“Yes?”
“There’s someone in the lobby waiting for your client.”
“Thank you—”
“Jimmy, ma’am,” the officer said as he blushed slightly.
“Thank you, Jimmy. That’s very kind of you to let us know.”
Darcy was in awe. Olivia had grown men shaking and young ones blushing. She didn’t know how she’d thank Wade and his cousin. If she found what she was hoping to find, she’d give them something from it. It was the only thing she had to offer them.
“Too bad he’s not waiting for me,” Darcy heard Olivia say. Darcy looked around Olivia and saw Wade stand up along with an elderly couple sitting next to him.
“That’s the Coast Guard man who helped me. Wade Faulkner. What is he doing here?”
“Are you complaining? Because if you are, I’ll gladly do this pro bono if I get him in return.”
Darcy couldn’t tell if Olivia was joking or not, but it didn’t sit well. “No,” she said more sharply than she intended.
Olivia gave a little laugh but didn’t seem offended. “I don’t blame you. Call me before you call Chambers after finding your treasure. I’ll help you get the claim filed. I must admit you have me very curious. Good luck, Darcy.”
“Are you Miss Townsend?” the sweet-looking old lady asked.
“Yes, can I help you?”
“I’m this young man’s great-aunt and I wanted to give you this for helping his lady friend here.”
The woman reached into her basket and pulled out a pie—apple from the smell of it. Olivia took the pie graciously, took a deep sniff before she turned to Darcy. “Free legal services for life?”
This time Darcy laughed as Olivia sauntered out of the police station and right into a group of local reporters.
“And you must be Darcy. I’ve heard so much about you. I’m Marcy Davies and this is my husband, Jake Davies. You must be famished. I made this little basket for you and Wade. He’s been here all night and day, you know,” Mrs. Davies said as she handed the basket to Wade. “Why don’t you two go out back? Jake will get a car and meet you.”
“You don’t mind, Uncle Jake?” Wade asked.
“Of course not. It’s not the first time we’ve hidden a relative from the press, or helped out a relative when someone was trying to kill them for that matter. It’s good to feel useful again,” Jake said with a shrug as he took off to hail a cab.
“Thank you so much, Mrs. Davies. I am starving,” Darcy said, not knowing what to think about being Wade’s “lady friend.” Although, it did make her stomach flutter knowing he’d been sitting here all night waiting for her. And she was pretty sure those flutters were not hunger pains.
Wade bent down and kissed his great-aunt. “Thank you. I love you.”
“I love you too,” Mrs. Davies said, patting his cheek with her hand. “You be sure to let me know when to come back.”
“I’m sure we’ll be doing something for Christmas,” Wade said as he placed his hand on the small of Darcy’s back. She tried not to lean against him, but he had that warm strength in his touch that drew her to him.
“Not for Christmas, dear. For the wedding. Now you two go find your little treasure. We’ll be pulling for you. And if you need a break, you’re both welcome in Keeneston.”
Wade said goodbye, and as they walked to the back, Darcy didn’t dare ask about the wedding Mrs. Davies had mentioned.
6
Wade didn’t know how to fill the silence after his aunt all but declared he and Darcy would be married A little early, considering just twelve hours earlier Wade had thought she was a murder suspect. Marriage wasn’t on his mind after seeing Darcy dressed and feeling her body under his hand. Something else entirely different was.
“Are you okay? Did they give you immunity?” Wade asked as they walked down a flight of stairs leading to the basement exit.
“How did you know that?” Darcy asked, shocked.
“You haven’t had my great-aunt’s apple pie yet. Apparently, she can get more information with it than the CIA.”
Darcy laughed, and Wade had never heard a better sound. He gulped then as he thought his aunt might be on the right track. Or was he just interested because he desired the love his cousin Gavin had found?
