

### The Mystery of the Moving Statue

(Book 6 in the Rex Cassidy Investigators series)

Published by Richard Pinkerton at Smashwords

Copyright 2020 - Richard Pinkerton

### Other books by Richard Pinkerton

Dead End High

Dead End Town

Time Warped

The Mob from TAC series

1 - The Mob from TAC

2 – Mismatched at TAC

3 - Trouble at TAC

4 - Heroes at TAC

5 - Scheming at TAC

6 - Murder at TAC

7 - New Year at TAC

8 - Challenges at TAC

9 - Boot Camp at TAC

10 - Dark Days at TAC

11 - Jealously at TAC

12 - Choices at TAC

13 - Redemption at TAC

14 - Vendettas at TAC

15 - Aberrations at TAC

16 - Final Year at TAC

17 – Conspiracy at TAC

18 – Godly People at TAC

19 – Sabotage at TAC

20 – Distrust at TAC

The Rex Cassidy Investigators

The Curse of the Witchdoctor

The Secret of the Devil's Triangle

The Gruesome Murders at Manhattan High

The Case of the Cattle Rustlers

The Secret of the Phantom Clown

Doppelganger Madness

The Return of Fingers McGraw

# CHAPTER 1:  
The Pirates of the UK

Plymouth, England

'Geez, Rex, this is bloody impulsive. I've never known you to do anything like this.'

Rex Cassidy stood out the front of a huge old English homestead with his arm around his high school sweetheart, Vanessa Dante. Several of his friends stood with them. The lawns were overgrown, flower gardens full of weeds. The house itself needed a coat of paint and a couple of windows were broken, but Rex found the entire place magnificent. It almost felt like he'd purchased an old English castle that he was going to restore.

Will Ullman, alias Wal had made the comment and he stared at the old rundown building. 'A case brings us to Plymouth England and you decide to purchase an old rundown homestead instead of having us stay at a hotel?' The burly, longhaired Wal folded his arms and shook his head.

'So unlike you, Rex,' Colin Hewes said. 'Although you did just walk into a car yard and buy the latest model Lamborghini on the spur of the moment that time.'

'So what's the big deal?' Rex said. 'This is just a bigger grander purchase.'

'But what will you do with it once we've finished the case?' asked Colin.

Rex shrugged. 'Use it as a holiday home I guess. A seasonal residence? Who knows.'

'You're sounding like that pro-wrestler, the Million Dollar Man, Ted DiBiase. Next, you'll be telling us that everybody has a price for Rex Cassidy.'

'Ahh, come on guys,' Vanessa said and flicked back her long dark locks over her shoulder. 'This place is amazing. We can do so much with it. And besides, Rex has always been unpredictable. He surprises me on a regular basis.' She nuzzled into him. 'Especially when he wants to make love in some really far out place.'

'Hey, you pick some pretty wacky places too.' Rex grinned. 'Like last week when you wanted to get it on in that canoe on the river.'

Her sapphire blue eyes twinkled merrily. 'We were lucky we didn't capsize it. But hey, that's nothing compared to the time we were in Amsterdam and you wanted to do it in—'

'Let's not go into that!' Rex laughed. 'We'll keep that one to ourselves.'

'She laughed. 'Okay.'

'Oh you two, you're making me so jealous.' Vanessa's interior decorator friend, Emma said. She stepped up on the opposite side of Vanessa and put her arm around her. 'I can't wait to see inside. I'm so glad you two picked me to be the one to decorate it. This is like a dream job.' The slender fair-haired woman had known Rex and Vanessa now for several weeks and both of them loved to hang out with her. She was very sweet on Vanessa in particular, which Rex thought was cool because it was usually him they wanted. It meant Nessie got the majority of the attention, which usually wasn't the case.

'Let's go in and take a look,' Vanessa said. She grabbed Rex's hand and gripped it tight.

Inside everything was old and dusty. It was a lot like something out of an old horror movie. There was furniture, covered in sheets, plus a lot of cobwebs.

Tucker Pyles quivered. 'I don't like the looks of this. There'll be ghosts. I'm sure of it.'

'Yeah, whatever,' Pete Cook grumbled. 'The only spooks floating around in this place are between your ears.'

'UURRBBARRRRRRRR!' Tucker replied. 'You better watch it, Cook or I'll be dishing out a few ubberings.'

'Oooooh, now I'm scared.'

'So you should be!'

Emma beamed as she looked around. 'Okay... it's gonna take a lot of cleaning up, but I can just imagine what I can do to this foyer. Wow! This is going to be so much fun. Rex, when I'm done with this place it's going to be fabulous. You surely can't just have it as a seasonal residence. It would be a shame to have it unoccupied for so long. Besides this isn't exactly the part of the world to come for summer vacations.'

'I'll probably rent it out. Even better let one of my friends stay free of charge. Then when we come for vacations they can be our hosts.'

'And cook?' Tucker asked.

'And cook.'

The huge fatty cried out loud. 'UUUUUBBAAAAAA! I'll come for vacations. Even if there are ghosts here.' He stood staunch. 'I'll pulverise those ghosts! They'll rue the day they ever messed with Tucker, Slarty, Zachariah, Augustus, Archibald, Pyles.'

Emma snorted and stared at Tucker. 'Is that your name?'

'Yep,' Tucker's pudgy faced beamed. 'Cool names, eh? Hey Nessa, who's doing the cooking here this week?'

'Me. But only because you guys are going to be out on a case... and if not on a case, put to work around here doing other stuff... except for Rexy, because I have other tasks for him of a more... _intimate_ nature.'

'That's not fair.' Pete flashed a cheeky grin. 'Why does he get all the good jobs?'

Vanessa bobbed her eyebrows up and down. 'Because he's my special handyman.'

They went for a tour of the house and in one of the rooms, Vanessa turned to Rex. 'This is ours. It's perfect.'

'It'll do the trick once it's set up.'

She cuddled up to him. 'Thank you, Rexy for letting Emma and I come along on the case. It's so neat to know that even though you and the guys will be out rounding up pirates, that you'll be back regularly.'

Rex touched the side of her face, caressing her flawless smooth skin. 'It will be handy having you here. This can be like our headquarters.' He planted a kiss on her full lips. 'But mainly it will be great just having you here to cuddle up to at nights.'

'Oh, I will make this place really cosy for you. Especially this particular room. Oooh, la la.'

They spent some time getting some of the area suitable for living in. They'd brought along a truck and offloaded some furniture including beds, lounge furniture and kitchen items. They had more stuff due to be delivered over the next few days.

'We're going to be so busy,' Vanessa said.

'But it will be so much fun,' Emma said. 'We'll have to hire some cleaners though because I do _not_ want to have to end all my time doing that.'

'We will. There's some scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning. We'll have a lot of people here doing stuff.'

After several hours of hard work, they all sat down for a cold drink.

Pete Cook sighed. 'You know, sometimes I think all the hard work we do as detectives is a big waste of time. I mean we catch these criminals and then the next thing they're on the loose again, doing their dirty work.'

Rex could understand the frustration of his short, but stocky companion. 'It can seem like that, for sure, but someone has to do it. And on this occasion, we were asked to be the ones and we've been offered a very substantial fee to do it.'

'But isn't it just incompetence, really?' Pete said after downing a mouthful of beer.

'Amen to that!' Wal said, thumping his big fist into his palm. 'I mean, hell... we catch Fingers McGraw on an island in the middle of Bermuda. Practically guilty of bringing down planes and sinking aircraft... at least in league with those in charge of the operation and what happens? They let him out on bail. So he skips bail...'

'As criminals like that often do,' Pete said.

'...and he goes and starts up a cattle rustling operation in Colorado!'

'And we round him up and send him back to jail...'

'And then next thing, him and his brother Kid McGraw are on trial and armed gunmen come in and bust them both out of there.' Wal seethed. 'How the hell can someone get away with something like that? Someone's head should have rolled!'

The RCI's second in command, Colin Hewes, grunted. 'Now they're out again. And we just have to accept that.'

Wal huffed. 'Yeah and now they're out on the Atlantic ocean invading ships like modern-day pirates. Isn't this more a job for the navy or the coast guard or something? Why bring us in?'

Rex rubbed the rim of his glass with his finer. 'Because we've had experience dealing with the McGraw brothers, that's why. We know how the McGraws operate.'

'Well I think it's cool,' Colin said. 'Imagine the look on Fingers and Kid McGraw's faces when we bring down their operation yet again. They're gonna feel like they're cursed.'

A few of them laughed.

'Yeah,' Pete chuckled. 'Always destined to be foiled by the Rex Cassidy Investigators.'

'We've got them running scared,' Colin continued. 'They're thinking that coming all the way to the UK they'll be able to avoid us this time.'

'No chance,' Pete said.

Wal poured himself another beer from a bottle. 'So where do we start with this case? We're not gonna just be able to get ourselves press-ganged and join a pirate crew.'

'That remains to be seen,' Rex said. 'We'll play it by ear, but our first lead is a pirate tours operation going on in a small town named Billington Cove. They take people on so-called pirate adventures, sort of like a touristy type thing, but there has been talk about people not returning from these so-called tours and staying on board permanently. The claims are that they're now working as part of the experience for tourists. Others, however, claim it's a lot more sinister.'

'Sounds freaky,' Emma said. 'Are you going to go on one of these tours to find out?'

'I intend to,' Rex said.

Vanessa looked with concern at him. 'What if something bad happens?'

'That's the risk we have to take,' Rex said. 'It's our job.'

'Relax, Nessa,' Emma said. 'This is Rex we're talking about here. And Wal and Colin and all the others. They'll be fine.'

Rex knew how much Vanessa worried about him on cases like this and he hated her having to worry. He'd do all he could to assure her he'd be okay. 'Yeah, it'll be fine. We'll make sure we take safety precautions. We'll have people on the outside and in.'

She smiled. 'I know. I believe in you, Rexy.'

A knock came at the front door. Colin went to answer it and returned moments later with a buck-toothed middle-aged man with greying hair.

'Good evening,' said the man. 'My name is Professor Cameron Buck. I live in the house next door. When I heard that a private investigator had bought this place only a week ago I just knew I had to come around and say hello.'

He did the rounds shaking hands and Rex invited him to sit down. They offered him a drink and he chose a cup of tea.

Once seat, he stirred sugar into his tea. 'I am a horticultural professor. I specialise in farming and growing carrots and I'm also an avid rabbit breeder. I've heard about your work. How you helped save those movie stars and caught the gang of kidnappers. How you wiped out a poaching operation in Africa and of course the huge news about the Devil's Triangle. Fancy that being exposed after all these years? It took you all to do it. Amazing. I figured since you're used to unusual cases, you might be interested in one I have for you.'

'Well, Professor Buck...' Rex drank from his glass. 'We're already here on a case.'

'Oh...well... that's too bad. It's just that I discovered something amazing in my loft several months ago and well...something... valuable.'

Rex raised an eyebrow. 'What exactly?'

'I have found a secret code. Something that will lead to millions of dollars of hidden pirate treasure.'

'Come again? A treasure code?' Rex looked at Buck sceptically. 'To a pirate treasure?'

'More along the lines of a collection of riddles.'

'Not a map?'

'No.'

'What makes you think there is any treasure?'

'Because the code once belonged to a real ancient pirate.'

Rex still didn't buy it and he could tell by the expressions on his colleagues' faces they didn't buy it either. 'So? Even if that were true, the treasure could have been found ages ago.'

'But I did some research. No, it was never found. This pirate... Captain Bjorn Van Heath was his name. He was a ruthless buccaneer who robbed many a galleon. He once owned my house. He had numerous treasures, which he hid at various places around the globe, and very few of them have ever been found. There were rumours that he once hid a stash of treasure somewhere here in Plymouth.'

'Rumours?' Rex emptied his glass down his throat and placed the empty glass on the table.

'Rumours that I can now confirm.'

'How?'

'I have in my possession an old logbook that once belonged to Van Heath. It was in that logbook that I found the code.' He pulled out an old piece of paper from his pocket. 'Take a look.'

Rex took a hold of the sheet. It was very old paper and the ink on it was starting to fade. It really did look as though it was something written centuries ago. On it were several lines of what appeared to be a poem, but on closer inspection, it became obvious it was some kind of riddle.

Buck sipped on his tea. 'I have had the paper analysed. It is authentic. As is the ink. The logbook I have at home contains details of routes he has travelled during his time on the seas. This is real.'

Rex noticed that part of the sheet had been torn. 'Looks like this is only half. Someone's ripped off the rest.'

'Yes. It does appear that way.'

'Well then half a riddle is hardly going to be of use to us, is it? And where's the other half?'

'I have no idea,' Buck said.

There was silence for a few seconds. Rex still found it hard to believe, yet Professor Buck seemed very sincere. The question was, was he a nut or was he for real? Had this note really been found in the loft of his house?

Pete spoke up. 'You know when we were kids we used to do treasure hunts like that. We'd write all these clues down on bits of paper and hide the clues. Except for the first one. That clue would lead you to the second clue and the second clue would lead you to the third and so on so on until finally, you found the treasure; a chocolate bar or a bag of lollies. What if this pirate, Van Heath, did something similar? What if he's hidden the rest of the clues somewhere and that part leads to where the other clues are hidden? I mean it would be pretty silly for someone to come along and only tear off half a sheet of clues like that.'

'So how do you know that is a pathway to treasure?' asked Wal. 'And not just some pathway to a chocolate bar?'

Tucker piped up. 'Chocolate bar? UUUBBAAAAAA!'

Buck tapped the top of the paper. 'It says so on the note. Read it.'

Wal did. 'There is a treasure to be found, but first thou must findeth the vital clues.'

'Mmmmm,' Pete said. 'My theory might be right. The _vital clues_. You have to find them first. So this code leads to the second half of this sheet.'

'Which probably no longer exists,' said Wal.

'The first half does. So why not the second half?'

'Seems like a wild goose chase to me.'

Buck's face dropped. 'But think about it. There could be a fortune of treasure at the end of this.'

'So why don't you find it?' Colin asked. 'Aren't you supposed to be a professor?'

'I've tried, but I'm afraid my mind cannot grapple with such cryptic puzzles. I am more of a standard crossword type of guy. I deal with science, with facts and figures. _Private investigators_ , on the other hand, have to be more flexible because you deal with people that have warped minds. Think about it... if this is the real thing, we could all be rich beyond our wildest dreams. Wouldn't you all like a share in that?'

Rex had to admit, it was very tempting. He took another look at the note. 'Well it certainly looks authentic and if the treasure is here in Plymouth, it means we could conceivably spend some time trying to figure it out. But we can't let it interfere with our main reason for being here.'

'Of course not,' Buck said. 'There is no rush anyway. It can be put on hold for as long as you like, but I would like to be kept informed on how the investigation is going. We will, of course, split the treasure with everyone who is part of the search. Even the young ladies... my my...' He gazed at Vanessa. 'I don't believe I have ever met anyone quite as beautiful as you...' He turned suddenly to Emma. 'No offence to you, my dear. You are indeed beautiful too.'

Emma smiled. 'Everybody looks like a thorn compared to Ness.'

'Oh, nonsense!' Vanessa said.

'It's true. You're a goddess.'

'I am so not a goddess.'

Rex intercepted. 'Let's not get into that argument again. We all know you're in denial on that one.'

The others chuckled in agreement.

She grinned and poked out her tongue at him.

'Well...' Buck rose to his feet. 'I shall leave that with you for now, if you'd like some more time to think about it, but I will not waste anymore of your valuable time. Please do let me know what you think. I am just over there at number eleven. I will look forward to hearing from you.'

After he'd gone, there was much discussion about the possibility of pirate treasure. For most of them, it just seemed too amazing to be true, having come across such an offer.

'He seems like a nice man though,' Emma said. 'I can't imagine it would be a trick.'

'Neither can I,' Rex said. 'That guy seriously believes this here is a legitimate treasure map. I'd be interested in taking a look at that logbook he found along with it. Maybe that will help determine its legitimacy.'

Colin nodded. 'If it does look alright, I suggest we see if we can figure it out. I'm sure we can spare a couple of people.'

'We can play it by ear. See who we need as the case progresses,' Rex said. 'I have to say it has me intrigued. So what does the rest of the code say, Wal?'

Wal read it...

1) The Pirate's Lair

2) Van Heath is Inn

3) Here's a pointer - Get to the point

4) Bunk in the cavern of Van Heath

5) Ha! Ha! Last laugh...

'The pirate's lair?' Pete snorted. 'Some clue. There may be modern pirates running around now, but the old pirate's lairs of old are long gone. How are we supposed to figure that one out? And I don't like the look of the last clue either. Last laugh? Maybe this is all just a prank?'

'Well...' Rex said. 'Assuming it's not a prank, we could always do some research and find out where pirates used to hang out in Plymouth all those years ago.'

'We could check out the public library,' Tucker said.

'Yeah, well a couple of us could go over there tomorrow sometime. We won't all be needed on the main case.'

'I'll go,' Colin said.

'And me!' Tucker said. 'I'd rather sit in a library than go around hunting for pirates.'

'Okay. You two can do that.'

'We can go now,' Colin said. 'The library will still be open. Save time.'

'Alright. Head over there then.'

Colin arrived back from the library with a sprint in his step. He spoke as he entered the lounge, wanting to deliver to the news to whoever was still awake. It seemed everyone was and they hung out in the main lounge which now looked a lot tidier than it had before Colin went to the library.

'We found out there is a town near here which used to be a popular pirate destination. In fact, it kind of makes me want to kick myself now because it's the same town we have to visit tomorrow. Billington Cove!'

'Billington Cove?' Pete gaped. 'Well, there's a turn up for the books. I guess that kind of makes sense, after all, we're going to check out a pirate tour operation there.'

'That's why I'm kicking myself. The whole town has a pirate theme going due to the fact it was once considered a _pirate town_.'

Pete gazed across the room. 'This is turning out to be a little like our last case. We went to a real authentic western town with people locked in the 19th century. Now we're going to an authentic pirate town with real pirates?'

There was one additional member of the RCI who had been suffering serious jetlag, so had been asleep in one of the rooms for the last few hours. It was Vaughan Hearne, Rex's cousin. He was there now, sipping on a coffee. 'The difference is, this is just a tourist gimmick. And it still has to operate within the law. You get families visiting.'

Colin continued, eager to reveal more details. 'I found out something else interesting about Billington Cove.'

Tucker let out a shiver. 'No, don't mention that. It's too scary. This place freaks me out enough as it is, especially now that it's night time. Don't mention that too.'

Colin ignored him. 'They even say that Billington Cove is haunted by the ghost of a real pirate.'

Tucker shivered again.

'Tell us more,' Vanessa said. Then suddenly she spoke in mock fear, 'Oh God! This is freaking me out. Guess I better cuddle up with my man. He'll protect me.' And so she did with a gleam in her eye.

Colin chuckled. 'There's a square named Prindle's square. In the middle of it is an old statue and it just happens to be Bjorn Van Heath, the pirate.' He paused to check out the reactions of his comrades.

Jaws dropped. Eyes widened. There were a few gasps.

'It's been there for over a hundred years, this statue. A tribute to the fact that Van Heath once lived here.'

Pete whistled. 'Well, there's another turn up for the books. Perhaps he did own the house next door?'

'They say that at midnight when there's a full moon and it's a misty night that sometimes the statue gets up and walks around the square.'

'What a load of crap,' Wal said.

Pete snickered. 'Yeah, and you can't really call it haunted either. Statues are statues, not ghosts.'

Tucker shuddered. 'An evil spirit!'

Wal rolled his eyes. 'Whatever! You clueless bastard.'

Colin continued. 'Sightings have been going on for years and years and then one day they just ended. About thirty years ago. I figured, oh well, it was just a story to scare people. Make the place seem a little bit spookier, but the librarian was saying that the sightings have started up again. About a year ago actually.'

Wal rubbed his fingers together. 'It's like the Lochness monster. Just a way to lure in the tourists and make a bit of doe ray me.'

'Maybe, but nobody knows how it's happening. And what's really bizarre is that this statue just gets off its pedestal and walks around.'

Wal snorted. 'Ah crap, do those twerps really expect us to believe that?'

'That's what the stories say. This stuff is in the local newspapers. I read some of the articles myself at the library. People have seen it. Always at night. Always in the mist.'

'Of course,' Rex said. 'It's just like people always see angels and demons at night. Except in this case, it's not dreams but the eyes playing tricks on them because of the gloom and the mist. Back home in Te Arawa there's that statue of a soldier. You know the one? You get mists come across and at night it really looks quite real.'

'Yeah...' Pete said. 'Really spooky. Eerie in fact.'

'Same thing with this,' Rex said. 'Has to be. I mean we know statues don't just start walking around, not unless it's a robot of some kind, but then you'd be able to examine it and see it's a robot, but I'm betting it's made of stone or marble or something like that, not metal or plastic.'

'A golem!' Tucker gasped.

Everybody groaned.

'Yes, Tucker, a golem.' Vaughan sighed.

'UUUhhhhhbbaaaaaaahhhhh!'

'Well,' Vaughan leaned back in his easy chair. 'Looks like our trip to Billington Cove is going to be interesting in more ways than one.'

# CHAPTER 2:  
Pirate Town

Billington Cove... or Pirate Town as it was often called, was certainly an experience. Rex had to admit it had some real appeal. People dressed as pirates roamed the street and everything seemed to have a pirate theme. There was a pirate ship on the docks, which had been turned into a restaurant, pirate souvenir shops, costume shops and of course a pirate tavern.

They came across Prindle's Square and the statue of Bjorn Van Heath the Pirate. The square was buzzing with activity. A crowd of tourists stood around while a pirate put on a juggling act.

'Juggling pirates?' Pete shook his head, bemused.

'That's progress for you,' Vaughan said.

They walked over to examine the statue. It was about six feet tall and pretty much the size of a normal human. It was made of stone and had a parrot on his shoulder.

'Definitely not a robot,' said Colin.

