by J A Whiting
Images from the past danced in her brain, but they were wavy and unfocused. She kept her eyes linked with the ghost and just as things in her mind began to clear, Viv stepped from the back door of the house onto the deck. She flicked the light of a flashlight around the back garden and called for her cousin.
Lin heard the spirit say her name, Carolin Witchard Coffin. He raised his arm and pointed across the yard beyond the deck and then whatever the ghost was made of separated into a million silver particles that sparkled and disappeared like the tail end of a firework.
What had passed between them tugged at Lin’s heart and for the first time, she was sorry to see him go.
She shook herself and wrapped her arms around her shivering body. “I’m here, Viv. By the shed.”
“Are you okay?” Viv’s voice shook. “Why are you out here? Did you hear someone in the yard?”
Lin and Nicky climbed the steps to the deck. “I had the urge to come outside.”
Viv looked dumbfounded. “It couldn’t wait until morning?”
Lin sat on one of the deck chairs. “I was in bed. Ideas were running through my mind.” She glanced over her shoulder to the yard. “I got a feeling about the old shed.”
Viv sat down. “What kind of a feeling?”
“I thought that what Greg Hammond was looking for was inside that shed. But now, I’m not so sure.”
Viv’s jaw dropped. She looked wide-eyed at the structure through the darkness. “What could be in there?” Her voice trembled.
Lin didn’t answer right away. “I don’t know, but when I put my hand on the shed door, I could feel little jolts of electricity. Then the ghost showed up and pointed away from the shed.”
Viv’s hand flew to her mouth.
“The ghost was trying to tell me something, but it didn’t come through.”
Looking around the yard, Viv clutched her arms around her. “Is he gone?”
Lin nodded. “Nicky can see him, too.”
“Oh.” Viv gave the dog a look like she thought he might have come from another world.
“What do you know about the shed?” Lin asked.
“Nothing. It’s just a shed. It’s been there all my life.”
“Was it built around the same time as the house?”
Viv shrugged. “I have no idea. Remember Gram used to refer to it as “the barn.”
“Right.” Lin stood, picked up the flashlight, and walked back into the yard. She pointed the light all over the shed. “Maybe it was originally a barn? Maybe over the years it was made smaller?” She wandered around the structure checking the construction of the walls and scrutinizing the ground to see if there was any indication that the building was once larger than its present size. After ten minutes, she returned to the deck. “I don’t think the shed has our answers.” Lin looked at her cousin. “I’m going to search the internet to see if there’s any information about the house online.” She headed inside with Viv hurrying after her.
“Now? Can’t it wait until morning?”
“I also want to search on our family names to see what information is online. Maybe we can find something on one of those sites that track and list people’s ancestry. Why didn’t I think of this before?” Lin stopped and turned. “I forgot my laptop is at my house.”
“Use mine. It’s in the dining room.” Viv yawned. “I’m going back to bed. I have to get up in two hours for work.”
* * *
Lin was sitting at the kitchen table with her eyes glued to the laptop screen when Viv stumbled downstairs early in the morning. She rubbed her eyes while she put the coffee on. “Did you find anything?”
“Yes.” Lin’s voice bubbled with excitement. “Most stuff we already knew.” The rims of her eyelids were red from staying awake most of the night. “But here’s the interesting thing.” She pulled up a news article on the screen. “It’s a story about an open house that was held at the historical museum last year. There were displays set up explaining the island’s history and material set out about the early founders.”
Viv settled into a chair cradling her coffee mug.
“In one part of the display, there were letters from Sebastian Coffin written to his brother on the mainland and some notes he had written to his wife.”
Viv’s forehead creased. “So?”
“So,” Lin leaned forward. “During the open house weekend, those letters were stolen.”
“Why would anybody want those old letters?”
Lin closed the laptop and grinned at her cousin. “That is what I intend to find out.”
19
Lin opened the door to the old brick building that housed the historical society and glanced around looking for someone who might help her. A short, older man wearing glasses and carrying several books came around the corner and nodded at the young woman.
“I’m looking for someone I could speak to about some archival documents that went missing from here last year.”
The man gazed at Lin over the tops of his glasses. “Are you a reporter?”
“I’m related to Sebastian Coffin and Emily Witchard. I was wondering what was in the old letters and why someone might steal them.”
“Come and sit down.” The man led Lin to a table at the back of the room near the windows.
“You read about the theft in the news?”
Lin nodded. “I was looking for information about my ancestors and came upon the article. I’ve just recently moved back to the island.”
“The only reason someone would want those letters would be to sell them to a collector. They really weren’t valuable.”
“Do you recall what the letters discussed?”
“They were simple correspondence between Sebastian and his brother, Nathaniel. They were written after Sebastian lost his standing in the community.” The man raised his eyebrows. “You know the story?”
“I do.” Lin nodded.
“Very unfortunate. His reputation was ruined after the robbery.”
“I don’t understand why he didn’t regain his reputation after the real thief was discovered.”
