Three Keys to Murder

by Gary Williams

  That evening, Fawn had two more visitors. Detective Mayes informed her that Mike had already been conclusively cleared of any involvement.

  “Was Bailey working for a loan shark like he told me?” Fawn asked.

  Ustes spoke, “Yes, Bailey’s boss, a mobster name Ricky Ballantini, knew Terrence’s only surviving relative, Elizabeth, lived on Amelia Island. He had sent Bailey here to stake out her house for months. But once Bailey got wind of the treasure, he conveniently failed to report to Ricky Ballantini that he had found Terrance. Instead he focused on the treasure. If he returned north with Terrence, then Bailey’s assignment in Florida would have ended. Bailey wanted to stay in Florida awhile longer in the event the treasure could be recovered. Once Bailey learned Terrence was the murderer and was somehow connected to the treasure, Bailey went after him. He needed to know what Terrence knew. And according to what you told us, he killed Terrence when he realized the man had become mentally unstable and could provide nothing of use.

  “As for Tony Liáng, Bailey used him as a buffer. He did not want to expose himself to your father, in order to keep his identity a secret when this was all said and done. Then Bailey set a plan into motion to meet you at the Fernandina Beach library pretending to be a college student.”

  “Bailey had Liáng hold my father for months. So why make the ransom demand now?” Bailey could just as easily have killed me and taken the keys.”

  The answer Ustes relayed was surprisingly simple. “Bailey’s boss had given up on finding Terrence Courtland and wanted Bailey back in Jersey for other jobs. Bailey decided to push you along by revealing your father was alive, then threatening to kill him. It worked. In less than 24 hours, you found three keys, and Dr. Curt Lohan solved the riddle on the guard room wall in the Castillo de San Marcos. It’s pretty amazing, when you think about it, considering it had gone undiscovered and unsolved all these years.”

  Detective Mayes spoke. “Tony Liáng sealed his fate when he botched killing you and your father in that creek. It was Bailey who killed Liáng outside of Cedar Key at the Indian shell mound. He had no further use for Liáng. Quite possibly he was going to kill you and finish off your fiancé as well while making it appear Liáng did it, but the police arrived, and he fled.”

  “That’s why Liáng told me in the creek during the ransom exchange that Mike was the killer,” Fawn realized. “It was Bailey’s directive in order to keep my suspicion on Mike.”

  Ustes spoke, “When Bailey left the shell mound, he must have gone to Liáng’s place in Cedar Key and cleaned it up, getting rid of anything that could implicate him. That was also when he retrieved Lisa Fortney’s cell phone that Liáng had used to make the ransom calls.”

  “At Bailey’s place on Amelia Island, the police also found Sarah’s 1865 letter to Coyle,” Mayes added.

  “The FBI is holding on to the original as evidence,” Ustes began, “but we thought you might like to see a copy.”

  Fawn took the paper and scanned to the last line she recalled reading prior to being knocked unconscious by Bailey at Fort Clinch.

  “Take me back and discover the key from my eye. You will find the treasure at the shell against the white wall of earth.”

  These were your father’s words, Coyle. I fear that the treasure will be found, so I have taken precautions. I’m fearful that if this letter was to fall into the wrong hands, someone may lay claim to what your father has left you. So heed my words when I tell you that you will find your way to the treasure behind the shell against the white wall. I know you will understand.

  Retrieve your father’s skull and his bones. Place them where the attached map shows on Amelia Island. Use a small block of wood and a hammer to depress the apex of the last brick leading into the #5 Bastion. There a room will open in the bastion stairwell. Place the bones there and your father’s wish will be fulfilled.

  Fawn realized the map Sarah Courtland referred to was the map that Lawrence Courtland had discovered and inadvertently taken with him to the Amelia Island jail-turned-museum when he was arrested in 1969, only to be misfiled among evidence files and found long after his death.

  Then heed his words, for hidden in his eye is a key. He left you a treasure at the location mentioned above. But hear my words; your prize is still behind the shell. I dare not say more in case this letter were to fall into the wrong hands. But conduct your task and you will be rewarded.