Vanessa had come to get a look at the place, but Rex was adamant that once they really got to work that she could not be there _. 'Not if there are real pirates about. Someone like you would be a target for sleazebags like them.'_

'Seems like a normal statue to me,' she said.

'That second clue...' Pete said. 'Van Heath is _inn_. Notice the spelling of the word. Think it's a typo?'

Rex mused. 'Probably not.' He peered at the old Tavern. It was called "Prindle's Inn." 'I wonder how long that building's been there and whether it's always been an inn.'

'Wow,' Pete said. 'Are you suggesting it may be where the clues are leading?'

'Seems amazing. Too good to be true, but I guess you never know.'

'Maybe Van Heath was a regular there all those years ago?' Vanessa asked.

'I guess we can ask some questions and find out.'

'Let's go in for a beer then,' suggested Wal.

The inside of the bar looked as old as the out and very authentic with pirate memorabilia lining the walls and booths designed to look like rowboats. Pirates sat around the bar and with some of them it was hard to tell whether they were real seamen or just people in costume. They drank from metal tankards and were laughing and having a great time.

The bar had an extra-large skull and crossbones above it which looked more like dinosaur bones than human.

'Ah Harrrr, me hearties!' A scar-faced bartender greeted them. 'What'll it be? We have the finest ale this side of the Atlantic, arrrrgh, we do.'

They all got a tankard of ale each and sat down. Many of the pirates peered across, particularly fascinated by Vanessa. Rex was not surprised.

She sighed. 'I think you're right about this not being a good place for me, Rex. I guess I should be used to guys gawking at me, but then again this is the first time it's been pirates. Where are all the wenches? That's what I'd like to know. There's one serving drinks, but she's fat and ugly.'

'I guess the cute ones get fed up with the pirates making passes at them,' Rex said.

'Yeah, well I'd probably make passes at them too.' She laughed.

A pirate rose from his chair. He wore a black bandana and had a huge nose, which looked like a plastic one, not to mention an eye patch, which seemed to be standard of the pirates around Prindle's Square. One of his legs was a wooden stump from the knee down, but it was quite clear he had a normal leg tucked back underneath his trousers.

On approaching them, he delivered a broad smile. 'Ahoy, me hearties! Welcome to Prindle's Inn. Me name is Long John Shale, the teller of tales. Entertaining the people that come in 'ere is me joy in life and grateful me be to any tips offered.'

'Stories, huh?' Rex paused to take a mouthful of ale. 'I guess you know all about that pirate statue out in the square.'

'Arrrr, that I do, me hearty. Ye have heard the tales, already, I take it? The tales of ghostly goings on in the square?'

'We have.'

'Aye, the tales be true, I tell ye, _true_. I have seen the moving statue for meself, marching around the square as if he owned the place. It was dark, it was misty... there I was, just minding me own business when this statue just gets off its platform and starts a walking. "Shiver me timbers," I cried. I was so scared, I was, I couldn't move. 'E made his way around the square and returned to 'is spot.' Shale waved his hands around as he spoke. 'And 'e let out the most blood curdling scream I'd ever 'eard in me entire life. He waved his cutlass in the air. 'Is parrot gave an ear piercing squawk and then the mist came down upon him and 'e changed back into a statue again...' He let out a deep breath and cast his gaze around at his listeners. 'Aye... it sure spooked me, I can tell ye that!'

'Good story,' Rex said. 'I don't know if it's worth a tip though. You could have added in a bit more drama.'

Shale's eyes bugged. 'Ye think I make that up? I can tell ye now, landlubber, that story is true. As true as ye mother gave birth to ye!'

Pete snickered. 'Then why do you call yourself a teller of tales?'

Shale snorted. 'Some tales I tell be false... but others be true, savvy? The statue is real. Beware... Captain Bjorn Van Heath is back from the dead!'

'Yeah, sure, buddy,' Pete said.

Rex chuckled. 'If you really want to earn a tip, how about telling us more about this inn? How long has it been around?'

'Arrrr, many a year, many a year. This here tavern once stood in the days of old when pirates really did roam the seven seas. Captain Bjorn Van Heath 'imself used to wet his whistle in these 'ere halls and relax after many a week at sea.'

'Wow, it's an old place then,' Vanessa said.

'Aye. It be an 'istorical building, no doubts about that.'

Rex continued with his questions. 'Rumours have it that he stashed a lot of hidden treasure around different parts of the world during his travels. Do you think he ever stashed anything here in Plymouth?'

'Ohhhhh, aye, he did, but nobody has ever been able to find that treasure, no one. The rumours 'ave it that there is treasure buried right here in this town somewhere nearby.'

'You're just saying that,' Pete said. 'Just to make this place seem more exciting. Draw more tourists in hoping to find the treasure.'

'Ye, sceptical skurvy dog, ye are. Tis a rumour for sure, but Van Heath was known for storing huge amounts of wealth, yet, he never lived the wealthy life. Where did all his treasures go? Answer me that!'

Pete didn't reply.

'Van Heath never revealed where his treasures were buried to anyone. 'E never 'ad the chance. They say that he was abandoned by 'is crew and was never seen or heard from again. I say he was murdered by his crew! That's why he's returned to Billington Cove to haunt the ancestors of the swabs who did it!'

'Sure,' Rex said.

'If ye want to experience the type of life Captain Van Heath had, I be recommending Pirate Tours to ye. I also get a commission for any potential passengers I send their way, ha arrrrrrr!'

How appropriate that Shale should mention Pirate Tours. 'Tell me more about this Pirate Tours. We hear it takes people out on pirating adventures. Who operates it? How many ships do they have?'

'They have two,' Shale said. 'One is captained by a man who calls himself Bjorn Van Heath II. Claims to be a descendent of the great man 'imself. Runs 'is ship like the days of old. The other is for those who prefer a few more luxuries, skippered by Captain Kid.'

Rex jerked back and widened his eyes. 'Come again?' He thought about Kid McGraw and wondered if it was coincidental.

'Captain Kid. Originally it was just the one ship, but the tours became so popular that another was added only a few weeks ago. Sailed all the way from the United States so I's been told.'

Even the timing was perfect. It had been a month ago that Fingers and Kid McGraw had escaped the police. It certainly explained to Rex how the McGraw brothers had gotten out of the country. 'So anyone who wants to can just book a cruise and go a pirating?'

'Arrrr, it's not that simple. Ye must pass an initiation test first.'

'What?' scoffed Pete. 'So just paying isn't enough?'

'Aye, but it's all part of the experience. Ye wouldn't expect a pirate captain to take on just any one now, would ye? 'E wants a crew that 'e can trust. A crew that knows what they're doing.'

'Do they have to be able to rig the sails and all that sort of stuff?'

'No. These ships are ships with engines.'

'That's not very authentic.'

'People do not want to be spending all their day manning the sails and working on deck.'

'Good point. I guess the pirate experience onboard involves hanging out with the other pirates and drinking rum all day.'

Shale burst out laughing. 'Aye, perhaps ye be right.'

'You know, it's funny,' Rex said wanting to probe for more information. 'Before we came here we got ourselves a whole heap of brochures for the various different tours and activities around here. None of them advertised these Pirate Tours you're talking about. We only heard about them through word of mouth...' That was true. It was through their client, a government organisation that they had been advised about this tour operation. 'Seems strange that they should be doing so well and adding a new ship to their fleet when they're not even advertising.'

'That's the way they prefer it,' Shale explained. 'Through word of mouth. These tours are not meant for just anybody. Ye must be hardy, aye... These are adventures for hardcore adventurers only, not just for the average landlubber. That is why me be recommending this to ye, because ye look like more than your average tourists. And ye know, they may even accept women on the crew. Ye have a very fine wench there I see, very fine. I'm sure she would be most welcome on board.'

'Yeah, I'm sure,' Rex said with a scowl. 'That's why I'm keeping her well away.'

Shale laughed. 'Perhaps not such a silly idea.'

'So what do they do aboard these cruises? Do they actually do any real pirating?'

Shale smiled. 'Ah, ye have been hearing the rumours. But nay, it's about having fun and visiting fun places. Maybe some of these places aren't exactly legal, if you know what I'm saying. But if they were raiding other ships, they wouldn't last long, would they?'

Rex figured that the real pirating was being done in a way that steered the suspicion away from them. But perhaps they hadn't done such a good job as the RCI were there to investigate them. 'So how does one get themselves aboard one of these cruises?'

Shale pulled a card from his pocket. 'Here is a name and number. Call it... tell them that Shale sent ye. Ye'll find the cost is very reasonable and I be certain ye will enjoy the experience. Oh aye, I can guarantee you that. Ha Arrrrrrrrrr!' He winked.

Rex tipped Shale for talking to them and then turned to his companions. 'Well, well... The more I find out about these Pirate Tours, the more convinced I am that they're dodgy.'

'I reckon,' Colin said. 'Just makes me think even more that it's a risky going on board as a passenger.'

Vanessa touched Rex's arm and looked at him with concern. 'It has me worried too.'

Rex caressed her hand gently. 'I know. But this is something we need to investigate if we want to round up the McGraw brothers.'

'So what now, Rex?' Colin asked.

'I think it's time we went to see about signing up for one of these so-called cruises.'

# CHAPTER 3:  
Signing up for the crew

A phone call and an appointment was made. Both ships were due to arrive in Billington Cove the following afternoon.

Rex, Wal and Vaughan were the ones to go undercover onto the cruise. They had to disguise themselves too, to avoid being recognised by the McGraws. Fortunately, they had some state of the art material, supplied to them by the government organisation. It was called temporary plastic surgery. It involved applying a type of residue to parts of the face, which changed their appearance. The beauty of the material was that sweat could go through it and it could only be removed by a special chemical. The material would stay fixed for at least a week and it felt natural.

When Vanessa saw Rex afterwards she flinched. 'You're still handsome... but it's not the same. I want my Rexy back.'

'Don't worry. You'll get him back once this is over, I promise.' He winked.

Colin intended on doing more investigations into the treasure code. 'I reckon that the next part of the clue is talking about some kind of peak. Like Hewes Point or Cassidy Point. We'll look at some old maps and see what we can find out. I'm guessing we'll be able to see this place from Billington Cove.'

'Okay, but just remember the main thing is to be ready if we need you,' Rex said.

'Of course.'

Rex and his two companions arrived at the port, carrying their luggage. It was quiet. There were wooden crates piled up as well as a block of containers. Large buildings stood further along the wharf. The only vehicles were a couple of cars and a large truck.

What stood out were the two ships. One, in particular, had them staring in bewilderment.

'Okayyyyyy,' Vaughan said. 'A cruise liner... but with sails. You don't see that every day.'

It had sails rigged at various parts around the ship, along with a crow's nest. It wasn't a huge cruise liner, but there was no way that it would be able to be propelled by wind. It was just too big and heavy. The other ship was of similar size but it had no masts.

'I guess the one with the sails is Bjorn Van Heath II's ship,' Rex said. 'Long John Shale was saying that one was meant to be more authentic than the other... although that's a pretty warped idea of authenticity.'

The other thing Rex noticed was that the tenders on both ships were larger and more powerful, looking than just simple transportation boats. The riggings had been modified to hold them

A few men loitered at the foot of the gangplank of the first ship. Another appeared from the exit. The men moved aside for him as if he were someone of importance, but he seemed way too comical. He was dressed a little like Long John Shale but wore a big black hat. He had bucked teeth, an eye patch and a live parrot perched on his shoulder. The other men on the dock were dressed like everyday people. They could have been other fellow passengers but judging by the grim looks on their faces they surely had to be crew. They didn't look like they'd welcome tourists onboard.

'Hi,' Rex greeted the pirate. 'Is this Pirate Tours?'

'Aye, me hearty!' The pirate replied in a raspy voice as the men behind stepped up behind him. 'Come to take a cruise with us, have ye?'

'Sounds like fun. We made a call to your agent and we were told to come here. We haven't been provided with any tickets yet though.'

'Ha arrrrrrrr. There ain't no need for no tickets, squire. Ye just have ta pass the initiation test.'

'What about the fee?'

'If ye pass the tests, then ye can pay the fee.'

Rex began to think this was more of a Mickey Mouse outfit rather than a Pirate outfit, but then it just added more suspicion that this was no ordinary tourist operation. It was looking suspiciously like it was more of a recruitment plan in an attempt to get more men to work onboard, which then meant it was very likely they were involved in the recent spate of pirate attacks.

Rex delivered the crazy pirate a wry smile. 'You can quit the phoney accent until we're on board.'

The pirates behind Van Heath chuckled, however, the expression on the captain's face soured. 'I—'

'RAARRRRRRP,' The parrot interrupted him with a squawk. 'Avast, ye landlubber, WOORRRRP!'

'Shutup, Squawker!' the pirate growled. He then glared at Rex. 'Look, ye swab, I'm the captain of this here vessel, The Tart. I'm Captain Bjorn Van Heath II and I'm in charge here, savvy? I make the rules and I won't take any bad-mouthing, ye scurvy dog.'

Rex couldn't believe he was looking at the captain himself and cleared his throat. 'My apologies. I had no idea you were the man in charge.'

'To get aboard the Tart as a crew member you must each pass two of three tests.'

'And what would they be?' Rex asked.

'Firstly you must take on one of my men in unarmed combat. Remain standing for five minutes.'

Rex snickered. 'This is the first cruise I've ever heard of where you have to fight someone to be allowed on board. Get many takers?'

'Do ye want to come aboard or not?'

'We have to last five minutes?' Vaughan said 'What happens if we win, do we get a free cocktail at dinner?'

The other men with Van Heath laughed haughtily.

'Yeah, right,' muttered one.

'It'll never happen,' said another.

'Nobody has ever beaten Claws!' Van Heath declared. 'But if someone should, they would certainly be given as much rum as they wish to consume.'

Rex chuckled. 'Well bring this Santa Claus down. I'll be happy to dish him out his first defeat.'

Van Heath smiled. 'I like your attitude, me hearty. _Claws!'_

One of the men with him stepped forward. He was a sour-looking Asian man who had a malevolent gleam in his eyes. Rex could already guess how he got his name. He was obviously some kind of martial arts expert and no doubt he would be one tough opponent, but then Rex was a martial arts expert too, so he wasn't intimidated.

'Who's first?' Claws asked, slapping a fist into his palm.

'I'll go first,' Rex said, thinking it best to soften up the guy a bit before his two friends had to take him on.

'Very eager...' Van Heath said. 'A little too eager, me thinks.' He pointed to Vaughan. 'Ye first. Unless ye wish to bail out now and run home like the yellow landlubber ye are!'

'Not a chance,' Vaughan said and stepped forward. 'Like my Great Uncle Winthrop always used to say...' he reverted to a croaky voice. 'Never back down from a challenge. Otherwise, I'll disown you.' He motioned Claws forward. 'Bring it on.'

Clause stepped up and positioned his hands in a karate stance. There he waited.

Vaughan lunged forward, but Claws was extremely fast. He ducked down and swooped Vaughan off his feet with a leg sweep. Vaughan hit the ground with a thump and stared up at the smirking Asian.

'You'll have to do better than that!' Claws said.

The other pirates cackled with laughter. More flooded down the gangplank to watch the initiations. One was a woman and quite a stunning one at that. She wore tight jeans and a loose-fitting top. She had long dark hair and lots of jewellery. Rex was surprised to see such a woman there and wondered what part she had to play in all this. Perhaps she was the Captain's wench?

Vaughan climbed to his feet and lunged at Claws with a swift blow to the head. He connected much to the shock of the other pirates. A few cheered, perhaps pleased to see someone get a punch in on their martial arts expert.

This riled up Claws and he retaliated with a bevy of martial arts moves, which totally bamboozled Vaughan. Even more cheers went up this time. Rex flinched as Vaughan took punches and chops, which finally sent him crashing to the ground. He did not rise.

Claws shook his head in disgust. 'Too easy.'

Van Heath spoke. 'Definitely an annihilation, squire! He can't fail anymore of the tests or he's out.' He pointed to Wal. 'You... you're next.'

Wal showed no fear. He ambled out into the middle and readied himself. As soon as Claws took his position, Wal attacked. He sent punch after punch towards Claw's body, but each one missed its mark. Claws dodged and weaved through his blows.

Then suddenly he launched an assault of his own.

His punches and chops sent Wal staggering back, but Wal came back swinging. Rex could see the impressed looks on the other men's faces as no matter how much punishment Wal took, he kept fighting back. Wal managed to get in a few punches, but it was still Claws that dominated with his magnificent martial arts skills.

In the end, Wal lasted the five minutes, despite cuts and bruises on his face.

'Well done,' Van Heath said. 'Very few people ever managed to go the distance that impressively.' He turned to Rex. 'Now it's your turn.'

'I think you should let Santa Claus have a bit of a break first,' Rex said.

'I don't need no break!' growled Claws, wiping blood from his lip where Wal had got a punch in. 'I can take you! I'll give you a thrashing, just like your two buddies.'

'I don't need one.' Rex said. 'In fact, I already have one and I was thinking of giving it to you.'

Claws let out a yell and launched at Rex with a foot to the head. Rex grabbed it and twisted it around, causing him to cry out in pain and come crashing to the ground. The other pirates gasped in surprise. Claws leapt to his feet, but Rex knocked him to the ground once again, this time with a leg sweep.

Claws rose to his feet again, fury in his eyes, but this time he was more cautious. He circled around Rex, his hands at the ready. Some of his fellow pirates urged him on.

'Take him out, Claws!'

'Teach him a lesson!'

Claws attacked again, this time with a bevy of fast punches and chops, a technique which had worked well against Vaughan and Wal. This time however it did not work so well as Rex blocked each one. Rex sent some of his own blows, which were also blocked, but then Claws got one through, hitting Rex in the jaw.

Rex retaliated with a successful punch of his own. Like a whirlwind they traded blows, only a few managing to find their mark from both sides. Then Claws grabbed Rex's arm and flipped him. Rex managed to land on his feet and surprised Claws with a wrestling move, a clothesline that sent Claws crashing to the ground. He then followed up with a pulverising leg drop, which shook Claws to the bone and caused all the other pirates to gasp in shock.

They both scrambled to their feet. He sent a foot back into Rex, sending him staggering back. Again, they zeroed in to each other with another flurry of martial arts, but neither managed to get the upper hand.

'Enough!' Van Heath held his hand in the air.

The two stopped fighting.

'Well, well,' Van Heath said with a wry smile. 'I be amazed. Someone who can go toe to toe with Claws. An equal!'

Claws glared at Rex, evil shining out like a laser. Rex knew that even though he'd proven himself against this man, he had humiliated him and made an enemy out of him. This had to be the first time Claws had ever failed to overcome an opponent. Rex wondered what he'd be like though if he was fresh to the fight and not having just had to deal with Wal and Vaughan. He would be a force to be reckoned with.

Rex glanced at the female recruit. There was an unmistakable twinkle in her eye.

'It seems we have some worthy recruits here,' Van Heath said. 'But that was just the first test, harrr arrrrrr! The next be a test of marksmanship.'

'Shooting?' Rex asked. 'Why?'

'Because this is a pirate ship! We have lots of fun activities and some involve the use of guns. Savvy?'

Rex didn't believe it was for fun activities but didn't argue. 'Yeah, sure, I savvy.'

'Leech!'

Another pirate stepped forward, a blond man with an unshaven chin. He grinned. 'That's me.'

A couple of pirates lined up some bottles along the edge of the pier.

Leech took 40 paces back and then aimed his gun carefully. He fired. A bottle shattered.

There were five bottles and each one he did the same and found his mark. After the fifth one shattered all the pirates applauded and Leech delivered Rex and his pals a big smile. 'Beat that!'

'Leech makes it look easy,' Van Heath said. 'Lucky for ye, all you have to do is hit one, but you only have five shots to do so. You first.' He pointed at Wal.

Rex knew this would not be Wal's strong event. He had experience with a rifle while hunting, but not a normal handgun. Alas for Wal he was not able to hit any.

Van Heath shook his head and tutted. 'Pathetic. A good thing for ye, ye put up a good fight against Claws. But ye can't fail on the third and final challenge.'

Squawker let loose a cackle. 'Pieces of eight, pieces of eight... RAAARRRRRRRP!'

Vaughan was next. He'd done some firearms training on joining the RCI so Rex hoped he'd be okay. He lined up his gun very carefully at the bottles. He fired. He missed.

He glanced at Rex and gave a deep sigh. At least all he had to do was hit one. Once again he took his position and aimed up the second bottle. He fired. It shattered.

Squawker screeched, 'Not bad, not bad!'

The pirates applauded. Rex glanced around wondering if the gunshots might have attracted some police attention, but he heard no sirens. Some heads appeared from over a brick wall, staring down onto the pier, but Rex figured they could see what was going on so were probably more curious than alarmed.

Rex stepped up next and took hold of the gun. He turned with his back to the targets. The pirates chuckled haughtily as he did. Suddenly he spun around and opened fire on the bottles. Five quick shots, _smash, smash, smash, smash, smash!_ All five of them shattered into tiny pieces.

This drew gasps from many of the pirates although Leech scowled. Then the pirates erupted into applause.

'Alright,' Van Heath said. 'It seems ye have had some training in the past. What were ye? I hope ye weren't a cop.'

Rex chuckled. 'I was a soldier for a few years. Plus I belong to a gun club.' Both were lies, but he was joining a bunch of scum anyway, so it didn't matter.

'Ahhhhhh... Well anyway, it seems ye have passed our test. Ye don't have to compete in the third event. Your two squires, however must.' He peered around the wharf. 'A running and climbing race, harr arrrrrrr!'

Wal flinched.

It would not be good for him especially if Van Heath had a man who was good at that sort of thing.

Van Heath motioned to one of his men who stepped forward. 'This is Silver.' His hair was silver, just like his name, but he looked too young to have hair like that. His bare arms were heavily tattooed and he had his hair in dreadlocks.

Van Heath motioned around the pier. 'You will all run to that lot of containers over yonder. Climb over them, then run around the wharf, over those crates over there, then right around, over the back of that truck and back to here. You two...' He pointed to Vaughan and Wal. '...will be given a thirty-second head start. Fail to beat my man Silver back here and you fail the test.'