“The thief was discovered, as was most of the loot, but many items were not recovered, a substantial amount of money, jewelry. People still believed that Sebastian Coffin was the mastermind behind the heist.”
“What do you think?”
The man shook his head. “Well, I suppose anything’s possible.” He gave a shoulder shrug. “Sebastian was probably accused by someone with whom a business deal soured. Sebastian is the only one who knows the whole truth regarding the robbery.”
“Do you recall what was written in the letters that were stolen?”
“Sebastian discussed the routine of his days, what he was reading, how the new house had come out. The letters would really only be of interest to a historian or a descendant.” The man got a faraway look in his eyes. “There were some sweet letters to Sebastian’s wife professing his love for her and praising her tenderness and devotion to him. Remember, this was after he lost his position and was thought to have been the one behind the bank heist. The unfortunate events did not hurt their love for one another. Who knows? Perhaps the adversity they faced drew them closer together.”
Lin thought sadly of the unfair turn that Sebastian and Emily’s lives took.
The man smiled. “Sebastian called his wife his “treasure.”
Lin’s eyes narrowed. “Did he write that in the letters?”
The man folded his hands together and placed them on the table. “Oh, yes. He mentioned his “treasure” quite often in the letters to his brother.”
“Do you recall some of the things he wrote?”
The man thought for a moment. “He mentioned that he’d had a room built in the storage barn for himself as a sort of reading and writing room. A place he would go to contemplate and think.” The man chuckled. “He told his brother in one letter that the true treasure of his life, his wife, encouraged him to sit and work among his riches.”
Li
n’s head tilted to the side. “What did he mean by that?”
“I assume the riches of his life were learning, studying, thinking, reading.” The man stood up. “We have one of Sebastian’s letters here. It was not displayed the day the things were stolen. It was written to a friend of Sebastian, a Quaker minister who lived on the mainland.” He led Lin to a back room full of cabinets. “It can’t be removed from here, of course.”
Pulling open a long, shallow drawer, the man removed a document that had been enclosed in some sort of protective cover. “Most of it has faded and a good part of the letter has been lost, but you can see here where Sebastian speaks of his wife. This was written shortly after Emily passed away.” The man read aloud. “My true treasure has passed from this world, but I will keep her locket beside me, in the place where the riches of our lives remain.”
A zing of electricity shot down Lin’s spine. She lifted her gaze from the old letter and shifted her eyes about the space wondering if the ghost had made an appearance, but she and the man were the only ones in the room.
“A similar sentence was written in the stolen letter to Sebastian’s brother.” The man closed the cabinet drawer. “Have you heard the rumor that Sebastian had some pirate treasure hidden in his house?”
“Pirate’s treasure?” Lin’s eyebrows went up.
“Sebastian had many contacts and interactions with different people. The rumor is that he was once paid for services in the form of pirate’s loot.” The man smiled. “No valuables have surfaced yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything.” He paused and gave a shrug of his shoulder. “But I do enjoy old tales and I like to think it’s possible.”
After several more minutes of conversation, Lin thanked the man for both the information and for his time and she left the building hurrying down the granite steps.
* * *
Holding her phone to her ear, Lin scurried along the sidewalks of town. “So that must be why Greg Hammond wanted your house so badly. Remember Jeff told me that Hammond loved diving and treasure hunting? Hammond must have thought that Sebastian Coffin had some loot buried somewhere on the property.”
The chatter of the bookstore café could be heard in the background before Viv spoke. “Good work. Now we have a pretty good idea why Hammond wanted my house. He must have been sure that Sebastian buried some massive treasure in the shed or the house which is kind of stupid because wouldn’t it have been found by now?”
“Who knows? If it was well-hidden, maybe not.” Lin laughed. “Maybe you ought to hurry home and start digging.”
“I can’t believe that Hammond would want to buy my house to get his hands on some imaginary treasure. He must have lost his mind.”
“Anyway, it’s a possible reason why he was so adamant about getting his hands on your property.”
“It isn’t the answer to our most pressing question, though. Who killed Greg Hammond and why? Actually if we know who did it, I don’t really care why they did it.” Viv asked Lin to hold on for a second and she could be heard talking to a café customer. When she returned to the conversation she asked, “And another pressing question is who was sneaking around the yard last night?”
Lin sighed. “Only one question per day, please.”
Viv had to get back to work so the girls ended their conversation just as Lin turned the corner to Viv’s house so she could get Nicky and take him home. Her eyes widened and her heart jumped into her mouth when she spotted two police cars parked at the curb next to her cousin’s house. Several police officers clustered near the property boundary between Viv’s home and the neighboring house.
A small group of people stood on the opposite side of the road. Lin picked up her pace and as she passed Viv’s Cape house, she could see the small faces of Nicky and Queenie in the living room window peering out at the commotion.
Lin joined three of the neighbors. “What’s happened?”
