Collecting Shadows

by Gary Williams

  “Let me guess. You got shot because you were being sympathetic?”

  Liam chuckled. “Honestly, no, but we’ll both have badass stories to tell people about our scars.”

  Liam took a seat and stayed for nearly an hour chatting with Preston before a nurse forced him back to his room. He made sure not to call her Eunice when he said goodbye.

  72

  Bailey arrived at the shop at 8:30 a.m. Rita and Drew came downstairs to let her in. It was 30 minutes before opening. She still didn’t know why Liam wanted to see her.

  “Hey,” Rita said, escorting her in with a confused nod. “Isn’t Liam with you?”

  Bailey shook her head. “No, he told me to meet him here.”

  Pilot came rushing down the stairs and almost bowled Bailey over. She bent down to embrace him. “Oh, it’s so good to see you wagging your tail again. Is he okay?” she asked looking up at Rita and Drew.

  “The vet said he’ll have that lump on his head for a while, but there’s no permanent damage. He had the equivalent of a human concussion,” Drew responded.

  “Bailey, how are you?” Rita asked.

  “I’m coping. I’d prefer not to talk about it.” She absently adjusted the scarf she wore around her neck to cover up the mark, and quickly changed subjects. “So you have no idea where Liam is?”

  Rita shrugged. “He was gone before I woke up this morning.”

  “Did you see the article in the Gazette online this morning?” Drew asked. “Authorities have identified almost all the artwork from the underground room, or as Flagler called it, the “Lily Room.” This trove is one of the most remarkable discoveries of all time. National and international news outlets have picked up the story.”

  Bailey nodded. “Isn’t it incredible? They also published the contents of Flagler’s papers from the room. It was online early this morning. I’ve already read it, like, three times. The story also included Ida Alice’s 1894 letter to Czar Alexander III that police found in Farlan’s rental car, along with the Fabergé egg.”

  “I haven’t read it yet. Someone was hogging my iPad earlier,” Rita smiled at Drew then turned to Bailey. “You care to summarize?”

  “Sure. The story goes that the tunnel and the Lily Room were secretly built in two stages. The tunnel was built in 1887 during construction of the Hotel Ponce de León, but the Lily Room wasn’t built until the mausoleum was added to Memorial Presbyterian Church in 1906.”

  “Flagler built the tunnel almost 20 years before the construction of the underground parlor room?” Aunt Rita asked.

  “Yes, it was all planned out. It turns out Flagler, who had employees working on his behalf to acquire the priceless art in Europe, Asia, and Australia, had planned for a hidden room to house his collection at the same time he began construction on the hotel. So as the tunnel was being dug, Flagler and the architects leaked false information to the workers that it would connect to a second planned hotel. This private passageway would allow men from the Ponce de León to get to the Alcazar without their wives knowing about it. The true intent of the tunnel was to eventually connect to the Lily Room.

  “No doubt, this is how the legend of an underground tunnel started, except that the tunnel ran away from the Hotel Alcazar instead of toward it. The architects fooled the workers by secretly designing the circular elevator car; the one we took underground through the fireplace. The elevator car slowly corkscrews as it lowers, but it happens so gradually you don’t feel it. When you reach the bottom, you’re facing in the opposite direction from where you entered it. Liam figured it out because of the compass on his necklace.

  “Well into the digging, a side room was constructed and furniture was brought down, which was kept tightly wrapped for protection. The workers were told it would be a custom, furnished resting area for men traveling between the hotels. Of course, this was another lie, but I’ll get to that in a sec.

  “Around this time, The Hen Egg with Sapphire Pendant was stolen from the Kremlin. It’s unclear if Flagler’s man did it. Flagler only learned it was hot property after it came into his possession. He couldn’t risk anyone knowing he had it, so he kept it hidden in a bureau in the tunnel room.

  “At the point during construction where the tunnel reached what would eventually be the area beneath the mausoleum of the church, the digging stopped. Flagler, a very religious man, said he had second thoughts about building a tunnel to allow good men to sneak around on their wives. The expensive furniture was left behind in the side room and the tunnel was supposedly sealed from the hotel. This was the end of Phase One: construction of the tunnel and staging of the furniture.”