Rex didn't like the look of this at all. Silver looked way too lean and agile and would probably scale the obstacles way faster than either Vaughan or Wal. Rex didn't want to go aboard on his own, not knowing what they were to expect.

Rex turned to Van Heath. 'I wish to compete.'

'Ye don't need to. Ye've already passed.'

'I want to.'

Van Heath studied him with a half-smile. 'A man keen to prove himself.'

'Or an idiot,' Leech said.

Van Heath stood tall. 'I says a brave man, I does. I be thinking you will be a great asset to my crew.'

'You'd think I was staying on permanently or something,' Rex said.

'Ye might decide ye want to yet, especially when ye see what perks ye will get.'

Rex glanced over at the sexy pirate wench. She delivered him a smile, the twinkle still in her eye. Rex returned the smile.

The four men lined up at the starting line. Rex knew he had to do something to help his pals and he had an idea, which was why he insisted on racing.

'Go!' Van Heath yelled.

The three of them charged towards the containers. They reached it just as Van Heath yelled go again and Silver started the race. All three managed to get over the containers quickly, but when it came to the crates, which were higher stacked, Wal had some trouble. Silver zeroed in and there were no doubts that Wal was about to be overtaken. Rex halted to pull Wal up onto the top of the crates. 'Go!' Rex ordered him.

Silver scaled the crates and just as his head rose above the top crate Rex rammed his foot into his face. Silver let out a cry and tumbled backwards, crashing to the ground. The pirates watching gasped and cries of cheating came back at him.

Rex continued to race and all three of them ran across the line while Silver still lay on the ground holding the side of his face.

The pirates booed, some with wild looks in their eyes.

Van Heath simply grinned. 'Very good.'

Several of the pirates blurted out shouts of disagreement.

'What do you mean good? He cheated!'

'He should be disqualified!'

'No,' Van Heath said. 'He should be commended for his cunning and ability to think outside the square. He be exactly the type of swab we need on this ship, aye, yes he be.'

This silenced the men and some of them nodded and murmured in agreement.

'He's right,' said Leech

'Yep,' said another. 'He pulled a fast one on Silver. I say good on him.'

Silver stumbled back, blood dripping from his mouth. 'You son of a bitch! You kicked me.'

'Sorry, my man,' Rex said. 'Just wanted to help my buddies past a test stacked against them.' He turned to Van Heath. 'I'm guessing your pirate tours business doesn't make a lot of money in ticket sales. Not when you make the initiation tests so hard. I guess you make your money in other ways.'

Van Heath grinned. 'Aye, ye be a smart man, squire, a smart man. Ye will be a great asset to us indeed.'

'So are we in?'

'Aye... ye are in. All three a ye.'

# CHAPTER 4:  
Concerns

Colin, along with Pete, witnessed the entire initiation from a safe vantage point behind the wall which looked down at the port. They watched as their three companions went aboard the ship along with the pirate captain and his men.

'Just like that,' Pete said. 'It's pretty damn obvious this is no tourist trip. No tickets needed. No money changing hands. One hell of a screwy tour company.'

Colin agreed. 'Fighting tests, shooting tests... They're being recruited, that's what's going on. Attract people in the guise of a tour and then pick off the ones you don't want and take in the ones who are up to scratch. One way of getting yourself a good crew.'

'I wonder what happens when people discover they've been conned.'

'Then it's probably too late. They're already been recruited. They're already aboard the ship and already having to work. Make too much of a fuss and I bet it's curtains for you.'

Pete snickered. They'll be walking the plank.'

'Yeah, something like that.' Colin scowled. 'I just hope no women get caught up in this.' He shuddered. 'Although I saw there was one woman down there.'

'Yeah, bloody hot too.'

'She didn't seem to be there against her will.'

'Nope. She had her eye on Rex too.'

'What's new? Most women have their eye on Rex. Shit, he'll hit the jackpot as usual. The only woman onboard and she'll be in his bunk on the first night, I bet.'

'I could believe that.' Pete nodded. 'If there's any place you can go where you'll never find a woman, Rex will find one.'

'Yeah. At least Vanessa will be pleased, knowing that someone is filling in for her.'

They headed back to Prindle's Inn where the others awaited them.

'Finally!' Vanessa said. 'I was getting so sick of being ogled by all these creeps. And not one wench, not one!'

'Poor Vanessa,' Pete said. 'No girls to flirt with. Oh well, at least you've got Emma back at the house.'

'True. So did everything go okay?'

Colin told them about what they'd witnessed.

Worry appeared on her face. 'God, I hope they'll be okay. I hope they aren't walking into real danger.'

'I don't think so,' Colin said. 'Not unless their cover is blown anyway. Those tests they went through are proof that they're needed as crew. The captain actually seemed very impressed with Rex.'

Vanessa looked at Colin as if he was stupid. _'Of course!_ Who wouldn't be?'

'There was a woman there too,' Pete said. 'She seemed pretty impressed with him too.'

'A woman?' Vanessa's eyes widened. 'On a pirate ship?'

'Yep,' Colin said.

'Was she hot?'

'Just Rex's type.'

'So therefore mine.' She bobbed her eyebrows up and down. 'I'll be expecting to hear stories how he seduced her and got her into bed.'

'And if not?' Colin asked.

'If not he gets a hand slap.'

'She could be the captain's girl.'

'That just makes it a slight challenge, then.'

'Of course... a challenge,' Colin said. 'Because Rex getting the girl is a foregone conclusion usually.'

'It still is!' Vanessa grinned.

Pete remained behind at Billington's Cove, just to keep an eye on the docks in case there was any trouble. Back home, Colin and Tucker got to work examining maps for places that might be related to the riddles.

Vanessa chose to take a closer look at Emma's plans for the decorating. They sat down on her and Rex's bed upstairs, looking at some of Emma's catalogues and plans. She couldn't focus and worried about Rex being out there, possibly in danger.

'You okay?' Emma asked.

'Nuh-uh. Not really. I worry about Rex so much. If anything happened to him... Oh God...'

'Ness, come on, he's got two of the other guys with him. He knows what he's doing, right?'

'I know.'

'So worrying 24/7 is not going to help you. You need to try to keep your mind off him.'

'That's easier said than done. I've tried in the past, but it just doesn't work.'

Emma touched her arm. 'Ness, don't you think that perhaps this relationship is doing you no good?'

Vanessa recoiled. _'What?'_

'I mean... I know what you went through as a kid, right? When you thought you'd lost him for good, when he moved town and you thought he wanted nothing more to do with you? You were really messed up back then, right? At least that's what you told me.'

'I went through hell and that's because he wasn't there. And please, before you start trying to psychoanalyse me, don't, because I've heard it all before.' She forced a smile.

'I'm sorry... It's just that... you're gonna have to go through this as long as he's in detective work and going off on cases. Maybe if it causes you so much anguish...'

Vanessa gasped. 'What are you suggesting? _That I leave Rex?'_

'I... I don't know. Hey, I'm not trying to upset you or anything, it's just that this seems to be a big issue for y—'

'There is no way, Emma, no way I'd ever do that. Oh good God!'

Emma flinched. 'I'm sorry! Please, I'm just trying to help, that's all. I mean, what would you do if something bad _did_ happen to him?'

'Don't even suggest that!' Vanessa's stomach was in knots. Just the thought of ever losing him again brought her nightmares. She didn't even want to consider the awful possibilities.

'I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you.' Emma caressed her arm once more. She moved in a little closer. 'I'm just trying to understand, that's all.'

Vanessa sighed. 'I know. Sorry for biting, it's just that Rex and I are meant to be together, you know?'

'You really think so?'

'Yeah-huh, absolutely. It's fate, Emma. It's the way it's always meant to be.'

'So romantic.' She moved closer again and this time caressed her face. 'Rex is so lucky. If... if you were my girl... I'd never go out and risk my life. Especially if I had someone like you at home waiting for me.'

Vanessa gazed at her full lips. 'He has to, Emma. It's always been his dream to fight crime and put scum behind bars. He was always sticking up for the innocent, even at school. He's as destined to be a private investigator as he is to be with me forever. That's the way it is. You get it, right?'

'I guess.' Emma sighed. 'But if I was him, I'd be worried about you, especially knowing all the enemies I'd be making right now.'

'He won't let anything happen to me.'

'How do you know? He can't protect you all the time. He's not Superman.'

'He's near enough. He's my Superman.' Vanessa could feel herself becoming uptight again.

'I'm sorry, I'm sorry.' Emma cupped both Vanessa's cheeks with her hands. 'I guess I keep putting my foot in my mouth. Let me make you feel better. Help you try to take your mind off him. May I?'

'That would be nice.'

'Okay.' Emma wrapped her arms around her and pressed her lips against hers...

# CHAPTER 5:  
Aboard the Tart

Rex and his two undercover colleagues had been escorted to their cabins compliments of Leech the ship's marksman. The ship had already set sail and Billington Cove was now gone from sight. They expected to find comfortable bunks in a four-share accommodation like on any cruise ship, but the cruiseliner bunks had been pulled out and there were now crude wooden bunks in their place, like the sort you might find on an old pirate ship.

There they were left with a pirate who called himself Muzza, a tall muscular guy, around 6 foot 3, a similar build and height to Rex. He had a Tom Selleck moustache but lacked the dimples. He spoke in an Australian accent. 'I've been told to help you guys settle in. Tell you how things work and all that.'

'What's with the old wooden bunks?' Vaughan asked. He rubbed his ribs, which had been injured by Claws. 'You'd think that with a ship this size we'd get our own rooms too.'

Muzza chuckled. 'All the beds were taken out by Van Heath, cobber. He didn't want us having luxuries like that. Insisted that we were to live just like the pirates of old. But once you've been here long enough and proved yourself you get your own room. Or so I'm told. I'm still waiting.'

'Sounds like fun.' Vaughan grinned.

'Fun?' Muzza scoffed. 'You must have a warped idea of fun.'

'Been on here long?'

'Two weeks.'

Wal took over the questioning. 'How long have you booked yourself?'

Muzza burst out laughing. 'Oh boy. You guys are in for a surprise.'

'What do you mean?'

'You've been recruited, mate. You're not here for a cruise, this is a bonafide pirate ship. You don't leave. Not unless it's in a coffin or you get to take a long swim home, but then you'll be stranded in the middle of the ocean until you drown or the sharks get ya.'

Rex tried to put on a horrified look. Wal and Vaughan followed suit. 'What the fuck are you talking about, a real pirate ship? Are you trying to tell us that we've been conned?'

Muzza sat down on his bunk. 'That's exactly what I'm telling ya. He picked up a book, a novel of some kind. 'But hey, don't take it out on me, I discovered the same thing.'

'So you're saying we're prisoners here?' Wal snarled.

He lay down on his back and opened his book. 'You've been press-ganged, mate. This is the way they do it. Keeps them out of the eyes of the law. Well, when it comes to kidnapping, that is. Nobody can prove it. Ah, it's only a matter of time before the authorities figure out what's going on, but by then they'll have the crews they need and then it'll be hard to stop them.'

'So we're as good as slaves?' Vaughan scowled.

Muzza looked up. 'Not exactly. Sure there's work to do. Van Heath gets us scrubbing decks and manning the sails, even though we have a damn engine room and the sails do absolutely nothing. There are guys working down there, but the raw recruits start off with the unimportant roles, kind of as a test to see whether they'll shape up. But it's not all hard work and you do get paid a decent wage and for most people, it's way more than what they get in their normal jobs, so that often convinces people to conform. There's a lot of fun to be had too and lots of rum drinking... no beer here, just rum, but that's Van Heath for ya. But hey, I'm good with rum. So if you accept the fact that you're now a pirate, life ain't so bad on board and you can gain yourself a lot of perks. Show you're a hard worker and can be trusted and you'll do fine. But try to rock the boat, no pun intended, then don't expect to live long.'

'What?' Wal scoffed. 'So if we don't conform and become good law-breaking pirates, obeying Captain Van Heath's every command, then we get knocked off?'

'Well, you'll be made to walk the plank.' Muzza smirked. 'Same thing really. At least that's what will happen to you on this ship. Captain Kid is more likely just to put a bullet through your head.'

'Captain Kid?' Rex asked.

'Yeah, he's the captain of the other ship. I wish I was there because it's run like a normal modern ship with all the luxuries. From what I've heard, if you really prove yourself here on the Tart, you can be transferred to there. That's where most of the elite men are. And where the boss of this entire operation hangs out.'

'Who's that?' Rex asked, but he could already guess.'

'Captain Kid's brother, apparently. Some guy named Fingers.'

Rex pretended to think. 'Never heard of him.'

Muzza returned to his book and flicked over a few pages. 'Apparently, he's a wanted man. Was tied up in that whole Devil's Island fiasco and more recently been involved in some cattle rustling operation forcing people to sell land to some business mogul.'

Rex knew all about that as the RCI were the ones who busted both operations wide open. 'Oh, okay.'

Vaughan claimed the other lower bunk. 'So what sort of things are we going to do? I mean surely he doesn't expect us to kill innocent people!'

'We try not to kill anyone, but we do perform armed raids on other ships.

Rex snorted. 'So how do you perform these raids without giving away who you are? The people on the ships you raid will know your ship. The navy would know who was responsible.'

'We don't just sail up in our ship. We have smaller boats we put in the water and raid from them so they don't know where we've come from. They can't prove we're from these so-called "tour" ships. You might have noticed when you came on board that the tenders are larger and more powerful than normal, built with speed and endurance in mind.'

'Yeah, I did wonder about those,' Rex said. 'But wouldn't the authorities wonder about them too? And put two and two together when they're described by the ships you raid?'

'It hasn't happened yet. Every now and then we give them a paint. I think that helps.' He eyed them with intrigue. 'So what do you reckon? You guys seem pretty calm for a bunch that have just been abducted into a life of piracy.'

Rex smirked. He was careful about what he said because for all he knew Muzza was assigned by Van Heath himself to test them out to see how much they could be trusted. 'I always wanted to be a pirate. But I don't know. I guess I'm gonna have to see exactly what this Van Heath wants us to do.'

'Yeah,' Wal said. 'I'm not a killer. He better not expect me to kill anyone.'

'And the pay better be good,' Vaughan said.

'Oh, I can tell you it is.' Muzza grinned. He sat back up and placed his book down. 'Come on, let me show you around and introduce you to some of the guys.

Muzza escorted them around to various parts of the ship. One place was the galley which had all the modern equipment, as would be expected on a cruise ship. They met up with a pirate who had a hook for his hand.

'This is our master chef, Hook. Nicknamed for obvious reasons.'

'Shark bite it off?' Vaughan asked.

'Hell no. I can't swim,' Hook said. 'Lost it in a mincing machine.'

Muzza spoke up. 'Rumour has it, it ended up in one of the ship's pies.'

'Nice,' Rex said. 'I look forward to dinner.'

'Is the food good?' Wal asked.

Hook glared at him. 'Of course it's good!'

'It's passable,' corrected Muzza.

Hook's glare intensified.

'But don't expect any chocolate biscuits with your cup of tea,' Muzza said. 'It's only ship's biscuits here... unless you're aboard Captain Kid's ship.

'Tea?' Wal scoffed. 'I thought we drank rum here.'

'We do,' Hook said. 'Count yourself lucky. Van Heath wouldn't allow it at first. All we were allowed was water. But then the men started kicking up a fuss so, in the end, he relented. Had pressure on him from the McGraws apparently.'

'The McGraws?' Rex asked. 'You mean the other Captain and his brother?'

'Yep.'

'Do you see much of them?' Vaughan asked.

'Yeah, they come over here regularly,' Hook said. 'And Kid's woman is often here on board monitoring what's going on. I don't think the McGraws have a lot of faith in Van Heath, but then I don't have a lot of faith in Van Heath. He's a bit of a whack job if you ask me.'

Muzza laughed. 'That's for damn sure.'

'The woman,' Rex said. 'We saw a brunette earlier during our initiation tests.'

'She was hot,' Wal said. 'Wouldn't mind a piece of that.'

'That's _Kid's_ woman,' Hook said. 'Her name's Rinoa. So if I were you I'd steer well clear of her if you don't want your throat slit by one of the McGraws.'

Vaughan snickered. 'It's gotta be dangerous for a woman like her being aboard a ship full of sleaze bags and cutthroats.'

Muzza laughed. 'Everyone's dead scared of her. Not because she's dangerous, but because they're terrified of the McGraw brothers, especially Kid. He's a psycho. Will waste anyone who attempts to make the moves on her. And he's not the only one to worry about because she has a bodyguard. Claws. Go within five feet of her and that guy will kick you from here back to Billington Cove.'

'We met him already,' Vaughan said.

'Are there any other women on board?' Wal asked.

'We wish!' Hook said. 'Van Heath is old fashioned. Won't let women on board. He didn't even want Rinoa, but the McGraws insisted.'

Muzza chuckled. 'You know the old superstition about women being bad luck at sea.'

'If this is a real pirate ship, women would be in a hell of a lot of trouble,' Vaughan said. 'Unless they all had a bodyguard like Claws.'

'What about on Kid's ship?' Rex asked. 'Are there other women there? I mean if Rinoa's normally over there...'

'They won't allow them either, normally,' Hook said. 'Unless of course, it's one of the McGraw's women. Fingers is against it too. Says they just cause a lot of conflict amongst the men. Besides, I've heard rumours. Fingers killed a couple of men for assaulting some woman on shore. Seems to have a thing against violence towards women.'

Rex thought back to his own experiences with Fingers and realised it was true. 'That's good to hear. At least he has some principles.'

'True,' Muzza said. 'Ah, even if we did have some sheilas on board, there'd be a lot of us guys who'd be there to protect their honour anyway, I know I would. I'd sooner bash some assholes brains out than let him violate some innocent woman who'd ended up here thinking she was going on a cruise. This is a pirate ship, not a human slavery outfit.'

'So where are we heading now?' Rex asked. 'I take it we must have some big job coming up?'

'We have. We're invading a freighter due tomorrow afternoon. It will be a chance to prove yourselves. I advise you do exactly what you're instructed if you want to survive until tomorrow night.'

They ate dinner in one of the ship's dining halls. It looked just like one would expect aboard a cruise ship. Nice tables, décor. It was just a pity the food didn't live up to the rest of it. Senior members of the crew sat at the Captain's table. Along with Van Heath were Claws and Rinoa. Regularly throughout dinner, Rinoa peered in Rex's direction, but she did not smile. Rex could see the desire in her eyes though.

Van Heath approached Rex and his friends while they ate. 'So, squires... what do ye think of the Tart so far?'

Rex didn't want to cause a scene, but he didn't want to appear happy about being forced into piracy either. 'We've heard about everything. What if we don't want to work aboard this ship? After all, we came here for a cruise, not to work.'

'Harrrr arrrrrr! Aye, I's can understand yer frustration, but tis the sure-fire way to gain the recruits we need, aye. I'm telling ye, if you work for me aboard this ship, then ye will find your stay here lucrative. Ye will not be kept forever. Stay with me throughout the whole of this entire operation and if ye prove yeself to be loyal, ye will walk away wealthy men, arrgggggggh!'

'The whole operation?' Vaughan asked. 'And how long will that go for?'

'As long as we need to and as long as we can keep it running without the authorities getting wise to us.'

'What about our families? What will they think when we don't return?'

'Ye shall be given the chance to communicate with ye loved ones. But only if ye show me your loyalty. Ye shall be tested tomorrow and ye shall prove yeself, believe ye me.'

'That's what I'm afraid of,' Vaughan said. 'Being tested. What are you going to make us do? Rob ships? Kill innocent people?'

'No innocent lives need be harmed, I tell ye,' Van Heath said. 'Obey the orders of meself and my men and ye will not have to harm anyone. All we want is riches and that's what we intend to get! Come on board with that or walk the plank, it's up to ye.'

Squawker, from Van Heath's shoulders, said his piece. _'Walk the plank, walk the plank,_ WOORRRRRRRRP!'

'Even Squawker knows the penalty for defying Captain Bjorn Van Heath. Now enjoy this evening. Drink as much rum as ye like. Tomorrow ye start work!'

The three of them joined the other pirates in one of the lounges where there was television, pool, darts, poker and other pub activities.

'A pub aboard a pirate ship,' Wal said. 'I thought Van Heath wanted to keep things traditional?'

'So what do we do, Rex? Mix and mingle?'

'Yep,' Rex said. 'Pity we weren't on Kid's ship, because that's the one we really need to be on, but in the meantime, we're just gonna have to make do. At least we know for sure now that this so-called adventure cruise gimmick is nothing but a front for real piracy and we know the McGraws are involved. Even if we learn nothing more, we can take that information back with us. That's if we can find an opportunity to get off this ship.'

Rex joined some of the other pirates who were playing pool. He joined in on a game and even betted money. He'd just won a game when a surprise player arrived on the scene. It was Kid McGraw's pirate wench, Rinoa and many of the men backed away as she stepped up. Rex could see the fear in their eyes, especially when Claws appeared behind her.

'Well, well,' she said to Rex. 'Seems you're a man of multi-talents. You are a match for Claws, outshoot Leech and then pull a fast one on Silver. Smart too. Mind if I take you on?'

'My pleasure.'

'Ah, a gentleman too. I like that. God knows there's precious few of them on this ship. I take it you know how to treat a lady?'

'I do my best.'

'Mmmmm.' She smiled. 'I could imagine you're really good at that too.'

'Care to break?'

'Sure.'

She was wearing a really low cut top, showing heaps of her ample bosom. She lingered over her opening shot and even glanced up at Rex with a gleam in her eye. Rex noticed the other guys all ogling, but as soon as Claws looked at one of them, they quickly diverted their eyes.

Rinoa broke up the pack and they played. Rex deliberately played badly to give her a chance. Each time she played, she lingered over her shot, giving Rex the eye. He could see himself getting into some serious trouble here if he returned the flirting. He didn't even want to think about how enraged Kid McGraw would be if things got out of control.

