She also saw Cal creeping toward them and she tried to signal to him to back off. She had a plan and didn’t want Cal getting hurt.
“Okay, but let her go first,” Morgan said.
Celeste stayed very still, keeping in tune with the pirates every breath, waiting for him to loosen his hold just a little.
A white blur streaked from the side, distracting the pirate.
Belladonna!
The cat raked the pirates arm with her claws.
The pirate loosened his grip and Celeste spun around, bringing her arm up and smashed him over the head as hard as she could with her hard plaster cast.
He staggered backward and Cal moved in, hitting him with an uppercut to the jaw. But the pirate was tough and he punched out connecting with Cal’s cheek. Cal punched back, moving the pirate back a few steps.
The pirate swung again and Cal ducked low then rushed into the pirate’s midsection pushing him backward like a linebacker. Celeste’s stomach clenched when she realized what Cal was doing—he was pushing the pirate toward the cliff and at the speed he was going, it looked like Cal was going to go right over with him.
“Cal, no!” She cried out just as he disappeared over the edge.
***
Celeste rushed to the edge of the cliff, her heart shattering into a million pieces. Tears sprang to her eyes as she peered over and got the surprise of her life. Cal wasn’t crushed at the bottom … actually, you couldn’t even see the bottom but that was okay because Cal’s hand was gripping onto a piece of rock that was sticking out about six inches down.
“Cal! I thought you were dead.”
“Yeah, me too.” He grinned up at her.
“Grab onto my hand with your free hand.” She shoved her good hand, the one without the cast, over the cliff. He grabbed it. His hand was slick with sweat and her heart fluttered half expecting it to slip out. In that moment, she knew that she didn’t want to live without him.
“Cal, I love you,” she blurted out.
His blue eyes softened and he smiled up at her. “I love you, too, Celeste.”
They stared into each other’s eyes. Celeste could feel his heart beating through her hand. Her chest filled with warmth, and then panic as she felt his hand slipping out of hers.
“No!” she yelled as she tried to grab on, but his hand was too slick, his body weight too heavy. His hand slipped out of hers and she closed her eyes, waiting to hear the sickening crunch.
No crunch came.
She opened her eyes and craned her neck further over the edge. Cal was standing on a thin ledge, pressed against the wall of the cliff, his face about a foot down looking up at her.
“You didn’t fall to your death!”
“Nah, I was standing on the ledge the whole time. Now hurry up and help me out of here.”
She lay down on her stomach and put both hands over. Cal grabbed on then wedged his foot into a crevice on the side of the cliff pulling his way up like a mountain climber.
The were both out of breath when he emerged over the top. He pulled her to her feet and pushed the hair back from her face.
“Did you mean what you said?” he asked.
“What? That I love you?”
He nodded, his sapphire eyes drilling into hers.
“Well, after that stunt, I’m not so sure,” she teased. Out of the corner of her eye she could see her pirate ghost bobbing up and down, smiling and giving her the thumbs up.
“Say it,” he said, his lips drifting awfully close to hers.
“I love you.” His lips were warm, salty and utterly delicious. As her eyes fluttered shut, she saw the pirate ghost blow her a kiss and disappear into a swirl of mist.
“Hey, you guys hurry up! The tide is coming in!” Morgan’s frantic plea jerked Celeste out of the kiss and she looked around.
How had the water gotten so high so fast?
She grabbed Cal’s hand and sprinted over to where her sisters stood gesturing for them to hurry. Luke and Buzz stood with Gordy in between them, a little bruised but alive.
“We’ll have to go out this way." Luke nodded toward the passage the girls had used. “The way we came is already getting flooded and I’m not sure we can fit the boat through.”
Celeste looked over to the other side of the cavern and noticed the water was a lot higher on that side. She glanced at the Ocean’s Revenge and saw the boat was quickly filling up with water.
“But what about the treasure?” she asked.
“There’s no time. Let’s go!”
They ran up the slope and into the passage. Fiona held her crystal out which lit the way. Buzz and Gordy raised their brows at it but kept quiet.
Celeste noticed, the bottom of the passage was slick with puddles of water as they hurried through it, her heart warmed by the fact that Cal kept hold of her hand. Belladonna padded along behind them making angry mewing noises ever time her paws got wet.
“So how do you guys figure the pirates knew their way through the maze?” Jolene asked.
“We followed them in from the ocean,” Luke said. “I found this in the water floating behind them. I guess they used it to find their way. Very convenient they dropped it since it helped us find our way.”
He pulled out a map almost identical to the maze map they had.
“Let me see that." Jolene stopped and stared at the map. “This isn’t the fake that we gave to Overton.”
“What? It has to be,” Morgan said.
“No. The path is actually the real path—the opposite of the fake map.” Jolene turned to Cal. “Do you still have that?”
Cal reached into his pocket and pulled out the map. Jolene held the two side by side.
“See.”
“How is that possible?” Fiona made a face. “What is going on?”
“There’s only one way it’s possible.” Jolene chuckled. “Overton was double-crossing Goldlinger.”
