The Lost Treasure Map Deluxe Book Collection (2017 Edition)

by V Bertolaccini

All the occurrences sounded so astounding afterwards I could hardly believe it myself at times, and what the outcome scenario of the incredible events had been, and it being entirely different from what I expected.

  Though the treasure we found in the cavity was confirmed to belong to Mary Queen of Scots it was not confirmed officially, and it was currently being kept in a museum cellar, as they attempted to prove what it was, and it actually existed.

  The dormant alien formation, even when shown, was not enough to prove anything, and it was a rare phenomenon to them, and something else entirely, and all the scientists, who had been unable to make mental or normal communications with it, were unable to prove it or prove it was not, and it basically left me the only one that had seen it and communicated with it.

  I was unable to allow it to make contact with the human race, as they were unable to communicate, and it seemed to change its mind about doing it, as it had done before, but I realized it wanted to do something else, which I was unable to realize, and from my last communications with it.

  In the end it was left in the museum cellar, with the treasure, where the paranormal scientists and scientists occasionally visited when they had new ideas and technology, to investigate it further.

  To my surprise I once realized nobody in the museum realized what had even taken place, and was there, buried away in the depths of their building, and the scientists and paranormal scientists who investigated it no longer mentioned anything of it.

  At the time I never even suspected in my wildest fantasies that what we had found was not the conclusion to the whole affair, and what we would find later, and more historical treasure.

  Marple had investigators in all major worldwide cities and he was one of the most advanced and knowledgeable investigators I had met, who was known to me for many years before I joined him as assistant chief investigator, and his experience was vast, in all sorts of ways, in science and technology, in extraordinary occurrences, and he handled cases and activities beyond any other agencies I had encountered.

  Upon my first entrance of the building he had me rushed up the stairs to his office, and introduced as Mike Malone, previously a news reporter, to the new investigators, and I was given a seat.

  Marple held a meeting with the investigators there discussing the end of the war, and at the end of the meeting introduced me to a new distinctive/strange case, which baffled me, as I had been sure I had done everything, after the past affairs, and the alien discovery, and what must surely be the greatest scientific discovery mankind ever encountered.

  He bestowed the case at the end of the meeting with little knowledge of what it was fully about, other than it was of interest to him to see how I handled it, as my first case in London, and to see if I was doing what he wanted, and to see what I would come up with, and left me in confusion, as he gave me little.

  After examining the few facts I became convinced it was just someone playing a festive season drink induced prank, dressed as a department store Santa Claus, and all that was mentioned was a woman had phoned claiming a department store Santa had scared her at her home.

  Although what happened reminded me of what had happened on my first case and a woman had phoned claiming to have seen ghosts, and I sensed something, and saw Marple had reacted in the same way, but I did not know why.

  Furthermore, before I undertook it, something else emerged, and a new client, McMurdo, phoned Marple, with another strange case, to Marple’s surprise, and they arranged a meeting, and I stayed to see what he was so desperate to do, and I wondered what was going to happen, and what the outcome would be, and slowly detected Marple had excitedly become interested, and that money was surely involved, and I wondered if it was because it Christmas or the company opening its new headquarters.

  I sat at the fireplace and watched Marple put up his Christmas tree in the corner of the room, introducing the festive season, and he poured us full glasses of his best whisky, and jumped into his seat, and I saw the last of the sunlight vanishing.

  I studied buildings looking for bomb damage from the war.

  As I shifted my seat closer to the fire his new secretary shoved open the door and rushed in and introduced McMurdo, and I was surprised to see him enter in his dirty dusty work clothes, from the top of the stairs, weary and exhausted, looking nervous.

  He looked as if he had just finished working at a building site, and I could not grasp why he was so nervous, and what he wanted.

  I considered if there was money in the building trade, now that the war was over, with all the damaged buildings, and them rebuilding the city.

  I was slightly disappointed, as I expected more, and expected he would be wealthy, and I considered why Marple thought there was money involved, and spotted Marple looked disappointed for a few seconds, and he gave McMurdo a seat at the fireplace, which he gladly took and rested in, and excepted a glass of whisky.

  After a while Marple asked him what he wanted, and he shoved his hand into his inner pocket, and apprehensively removed what looked like the remains of a folded up crumpled rag, which I identified as some form of ancient paper, and he nervously sat holding it while looking at it and his drink, and I suddenly spotted he had encountered something of immense danger, and I wondered what could do such a thing to such a man, and I considered the events that had occurred due to the war.

  “This is a very ancient document!” he announced, and Marple looked up as he opened it up, and looked startled.

  He stared at it, and Marple continued, “I’ve some experience of dating documents! Even though it looks far too old and unique for me to recognize …”

  He took the ancient piece of paper and marched over and handed it over to Marple, and backed away to his seat.

