The second dump truck driver pulled forward, but before he’d moved into position, the backhoe operator miscalculated and prematurely released the claw. Debris rained down over the bed of the dump truck and onto the ground.

The construction foreman stepped forward, looked at something on the ground and blew his whistle, wildly signaling for the backhoe driver to stop. The foreman blew the whistle again and again. The backhoe operator clambered down out of his cab, and joined the foreman at the bed of the dump truck.

“What’s going on?” Drue asked. “What are they looking at?”

“Let’s see,” Jonah said, shouldering through the crowd of rubberneckers, who were also moving closer.

A woman screamed then, and pointed at the ground, where a human skull balanced daintily atop a pile of jagged concrete and rebar.

Drue clutched Jonah’s hand. “You’ve been following all the stories about this new spa. Did you read anything about when the first phase of the hotel was built?”

“It wasn’t originally called the Gulf Vista. When it was built in seventy-six, it was called something else. Maybe the Treasure Chest? Why?”

She turned and walked as fast as she could, away from the construction site.

“What is it?” Jonah asked, catching up. “What’s wrong?”

“I think,” she said, “we’ve just seen Colleen.”

Epilogue

April 2019

The late-afternoon sun hung low on the horizon above the sparkling expanse of blue green sea. Drue sat beneath the shade of the beach tent the men had set up earlier in the day, watching the breeze ruffle the tent canopy.

“Miss Drue, Miss Drue,” Aliyah called, racing up to Drue’s chair.

“Shhh,” Drue cautioned, nodding at the infant carrier where her baby brother slumbered. “You’ll wake up Liam.”

Aliyah bent down and studied the drowsing child, who sucked contentedly on a Tiffany mother-of-pearl and silver-tipped pacifier, his perfect rosebud lips curved upward.

“He’s smiling,” she reported, looking up at the baby’s mother. “How come he’s smiling like that when he’s asleep?”

“He’s a happy little guy,” Wendy explained. “He usually only cries when he’s wet or hungry. And he always smiles like that when he’s asleep. I think it means he’s dreaming about something nice.”

“Like ice cream,” Aliyah said.

“Or a big juicy steak,” Corey suggested.

“Or puppies,” Jonah added, as he joined the group gathered under the shade of the tent.

“Or seven-figure insurance settlements,” Brice said. He plopped down onto the chair beside Wendy’s and handed her a cold drink.

“Eight-figure,” Wendy corrected him. “We’ve got college to fund now, remember?”

“Miss Drue,” Aliyah said in a stage whisper. “I want to show you something I can do.”

“All right,” Drue said, holding out a hand to Jonah, who helped her to her feet.