The Virginia Mysteries Collection: Books 1-3

by Steven K. Smith

  The Virginia

  Mysteries

  BOOKS ONE, TWO, THREE

  by Steven K. Smith

  MyBoys3 Press

  Book 1 - Summer of the Woods

  Book 2 – Mystery on Church Hill

  Book 3 – Ghosts of Belle Isle

  Contact the Author:

  Website: www.virginiamysteries.com

  Email: steve@myboys3.com

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  Summer of

  the Woods

  BOOK ONE

  by Steven K. Smith

  Illustrated by Melissa Rose

  Text Copyright © 2013 by Steven K. Smith

  Illustrations Copyright © 2013 by Melissa Rose

  MyBoys3 Press

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN: 978-0-9893414-2-4

  To Matthew, Josh and Aaron,

  for all our adventures yet to come –

  in and out of the woods

  CONTENTS

  1. The Woods

  2. The Boulder

  3. The Coin

  4. The Storm

  5. The Creek

  6. The Fourth of July

  7. The Night

  8. The Cave

  9. The Treasure

  10. The Museum

  11. The Summer’s End

  ONE

  The Woods

  In the long hot summers of central Virginia, the trees danced at night. Inside the old white house with the black shutters, two boys watched the towering silhouettes rock in the breeze outside their bedroom window through the moonlight. The brothers shared a room and talked back and forth to each other in their beds, trying to keep themselves from falling asleep like all boys do. When they grew tired of talking and laughing, they lay still and listened to the wind moving through the high trees all around their house, moaning like an old train slowly chugging through the darkness.

  It was the second week of June and the school year was over early since only a few snow days had been used over the winter months. A seemingly endless summer vacation lay ahead of them. The air was getting hot and the days were long, stretching far into the evening. Derek and Sam had just moved with their parents from up north to Virginia the week before. They’d said goodbye to their friends and their school and followed the moving truck on the long drive down the interstate highway.

  One of the things that had excited them most about moving into their new home, despite having to leave all they knew behind, was the deep woods that lay past their backyard. So as their parents unpacked the house, the boys began to venture outdoors. At first, the dark woods were a little scary for Sam, who was eight, and Derek, who was ten. But as the boys cautiously began to explore this new uncharted world, their young minds started to dream about the adventures and mysteries that lay beyond the grass of their yard.

  Years later, when they’d grown up and had families of their own, the brothers loved to talk about the memories from their very first summer living in Virginia. The summer of the woods.

  ***

  Sam leaned his head up against the window pane and stared out into the woods of their new backyard. Everything looked so different from their old neighborhood. It had been mostly streets and sidewalks and houses, one after the other. He could practically touch their neighbor’s house while still standing in his own driveway. When he ate dinner with Derek and his parents each evening, if he looked out the window, he could often see the family next door doing the same thing. There were some trees, but just small ones that grew in front of each house.

  “Nothing like these monsters,” thought Sam, as he looked out into his new yard.

  Mom and Dad had picked this house so the boys could have more room to play outside and be in nature. Dad had grown up on a farm in upstate New York and was tired of living in the crowded suburbs.

  “Boys need room to roam,” Dad had said to Mom.

  “Well there’s plenty of room to roam here,” Sam said to himself.

  “Who’s going to Rome?” asked Derek as he entered the bedroom.

  “No one’s going to Rome, Derek,” answered Sam. “That’s like on the other side of the country.”

  “Actually, it’s all the way across the Atlantic Ocean,” said Derek. “Speaking of water, I want to go exploring around the creek back in the woods. It’s just sitting there waiting for us. Come on, let’s get some supplies and ask Mom.”

  The boys loaded themselves down with full explorer gear. They had hats, belts, water bottles and bandanas tied around their necks. Derek carried a dark blue backpack, which he’d packed with a couple of walkie talkies he’d received the Christmas before last. He also brought Dad’s binoculars, a plastic compass, and a wilderness guidebook that showed how to build a lean-to. Ready for adventure, they ambushed their mom in the kitchen with desperate pleas to go exploring.

  At first, their mom wasn’t comfortable allowing the boys out in the woods very long by themselves.

  “You boys don’t even know what’s out there,” worried Mom. “Why don’t you give yourselves a bit more time to get settled before I completely lose sight of you. Have you even unpacked your closet boxes yet?”

  “We will, we promise,” said Derek. “As soon as we get back. We really want to see the creek!”

  “Mom, we need room to roam!” pleaded Sam. “Dad said so!”

  Their dad heard the ruckus and came into the kitchen carrying an old stopwatch with an alarm. He tied it onto the strap of Derek’s backpack.

  “I set the timer for one hour,” said Dad. “When the alarm goes off, it means it’s time to come back home. I don’t want you guys wandering too far off until you learn your way around out there. Woods like these can be great fun, but they can also be dangerous if you’re not careful. Stay together so you don’t get lost.”