  Signed,

  Your loving mother.

  Sarah

  Ironically, Fawn realized, the key Osceola had obtained from the Navy man, Simpkins, was not the correct key to open the small box with the crown. It was one of the two needed to open the large iron hold. Neither Osceola nor Sarah realized there were three keys in all.

  She also understood why Bailey, who had the letter in his possession and figured out the sentence your prize is behind the white shell referenced the Indian shell mound in Cedar Key, did not understand its secondary reference to the painting. Bailey had only been inside Elizabeth Courtland’s house twice: once when he planted the listening device earlier in the year, and a second time the day he killed Elizabeth after Terrence Courtland had left. He must have been so focused on his activities both times that he did not take stock of his surroundings. He never paid attention to the nondescript painting.

  Fawn turned over to the back of the last page. She found the following:

  This is a list of those who betrayed your father. Soldiers whose names your father could remember that captured him under the white flag of truce. One day, maybe they too shall die with half-red faces.

  Reynolds

  Alderman

  Parish

  Seederman

  Sizemore

  Lank

  Cedarhaus

  Moore

  Warren

  Mattson

  Ustes spoke. “Seederman, Sizemore, Lank, Warren…all names etched on the faces of the victims.”

  “But why?” Fawn asked. “Why did Terrence kill innocent people, then label them with the names of soldiers who may or may not have been involved with Osceola’s apprehension? Bailey mentioned Terrence Courtland suffered from some psychosis, but for him to deliberately write the names of soldiers on the victims’ faces seems like a lucid, calculated act.”

  Mayes spoke, “Before we answer, know that we identified Courtland as a suspect very early in the case. His fingerprints were on the board used to kill the homeless man you discovered in the alley off Centre Street, then later on Osceola’s marker outside St. Augustine where we discovered Lisa Fortney’s body. Although, we now know Thomas Bailey killed Terrence Courtland, severed his hand and planted the prints on the marker, the prints for the first murder were genuine. Terrence Courtland did commit the murders up until Elizabeth Courtland’s death.”

  “Well if you knew it was Terrence, why didn’t you go public with his name?” Fawn asked.

  “Because Terrence Courtland had died in the World Trade Center attacks of 9/11, or so we thought. Public sentiment elevated the victims of 9/11 to instant heroes, and that hasn’t changed since. There was considerable reservation to publicly accuse Terrence Courtland of murder. The outcry of condemning a man considered to have died during the 9/11 attacks, to stain his memory, without adequate proof could have resulted in severe negative publicity.” Mayes paused. “Ironic if you think about it. Originally Courtland’s body was thought to be lost in the crumbling towers. And depending on where Bailey stashed the body, he still may not receive a proper burial.”

  “You still haven’t answered why Terrence Courtland and Lawrence Courtland murdered innocent people. And why, in 1865, Coyle murdered two people on his way back from New York,” Fawn asked.

  Ustes nodded. “We’re getting to that. During the search of Thomas Bailey’s house we found the fake skull. The lab had determined there was an unusual chemical on the surface of the skull and in
the hair: a toxin known as Angothin. It’s a powerful hallucinogen. Upon touch, the topical substance is absorbed through the skin and produces a form of suggestive psychosis to the person inflicted. Every time it was touched, it was like getting another dose.

  “It appears Sarah’s letter was always with the fake skull. With the list of names of those responsible for Osceola’s capture staring them in the face and the proclamation, ‘One day, maybe they too shall die with half-red faces,’ the drug took over as the skull was handled. It caused Coyle in 1865, Lawrence in 1969, and Terrence over the last few weeks, to kill innocent people. In the case of Lawrence and Terrence, they associated their victims with the names on the list and wrote the name of a soldier under the red portion of the face of each corpse. It’s unknown if Coyle did the same. Because of the effect of Angothin, Lawrence and Terrence were in a nearly catatonic state when they committed the crimes so there was no rhyme or reason to which names on the list they used. As for the red coating, they tended to employ whatever was at their disposal for the effect, be it magic marker, paint or, in the case of the Callahan hunter, red clay. We suspect somehow Terrence knew of this trait from his father’s murders and unknowingly incorporated it into his own pattern.”