“Right!” Celeste said. “He took our fake map and made his own fake map which actually had the real path!”
Morgan’s brow creased. “But what happened to Overton.”
Jolene shrugged. “Who knows. Who cares.”
“Maybe Goldlinger found out and did away with him?” Fiona mused.
“Mew!”
“Belladonna sounds like maybe she knows,” Celeste joked.
“This is kind of depressing. We went to all this trouble … found the treasure, fought off the pirates and we didn’t even get to bring any of the treasure back!” Fiona said.
“Speak for yourself.” Jolene reached into the pocket of her cargo pants and pulled out a handful of gold chains and coins.
“You took some?” Morgan asked as they rounded the last corner. The basement light shone through the cask door just ahead.
“Yeah, what do you think I was doing while you guys were screwing off with the pirates?”
Belladonna ran ahead, leaping out into the basement and up the steps. The rest of them dragged behind. Celeste felt exhausted as they mounted the stairs and spilled out into the kitchen.
Jake came around the corner, creasing his forehead at them. “Where were you guys. I looked all over.”
They looked at each other. No one knew exactly what to say.
Jake narrowed his eyes. “Did I miss something? It’s past midnight and I thought that was when everything was going to go down.”
Fiona went over to him and put her arm around his waist. “You could say that.”
Jake slipped his arm around her shoulders and looked at the basement door. “Were you guys in the basement?”
“Yes. I don’t know about anyone else, but I worked up quite an appetite down there," Jolene said. “Let’s fill Jake in while we eat that pizza.”
Celeste felt Cal cringe as Jolene glanced at the kitchen counters then poked her head into the informal living room, then back into the kitchen.
“Cal, don’t tell me you forgot to pick up the pizza?”
Epilogue
“It’s nice
to sit and relax without having to worry about pirates.” Jolene lifted her face to the sun, whose warm Indian summer rays had transformed the Maine fall weather back into summer.
Celeste nodded, looking out over Perkins Cove where they sat at wrought iron tables outside their favorite ice cream place. The cove was calm, peaceful. A perfect fall day which had tourists swarming in and out of the shops and taking pictures of themselves in front of the cove filled with quaint New England boats. She felt the corners of her mouth tug upwards in a smile thinking of how surprised they might be to know a three hundred year old pirate ship loaded with treasure was less than a mile away.
“You can say that again,” Cal said pulling out the chair next to Celeste and setting a small cup of chocolate chip ice cream in front of her before sitting down.
Celeste dug into the ice cream, which was no easy feat considering Cal had intertwined his hand with hers and didn’t seem eager to let go. Luckily her cast had been removed a week ago and she had more mobility in her free hand.
“I just wish we had taken more treasure out. It could be another three hundred years before anyone can get down there again.” Morgan bit into the side of her maple walnut cone with a crunch.
“Not necessarily,” Jake said. “Back in Isaiah’s day there wouldn’t have been anyway to navigate the maze under water, but today we have scuba gear and even submersibles that could go down there.”
“I’d love to get a look at what’s in there,” Cal said. “There must be some great antique jewelry and artifacts. Priceless stuff. But really, the things you guys have in your attic will give you more money than you can ever spend.”
“I still don’t understand how Isaiah got the boat in there in the first place," Fiona said.
“When we were out on the ocean looking for the pirates, I could see the opening of the underwater cave above the sea line. I’m guessing he just sailed the boat in. Three hundred years ago the sea level was actually a lot lower, so if they had an unusually low tide like this one, he would have been able to get the boat in pretty easily,” Jake said.
“But how would he get it through the maze?” Jolene sipped her frappe, her blue eyes questioning Jake over the tops of her sunglasses.
“I think he might have built the maze later as added insurance against anyone else finding the ship.”
Celeste’s eyebrows shot up. “That seems like a pretty big task.”
Jake shrugged. “Well I’m not sure how he did it, but someone how he got that boat in there in the middle of the maze.”
“And what about Overton?” Cal asked.
“No one has seen him since last week,” Jake answered.
Celeste licked a glob of ice cream off her spoon. It had been a little over a week since they’d found the pirate ship and no one had seen Overton since that day. She couldn’t say she would miss him, but it did give her an eerie feeling not knowing what happened to him.
“Well, I hope they get a nicer Sheriff to replace him. It will be great not to be accused of every crime that happens in this town,” Morgan said shoving the end of her cone into her mouth.
“Do you think Goldlinger did away with him?” Jolene asked.
Jake shrugged. “I’m not sure. His apartment was empty and no one ever found his car. Maybe he’s on the run.”
“Either way, I’m happy to see him go.”
“So now what?” Fiona asked. “We go back to normal?”
“Well, I’d hardly call you girls normal," Cal said draping his arm over Celeste’s chair.
“Right. We have some special talents that we can’t ignore," Celeste said as she squinted at the crowd. Was that who she thought it was?
“Yeah, we should work on harnessing them, I guess,” Fiona said, “especially Jolene.”