  The boys agreed to his instructions and marched out the back door like they were headed off to war and ran excitedly down the hill and into the woods. As they entered the trail, it became darker beneath the canopy of trees. Huge oaks and evergreens towered above them with thick, coarse trunks that climbed high into the sky with branches and leaves only near the very top. The boys pressed on along the trail until they could hear the sound of water moving over rocks where the creek bed gurgled.

  “Come on, I see it!” yelled Derek.

  The creek was just a small bit of water, not a big river or even a stream. It moved slowly with occasional ripples as it passed over larger rocks, and its bed wound through the forest like a slithering snake. Old dead trees littered the woods and some lay fallen across the water, stretched out at odd angles like wooden bridges. The fallen logs were great for pirate games. Derek made Sam walk the plank over a river of ravenous crocodiles waiting to devour him.

  Sam consulted his compass even though he didn’t really know how to use it. He declared that they should head west – or, as Derek reminded his younger brother, they should go left. For close to an hour, the boys hopped across the small rocks that littered the water and turned over stones to hunt for salamanders and crawfish, all the while keeping a keen eye out for snakes.

  The old lady who lived next door, Mrs. Haskins, had come by the day they moved in to say hi and give them a cake she had made. She warned them about Copp
erheads living in the woods, which Dad said were poisonous snakes. It had nearly been enough to give Sam second thoughts about the whole exploration idea. But after some convincing by his older brother and a talk with Dad about how unlikely it was that they would see one with all the noise they made, Sam felt a little better.

  “If you see a snake, just don’t step on it and don’t try to pick it up. Go in the other direction and leave it alone. They’re more scared of you than you are of them,” Dad had counseled. Sam questioned whether that was really possible, but he trusted that Dad was right.

  The afternoon drew to a close and the air grew slightly cooler as the boys moved deeper through the trees. In reality they had not ventured more than a few hundred yards from where they’d begun their journey, but it seemed like miles and miles in the boys’ minds. Sam walked behind his brother and pulled at the watch that hung from the backpack.

  “Five more minutes left on the watch, Derek. We should start heading back.”

  “OK, just a minute, I want to see what’s over here,” Derek answered, as he took a giant leap from the rock he’d been standing on. His foot slid across some loose dirt where he landed and he threw his arms out to keep his balance, glad not to have fallen in the water in front of his younger brother. “Be careful, Sam,” he warned, acting as if he’d crossed hundreds of much larger rivers in his life. “I’m heading up the hill to see what’s over that ridge.”

  “I can’t jump that far, Derek,” yelled Sam, as he set one foot on a slippery stone and sank down to one knee in the water. A dart of color dove beneath a small stone next to his leg. He instantly thought of snakes, but he was relieved when a brightly decorated salamander jumped back out from under the rock and stood frozen in the dirt as if it thought it was camouflaged.

  “Oh, you’re not a snake. Where are you going, little guy?” Sam whispered quietly. The sunlight sparkled against the iridescent blue and silver stripes that ran from its head to tail. Its tongue slipped in and out, seeming to test the air for danger. Sam reached his hand out slowly. When his fingertip bumped the salamander’s tail, it leaped straight up in the air with a start and scrambled back to the creek bank and out of sight.

  “Oh well,” thought Sam. He looked up for Derek but didn’t see him anywhere. He began to take a step when something shiny in the water caught his eye for an instant. Sam moved over to where he’d spied the shiny object. He balanced himself on a rock and looked down into the water. At first he didn’t see anything. Whatever he had seen must be very small. But when he turned his head, he saw another sparkle. He reached his hand into the creek and picked up a small round metal object that had been lying on top of a smooth stone.

  “What have we here?” Sam mumbled to himself. “Whoa, a coin! Sweet!”

  Sam held the coin up between his fingers and inspected it in the late afternoon sun. He saw the words ONE CENT in big letters across the back. It was the color of a penny, but it looked very old and not like the usual coins he’d seen.

  Sam stuck the coin in his pocket and looked up. “Derek?” he called, but he still didn’t see his brother. He peered into the woods, but he couldn’t see much of anything through the thick trees. His eyes rested on a line of pines up the hill and what looked to be an enormous rock behind them.

  TWO

  The Boulder

  Derek ducked through some small branches and used a stick to pull back a thorn-bush that had grabbed his shirt. He had walked up the hill towards the line of pine trees while Sam was fooling around in the water and blabbering about snakes. Derek had seen the really big rock too and discovered that it was in fact an enormous boulder. From where he stood, it was the size of a giant dump truck, and it loomed above him as he stood next to its dark shadow.

  The boulder was covered with moss and leaves on small ledges that jutted here and there up its sides. Derek pulled back a group of branches along the boulder and as he did, noticed something written on the rock. He looked closer and discovered a small plaque that was laid into the side of the stone like a sign. He leaned down and brushed it off with his hands. In large block letters was written, “Virginia Mining Company. No Trespassing.” Derek studied the plaque, surprised to see such a sign out in the middle of the woods. He wondered if he should stop but decided to keep going.

