Ghost Night by Heather Graham Page A

Geneva. Lord, do I love that story!”
    “Romantic in an icky kind of tragic way,” Jaden agreed.
    “Gorgeous Dona Isabella captured, her ship sunk in Pirate’s Cut!”
    “Apparently when Mad Miller attacked the ship, he swept Dona Isabella from it first. And of course, he was supposed to be asking her husband for a ransom,” Jaden said. “But he fell in love with her.”
    “And infuriated Kitty Cutlass!” Ted said dramatically.
    “The ship was blown to smithereens, most of the crew killed in the water, but some of them taken prisoner as well for slave labor,” Jaden said.
    Looking at them, Sean shook his head and smiled. “You two should take it on the road. You’re very dramatic.”
    “Well, who knows what really happened?” Jaden asked with a shrug. “All that is fact is that Mad Miller did attack the ship and he did kidnap Dona Isabella. And Kitty Cutlass was madly in love with Mad Miller. I mean, supposedly, Mad Miller was in love with Kitty Cutlass, so why kidnap Dona Isabella unless it was for ransom, and she had a rich husband, and whether they were living apart or not, he would have paid the ransom,just for the sake of his pride. But, no—Dona Isabella is murdered, some say by Kitty Cutlass, and the crew of the Santa Geneva who were taken prisoner rather than murdered or left to drown at the site were then massacred on Haunt Island. Oh! And those other murders took place on Haunt Island just about two years ago—now, there’s a story for you, Sean.
    “Hey, who were you with?” Jaden asked him curiously. “Who is the ‘young woman’?”
    “Her name is Vanessa Loren. And, yes—I see you’re starting to frown. If you were following the newspapers when members of the film crew were killed on Haunt Island, you heard the name. She was one of the survivors.”
    “Whoa—wow!” Ted said. “Man—perfect. Why, you have an excellent story going there. Hey—what is she like? How did she wind up here?”
    “My God, I can’t even imagine how horrible that must have been—not that we haven’t had our share of our own absurdities around here lately,” Jaden said. “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Did she come to see you on purpose?”
    “Yes,” Sean said.
    “Can’t wait to meet her!” Ted told Jaden.
    “Now, wait—” Sean said, frowning.
    “Oh, come on. We’re not going to say anything to her. We won’t embarrass you!” Jaden protested.
    “It’s not that—I just can’t imagine she really likes being quizzed constantly on what happened. It must have been pretty—horrifying.”
    “Ah, but you two have something in common. You were almost killed by a madman,” Ted pointed out.
    “But Sean’s madman was caught—and no one knowswhat happened to the other,” Jaden said. “Oh, it is a mystery! I’d love to know what happened on that island. Most people, of course, think it was that fellow who was supposed to take the actress home…. Rodriquez… Rod…”
    “Roca. Carlos Roca,” Sean said.
    “What does she think?” Ted asked.
    “I’m dying to see what she looks like!” Jaden said.
    “Just be nice when you meet her,” Sean said. He was defending her. Well, these were his friends, but they were professing some intrusive curiosity.
    “And you might have found a relic. Like Ted said, wow, cool!” Jaden said happily.
    “You know what some people think?” Ted asked, nodding sagely.
    “What?”
    “It’s the Bermuda Triangle,” Ted said, as if it were fact.
    “Ted, ships get lost, planes go down, and many so-called victims of the so-called Bermuda Triangle have been found. Ships have sunk.”
    “Aha! But throughout the years, they’ve found ghost ships out there, too. Ships with absolutely nothing wrong with them—but no one aboard. Hey, come on! You can order DVDs from the educational channels on the Bermuda Triangle,” Ted argued.
    “The Bermuda Triangle did not decapitate two people and leave their heads and arms in the sand,” Sean said.
    “Ugh. Scary!” Jaden