At three balls up, Rinoa pulled a face. 'You are toying with me. Play seriously.'

'I am,' Rex said.

'You are not!' She stepped up to him and moved right up close. She ran her finger down his chest and then spoke softly. 'You're letting me win.'

Rex saw Claw's stir and his eyes narrowed, but he made no move to step in. Rex wondered who is loyalties were to most, Rinoa or Kid McGraw? Rex really didn't want to test his luck to find out.

The other men watched on wide-eyed.

Rinoa spoke again, 'You like to play games, don't you?'

'It depends on the game.'

She moved in even closer so that her body almost touched his. 'I know some really cool games. But we can't play them here.'

'Probably not aboard this ship either. Not unless I want to find myself walking the plank... or worse.'

She smiled and then backed away. She then yawned. 'I'm tired. I think I'll turn in. Especially if you're not going to play the game properly.' She turned and walked. Claws gave Rex one last evil look and followed her.

Once they had left the room, the tension immediately dissolved.

'Holy shit,' said one of the pirates. 'What was that all about?'

Another spoke, 'She may be hot, but she makes me really uneasy... well her and that creep Claws. Keep worrying she's gonna have Claws disembowel one of us.'

'Yeah, for sure,' said another. He eyed Rex. 'She's certainly taken a shine to you.'

'That's for sure,' said another. 'She never talks to any of us, let alone joins us to play pool.'

'And normally Claws doesn't let anyone near her,' another added.

'Well she approached me, not the other way around,' Rex said.

'True.'

'Watch your step, buddy,' said another. 'You don't want anything to do with her. Not with Claws and not with Kid McGraw. Last person who tried to cop a feel on her got his hand chopped off, compliments of Kid.'

'And was made to eat it raw!'

'Now he's working in the kitchen,' said another.

'What, Hook?' Rex asked. 'I thought he'd lost his hand in a meat mincer.'

'That's his story, but it's crap.'

Rex couldn't help but believe this new explanation. It sure explained why the men acted so terrified of Rinoa.

Rex continued to play pool, but then one of the men came up to him. 'Claws wants to see you. Outside now.'

Rex had a bad feeling as he headed for the exit, however, if Claws had any plans of giving him an ass whipping, Rex was going to be ready. Claws, being fresh and rested after his fights earlier that afternoon, would be a lot tougher competition this time around.

Claws stood out there and showed no signs of aggression. 'Come with me.' He began to walk.

Rex followed him along the corridor and down to one of the lower decks. Claws said nothing as they walked. They entered a first-class area of the ship and finally arrived at a room. He turned to Rex. 'Go in.'

Curiously, Rex opened the door and stepped inside. His heart beat faster when he saw that Rinoa was there in a black satin negligee. Her curves were so fine, Rex couldn't help but stare.

'Please...' she said. 'Come in. Close the door.'

Rex did so. The room was immaculate with a large bed and a balcony out the back. She had a small kitchenette and lounge area. Rex had been in similar suites on cruises in the past. Normally they would cost a pretty penny.

She stepped up to him and smiled. 'I was thinking we could continue with our game. A different kind of game though. The type you need to play in private.'

'Very tempting,' Rex said. 'But I don't think Captain Kid would approve.'

She reached him and put her arms around his waist. She stretched up and kissed his mouth. She spoke softly and sensuously. 'Don't worry about him.'

'Won't your bodyguard report this?'

'No. He won't. He and I have an agreement, so don't you worry about that. You just worry about making me happy. If you don't, then Claws won't be happy. '

Rex could feel himself becoming aroused at her touch and she was just so alluring. 'I have a woman of my own you know.'

'But she's not here, is she? And you won't be seeing her for some time. So forget about her for now. Focus on me. I can make your stay here so much more enjoyable.'

Rex smiled. Perhaps pleasing Captain Kid's wench could end up being fruitful, particularly if he could gain her trust and affection. 'What the hell.' And with that, he grabbed her and began to kiss her.

# CHAPTER 6:  
A Discovery

The following morning at the house, Pete arose. The day before he'd spent several hours down on the docks asking questions about pirate tours and being ready in case they were needed urgently to provide help to Rex and his team. But then Pete decided there was no more point in being there. The ships had sailed.

He now itched to return to Prindle's Square again, this time though to go treasure hunting. They all believed that the peak they needed to find was within sight of the square and on the map there were several possibilities. It was just a matter of working out which one to visit.

He, Colin, and Tucker headed over there, while Vanessa and Emma remained at the house to organise the cleaners and the interior decorators. From Prindle's Square, they could see three peaks from various places around it. They headed to Prindle's Inn to have a beer while they puzzled over the map and the clues to figure out which place would be the best to visit first.

'Okay,' said Colin. 'This inn has to be the key to the riddle, but where the next step is, that's the puzzle. "Here's a pointer, get to the point." The point has to be some kind of landmark, maybe a hill stop or a peninsula or something like that. There are quite a few points around and we can see three of them from around the square. The fourth clue reads "Bunk in the cavern of Van Heath." Whether "cavern" is a spelling mistake and should be a cabin or whether it's a cave we're looking for, who knows. We've tried to find out about names of places that might resemble that, but there are no places that we can find named "Van Heath". He gazed around the room. 'Maybe there's a point in here? Like the point of a sword or something?'

Pete scanned the room and his eyes came to an old cutlass in a glass case on one of the walls. 'Waiiiiit a minute...' He continued to stare at it. 'Could that clue be talking about the point of a sword?' He motioned towards it. 'Maybe it's directing us in the direction we need to go.'

Tucker snorted. 'Don't be an ubbhead. How would a sword know which direction to go?'

Pete had to admit, it did seem like a long shot.

Colin screwed up his face. 'This clue was supposedly written 200 years ago. That cutlass probably wouldn't have been up there then.'

Pete let out a sigh.

Tucker snickered. 'And it wasn't in a glass case 200 years ago!'

Pete sat in silence for about a minute as Colin and Tucker dined on plates of bacon and eggs with hashbrowns. His own plate remained untouched during that time.

Then some more thoughts occurred to him. 'Let's say it was there 200 years ago and it's still pointing in its original direction. It could be pointing to our next destination. One point pointing to another point!'

'But 200 years?' Colin said. 'Come on. Seems ridiculous that it would be there for so long. It would have been sold or stolen by now. Is it pointing to anywhere in particular?'

Pete examined their map. 'Lankston Point is out that way. Directly that way, actually.'

There was silence for a few seconds.

'Nahhhhh!' Colin said. 'Too much of a long shot. We'd be wasting our time. That sword, even if it was here for 200 years has probably been moved to a different place and is pointing in a totally different direction and even then we still can't be sure that's what this clue is talking about.'

'Let's ask Long John Shale,' Pete suggested. 'He might know about this sword.'

They called him over and Pete asked him about the cutlass.

'Arrrrrrr, the cutlass. That there cutlass once belonged to Captain Bjorn Van Heath himself, aye! He gave it as a gift to the owner, old Prindle way back then.'

'Then it must be valuable then,' Colin said. 'Amazing it hasn't been stolen.'

'Arrrrrgh, that's a replica. The real one used to hang over the bar where old Prindle placed it, at Van Heath's request. Just to the right of the skull and crossbones, you say up there.' He pointed. 'Ye can even see the discolouring in the wall where it hung for so long. It was old Prindle's prized possession.'

They tipped him and Shale returned to his table.

'So...' Pete said. 'It used to be up above the bar, huh? Yeah, I can see where the paint is brighter and it's pointing west.'

'Towards O'Reilly point!' Colin said. 'Damn it, I think we might be onto something. If that cutlass was given to Prindle and was requested to be placed right there above the bar in that position, then it seems very likely Van Heath intended it to be referenced in his riddles!'

'Wow,' Pete said. 'I think you might be right. We may have just found the path to Van Heath's hidden treasure!'

* * *

Aboard the Tart, Rex and his two friends had been put to work, polishing the railings of the ship.

'This bloody sucks!' Wal grumbled. 'This is not my idea of undercover work.'

'We have to put up with it for now,' Rex said. 'Once we get to our next port of call we'll make a decision on what we do there, whether we stay on board or not. If it's gonna take us weeks before we're promoted to the other ship, then it's not worth our effort.'

'We need to do something to make ourselves stand out,' Vaughan said.

'Maybe. But we'd have to think about that one carefully.'

They looked over the side of the ship to see that the other pirate ship was not far away. They then noticed that the engine of the ship had stopped and the ship was drifting.

'What's going on?' Wal asked.

'I don't know.'

They could see one of the tenders being lowered from the other ship.

'Looks like we might have visitors.'

Vaughan winced. 'You better hope that Kid McGraw hasn't heard about your liaison with his woman last night.'

'At least one of us didn't have to sleep on a hard bunk,' Wal said. 'Of course, it's always you that ends up with the soft, smooth, sweet-smelling body next to him, when the rest of us have to rough it.'

'Yeah.' Vaughan chuckled. 'Whatever happened to equality? When do I get the hot woman after me for a change?'

'After I get one!' Wal glared.

'That means never then.'

Wal spun around and faced Vaughan, his eye's bugging from his head. 'What did you say? You're lucky I don't bash you one.'

Vaughan just delivered him a wry smile.

Wal's evil scowl turned to a grin. 'Just jokin', Vaughan.'

The tender arrived and Van Heath came out on deck to welcome it. Kid McGraw and some of his men emerged from it and for a moment. Kid McGraw was just as Rex remembered him. Dark hair, handlebar moustache and chin puff.

Rex wondered whether word really had got to him about his night with Rinoa. What if Claws had reported him? Claws had no reason to do Rex any favours, not after he embarrassed him in front of all the other men the day before.

The three of them strolled over to join some of the other men who had assembled nearby.

'What's going on?' Wal asked.

'Don't know,' said one of the pirates. 'Something must be up. Kid doesn't normally come over here unless it's important.'

'Unless he's missing his wench,' said one of the others.

Rinoa was out there now too and she embraced Kid. By the look in her eyes seemed distant. They hadn't talked about Kid the previous night. When Rex mentioned his name, she changed the subject, not that there had been a lot of talking when it came down to it. It made Rex think that things weren't all that dandy between the two and that perhaps she'd even had enough of him. He hoped that he didn't treat her badly. She had no bruises or cuts to suggest she had been.

Rinoa's eyes widened and then Van Heath peered around the ship. His eyes came upon Rex and he pointed in his direction.

'Oh-oh,' Vaughan said. 'I think we're in the shit.'

'Play it cool,' Rex ordered.

Immediately a group of the men, including Claws moved forward. Two drew out guns and pointed them at Rex.

'Don't move!' ordered one of them.

The two captains strode forward, with a rather shocked Rinoa behind them. She stared at Rex. _Claws_. It had to be Claws. He'd reported Rex and Rinoa to Kid.

'So!' Kid stepped up and scowled at him. 'You really thought you could come in here and make yourself at home, did you?'

Rex tried to keep on a calm expression. 'What are you talking about?'

He waited for the accusation to come, the one that put him in bed with his woman. 'You thought you could fool us, Cassidy? You really thought you could?'

Rex tried to hide his shock that Kid knew who he was. 'Huh?'

'Oh come on, Cassidy, don't give me that crap! We know it's you. Rex freaking Cassidy of the Rex Cassidy Investigators. Great disguise. Amazing how you changed your appearance to look like someone totally different, but the games up, dirtbag!'

Rex wondered how it could be that Kid knew it was him. And why had they only discovered him and not Wal and Vaughan? 'Never heard of him. My name's Cliff Collins.'

Kid sent a powerful blow to Rex's head, sending him flying back onto the deck. In a rage, Kid grabbed him and hauled him to his feet. 'Stop giving me shit, Cassidy! I know it's you! We have it from a reliable source.'

Rex winced and his head throbbed, but he remained staunch.

Claws stepped up and whispered something in Kid's ears. He then pointed to Vaughan and Wal.

'Ahhhhh!' Kid turned. 'Two others. Recruited at the same time.' He laughed. 'I can guess who you are!' He stepped up to Wal. 'Big dumb meathead with more brawn than brains. Will Ulman. And you...' He turned to Vaughan. 'Probably the guy with the weird name. _Vaughan_!' He burst out laughing again.

Immediately guns were pointed at Vaughan and Wal. Rex was really confused now. Whoever had revealed his cover had obviously not known that he'd come with friends. Kid had worked that out himself. Could there was a mole inside the government agency they were working for? But why would they tell the criminals about him but not Vaughan and Wal?

Kid turned back to Rex and his scowl appeared again. 'Oh, this is great! Awesome. I am finally going to be able to get some revenge for you _murdering_ my brother!'

Rex knew that there was no point in continuing to play dumb. _'Don't forget_ your brother was the one who challenged me to the duel!' He couldn't resist adding in one more comment. 'He got exactly what he deserved!'

Kid screamed out and struck Rex across the face again. This time Rex braced himself and only staggered back a few steps this time. He kept his straight face, not letting on that he's suffered any pain.

'Oh, I'm going to enjoy killing you!' Kid growled. 'And your two buddies! You're all going to pay for my brother and for the trouble you've caused me and Fingers.'

Rex scowled. 'Forget about it, McGraw! We know what's going on here, so it's only a matter of bringing in the authorities to mop up your operation.'

'Like hell! They can send the Coast Guard, they can send the Navy, even the Air Force, but we have enough firepower on these babies to knock anything out of the sky or the ocean.'

'Come off it, McGraw! You can't stay hidden, not in this day and age. Your days are numbered.'

Kid snickered. 'But by then we'll have our fortune. We have one big job coming up and once that's done, we retire these tugboats.'

'What job?'

'A gold shipment. Heading from New York to Russia. We intend to ambush it. We stand to make billions. Pity you had your cover blown, Cassidy, maybe you and your boys would have had a share in it.'

'How did you know it was us?'

Kid chuckled. 'Oh, you'd love to know the answer to that one, wouldn't you? But I'll let you go to the grave with that little mystery.'

Rex glanced at Rinoa. There was pain in her eyes. He couldn't tell whether it was regret that Rex was in trouble or pain that he was not who he claimed to be, but he doubted she was going to say anything for fear of Kid finding out what had happened the night before.

Kid grabbed Rex by the throat and squeezed. Rex tightened his muscles to fight his grip. 'Oh, I am going to enjoy killing you. But first, we need to get Fingers over here because he wants to talk to you too.' Kid let out a frustrated sigh and released his grip. Rex had barely flinched at all. 'Get these three down into the brig! Let them have their last few minutes alive praying to God for a miraculous intervention.' He snickered. 'Although even God can't help them now.'

# CHAPTER 7:  
Last Laugh

'How much further?' groaned Tucker as they marched up the hill at O'Reilly's Point.

'We only just started walking five minutes ago!' growled Colin feeling like wringing Tucker's neck.

'We could have at least brought some extra supplies of food. I'm starved!'

'Shut up!'

'And it's so steep!'

Fortunately, it wasn't much further before they arrived at the cliffs overlooking the countryside. Colin had no idea where they should look, but it seemed like there might be cliffs or cabins up here. They'd already come across a log cabin, but it was way too new to be one that the riddle was talking about.

'If there was a cabin, it would have been torn down years ago,' Pete had said earlier.

'We may find some old foundations,' suggested Colin.

Tucker grumbled, 'I don't know how that fellow who wrote these riddles got all the way up here. How could he have carried all that treasure?' He tossed away an empty packet of sweets and shoved a chocolate in his mouth.

'It would be a lot easier if you didn't eat while you walked,' Pete said.

'If I don't eat, I won't be able to walk at all!'

They made their way through some bush and rock, looking for hidden caves or old cabins but could find nothing. Just when they were about to give up and go back home, they found one. It was a pothole.

Colin drew out his torch. 'I'll go down and take a look.'

'Right-o,' Pete said. 'Just be careful. You know what the last clue says.'

'Ha ha, last laugh. Don't worry, I'm nobody's fool.'

Colin ventured down into the hole, his torch on. He found it quite easy to navigate his way down until he reached a rocky floor. From there he flashed his torch around and saw that he was in a tunnel, which gradually widened as he made his way down it. There were loose rocks and gravel, which had eroded over the years. He was more interested in the caves around him though.

He stepped on what he thought was a firm rock only to find it give way beneath his foot. It was almost as if it had been placed there in a precarious position especially to trap unsuspecting spelunkers. It gave way beneath his feet and he toppled over. It caused a chain reaction of rubble to roll underneath him and he found himself tumbling downwards, rocks and stones falling with him, until he came to a crashing halt. Stones and rubble continued to roll down on top of him, larger rocks hitting him hard.

He winced and shone his torch up to see more rocks falling all around and he hauled himself to his feet in an attempt to avoid the avalanche. He stumbled out of the main path, groggy as dirt and stones continued to rain down where he'd previously come down. Now the entire tunnel was blocked. There was no way back.

A cloud of dust surrounded him and he coughed, doing his best to cover his mouth and nose. He moved forward so that he could breath easier and then he heard a muffled cry.

'Col! Are you okay?' It was Pete.

'My path is blocked!' Colin shouted, aches and pains coming from all over him. Blood seeped from cuts on his face. The dust began to settle.

'Last laugh alright,' he muttered.

At least all his body parts were still in working order and despite the bangs and bruises, he set to work to try to remove some of the debris, having to be very careful he didn't start up another avalanche. The air was very dank and he hoped that he had a good supply. It wouldn't have been a good situation if there was only a small amount of cave left and no fresh air.

He could hear the others on the other side now scratching away.

'We'll get you out, Col!' Tucker called out. 'Hang in there!'

'As if I have any choice!'

After around twenty minutes of hard work, finally, enough rubble was removed to make a path for Colin to return. However, one last huge rock had to be removed and it took both Colin and Tucker to dislodge it.

'Phew!' Colin gasped. 'That was too damn close. Thanks, guys.'

Colin dusted himself down and dabbed the cuts on his head with a handkerchief. He wasn't done yet though.

He shone his torch back down the cave.

'You still want to go on?' Pete asked.

'We have to make sure this isn't Van Heath's cave. Let's just go a little further down.'

Tucker remained behind just in case something went wrong. And also because Colin considered him way too big and clumsy to go caving. 'You'll probably cause another avalanche. It wouldn't be the first time.'

Colin took extra care about where he stepped and Pete followed close behind. The tunnel widened as they progressed and then opened out into a large cavern. What Colin saw in there made him gasp and widen his eyes. My God! This is it!'

Across the cave wall was painted a message: _Van Heath. Ha ha ha ha ha!_

A chill ran down Colin's spine, especially considering that the last laugh had nearly been on him.

'Wow,' Pete said. 'Imagine being trapped down here and shining your light on that!'

They stood there in silence for nearly a minute. Goosebumps spread over Colin as he realised that it was possible no one had ever been down here since Captain Van Heath himself. Although any cavers who saw that message would have been unlikely to attribute it to a pirate from hundreds of years ago.

'What now?' Pete asked. 'Do we do some digging? Looks like some of the ground here is soft.'

'Let's dig!' Colin said.

Pete shone his torch towards the mouth of the cavern leading further into the cave. 'Well, there's a turn up for the books.'

The mouth looked like a real mouth with teeth open wide in laughter.

'That's where we dig first,' Colin said.

'Right-o.'

They got to work.

Pete dug for less than a minute before he grumbled. 'There's better be something here. This ground is bloody hard.'

Just then there was the sound of metal against metal as Colin's shovel hit something. 'Hello, hello.'

Pete joined him and they both dug in the one spot. In less than a minute, they hauled an old metal chest out onto the floor.

'You little beauty!' Pete said.

'No lock on it,' Colin said.

He opened it up and stared inside.

Colin's heart sunk. 'Empty? You've got to be fucking kidding me.'

'Maybe somebody already dug it up and go the treasure?' suggested Pete.

'Why would they rebury the chest?'

Pete grunted. 'Unless this is the last laugh. A treasure chest without any treasure. Maybe Van Heath had nothing?'

'No.' Colin shook his head. I refuse to believe it. There must be something.' He probed around in the chest with his fingers and gasped, 'The bottom is loose.' He turned the chest upside down and immediately the bottom of the chest fell out to reveal another bottom underneath. A sheet of paper fluttered out after the false lid and settled on the floor of the cavern.

On closer inspection, Colin could see it was torn along the bottom.

'It's the other half of the riddles!' Pete said.

He pulled the original sheet from his pocket and they fit together perfectly. On the new sheet were another set of clues numbered from six.

Colin let out a groan. 'No redundancy pay for Bjorn Van Heath. This better not be a wild good chase.'

'It's been legitimate so far,' Pete said. 'What we've found is proof that Van Heath really did write this code. That means there really is a treasure buried somewhere.'

'There had better be. If there is no treasure, I'll personally deface his statue in the most insulting way possible.'

Colin read the next set of riddles...

6. How's that for a reversal of fortune?

7. Visit the animatedly challenged.

8. Only a sharp thinker with perfect vision can keep up the pace

9. Branch out to higher ground

10. Find your way to death, but use pirate sense

11. The swag is whose?

'Mmmmm,' Colin said. 'Once again the last clue doesn't sound very promising.'

'Well...' Pete said. 'It surely must be the last clue because both these two sheets together make up only one sheet of paper. Let's just hope there really is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.'

Colin smirked. 'Either that or expensive jewels.'

# CHAPTER 8:  
Tender Loving

Rex, Wal and Vaughan had been locked up in one of the rooms aboard the Tart for several hours now. It was around 4pm in the afternoon and they had only dozed on the hard beds of their cabin Rex wondered why Fingers had not been over to see them yet.

The ship had travelled further but they had remained stopped for several hours. Rex couldn't imagine they were at any port, so either they were anchored near an island or in the middle of the ocean.

'I guess this is where the invasion of that freighter takes place,' Rex said. 'They could be doing it right now.'

Vaughan sighed. 'In some ways, I'm kind of glad we're locked up in here. Imagine what they'd be making us do. Van Heath said there was no need to kill anyone, but these are pirates we're talking about. Who knows what could go wrong and just how determined these freighter guys are to defend their vessel.'