  Bailey took a breath while she collected her thoughts. “Phase Two was the construction of the Lily Room with the large steel door and the combination lock, which wasn’t started until work on the mausoleum began in 1906. Where the tunnel had ended 20 years earlier at the corner of the church, a bare room was created by a handful of workers who thought they were building an underground level of the mausoleum. The workers were forbidden to enter the connecting tunnel and were told only that they were catacombs beneath the church.

  “Once the room was finished, the steel beams were placed at the ceiling. The marble floor of the mausoleum sealed the underground room, with one exception: the rectangular, three-foot by six-foot cutout in the ceiling.

  “When Liam was trapped in the room, the cutout ceiling was one of the clues that let him know where he was. Another was the direction of the tunnel. But it wasn’t until he found the seal with the symbols Chi, Rho, Alpha, and Omega on the floor under the chair that he was sure he was below the mausoleum. The seal is identical to the seal on the floor of the mausoleum. He really does have an unusual eye for detail.”

  “I knew if I made noise under the sarcophagus, someone might hear me,” Liam added. He had entered the shop while Bailey was talking. A woman with shoulder-length red hair, dressed in a charcoal-gray suit stood beside him. Bailey guessed she was in her fifties. “Aunt Rita, Drew, Bailey, this is Regan Burns. She works with the St. Augustine City Commission.”

  ****

  Aunt Rita stared at Liam suspiciously.

  “Please continue with your explanation,” Ms. Burns addressed Bailey as she approached the group, shaking each person’s hand in turn. “You’re doing a great job.”

  Liam limped to join the group.

  “How’s your leg?” Bailey asked sincerely.

  “Not bad. I’ll still be limping for a while. Go on,” Liam gently urged her.

  Bailey seemed tentative at first, but then continued with a slightly dramatic flair now that she had a larger audience. “When the bare room was completed, the architects, Carrère and Hastings, entered the underground room through the mausoleum and brought in the necessary carpeting, paint, and woodwork to finish the beautiful parlor.

  “When it was complete, they went to the Hotel Ponce de León, where they secretly entered the tunnel through the Grand Parlor. They moved the furniture from the side room in the tunnel to the Lily Room using the railcar. That was one of the few times the steel door was actually used.

  “After everything was in place, they helped Flagler move the crated artwork underground, but they never knew what was in there. The final step was opening the crates and setting the artwork in place. For this, Flagler hired one of his former servants; a man he trusted, who had worked for him a dozen years before. Flagler blindfolded the man and led him underground to the Lily Room where he directed the man to unpack and display the art. The last item was put in place when Flagler unlocked the bureau drawer and removed the Fabergé egg.”

  Bailey suddenly stopped. “It just occurred to me that the broken pieces of decayed wood in the tunnel beside the steel door were from the crates that held the artwork.”

  Liam picked up the narrative. “Anyway, once they were done, the servant was again blindfolded, and Flagler led him back to the street. As payment for his services and silence, Flagler built the man a home in Lincolnville. His
name was Lucius Mast; Mr. Mast’s great-grandfather. That was why Mr. Mast said his great-grandfather was so sure a treasure existed. He had witnessed it firsthand, but he didn’t know where it was located. He only knew that Ida Alice left behind clues that might lead to it.”

  Bailey nodded. “Yep, and afterward, Flagler returned to the room by himself. He dragged the mirror in front of the chair, sat in front of it holding his Brownie box camera, and snapped the selfie. It took him a day or so longer than he hoped to get the picture developed, and that’s what held up the placement of the time capsule under the cornerstone of the Gazette building until March 1st.”

  “Jeez, now it makes sense,” Liam said, slapping his forehead. “The cost. Bailey, remember when the docent, Mrs. Atworth, mentioned it cost Flagler $2.4 million in today’s dollars to build the mausoleum, and I said that I thought that was a lot?”

  “I believe your words were, ‘Flagler was duped,’ and Ms. Atworth didn’t like it much,” Bailey smiled.

  “That was the total cost of building the mausoleum and the Lily Room, including the steel door. Anyway, after he shot the selfie, he finished this letter to the citizens of St. Augustine, explaining the photograph, and left the papers on the bureau.”