  Detective Mayes added, “We believe Terrence Courtland was examining that skull in the underground room at the fort, searching for the key to the treasure as mentioned in the letter, as his father, Lawrence, had done 30 years before. Of course, Terrence had the wrong skull, as Lawrence had, and every time he handled it, he got another dose of the drug.”

  Ustes continued, “The drug Angothin raises adrenaline while suppressing anxiety. In a manner of speaking, it makes you hyper yet calm at the same time. Without any way to vent this rush of adrenaline, and because your body doesn’t realize it needs to, frustration elevates easily and quickly until the average person experiences anger that feels like it’s going to make them explode.

  “In addition, Angothin is progressive over time. The longer the exposure, the deeper the psychosis.”

  Fawn cut in. “Was it from Dr. Weedon’s embalming in the 1800s?”

  “Yes,” Ustes said. “Angothin can only be synthesized these days. At one time, it was found naturally in a plant known as Annothria. Dr. Weedon used it in his embalming process. Ironically, it takes the drug awhile to turn toxic, which explains why it didn’t affect Dr. Weedon.”

  “But what caused Terrence to scalp his victims?” Fawn asked.

  “Profilers at the FBI believe this was incorporated by Terrence while under the influence of the chemical. It had something to do with his past that he associated with Indians. He must have viewed the scalping as a vindictive act the Indians might undertake.”

  “What Ustes is saying is Terrence Courtland watched too many John Wayne movies,” Detective Mayes added with a quick wink.

  Fawn was silent for a moment as she thought. “Why wasn’t I influenced by it? I handled both the fake and the real skull of Osceola. I assume Dr. Weedon used the same process, the same chemical, to embalm both.”

  “Probably,” Ustes responded. He gave a smirk. “Did you have your period last week, Ms. Cortez?”

  “Yes.”

  “Angothin is subdued by high levels of estrogen.”

  Fawn spoke. “Son of a gun. You mean that time of the month stopped me from killing somebody? Huh, that’s a first.”

  Both men smiled. Then Ustes was called from the room by an FBI agent, leaving Detective Mayes and Fawn alone.

  “Okay, I have to know. How did you get out of the underground room at the fort?” Fawn asked. “The exit was sealed, and after Bailey fell down the stairs, it was still sealed.”

  “That morning when I went in with the FBI to investigate, I noticed an aberration on the brick wall at the base. It was to the side of the handholds that leads upward, and it was a second trigger for a second entrance.”

  “A way for someone inside to get out,” Fawn said, understanding.

  “Yes. It opened a small tunnel that lead to an opening at the far side of the bastion roof. I had to crawl upward through it in the darkness not knowing what awaited me at the end. I was relieved to find it emptied onto the deck. When I emerged, I was surprised neither you nor Bailey heard the grating noise of the floor opening, but then I realized the howling wind had covered the sound.”

  Fawn was quiet for a moment. “Would you have?”

  “What?”

  “Killed him in cold blood. I know about your brother, and if it were me, I would have been tempted to…”

  “Get some rest, Fawn. You’ve got one hell of an article to write when you get your strength back.”

  With that, she knew the answer.

  CHAPTER 51

  Several days later, Fawn spoke with Jonathan Pierce. She explained what she discovered in Sarah Courtland’s letter regarding Osceola’s interaction with Richard Simpkins and the pirates at the Indian shell mound in 1820.

  Pierce had been able to lift serial numbers from the iron container six miles off shore and the one embedded in the shell mound outside Cedar Key. The numbers had led him to archival records of a U.S. Navy plan in 1819 titled Florida Keys.

  For Fawn, the declaration called to mind her father’s felt text of Captain Whimoor’s note, specifically, the second line: Florida Keys failed off west coast.

  Captain Whimoor’s message wasn’t referring to the actual Florida Keys; he was referring to the failure of a plan of the same name.

