Dead Tide (Blackmoore Sisters Romantic Cozy Mystery Series)

by Dobbs, Leighann

  He scanned the yard with his binoculars, moving them slowly from the point of the cliff in the back to the front of the house, just to make sure no pirates were near the house. The girls were inside. His stomach clenched thinking about what happened during the summer—he’d never forgive himself if something happened to Morgan and he wasn’t there to protect her.

  Luke tapped the button on his communication set.

  “Scott, do you see anything up by the house,” he said into the mouthpiece clipped to his lapel.

  “Not a peep.” The voice came through his earpiece.

  “Nothing out there, either,” Buzz said from the front of the boat where he had his binoculars trained toward the open ocean. “You’d think they’d be here by now.”

  Luke nodded, a feeling of dread spreading inside his chest. He pointed his binoculars at the cliff on the edge of the channel that led into Perkins Cove.

  “The treasure could be right inside that channel,” he said.

  “Or over on the opposite side.” Buzz pointed to the other side of the channel.

  “Well, heck. I guess it could be anywhere," Luke said.

  He studied the cliff with his binoculars. The hole from the explosion last summer stuck out like a sore thumb. Following the cliff line he noticed the opening at the mouth of the cave they’d explored on their dive the other day was sticking out above the water line. It was big enough to drive a small boat in.

  Luke nudged Buzz with his elbow.

  “Check out that cave we saw underwater the other day—you can almost drive a boat right into the opening.”

  Buzz aimed his binoculars in the direction Luke indicated. “Yeah. When the tide is fully out you will be able to drive a boat in there.”

  Luke saw a metallic reflection and his heart stopped. “What’s that?”

  “What?”

  “I thought I saw something, over by the cave.” He squinted into his binoculars, his nerves tense. And then he saw it again. A metal glint.

  “I see it!” Buzz said.

  Luke’s heart sank when he realized what it was. A scuba diver … and he was inflating a small boat complete with motor.

  “It’s the pirates!” Luke threw down his binoculars and ran to the wheel. “Pull up the anchor. They’re scuba diving in … and they have an inflatable. We need to follow them into the cave!”

  Buzz ran over to the anchor pressing the switch for the motor. Luke tapped his fingers on the steering wheel cursing the anchor motor for its slowness. When he saw the anchor was almost up, he gunned the engine, taking the boat across the quarter mile of ocean as fast as it would go.

  ***

  Celeste looked up from the reading the poetry book. Jolene seemed disinterested, but Morgan and Fiona had dreamy looks on their faces.

  “Those poems are so romantic." Fiona sighed.

  “Do you think that’s why Isaiah picked this book as the cypher key?” Morgan asked.

  “Maybe. Did you see the front of the book?” Fiona grabbed the book from Celeste and turned to the very first page. Inside was an inscription in pen.

  To My Love MB From IB

  “I bet Isaiah gave the book to his wife, Mariah,” Morgan said.

  “They must have had a great relationship,” Celeste added. Could she and Cal have the same kind of relationship? Or was it too late?

  Morgan tilted her head to the side and scrunched up her face. “Did you guys hear something?”

  “No," they answered at the same time.

  “What did you hear?” Fiona asked.

  Morgan shook her head. “Oh, nothing.”

  But Celeste noticed she still had a strange look on her face.

  “Meow.” Belladonna announced her arrival and Celeste looked over at the cat.

  “Oh, it was probably the cat you heard.”

  Belladonna jumped up on Celeste’s lap and the smell of must tickled her nose. Celeste reached out to pet her and her fur was damp.

  “Oh, Belladonna, you’re all wet.”

  “And dirty,” Jolene noted.

  “Have you been in the basement catching mice again?” Fiona asked.

  Belladonna answered them by curling into a ball in Celeste lap, staring at them and blinking her eyes lazily before narrowing them into pre-slumber slits.