Just then, a key grated in the door. The door swung open. It was Rinoa!

She stared at Rex, her eyes wide. 'You need to come quickly if you want to get off this vessel.'

'You want to help us?'

'Yes. The McGraws need to be stopped. If there's anything you can do...'

'We'll do whatever we can.'

'Then come on.' She stepped back into the corridor. They followed. A guard sat slumped in his chair outside, but he appeared to be dead or asleep. A coffee mug lay on the floor and a puddle of liquid beside it.

'I drugged his coffee,' Rinoa said.

'Where's Claws?'

'He was needed on the raid.' She took the gun off the guard and handed it to Rex. 'Take this. Just in case, we need it. Hopefully, we won't because most of the men are on the freighter we're invading now. But we have to be quick because they've been over there 40 minutes now and if the invasion was successful they'll be on their way back soon.'

The three of them followed Rinoa along the corridor. Fortunately, nobody got in their way. Minutes later, they reached one of the tenders, one that had not been taken out to invade the freighter. In the distance, they could see the tenders returning.

'Oh-oh,' Rinoa said. 'We need to be quick. I hope you guys can sail this thing.'

'No worries,' Wal said. 'I can sail anything.'

'Head back in the opposite direction. Keep going straight and you will come back to the coast of Plymouth. Hop on and I'll lower you down.'

'You have to come with us,' Rex said.

'No. Someone needs to lower the tender. I'll be okay. They won't know it was me that drugged the guard and the McGraws trust me.'

Rex didn't like the idea of leaving her at their mercy. 'Rinoa, you can't know they won't suspect you. We can't just leave you here.'

'You have to!'

'I don't want the McGraws doing anything to you.'

'I'll be okay.'

'What about Kid? Is he forcing you to be with him? I won't leave you here if he's hurting you in any way.'

'No, it's okay.' She looked him straight in the eye. 'Me and Kid... We had something. He was really charming and I fell for him, but now I know just what a scoundrel he is. I'll tolerate him for now. Just long enough so that we can bring him down. I want to bring him down... especially after the things I've seen him do... the men he's killed...'

'And you can assure me he hasn't hurt you?'

'I can. It's okay, Rex... Rex, that is your name, right?'

'Yes.'

'I'll be fine. I know how to handle Kid. Just get on the tender.'

Rex did as she said. She lowered them down. Once in the water, Wal operated the controls to get the tender going and next thing they were coasting along the water back to England.

'We are heading in the right direction aren't we?' Vaughan asked.

'Of course we are!' Wal said.

Rex turned back to look at the pirate vessel one more time. He saw Rinoa's face peer over the edge at them. He hoped he could get her some assistance. His main concern was Claws. If Claws was smart he would surely suspect her of being responsible for Rex's escape.

It was dark by the time they arrived at Plymouth.

'We should contact, Roger Dimetri at CTU,' Vaughan said. 'Have them organise an official raid on the Pirate Tours offices and then the cruise ships themselves.'

Rex's first concern seeing Vanessa so that she would know he was okay. 'We'll go back to the house first. The others should know what's going on and that we got back okay. Although I don't think a raid on the pirates is a good thing at this point.'

'Why not?' Wal asked. 'We should blast those scumbags out of the water.'

'Well, for one thing, Rinoa's on that ship and God knows how many other innocent people. I think it would be a better option to take them down from the inside, try and disable them.'

'How?' Wal asked.

'By infiltrating them again.'

'What? So we send a few of the others in? They're gonna have to pass the initiation tests and you can bet the McGraws are gonna be monitoring the new recruits extra closely after we managed to get in there.'

'I'm thinking of something slightly different,' Rex said. 'But we need to wait for them to return to Billington Cove for that.'

'What?' Wal asked.

'Don't worry about that now. Let's just get back to the house. I think we may have a security leak. I'm guessing that it's someone inside CTU itself. That's another reason I don't want to contact them just yet.'

'Good point,' Vaughan said. 'So for now we leave CTU out of this.'

'Yep. We call them in once we have the pirates in a situation where even a mole on the inside won't be able to screw things up for us.'

Vanessa threw her arms around Rex and hugged and kissed him fiercely. 'I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried about you. I can't believe you're back so soon.' She continued to hold him tight, rubbing his back, melting into him. It felt so good and he just wanted to cuddle her and give her his full attention, but he knew the others were waiting eagerly to hear what they were back so soon and what had happened.

Vaughan took up the slack. 'Things went kind of haywire onboard. The McGraws worked out who we were.'

Vanessa gasped and pulled back momentarily to stare at Rex. _'_ How could they possibly know?'

'We think there may be a mole inside CTU,' Rex said. 'So, for now, we have to make our moves without notifying them.'

'How did you get away?' Vanessa asked.

'We got some inside help.' He fully intended to tell her about Rinoa, but for now, it was a minor detail. 'One of the mistakes the McGraws are making is forcing people to join their crew. There are people amongst them who are there against their will and it's going to be those people who we can use to take the operation down from the inside. We just need to get back in there again and find out who those people are. I got to talk to quite a few guys there and already have some names of people I strongly suspect want out.'

'Same here,' Vaughan said.

Wal nodded.

'So how are we getting back in?' Colin asked.

'I'm hoping the ship will return to Billington Cove in a day or two. Then I intend to try to infiltrate it again. Pete, this temporary plastic surgery stuff you've become an expert at. You were saying that it's possible to create an exact duplicate face of a person. Do you believe you can do it?'

'I know I can do it,' Pete said. 'Just give me a model.'

'I'll get you a model. And I have just the person in mind too.'

They talked for a little more about what had gone down onboard the cruise ship, then Rex took Vanessa aside to spend some time with her alone.

'Wow, Ness, you and Emma have got this place looking fantastic. Emma sure is talented.'

'Yeah huh, she is.'

They sat down on a new lounge chair in the corner of the huge lounge away from the others and cuddled up.

'I'm so glad you're back,' Vanessa said. 'I got very little sleep last night. All I could think about was you, worried about what might be happening.'

'If only I could have got a message to you, then you would have been able to sleep easy. As it turned out I had a great night.'

'You did?' She smiled.

'Yeah, that pirate who helped us escape was a woman. Supposedly Kid McGraw's woman.'

Vanessa gasped and her smile grew wider. 'What?'

'Yeah. She's discovered what a loser he is.'

'Ohhhhhh. Don't tell me, she wanted a _real_ man, right? And when you turned up she just couldn't resist. Just like every other woman on the planet.'

'You could say that.'

She laughed. 'Oh my God! And here I was worried sick. If I'd known what was really going on I could have gone to sleep with a smile on my face and pleasant dreams in my mind. But still... To think that you could have been killed when they found out who you were...' She ran her fingers through her long dark locks.

'Hey, don't worry about that. We got out alive.'

'I guess that's one advantage of being such a huge chick magnet. You're gonna make female allies wherever you go, even if they're supposed to be your enemy.'

Rex chuckled. 'You may be right.' He noticed Emma sitting across the room peering in their direction. There appeared to be a cold expression on her face, but he pretended not to notice it. He cuddled up with Vanessa and made out with her for a bit, but out of the corner of his eye he noticed the expression remained on Emma's face.

Rex paused from kissing Vanessa. 'How're things with Emma?'

'Great,' said Vanessa. 'She's lovely and we've been having a great time together.'

'Seems she's really become attached to you.'

'You think so?'

'Yeah, the way she's looking at us right now. Either she's jealous of you, jealous of me, or is feeling left out... I get the feeling it's the middle option though, especially judging by the way she's been fawning over you the last few days.'

Vanessa stared at Rex for a few moments. 'You think she's becoming serious? That she wants more than what she can have?'

Rex sighed. 'Well... I have to say this is unfamiliar territory for me. This is a woman that obviously has a bigger thing for you than she has for me. It's usually the other way around, but if I was to try to turn the situation around in my mind, I'd have to say yes, she wants more from you than what you will give her.'

'Ohhhh...' Vanessa gazed at him. 'I... I guess I didn't pick up on that...'

'I could be wrong. It's a very strong impression I get.'

'Mmmmm... We've had some pretty heavy conversations and she's really into me. I guess maybe I need to talk to her and straighten things out. I don't want her to get hurt.'

'Neither do I.'

'Should we invite her over to join us?

'No. I think for now it's best she gets to see that we're each other's number one priority.'

Vanessa smiled. 'You're right. Besides, all I want is to be with you alone right now and savour having you back again. Especially if you end up going back in undercover again.'

'Yeah,' Rex said. 'That's what I want too... just you and me for the rest of the night...'

# CHAPTER 9:  
Lunch with Professor Buck

The following morning, Emma's manner towards Rex was frosty. She said little to either Rex or Vanessa and kept mainly to herself for most of the morning. There wasn't much time for socialising though, because the topic of conversation at the breakfast table quickly got on to the pirate riddles. The guys had told Rex about their findings the night before and he had to admit, he was impressed with what they'd uncovered. They had taken what seemed like a wild goose chase and turned it into something legit.

'How's that for a reversal of fortune?' Pete said. 'What do you think that means, Rex? We're wondering if it's even meant as a riddle. Maybe it's just a statement of fact thrown in by Van Heath.'

Rex held the second half of the pirate note in his hand. 'Well... I think we have to see it as being consistent with the other riddles. It's something cryptic, not just a statement of fact. Could it mean backtracking to our original location perhaps?'

'You mean Prindles Inn?' Colin asked.

'Yeah.'

Colins rolled his eyes. 'Which means Van Heath likes to send people running backwards and forwards. But I guess it makes sense and Van Heath really did seem to have a thing for Billington Cove. But what about the next clue? "Visit the animatedly challenged." That's kind of bizarre for something written hundreds of years ago.'

'True,' Vaughan said. 'Did they use politically correct terms like that way back then?'

'Maybe Van Heath did,' said Colin.

'So we're talking about something inanimate then,' Vanessa said. 'Something that doesn't move at all. That could mean almost anything.'

'True,' Pete said. 'But when we talk in terms like that we're normally talking about people, aren't we? Physically challenged, intellectually challenged.'

Vaughan replied. 'Seems we're talking about a person or an animal of some kind. Maybe something dead? Is there a graveyard in Billington Cove?'

'There's bound to be,' Pete said. 'Although whether it's that old or not, I don't know.'

'Van Heath may be buried there,' Tucker piped up after scoffing down an entire piece of toast. 'He could be referring to where he's buried.'

'Err, _Tucker_ ,' Vanessa said. 'How could he write this riddle if he was already dead and buried?'

Tucker shrugged. 'Maybe he's like Nostradamus and was able to predict where he was going to be buried.'

Colin snickered. 'More likely he'd already selected his plot. But get real, he's obviously not referring to his own bloody grave.'

Tucker started to butter another piece of toast. 'Maybe he wrote these riddles _after_ his death? Maybe he wrote these _as a ghost!_ '

'Tucker...' Vanessa said in a stern tone. 'If you're gonna carry on like this, you're really going to have to start putting some money towards my therapist, because you really are driving me towards insanity. He _was not_ talking about his own dead corpse.'

'But still...' Colin said. 'A cemetery of some kind seems like a good place to check out. We can see if there's an old one around here that was there way back in Van Heath's time.'

'That statue!' Tucker said. 'Maybe he's talking about the statue.' His eyes widened and he gasped. 'Maybe the statue IS Bjorn Van Heath and he's been covered in plaster!'

A chorus of groans came from all around the table.

'Don't be daft!' Colin said. 'Besides, there's no way that statue is that old...' He was about to drink from a cup of coffee but paused and turned his eyes to Rex. 'Is there?'

Rex scratched his chin. 'It's certainly an inanimate object.'

Eyes widened.

Tucker beamed. 'See?' He looked at Colin. 'Not so daft, right? I'm a little smarter than you give me credit for. Maybe you need to listen a little more to your Uncle Tucker, oh ye of little faith.' He went to bite from his piece of toast but then a frown appeared on his face. 'But wait... there's one problem.'

'What?' Colin asked.

'Statues can't write riddles.'

Everybody groaned again.

'Of course, a statue didn't write it,' Colin said. 'But the note might have been referring to the statue.'

Vanessa spoke up. 'On this occasion though, Tucker might have a point, no matter how warped it might sound.'

Tucker's face lit up. 'I do?'

'Sort of. I mean was that statue erected after Van Heath's death or before it?'

'Good question,' Vaughan said. 'If the statue was built years after Van Heath wrote the riddles then it can't be what the riddles are referring to. But what if it was around when he wrote it? Or what if he was the one who had the statue built?'

That would make him truly narcissistic,' Vanessa said.

'Maybe he was?'

Rex chuckled. 'So I guess the question becomes, did Van Heath have his own monument erected? I think we need to find that out.'

'Maybe Professor Cameron Buck might be able to answer that question?' Vanessa said. 'He's invited us all over to his place for lunch today to hear about how the treasure hunt is going. We can ask him about that at the same time and if he doesn't know we can do some further research.'

'Sounds like a plan,' Rex said.

The rest of the morning was spent working around the house, although Rex sent Colin and Pete into Billington Cove to keep an eye out for the pirate ships.

The time arrived for them to head over to Professor Buck's place for lunch.

'Ah, glad you could all make it. I certainly hope you don't mind, but I'm a vegetarian, so I will be serving vegetarian dishes.'

Sitting down for lunch, it became obvious that Buck certainly did have a passion for carrot growing as just about every dish contained carrots. For starters, he provided carrot soup, then for the main there were grilled carrots, mashed parsnip and carrot, raw carrots and carrot pie. They were given carrot juice to wash it all down. For dessert it was carrot pudding with carrot jelly on the side and carrots dipped in carrot flavoured toffee. The jelly had more carrot in than jelly though.

'I really should have put more carrot in it,' Buck said. 'Don't you think so?'

Nobody replied.

Rex and his team had little chance to talk as he gave them a long-winded lecture on rabbit breeding.

Finally, they sat down in the lounge with a glass of carrot wine each.

'Carrots are just so good for you,' Buck said. 'It's why I eat them all the time.'

'What do you have for breakfast?' asked Tucker who was the only one interested in the topic.

'Mashed carrot mixed with wheat biscuits. Delicious!' He smacked his lips. 'and normally for lunch I will have carrot sandwiches, carrot cake and carrot juice... oh and raw carrots. Mmmmm mmmmm!'

'Don't you get sick of carrots?' asked Vanessa.

'No way! Carrots are one thing you can never get sick of.'

'Want a bet?' Wal grumbled.

'How many carrots do you eat in one day?' asked Vaughan.

'Oh my, I have no idea. Many many.'

'Can you give me the recipe for that carrot toffee thing?' Tucker asked. 'That was ubbery.'

'Of course! But it would be much nicer if you just left the toffee out of it.'

Before any discussion about the treasure hunt could start, Buck got out a slide show for them to watch. It was of his rabbit collection, past and present. Each slide showed a rabbit which he had a story about, which most of the time were almost identical stories, apart from the odd few.

'That one's Bugs,' said Buck. 'As you can see he's entirely white.'

'Just like the previous thirty,' grumbled Wal.

'That was my first rabbit.' He sighed and smiled fondly at it. 'I'm afraid it died.' Tears welled up in his eyes.

'Just like the others,' Wal whispered to Rex.

Buck brightened up. 'But just like most of the others I showed you, he left offspring. My dad killed four of them, the ogre.' Anger appeared in his eyes now. 'But there were two left.' More tears appeared. 'They weren't white like poor old Bugs, but black... but... _sniff!_... that's my favourite colour anyway... next to orange.' He flicked to a picture of two rabbits in a hutch. 'See that one with the white paw? That's Spot. The other one's Blackie.'

'Original names at least,' Wal sniggered.

Rex had tired of rabbits. 'Professor Buck, this is all very fascinating, but I'm afraid we're going to have to leave shortly. We have a case to conduct.'

'Oh yes!' Buck stood straight. 'Of course. I guess I'm waffling, aren't I? I just get so passionate about the subject of my rabbits.'

'Professor, there's something we're really hoping you might be able to confirm for us. That statue of Captain Bjorn Van Heath. When was it erected, do you know?'

'Oh!' Buck's eyes lit up. 'Indeed I do. Would you believe that Bjorn Van Heath had it built himself?'

'Yep,' Rex said. 'I would.'

'He was a narcissist, right?' Vanessa asked.

'So the legends say. He wanted to make a name for himself, you see? Wanted people to remember him as one of the most ferocious pirates ever, so he commissioned that statue to be built.'

'I see...' Rex said. 'And I'll bet he hid his treasure very close to that statue. Who knows? maybe he even buried it _underneath_ it!'

Tucker shuddered. 'Do you know what that means? That means that the ghost of Bjorn Van Heath has returned to guard that treasure! That's why the statue is getting up and walking around at nights. 'He wants to scare people away from it.' He shivered. 'So we will never get a hold of that treasure. The ghost of Bjorn Van Heath will stop us!'

There was silence for a few moments. Then everyone burst out laughing.

'Yeah right, Tucker,' Vaughan said. 'And one day someone will stop you from eating too.'

# CHAPTER 10:  
Back on Board

'The pirate ships are back!' Colin stepped into the lounge shortly after lunch.

'Excellent,' Rex said. 'It means we can put our next plan into action. We're gonna have to stay well hidden though. We can't let any of them see us. No doubt they'll be looking for us too. They'll be on alert expecting some kind of attack, maybe even from the authorities.'

They made their way into town, being careful to remain out of the open. Rex recognised faces immediately. Fortunately, for Rex and his team they were probably not recognisable to most of the men, especially now they had removed their temporary plastic surgery.

'We need to find one of two of these men we can abduct,' Rex said. 'Then we can have Pete perform his magic on us.'

But it was not going to be as easy as they hoped to get one without alerting other people. The pirates were in groups as they made their way around the area. Perhaps the McGraws had ordered them to remain together for extra security.

Rex and his companions stood down a narrow alley, looking for some kind of opportunity. Then Rex saw the perfect candidate and he recognised the man immediately. 'Muzza.'

He was alone too and heading towards Prindle's Inn.

Rex turned to Pete. 'Go get him now. Get him to come around here to us. I don't care what you say to him, just try to coax him somehow.'

Pete obeyed. While Rex and his guys waited around the corner, they pricked up their ears to hear what Pete would say.

'Hey, pal!' Pete shouted. 'You! Yeah, you. You interested in buying some goods?'

There was a brief pause, then Muzza replied. 'What type of goods.'

'Come and take a look. I've got a car parked in the alley and I've got some really great stuff. You won't regret it man, come and look, it's just around here.'

'You better not be pulling a fast one on me!'

'I'm not, it's legit... well I'm legit, but the goods aren't, if you know what I mean. Ha ha ha.'

'Yeah okay, show me what ya got, cobber.'

Rex waited as Pete and Muzza's footsteps grew louder. The two rounded the bend and just as they did, Rex launched his fist into Muzza's face.

Muzza hit the ground like a pile of cow dung. They dragged him back into the alley towards where their cars were parked.

'What do we do with him once we're done with him?' Vaughan asked.

'We keep him locked up until all this is over. Pete and I will take him back to the house. The rest of you remain here. See if you can get some more guys. As soon as Pete has done his magic, I'll be back. Maybe by posing as Muzza I can lure a guy or two over, but we have to work fast because we don't know how much time these guys have onshore before they're due back aboard their ships.'

It took two hours of sitting in a make up chair for Pete to do his work but Rex had to admit he'd done an amazing job. He spent an entire minute staring at himself in the mirror marvelling that his face was no longer what it had once been.

'Wow!' Vanessa gasped, after he'd gone back out to see her. 'You look exactly like that guy... oooohhhhh... I want to hold you and kiss you, but it's like it's not you. It's just too creepy...'

'How about just a hug then.' Rex grinned. He took her in his arms and held her close.

'Please be careful,' she said. 'If it looks like you're cover is going to be blown, promise me you'll just get the hell off the ship somehow.'

'I will, but I don't think we have anything to worry this time. As far as they're concerned, Muzza's a loyal crew member and I can make my voice like his too. I'll be fine.'

Wal had Muzza handcuffed to a bed in one of the rooms and they ensured it was well and securely locked.

'My darling's in this house,' Rex said. 'As well as Emma and I have to be sure there's no way that guy can get out of this room.'

Pete stuck up his thumb. 'Don't worry. We'll make sure he stays in there. You've got nothing to worry about.'

Rex arrived back in Billington Cove where he met up with the other guys.

'Whoa!' Wal said. 'I can't believe it, you look identical to Muzza.'

Rex spoke in his put on Australia accent. 'Bonza. Hopefully, they'll buy my excuse that I had my hair done at the hairdresser. Should do, after all, Muzza's been on his own for a while now.'

'You even sound like him,' Vaughan said.

He continued with the Aussie accent. 'So you haven't managed to catch any more pirates, I see?'

'No luck,' Wal said. 'They've all been wandering around in groups. None of them are venturing off on their own. We even saw the McGraw brothers briefly.'

'What about Rinoa?'

'Never saw her at all.'

'Claws?'

'No.'

Rex worried now. The sooner he got on board to find out what was going on the, better. 'Okay, well we can't hold our breath for anymore. I'm gonna have to go in.'

_'Alone?'_ Vaugha said.

'It may be better that way. If things go wrong, then I only have to worry about myself.'

'I don't like it.'

'What choice do we have? Look if things look dodgy I'll get the hell out of there somehow. But I think we have to take our chances for now.'

'Okay,' Vaughan said reluctantly.

'Yo!' Wal said. 'Some of the men are heading back towards the docks. Looks like you better get moving.'

Rex wasted no time. He tagged on to a group of pirates as they walked towards the docks. Once there he headed towards the Tart. He stepped up to the gangplank but then heard someone shout out his assumed name. 'Muzza!'

He turned to see a group of pirates approaching. He didn't recognise any of them at all.

'Muzza, what are you doing? You're on the Whore now, remember?'

Another laughed. 'Old habits die hard, huh?'

Rex laughed. 'Yeah, I guess they do, cobber.' So Muzza had been promoted to the other ship. That was ideal. It meant he would be on the same ship as the McGraw brothers. He did worry about Rinoa though and whether he would be able to see her, especially if she was still on the Tart.

