The Haunted Island (A Lin Coffin Mystery Book 9)

by J A Whiting

  After a long swallow that nearly drained the liquid from the glass, the doctor wiped his lips and filled it again. “Ah, I needed that.”

  Lin and Mitchell discussed the progress on the gardens and then she said, “My cousin and I were down at the docks the other night. We saw your yacht at its mooring. It’s a beautiful boat.”

  “It is a lovely boat. I hardly ever use it.”

  The little hairs on Lin’s arms stood up at attention when she heard the doctor’s sentence. “No?”

  “I prefer to sail. I use my sailboat quite often. The cruiser just isn’t my style.”

  “Haven’t I seen it in the sound?” Lin asked. “Maybe I was mistaken.”

  “You probably saw it. Roger uses the cruiser. It’s his sort of boat. He dislikes sailing. Roger uses it a few times a week. Sometimes more. He loves being on the water.”

  “Why don’t you sell it? It must be a lot of upkeep,” Lin asked.

  “I should sell it. I’ve been busy with other things. It’s not that important to me to get rid of it so I let it slide. Roger would be disappointed if I didn’t have it anymore.” Mitchell shrugged. “My father loved to sail. My grandfather as well. It must be in our blood.”

  “Did they own sailboats?”

  “They both did, yes. My grandfather sometimes sailed to work to Canter from the home he had here on Nantucket.” Mitchell chuckled. “Maybe my grandfather fancied himself a pirate, going to Canter to look for treasure.” The doctor’s facial expression turned sad. “My grandfather wasn’t a very nice man.”

  Anxiety pulsed through Lin’s veins. “You told me he was a harsh person, subject to depression.”

  Mitchell drained his glass and poured another one. “That’s right. He was a miserable man.”

  Lin was about to make the excuse that she needed to get back to work, when Mitchell said, “My grandfather had a notebook where he wrote in it about possible places on Canter that might be the hiding places for the pirate treasure.”

  “He was serious about the idea,” Lin said.

  “Yes.” Mitchell looked off across the yard. “He was serious about making money. That’s what drove him. Nothing else.” Turning his eyes on Lin, Mitchell asked, “Would you like to see his notebook? I have it. My father passed it on to me.”

  The man rose from his chair before Lin could reply to his question.

  “I’ll be right back with it.” Mitchell strode into the house.

  Lin leaned back against the wood of the chair and looked up to the blue sky wishing she could quietly go back to work on the gardens and not have to talk with Dr. Mitchell.

  The man came back outside with a look of puzzlement on his face. “I can’t find it. I looked where it should be, but it’s not there.”

  Standing up, Lin gave the man a smile. “I’m sure it will turn up. Things get misplaced in a move to a new house.” She set her glass down on the tray. “I should get back to work now. When you locate the notebook, I’d love to see it.” Lin really did not want to see it, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Thank you for the cold drink.”

  Lin finished her landscaping jobs for the day, dropped Nicky off at Viv’s bookstore, and then headed down Main Street towards the historical museum to talk to Felix about the history of the house on the corner of Tangerine Street. Climbing the granite steps, she opened the imposing door and stepped into the cool and quiet air of the building.

  Felix, dressed in dark brown slacks and wearing a red bowtie, noticed Lin come into the library as he was speeding down the hallway and changed course for the front door. His posture straightened and his eyes sparkled when he said, “Wait until you see what I found.” Wheeling around, he moved briskly over the gleaming wood floor to his desk in the research room.

  Felix lifted a folder and opened it to show Lin a ledger, the words on it written by hand. “I found this in the archives. There are a number of original documents relating to the antique houses around town. When you called me earlier, what you asked rang a bell in my head and I thought we had something that might be of interest.”

  “What is this?” Lin leaned closer to the old sheets of paper.

  “An old ledger from the house on the corner of Tangerine and Main Streets. The house was constructed around 1800. It was a merchant’s home originally, but for several years, an apartment was built out on the third floor and was rented to seamen or craftspeople and their families.” Felix turned the pages delicately. “This ledger shows the names of the occupants, the rent amount, and the monthly payments made.”