“I don’t even know where to start,” Jolene said. “Maybe you could help me, Celeste.”
“Yeah, sure," Celeste answered her sister absently. She was distracted by the crowd, her eyes searching for a mop of familiar dark, wavy hair she thought she’d seen.
“Maybe we could all get together once a week or something and … Celeste … Are you even listening?” Jolene tapped Celeste on the shoulder.
Celeste wasn’t listening. She was busy staring into the crowd … at Mateo. He stood about fifty feet away on the other side of the cove watching them. When he saw her look at him, he smiled, saluted her and then turned away, disappearing into a throng of tourists who’d just disembarked from one of the open air trolley shaped buses that provided transportation around town.
“Hey, it’s that guy!” Jolene, who had swiveled her head to follow Celeste’s gaze shot out of her chair and took off running in Mateo’s direction. Celeste relaxed back in her seat. Somehow she knew Jolene would never catch up to him.
“What guy?” Fiona scrunched her face at Celeste.
“Mateo.”
“Oh, the mystery man who gave us the book.” Fiona looked in the direction Jolene had taken off in. “Why do you think he would show up here? Should we go after him?”
Celeste shrugged. “Nah. He helped us out before, but if he wanted to talk to us he would have come over.”
“Besides,” Morgan added. “I have a feeling we might be seeing him again someday … when the time is right.”
Celeste watched Jolene come out of the crowd and jog back to the table.
“He got away." She collapsed in her seat, gulping in a few breaths.
“Never mind him,” Morgan said. “Luke called me last night and he said his boss was asking a lot of questions about our … umm … unusual talents. I guess word travels fast.”
“I think I’d feel better if less people knew about that." Celeste cut her eyes over to Morgan.
“Me too. But they found out somehow and were intrigued.”
“Speak of the devil." Jolene lifted her chin toward the street and Celeste looked over her shoulder to see Luke approaching the table. He pulled a chair over next to Morgan and everyone at the table exchanged a round of greetings.
“How was your trip?” Cal asked.
“Pretty good. How have things been here?”
“Blissfully quiet,” Celeste answered.
“Almost too quiet," Jolene said. "It’s getting kind of boring.”
“Oh really?” Luke leaned back in his chair crossing his arms against his chest and smiling. “So you girls are looking to spice things up?”
Celeste narrowed her eyes. Was she? The truth was after all the excitement it was getting kind of boring. Maybe she was getting addicted to danger. She looked around at her sisters and got the distinct impression they felt the same way.
Jolene answered for all of them. “Yes, we are.”
“Great." Luke leaned his forearms on the table, his eyes sparkling. “How do you guys feel about ghost towns in the old west? I have a job out there and I sure could use your help.
The end.
***
Want more Blackmoore Sister’s adventures? Buy the rest of the books in the series:
Dead Wrong (Book 1)
Dead & Buried (Book 2)
Note From The Author
I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. This is the third book in the Blackmoore sisters mystery series and I have a whole bunch more planned!
The setting for this book series is based on one of my favorite places in the world - Ogunquit Maine. Of course, I changed some of the geography around to suit my story, and changed the name of the town to Noquitt but the basics are there. Anyone familiar with Ogunquit will recognize some of the landmarks I have in the book.
The house the sisters live in sits at the very end of Perkins Cove and I was always fascinated with it as a kid. Of course, back then it was a mysterious, creepy old house that was privately owned and I was dying to go in there. I’m sure it must have had an attic stuffed full of antiques just like in the book!
Today, it’s been all modernized and updated—I think you can even rent it out for a summer vacation. In
the book the house looks different and it’s also set high up on a cliff (you’ll see why in a later book) where in real life it’s not. I’ve also made the house much older to suit my story.
Believe it or not, much of the pirate lore I have in the book is actually true! Pirates really did bury treasure all along the east coast and there was a stash of pirate booty dug up in the 1930s in Biddeford like I mention in the book.
Also, if you like cozy mysteries, you might like my book “Brownies, Bodies & Bad Guys” which is part of my Lexy Baker cozy mystery series. I have an excerpt from it at the end of this book.
This book has been through many edits with several people and even some software programs, but since nothing is infallible (even the software programs) you might catch a spelling error or mistake and, if you do, I sure would appreciate it if you let me know - you can contact me at [email protected].
Oh, and I love to connect with my readers so please do visit me on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/leighanndobbsbooks or at my website http://www.leighanndobbs.com.
Are you signed up to get notifications of my latest releases and special contests? Go to: http://www.leighanndobbs.com/newsletter and enter your email address to signup - I promise never to share it and I only send emails every couple of weeks so I won’t fill up your inbox.
About The Author
Leighann Dobbs discovered her passion for writing after a twenty year career as a software engineer. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband Bruce, their trusty Chihuahua mix Mojo and beautiful rescue kat, Kitty. When she’s not reading, gardening or selling antiques, she likes to write romance and cozy mystery novels and novelettes which are perfect for the busy person on the go.
Dead Tide (Blackmoore Sisters Romantic Cozy Mystery Series) Page 16