“Yes, they gave me immunity. I can’t tell anyone I’m cleared of the charges, though. They’re hoping to draw out the real murderer by making him or her think I’m the main suspect. They did promise to help me after an arrest is made. And speaking of help, thank you and your cousin for the attorney. Olivia is . . . well, there are really no words. The best I can come up with is a pit bull in a designer skirt.”
“You’re welcome. I will also thank Ryker for his help. Although, I think I might have to buy him a new boat. I’m to blame for his boat having death cooties.”
Darcy laughed again and Wade opened the door for her. Uncle Jake was riding in the back of the cab as it came around the side of the police station. Wade led Darcy out of the doorway, and they stepped outside into the hot sun. The cab pulled to a stop and Uncle Jake got out with a smile. “Here you go, son. Good luck to you two. Let us know if we can help. And a fall wedding would be beautiful. It would give us guests a little break from this heat.” With a little whistle, Uncle Jake slowly headed up the alley to the front parking lot, leaving Wade once again speechless. Was this what his cousins in Kentucky were complaining about? They said the town was a little overly involved in their relationships.
“Oh no,” Darcy said, drawing his attention away from his embarrassment.
“What is it?” Wade asked as he opened the back door for her.
“I don’t have anywhere to go. The police have my boat. I live on it. My equipment is there. How am I going to—?” Darcy snapped her mouth shut and slid into the backseat.
Wade hurried around to the other side and got in. “How are you going to do what?”
“Nothing,” Darcy said as she chewed on her bottom lip.
“I have a boat at the marina you can stay on,” Wade offered, hoping she’d trust him enough to tell him what was going on.
“You do?” Darcy asked as her face lit up.
“Yes. I’ll take you there now and text my cousin Harper for some clothes. You’re about her size.” Wade gave the taxi driver the address for the nearby marina and then turned back to see that Darcy was nibbling on her lip again.
“I don’t want her to drive down here for that,” Darcy said, looking a little nervous.
“I thought we could take the boat up to Shadows Landing. I have my own slip there that you can stay at. I know the sheriff so there shouldn’t be any police hassles. If the people who did kill Leon are around, then they won’t be looking for you there. Plus, my car is there.”
Wade watched as Darcy processed it all and then nodded slowly. They drove the rest of the way in silence. There was clearly something on her mind. Every now and then, she’d turn from the window to look over at him and then would make a little noise as if having an internal debate before turning away and looking out the window again. He just wished she would tell him what was on her mind.
How could she take the leap and trust a man who thought she could be a murderer just a couple hours ago? Darcy sighed as she looked back out the window. Food, money, clothes, her livelihood, and the treasure . . . everything was flying through her mind at super speed as she tried to figure out her next move. No, that wasn’t true. She knew what her next move needed to be. She needed to dive down and find her clue, hide it, and then make the claim on the rowboat.
But she couldn’t tell Wade that. He was a straight arrow. He wouldn’t put up with what amounted to stealing from the state of South Carolina. Her fingers were crossed for luck that the clue would indicate the main treasure was outside of the state’s waterways. Anything found inside the state’s territory was just a mess. The state would want it. She would want it. In the end, she might get a finder’s fee or some split, but no real say in what happens to the discovery.
However, if it were outside the state’s territory, that was another matter. A matter that the courts would decide, and she would have a better chance of retaining total control over the treasure.
Darcy brought herself back to the present as the taxi came to a stop at a small marina near the Coast Guard station. She went to grab her purse to pay but then realized she literally had nothing.
“Here you go,” Wade said, handing the driver some cash before getting out. Left with no other option, Darcy followed.
Wade pressed a code into a gate, and they began to walk down the floating dock. “I’m the third on the left,” Wade said as her eyes began to count. There it was. It wasn’t as nice or as fast as the boat he’d borrowed from his cousin, but it was nicer than her thirty-year-old boat that was now in police custody.
“I discovered sometimes it’s easier to boat into work than drive. And if I’m on call, I can just stay on the boat near the base,” Wade explained as he stepped on board and held out his hand for her to take.
