The Baron Blasko Mysteries | Book 4 | Tentacles

by Howe, A. E.

  “This is Franklin Carter. He is going to help us find the treasure.”

  Josephine saw Jamila’s eyes widen, but she kept her mouth shut.

  “How can he help?” Hume asked.

  “And why in heaven’s name does he have a bag on his arm?” Neith rolled her eyes.

  “He’s—”

  Carter stopped him by placing his good hand on Blasko’s arm.

  “I’ll tell them. I’ve got some ties to this place. I’m a part of all that’s going on here,” he said, trying to suppress his northern accent.

  “What kind of ties?” Donavan asked skeptically.

  Carter and Blasko had agreed that the show he was about to put on would be the best way to convince the group that he could lead them to the treasure. He held up his mutated arm and yanked off the bag with a flourish.

  Jamila had been standing next to Carter. Now she jumped away so fast that she almost fell into the water. Neith let out a brief scream, while Hume and Zhao both stood motionless with looks of astonishment on their faces.

  “Bloody hell!” Donavan exclaimed. “That can’t be real.”

  He stepped closer for a moment, but as soon as the glare of the boat’s lights helped him verify that the flailing tentacles on the end of Carter’s arm were indeed real, he moved back as far as he could.

  “Anyone still doubt my bona fides?” Carter waved his tentacles around.

  Jamila turned and threw up over the side of the boat.

  “What does that prove other than that you’re a freak?” Donavan asked, turning his head partly away so that he didn’t have to look directly at the wriggling appendages.

  “My father witnessed Peter Nicolson burying the treasure,” Carter lied. “I can lead you there.”

  “If you’ve known where the gold is all these years, why didn’t you dig it up yourself?” Donavan was trying to maintain his composure, but it wasn’t easy.

  “What would I do with the gold?” Carter was trying hard to act like a man who was so deformed that he was close to madness. After the last couple of days, he had a lot of material to draw from. His biggest fear was that he might act the part too well. “Find some girl to marry me? Buy a car to drive to the theatre?”

  “Okay, then, why are you willing to help us now?”

  “I’ve promised to take him to a surgeon that I know,” Blasko spoke up. To everyone except Josephine, this made perfect sense. Only she knew that no surgeon in the world could remove the mutation.

  “Well, he’s here now,” Hume grumbled.

  “If he finds the treasure, we’ll cut him in for a share. But if we find it with the information we already have, I say he’s out of luck.” Donavan was grinding his teeth as he spoke.

  “I’ll agree to that. Because I know that I can find it.” Carter tried to look smug, but he was having a hard time controlling his tentacles. It didn’t really matter what expression he had on his face since no one wanted to look at him.

  “Those are obscene.” Jamila shook her head and went toward the bow of the boat. Zhao and Neith followed her. Donavan went into the wheelhouse to set the boat back on course for the small island.

  As the boat drew near to it, Blasko stared out at the sandy island. The moon was providing more than enough light for him to make out details. There were a couple of mounds made from piles of oyster shells left by the Timucua tribe hundreds of years before the first conquistadors walked the sands of Florida. Most of the island’s waterline was covered with mangroves, while here and there were a few sandy beaches. Donavan steered the boat close to one of the larger sandy landing spots.

  “We have to use the raft to get ashore,” Hume told Blasko, Josephine and Carter as Donavan dropped the anchor.

  Blasko looked concerned as he watched Donavan and Zhao take a four-man raft from the side of the wheelhouse and drop it off the side of the boat, as everyone else came back from the bow.

  “What’s wrong?” Even in the dark, Josephine could tell that Blasko was worried about something.

  He shook his head, frowning.

  “What?” she whispered.

  He turned and started toward the bow with Josephine at his heels.

  “The bottom of my shoes are lined with gold coins and a little of my native earth,” he said, looking toward the stern to make sure no one else could hear him.

  “That can’t be comfortable,” Josephine said, not grasping his concern.

