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"You asked me if I was with him?" he prompted gently.
"A family skeleton, Mr. Pitt. I'm taken good care o£ He watches over me. I've no complaints. My retreat from the real world is my own choosing. . ." Her voice trailed off and her stare grew distant.
Pitt had to catch her before she retreated into a self-induced shell. "Did he tell you Hans was murdered?"
Hilda's eyes flickered for an instant, and then she shook her head silently.
Pitt knelt beside her and held her hand. "His lifeline and air hose were cut while he was working underwater."
She noticeably trembled. "Why are you telling me this?"
"Because it's the truth, Mrs. Kronberg. I give you my word. Whoever worked with Hans probably killed him so he could steal Hans's share of the treasure."
Hilda sat there in trancelike confusion for nearly a minute. "You know about the La Dorada treasure,"
she said at last.
"Yes," Pitt answered. "I know how it came to be on the Cyclops. I also know Hans and his partner salvaged it."
Hilda began toying with one of the diamond rings on her hand. "Deep down I always suspected that Ray killed Hans."
The delayed shock of understanding slowly fell over Pitt's face. He cautiously played a wild card.
"You think that Hans was murdered by Ray LeBaron?"
She nodded.
The unexpected revelation caught Pitt unawares, and it took him a few moments to come back on track. "The motive was the treasure?" he asked softly.
"No. The motive was me." She shook her head.
Pitt did not reply, only waited quietly.
"Things happen," she began in a whisper. "I was young and pretty in those days. Can you believe I was once pretty, Mr. Pitt?"
"You're still very pretty"
"I think you may need glasses, but thank you for the compliment."
"You also have a quick mind."
She gestured toward the main building. "Did they tell you I was a bit balmy?"
"The receptionist insinuated you weren't quite together."
"A little act I love to put on. Keeps everyone guessing." Her eyes sparkled briefly and then they took on a faraway look. "Hans was a nice man who was seventeen years older than me. My love for him was mixed with compassion because of his crippled body. We had been married about three years when he brought Ray home for dinner one evening. The three of us soon became close friends, the men forming a partnership to salvage artifacts from old shipwrecks and sell them to antique dealers and marine collectors. Ray was handsome and dashing in those days, and it wasn't long before he and I entered into an affair." She hesitated and stared at Pitt. "Have you ever deeply loved two women at the same time, Mr. Pitt?"
"I'm afraid the experience has eluded me."
"The strange part was that I didn't feel any guilt. Deceiving Hans became an exciting adventure. It was not that I was a dishonest person. It was just that I had never lied to somebody close to me before and remorse never entered my mind. Now I thank God that Hans didn't find out before he died."
"Can you tell me about the La Dorada treasure?"
"After graduating from Stanford, Ray spent a couple years tramping through the jungles of Brazil, hunting for gold. He first heard of the La Dorada from an American surveyor. I don't remember the details, but he was sure it was on board the Cyclops when it disappeared. He and Hans spent two years dragging some sort of instrument that detected iron up and down the Caribbean. Finally, they found the wreck. Ray borrowed some money from his mother to buy diving equipment and a small salvage boat.
He sailed ahead to Cuba to set up a base of operations while Hans was finishing up a job off New Jersey."
"Did you ever receive a letter or a phone call from Hans after he sailed on the Monterey?"