One of the other pirates spoke as Rex joined them. 'Good thing for you, we lost Bronson during that raid on the freighter,' said one of the pirates. 'Opened up a spot over here for you. Anyway, where the hell have you been? You know you're not supposed to be going off on your own.'

'Went to the hairdresser.'

'Huh, yeah, so I see. Cool hairstyle, buddy. I like it. You shouldn't have gone off though, not with those Rex Cassidy Investigators around. Man, I can't believe that babe Rinoa was responsible for helping them escape.'

Rex tried to hide his horror as they walked along the side of the wharf towards the other ship. 'What have they done with her?'

'I don't know. Last I heard she's been locked up as a prisoner in one of the cabins. The Captain's livid. Can't believe that his own girl would betray him. She's as good as dead. I reckon they'll feed her to the sharks once we get moving again. Nobody will ever find her body. Nobody will know what became of her.'

Rex's skin crawled at the thought of an innocent woman being treated that way. 'So how did they find out she was responsible?'

His pirate friend turned and gave him a weird look. 'You know! She was screwing around with that Rex Cassidy guy behind his back. Claws reported her to the McGraws.'

Rex once again had to hide his distress.

'It was pretty obvious. She sleeps with the guy and then the next day he escapes and she's one of the few people on board at the time? Doesn't take a genius to figure it out. She made a big mistake thinking she could trust Claws. He's loyal to the McGraws. I mean really, did she think Kid would assign a bodyguard to her unless he really knew he could trust the bodyguard?'

Rex scowled. 'Seems to me he should have reported the girl right away when she was sleeping with that Cassidy fellow. Why wait? Makes me wonder whether Claws is just a lying sack of shit and he was the one responsible for Cassidy's escape. Then he pins it all on Rinoa.'

'Yeah, well you might have a point if it wasn't for the fact that Claws was on one of the tenders coming back from the freighter at the time. But I'd say Claws got a good ass whipping for not reporting it sooner. Last time I saw him he had a black eye and a thick lip.'

They reached the gangplank to the Whore. They paused at the bottom.

'So is Rinoa being kept aboard the Tart still?' Rex asked.

'Nah, you remember, she was brought back here.' He pointed up the gangplank.

'Oh yeah, of course she was.' They continued up.

'Freaking dumb Aussie!'

'Yeah, well a lot of us Aussies are.' Rex smirked.

Rex was glad to hear she was on-board his ship, but it meant that his main mission now was to rescue her, not just bring down the operation from the inside. The other problem was that he was with a whole lot of different men, ones he knew nothing about. It would be additional work now to try to figure out who could be his allies, especially considering he was only one man on his own. Maybe it would be just enough to get Rinoa out alive and not worry about any of the other crew who had been forced into piracy. Either way, he certainly had his work cut out for him.

# CHAPTER 11:  
The Statue Moves

Vanessa was busy putting up some new drapes in one of the bedrooms when Emma walked in. 'Nessa, can we talk?'

'Sure, hon.'

She sat down on a new bed that had been put in there and made only half an hour earlier.

Emma spoke, 'I... I really felt kind of bummed out last night...'

'Yeah, I know, you've hardly spoken to me all day.'

Emma peered up at her sadly. 'I... You guys didn't even invite me in to spend time with you.'

'I know. We felt like we needed the time just for ourselves. You've got to understand, Emma that when Rex goes on a case like that, it really stresses me out and all I want to do when I get him back is spend time alone with him. You understand, right?'

Emma stared across to the opposite wall. She said nothing.

Vanessa rested her hand on Emma's, but she jerked it away.

'My God, Emma, what's the matter? You know Rex and I are a couple, right? And it's always going to be that way...'

'No!' Emma jerked around and stared at her. 'It's not going to _always_ be that way, because he's going to get himself killed!'

Vanessa gasped. 'Don't say that!'

'You have to get real, Vanessa. His line of work is so dangerous. He should have got... I mean he _could_ have got killed the first time he went on board that ship!'

'No! Nuh-uh! Don't be stupid, Rex knows what he's doing, he's a professional, he's done this sort of stuff before. He has CID training and everything.'

'It's too much for you. You can't handle having him put in this situation.

Vanessa folded her arms. 'Oh, don't start that again. I can handle it. It's hard, but I can. And what did you mean before when you were going to say he _should_ have been killed?'

She cringed. 'I didn't mean to. It's just that his cover was blown, right? That should have been it. In fact, if he'd been faithful to you and hadn't screwed around with that pirate wench, he would be dead right now, wouldn't he?'

'You don't know that.'

'My God, Vanessa, you are unbelievable! He _should_ have been killed, but because of her, he wasn't. He screwed around behind your back. You should be livid! You should be wanting him dead!'

Irritation began to bubble up inside Vanessa but she did her best to withhold it. 'No way! I could never want him dead. I'm glad he went with that pirate girl. My God...!' She shuddered. 'You see, this just shows me if I'd been the jealous type... if I had discouraged him from seeing other women, he would never have got with that pirate chick and she would never have rescued him!'

'How do you know? For all, you know he could be the cheating type. It's just that you give him your blessing, so he doesn't have to!'

She let out an angry breath of air. 'You don't know him like I do. He would never get with another woman unless I was okay with it. My God, Emma, I don't like the things you're saying, it's almost as if you want Rex to be dead!'

Tears began to form in Emma's eyes.

'Do you?'

'No! It's just that... it's just that... I... I really want you, Vanessa. I think you're so amazing. I just wish he wasn't in the picture.'

Vanessa squirmed. 'I can tell you one thing for sure, you wouldn't even be here right now if it wasn't for the unique relationship that Rex and I have. We only invited you because we both like you a lot and enjoy your company and because you were happy to be with the both of us. We thought we made it quite clear where you stood. There's no way anyone can take Rex's place, no one.'

'You don't belong together!'

'We've been together ever since we were bloody kids. What are you talking about?

'You prefer women over men!'

'What? I because of that I shouldn't love him? I shouldn't think he's the most amazing guy in the entire world?'

Emma turned her body away. 'You shouldn't be attracted to him. Not physically, not sexually. It's messed up. You're confused!'

'Confused?' Vanessa stared at her in disbelief. 'Are you kidding? I've never been so sure of anything in my life. Rex is my perfect match and I love him like crazy. We both like the same women, which is why you're here. It means we both get to have fun, not just one of us.' She sighed. 'Don't try to figure it out. Things aren't black and white in this world.'

Tears continued to well up in Emma's eyes.

'We need to take a step back here,' Vanessa said.

Emma gasped and swung back to her. 'No! No, please, I'm sorry.'

'We have to. You're taking this way too seriously. You want more than what I'm willing to give. I can't have someone try to push Rex aside. I'll never allow that.'

Emma grabbed Vanessa's arm. 'I won't try to do that, I promise!'

Vanessa pushed her hand aside. 'I'm sorry... but it's too late. It's gone too far. Tonight, I think it's best we sleep in our own beds.'

* * *

That night Pete was on duty in town with Tucker. 'I'd like to check out the statue of Van Heath while we're here. Maybe we can figure out the next riddle.'

'But it's spooky tonight,' Tucker said. 'Really misty. What if the statue gets up and walks?'

Pete rolled his eyes. 'You don't really take those stories seriously, do you?'

'The statue might be dangerous. It might eat us!'

'What have we got to lose...?' Pete snickered. '...Apart from our lives.' He just loved to torment Tucker and here was an opportunity to do some more of that.

Tucker let out a whine of anguish.

It was 1:45am by the time the two arrived in the middle of Pringle's Square. It was deserted and even the Inn was closed.

'So there it is,' Pete said as they stood in front of the statue. The mist was so thick now they could only see a few feet in front of them. He started to speak in a spooky voice. 'That's it, Tucker... the eeeeevil, the sadisssstic, the horrific, man-eating statue of Captain Bjorn Van Heeeeeath.'

Tucker whimpered.

'Can't you just feel the evil emanating from it?'

Tucker shuddered. 'Yes!'

'It's just waiting for the moment to STRIKE!' He grabbed Tucker by the shoulder.

'UUHHBBBBAAGGGGHHHH!' Tucker screamed.

Pete laughed as he made his way across the square. He thought about the next clue. "Only a sharp thinker with perfect vision can keep up the pace."

With all the mist it was hard to see anything clearly. He walked towards anything he could see through the mist and came to a tree. He sighed. 'I don't know. Maybe we need to come back here during the day when we can see things more clearly.'

'Good idea!' Tucker said.

Pete turned back towards the statue. He could see it through the fog, but then suddenly an extra thick cloud of fog seemed to come out of nowhere and envelope the statue. For a moment, all he could see was fog and no statue, but then the fog began to clear a little and then the statue reappeared. But then it moved. Its arm rose and it stood down from its stand.

'What the hell...?'

Tucker turned. He gasped. 'The statue! It's moving!'

'I know that you, goose brain!' Pete stared through the mist.

Even the parrot on the statue's shoulder moved. What had been a statue a moment ago was now a real looking pirate, dressed in a coloured robe, bandana and with a shiny cutlass in his hand.

The parrot let out a squawk which sent a shiver down Pete's spine. His legs had become stiff and he could hardly move, feeling like he himself was a statue.

Tucker's hand clutched at his arm and he shivered. 'He's going to eat us!'

The statue moved rather jerkily, a little like a robot as it walked, but it didn't come towards them, it veered off and disappeared into the mist.

Pete finally came to his senses. 'We've got to follow him.'

'UUuuBBAAA! No way!'

'You stay here then. This has got to be a trick.'

Tucker didn't remain behind, he followed on after Pete as he jogged through the mist. He jerked his head around from left to right to try to see where the pirate had gone. 'You go that way!' Pete pointed. 'I'll go the other.'

He didn't hang around to hear Tucker protest. He ran off again into the mist, hoping to figure out where the pirate had gone, but no matter which way Pete looked, he couldn't see him. Then he heard a wild war cry, followed by a scream. He had no idea what made the war cry, but the scream was definitely Tucker's.

He ran back towards the cry and found Tucker lying on the ground, still.

'Tucker!' He crouched down beside him and slapped his face. 'Tucker, are you okay?'

Tucker groaned and opened his eyes. Then his eyes opened even wider and he jerked himself up to a sitting position. 'I saw him. The statue! He came lumbering out at me in the mist with his sword in the air and he screamed at me like he was going to kill me!'

'Well, you're not dead. You're not even bleeding.'

Tucker turned his head from left to right. 'You must have scared him off, but it was him. It was the statue. Captain Bjorn Van Heath!'

Pete saw movement to his right. There was the pirate. He'd just disappeared into a group of trees. Pete leapt to his feet and rushed over there. He halted. The pirate was gone, although how he could have disappeared so quickly without Pete seeing where he went, even in this mist, he couldn't figure out. 'What the hell? Where the heck did you go?'

He glanced around and then figured he should get back to the pedestal where the statue moved from. It seemed logical that it would have to return somehow. Maybe he could intercept it.

He ran back through the square and past Tucker who stood shivering. As he drew closer, he suddenly heard a loud piercing laugh, which echoed through the fog. Through the mist he could see the pirate back on the pedestal, swinging his cutlass through the air. Then he became engulfed in a cloud of extra-thick mist. Pete desperately tried to get there before he became the statue again, but he was too late. The mist dissolved and the statue was once again in its original position as if it had never moved from its spot.

Tucker staggered up behind him. 'Oh! It's back again. Did you see it?'

'All I saw was mist, but there must be something here. Something that makes the statue go underground or something.'

'No, it's real! It's a golem. It comes to life.'

Pete let out a breath of frustration. 'It's not a bloody golem! That was just a man before. A human being, dressed up in a pirate costume with his own parrot to boot and God knows there are enough pirates around here with parrots, that other Bjorn Van Heath wannabe, being one of them. Did you get a good look at his face?'

'He was going to eat me!'

'He was _not_ going to bloody eat you!' Pete sighed. 'Ah, never mind.' He examined the statue. 'There must be something here that makes it go up and down.'

'Maybe the sword?' Tucker attempted to pull the cutlass down, but it was stuck fast.

'It's a trick. We know that. And all that extra fog... gotta be dry ice. Something here shoots it out so that you can't see the statue go up and down into the ground. But man, if Van Heath built something like that all those years ago, that's pretty amazing technology and knowhow.'

'Magic!' Tucker said. 'It must be magic.'

'Tucker?'

'What?'

'Shut the hell up!'

# CHAPTER 12:  
Mutiny?

The Whore had set sail once more and the ship had been sailing for an hour. Rex managed to find his assigned room, which was certainly a lot more luxurious than the one on Van Heath's ship. He then set to work to try to find out where Rinoa was being kept. He had to be careful about how he went about the job as he didn't want people to get suspicious of him.

'Man,' he said to one pirate. 'You know, cobber, now that Captain Kid has realised his wench is a bit of a ho, why doesn't he let the rest of us have her? We could all have a lot of fun.'

'Hell yeah,' said the pirate. 'But Captain Kid doesn't like the idea of anyone else having any fun. Says we can visit a brothel at port of something if we want a woman. He'd sooner kill the bitch than hand her over to us.'

'That sucks.'

'Tell me about it.'

'Makes me just want to go down to deck five, go in there and help myself.'

The other pirate snickered. 'Won't do you much good. Prisoners are kept on the bottom deck. Besides, she'll be under lock and key and getting caught going places you're not authorised to go will have you executed quick smart. I know, some guy was caught down in the cargo hold helping himself to the Captains best stash of bourbon. He's now at the bottom of the ocean with an iron weight tied to his neck.'

'Nice.'

Rex figured it was no wonder Rinoa had turned on Kid, especially if he was doing things like that.

He made his way towards the lower decks. He wasn't sure how far he'd be able to get, but he knew he needed to get a layout of the vessel and if there was a chance of getting to her, he would. He arrived at the deck where most of the crew stayed. It seemed likely if Rex went down any further, he would get into trouble. However, he had to take that risk. He'd play dumb if he was caught.

And he had to because he came across two men on the stairwell.

'Muzza!' one said. 'What are you doing down here?'

'Just took a wrong flight I think. This place is like a rabbit warren, cobber.'

'Better head back up to your deck. You know there are curfews. Get caught down in these lower decks at this time of night and you'll be in the shit.'

Rex had no choice but to return to his room. He found it difficult to sleep knowing that Rinoa was imprisoned down on the lower decks, although for all he knew she could be dead by now. What would he do if he found her anyway? That was the real tricky question and something he needed to give more thought to.

The next morning the ship was still cruising. The pirates were socialising in the recreation rooms so Rex took the opportunity to try to seek out Rinoa again. He made his way back down the way he'd gone the night before. This time he made it there but as he progressed quickly along the corridor somebody stepped out into the hallway.

It was Kid McGraw.

'Hey, you!' Kid said. 'Get the hell over here!'

Rex turned and walked towards him, trying to play it cool. Fingers emerged from the same cabin. This was going to be a real test now to see whether he could pull off his disguise.

Rex stepped up. 'Yes, Captain?'

'I want you to round up some men,' Kid said. 'Go to Cutler and have him get a group of twenty men together. His best and most loyal fighters, because they may be needed. Tell him we're about to send a party over to the Tart.'

'Yes, sir!'

Rex departed immediately. He was just glad to get away from them without being recognised. He knew he couldn't continue his search for Rinoa right away though because he'd just get himself into trouble. He didn't know who Cutler was so went up to the recreation areas to see if he was there.

'Anyone know where Cutler is?' he asked a group of guys in the barroom.

One of them pointed to a group of guys playing poker.

'Cutler!' Rex marched up to them.

One of them glanced up at him. 'What?'

'The Captain wants you to pull a group of twenty men together. Your best and most loyal fighters to take over to the Tart right now.'

Cutler groaned. _'Now?_ Ah shit, okay.' He rose to his feet and barked out a list of names. Immediately men rose to their feet. He eyed Muzza. 'Don't know you very well, but here's a chance to prove yourself I guess. Join the squad.'

So Rex did.

Minutes later, he was in one of two tenders being lowered into the water. His eyes widened when he saw Rinoa being pushed into the other. She had a black eye and a split lip and other bruising on her face. Anger welled up inside Rex. He wanted to get Kid McGraw or whoever had done that to her and tear them to pieces. He despised anyone who would beat up a woman.

'This is it,' one of the pirates said to Rex.

Rex raised an eyebrow. 'What do you think we're doing?'

'We're doing away with Van Heath.'

Rex nearly gasped. 'How do you know?'

'The rumours have been going around for ages. The McGraws are sick of Van Heath and the way he goes about his business. Everyone's saying Van Heath is an idiot and has no clue what he's doing. That's why Kid wants all us best fighters here to deal with any of Van Heath's supporters... not that I think there's that many. All his crew think he's an idiot too.'

It wasn't long before they were on board the Tart. Captain Van Heath came out to meet them and smiled. 'Ahoy, me hearties! Welcome aboard. What be it that brings ye over this fine morning?'

The McGraw brothers stepped forward. Behind them was Claws who had Rinoa standing in front of him wide-eyed.

Rex gritted his teeth.

'WOORRRRRP!' Squawker cried out. 'Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!'

Rex moved in closer, along with the other men he'd come over with. The faces of the McGraw brothers looked grim.

'Van Heath,' Kid said. 'My brother and I have been talking and we say it's time you stood down as captain of the Tart.'

Van Heath jerked back. 'What? Arrrrrrr, ye swab, ye must be pulling my leg!'

'This is no joke, Van Heath!' Kid drew out a gun. 'Your time as captain of this vessel is over. From now on Claws will captain this ship.'

'Claws?' Van Heath gaped. He then scowled. 'Ye have no right to demote me! This be my vessel. I own this vessel.'

'Not anymore you don't,' Fingers said. 'We're taking it over. Call it an invasion if you like. He'll, call it a mutiny for all I care. Your time is over.'

Van Heath's men stared, agape. None of them moved.

Van Heath shook his fist. 'Ye can't do this! I refuse to relinquish my command, ye no good lousy, stinking, scurvy dogs! I won't be having it, _savvy?'_ He turned to his crew. _'_ Men, I command ye to cast these swabs off my ship!'

His men remained stock still.

Fingers laughed. 'You idiot, Van Heath. Those men work for me, not you! You forget your place. That's one of the reasons why we're replacing you. That and because you are the sorriest excuse for a human being we've ever met. You live in a fantasy world and you have no clue how to run a ship or conduct a raid. You're done. _Savvy?'_

The pirate captain's face reddened. 'This be a mutiny, this be! Ye will pay for this!'

'Now it's time for you to pay,' Kid said. 'And in keeping with tradition aboard the Tart, we're going to have ourselves a good old fashioned plank walking.'

'No we won't, I'll...!' Van Heath tried to pull an old pirate pistol from his holster, but Cutler moved forward and punched him in the head. Squawker screeched and flew up onto a higher railing as Van Heath crashed to the deck. Cutler picked up the pistol and tucked it into his trousers.

'But this is your lucky day, Van Heath,' Kid said. 'Because you don't get to die alone. You get to walk the plank with my beautiful, cheating, slut of an ex-girlfriend here, Rinoa!'

Rex recoiled. So they were going to execute her at the same time? Now he had to do something. It was one thing to let a rogue like Van Heath be turfed overboard, but he was not going to stand by and allow that to happen to Rinoa.

'No!' Rinoa sobbed. 'You can't! It's not right. Kid, please, I'll do anything!'

Rex hated seeing her beg, but it was probably her only way of staying alive.

'Enough!' Kid sent the side of his hand into her face sending her staggering back.

Rex's entire body tensed and he clenched his fists in fury.

Kid shouted, 'You sealed your fate by screwing the man who murdered my brother! I can never forgive you for that, you cheating wench!'

'I didn't know!'

'And then you _helped him fucking escape!'_

He sent a foot into her side, causing her body to jerk sideways. She screamed out. She then began to sob even more and stared up at Claws with pleading eyes.

'Don't look at him!' Kid said. 'He was loyal to me, unlike you. Although he should have damn well told me what was going on right away.' He delivered Claws an evil glare. 'But he got his punishment, didn't you Claws? And now because of his proven loyalty to me, he will now Captain the Tart.'

Rex moved up alongside Cutler. He whispered to him. 'That's one fancy pistol. Must be worth a lot. Mind if I take a look?'

Cutler hesitated then pulled the pistol from his trousers and handed it to him.

Kid barked an order. 'Get that plank up. Let's get on with this!'

A couple of Van Heath's men ran over and slid the makeshift plank out over the edge. No doubt, Van Heath had forced men to walk it in the past, so it was only just desserts he would this time, however it seemed that if Rex was going to save Rinoa, he would have to save Van Heath too.

So much for my cover.

Both Van Heath and Rinoa were pushed towards the plank. Rinoa's face was pale and frightened, while Van Heath's remained defiant.

'Ye will all pay for this! Ye will suffer the consequences!'

'Ah, shut the hell up!' Kid took a sword from one of Van Heath's men. 'Wenches first.'

'No, please!' Rinoa begged. 'I'm so sorry. _I'm so sorry!'_

All the pirates moved forward for a closer look. Rex stepped up beside Fingers, then turned and pointed the pistol at his head. He spoke in his normal voice this time, 'Everybody stop! Anybody moves and Fingers here gets a bullet through his shit-filled brain.'

Immediately everyone froze.

'Muzza!' someone said. 'What the hell are you doing?'

Kid turned and glared at Rex. 'Yes! What the hell are you doing?'

'And what the hell happened to your accent?'

Rex briefly went back to his Aussie accent. 'What's the matter, cobber? Don't you know you've been had? _Crikey!'_ He smirked and turned back to Kid. 'I'm putting an end to this crap, McGraw! _Come on!_ You're gonna make a woman walk the plank just because you weren't man enough in bed, so she had to go for a real man? You really are pathetic, McGraw! Then you beat on her like the cowardly lowlife you are. You're a lousy stinking lowlife bastard.'

