Sunken Shadows

by Kathleen Brooks

  Darcy heard sirens and Wade shook his head. “Harbor Patrol!” Wade yelled. Ryker just laughed and whipped around a boat full of tourists heading to Fort Sumter.

  “Hang on!” Ryker called back as he sped around Castle Pinckney on Shutes Folly Island and headed straight for shore. He blew by yachts and boats as he practically slid into the closest open slip at the fancy marina. There was a decorative sign that read “Yacht Club.”

  “Are you a member here?” Darcy asked as a teenager dressed in white slacks and a white polo ran toward them.

  Ryker just looked at her.

  “Of course you are.”

  “Mr. Faulkner,” the boy called out. “Your slot is over there. I’m happy to move the boat for you.”

  “Thanks,” Ryker said, leaving the engine running as the boy secured the boat enough for them to get off. Ryker pressed a bill into the boy’s hand before they sped off on foot. “The courthouse is up Broad Street. It’s maybe a half a mile to three quarters of a mile from here.”

  “What time is it?” Darcy asked again. Her phone was in her bag but Ryker still wore a watch.

  “Four ten.”

  “We have to move then,” Darcy said, pulling up her bag and taking off at a run. She was still barefoot and in her wetsuit, but that didn’t stop her or Wade, who was similarly dressed.

  Ryker took the lead as he effortlessly ran in suit pants, a button-up dress shirt, and leather loafers. He had taken off the bachelor apparel as soon as Hugo and Cash had been caught.

  “It’s right this way,” he called out as shouts began to sound from behind them.

  Darcy looked back and saw two police officers chasing after them. “Um, Ryker, police. I don’t think they appreciated your driving as much as I did.”

  “No problem,” he said with a grin and no heavy breathing.

  Darcy looked up Broad Street. Office workers were sneaking out of work a couple of minutes early, and Olivia was standing there tapping one foot.

  “Hurry up!” she yelled down the street.

  Darcy dragged in a ragged breath. Her feet hurt and were probably bleeding. And that wasn’t counting the sharp pain in her shoulder now. Wade similarly looked in pain as he grimaced with every footfall.

  “Officers, call an ambulance!” Olivia ordered in a voice no one should dare refuse. Darcy didn’t turn around but heard the officer’s radio squawk. The police were closing in on them . . . they had shoes.

  “Judge!” Olivia called out. “You can’t leave yet. Here are my clients. I have an emergency petition.”

  An older man had a briefcase in hand and was pinned on the bottom step by Olivia. Wade grabbed Darcy’s hand and Darcy dug deep to run harder.

  The judge had a fluffy gray mustache and bushy eyebrows. As he looked down the street at them, his eyes widened when he saw them in wetsuits and bare feet.

  “My clients have been attacked, beaten, and stabbed as rivals tried to murder them just moments ago. This is a discovery of a lifetime, and your honor will want his name on it,” Olivia argued as Ryker slid to a stop in front of the judge.

  “Your honor, I’m Ryker Faulkner. Please listen to this petition.”

  Darcy slammed to a stop, her feet throbbing as she leaned on Wade and he leaned on her.

  “What is this all about?” the judge demanded before turning to Ryker. “Faulkner Shipping? How are you involved?”

  “It started with a guy dying on my boat and only gets more interesting from there,” Ryker said. “And the only way you’ll get the full story as to why someone tried to kill my cousin and his girlfriend, why police are chasing us, and what’s in that bag is if you hear the petition.”

  An older woman started down the steps as the judge turned to take them all in. “Well, if I’m going to be late for golf I might as well get a good story out of it. Open up the courtroom, Clara. We have an emergency petition to hear.”

  “She’s the clerk,” Olivia whispered to them.

  “Sir, we need to talk about your boat driving,” an officer said, interrupting them.

  “Y’all come too. We’ll take care of this in one fell swoop,” the judge said.

  “It’s local, your honor,” he said a moment before Detective Chambers slid to a stop, sirens sounding.

  “Shit on a cracker,” Olivia mumbled as Chambers and Gerald Hemmings got out of the cruiser.