  Fiona closed the poetry book and put it on the table. “It’s so sweet how he gave her this book and carved their initials in the tree,” she said referring to an old oak tree that towered over their shop Sticks and Stones. The land that the shop sat on had been in their family since Isaiah’s time and someone had carved a heart with the initials IB and MB in it long ago. So long ago that the tree had grown and the initials were now twenty feet up. Naturally the girls assumed it was Isaiah and Mariah.

  Earlier in the summer, they’d followed a trail of clues that they thought lead to a treasure. One of those clues was a note they found in a silver box they’d dug up.

  You’ll find the key you seek beneath the tree we vowed our love.

  That note had led them to the tree with the initials where they’d dug up a key that ended up being the key that opened the box the leather treasure map was in.

  Celeste pressed her lips together. “It’s almost as if Isaiah was leaving these clues for Mariah.”

  “That’s what I was just thinking,” Morgan said. “Remember the other clue about the key. That was written just for her because it said ‘the tree we vowed our love’ and who else would know which tree that was besides Mariah?”

  “He probably wanted her to be able to get to his treasure if something happened to him,” Jolene added.

  “I just wish he didn’t have to be so cryptic about it." Celeste glanced at the clock, her stomach sinking. “It’s almost dead tide and we still have no clue where the treasure is.”

  Jolene snapped her fingers. “Wait a minute!

  The three sisters and Belladonna all swiveled their heads toward her.

  “What?” Morgan asked.

  Jolene stood and crossed over to the table that sat under the window. She reached into the long silver box that had held the leather map and pulled out the note they’d found in the lining.

  “I think we might have interpreted this wrong.” Jolene held the note up to face them.

  Fiona scrunched up her face. “How so?”

  “Well, see how it says The Ocean’s Revenge lies below my love?” Jolene pointed to the second line in the poem.

  “Yeah.”

  “We were interpreting that to mean it lies below the sea because the first line says The sea is my love.”

  “Right." Morgan’s eyebrows raised a fraction of an inch.

  “Well, in the book he calls Mariah my love. What if the my love actually refers to Mariah and the poem means the Ocean’s Revenge is below Mariah?”

  “What would that mean? How could it be below her?” Fiona scrunched up her face at Jolene.

  “Well it’s kind of cryptic, but where would you find Mariah most of the time when she was alive?”

  “Right here in the house he built for her," Morgan answered.

  Celeste’s heart skipped. It was all making sense now.

  “Grandmas ghost told me not to take things too literally and what we seek might be right underfoot. At the time I thought she was just being vague, but what if she literally meant underfoot?”

  “You mean under the house? But where? The basement is pretty much empty,” Morgan said.

  Celeste looked down at the floor. She remembered her trip to the basement and how the pirate ghost had been swirling around that big cask. Trying to pull her behind it. She shot out of her chair, causing Belladonna to fall to the floor with a thudding meow.

  “There might be more to the basement then we realize. Follow me.” Celeste turned toward the kitchen.

  “Wait,” Morgan said. She glanced down at the crystals that lay in the burlap sack at Fiona’s feet. “Bring those, I have a feeling they might come in handy.”

  Fiona grabbed the sack then
they all raced into the kitchen, hesitating only a second when they saw the basement door already open. Celeste flipped the switch for the basement light and took the stairs two at a time.

  Stopping in front of the cask, she turned to face her sisters. “I heard Belladonna crying down here the other day and when I came down to rescue her I saw a ghost over here.”

  Jolene leaned over to inspect the side of the cask where Celeste was pointing.

  “It seemed like he wanted me to go behind the cask,” Celeste added.

  “Maybe there is a passageway back there,” Fiona said.

  Celeste stared at Fiona’s chest. The entire aquamarine pendant was glowing, a soft warm glow.

  “What?” Fiona narrowed her eyes and looked at her other sisters who were also staring at her chest. “Why are you guys staring at me like that?”

  Jolene pointed to the pendant “You’re necklace. It’s glowing.”

