can tell. The old man’s as cold as ice. He’s only hot for that treasure.” She brought up the bio of Penderghast on her phone. “Look!”

Daniel scanned the part about young Penderghast’s part in recovering the ship in the Caribbean. “What do you suppose happened between him and Elladora?”

“I think they were up on the deck together. He told her he wasn’t going to fund her search anymore. She tried to kill him with the boat hook. He pushed her overboard. That would explain why no one from Penderghast’s organization is talking about what happened to him. You wouldn’t want to say a little shrimp like Elladora Varela took out that big guy’s kidney. Even if she did, shoving her over the rails is still murder.”