  Marple had a look of surprise and confusion, and asked him, “Perhaps you should tell us what happened, and why you need us – including what you told me on the phone, in more detail, and we perhaps may help you!”

  “Alright I shall!” he replied, and relaxed more. “I work on the underground line … We’re extending the underground train line … We drill out the muck and rocks! With all the bomb damage and extra work we’ve been running behind schedule … So they’ve employed more workers, and we work later hours …”

  “Where are you working?” I asked, curiously.

  “Near London Bridge!” he replied, looking out at where the river was. “We were digging the rubble out the tunnel and increasing the size of part of the tunnel when the tunnel wall collapsed in … Revealing a large hidden cavity in the side of the tunnel … The ground inside the cavity collapsed and fell into a deep cavity below …”

  He held his head, and quickly pulled himself together, and straightened up, and continued, “It was not just a cavity though … It was part of some buried away ancient construction, and we found a large cavity deep below. We were sure it had tunnels and ancient artifacts …”

  “Of great value?” I replied.

  He nodded his head, and I wondered what he was talking about, as why the hell would ancient underground artifacts, tunnels, and cavities be so significant, and to such a guy, at the most archeologists would be called in to explore it.

  Again I wondered what he was so frightened of, and I was more confused than I had been.

  I recalled underground tunnels and hideouts being in other cities, and realized that there could be some there!

  To my surprise he replied, “The origins of that piece of paper was told to me to be nearly two thousand years old …”

  Marple looked at it, clearly still wondering what he was after, and why he was so frightened.

  McMurdo continued, “According to accounts and legends I found! Valuable treasure was concealed near where something was concealed!”

  “Near where what was concealed?” I gasped, looking startled.

  Marple looked at him calmly, and I looked deep into the fire, and listened.

  “I found that ancient map hidden on a skeleton in the cavity! It will not be long b
efore the cavity will be buried away, as we have to finish the repairs and railway line …”

  “What do you want us to do?” I replied, cautiously.

  “I’ve just come into new information that could allow you to locate it!”

  I could not grasp if it actually existed, and sat considering it, and everything he said.

  “According to myths,” he continued, “many people have been found dead searching for it down there! There could be something of great danger, where it’s been concealed!”

  “What’ll we do then?” I asked, curiously, looking over at Marple, waiting to see if Marple said anything.

  “You’ll have to wait until I’m ready!” McMurdo replied first, and stood up. “I could have a major clue to its location, and I’m sure I can discover something of significant importance! I will need your help to recover it!”

  “We’ll do that!” Marple replied firmly.

  When he had left the building, and returned home, I started to doubt what he was after was of value other than to archaeology and museums, for historical value, and I was sure he was just trying to get us to go out our way to get it for him, and I wondered if it was also because it was of great danger.

  Chapter 2

  The Santa Investigation

  My first investigation in London seemed strange, which I could not identify, and the elderly widow client left me confused, as she claimed she had seen Santa Claus in her house in the middle of the night, and she claimed he had a strange ghostly appearance, and I could not identify why.

  So I questioned her over again, and took it she had witnessed something unusual in the night, while leaving her bed, upon hearing noises below, and there seemed to me to be no case to investigate as no crime had been committed, and she said she was not bothered about him being there to my surprise, and nothing seemed to suggest he had done anything, and I wondered why she was not bothered about him being there, in her house at night, and why she had reported it, and she never replied why.

  I had gone to the client confused and repeatedly going over the document I was given, which consisted of nothing but a few paragraphs with a few lines she had given the agency, and I came to the conclusion that she might have stopped an attempted burglary and wanted us to secretively handle the case.

  What could she have confronted at night in her living room of her house that could have caused her to seek such dramatic action?

  The location was near our headquarters, next to the Thames, and when I entered I expected little. It was my first case!

  After talking with her more I established that she had recently become a widow, and was left there on her own, and I suddenly realized that she believed she had encountered something she believed was of a paranormal nature, of a strange nature, and that she must want me to identify what it was and perhaps find a way of getting rid of it.

  Though what had she seen, and how was I going to get rid of it, and what if it was some form of paranormal?

  After the ghost occurrences I had witnessed before I gasped at what it could be! But they were entirely different and surely could not exist there. And if she had fantasized something, half asleep, in the middle of the night, she could have hallucinated, or she could have believed it had occurred afterwards, but there was more to it, and I had to try to deduce what she meant by what she said, and I had her give me accurate descriptions of the visitation, or whatever she thought it was, but she gave me little and it left me confused, and I wondered if she was playing with me, as she might have heard of the case of the ghost sightings.

  Though she insisted something had appeared there, in her living room, and that it had never appeared there before, and she claimed the Santa Claus floated inches over her floor, as though it thought it was on the floor, and its movement suggested it was doing something, with an intension, which she never identified.