Fire filled Kid's eyes. 'You are going to die for this, asshole!'

Rex snickered. 'Not before your brother gets a hole in his head. Then you'll have lost two shitbag brothers.'

Kid's eyes narrowed. 'Who the _hell_ are you?'

'Let's just say I'm a concerned pirate. I'm not going to stand around while you give your deflated ego a boost by killing an innocent woman.'

'She's no innocent woman! She betrayed me!'

'That's because you're a piece of shit, eejit!'

_'Cassidy!'_ Fingers snarled. 'It's Cassidy! It has to be!'

'But...' Kid stared. 'This guy... he's been on the crew for ages.'

'Only Cassidy uses that word... "eejit"!'

Rex chuckled. 'Maybe he's my hero?' He shoved Fingers over to where Rinoa stood. She stared at him with a mixture of amazement and relief. 'Come on. We're going to climb into one of those tenders right now. And if anyone tries to stop us, Fingers dies.'

'What about me?' Van Heath appealed. 'Ye can't just leave me here! They're gonna make me walk the plank?'

Rex figured he could use the Captain to ensure his and Rinoa's safety. 'Sure, Captain Van Heath. You know I'm a loyal man to you. Grab a gun. Shoot anyone who comes near us.'

This put a smile on Van Heath's face. As long as he believed Rex was loyal to him, then he would be an extra ally.

'And anyone else who wants to get the hell off this ship can jump in the other tender and follow us,' Rex said. He figured it best not to invite them onto his one just in case some of Fingers' loyal men decided to tag along just to prevent them from escaping. 'The other tender! Not our one, otherwise the Captain will open fire, right Captain, Sir?'

'Aye!' Van Heath said.

Several of the pirates took up the offer, despite evil glares from Kid McGraw.

Rex glared at Kid one last time. 'So tempting to blast the shit out of your head, McGraw, so tempting! That will be two McGraws I get the pleasure of finishing off.'

'You're a dead man, Cassidy.'

Rex snorted. 'Like your brother? Whatever. Catch you later, douchebag.'

Aboard the tender, Rex ordered one of the pirates to lower them down. He had no intention of giving up Fingers. He would take him with him and keep him just in case the pirates tried to pursue them.

Once on the water, Rex ordered Fingers to take the controls.

'It is you, isn't it, Cassidy?' Fingers fired up the engine. 'Somehow you managed to pull a fast one on us and get back on our ship with that... special makeup of yours.'

'Makeup? Maybe you and your pirate boyfriends wear makeup, but I don't.'

'Let me go now!' Fingers growled. 'Otherwise, you're dead.'

'You talk too much, McGraw. Just shut the hell up and sail the boat.'

The other tender followed from behind while the pirates on the ship glared down upon them from the ship. Van Heath sat at the rear, a gun in his hand, peering out, doing his job as sentry. Squawker sat on his shoulder contentedly.

He snarled, 'We should go back there. Both those McGraw brothers deserve a good flogging!'

'Leave it for another day, Captain. We'll get them.'

'Aye... we'll get them, har arrrrrrrrrr!'

Rex turned to Rinoa. 'Sorry that you had to go through all that.'

'Is it you? _Rex?'_

Rex nodded and grinned.

She smiled and let out a deep sigh. She threw her arms around him and held him tight.

# CHAPTER 13:  
Mind Games

'Only a sharp thinker with perfect vision can keep up the pace.'

Pete and his friends stood in front of the statue of Bjorn Van Heath. The sun shone down and people were starting to appear, going about their morning business. It was still fairly quiet though, so it gave the RCI some time to figure out some more of the riddles without having to worry about people turning up and interfering.

'Mmmm,' Vaughan said and gazed up. 'Obviously, we need some kind of direction, right? Every time I look up at old Captain Van Heath here all I see is him pointing his cutlass off to the south. A cutlass is sharp. Could that be what the riddle is referring to?'

Vanessa stared south. 'But where does that lead? All I see is the ocean in that direction.'

'The question is how far do we go in that direction?' Wal asked. 'For all we know there could be an island out there where the treasure is buried. It could be hundreds of miles in that direction.'

'Wait a minute!' Colin piped up. 'The clue talks about perfect vision. That's 20/20 vision, right? Perhaps we travel twenty meters, feet, yards, miles or whatever and do it twice.'

Pete groaned. 'Could be any measurement. How do we know?'

'Paces!' suggested Vanessa. 'It's in the clue. Forty paces!'

Pete stared at him and he widened his eyes. 'Yes! Nessa, I think you've got it. Forty paces south!'

'But...' Colin peered over there. 'All that's there are trees and a grassy area. That can't be right.'

'Wait a cotton-picking minute...! _'_ Pete gasped. 'That spot... that's where that so-called statue of Van Heath disappeared last night. It was like he just vanished!'

'Whoa!' Wal said. 'So that must mean that the answer is in that little grove.'

Colin started walking. 'Let's go check it out.'

They all hurried over to the grove and looked around but could see nothing that could offer any clue as to what they were looking for.

Pete scratched his head. 'There's just nothing here that I can see that would offer the statue any means of vanishing. No manhole cover, nothing like that. Just a grassy area with trees.'

'Well consider the next clue,' Colin said. '"Branch out to higher ground". There's certainly a lot of branches here. It seems crazy, but maybe one of them opens up a secret path or something.'

'Yeah, right!' Wal scoffed. 'Sounds crazy alright.'

'I guess we could try a few out,' Pete said. 'But none of them look false or anything. They all look like normal branches.'

Wal and Pete wandered around tugging on the odd branch, but to Pete, it seemed futile and stupid.

'Perhaps "higher ground" is the key?' Vanessa asked. 'Maybe we need to head up to another hill or mountain somewhere. Maybe there's some kind of pointer. Perhaps it's not 20 paces, but 20 miles and there's some little island off the coast?'

Colin let out a deep breath. 'For all we know what we're looking for is long gone. Maybe once there was something here that opened up some path or pointed to some place and it's been removed?'

'Possibly,' Pete said. 'But I still can't get over the fact that statue just vanished around this spot. Coincidence?'

Wal replied in a scornful tone, 'Either that or you just didn't notice him slip away in some other direction.'

Pete had to admit that was a possibility as it was very misty. He shrugged and sighed. 'I guess we're gonna have to give this a little more thought.'

* * *

It was the middle of the afternoon when the tenders arrived back at port. Rex didn't sail right in because he realised the possibility was high that Kid McGraw had men there waiting for them. It was even possible they might have had access to a chopper and beaten them back.

'Sail over to the east side,' Rex ordered Fingers. 'That way if your guys are waiting for us they'll have to come over here instead and by then we'll be long gone.'

Fingers scowled. 'What are you going to do with me?'

'Oh, you're going to prison where you belong.'

Fingers sneered. 'You can't keep me locked up. I'll be out again, Cassidy and when I am I'll be gunning for you!'

'I'll just put you back behind bars again like I did the last two times.'

Fingers snickered. 'If you had any sense, Cassidy you'd kill me right now, but you can't do that, can you? You're too much of a crusader. A nice guy. You're too willing to trust the system, even though it's let you down twice already when it comes to me. You're a gullible fool, that's what you are.'

'It's not a matter of trusting the system. It's a matter of having to leave it up to the system. I can't change that.'

'You trust too many people. You have too many friends and they let you down.'

'None of my friends have let me down.'

Fingers let out a haughty laugh. 'Really? What about that fat moron Pyles? He's always letting you down.'

'Not intentionally.'

'Not intentionally.' Fingers snickered again. 'Haven't you figured it out yet?'

'What?'

'The reason how we knew who you were when you first came aboard our ship?'

'Of course I have. There's a security leak. Someone notified you we were on board, most likely someone from the government agency we're working for.'

Fingers burst out laughing. 'Oh, that's priceless that is! So very good!' He continued to laugh. 'There's no leak from in there. We're not like some powerful underground criminals who have men working in the government on our behalf. The leak doesn't come from there, it comes from inside your organisation. The Rex Cassidy Investigators itself.'

Rex didn't even want to consider that. 'Bullshit. I trust all my team.'

'And that's where you slip up. You trust too much.'

Rex felt himself becoming riled from the inside. Fingers was only trying to get him worked up, trying to create a rift within the RCI, but nevertheless, he couldn't help but wonder.

Fingers continued to chuckle.

'So what?' Rex continued. 'Are you trying to tell me it's Tucker who's the rat? Get real, Fingers, I've known him for years. Once, yeah, he probably would have been a rat, but he's changed.'

'What's the matter, Cassidy? Have I got you worried now?' He burst out laughing.

Rex let out a snort. 'Mind games. Sorry, Fingers, but they're not gonna work with me.'

'Fine,' Fingers said. 'You keep telling yourself it's a mind game. Meanwhile, your rat continues to undermine your efforts. Works for me.'

Rex felt like forcing the name of the so-called rat out of Fingers, but realised if he did try that, Fingers would have won the mind game, so he said nothing. Nevertheless, McGraw's claims continued to bug him as they neared the beach they were to disembark.

Bjorn Van Heath moved up to the front. 'Good. We're almost back. I be going to take my crew to a place where I can get a hold of a new ship, but I be needing some more crew. Ye, squire, I am going to make my first mate. I require ye to go out and find me more crew members. That will be ye'r first task, aye.'

Squawker let out a cry. 'Pieces of eight, pieces of eight!'

Rex smiled. 'Sorry captain, but I'm done with the pirating business.' He didn't want to alarm Van Heath but he couldn't let the pirate captain leave and continue with his plans. Van Heath was guilty of serious crimes and he had to be locked up along with Fingers. Rex just had to play his cards right and wait for the opportune moment to disarm Van Heath and take him prisoner.

'What?' Van Heath stared at him. 'Ye are going to abandon me, ye'r captain?'

'Sorry Captain, but I never wanted to be a pirate in the first place. All I wanted was to go on a pirate cruise. I—'

'Ah shit!' Fingers snarled. 'Van Heath, you fool, are you really that stupid? He's gonna take you down just like he's trying to take me down. He wants you locked up just like me!'

Rex chuckled. 'Now why would I want that? I could have just left him to your brother's mercy. I'd rather see him get a new crew and come and take you eejits out himself.'

_'Aye!'_ Van Heath puffed out his chest. 'And that I shall do! I shall show ye scurvy dogs what happens when ye mutiny the ship of Captain Bjorn Van Heath!'

'You're deluded.' Fingers scowled. 'Take one foot aboard one of our ships and you're dead. _And_ your incompetent crew!'

Van Heath glared at Fingers and said no more.

'Okay,' Rex said. Let's get this tender up as close to the shoreline as we can.'

Minutes later, they were on the beach. Rex followed Fingers along at gunpoint while Rinoa followed from behind. They got off the beach and stood amongst the trees. Rex turned and expected to see Van Heath off to his right, but there was no sign of him. Immediately he went on the alert and turned his head around to see where the pirate captain had gone, but he was nowhere to be seen. 'Rinoa... did you see where he went?'

'I thought he was right there with us...' She turned and stared.

'Mmmmm,' Rex said. 'Seems old Van Heath is a lot smarter than we've given him credit for.'

# CHAPTER 14:  
Pirate Sense

Vanessa was overjoyed to see Rex again and threw her arms around him, kissing him wildly. 'I can't believe you're back so soon. And you caught Fingers too!'

They stood inside the police station. Both Fingers and Muzza had been handed over to the authorities. Roger Dimitri from CTU was due to arrive secretly that evening, on a special flight from the USA.

Vanessa continued to cuddle into Rex and then turned to face Rinoa who stood there, looking lost. She'd already been interviewed by the police and had been released.

Vanessa stepped up to her. She could tell what was going through the former pirate woman's mind. _"Who was this woman?"_ she was thinking. _"Could she really be Rex's girl?"_ No doubt her heart was breaking in two, realising that the man who had heroically rescued her was a man that she could never have.

'Hi... I'm Vanessa.'

'Vanessa...' Rinoa said. She shook her hand. 'I... I guess you two are... married?'

'Nuh-uh. But as good as.' Vanessa grinned.

'Oh...' Rinoa's eyes lowered.

Vanessa touched her arm. 'I know what you're thinking. I know it sucks. You really like him, don't you?'

'He... he rescued me from certain death.'

'Yeah-huh, he tends to do that and I guess it makes it even harder that you got to spend some intimate time with him.'

Rinoa's eyes widened. 'You know?'

'Of course I do. Rexy tells me everything.'

'And you don't mind?'

'Hell no. I'm glad he had some fun while he was on-board and if he hadn't, God knows what might have happened to him. He could be dead right now.' She shuddered at the thought. 'Which would mean I would be too... because I couldn't live without him.'

'You really love him?'

'Like crazy!'

'You are so lucky. He's an amazing guy.'

'Yeah-huh!'

Emma stepped up. She'd wanted to come along too as she wanted to get away from the house for a bit. Vanessa figured there was no harm in bringing her along to the police station. No chance of anything bad happening to her there. Emma had again been acting cold towards her for most of the day, but it seemed now she was talking to her again.

'Who's this?' Emma asked, her eyes narrowed.

'Oh, this is Rinoa. She kind of kept Rexy company when he was onboard. At least for a bit.'

'Really? Are you a lesbian?'

Rinoa recoiled. 'What? No!'

'Good.' Emma seemed to relax a little.

'Why?'

Emma put her arm around Vanessa's waist. 'Just checking, that's all.'

Rinoa gave them both a weird look. Vanessa pulled away from Emma, but not because she was uncomfortable, but because she knew that Emma was just trying to mark her territory, territory that didn't belong to her.

'Well, Rinoa, I just want to say thanks for what you did for Rex... and the other guys too,' Vanessa said. 'I owe you so much and I hope you'll stay in contact with us.'

'I will. And it's me who owes Rex.'

Rex stepped up and put his arm around Vanessa. 'I think we're even, but Vanessa's right, it would be great to stay in contact. We want to know that you're okay, especially after all this trauma you've had to go through.'

Vanessa noticed the dirty look on Emma's face as she looked at Rex and it bothered her a lot. After this job was done, she would cut all ties with Emma. Vanessa felt her whole attitude was unhealthy.

Rinoa smiled. 'I shall... And thank you again. I'll never forget this.'

It was around 9:30 PM when Roger Dimitri arrived and he had a meeting with Rex, Colin and Pete for around half an hour before Rex returned to Vanessa.

'Fingers and Muzza are going to be kept here for now.'

'Why? Won't that make this police station a target for the pirates?'

'Exactly. That's what we're hoping. Dimitri is going to have some squads of men flown over to be ready if the pirates do attack.'

'But what about the inside leak?'

'He's involving only those he can completely trust. The mission is going to be on a need-to-know basis. In other words, the teams won't know where they are going or what the mission is about until they get here. Hopefully, that will prevent Kid McGraw from finding out what's going on. If the pirate ships don't return to Billington Cove, then we'll regroup and think up a new strategy. Either way, CTU have enough evidence now to put an end to this operation. We've pretty much done our bit, but we'll hang around to see the job fully completed. There will be nothing more happening tonight, so we might as well head back to the house.'

'Why don't we spend a little time on the pirate riddles?' Vanessa said. 'It's pretty misty out. Maybe the statue will do its thing again and start walking around the square?'

'That is a tempting idea.'

'We did make some progress this afternoon, but then got stuck. Maybe you can figure it out.'

'Maybe.' He took her in his arms and cuddled her some more. 'So how have things been going at the house while I was gone?'

'Great! Although I have concerns about Emma. Very deep concerns.'

'What?'

'She's getting way too serious. And some of the things she's said have been, frankly, disturbing.'

'Like what?'

'Well... it's like she wants you out of the picture. That's what's really bothering me. She's saying things like we're not right for each other and that I should be with her not you. I put the hard word on her and I've upset her, but I can still see it in her eyes she hasn't accepted it.'

Rex frowned. 'Really?'

'Yeah huh. I'm worried about her.'

Rex rubbed his chin thoughtfully. His eyes seemed troubled.

'What's wrong? I can see something's bothering you and it's not what I just said.'

'It's something Fingers said.' He sighed. 'Nah... it was just mind games.'

'What?' She rubbed his arm, feeling an uneasiness come upon her.

'Fingers seems to reckon the mole isn't in CTU, but in the RCI.'

Vanessa gasped. 'No way! Nobody would sell us out. We're all friends. We went to school with them. Even Tucker's proven his loyalty over the years. Who else is...?' Then the horrible possibility dawned on her. '... no... nuh-uh... surely not Emma?'

'I don't even want to suggest it, but we have to allow for that possibility. I would never have suspected her either, but after what you've just told me... Would she really go that far to get me out of the picture?'

Vanessa felt sick to her stomach. She couldn't believe that any woman would go that far to have her. It would mean that she actually wanted Rex dead.

Vanessa ran her fingers through her hair. 'Good God... Could she... could she be a plant? No, no way, I can't believe that. We originally approached her to do this job. She didn't come to us.'

'I don't think she's a plant,' Rex said. 'Hells Bells, it could be she's totally innocent and Fingers really was just playing mind games, but there's no way he could have set this thing up. It's even hard to believe that Emma would be even able to make contact with the McGraws unless she rang Pirate Tours direct. I guess she could have gained access to our information on them.'

'Oh God... here she comes.'

'Just pretend like nothing's wrong,' Rex said. 'We'll keep a close eye on her for now. A _very_ close eye on her.'

'Are we ready to go home, Nessa?' Emma asked.

'Not yet. We're going out to do a little more treasure hunting first.'

'Oh, do we have to? I've had enough. Let the guys do it.'

'Nuh-uh, Rexy's going and I want to hang out with him some more before he decides to go on another undercover mission aboard the pirate ships.'

'I thought the case was over?'

'We still have to see this through. Come with us.'

'Oh, Nessa, please? I need to talk to you on your own.'

'Not now. Treasure hunt time. Just for a little while okay?'

Emma huffed but in the end conceded. 'Okay... let's go then.'

All the RCI headed out to the square. It was already getting foggy. They arrived at the location amongst the trees, 40 paces from the statue.

'This is where we got to,' Pete said. 'But we think now that maybe we're reading the clue wrong. Maybe it's not 40 paces south from the statue.'

Rex peered down at his feet and walked across the grass, backwards and forwards, covering different ground each time. He came to a mound and thumped his foot down on it. Nothing happened. There were little bumps around the ground and each one he gave a stomp on, but still, he got nothing. He sighed. 'I guess maybe the branches pointing down aren't leading us anywhere either.'

'So what now then?' Pete asked. 'It seems we're out of ideas.'

'We might as well give up,' said Tucker.

Rex sighed. 'Or we could hang around for a bit and see if this so-called golem of yours kicks into action again.'

Tucker recoiled. 'No!' The golem tried to eat me last time.'

Rex ignored him. 'I'm guessing that if Pete is right and there is something around this area, then this golem knows about it. If we can intercept him here, we may be able to learn what it is.'

Colin piped up, 'But if this golem knows of a secret underground entrance or something then chances are he's also found the treasure.'

'Or otherwise, he hasn't found it yet and he wants to keep people away from it so that he can be the one who _does_ find it.'

'Good point,' Colin admitted.

'If the treasure is hidden underground there's likely to be a labyrinth of caves to explore. That could be the thing that slows this guy down.'

Emma sighed. 'Well, obviously we're not going to find this. Nessa, why don't you and I go home now?'

'What's the rush?' Vanessa said. 'This is kind of exciting. I for one would love to see this statue get off its stand and walk.'

'We can catch this statue,' Wal said. 'And threaten to resculpture him if he doesn't tell us where his secret underground entrance is.'

'I suggest is we team up in pairs,' Rex said. 'Stake ourselves out around the park at various places. Lie low. It could be the statue might not come alive tonight, so we could be a total waste of time, so if anyone wants to go back home, then speak up now. No worries if you do.'

'I do,' Emma said. 'Come on Nessa. Pleeeeease come back with me?'

Vanessa shook her head. 'Nuh-uh. Not this time.' She looped her arm through Rex's. 'I'm staying with Rexy.'

'Then I am too.' She stepped up on the opposite side and took Rex's other arm. She smiled, but Vanessa could see in her eyes that she was pissed.

Vanessa, Rex and Emma went and sat down at a nearby park bench. It was cold, which made it extra nice to cuddle up. Emma seemed to be a lot more relaxed.

Then it happened. Fog began to envelope the statue.

Vanessa nudged Rex and he glanced over.

The fog slowly evaporated and there was no longer anything standing there. The pedestal was vacant.

Emma gasped, her eyes wide. 'Oh my God! The statue. It's gone!'

Just then, they heard a loud sharp piercing screech. 'Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight! Avast ye landlubbers!'

Rex recognised that voice immediately. 'Squawker! That's Van Heath's parrot!'

So the moving statue was Captain Bjorn Van Heath, former captain of the Tart.

'Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!' squawked the parrot.

The sound came from just to the right and then there was another squawk, a much wilder one this time and a fluttering of wings, then a cry. A man's voice shouted. 'Let me go, ye scurvy dog! Let me go now!'

Then came Wal's voice. 'I've got him, Rex! I've got him!'

Wal appeared, dragging with him, in a headlock, the thrashing figure of Bjorn Van Heath.

'Let me go now or I'll slay ye!' screamed Van Heath.

Rex strolled over. The other RCI appeared through the mist and were shocked to see the moving statue being manhandled by the massive Wal.

'Well, well, well,' Rex said. 'Fancy seeing you here, Captain Van Heath.'

Van Heath spluttered. 'Who are ye?'

'Oh of course, you don't recognise me without all the plastic make up on. I'm Rex. I'm the guy who saved you from taking a swim with the sharks.'

Van Heath's eyes bugged. 'What do ye want? Let me go!'

'The game's up, Van Heath. Your moving statue scam has been busted wide open.'

Van Heath glared at him. 'I knew I couldn't trust ye, ye swab! I knew it!'

'Congratulations. But I'm afraid your luck has run out this time.'

Van Heath lowered his head and stared at the ground.

Rex continued. 'You surely didn't expect this little game to continue without someone discovering the truth, did you? Why anyway? What's the point? What are you trying to hide down there underground?'