  Piecing together facts from the documentation, and now with Fawn’s information regarding Osceola, Pierce believed he had a relatively clear picture of the Navy’s plan for the SS Pearsaw before it went awry as a result of mutiny, thievery, and pirate intervention.

  “The Florida Keys was a strategic plan by the military to flush out betrayal within their ranks. The brass at the Port of New Orleans knew someone was selling ship manifest information to the pirates, but they didn’t know who it was. So when assigned the task to deliver the Zaile treasure to St. Augustine—to the Spanish—for the purchase of Florida, the Navy decided to kill two birds with one stone.

  “The Pearsaw was loaded with two large iron containers. The massive boxes were wedged into the ship’s hold, secured with tar on the roof of each to help bind it to the ceiling.

  “The Navy believed the traitor would notify pirates—specifically Black Caesar—who would lay in wait to ambush the Pearsaw near the Keys as the ship rounded the southern end of Florida.

  “The plan was to offload the real treasure in its iron container somewhere on the western Florida shore long before it reached the Keys. It would then be toted overland and delivered to St. Augustine on the eastern side of the state.

  “The SS Pearsaw would continue on with its decoy iron container, which, by the way, was full of scrap metal and rigged to slam shut on anyone who opened it; which is unfortunately what happened to your father.”

  Fawn recalled her father’s writing on the cigar box: Hold junk. Now it made perfect sense.

  Pierce continued, “Concurrently, two keys were hidden in Northeast Florida—one in the Gonzalez-Alvarez House in St. Augustine and one in the Cumberland Island (later moved to Amelia Island) Lighthouse. The third key was retained by Captain Whimoor, which tells me he was going to debark from the SS Pearsaw and accompany the iron box overland to St. Augustine. A U.S. Emissary also left the poem, written in Spanish, on the guard room wall in the Spanish Castillo de San Marcos fort. Once the treasure reached the Spanish in St. Augustine, Captain Whimoor would have notified them as to the meaning of the poem and the location of all three keys so access to the iron container could be gained. All of this was to guard against pirate interference.

  “Two war ships were to sail from the north and come around the Keys. The hope was when pirates approached, the SS Pearsaw crew would abandon ship in a small boat, allowing the pirates to board, thinking they had reclaime
d their Aztec treasure. Then the warships would blast the SS Pearsaw out of the water, killing the pirates and ending their reign.

  “To that end the SS Pearsaw itself was a ruse. The ship was made of inferior materials; the cannons plugged. The U.S. warships would have easily sunk it with little effort.

  “But what the Navy had not counted on was that a crew member of the SS Pearsaw was the traitor. Richard Simpkins poisoned the crew, including Captain Whimoor. Once Whimoor realized he was dying and one of his crew members was responsible, he desperately sought a way to communicate back to his command. The only thing he could think of was to write a message on the underside of his Madagascar turtle’s shell. This was the animal whose skeleton your father eventually came to own.

  “Then a second unexpected thing occurred: a hurricane struck off Cedar Key. It split the ship open, immediately tossing one container to the sea—the container full of scrap metal. The decoy. The SS Pearsaw was then hurled inland where it was battered to pieces. The second container was thrown against the ancient Indian shell mound, but prior to reaching shore, or maybe once on shore, the hull of the iron container ripped open, spreading out the treasure. Most likely, it happened while still at sea. The only exception, of course, was the small iron box Sarah Courtland found. That piece of the treasure apparently reached shore.

  “Several days may have passed. When Black Caesar and his men saw no sign of the Pearsaw approaching the Keys, they sailed north. It was then, when Black Caesar and several of his men went ashore, they found Richard Simpkins, wounded from the ordeal with the hurricane, barely alive on the shell mound not far from where the iron container rested. And that’s where Osceola comes in. After killing the pirates and losing his fellow brave, only Osceola and Simpkins were alive. It was then Simpkins attempted to barter with Osceola for his life using the key he had taken from Captain Whimoor. When Simpkins died, Osceola decided to bury the massive container and come back for it someday.”