  Lin scanned the words on the piece of paper.

  “Here. Look at this.” Felix gestured to one of the entries. “See the name of the person who rented the apartment?”

  Lin’s mouth dropped open in surprise. “Merry Silver Irons.”

  “Mrs. Irons rented the place a few weeks before her husband was supposed to arrive from England. It was to be their first home in America, their first home on Nantucket.”

  “Wow.” Lin was about to say it was no wonder the ghost was standing outside the antique home every time they’d seen him, but she bit her words back just in time.

  “See here,” Felix asked. “Next to Merry’s name, in the notes section. It says, one year. She planned to lease the apartment for a year, but if you look closely, in the margin it says, husband passed away.”

  “Merry must have left Nantucket to return to her home in England that month.”

  “But she came back,” Felix said. “The very next month, Merry again rented the apartment in the house on Main and Tangerine … and she stayed there for three years.”

  “Three years?” Lin’s voice held a tone of shock. “Did she stay on Nantucket for good? Did she never move back to England?” Her eyes grew wide from an idea that ran through the young woman’s mind. “Is Merry buried here on-island?”

  Is that why our ghost makes appearances in front of that house? That apartment was going to be his home with Merry. When the ghost communicates that he wants to go home, does he mean here? Is this the home he means? On Nantucket?

  23

  After leaving the historical museum, Lin practically jogged up Main Street headed for the bookstore so she could tell Viv what she’d found out. Weaving around the people walking along the sidewalks, Lin sidestepped a woman who had suddenly changed direction, and plowed right into a man leaving a jewelry store.

  “Lin.” John was the person Lin had collided with.

  “John. Sorry. I’m in a hurry.” Lin apologized for not looking where she was going.

  “I wasn’t paying attention either.” John shoved his hand into the pocket of his light blue suit jacket as if he wanted to hide something. “My watch battery stopped working. That’s why I was in the jewelers’ shop.” He moved a few steps away from Lin.

  John’s behavior seemed a little unusual to Lin. Whenever she met him unexpectedly, he always made conversation, asked where she’d been, and talked about what he was doing. Not today though. Today he seemed like he couldn’t get away from Lin fast enough.

  “Are you okay?” Lin asked.

  Taking a few steps backward before turning and rushing away, John said, “Yeah. I’m fine. Viv says we’re getting together on the boat tonight. I’ll see you then.”

  Lin watched John briskly hurry away, before shrugging her shoulder, and walking to Viv’s bookstore where she found Viv standing at the café’s cabinets stocking the items that had run low.

  Viv jumped when her cousin came up behind her and said her name. “Oh. You scared me. I was lost in thought.”

  “I need to tell you what Felix discovered at the historical museum.”

  Viv steered Lin to an empty café table where they both sat. “What’s going on?”

  Giving her the summarized version, Lin said, “It’s possible that Merry decided to live here for the rest of her life. Her husband was buried not far away. She might not have wanted to leave him. William Irons told me he wanted to go home, maybe he means he wa
nts to come here. This might be where he wants to return home, not to England.”

  “Can you ask Anton if he can find out if Merry Irons is buried on-island?” Viv asked.

  Lin nodded. “I texted him a little while ago. He told me he’s on it.”

  “Okay.” Viv took a deep breath. “I’ve decided to tell John about our paranormal skills. Tonight.”

  Lin almost jumped from her seat. “Tonight?”

  “Yes, tonight.” Viv’s breathing was fast and shallow as she wrung her hands together. “I have to do it. Don’t let me back out. We’re going to John’s boat. I’ll sit with him and tell him while you walk around. I’ll call you when I’m done, then maybe you can come and join us and answer any questions John might have.”

  “Sure.” Lin was amazed that Viv was ready to do this. “What caused the change of heart?”