He jerked his head up. 'Underground? Whada ye mean?'

'We know that there's an underground tunnel under those trees.'

'H...' Van Heath stared at him. 'How did ye know?'

'We found it! Now let's go down and see what there is.'

'But...'

'NOW!' Rex snarled and sent Van Heath and evil glare.

This seemed to spur Van Heath to action. 'Al... alright! Alright!'

Wal shoved him in the direction of the trees and Van Heath walked towards them. Squawker flew down from above and landed on his shoulder. 'Avast, ye landlubbers!'

The RCI followed, waiting for him to reveal the secret. Vanessa couldn't help but feel the excitement well up inside her. She expected him to reach out for a branch on the tree and activate some kind of secret entrance, but he didn't. Instead, he gazed down at one of the mounds on the grass Rex had stomped on and put his foot on it. He didn't push right down, but twisted his foot in a rotating motion. The ground beside it tilted and slid down to reveal a hidden staircase.

'Wow...' Vanessa said. 'You were on the right track, Rex.'

Van Heath peered back at her. 'What?'

'Never mind!' Rex said. 'Lead the way down.'

'There's nothing down there!' Van Heath said.

'What about the treasure?' Vaughan asked.

'What treasure?'

'Your so-called ancestor's pirate treasure. We know that's what you're after down there.'

'There's no pirate treasure down there.'

'Then why the elaborate show, ya twerp?' Wal asked. 'Why pretend to be a statue marching around a square? You want to scare people away so they won't find it.'

'Or are you hiding something else down here?' Colin asked. 'Something else you don't want people to discover.'

Van Heath glared at Colin. 'I _am_ the statue! The statue and I are one. Aye, it's up to me to continue the legend.'

Vanessa couldn't believe what she was hearing. 'You mean to say that you do all this out of a sense of duty?' This guy was deluded, but surely not that deluded.

Van Heath's voice changed. He no longer spoke in the pirate voice but in a normal voice. 'For me, for my ancestor - the Captain himself, for my friends, for the people of this town and the ones who invest in it. That's why. They pay me to do this to add mystique to the town. There have been others before me too. I'm one of many.'

Colin snorted. 'So you're saying that's all you've used this tunnel for?'

'That's all.'

'So then show us what's down there.'

Van Heath sighed. 'Very well.'

He led them down the staircase and they followed. The dirty tunnel below was lit by electric lighting. Bricks had been put down as crude paving.

'This tunnel has been here for centuries,' Van Heath said. 'The lighting has been added since then. And the brick paving because it would get muddy otherwise from water seeping in from the ocean. This tunnel leads down to the bottom of the statue. There it branches off. One leads out of town and comes out in an underground river, the other is a dead end.'

'A dead end?' Vanessa found that intriguing. 'No secret caverns or anything like that?'

'No,' Van Heath said.

Vanessa didn't think it sounded very promising. Not if this was supposed to be where the original Captain Van Heath had buried his treasure. Maybe it had been discovered many years ago, after all? Or maybe it was now underwater.

Van Heath led them along the tunnel where they came across the statue itself. It sat on a rock platform, which sat on some kind of hydraulic system.

'The system was installed many years ago,' Van Heath said. 'Quite impressive even for its time. It's been well maintained. Allows us to raise or lower the statue, as well as ourselves along with it. We have a dry ice machine here too, to add extra fog.'

'Very clever,' Rex said. 'So take us to the dead-end tunnel.'

'Why?'

'I want to see it.'

'But it's just a dead end.'

'That's why I want to see it.'

It was then that Vanessa figured out why Rex wanted to go there. It was part of the riddle! 'Find your way to death!' she blurted.

She turned to her comrades and their eyes widened.

'You don't believe me that it's a dead-end?' Van Heath asked.

'I do,' Rex said. 'Please, lead the way.'

Van Heath led them to where the tunnel branched and they headed left. There were no bricks, just dirt and mud. The pathway widened out and became rocky. It wasn't long before they came to the dead-end, just as Van Heath has described it.

'What now?' Colin asked. 'I'm assuming this is the "death" part of the riddle, but what does "use pirate sense" mean?'

Van Heath's eyebrows rose. 'What are you talking about? A riddle? What riddle?'

'Something your so-called ancestor wrote many years ago,' Rex said.

'Captain Bjorn Van Heath?'

'Yep.'

His jaw dropped. 'You have something of his, he wrote?'

Rex didn't reply. He was too busy checking the wall, tapping it and moving along it.

'You have one of his treasure riddles!' Van Heath gasped. 'He used those rather than normal maps!' Excitement appeared on his face. 'That means there could be millions of dollars worth of treasure somewhere down here! '

'That's what we want to find out,' Pete said.

Rex ran his fingers across a crack in the rock wall.

'Found something?' Vanessa asked.

'Just this crack. It looks unnatural. But I don't feel anything coming through it.' He frowned and continued to stare at it. It was narrow - about two inches in height and maybe half a centimetre wide, but the edges were smooth.

Vanessa could sense he had an idea. 'What are you thinking, baby?' She stepped up and rubbed up against him. 'Something crazy, right?'

'Yeah... something crazy alright. This crack looks manmade. Way too smooth. Anyone got a coin on them?'

'Sure,' Wal pulled out his wallet and handed him a quarter. 'That do?'

'I've no idea,' Rex said. 'In fact, it seems so ridiculous I'm even embarrassed to even consider this, but what if the word sense is a deliberate misspelling? What if it's talking about money, rather than brains? Pirate money. Pirate cents?'

'Like a doubloon?' Vanessa asked, excitement welling up inside her.

'Yes and what if this crack is like a coin slot. Maybe there's something behind this wall, that when a doubloon or coin is dropped into it, opens up some kind of secret passage. Crazy right? But then I think this Captain Bjorn Van Heath guy really was crazy.'

'Yes,' said Van Heath. 'He was. Totally insane. But he had lots of treasure hidden in various locations. I know because I have seen such treasure. Oh, wouldn't it be grand if there really was some down here? I will take it back to my island when I return there soon.'

'Your island?' Vanessa asked.

'Yes. My home away from home. I should return there now that I've lost my ship.'

'Come on then,' Wal said. 'What are you waiting for? Give it a try, Rex.'

Rex dropped the coin into the crack. They heard it fall and ring against hard rock and then there was the sound of metal on metal. There was a grating sound behind the wall. They all stepped back as the entire rock face slid down, crumbling before their eyes. What was left was a pile of rubble and a hole large enough for even Tucker to walk through.

'Shiver me timbers! Arrrrrghhhhh, who woulda thought!' Perhaps the thoughts of pirate treasure had triggered Van Heath's pirate mode. He turned to Rex. 'Ye have certainly stumbled across something, squire, I can see that now.'

It was dark beyond the hole. Pete flicked his torch on and shone it through into the cave beyond. The beam settled upon an old pirate chest sitting in the middle of a small cavern.

Vanessa gasped, as did most of her companions.

'Oh boy,' Pete said. 'I think we've found it. I think we've found Van Heath's treasure!'

'Great!' An unknown voice came from behind them. 'That will more than compensate us for our troubles.'

They all spun around. Standing there with a bunch of pirates was Kid McGraw. In his hand was a gun.

# CHAPTER 15:  
The Fate of Bjorn Van Heath

'No!' Van Heath shouted when he saw them. 'No, ye shall not have this treasure, ye scurvy dogs! It belongs to my ancestor!' With that, he ran through the hole in the wall to the treasure chest.

'No!' Rex shouted. He could only stare as the final riddle ran through his head.

The treasure is whose?

Van Heath gripped the lid and lifted it. It opened and then a cutlass sprung up from the chest and embedded itself in the pirate captain's chest. Van Heath let out a gurgle. He spluttered and gasped and dropped back onto his butt as blood spilt onto the cavern floor. He gasped one last time and then fell back onto his back, the blade protruding from his chest.

There he lay silent.

A laugh came from the back. 'Oh, Van Heath, Van Heath.' Kid McGraw chuckled. The men behind him did the same.

Rex recognised most of them. Claws was there, as was Leech, the marksman and Silver the runner. There was also Hook, the cook. Only Kid held a gun, but the other pirates looked like they were itching for a fight, an opportunity to get revenge for having been taken advantage of by Rex.

'Rushing in headlong as usual,' Kid continued. 'Never thinks things out. That's why he was such a liability.'

Rex glared at Kid. So the ships had returned, sooner than expected. Perhaps the mole had been at work again. He turned his eyes to Emma whose own eyes were filled with fear.

Kid chuckled again. 'There she is... our little inside rat. Very cute too. What's your name again? Emma?'

Rex stared at her. Emma's legs quivered. Her face paled.

Vanessa reacted with pain in her voice. 'Emma, how could you? We trusted you!'

'I... I...' Emma couldn't look them in the eyes. 'I just wanted... I just wanted—'

'I know what you wanted!' Vanessa scowled. 'And you will never have it. Never!'

'Please!' Emma stepped forward towards Kid McGraw. 'Let me and Vanessa go. You owe me. You owe me twice.'

Vanessa snarled, 'Forget it, Emma, I'm not going anywhere with you, you backstabbing wench!'

Fear filled Rex at the thought of Vanessa being in danger. Maybe it would be best if Emma did leave with her, but then again how far would they get before other pirates zeroed in on them? That's if Kid agreed to Emma's request, which Rex very much doubted.

Emma turned back to Vanessa with pain in her eyes. 'Please, Nessa. I just wanted us to be together that's all. You were supposed to come back with me to the house. You weren't supposed to be here when they came back.'

Vanessa scowled. 'You make me sick!'

'Vanessa, please. Come with me. We can go. You don't have to be here.'

'Go to hell!'

Kid laughed haughtily. 'Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. Looks like you're out of luck, hon. Besides, I don't think I want her to go. No, I think I'd like to have her for myself.' His eyes gleamed at Rex. 'After all, her guy screwed around with my girl. Seems only fair.'

'Don't even think about it, douchebag!' Rex clenched his fists, rage bubbling up again

'Ohhh, strong words!' Kid stepped forward his gun pointed at Rex. 'You have to pay for what you've done. You killed my brother. You slept with my girl. So that means I get _your_ girl in return and I get to kill _you!'_

He stepped up beside Vanessa and put his arm around her. She tried to jerk free, but he held her fast.

Rex snapped. 'ARRRRGGGHHHHH!' He lunged at Kid with animalistic fury. Kid's gun fired and a bullet ripped into the right side of Rex's rib cage. Vanessa screamed, but Rex couldn't even feel it. His rage was focussed on Kid and Kid was going to pay. His fist connected with the pirate captain's head, sending him flying across the tunnel, into two of his men. Rex charged forward and smashed two of the pirates away. He grabbed Kid and pounded furiously at his face.

Both teams collided. Wal led the charge on Rex's side while Claws led the charge on the other. Two pirates dived on top of Rex. Rex flicked them off like they were a couple of little kids and continued to pound at Kid's face. 'Nobody touches her, asswipe! _Nobody touches her!'_ He felt warm blood soaking his shirt, but he wasn't about to stop pounding on Kid, no matter what.

This time Claws came in. He sent a kick to Rex's head sending him flying down the tunnel. Rex soon found himself being assaulted with a bevy of martial arts moves. He heard Vanessa shout out and she came in at Claws, sending her foot right into his face, sending him hurtling. Claws leapt back to his feet, a homicidal glare on his face. He charged at her.

Rex intercepted him. 'No, you don't, douche bag!' He immediately attacked with his one onslaught of martial arts moves. Despite his loss of blood and his weakening state, he thrashed out at him, putting in every ounce of power he could with every blow. Claws reeled, and staggered back with each punch. One extra powerful blow sent Claws crashing to the ground. Two other pirates tried to intercept. Rex smashed them both away, one with around house right and another with a backwards kick to the jaw. Hook charged at him, slashing his hook through the air and Rex's face. Rex ducked under it, grabbed his hook and slashed it back towards his face. Hook screamed out in agony as his own hook gouged into his eye. Convulsing and hollering in agony he fell back.

Other pirates hesitated.

'That guy's a maniac!' screamed one.

'Let's get the fuck out of here!'

They made for the exit.

The pirates were overwhelmed. With Wal, Colin and Vaughan pounding away at some, the others were seeing they had no chance. Wal pulverized the face of Silver, while Colin sent Leech face-first into the cavern wall.

One pirate by the name of Flannigan found himself trapped between Rex and the exit to the treasure cavern. He ran for Van Heath's body and pulled the cutlass from his body. With a shaky hand, he turned and faced Rex. 'K...keep away from me, you... _you nut!_ '

Rex, still with pent up rage ignored the threat of the blade. He strode towards him. Flannigan's face paled and instead of attacking he dropped the sword and scampered around Rex. He didn't get far. Vaughan met him with a punch to the head, which sent him crashing to the ground.

Rex paused to look for more pirates to attack. There were none. Both Kid and Claws lay on the ground out cold. All the others were either unconscious or had fled the tunnels.

Vanessa reached his side. 'Rex!' There was fear in her eyes, but otherwise, she was unharmed. 'Rex, it's okay... I'm okay!'

The rage left him immediately and then he felt overwhelmed by tiredness. He dropped to his knees.

'Rex!'

He dropped and consciousness left him.

When he awoke, he found himself in a hospital bed. The first thing he felt was a warm hand squeezing his. As his surroundings cleared, he saw the gorgeous face of his darling, staring down at him with concern in her eyes. 'Finally.' She broke into a smile.

'Nessie.' He felt relieved to see her there. 'Are you okay?'

'Don't worry about me!' She laughed. 'It's you who got shot.'

'They didn't hurt you?'

'Nuh-uh. Your Incredible Hulk routine terrified the shit out of them. Kid McGraw's face was so messed up it needs major reconstructive surgery. Claws had several broken ribs and a jaw. Some of those other pirates are also broke up and you have a couple of broken knuckles yourself.'

For the first time, Rex could feel the aches. He glanced down at his side, which was bandaged up.

Vanessa winced. 'You should really stop getting shot for me. I hate seeing you like this.

Rex reached up and touched her face. 'I'll do anything I have to do to protect you. No matter how many bullets I have to take.'

'Darling, I know you will and I love you so much for it, but I'm so scared that one day one of those gunshots will be fatal. That so scares me. You know I couldn't handle that. If only you wouldn't go charging at guys with guns.'

'You know how it is... when you're threatened... I just snap.'

'I know.' She rubbed his arm. 'That's why I have to stay out of these cases. I guess this time around I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.'

'Well, it's okay. Your safe and I'm alive. That's the main thing. But tell me... what did I miss? Did Dimitri turn up? Did the pirate ships get seized?'

'After you went berserk, the pirates just scattered, especially once they found that Kid and Claws had been so severely trounced. Only a few went back to the ships but were easy pickings for Dimitri and his men when they arrived the following morning. Dimitri managed to round up a few others, but most of them got away. At least now, that's the end of the pirating fiasco. He's happy because of that, especially getting the McGraw brothers locked up again.'

'Let's hope they stay locked up this time. What about Emma?'

Vanessa screwed up her gorgeous face. 'Don't mention that name! I never want to see that conniving bitch again. It's ultimately because of her that you're in here right now. If it wasn't for her, those pirates wouldn't have come back so soon and they wouldn't have cornered us down there in that tunnel. She has a lot to answer for, but frankly, I don't even want to hear her excuses. If I had my way, she'd be locked up for conspiracy to commit murder. In the end, I told her to get the hell out of my life and if I ever saw her face again, I'd kick her teeth in and that's just to begin with.'

Vanessa's face was turning red and he rarely saw her so pissed. He took her hands in his and clamped them firmly. 'It's okay. She's been sentenced to the worst possible fate ever and that's never-ending regret. You'll always be that woman of her dreams who she completely buggered things up with, all because she wanted more than what she could have. She'll be forever wishing she'd just accepted things as they were.'

'Good!' Vanessa said and calmed down. 'I don't know what the hell she was thinking, believing that she could somehow usurp your role in my life. Nobody could ever do that, nobody.' She squeezed his hands and gazed into his eyes. 'I love you so much, Rexy.'

'I love you too.'

They kissed for a few moments and then drew back.

'So tell me about Van Heath's treasure,' Rex said. 'I never did get to see what was in that chest. Was there anything apart from instant death?'

Vanessa smiled. She reached inside her handbag and pulled out something. 'This was just one of the things in there.' She handed him a massive ruby.

'Whoa!'

'Whoa indeed. You should have heard how many times Wal said that when he saw what was in there. It was full of gems like this one. Billions worth of them.'

'Holy shit.'

'That's what Pete said.' Vanessa laughed.

'And we all know what Tucker would have said...'

'Yeah huh, but we won't go there.'

# CHAPTER 16:  
Party On

Three days later Rex was out of the hospital. It was a double celebration at the house, which Rex thought looked absolutely spectacular now. Firstly it was a celebration that Rex was out of the hospital and secondly tying up of the pirate case.

Professor Buck was there too, in a brand new suit, compliments of some of his share of the treasure. 'I intend to build a rabbit sanctuary with some of my newfound wealth.' He beamed. 'It's something I've been wanting to do for so long. I may even call it Watership Down.'

'You might find some resistance to that idea,' Vanessa said. 'Rabbits are kind of hard to contain and from what I understand the UK countryside is rife with them already. The last thing they'll want is someone breeding more of the fluffy little beasties.'

'Oh, but rabbits are so lovely. And I intend to have a huge supply of carrots for them, so they'll never want to leave the down!'

'If you say so.'

'UUUBBAAA!' Tucker stepped up with a plate piled high with food. 'I love these after-case parties. I just wish we could have them for the cases that I solve.'

'Your cases aren't technically cases,' Vanessa said.

'Yes, they are.'

'Nuh-uh, they're not. Stolen chocolate biscuits aren't exactly earth-shattering crimes that require a private investigator to delve into. Neither does a missing cat in the neighbourhood require a PI on the job. And it's a most definite _nuh-uh_ to any case that involves trying to figure out what happened to one of your missing dog poops. And even if you did manage to solve them, none of those so-called cases would warrant after-case parties.'

'UUuuBBAAAA! Yes, they would.'

'Dog poops?' Rinoa sat with Rex and Vanessa on one of the couches, with Rex in the middle of course. She pulled a face. 'What on Earth?'

Pete who sat in an easy chair a few feet away chuckled. 'Tucker has this dog poop collection. He picks up dried up dog turds off the ground.'

'Oh good God!' Rinoa screwed her face up. 'I've never heard of anything so repulsive.'

'Dried ones,' Tucker declared. 'I have a huge dog poop collection. I'm the only person in the world with one. It'll be worth a fortune one day.'

'Oh, my God, you are sick.'

'One day one of them just disappeared. I know someone stole it.'

'No one stole it!' Pete growled. 'You ate it!'

'I did not!'

'Yes you did, I remember, you were eating a plate of meringues at the time you were showing some of us them. So most likely you mistook one for a meringue.'

'UUrrrrrbbarrrrrr!' Tucker snarled as everyone else twisted their faces in disgust.

Pete swallowed a mouthful of potato salad. 'Remember, I asked you why one of your meringues was brown and not pink or white like the others.'

Tucker frowned. Then his face lit up.. 'Oh yeah! So that's what happened to it. Thanks, Pete, you just helped me solve a perplexing case. I might even take you under my wing for my next case.'

'I'll pass.'

'Your funeral, ubbhead.'

'I feel sick,' Rinoa said.

Rex and Vanessa laughed. They were used to Tucker's ways now so could handle these revelations.

'Mmmm,' said Buck. 'I have a colleague at the university named Dr Phillip Openstiener. He specialises in studying brain abnormalities in human beings. I believe he'd be most intrigued with Mr Pyles here.' Buck's face remained serious, despite laughter from everyone but Tucker.

'Tucker's definitely the man for the job,' Pete said. 'If you want someone with a warped and aberrant mind, he's the perfect candidate.'

'Urrrrrbbarrrrrr! Watch it ubbhead or I'll open up a can of ass gas on ya!'

'Yes,' Professor Buck said. 'I believe you are right, Mr Cook. But now, if I may, I'd like to propose a toast.' He lifted up a glass of carrot wine. 'To the Rex Cassidy Investigators. Not only have you made me rich beyond my wildest dreams by finding that pirate treasure, you have also brought down a pirating operation single-handedly. I must say, I'm most impressed. To the RCI!'

They all toasted.

'It's ironic,' Rex said to Vanessa and Rinoa. 'Old Bjorn Van Heath... There he was, pretending to be the ghost of an ancestor... and all along he was only a few meters away from a fortune in gems.'

'A dream come true for anyone, especially a pirate,' Rinoa said.

'Even more ironic,' Vanessa said. 'Is that he really is the descendent of the pirate Van Heath.'

'For real?' Rex asked.

'For real. Vaughan did some research while you were in hospital.'

Rex chuckled. 'Poor old Van Heath. Just when he thinks his dream has come true and he has found his fortune... he finds himself at the end of one of his ancestor's own cutlasses. Even more irony.'

'He died with a smile on his face though...' Vanessa said. '...when for that split second he saw all those gems.'

'Kind of like Golem in Tolkein's novel,' Rinoa said. 'When he finally got his hand on the ring only a split second before he was burnt to death in the lava pit.'

'Exactly,' Vanessa said. 'So Rinoa. What are you going to do now that you're free from that scumbag, Kid?'

'Me? Mmmmm, I might go back home to Newcastle where I come from. I haven't seen my sister for quite some time.'

'We hope you might like to stay here with us for a few more days before we head back to the US,' Vanessa said.

'Really? You wouldn't mind me staying?'

'Of course not. You're more than welcome.'

She turned to Tucker who was now way too busy wolfing down food to be part of the conversation. 'Just as long as I don't have to go anywhere near that guy's dog poop collection.'

'You can relax,' Rex said. 'It's kept in a shed back in Hollywood. A place that only Tucker dares venture.'

'Then thanks. I'd be happy to stay for a bit.'

Vanessa smiled. 'We shall make sure you have a great time.'

END

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