  “I told you that I don’t do well on boats. The running water… The gold and earth has helped, but…”

  “Are you worried about the smaller raft?”

  “What I was taught is that the gold must be between me and running water. It’s not unbearable standing here on deck. But if I have to get in a raft, sitting so close to the water…” He shrugged.

  “That seems like a bit of a stretch. I mean, it’s not like your whole body is balanced over the gold in your shoes. Your elbows and arms have—”

  “We’re sending the first group over!” Donavan shouted from the stern.

  Blasko waved to let him know that they’d heard. “You have a point. I just don’t feel like being wrong and bursting into flame, turning into dust or dropping down into the bowels of hell. Or maybe all three.”

  “Do you think that could happen? Really?”

  “You can trust me when I tell you that the danger of sunlight is not a myth,” Blasko snapped, then composed himself. “Nothing for it now.”

  “I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Josephine said, though his obvious concern made her doubt her own confidence.

  Blasko pulled her close and gave her a long and tender kiss. Then he stood back and said, his accent growing stronger with emotion, “If I am reduced to a skeleton on the way to shore, know that I love you, Josephine Nicolson.”

  Bemused and a little stunned, Josephine watched as he turned and made his way back to the stern where Carter and Hume were waiting.

  When Donavan returned from dropping off the first group, he held the raft to the stern of the boat as Josephine and Carter climbed in. Blasko gingerly lowered himself into the small raft, tucking his feet up under his body as best he could. When Donavan shoved off, she was sure she saw Blasko hold his breath. Josephine gripped his hand in encouragement. They were halfway across the hundred-yard gap between the boat and the shore before Blasko relaxed.

  “What am I supposed to do now?” Carter asked once they were on land and Donavan had returned to the boat for the last time to fetch Captain Hume.

  “When everyone is together, we can suggest that you and I go off alone. I read the part of the letter that Josephine still has. Where it was torn, I thought I could make out a reference to the east side of the island. So we’ll start there. The killer can’t afford—”

  “I want to know the rest of your plan,” Josephine interrupted.

  “If it works, it will happen fast.”

  “As the cheese in your trap, I hope it doesn’t happen so fast that you don’t see it coming,” Carter groused.

  “Whoever killed the others and has the missing half of the letter probably already knows where the gold is. I’m sure they’re just trying to make the search a little harder so no one will realize who they are. But he or she can’t afford to let us find it, or they lose more of their share,” Blasko said.

  “If he knows where the treasure is, then he’ll know if we’re heading in the right direction,” Carter said.

  “I guess it’s worth a shot.” Josephine frowned. She didn’t like it, though she had to admit that a trap seemed the only way to catch this killer. When all the suspects shared a motive, the means and the opportunity, what other choice did they have?

  “You stay with the main party and keep an eye on things. Carter and I will go off on our own.” Blasko noticed that the others were getting their equipment ready and looked like they would soon be setting out.

  “What do I do if—”

  “Just keep an eye on them. If one of them leaves to come after us, that’s probably our
killer,” Blasko said quickly as the group headed their way.

  Josephine had more questions about Blasko’s plan, but Donavan was already within hearing distance. She decided that all she could do was go along with it. With her right hand, she reached down and felt for the revolver that was still secure under her shirt.

  “We’re lucky that, with the moon and clear skies, we hardly need to use our lanterns,” Donavan said.

  “We’ve already searched the mound to the north. I believe we should try the other mound,” Zhao said.

  “What good was that letter if you’re just guessing?” Donavan’s hands were balled up into fists.

  “We found the island,” Zhao argued. “Almost everything after the description of the island was missing.” He looked around as though he expected to see one of the others holding the missing half of the letter.

  “If this is the right island. We haven’t proven that yet,” Neith pointed out.

  “The directions were clear as far—” Zhao started to defend himself.

  “Fine, fine,” Donavan said, cutting him off. “What about our new expert?” He looked at Carter.