  “It has to be done. I can’t hide from it forever. It’s stressing me out. I want to get it over with.” Viv looked at her cousin with a worried expression. “You still think it’s the right thing to do? Are you thinking I shouldn’t talk to John about it?”

  With a smile, Lin leaned over and placed her hand reassuringly on Viv’s arm. “I absolutely think it’s the right thing to do. We’ll walk down to the docks together this evening.”

  Lin’s phone vibrated in her bag and when she took it out, she saw a text from Connie Gallin.

  My husband arrived with the letters. I read through them and there’s one in particular you’ll be interested in. Mr. Irons writes to his wife about some concerns he has with the doctor. I’ll be home for the rest of the day if you’d like to come by.

  Viv asked Mallory if she could take care of the store while she ran out for a while, and then the two cousins headed out to Mrs. Gallin’s home.

  “This is the letter I mentioned.” Connie placed it on the table between Lin and Viv. “Have a look.”

  The young women read through the letter and then looked up with concern in their eyes.

  “William didn’t trust Dr. Mitchell,” Viv said.

  “He believes the doctor is involved in something illegal,” Lin re-read the lines of the letter. “William thinks Dr. Mitchell might be involved with smuggling.”

  “He wanted to stop working for the doctor,” Viv said. “He should have quit and refused to do any more for that man.”

  The cousins read over the rest of the letters, but none were as worrisome as the first one. Thanking Connie for sharing the correspondence with them, they left the house and walked back to the bookstore.

  “Dr. Benjamin Mitchell was up to no good,” Viv huffed. “Do you think he caused William’s accident? Do you think that doctor did something that led to William’s head injury?”

  “Yes,” Lin said. “I think Mitchell is responsible. Whatever he had William working at, it was the reason our ghost died on Canter.” Lin told Viv about her conversation with Samuel Mitchell on the patio of his house earlier in the day. “When he told me that he doesn’t use the cruiser, I felt like calling him out. I only said I thought I’d seen the cruiser in Nantucket Sound on occasion. That’s when he said his assistant, Roger, takes the boat out a few times a week.”

  “Roger certainly gets some mighty nice privileges working for Samuel. He can use that beautiful boat like it was his own,” Viv said.

  “Is Samuel telling the truth? Is he just saying Roger uses the boat to deflect attention from him being on Canter? Is Samuel really the one who is visiting Canter?”

  “And if he is, why is he?” Viv eyes darkened. “What’s Samuel doing there?”

  “Does he think he knows where the pirates buried the treasure?”

  Viv gave her head a shake. “I don’t believe there’s any pirate’s treasure on Canter. It’s just stories.”

  “But it’s possible,” Lin said. “Samuel told me his grandfather had a notebook with drawings and directions of where the man thought treasure could be hidden. Samuel went inside to get it so he could show me, but he came out without it. He misplaced it.”

  The young woman’s eyebrows moved together. “How would he misplace something he seemed to hold dear, something passed down over the generations? I bet he changed his mind about showing it to me. I bet he worried I might remember the directions and that I’d go to Canter to look for the treasure.”

  Some worry or anxiety flitted over Lin’s skin. “I think we need to go back to Canter.”

  “I knew you’d say that,” Viv groaned. “I knew we’d have to go back.”

  “I can go on my own,” Lin said. “You don’t have to do it. I understand why you don’t want to.”

  Letting out a long, loud breath, Viv looked at her cousin. “As I’ve said in the past, I’m not letting you have all the fun.”

  When they returned to the bookstore, Viv stayed to work for a few more hours so Lin took the dog and cat home with her to feed them and get them settled for the evening. She had a bite to eat, showered, and changed … all the while, her heart raced and pounded whenever she thought of talking to John about powers. Lin almost wished she hadn’t spent so much time encouraging Viv to explain about seeing ghosts. Now that the time was near, she tried to think of excuses, any excuses to get her out of it.

  “Here we go.” Viv stood straight as she and Lin walked down the sidewalks of Nantucket town to the docks. “I might have a nervous breakdown before we get to John’s boat.”

