Wicked Charms by Janet Evanovich Page B

he might not have been working for Ammon at the end.”
    “I had the same thought.”
    —
    Diesel parked in front of my house, and we migrated to the kitchen. I gave Cat and Carl a snack, and I watched Diesel place his five coin pieces on the counter and fit them together. Even though pieces were still missing it was clear that an image of a crown was engraved on one side of the coin. Diesel turned the pieces over, and I could see a face engraved on the other side. Charles III of Spain. Each of the pieces had a tiny hole punched into it.
    Someone rapped on my back door, and Diesel opened it to Glo and Josh.
    “Howdy,” Josh said. “How’s it going?”

    “Slow,” Diesel said.
    Glo gave me the two versions of “Sea Fever.” “Clara said she picked out three discrepancies. She has them circled. She asked her gramps about the changes, and he said that’s just the way the poem was always said to him.”
    Star had been changed to light. Steer had been changed to guide. To the vagrant gypsy life had been changed to the dazzling gypsy life.
    “Do you think these changes are relevant?” I asked Diesel.
    “The first two changes got my monkey back.”
    We all looked over at Carl, and Carl gave us a hideous, teeth-baring monkey smile.
    “These coin pieces have holes in them.” Glo said. “Is that normal?”
    I shrugged. I didn’t know. Diesel didn’t know. Josh didn’t know.
    “We could check in with the professor,” Josh said. “He might still be at work.”

CHAPTER TEN
    Diesel parked in front of the Sullivan Building, we climbed the stairs to Devereaux’s floor, and I knocked on his closed door. No answer. Josh opened the door and we peeked inside. No one there.
    “Do you have Devereaux’s number?” Diesel asked Josh.
    “Sure. We’re practically friends now. He’s called a couple of times asking about the coin.”
    Josh punched in the number. Devereaux picked up, and Josh put him on speakerphone.
    “We’re in your office,” Josh said. “Where are you?”
    “I had to leave. Why did you come to see me?”
    “We had a question about the pieces of the coin.”

    “Are you still in my office?”
    “Yes.”
    “You need to leave. It’s dangerous for you to stay. Run. Get out! I can’t talk now. I’ll call back.”
    We exchanged a look, and we didn’t exactly run, but we didn’t waste any time leaving. We hurried out of the building and stood in the middle of the grassy quad, looking up at Devereaux’s office window.
    “Maybe we’ve been punked,” Josh said.
    Barooom! Flames shot out of the open window, and the fire alarm went off.
    “I was wrong,” Josh said. “That’s not the work of a punker.”
    The alarm was blaring, people were pouring out of the buildings, sirens screamed in the distance, and Josh’s phone buzzed.
    “I can’t hear you,” Josh yelled into the phone. “Can you repeat that?”
    We all stared at Josh.
    “It was Devereaux,” Josh said, sliding his phone back into his pocket. “I couldn’t get everything, but he wanted us to meet him at the museum ship. The Friendship of Salem. ”
    We made our way around the clumps of gawkers and first responders, loaded ourselves into Diesel’s orange Charger, and Diesel drove us off campus.
    “I don’t want to take everyone onboard the Friendship, ” Diesel said to Glo and Josh. “I’m going to drop both of you off first.”
    —

    The Friendship of Salem was the name of the replica frigate docked at Derby Wharf and used as a museum. We drove to the wharf, left the car in the lot, and walked toward the frigate. It was early evening, and the sun was low on the horizon. The tall masts and rigging were dark against the sky. The squat Derby lighthouse flashed red at the end of the wharf.
    The gate at the end of the gangway was unlocked. Diesel opened it, and we stepped onto the empty deck of the Friendship. Ropes creaked with the movement of the ship, but all else was silent. We prowled from one end to the other, found an