by Caleb Wygal
“Wow,” the three others said at the same time.
“This one?” Riddick said. “I’d say this one would easily snag ten thousand at auction.”
“And there could be hundreds or thousands of these where this one came from,” Darwin said. “Jewels too.”
While the others thought about the amount of treasure beneath their feet, Lucas knew that a bad situation for he and his two friends was about to get worse. Before that coin tumbled out of the sand, he could have seen a scenario where Riddick just somehow abandoned them here and let them find their way back to civilization. They could have accused Riddick for the murder of Travis Cole, although there wasn't any solid proof. If it came to it, Riddick may have went to court had the Raleigh police decided to press charges. He probably would have hired some expensive defense attorneys and been acquitted.
When the coin tumbled into the sand, the bad state of affairs got worse. Much worse.
For the first time, Lucas really feared for his life. He, Darwin and Lynn were witnesses. They knew. After what happened leading up to this moment, Lucas couldn’t see Riddick wanting to split the treasure with any of them. They were expendable. That would dawn on Riddick soon.
“So what now?” Lucas asked.
The wicked smile returned. “Keep digging.”
He looked to Darwin who was studying him and nodded. “You heard the man Darwin. Let’s get back at it.”
Riddick backed away to allow Darwin and Lucas to resume their work. Over the next ten minutes, the hole deepened, and they found two more coins. Both in excellent condition. Riddick pocketed them. They had yet to find the mother lode, so to speak.
The pirate was becoming fidgety. Lucas could tell the weapons he kept in his hands began to weigh heavy. They drooped now and then before coming back to level. Lucas saw that Darwin was getting fatigued. It was hot, damp, and sticky out here. They needed water. He was starting to feel it a little himself.
“Where is it?” Riddick demanded. “Where is the rest of the treasure?” He patted his pocket. “Surely this can’t be all.”
Lucas stopped digging and leaned against his shovel. “I have no idea. Would you let Darwin scan the area again with his detector?”
Riddick walked to Lucas and gestured with one of the guns at the hole they had dug. “Why? It already pinged. We know this is the spot.”
“I have a feeling. Just let him.”
Riddick removed his hat and swiped the back of his hand across his brow to remove he beads of sweat. He shook his head. “Alright, go ahead lad.”
Darwin dropped his shovel and retrieved the metal detector from beside Lynn. He went back to the dig area and resumed his scan across the area. This time however, the equipment failed to erupt in a chorus of loud beeps. He moved around the entire area. The detector detected nothing further.
Seeing the lost look on Darwin’s face when he finished his rounds of the clearing, Riddick said, “Well tell me, where is it?”
Darwin shook his head in exasperation while returning to the group. “I don’t know. It’s not here. The scanner’s finding nothing.”
Riddick’s mouth opened and closed a few times without speaking. His face turned red. He was at a loss for words. The guns dropped slightly. He was standing five feet from Darwin. Lucas stood about the same distance off Riddick’s left side “So you’re telling me these three coins are all that’s left of it?”
Darwin shrugged. “That’s what it looks like.”
Riddick’s mouth tightened beneath the thick black beard. An evil gleam came over his piercing blue eyes. With frustration etched on his face, he said, “Then all of you are worthless to me. As us pirates say, ‘Dead men tell no tales.’”
Lucas knew it was now or never as he saw Riddick start to raise both weapons above level to point up at Darwin’s chest.
Lucas grabbed the handle of his shovel and swung the sharp edge of the spade at Riddick’s neck with all his might. Riddick saw the motion coming and dodged just enough for the blow to hit him in the shoulder. His hat flew off to the side. Lynn screamed.
The blade plunged into the pirate’s shoulder several inches in an explosion of blood. He still managed to turn and aim both weapons at Lucas and pull the triggers.
The two flintlock pistols boomed. Sparks flew. Lucas felt a bolt of lightning strike him and went down.
34
For the first time in his life, Darwin faced death as Riddick brought the two guns to bear on his chest. He’d always thought the phrase “seeing your life pass before your eyes” was just something people said for effect. That it wasn’t a true statement.
In that moment, as Darwin saw the bitter disappointment on Riddick’s face and the two guns begin to rise, he thought back on his childhood. How he sometimes didn’t know where the next meal would come from. The father he never knew. The loneliness he felt in school as other kids shunned him because he was different.
The jubilation he felt when he got the job as a busboy at Mahoney’s as soon as he was old enough to get a job. Of meeting Lucas and the conversations they had as he neared graduation. How Lucas may not know it, but he was instrumental in encouraging Darwin to pursue his dreams of being an archaeologist.
He remembered that incredibly long ride on his moped as he traveled the backroads from Concord to the North Carolina State campus in Raleigh. How he never thought he’d get there. But he did. He got there. Went through four years of college and graduated. He had no friends or family at the graduation ceremony, which saddened him. Still, he pushed on. He thought of the sense of accomplishment he had when the hiring director at the museum had called him and told him he got the job.
Flashes of the adventure he had been on over the past two and a half days went through his mind. Out of everything, these had been the best days of his life.