  “We’re going off on our own,” Blasko said.

  “Oh no. No! We stick together. That was part of the rules we agreed on.” Jamila’s attitude had changed from boredom to utter fury.

  “We will inform you if and when we find anything,” Blasko said.

  “But why not stick together?” Donavan took up Jamila’s cause.

  Carter held out his hand and, even in the limited light of the moon, the rest of the party flinched away from it.

  “It is even creepier in the dark,” Jamila said with a shiver.

  “I don’t see how—” Donavan started before Hume chimed in.

  “Let them go off alone. They can’t go anywhere. You secured the boat, and we’ll have the raft in sight if we’re working on the other mound.”

  “Yes, let them do what they want. I don’t believe he knows anything more than we do,” Neith added.

  “But if he does know where—”

  “He needs to think and look for the landmarks he remembers. Having all of you tagging along behind us won’t help,” Blasko pointed out.

  “I was just a boy when I witnessed the gold being buried,” Carter said.

  “Yeah, I meant to ask you about that—” Donavan started.

  Blasko cut him off. “Enough! We are wasting time talking.”

  “Fine! We’ll check back with you in two hours,” Donavan said.

  After a bit more back and forth, the parties split up. Blasko and Carter headed for the east side of the island while everyone else went toward the larger of the two mounds.

  Blasko stopped once they were out of sight of the others.

  “What are you doing?” Carter asked as Blasko sat down in the sand and took off one of his shoes.

  “Getting a little salt.”

  “What?” Carter, exasperated, fought to control his tentacled arm as he watched Blasko pry a few gold coins from the bottom of his shoe.

  “Salting the mine. Isn’t that what you call it? We can show them these gold coins as proof that we found the treasure.”

  “A few gold coins? That doesn’t seem very convincing.”

  “These people are so keyed up that the mere sight of gold will send them into a frenzy.”

  “We only want to catch the killer, right?”

  “Yes, yes. And this is just like the smell of cheese to get him to fully commit to the trap.”

  “I think you’re mixing your salted mine and mousetrap metaphors. In my opinion, we’re either wasting our time or you’re going to get us all killed.” Carter slapped at his arm. “And at this point, I think I wouldn’t mind being killed.”

  “I told you that I’ll help you get rid of that… thing.”

  “You chopped the damned thing off, but here we are.”

  “Let’s worry about finding our killer right now. Which involves you looking around like you know what you’re doing,” Blasko reminded him, pocketing the coins and putting his shoe back on.

  For the next hour, they traipsed around the east end of the island, plowing through the sand.

  “This is insane. Besides, my arm is going crazy,” Carter complained.

  “Fine. We’ll start making our way back toward the others.” Blasko was beginning to doubt his own plan.

  They’d gone about a hundred yards when they saw Captain Hume approaching them across a small dune. He had a Webley revolver in his hand and was pointing it at them.

  “There you are. I’ve been looking for you. Damned difficult in all this sand. Reminds me of Syria.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  “Our killer,” Blasko said with satisfaction.

  “Great. Now that he’s caught us, what do we do with him?” Carter said acidly.

  “Stand still, Baron. I think we all know what you are, and if you think I haven’t taken precautions, you’re wrong. I cast a couple of silver bullets as soon as you arrived with your ‘sunlight allergy.’ Ha! That might fool the rubes, but not someone who’s studied the world’s dark underbelly.”

  “Why can’t you just share the treasure?” Blasko said, ignoring the reference to his condition. As for the silver bullets, while he doubted their effect on werewolves, he wasn’t so sure about his own ability to withstand them and he hoped he wouldn’t find out tonight. Regular bullets were painful and damaging enough.

  “The gold is only a small part of what’s hidden here. I’m more interested in the documents. Now shut up before I shoot you just for the pleasure of the experience.” He turned to Carter. “You with the squid for a hand, where is the treasure?”