  “Please don’t. I’d like to get this over with.” Lin rubbed at the tension in her neck. “Please don’t be angry with me if John doesn’t take this well.”

  “I won’t be angry with you. I’ll be devastated, but I won’t be angry with you.”

  Lin made a little sound of discomfort deep in her throat as they got closer to John’s boat. “Okay, go. I’ll wait for your text. I’m going to go look for a hole I can hide in and never come out of.”

  “Just make sure it’s big enough for both of us to live in,” Viv said and walked towards John’s boat like she was heading to her doom.

  Lin wandered around the town and took a walk out to the Cliffs and back again, feeling ill the entire time. Every two minutes, she checked her watch for the time. With each passing moment, Lin’s heart raced even faster.

  At last, the dreaded text arrived and it took Lin almost five minutes to read it.

  You don’t need to find a hole to live in after all. Come to the boat and talk with us.

  Lin blew out a huge sigh of relief and then took off for the docks, and when she approached John’s boat, she saw Viv sitting on the deck.

  “John went below to get a bottle of wine. It’s okay. I can’t believe it, but he was able to accept what I told him.” Viv brushed at her teary eyes, stood up, and hugged her cousin. “He finally knows.”

  “I’m so, so glad.” Lin returned the hug with both arms wrapped around Viv. “What a relief.”

  Footsteps on the stairs made the cousins turn around. John carried three wine glasses and a bottle of shiraz. “Thanks a lot for keeping me in the dark about these special skills you have,” John told Lin, but his tone was playful and he had a smile on his face. “Why am I always the last one to know things?”

  “You’re not upset … or freaked out?” Lin asked carefully. “You don’t think we’re weird or strange?”

  “Well, I’d think that even if you couldn’t see ghosts.” John put the bottle on the table. “I’ve got a heck of a lot of questions. Are you able to stay up all night?”

  Lin chuckled. “Yes. I can do that.”

  John poured the wine into the glasses and lifted one aloft. “To this very surprising and magical world … and to all of the things that make us who we are.”

  “I’ll drink to that.” With a wide grin, Lin lifted a glass and clinked it against the others, and then the three of them settled down for a long and interesting talk.

  24

  Lin and Viv climbed the path up the hill from the sandy beach of Cantor Island where the charter boat captain had let them off.

 
“I swear, this is the last time I’m coming to this island,” Viv puffed as they made it to the top. “It gives me the creeps.”

  “It’s a beautiful place.” Lin moved in a small circle taking in the views. “Try to focus on that.”

  Viv wiped the perspiration from her forehead. “All I can focus on is disease and health experiments and people being separated from their loved ones. Oh, and my ghost relative getting a head injury from working for some creep of a doctor and dying here. Other than all that, everything is just great.”

  Lin looked at her cousin with empathy. “We’ll look around and that will be the end of it. We’ll never come back.”

  “We shouldn’t have come back today. This place makes me feel so sad.”

  “Come on. Let’s hike around. Let’s go to the cemetery section and have a look at what the investigators are doing.”

  Viv trudged along the old dirt road under the warm September sun. “Are you expecting to see William’s ghost?”

  “I don’t know what I expect,” Lin said. “I felt the need to return, but I don’t know what being here will tell us.”

  “I hope we don’t see him,” Viv whispered. “When I saw him on the corner of Tangerine and Main Streets, I was overwhelmed by inadequacy, wanting to help, but not being able to. It all seemed so hopeless.”

  “But when we see him, we pick up a clue,” Lin tried to be optimistic. “He kept showing up on that corner so we’d figure out that the house there has something to do with what he wants.”

  “William’s wife rented them an apartment in that house. That’s where they were going to live together and start their new life. Until William died.” Letting out a sigh, Viv said, “It makes me want to cry.”

  “We have to keep strong to figure out the clues. That’s how we’ll be able to help.” Lin gestured to the overgrown path. “Here’s the trail down to the cemetery.”