A young mom who lived across from Viv looked pale and nervous. “The Walkers.” She pointed at the house next to Viv’s. “Mr. Walker couldn’t sleep last night.” She couldn’t finish her sentence.
A gray-haired, trim-looking man took up the story. “Andy Walker couldn’t sleep. He thought he heard some noise outside. He got up and looked out of the bedroom window, saw what looked like two guys scuffling in the bushes. He came downstairs and looked out the dining room window, but didn’t see a thing, everything was quiet, so he went back to bed. Early this morning, he got up and came out to walk along the property line where he thought he saw something last night. He noticed a foot sticking out from under the bushes. When he got closer, he saw a guy under the rose bush.”
“His face was bloody,” the young mom said. Lin wondered why the woman was able to chime in at that point in the story.
“The guy is dead?” Lin questioned.
“No.” The gray-haired man continued. “When Andy turned to go inside to call the police, the guy pulled himself up off the ground, limped across the front lawn and down the street. By the time, the police came, he had disappeared.”
Lin’s heart pounded. The altercation was what she and Viv had seen and heard last night. Her throat constricted. Did the injured guy ring their doorbell for help last night? Lin’s head buzzed with guilt. The man must have been under the bushes all night.
A surge of anxiety flooded her body. Were the two guys fighting over what they think was supposed to be hidden on Viv’s property?
Lin wanted to stay longer to hear if any more information would come to light, but she was already way behind schedule on her gardening jobs for the day. She jogged to Viv’s house to pick up Nicky. When she hurried through the front door, Lin stopped short as an idea flashed in her brain. What if it wasn’t two guys fighting last night? What if it was a guy and a woman?
Lin called to the dog so that they could hurry home and get the truck. “Come on, Nick. We have an important stop to make.”
20
Lin stopped the truck a block away from her intended destination. She and the dog got out and walked down the street. Lin carried her gardening tool bag in case they were found out and questioned. They stopped one house away from Anton Wilson’s home.
“You need to stay quiet.” Lin held the dog’s eyes. “We need to approach slowly. I don’t want anyone inside to see us. We’ll go around back and I’ll try to peek in some windows. Try to see if Anton Wilson is hurt inside.”
The two made their way to the house and slipped around to the back. Just as Lin was about to press her face to one of the windows, a voice spoke behind her and she nearly jumped out of her skin.
“It isn’t polite to peer into people’s windows, Carolin.”
Sweat trickling down her back, Lin turned slowly to see Libby Hartnett standing next to her. Lin babbled. “I rang the bell. No one answered and I….”
Libby’s eyes narrowed. “It isn’t polite to lie, either.”
The two women stared at each other for a few moments, and then Libby sighed and started toward the back door of Wilson’s house. “Come inside. There are some things that I need to talk to you about. I hoped to have this conversation later, but you need to know some things.”
Lin hesitated. She was about to whirl and run away when Libby said without turning around, “Don’t bother to run, Carolin. I’m faster than you.”
Anton Wilson was sitting at the kitchen table when the women entered and he jumped up out of his seat. “Carolin.” He gave Libby a look of surprise.
Libby waved her hand in the air. “We need to talk to her. She needs to be told some of it.”
Anton looked from one to the other. “But….”
“There aren’t any buts. Miscommunication is causing problems.” Libby sat at the table. She gestured for Lin to sit.
Lin eyed Wilson. “I see you haven’t been stabbed.”
Wilson’s jaw dropped. “What?”
“You don’t know? I’m surprised. I thought the two of you knew most everything that went on in town.”
Wilson said, “I hate to interrupt, but what’s this business about being stabbed?”
Lin explained about the altercation in the tree line between Viv’s property and her neighbor’s land. “I thought it might have been you two fighting.” She looked at Wilson. “I wondered if you had been stabbed by Libby.”
“Why would we be fighting?” Wilson eyed Lin.
“Because you know that there might be something valuable on Viv’s land. You must know that I saw the hand-drawn interior of Viv’s house that you had.” Lin wanted answers. “What do you think is hidden there? Part of the old bank heist from hundreds of years ago?”
Wilson snorted. “That isn’t what we care about.”
“What do you care about?” Lin faced Libby. “And why are you so happy to have me on the island?”
Libby paused for a few beats, and then she reached out her hand to the young woman sitting next to her. “Take my hand.”
Lin was about to scoff at the odd request, but something stopped her. Gingerly, she lifted her arm, hesitated for a moment, and then placed her hand on top of the older woman’s palm.
A rush of calm and ease flooded Lin’s body. She experienced a feeling of safety, of being protected. A picture formed in her mind and it was like she was watching a movie or was peeking in on someone’s life through a window. The edges of the images were ragged and unclear, but she could make out the scene.
The rocking motion of a boat caused her to feel slightly unsteady. A man stood at a small stove moving a fork over something in the frying pan. The smell of onions and garlic reached her nose. Footsteps approached. A man’s voice. Angry words. A shout. The thrust of a hand holding something sharp. A grunt. The man falling to the floor.