  “We need to be heard, your honor!” Gerald yelled as they jogged over to the courthouse steps.

  “Everyone into my courtroom. We’ll get this all sorted out. Clara, call the club and tell them I’m running late.”

  The whole group filed into the courtroom as Clara turned on all the lights and video recording equipment. The door was flung open as another attorney ran into the room. “I object!”

  “Stan, there’s nothing to object to yet,” the judge said with an eye roll.

  “He’s the assistant United States attorney,” Olivia told her a second before the doors opened and nearly everyone from Shadows Landing rushed in.

  Gage handed Darcy the flash drive before taking a seat. “Here’s the video evidence,” Darcy whispered to Olivia as she handed her the device.

  The judge slipped into his robe but didn’t bother zipping it before banging his gavel. “The court is in session. We’re hearing an emergency petition for . . . Miss Townsend, what are we all here for?”

  “My client, Miss Darcy Delmar, is here to petition for the rights to a three hundred year old abandoned shipwreck under the Law of Finds. She asks the court to assert jurisdiction and control of the wreck and to then award her sole rights to said wreck in its entirety.”

  “I object!” Stan and Gerald both said.

  “Stan?”

  “It’s federal property and the federal government should control all rights to any wrecks found.”

  “And who are you?” the judge asked Gerald as Darcy held tightly to Wade’s hand.

  “Gerald Hemmings, attorney for the county. We claim the right to the wreck as it is in state-owned waters.”

  “Miss Townsend?”

  Olivia smiled and Darcy knew right then they’d won. She showed the GPS tracker active inside the ship and cited so many laws and cases Darcy’s head was spinning.

  “It’s clear the wreck is outside the state’s jurisdiction,” the judge ruled. “Mr. Hemmings, you’re dismissed. Is this a war ship or a ship that belonged in any way to the government?”

  “No, sir.” Olivia smiled again and sent Stan, the U.S. Assistant Attorney, slinking away after systematically dismantling every argument he had or could have before he’d even made them.

  “So, what is this ship and how do you know it’s abandoned?” the judge asked.

  “You’re up,” Olivia whispered to her.

  Darcy reached into her bag and emptied the fifty gold coins onto the table.

  “Holy mackerel. This was worth missing my tee time,” the judge said as even Stan and Gerald approached wide-eyed to see. Detective Chambers, the police officers, the clerk, and everyone else did, too.

  “Your honor, I found the wreck of the ship belonging to Captain Lawrence Stringer that sunk in 1719. Captain Stringer is better known as the pirate Black Law. Inside was a dowry belonging to a Spanish lord. He was killed three centuries ago and the dowry seized by Black Law. While there may have been some attempt at locating the ship three hundred years ago, there has not been any effort by either the lord’s family, Spain, or any of Black Law’s family for at least one hundred fifty years. Therefore, the ship should be judged to be abandoned and all rights to the find given to me.”

  “And there’s more of this inside?”

  “Yes, which is why I need an order to show my rights to the ship so I may hire full-time guards to enforce those rights.”

  “Your honor,” Stan tried again. “When she’s pulling Spanish gold up, you can bet Spain will want it. That’s why the rights should belong to the United States.”

  “Nice try, but I have my ruling. The wrecked ship did
not belong to Spain. In fact, the owner of the wrecked ship was domiciled in South Carolina. Shadows Landing, if my pirate history is correct. A private Spanish citizen freely took the gold onboard his private ship and left Spain. Therefore, Spain has no claim to it. Further, while the wreck is outside of state waters, it is still well within the United States’ waters.” The judge held up his finger to stop Stan from speaking. “But as I ruled earlier, this is not a government ship of any kind, with no U.S. government merchandise onboard. Therefore, I declare salvage rights to Miss Delmar for sixty days. During those sixty days, Miss Townsend, you will run worldwide notices about the find and asking anyone with a documented claim to submit them to the court. I will hear any legitimate claims coming forward sixty days from now in this court. If they prove to have a claim to the ship and its contents, they must prove active salvaging and searching attempts before they would be awarded any claim. If none are found, I will rule the ship abandoned and award all rights to it and its contents to Miss Delmar under the Law of Finds.”

