by Caleb Wygal
“About time you arrived,” he said. “We’re wasting daylight.”
Darwin looked out over the water. “We didn’t waste much.”
A pirate’s grin. “Just kidding you lads. The yacht is gassed up and ready to go. So, where are we going?”
Darwin and Lucas exchanged glances. “What range does this ship have?” Lucas asked.
Riddick gave a perplexed look. “Three to four hundred miles. Why do you ask? We won’t be traveling that type of distance around here.”
“Because we think we’re looking in the wrong area.”
“The wrong area? What makes you say that?”
Darwin filled Riddick in on what he had learned.
“So, you think the treasure is on Hilton Head somewhere?”
“Maybe. Could be, but probably not,” Lucas said. “I think that’s the better place to start though.”
“Better than around here?”
Lucas pondered the question for a nanosecond before answering, “Yes.”
Riddick’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two younger men. “When I invited you lads back today, I did it with the intention of just showing you around the area here. A twelve hour trip to the southern end of South Carolina was not in the plans.”
Lucas did a quick calculation in his head and looked at Darwin. “If we left now in the Jeep, we could be down there just after lunch. We’ve already checked out of the motel and are going to need somewhere to stay tonight anyway. Hilton Head is as good a place as any.”
Darwin started to agree, then Riddick said, “No, no. I didn’t mean to let on that I wouldn’t take you down there. It’s just,” he hesitated a beat, “it’s just that I hadn’t planned on it. Odds are, if you do come across anything, you might need a boat wherever you want to go anyway.” He patted the steering console. “It just so happens, I have a good one here that can take you.”
“What about your business?” Darwin said. “Can you just take off for a couple days on a moment’s notice like that?”
Riddick blinked. “I own the company. I can do anything I want to.”
Darwin smiled. “Well then. That must be nice. How long would it take to get down there by boat?”
“Probably half the day,” Riddick answered. “As your friend said, you can make it in about half that time by car, although you’ll need a boat once you get down there anyway. Might not be a bad idea to have both modes of transportation handy just in case.”
“Perhaps,” Lucas said. He looked to Darwin, “Let’s step off and discuss this for a moment.”
They both stepped back to the dock from the boat, and Lucas said, “Listen, I know we’ll need a boat once we get down there, and we can cut half of our day off if we drive it and just rent a boat once we get there.”
Darwin shook his head. “I think we need to stay with him. He already has a vessel. He has knowledge of the coasts—which we may eventually need if we’re to explore whatever shoreline where the treasure may be.”
Lucas ran a hand through his hair and took a deep breath. “What if we split up? I’ll take the Jeep down there, go ahead and get us a room, and see what I can come up with while you guys are on the water. I mean, we know we’ll need a boat, but we’ll probably also need a car.”
“True. I guess that’d be fine. Makes sense.”
Once agreed upon, they went back on board and gave the news to Riddick. He said he could see the logic in that.
“Don’t worry about a room,” he told Lucas. “I have friends all along the coast who would give us a bunk for a night.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Lucas regarded him skeptically. “Why are you doing this for us? What’s in it for you?”
“Well, because I’m interested in everything concerning Blackbeard. His treasure is one of the great mysteries left in this world. I’d love, just as much as you lads—if not more—to find it.” Riddick’s eyes blazed. “I mean, think of the story if a modern-day Blackbeard impersonator found the real Blackbeard’s treasure? That would make the finding that much more interesting, don’t you think?”
Lucas saw his point, although he still couldn’t bring himself to trust the man. There was something about him—outside of his roguish appearance—that made Lucas wonder if there was something Riddick wasn’t telling them. Something in the way Riddick responded to certain questions, his facial expressions, and his body language led Lucas to believe there was more to this man than met the eye.
He didn’t like the idea of splitting up with Darwin, although he seemed okay to take the long boat ride down to Hilton Head with Riddick. Lucas knew Darwin was out for one of the first big adventures in his life and wanted to make the most of it. He could tell Darwin was excited about the prospect of spending most of a day at sea. That was something Lucas could say he’d never had the opportunity to do himself. He was happy to see his friend try new things.
He just hoped nothing went awry.
“OK, let’s do it,” Lucas said to Darwin. “Where did you say it was I should go first?”
“Head to the Heritage Library. Looked as though it was somewhere in the middle of the island.”
“Should I ask for anyone in particular?”
“Their website listed the historian for Trench’s Island as an Ezra Hefner.”
“Ezra? Not a common name. Should be easy to remember.”
When the two finished speaking, Riddick gave them a pirate’s grin and said, “Great. Just give me a minute to make a few calls, let the boss—my secretary—know where I’m going and how to reach me. You guys do whatever you need to do before we shove off.”
• • •
Darwin and Lucas stepped back onto the dock.
“You good with this?” Lucas asked.
A worried look was replaced quickly by a smile. “Yeah. I think so.”
Lucas gave a quick glance to the deck of the yacht to see if anyone was listening. No sign of Riddick. “OK, you know my feelings on him. I don’t completely trust him. So, watch yourself.”
“I will,” Darwin assured him.