Darcy placed her hand in his, and he instantly curled his fingers around her hand. She easily climbed on, but then Wade took a moment to let go and when he did, she felt the loss of his hand. “This is a great boat,” she said instead of reaching for his hand again like she wanted to.
“Thanks. I got it last year. Let me get you a spare key,” he said, using his key to unlock the cabin door. His boat, unlike hers, had a flying bridge above the cabin where she would operate the boat. Her cabin was cramped and completely underwater. But Wade’s boat would have some windows in his.
She looked around while Wade went inside the cabin. She took in the engine and the locked storage bench. Maybe the key would open the bench and she could borrow some scuba gear. Then later that night, she could slip away and find what she’d spent years and years searching for.
“Here you go. There’s some food in the cabinets and some beer and water in the fridge. There’s scuba and snorkeling gear in there,” Wade said as he pointed right to the bench she’d been looking at. Did he know? Wade motioned for her to get the ropes and she did while he climbed up the ladder to the bridge. He started the boat as she got everything ready to go.
When he pulled away from his slip, Darcy took a deep breath and made her way up the ladder to join him. She expected him to ask about her dive, but he didn’t. Instead, he was quiet as they got farther away from the marina and he navigated his way through the harbor.
“Do you know the history of Shadows Landing?” Wade asked finally.
“Not too much. I just know there were some pirates there,” Darcy said, relaxing. She loved talking about history and found the history of small towns just as fascinating, if not more so, than the history of large cities.
“It was a small farming community until pirates discovered the benefits of hiding there. The river is deep enough that during high tide you can sail a ship loaded down with stolen goods to our town. There’s a little jag that looks too narrow for a ship but is, in fact, the perfect size to hide one. And, it just so happens to be inaccessible during low tide. The authorities would sail on by and never know pirates were anchored there.”
“Which pirates?” Darcy asked, getting into the story.
“The usual suspects. In fact, Skeeter, the local ghost tour operator, says Anne Bonny has spoken to him and an old pirate named Eddie lives in his house with him.”
Darcy grinned. Everyone had a ghost in South Carolina. Savannah was just as bad. With a roll of her eyes, she laughed. “And let me guess, Blackbeard, too.”
“We know it for a fact. They built the church and Reverend Winston has the signed decree from the founding pirates. Blackbeard, Black Law, all of them.”
Darcy’s heart stopped. “Black Law?”
“Yeah. He was a regular in Shadows Landing. The bar that my cousin runs is said to have been his home at one time.”
“Can I see it?” Darcy asked as she practically jumped up to push the boat to full throttle.
“Of course. She’s the one I thought you could borrow some clothes from. So, you’re a Black Law fan?”
“I wouldn’t say fan. I studied him in history. His boat sank somewhere around here, didn’t it?”
“Yes. Skeeter knows more about it, though. He has a story about the night it sank.”
“We have to find him!” Darcy gripped Wade’s arm quickly and rather hard from the surprised reaction she got from Wade.
7
Wade looked at her then and she knew she’d gotten too excited and blown any attempt to appear nonchalant at the mention of Black Law.
She slowly let go of his arm. She could see the wheels turning in his head before he gave her a half smile. “Why don’t you just tell me what’s going on, and I’ll help you?”
Darcy knew she was biting her lip, and she let go so she wouldn’t draw blood. Could she trust him? “Even if it might fall into the gray area of the law?”
“Are you going to kill someone?”
“No!” Darcy said, shocked that he’d even ask.
“Hurt someone?”
“No!” Darcy said, even more insulted this time.
“Then I’ll help you, but you’re going to have to take a leap of faith and tell me what’s going on.”
Wade sounded so patient and understanding that it made Darcy feel bad for not telling him sooner. She took a deep breath and gave in. She was tired of doing this alone. “When I was a little girl, a boat was found off Key West. It was filled with Portuguese treasure. I knew instantly I wanted to do this. I wanted to find a piece of history and bring it back from the depths of the ocean.”