  “I thought I saw the bottom of it glowing upstairs, but figured it was just a trick of the light. But now … well it’s clearly glowing," Morgan said, reaffirming what Celeste thought she had seen.

  Fiona looked down. “Well that makes perfect sense. Aquamarine protects those who journey by sea. I bet the passage leads us down to the sea.”

  “Okay. So how do we get into this passage?” Jolene craned her neck around the cask, feeling the wall behind it.

  “I have no idea.” Celeste joined her and they pushed at the cask hoping to move it aside, but it wouldn’t budge.

  “Maybe there’s an easier way.” Morgan stepped to the front of the cask and put her palm on it. Closing her eyes she felt around the front, pressing and pushing. Then she smiled and nodded, her fingertips pressing in on a copper rivet.

  With a click, the front of the cask swung open to reveal a passage. The girls slipped inside, the glow from Fiona’s pendant lighting their way.

  ***

  Cal drummed his fingers impatiently against the counter at Gino’s Pizza while he waited for his order.

  “Large pepperoni?” The red aproned blonde smiled up at him from beneath her navy blue baseball cap.

  Cal eyed the box suspiciously. He’d gotten the wrong pizza from Gino’s more than once. He reached out to pry the top off. Except it wouldn’t open. He took it in both hands and tried to force it, pinching at the corner on the bottom and pulling at the cover.

  “Sorry, these covers can be a pain. It’s almost like they’re booby trapped or something,” the girl said apologetically as she reached out to help him.

  Booby trapped.

  The word zinged in his mind and suddenly he knew the significance of the two maps. He grabbed his keys and ran for his car.

  “Hey mister, don’t you want your pizza?” the stunned girl at the counter yelled after him.

  Cal broke all the speed limits on his way to the Blackmoore’s. If the girls, Luke or Jake found out where the maze was and tried to go in without those two maps, the consequences could be deadly. The thought of something happening to any of them—especially Celeste—turned his insides cold.

  He squealed to a stop in front of the house, ran up the steps and jerked the door open skidding his way down the hall and into the informal living room.

  “I know what the two maps mean,” he shouted to the empty room.

  “Mew.” Well, practically empty. Belladonna jumped down from the couch and walked over to the door leading to the kitchen.

  “Hello! Celeste!” His heart sank when no one answered.

  Where is everyone?

  Cal glanced down at the table and saw the two maps were still there. He grabbed them and ran out into the hall checking all the rooms for the girls. They were nowhere to be found. His stomach clenched—had the pirates broken in and taken all four of them?

  He checked the kitchen. The basement door stood open and the light was on. Belladonna sat in the doorway flicking her tail. Had the girls gone in the basement for something?

  He ran down the stairs, Belladonna following at his heels. At the bottom of the steps, he looked to the left, his breath catching when he saw the cask with its false door hanging open.

  He ran over to the cask and stuck his head in the door, the smell of salt air telling him immediately that he’d found the passage to the maze. The light from the basement illuminated the tunnel for a few feet, the rest was darkness except for the faint glow of a light up ahead. He patted his pocket, breathing a sigh of relief that he’d brought his small flashlight.

  It was obvious the girls had either been taken in here by the pirates or come on their own. Either way, he needed to find them. He darted into the passage and sprinted in the direction of the faint glow.

  Chapter Twenty Nine

  Thirty minutes until dead tide.

  Luke had stopped the Bayliner just shy of the cave entrance—the tide wasn’t low enough yet for the big boat to fit inside.

  His fists clenched around the wheel, his knee jiggling up and down as he waited for Gordy to bring the inflatable—the only boat at his disposal that would allow them to follow the pirates into the cave. He couldn’t wait for the tide to go out low enough to drive the Bayliner in and, besides, he had no idea how small the passages would be inside. He silently cursed himself for not anticipating the pirates might use scuba gear to sneak in underwater instead of arriving by boat. He hoped the mistake wouldn’t prove to be fatal.