“Do you have everything you need?”
“Yeah. I have my backpack with the gear, tablet, and phone. He said he has food. I think I’m set.”
Lucas put reached up and put a hand on Darwin’s shoulder. “Alright, I’m taking off. You stay in touch and tell me if you learn anything.”
“You do the same.”
Lucas smiled. “Oh, and don’t spend too much time on the phone with this Lisa girl today. Don’t get her fired.”
Darwin laughed. “Yeah, right. I’ll try not to.”
• • •
While the two young men were outside, Riddick went to his personal cabin and closed the door. He didn’t want Lucas or Darwin to hear his end of the coming conversation.
He dialed a number. It rang once.
“Yes?”
“Change of plans,” Riddick said. “We’re headed to Hilton Head.”
“Why there?”
“Don’t know yet. That’s not for you to worry about anyway. Just go there instead. We’ll be right behind you.”
“Yes, boss.”
“Get there as fast as you can. Head down to the marina at Harbour Town. I’ll need you guys to get some wheels. You know where that is?”
“Yeah. You have to go around the southern tip of the island right? Where that PGA golf course is?”
“That’s the one. There’s a bar right there off the dock. Go in. Ask for Jimmy. He’ll be expecting you. He’ll have something for you to drive. The fat one told this Lucas to go to a place called the Heritage Library first. Start there. Lucas drives a big, back Jeep.”
“Gotcha. Harbour Town marina. Bar. Jimmy. Heritage Library. Black Jeep. Check,” the guy on the other end said. “Why the wheels?”
“The fat kid and the other guy are splitting up,” Riddick explained. “Fat kid is coming with me. His friend is driving down. He’ll have a head start on all of us.”<
br />
“So you’ll want us to find and track this other guy?”
“Yeah.” Riddick paused, considered. “Watch out for him. He seems . . . competent. Like he’s been in a few bad scrapes and knows how to handle himself. You know?”
“We got him boss. Don’t worry.”
“I’ll call or text you when I have further orders.”
“Yes, boss.”
Riddick ended the call, looked out the porthole of the cabin, and wondered if the end to his family’s goal had just walked into his life.
• • •
They separated. Darwin onboard the yacht. Lucas in his Jeep.
A few minutes later, Lucas’s Jeep rolled down Route 17, which ran along the coasts of both Carolinas. Darwin and Riddick were on their way out of the Pamlico Sound and to the area near Morehead City where they would almost pass directly over the wreckage of the Queen Anne’s Revenge.
Darwin thought it fitting.
21
As Lucas cruised through coastal town after coastal town after passing Jacksonville with Camp Lejeune, he missed having someone in the vehicle to talk with. To keep him distracted. Despite the reason he was in this part of the state, he couldn’t get his mind off of what Kristen did to him. He couldn’t understand if she made the decision to leave him because of the issue with having kids or for something else.
He may never know the answer and that bothered him to no end.
Round and round those thoughts swirled through his head, through the forty-mile stretch from Surf City to Topsail to Ogden. By the time he reached Wilmington, he found his knuckles turning white from gripping the steering wheel tightly. He knew his blood pressure had to be through the roof.
Stand strong, he thought to himself. It won’t be long before it’s over and finalized.
It was something he tried to keep his mind off of, but he thought about having to get back into the dating game. Single life. He didn’t enjoy it before. Since he’d gotten married, his hairline had receded while his waist had expanded. Not by much either way thankfully. He didn’t know how, or if, he’d appeal to another woman. Any woman. He didn’t even know where to go to find a single woman. He imagined he’d have to join a gym. Maybe buy some new clothes. He hadn’t bought a new outfit for himself in probably five years.
Maybe he should just stay on the road forever, he thought. Get away from it all. Go somewhere tropical. Where the ocean and the sky blended into each other. Float on a raft in blue waters while the breeze whistled off the bottle in his hand. He was sure he’d find women there.
He stopped and got gas in a town called Woodburn. He went inside the station, used the restroom, washed his hands, and then got a cup of coffee and a donut out of a plastic case.
As he climbed into the Jeep, he got out his cell phone and dialed Greg Hanover.
He made a right turn back onto Route 17 as a groggy sounding Greg answered, “Hello?”
“Hey Greg. Lucas here. Figure anything out?”
The detective cleared his throat. “Hold on. A little. Let me get my notebook.” Lucas heard some shuffling, amplified by the Bluetooth sound streaming through the speakers in the Jeep. “Okay. I haven’t spoken to anyone yet. I got to the station late last night and did a search on our computers. All of this is over thirty years old and sketchy anyway.”
“Oh.”
“First, the subject was found in his apartment. The person who wrote the report said there was blood all over the place. From where they found the body, to the walls near him, to a chair in the living room and in the bathroom.”
“Oh,” Lucas repeated.
Greg cleared his throat again. “Someone shot him in the back of the head with presumably a large caliber bullet.”
Lucas cringed.
“There’s more,” Greg said. “It looks as though he was tortured before being shot.”
“Goodness.”
“Yeah, he was missing a couple fingers and toes. He was probably strapped to a chair while the killer dismembered him.”
