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“Not a damn thing.” Adler sounded bored and busy.
“But you know there is one.”
“If there is it’s not my concern. I intend to bring this film in on time and under budget so anything else is a moot point.”
“Okay.” Theodosia wasn’t sure what her follow-up question should be.
“Anything else?” Adler asked.
“I guess, um…” Then just before Adler hung up, she said, “Wait a minute. Did you rent the Granville Mansion or did someone do it for you?”
“Lewin Usher arranged it.”
“You’re talking about the hedge fund guy?”
“Usher’s also one of our executive producers. And let me just say that the man relishes his title. It totally trips him out and makes him feel like a Hollywood insider.” Adler gave a low chuckle. “Though, from what I’ve seen so far, he’s really more of a junkman.”
Theodosia did a slow blink. “Excuse me, what do you mean by that?”
“You wouldn’t believe all the crap he’s got stored in the garage here. It’s practically crowding out my Porsche.”
“What kind of crap?”
“Crates full of stuff. Looks like most of it’s off old ships or something. But what do I know? I’m from Hollywood by way of Albuquerque.”
“Okay, thanks.” Theodosia hung up. She looked at Drayton and said, “Joe Adler says there’s all sorts of stuff from old ships in his garage. Why would that be?”
“I don’t know. Who put it there?”
Theodosia shrugged. “No idea. Unless…”
“Unless what?”
“Lewin Usher arranged to rent the mansion for Joe Adler, so the stuff probably belongs to Usher.” She frowned. “But why would Usher be storing stuff from old ships?”
Drayton stared at her as if he were working calculations in his brain. “Maybe because it’s worth a fortune?”
“What are you talking about?” Theodosia asked.
“Marine artifacts command top dollar these days. Gone are the days when salvage operations could keep everything they found and dredged up. The South Carolina Underwater Antiquities Act of 1991 took care of that kind of wanton robbery and piracy. Now you need to obtain permission and do your exploring under the auspices of the South Carolina Institute for Archaeology and Anthropology. You probably even need to hire a licensed on-site marine archaeologist.”
“You know this for a fact?”
“I know that a masthead from a seventeenth-century schooner sells for upward of a million dollars.”
Theodosia digested this information for a few minutes as scattered bits of conversation zipped through her brain like chase lights on a theater marquee. She recalled her conversation with Delaine. It seemed like weeks ago but was only a few days. What had Delaine said? Oh yes, that one of Josh Morro’s favorite hobbies was scuba diving.
Scuba diving.
Theodosia quickly told Drayton about the conversation she’d had with Delaine, then asked, “Do you think Josh Morrow’s murder is somehow connected to those marine artifacts?”
“Don’t know. Maybe you should call Delaine and press her a little harder.”
So Theodosia did exactly that. And asked Delaine if Morrow was perhaps a collector of marine artifacts.
“Oh, gosh,” Delaine said. “I do know that Josh was passionate about old shipwrecks.”
“And diving for artifacts? And collecting them?”