  He cut the motor of the Bayliner and dropped anchor. He’d have to leave the boat here while he, Buzz and Gordy went in the raft. He double checked to make sure he had his Glock and SOG Seal knife.

  “We should take this.” Buzz held up the stainless steel scuba spear gun and Luke nodded. They could use all the weapons they could get.

  The sound of a motor alerted him to the approaching inflatable and he sat on the side of the boat, swinging his legs over, so he could jump into the raft as soon as it came alongside.

  Buzz did the same and when Gordy pulled up, they both jumped in causing the boat to dip into the water then bob back up.

  “Let’s go. They have a good five minutes on us,” Luke said. Gordy gunned the boat forward and Luke picked up his infrared binoculars.

  “It looks like they’ve moved the boulders that were blocking the way when we were in here the other day.”

  The missing boulders provided a small passageway for the craft and they slid through them followed the underwater passage for several yards. The water was getting much lower now and the passage much narrower. It was almost as if they were going uphill. Luke saw another passage to the right up ahead.

  “Hold it up here,” he said and Gordy stopped the boat. Luke looked down the other passage.

  “Should we take it?” Gordy asked.

  Luke got out a flashlight and put it down near the surface of the water, aiming it sideways so it would reflect off the top. He saw a slight rainbow sheen. Gasoline. The pirates must have taken that passage.

  “Yep,” he answered and Gordy turned the inflatable into the passage and headed forward.

  As they powered along Luke kept his eye out on the sides of the tunnel in case there were any more turn offs.

  “Buzz, keep an eye out up ahead. Let me know if you see any sign of the pirates. I’ll keep an eye out for turnoffs … I think we’re in the maze and I have no idea which way to go.

  ***

  “Holy crap, we’re inside the maze,” Jolene said pointing to the carved stone walls which veered off at different angles.

  “Wait.” Celeste stopped short and spun around. “We need the map, or we won’t know which path to take.”

  Jolene grabbed her arm, stopping her from heading back. “No we don’t. I have a photographic memory, remember? I can picture the maze in my head and I know exactly which way to go.”

  Celeste’s eyebrows raised. “Okay, then lead the way.”

  “Hold on,” Morgan said. Celeste turned to see her looking down at the burlap bag Fiona was holding. Inside one of the crystals was glowing.

  Fiona ope
ned the bag and pulled out an egg sized pearly white stone which was emitting a hazy white glow, almost matching the one on her pendant.

  “It’s moonstone—for good fortune and safe travel." She held it out in her palm.

  “Safe travel?” Celeste’s brow creased. “Bring it over to the left path here.”

  Fiona moved to the left and the glow diminished, the further she walked down that path, the dimmer it got until finally the glow extinguished. She started back toward them and the stone lit up again, getting even brighter as she walked down the path on the right.

  “Jolene, is that the path we should take?”

  “Yep." Jolene nodded. “Looks like the stone is showing us the way, too.”

  They followed Fiona, getting about fifty feet down the path when Celeste thought she heard something behind them.

  “Shhh.” She grabbed Fiona’s arm and they all stopped.

  “Footsteps coming behind us," Morgan said.

  Celeste instinctively got into her defensive karate stance, holding her arm with the cast in front of her, feeling glad she hadn’t seen the doctor to have it removed. The hard shell of the cast would help protect her and she could use it as a weapon.

  Was it the pirates coming after them?

  The steps were closing in. She held her breath when she saw a shadowy figure turn the corner. Then her breath whooshed out of her and she relaxed when she realized who it was.

  “Cal, you scared the crap out of us!”

  Morgan bent down to pet Belladonna who purred up at her proudly as if expecting to be rewarded for bringing Cal.

  “Thank God you guys are okay. I was afraid the pirates got you.” Cal pulled Celeste into his arms and her heart melted. Then he abruptly released her and held the maps out in front of him, holding his flashlight in his mouth to illuminate them.