  Above the plaque, ledges in the rock made something like a staircase. Derek put a foot on the nearest crevice and lifted his body up to the first ledge. He reached up for the next step when he felt something grab his ankle. He jumped and turned his head, only to find Sam peering up at him from the ground, his face in a cross expression for being abandoned at the creek.

  “What are you doing?” Sam demanded.

  “I want to see what’s up here,” Derek said.

  “Look what I found in the creek,” said Sam, and he took the coin out of his pocket and showed it to Derek. “Look how the back of it is different than usual. I think it’s old.”

  “Wow – that’s pretty cool,” replied Derek, studying the coin. “Check out what I found on this boulder,” and he reached back down and pointed at the plaque.

  “Virginia Mining Company,” Sam read again. “Mining, what is that, like a gold mine?”

  “I doubt it,” said Derek. “We’ll have to ask Dad if he knows.”

  “I don’t think we should be up here, Derek,” warned Sam. “No Trespassing means keep out, I think.”

  “Nah, this is really old,” said Derek. “We’re fine.” He proceeded to scramble up the remaining ledges towards the top.

  “Wait for me!” called Sam as Derek again moved out of sight. It was a tough climb for Sam along the edges of the boulder, and there were lots of little holes that might hide a lurking snake. Nonetheless, Sam tentatively followed his brother’s path up the rocks and was soon beside him.

  The top of the boulder was flat and about twenty feet across. Sam looked out across the rock and realized that he could see a very long way. There was a valley ahead of them, and they were above all but the highest trees. It was a beautiful view with the drifting clouds and the deep woods all around. Derek was crouched down on his stomach at the edge of the far end of the rock.

  “Get down!” he said, and waved his hand at Sam to move back.

  “What is it?”

  “Shhhh!” Derek hissed. He reached into his backpack and retrieved the binoculars.

  As Derek fumbled with the binocular dials, Sam stretched his neck over the side. He looked down below the boulder and realized that it was much farther down on this side of the rock than the side they’d climbed up. It was a cliff, maybe fifty feet to the bottom, and would certainly be way too steep to go all the way down. He instinctively scooted back a few inches on the rock so that he wasn’t so close to the edge.

  “Whoa,” whispered Derek slowly. “Look at that.”

  “Let me see,” said Sam. “What is it?”

  Derek didn’t answer and stayed perched on his elbows, staring through the binoculars.

  “Let me see!” he repeated, and yanked the binoculars from Derek’s hands.

  “Hey!” said Derek, but Sam already had the binoculars to his eyes and pointed down the cliff. He was just about to ask his brother what the big deal was, when he heard a noise below him. He moved his binoculars towards the sound, but he only saw branches. Then, behind the branch, he caught a faint glimpse of something black moving.

  “What was that?” Sam whispered.

  “I don’t know because you took the binoculars,” complained Derek. “Give those to me!” He snatched them back.

  Sam looked back down and saw two boys walking around at the base of the rocks. They looked to be about the same age as he and Derek, maybe a little bit older. They were doing some kind of work around the bottom of the boulder. One pushed a wheelbarrow full of branches, pieces of wood and other stuff. He took it away from the boulder to a spot just a few feet into the trees where it appeared that there was a small structure. Maybe it’s a fort, thought Sam. He looked back at the other boy wh
o was still near the boulder. He could see him for a few seconds, but then he disappeared out of sight, only to reappear again. There must be some kind of crevice or cave down there, thought Sam.

  “Who is that, Derek?”

  “Shhh! I don’t know. Be still, I want to move a little closer to see what they’re doing.”

  “I think we should get out of here, Derek. Where are you going to go?”

  But Derek didn’t answer. He had already begun to hang his left foot over the edge of the rock and was carefully climbing down at an angle to the next ledge where there was a bush that he could hide behind. As he found his footing and brought his other leg down, the silence was suddenly interrupted by a loud “BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!” The alarm was sounding from the stopwatch hanging from the strap on his backpack!

  Startled, Derek lost his balance and slipped a couple feet down the slope of the rock, until his fall was stopped roughly by the bush. A cascade of loose gravel scattered ahead of him down the rock face, and his arm banged hard against the edge of the boulder as he fell. A sharp pain ran through his body.

  “Derek!” Sam yelled. He stood up to see where his brother had fallen.

  At the sound of Sam’s yell and the watch beeping, the activity at the bottom of the hill stopped, and the other boys turned their heads up towards the peak of the boulder. Derek frantically pressed buttons on the watch to end the beeping, but it wouldn’t stop. He gave up and turned to climb, but as he stood up from behind the bush, he came into full view of the boys below.

  “Hey you!” one of the boys shouted. The shout was accompanied by a terrible sounding growl and a huge blur of black fur that Derek only caught a glimpse of.

  “Bear! Get back here!” the boy shouted and ran towards the side of the boulder and out of sight. The black blur had also vanished, but Derek heard a loud growling that seemed to be getting closer. He quickly made his way back up to where Sam was standing, and the two of them ran up to the front of the boulder.