  Bailey added, “Mary Lily Kenan was 37 years younger than Flagler, and it was almost a certainty she would far outlive him. Flagler’s plan was that when her body was laid to rest, officials would obviously have to lift the sarcophagus, and they would find the Lily Room. That explains why the message on his selfie was in that particular tense.” She quoted from memory, “ ‘To the fine citizens of St. Augustine, I hope you’ve enjoyed my gift.’ Flagler was sure that, by the time the capsule was opened, the treasure would have been found.”

  “The one thing Flagler hadn’t considered was that Mary Lily would choose to be buried in her family plot in North Carolina, which meant the opening beneath her sarcophagus was never discovered,” Liam said.

  “It’s amazing,” Drew remarked, “that Carrère and Hastings never spilled the information about the underground room.”

  “Not really,” Liam replied. “They’d made a lot of money off Flagler. I don’t think they wanted to lose his business. One person did find out about the tunnel, though: Ida Alice. In her letter to the Czar of Russia, she mentioned the egg and left him clues to the secret opening through the fireplace using the hands of the clock. I have a copy right here,” Liam pulled out a copy of the letter and began reading:

  October 26, 1894

  My dearest. I fear Henry is on the cusp of discovering our love. You must venture across the Atlantic and reach Kirkside in St. Augustine, Florida, while we are still in New York. Once there, follow the specific order of the items listed below. The key is the Ouija board. Each clue will lead you closer to the secret and to the Egg. Once you have met the challenge, come for me, and we shall travel back to your homeland as husband and wife.

  Sincerely,

  Ida Alice

  1. Fanlight window

  2. Staircase banister

  3. Armillary sundial

  4. Front door

  5. Pergola

  6. Column

  “Stewart Farlan obtained this letter from god-only-knows-where, and it gave him a big-time advantage because it listed the six pieces in the correct order, which was something we didn’t know. And even though he never found the sundial, once he had, See back of the painting ____ de León in Florida for treasure, it was obvious that the sundial clue had to be ‘of Ponce.’ ”

  Liam paused and looked around quizzically. “There’s one thing that doesn’t make sense, though. Ida Alice never returned to St. Augustine after May of 1895 when she was placed in the sanitarium, so how did she know about the Lily Room if it wasn’t built until 1906?”

  Bailey replied, “She didn’t. Remember, her letter said, ‘Each clue will lead you closer to the secret, and to the Egg.’ At the time Flagler stored the Fabergé egg in the bureau in the tunnel’s side room, she was still in the picture. Somehow she found out about the project and how to access the tunnel. Whether she knew about Flagler’s end game—to build the Lily Room almost 20 years later—we’ll never know. What she did know before she mailed the letter to the czar was that the egg was hidden down in the tunnel, and the letter was his instruction to recover it. Do you realize that discovering Flagler had the egg may have led her to the delusion that she was in love with the Czar of Russia and that he would want to be her future husband? Maybe she thought that once Alexander received her letter, he would come for the egg, kill Henry, and she would be free to marry him.”

  73

  The discussion about the Lily Room ended, and Aunt Rita eyed Liam. He knew she wanted an explanation about his guest.

  “Um, not to be rude, but can I ask why you’re here, Ms. Burns?” Aunt Rita asked, glancing at Liam.

  “Certainly. The city’s attorneys have declared that the papers you just discussed were, indeed, penned by Henry Flagler and are authentic. Normally, because the treasure was found on church grounds, the church would have 100% ownership of the contents of the room. This is, however, an exceptional case.” She looked down and flipped through a series of papers in a file folder she had brought. “According to what we found, on April 4, 1890, Flagler and his wife transferred ownership of the church to the trustees of the local congregation. In 1906, when the mausoleum and underground parlor were constructed, a codicil was added to the original agreement stating, and I quote, ‘For any items owned by the benefactor (a/k/a Henry M. Flagler) on church grounds, the benefactor will retain legal ownership.’ Thus, the ownership of anything in the room was transferred to the City of St. Augustine, as Mr. Flagler intended.