Now he was afraid it was all about to end. He’d been around many unsavory characters in his life: drug dealers, pimps, thieves, and murderers. The man who stood in front of him was perhaps the vilest person he’d ever met.
Darwin watched the black circles at the end of the barrels rise and point at both of his eyes. He saw Riddick’s fingers begin to tighten on the triggers. Then, out of the corner of his eye, off to the right, he saw Lucas swing his shovel and hit Riddick.
The black circles of the guns lurched, disappeared from his view, and swung around at Lucas and fired. Orange embers and smoke filled the air as a deafening explosion erupted. One shot went wide over Lucas’s head. The other hit him in his left shoulder, spinning him around and down into the sand.
Riddick tossed both weapons to the ground and started to reach for the other two weapons holstered on his torso. He was now turned side on to Darwin.
Darwin raised his big size sixteen Nike shoe and brought it down hard on Riddick’s right knee. The bones and tendons in that knee stretched and broke with the impact. His leg bent at a sharp angle sideways, causing the femur to burst through the skin. He yelled out in pain as he started to go down, although not before Darwin landed a punch on the right side of Riddick’s head with his big fist.
He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
The sheer rush of adrenaline and protective rage coursing through his veins made Darwin want to get down and break all the bones in Riddick’s body. Somehow, he stopped himself.
Blood covered the sand around both Riddick and Lucas.
Seeing that the danger had passed, Lynn rushed over and tended to Lucas. Blood rushed through his fingers where he held his hand against his shoulder. His eyes were squeezed closed as he fought the pain.
Lynn had taken a semester of emergency medical training in college. She yelled for Darwin to take off his shirt and toss it to her. He complied and she ripped it into strips to help control the flow of blood and stabilize the wound. The gunshot wound didn’t look too serious. Just a graze.
“Here let me,” she said to him and lifted his hand off the gash. She took one of the strips to wipe the seeping blood away. She used
the others to create a makeshift bandage and sling. “There, that should hold until we can get you to a doctor.”
“Thanks,” he said between pursed lips. “I owe you one.”
Before she could respond, they heard someone shout from the trees in the direction they had entered the clearing. “Everybody freeze!”
Two men with shotguns drawn burst into the clearing. They wore dark blue, buttoned-up shirts and matching slacks with matching baseball caps with the words “U.S. Coast Guard” embroidered on the front.
Help was here. They were safe.
• • •
Two ambulances were waiting at the Edisto Marina when they arrived on the Coast Guard patrol boat half an hour later. One whisked the still unconscious Riddick to a hospital in nearby hospital in Charleston. There were no such facilities on Edisto. A paramedic gave Lucas a shot of antibiotics, stitched shoulder up, and put a thick bandage on the wound. The wound wasn’t severe enough to warrant a trip to the emergency room. The paramedic told him that if the pain got too bad to head to a clinic where a doctor would prescribe something for him.
Someone gave Darwin a t-shirt from the nearby golf course to wear after Lynn had used most of his old, tattered shirt to treat Lucas.
A TV news van from nearby Charleston was already at the scene.
The police was also there to sort out the mess. They got the accounts of Darwin, Lynn, and Lucas and told them there may be further questioning in the near future before releasing them. Jeremy at Fontaine Charters was also questioned when Lucas informed them about how he’d put the charter captain on alert that there may be trouble. When Lynn and Lucas were in her car before getting on the boat, he had instructed her to send a quick text to Jeremy in case of trouble. That was what she was doing behind Lucas and Darwin’s backs when Riddick entered. The police spoke to the two Coast Guardsmen to coordinate how the case would be handled. They had to head north to Charleston and wait for Riddick to get out of surgery before they could speak with him.
Before leaving, one officer said to Lucas, “That was a gutsy thing you did back there. Not many would take that risk.”
“I couldn’t just let him shoot Darwin. I knew he’d only get one shot with those flintlocks. They only fire one round before needing reloaded. That’s why pirates strapped multiple pistols to them. Once expended, they weren’t likely to get three minutes to load again.”
“What if he would have gotten to the others in his belt?”
“Then we’d probably be dead,” Lucas said. “As I said, it was a risk I had to make.”
Darwin came over and hugged Lucas, careful not to further harm his shoulder. “Thank you for saving my life. I can never repay you enough.”
Lucas stepped back and smiled. “Hey, I’d be dead too if it weren’t for you putting a beat down on him.”
Lynn came over and tried to put her short arms around both of the large men. “And I’d be dead if it weren’t for you two.”
“We wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you,” Lucas said. “Besides, I might’ve bled out had you not been a battlefield medic. I meant what I said back there. I owe you anything.”
The Coast Guard patrol boat towed The Marsh Hen back to the dock behind Edisto Seafood. They had already left to retrieve Riddick’s powerboat.
Lucas paid Jeremy for use of the boat and apologized for the trouble.
“Hey, don’t worry about it,” he said. “This’ll be on at least the local news. Free advertising for me. Who knows? It could go national.”
Lucas didn’t like the thought of that. He didn’t want the attention. Although it could be good for Darwin’s career and Jeremy’s business.
They walked out of the small storefront and climbed into Lynn’s car. They all felt as though this had been one of the longest days of their lives, even though it wasn’t quite noon yet. They needed to go somewhere, fill their empty stomachs and figure out if it were time to give up and head home.