Now Lucas understood why the newspaper only referred to the state of Cole’s body as “gruesome.”
“Wouldn’t he have bled out before the guy could shoot him?”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Depends on how fast it all went down.”
Lucas didn’t want to imagine what Travis Cole must have gone through during the last moments of his life.
Greg continued. “His apartment was in an old turn-of-the-century home that had been divided into four units. At the time, only one other was occupied and that person had been out of town on vacation. The entrance to his apartment, the report read, wasn’t visible from the main road. He lived on the bottom floor in a studio apartment accessed from the rear of the building.”
“So, barring a neighbor being in the building, no one would have known what was going on.”
“Presumably. Until the stench reached the surrounding area,” Greg said.
Lucas’s nose crinkled at the thought of the stink. “What else did the report say?”
“There was no real sign of struggle from the victim. They didn’t find any skin under his remaining fingernails from where he could have scratched the killer while trying to defend himself.” Lucas heard Greg shuffle some papers. “Let’s see here. No known motive at the time the report was filed, nor were there any suspects.
“They questioned his family, friends, and coworkers and couldn’t find anyone who didn’t have good things to say about Mr. Cole. He came to work on time. Stayed after when allowed. Didn’t have much of a social life it would appear. No known girlfriend.”
“Dedicated to his job, then,” Lucas said.
“That seems the case. A young guy trying to make a name for himself at his chosen career is the picture I got.”
After taking a moment to digest Greg’s report, one thing kept tugging at Lucas’s mind. “Was there any mention of a journal?”
“What?” Greg asked.
“You know. A journal. A notebook. This one would have been really old.”
“Not that I remembered reading,” Greg said. “Why?”
“Well, he was killed after spending the weekend in Bath where he presumably found this journal that led us out here.”
“You think someone killed him over that?”
“I don’t know. Seems like a strange coincidence that he found it and got murdered a few days later. I mean, if he was missing some fingers and toes, it’s as though someone was trying to make him talk.”
“I dunno. Over a journal? Seems farfetched,” Greg said.
Lucas shook his head, although he knew Greg couldn’t see him. “No. I think you’re missing the point. Someone may have thought that journal held the key to unlocking one of the world’s biggest mysteries. If that was what was driving this person, then a dead body wouldn’t be but a small speedbump in the way of reaching that goal.”
“But—,” Greg started and then paused. “But how would anyone know that Cole could have possibly found it if he had just returned home? It’s not as though they had cell phones or email back then.”
“He could have used someone else’s phone, or a payphone.”
“Yeah, I’ll concede that.”
“Did you find anything else?”
“No, that was about it,” Greg said. “I’m going to call the guy I know and see if he recalls anything about this Cole guy later today. I have to leave soon. Just got a call that some girl was killed out off Cabarrus Avenue near downtown Concord. So, I’ll be busy with that for a while.”
“Ok. Thanks Greg.” Lucas told him about where he was and what he was doing. “Call me when you find out something.”
Greg said he would, and ended the connection.
At least the call got Lucas’s mind off Kristen. He spent the rest of the drive to Hilton Head wondering if a mutilated corpse from over thirty years ago would come back to haunt him and Darwin.
22
Moving at a more relaxed pace south than his friend, Darwin sat in the top of
the yacht watching hundreds of seagulls swarm around a shrimp boat they were passing by a few miles off the coast of Morehead City.
The ocean swells were calm. Sun glittered in a million points of light off the water. The smell of sea salt carried on the breeze, buffeting his bushy, curly hair and beard. A handful of wispy clouds dotted the sky overhead. Darwin decided he couldn’t have picked a better time to spend his first full day at sea.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all for pleasure. He listened to Lucas’s admonition not to spend too much time on the phone with Lisa. He wanted to wait until he knew she would be on lunch before calling her. They were close enough to land that he still had a few bars of cell phone reception. He hoped it remained that way for the couple of hours before noon.
Riddick set the autopilot and joined Darwin topside. He had two bottles of Corona trapped between the fingers on his left hand. He offered one to Darwin, although he abstained. Riddick seemed unaffected by the declination of his offer and set the extra bottle at his feet as he sat down.
He popped the cap, took a pull, and surveyed the waters ahead of them. “Beautiful day, don’t you think?”
“Absolutely.”
“So, tell me why we’re going to Hilton Head? Why don’t you think the treasure is around here?”
“Well, that might not be our final destination.”
“Why is that?”
“I think Hilton Head is where Blackbeard gained this treasure.”
“What makes you say that?”
Darwin didn’t know how he should answer that. He could hear Lucas wanting him to keep his mouth shut and just to tell Riddick to captain the boat. Darwin knew he couldn’t ask a man to gas up a boat and head south on such a trip at a moment’s notice without giving him a better reason.
“My friend at the museum emailed me a couple pages of the journal she had scanned. In one of the entries, Ormond recounted a time Blackbeard came home completely drunk and blubbered on about how he wanted to go back to Trench’s Island for the treasure everyone kept asking about.”
“Trench’s Island?” Riddick scratched his chin.