  “I’m sure you’re going to find this very amusing, but I don’t have a clue. At least not much of one. This was all about catching you.”

  “The hell you say. I should have known. Get down on the ground.” Hume jabbed the gun at them for emphasis. “Doesn’t matter ’cause we actually found it yesterday.”

  “You’ve got the other half of the letter,” Blasko said, carefully lowering himself to the sand while trying to keep an eye on their captor.

  “Of course I do.”

  “Maybe you found part of the gold, but you didn’t find all of it,” Blasko said, moving his hand toward his pocket.

  “Don’t move,” Hume said. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve got some of the gold to prove it.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “It’s in my pocket.”

  “Okay, but if you come up with anything other than gold in your hand, you’re both dead.”

  Blasko reached into his pocket and pulled out the gold coins. At least they’re helping to stall the captain, Blasko thought. He held the coins out awkwardly from his position on the ground.

  “Toss them over here.”

  Blasko complied and Hume picked them up and looked them over as best he could in the dark.

  “Nonsense. These are Romanian. We found the real gold. All of the coins are from an earlier period. Mostly Spanish and English.” He put Blasko’s coins in his pocket.

  “You found the treasure, but you haven’t dug it up?” Blasko didn’t see any point in arguing about the coins.

  “I will when I have time. But now I think we’re going to have to take care of everyone.” Hume stretched out his arm, pointing the gun at Carter. “And I’ll start with this abomination.”

  “Don’t!” Blasko said. “You don’t want to alert the others with the gunshot.”

  “I don’t mind. Go ahead and shoot me!” Carter yelled as his tentacled hand dug and squirmed in the sand.

  “I’d be glad to do that for you.”

  “Stop!” Josephine yelled from behind the captain.

  “Let me guess who this is,” he said, turning toward her.

  “Drop your gun or I will shoot you dead,” Josephine commanded with an icy tone that would have made Al Capone proud. The revolver was steady in her hand.

&n
bsp; “Of course, my dear.” Hume let his gun fall to the ground. “Now let me get a good look at you.”

  Blasko pulled his Colt .45 from his shoulder holster, glad that he’d thought to put in on before leaving the hotel. “Don’t you move,” he commanded. He didn’t know what tricks the captain might have up his sleeve, but he didn’t want to run the risk of something happening to Josephine.

  “No need to worry. I’m at your mercy.” Hume turned back to Blasko while Josephine advanced closer.

  “He has the other half of the letter,” Blasko told her.

  “Not on me. Heavens no,” Hume said with a smile.

  “You killed that man to get it,” Josephine accused him.

  “Yes, I did. You’re very fortunate. I would have killed you if he hadn’t intervened.”

  “What did you do to Mitzi Alexander, the postmistress?” Josephine asked, starting to piece it all together.

  “I had planned on killing you both together, but that thief was lurking around outside and by the time I realized what was happening, he’d attacked you.”

  “How did you… Oh. You were the person she mentioned,” Josephine said, remembering Mitzi talking about someone who’d recently come into her life.

  “It was pathetic, really. I showed her a little bit of interest, figuring that the island postmistress would know all the gossip, and next thing I knew she was throwing herself at me. The best part was that she felt the need to unburden herself by telling me about her last lover, your Uncle Peter. Twenty years between men. Very sad. One was an idiot and the other a killer. Can’t say she had a lot of luck in the love department.”

  “She told you about the letter?” Josephine asked.

  “Hinted at it, though she did tell me that he’d found a treasure. When you arrived, I began to put two and two together.” He seemed more than willing to talk. “After you were attacked and I’d disposed of the evidence, I had to kill Mitzi. I did feel a little twinge of regret.”

  “And what about Wallace Brock?”

  “Funny story. I was the first person he met on the island. Talk about serendipity. At the time, I thought we were the only two people who had received the letters, so I disposed of him before he even had a chance to check into the hotel.”