  The judge rapped his gavel and hurried down from the bench. “Can I take a picture?” Darcy was shaking but she nodded her head. The judge handed his phone to Olivia who took a picture of him with his hands in the gold. “Thanks. I can’t wait to rub it in Judge Sylvina’s face at golf today. He thinks he gets all the good cases.”

  “You know we’ll appeal,” Stan grumbled.

  “Go ahead, but you know as well as I do that my ruling followed the law. Congratulations, young lady. I’ll see you in sixty days. Good luck.”

  Darcy shook his hand, and then it was over. She had rights to the ship . . . for now.

  34

  Sixty days. It didn’t sound like much but it all had been a nonstop whirlwind of activity. Wade and Darcy had been taken to the hospital after the hearing. Ryker paid a fine for speeding through the harbor. Olivia was being flooded by claims, although, according to her, they were all going to be tossed. And for the rest of that week, Wade had helped Darcy excavate the ship.

  He had had to go back to work, but thanks to a loan from Darcy’s financial backer, one Ryker Faulkner, she was able to hire full-time security for the site and a PR firm to handle the press so she could focus completely on the excavation. She was borrowing a warehouse on Ryker’s shipping grounds to store the treasure she brought up. Ryker had offered to hire her a team to help, but she wanted to use only trusted friends.

  So, whenever Wade had days off, he and Aaron helped out with Darcy’s full-time team of Gator, Skeeter, and Turtle. And after sixty days, all of the trunks had been transported to the warehouse. They’d only gone through a quarter of them. Each item was cleaned, photographed, weighed, measured, and cataloged. As of that moment, it was going to be over a billion dollars’ worth of treasure. To help with the cleaning and cataloging, Darcy had invited in students and experts who leaped at a chance to work the discovery of a lifetime.

  But every night Darcy came home to Wade. Fifty-nine nights and today was the sixtieth day, and he wouldn’t trade a single minute of it. He’d never been happier and with all his being he knew today would be the best yet, hands down.

  Wade slipped his hand into Darcy’s as they followed Olivia up the stairs to the courthouse. His family and their friends trailed behind them as the press lined both sides of the steps. Olivia had told them she’d reviewed all the claims and none could prove they’d been actively searching or trying to salvage the ship, and she had every reason to believe the judge would assign full rights to Darcy.

  It had been a learning curve for sure. It wasn’t every day Spanish diplomats were trying to come after your discovery or that the president of the United States came for a visit. President Stratton and his wife, First Lady Tate Stratton, both dove the site and examined the treasure. He also told Spain in the nicest way possible they had no shot at claiming the treasure as theirs. However, he and Darcy had worked out a deal to sell a portion of the treasure to Spain for their museums, but only if she were awarded full rights. Wade shook his head as he remembered a fifty-million-dollar pledge being signed on his kitchen table with the president and the Spanish ambassador. After the ambassador left, Darcy and President Stratton had agreed to set up a traveling exhibit to hit the top museums in the United States free of charge in exchange for President Stratton barring any international claims to the treasure.

  Shadows Landing was also getting used to the media circus. It was great for tourism and the economy. But the locals were getting worn out from the constant attention. They were all ready for a break, but today was not that day.

  Wade was glad when he and Darcy entered the courthouse until he heard Gator’s booming voice. Wade turned to see Gator, dressed up with a collared shirt under his overalls, pointing at his South Carolina Cocks hat and screaming, “Go Cocks!”

  Locals cheered for the University of South Carolina Gamecocks. Others blushed. Darcy laughed.

  “Are you nervous?” Wade asked as they entered the packed courtroom.

  “Very,” Darcy said. “But thank you for last night. I was definitely not thinking about the hearing.”

  “It was my pleasure,” Wade whispered against her ear.

  “No, it was all mine.” Darcy winked at him and followed Olivia to the defendant’s table.