  “While there’s no finder’s fee in this case, the city is extremely grateful for this discovery. So first, given that the surveillance cameras in the courtyard of the Lightner Museum proved Drew Moraken shot Stewart Farlan in order to save lives, all charges have been dropped against Mr. Moraken. Likewise, our attorneys have arranged with the Jacksonville Police Department to drop all charges in the arrest of Britney Li, and the charges have been dismissed against Liam Poston and Bailey Deeth for their alleged criminal activity at the Cummer Art Museum.”

  “Oh thank God,” Aunt Rita sighed with relief.

  “In addition,” Ms. Burns continued, “because the Fabergé egg was stolen, the City of St. Augustine has already contacted the Russian Embassy to arrange for it to be returned to them. You may know that stolen property does not legally belong to anyone other than the rightful owner, even if it has been bought, sold, or traded to an unknowing third party.”

  After a brief pause, Ms. Burns turned to Liam. “You want to take it from here?”

  “Yes,” Liam responded, then addressed Bailey directly, “Remember when you said you wouldn’t be able to go to college because of your…um…situation?”

  She slowly shook her head up and down.

  “Well, the city is offering us, and the others who participated in the search for the treasure—Britney Li, Arturo Manacia, Patty Schular and Calvin Durk—a four-year scholarship to Flagler College.”

  “Assuming, of course, you meet admission eligibility requirements upon graduation from high school,” Ms. Burns added.

  Bailey’s face lit up with an expression of pure joy. “Oh my God. I can’t believe this.” She reached out and hugged Liam and then Ms. Burns as the tears flowed.

  Liam had looked forward to Bailey’s reaction. It was priceless and better than he had hoped.

  A smiling Aunt Rita handed Bailey a tissue as she dabbed her own eyes. “Best. Day. Ever. Cal better pull his grades up,” she said, with a half laugh.

  Liam chuckled. “Ms. Burns, you ready for a walk?”

  “By all means,” she added.

  “C’mon, we have something to show you, Aunt Rita.”

  “I can’t leave. I’ve got to open the shop. It’s almost 9 o’clock.”

  “Drew, Bailey, do you mind taking care of things here until we
get back? We won’t be long,” Liam said.

  “We got this,” Bailey said, still wiping away the tears of joy. “As long as you tell us where you went when you get back.”

  Drew nodded.

  “Deal,” Liam said.

  Aunt Rita looked perplexed as she, Liam and Ms. Burns left the shop on foot. Despite Aunt Rita’s continual questions, Liam and Ms. Burns kept silent. When they reached St. George Street, they went north. Even at this early hour, tourists and other shoppers were already out in droves on the long, pedestrian-only street.

  Halfway down, Liam and Ms. Burns stopped.

  This was going to be fun. Liam looked to the city representative. “Why don’t you share the other news?”

  Aunt Rita gave him a sideways look. “How long have you two been talking?”

  Ms. Burns smiled at Aunt Rita. “For a while, Ms. Poston. Liam contacted me four days ago to do some negotiating when he got out of the hospital. He’s really quite good at it, and I think he should consider becoming a lawyer. Anyway, you might be surprised to know that he requested to forego his scholarship.”

  Shock and disbelief crossed Aunt Rita’s face. “Liam, you can’t do that. A four-year scholarship to Flagler College must be worth well over $100,000.”

  “Ms. Poston,” Ms. Burns continued, “Liam wanted to trade the scholarship for upgraded storefront space for you, but the city declined the offer.”

  Aunt Rita spoke with brimming eyes. “I don’t know what to say, except you shouldn’t have tried to negotiate away your scholarship.”

  “One moment, Ms. Poston,” Ms. Burns interrupted. “As I said, Liam proposed the trade, but the city is prepared to make a counteroffer. We want Liam to keep the scholarship. In addition, we found a storefront with 2,800 square feet available, and we’ll cover the lease, so you can have the space rent-free for the first year. After that, the city will cover the difference so that you’ll pay the same rent you were paying on King Street before your landlord increased it. Like your current space, there’s a large living area upstairs with three bedrooms, two baths, a kitchen, laundry closet, living room, and dining room.”