  The case seized my attention and I became engrossed in discovering what would happen, and in the unusual case, and I had to solve it. But it was not a matter of remaining there this time and watching for its reappearance, as it had only shown itself once, and I even wondered if it could have been from my appearance there, and the powers that I had gained from the last occurrence, but they had been different and had vanished, and I decided to check nearby and locals there, and if they had seen anything, or had heard of anything that had supposedly haunted the region.

  Chapter 3

  The Visitations

  After thinking it over for too long I started wondering if it was me that was attracting such strange occurrences to materialize, as since the last one I still had not heard any other proper occurrences anywhere, and from everyone and everywhere I checked, and could not grasp how the paranormal scientists could even work, as there was nothing and they admitted it!

  I sensed that it existed in this case, and started to realize it more and more as I questioned locals, but I could not identify what, as they only explained so far, and little, and none had actually seen any occurrences, and I could not grasp if they were tricking me, or hiding something, but eventually I got more information from them, and I realized there had been other sightings of the Santa Claus, and that they were passing on information from the victims.

  I began to believe it could be a serial killer, who had hidden away the remains of his victims, and the people I had met only had heard rumors, and I decided to search further and discovered there had been other sightings of the Santa Claus on the same street as the elderly widow who had witnessed him.

  My first investigation of another elderly widow on the same street seemed as strange as the first, and left me more confused, and gave little information on what she had witnessed, and nothing indicating it was a serial killer, and she claimed she had seen Santa Claus actually emerge in her house in the middle of the night, and she claimed it had somehow had the appearance of something ghostly, and I started to wonder if she was just copying the other woman, and wondered what they were up to.

  By the way she later described it I wondered if it had been a burglar using the festive season and a Santa Claus costume to disguise him breaking in, while hiding his identity, and after talking it over she admitted others in the street had encountered it too, to my surprise, and I decided to investigate it further.

  Back at Reality Investigations I met Marple and he handed me letters involved with the case, which I opened, and I sat surprised and shocked at the fireplace reading them, and even though I thought the sudden appearance of the letters had to be someone reacting to my investigations, and perhaps covering up what they were doing, I realized how authentic the letters were and how dangerous the case could be, and I was left staggered when I read one from a school boy who claimed Santa’s reindeer had eaten his brother, and left his bones under their Christmas tree, and I was left baffled, and wondered why the police had not been called, and I decided that I had better investigate it before doing anything, and had to check the bones existed, and identify a killing occurring!

  I was left unsure by the way it was written, and it was strange that the young boy claimed that his brother should not have gone downstairs to see Santa, and that he had not known any better, and I wondered if he had been kidnapped or something, and had left the bones to cover it up.

  He claimed his parents were away and I realized that his parents had not returned yet and that the occurrence had occurred on a previous night, and the letter finished with him asking for our help, and I realized people I had met had told him and the other letter writers of my investigations.

  What the hell was there? Was it a case for paranormal investigators? I considered calling them up, but realized I would have to prove something of that nature existed, or there was something unexplained occurring.

  Suddenly I discovered one letter was from a neighbor of the first elderly lady client, who started the investigation, and I began reading other letters, and it became more and more curious, and I read letters from women at the surrounding houses, and that it was not burglaries as nothing was
being taken from the houses.

  One claimed the Santa had used large vicious reindeers! Or had used a dangerous animal disguised as a reindeer! Which could have attacked and killed the boy, and I had to investigate it.

  While going through the dates of the occurrences in the letters I discovered that he was working his way down the street ever night, and had probably done all the houses there, one every night, and that the boy’s house had been recent, and I worked out what house he would surely visit that night.

  Chapter 4

  The Christmas Visitation

  I thought of telling Marple but I left it as I wanted to solve the case myself, and could not believe such a thing could happen, and on my first case, and it never occurred to the other investigators of it being anything, and how could anything happen with such a case!

  It was absurd! I realized then that they could be missing major cases, and serial killers!

  I wanted to know what the clients were actually talking about!

  The woman in the house the Santa Claus was to arrive at welcomed me in, and told me about the things her neighbors had witnessed, and had told her, and late that night she gave me a room on the ground floor, and I placed a seat at the door of the bedroom and left the door partly opened, just enough to see into the living room and entire area where he would enter, and I sat reading a book I brought with me, and I started to see sense and wonder if they were all up something else, which I never grasped.

  What surprised me was she arrived near the time the occurrences had taken place at the other houses and apologized to me for something, and before she left gave me a book to read, to which I believed she had given me as she felt sorry for me, leaving me there doing nothing, in the dark, with whatever it was, and I considered if she intended to use the story of it for somewhere for some reason.