screen. Nils Nilsson had clobbered a history professor with a baseball bat? His friends might have threatened the man further? Who were the friends? Ansgar and Gjurd? A tingle crawled up my spine. Was it just me, or did I see a pattern linking Nils Nilsson to the foreshortened life expectancy of university history professors? And I bet I knew what kind of history.
I brought up the home page for Boston College and clicked on the faculty/staff directory. Aha! Just as I'd suspected. Dr. Hiram Quilty was a professor of world history, the Early Explorers Period, from 1400-1799. And dollars to doughnuts, he pushed the theory that Christopher Columbus had discovered America, and that James Cook had been the penultimate explorer ever to sail the seven seas.
I powered down the computer, my heart thumping in my throat. I was paired up for dinner with a man who was not only suspected of assault with intent to kill, but whose favorite hardwood was a baseball bat.
I zigzagged to the door and into the corridor, where the sounds of the photocopier continued to hum. As I passed the glass window that fronted the copy center, I saw a familiar head of blond hair hunched over the copy machine and felt a little embarrassed when Jennifer French gazed up to find me looking at her. I flashed her a smile and gave her a little finger wave.
Not surprisingly, she didn't wave back.
As I headed for the elevator, I wondered what was so important that she'd be copying it close to midnight on a stormy night at sea.
Nana answered her door on my second knock, opening it a crack to peek out. "Emily! Come in. Come in, dear." She threw the door wide. "Isn't this storm somethin'? I never seen nothin' like it. And lookit you. You're not even curled up in a ball wishin' you was dead."
That's what I loved about Nana. No matter the day, the hour, or the situation, she was always happy to see me. "I'm sorry for the surprise visit," I apologized as I crossed the threshold, "but I have a favor to ask. How would you feel about doing a late-night computer search? I started the process, but your advanced search skills are more refined than mine. I'm looking for information on a name: Basil Broomhead. I got twenty-two thousand eight hundred hits on the last name, so I need you to whittle it down to something more manageable. I'm not sure if Basil Broomhead has any connection to Professor Smoker, but I kinda think he might, so your search could really help."
"AAAGHHCKK! AA-AAGHHCKK!"
I stared at the bathroom door, cringing at the sounds. "Oh, no. Tilly?"
Nana nodded. "She says she done okay in some typhoon in the South China Sea some years back when she was escapin' a boatload a pirates, but this here storm has done her in. You okay, Til?" she asked, tapping on the door.
The toilet flushed with a wall-vibrating WHOOOOSH.
Nana nodded with satisfaction. "Yup. She's okay."
"Tilly encountered pirates in the South China Sea?" I marveled as I seated myself on the sofa. "Real pirates? I didn't realize pirates were still around."
"Oh, sure. But more typically, they're wearin' business suits and workin' on Wall Street." She sat down on the sofa beside me. "This storm's leveled everyone. You shoulda seen 'em at supper. They was staggerin' back to their cabins even before the entrees showed up. Old folks, young folks. Even Bailey's sick. I seen her earlier in the evenin' when I went to her cabin to give back the tube a sunblock she lent me today, and she looked worse'n Tilly, if that's possible. Kinda like she could be dead by mornin'. They could all be dead by mornin'."
"AAAGHHCKK! AAAAAAAGHHCKK!"
Nana shook her head. "This whole thing has got me to thinkin', Emily."
"About what? Not signing up for any more cruises?"
"About the wave machine I was thinkin' to buy for the new Senior Center pool. Maybe I should go with the waterslide instead."
I nodded. "A waterslide would be nice. So you're not sick?" I asked switching gears. "Not even a twinge?"
"Nope. But between you and me, dear, all this buried treasure business has got me pretty antsy. I could really use somethin' to take the edge off."
Even though I'd only been on the job a year, I was seasoned enough to know that it was a bad sign when the holiday grew so exciting, the guests started having nervous breakdowns. "Do you want me to