  Wade took a seat next to his brother, Trent, and cousin, Ridge. “Are you both ready?” Wade asked them.

  “We got this,” Trent said as Ridge winked.

  The judge came out and took his seat. He was trying to look serious, but Wade could see how excited he was, too.

  “There were no claims of merit submitted to this court. I hereby rule that the sunken ship once belonging to the pirate known as Black Law is abandoned. Per the Law of Finds, all rights are hereby granted to Darcy Delmar in full.” The judge slammed his gavel down as everyone erupted in cheers, clapping, and excited talking.

  Darcy hugged Olivia and all of Wade’s family, who over the past couple months had also become her family. Once all the celebratory embraces were done, Darcy leaped into his arms. He swung her around and kissed her. Cameras clicked, but he didn’t care. She was his heart.

  “They want you to make a statement,” Olivia said as she looked over at the crowd of reporters.

  “Not yet. Tell them I’ll hold a press conference next week. Or, better yet, find one person for me to give an interview.”

  “Why don’t you talk to them?” Wade asked. Olivia perked up.

  “That would be great,” Darcy said, reaching out to take Olivia’s hand in hers. “Would you do that for me?”

  “Of course,” she said as she straightened her jacket. “What will you be doing?”

  “Sneaking out the back,” Wade said with a grin. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

  * * *

  “Why are we going into the backyard?” Darcy asked. “I thought you promised me a quiet afternoon at home. Besides, I have a surprise for you before dinner and I was really hoping we could find a way to relax before we leave.”

  “Well, I guess I wasn’t the only one keeping secrets. A surprise for me?”

  “Yes,” Darcy said. It was really hard not to tell him, but she wanted to show him instead.

  “Well, I have a surprise for you, too. Close your eyes.”

  Darcy closed her eyes and Wade came up behind her and placed his hands over hers to make sure she wasn’t peeking. “Do I hear water?”

  “Maybe.”

  She kept walking as Wade steered her. She definitely heard the sound of running water. “Surprise!”

  Wade took his hands away and Darcy gasped. There was a small pond lined with rock. A small fountain was in the middle. Behind it was an arbor with a swinging bench under it. Freshly painted white by the smell of it.

  “When did you do this?”

  “Ridge and Trent put it together when I made us leave early for lunch before the hearing.”

  “Oh my gosh. It’s so beautiful!” Darcy turned and hugged Wade. She relaxed instantly into him. He was her
other half.

  “Take a closer look.” Wade pulled away and led her over to look at the pond.

  Darcy laughed so hard she thought she’d double over. Under the water were fake gold coins and pearl necklaces. There was even a sunken ship that the goldfish could swim through. And then from the grasses came a motorized speedboat and Darcy laughed again. She had never known a time when she’d been so happy.

  “It’s perfect! Wade, I love . . . what’s that?” Darcy bent forward. There was something in the boat coming right for her.

  Darcy bent as the boat slowed and gasped, “Wade!”

  When she turned, she found Wade on one knee. He leaned into the boat and pulled out the diamond ring. “My life started when I pulled you from the water. I love how you can solve riddles faster than anyone I know. I love that we laugh and love with our whole hearts. You are my better half, my one true love, and the only thing that could make me more complete is if you were my wife.” Wade looked up at her and held up the ring. “Darcy, will you marry me?”

  “Yes!” The word was out so fast she and Wade laughed as he slipped the ring onto her finger. He rose up and captured her lips with his. “I love you, Wade.”

  “And I love you, Darcy.”

  “I’m afraid I can’t beat your surprise,” she said, giggling.

  “Why don’t you try?” Wade winked and Darcy threw herself into his arms again. “Then come with me.”

  She led him down the street and onto Main Street. “Well, this isn’t the surprise I thought.”

  “Did you think it was something from that book you saw me looking at the other day?”

  “Maybe,” Wade said with a grin.

  “That’s for later tonight. First, I want to show you this.”

  Wade looked up at the building. “The antique store? You want to go shopping?”

  “Look at the door.”

  They both stepped closer. “Future home of the Shadows Landing Delmar Museum,” Wade read.