Darcy took another breath and then let out a long exhale. “I began researching lost ships, and after a year I found one that spoke to me. We were on vacation on Isle of Palms right outside of Charleston, and it was as if I lived every second of the tale. It was from an ancient book that had been put online as part of a library program. The book was from 1724 and told the story of locals affected by pirates. I read a story of a young man by the name of Timothy Longworth. He’d been out fishing when Black Law captured him and his two friends. The story went on to say that the boy somehow escaped in a rowboat with his friends and they were almost home when Black Law caught up with them and killed them.”
Wade nodded. He didn’t seem surprised to hear this tale.
“Have you heard this story?” Darcy asked.
“Not about the boy. But I know at some point in time Black Law came to Shadows Landing upset about a sunken ship. Like I said, Skeeter knows the story.”
“He does? This story?” Darcy asked, excited once again. “This is that story. While two of the boys were killed and never found, a third made it to shore only to die shortly after. Black Law disappeared after the rowboat the boys were in went down. There were witnesses who saw it and who tried to chase Black Law, but he just disappeared.”
“Let me guess. He disappeared somewhere near Shadows Landing,” Wade stated.
“That’s my guess. The important part of the story was that he had no ship.”
Wade was quiet as Darcy held her breath. He could see her willing him to connect the dots, but he’d already had. A local boy had sunk a pirate’s ship and tried to escape home. “But why are you looking in the river for the boy instead of the ocean for the ship?”
“Black Law also had a place he sometimes stayed at in Florida. Over the years, I have traveled there and found reports of him saying his ship was lost at sea because of a boy. But the sea is too big. I have to find the boy to see if there’s a clue to the whereabouts of the ship he sank. Was it a regular rowboat? Was it a small sailboat? All that information will help me determine how far he could have traveled and give me a starting point to search.”
“Why do you think there was treasure on the ship that sunk?” Wade asked.
“Because I was doing research in this small town in Mexico when I found what I was looking for. It was a letter to this woman’s sister in the neighboring village. It was from a maid at t
he large plantation that ran the area. The owner was an incredibly wealthy landowner. It stated that there had been quite the ruckus at the house when a new condesa, or countess, who was supposed to arrive to marry the master didn’t show up. Instead of a bride with a large dowry arriving, a donkey was found roaming around the docks wearing a pearl necklace. Attached was a letter from Black Law, apologizing for the fact that the master will need to find a new bride. It was also said Black Law left some gold coins, but those never made it to the master.”
Wade listened to the story and it made sense. “You think the ship was laden with a rich dowry and sunk on its way . . . to where?”
Darcy was practically bouncing around. “Boston.”
“Why Boston?” Wade asked as he listened closely to her story.
“I went to Boston and researched. Massachusetts has been remarkable about preserving history. I found a court order sentencing a man to hard labor for, in today’s language, laundering pirated goods. For a year, I studied everything I could about this man and discovered he was basically a fence for expensive fabrics for wealthy Bostonians all the way down to supplying food for the poor. All supplied by pirates, including . . .”
Darcy turned her palms up as she fluttered her hands with excitement. “Black Law,” Wade said, filling in the gap.
“Exactly.”
“So you think Black Law was on his way to Boston to launder the dowry of some countess when he pressed Timothy Longworth into service. Timothy escaped when the ship sank but he had enough knowledge about the pirate that Black Law hunted him down. Is that right?” Wade asked as he tried to envision the river he was cruising up as if it were 1719. They were approaching the location of the murder and he saw when Darcy realized it. Her whole body went tense even though all the boats were now gone.
“Yes, but there’s more. I visited the boys’ small town, too. It’s just right up here. I found reports that William, Timothy’s cousin, had made it to shore before he died from a bullet wound. He told his aunt and uncle, Timothy’s parents, that Timothy had a note for them in his pocket that was important, but he couldn’t get it when he was escaping.”
Sunken Shadows: Shadows Landing #2 Page 5