Lucas knew just the place to do that.
• • •
The thick cloud layer that kept the sun hidden for the most part during the morning had moved out to sea, leaving behind a bright sun with scattered clouds.
Lucas took them to a place near the northern end of Edisto along Jungle Road that served incredible fish tacos named McConkey’s Jungle Shack. The restaurant consisted of a pickup window on street side where passersby could pick up a quick hot dog or ice cream cone. The other side was a screened-in covered porch with a few tables on a deck. You could smell the ocean and hear the waves from there.
After years of coming here, Lucas began to recognize the people who worked in the various small establishments around the island. He’d made friends with a few people and looked them up when he was on the island.
Angie had been his server many times at McConkey’s. She was not quite average height, but a little above average weight. She had pudgy cheeks that looked as though they’d been pinched way too much as a child. She had a long, blonde ponytail running most of the length down her back.
Lucas opened a screen door on one side of the dining area and poked his head in. Angie heard the small cat’s bell ring when the door opened and poked her head out of the kitchen to see who her visitors were. Her smile faded and quickly returned when she took note of their disheveled appearance. She served grizzled fishermen and contractors every day, so she was used to patrons showing up who looked worse for wear.
Lucas imagined he, Darwin and Lynn gave any of those guys a run for their money in the “you look ran over” department at present.
“Hey, I’ll be right with you all. Just have a seat anywhere.” Before ducking her head back in the kitchen, she blinked twice and stared hard at the two. She looked from Lucas to Darwin down to Lynn and back. “Oh my God! Lucas? Is that you?”
Lucas was surprised she remembered his name. He remembered her telling him that her family had been on Edisto for several generations. She took the dishtowel that had been on her shoulder and tossed it back through the doorway, presumably onto a countertop. She rushed out to greet them.
“What the hell happened to you?” she shouted, and then covered her mouth realizing there were other customers who could hear her. Then quieter, “I mean, you look horrible Lucas. What happened? Gosh, it’s been too long since I’ve seen you on the island”
“Let me sit down first,” Lucas said. “Been a long morning.”
“Of course, of course,” she said and pointed to an empty picnic table on the patio at the edge of the railing. “You all have a seat there. I’ll go get you something to drink. What’ll you have?”
Everyone asked for the Southern specialty of sweet teas and she scurried off to the kitchen.
It hurt for Lucas to swing one leg over the bench seat of the picnic table. With his shoulder in a sling, Lynn helped him get situated before taking a seat beside him. He groaned with the effort as Darwin slowly sat down on the opposite side. It felt great to sit, Lucas thought.
He had his back to the main road and had a view of a wide parking lot McConkey’s shared with the island’s only grocery store. Beyond that was a line of houses followed by Palmetto Boulevard running along the shore down the entire length of the island. On the other side of that, Lucas could just make out a narrow strip of blue that was the Atlantic Ocean.
A wood fence spanned the back of the parking lot. Tall palm trees dotted the area around the lot. The palm fronds swayed in the gentle sea breeze. Families together on bicycles or rented golf carts leisurely made their way along Jungle Road. No one was in any hurry. Wherever their destinations may be, it would still be there when they arrived. Edis-slow indeed.
People come to Edisto to spend time with family and friends at the beach. The local eateries, such as McConkey’s and The Seacow across the street were all great in their separate ways. The food was excellent and the restaurant decorations had a charm of their own. There were various gift shops and boutiques dotting the island. If you wanted a Wal-Mart, you had to drive an ho
ur up Route 17 back to Walterboro to find it.
Edisto reminded Lucas of the small town he grew up in West Virginia named Summersville. Except you traded the lakes and mountains for the beaches and ocean here.
Angie returned, bearing three sweet iced teas in matching clear plastic cups with no lids. The thick humidity created beads of perspiration that had already enveloped the cup’s surfaces. She set the teas between them on the wooden surface and laid down two straws in paper wrappers.
“Here ya go folks,” she said, taking a pen from behind her ear and drawing a ticket pad from her apron. “Specials today are grilled Mahi sandwiches and she-crab soup.”
None of the three, overcome with exhaustion, had thought to look at the menus yet. They were trying to get their bearings and compartmentalize the insane forty-eight hour period they just lived through.
“Get us three orders of the fish tacos,” Lucas said. Darwin gave him a look. Lucas assured him, “Trust me.”
“Okay guys and gal. I’ll put this in and tell them to rush it. I can see you need it. Be right back.”
“Thanks,” they said in unison.
Angie returned a few minutes later after another server had appeared from the kitchen to service the four or five parties already seated. She squeezed in beside Darwin and said, “Told the boss lady I was taking a break.” She extended a hand to Darwin who shook it. “Don’t believe we’ve met. I’m Angie. Lived on this island all my life.”
“Darwin,” the big man returned, looking intimidated by the woman sitting next to him. “Lived in North Carolina all my life. First time I’ve been to South Carolina.”
“Really?” she asked, surprised. “You’re what, twenty-three or twenty-four years old and have never been to SC?”
“Correct. Never been out of that state until yesterday.”
