Jessie Delacroix and the Sanctum of Shadows (Whispering Pines Mystery Series Book 2)

by Constance Barker

  They all did retract their hands…just in case.

  “Ginny, you took Arthur on the Ghost Walk with you last night, didn’t you?”

  “Sure did. He was very well-behaved for a change too, and seemed to be really listening to every word the Grim Reaper was saying. So cute!”

  I looked at Granny, and she looked away and shrugged.

  “What did the guide say, Granny?” I asked her telepathically.

  “He said, ‘When the first quarter of the November moon touches the tree, count to 100 and you will find me.’ So the Ghost Walks are always on the full moon and the new moon, and I figured the full moon last night couldn’t be that far off from the first quarter. I spotted the tree it touched when the moon was setting, and then went out there this morning and counted 800 puppy paces from the tree out into the swamp. Bingo.”

  Hmmm…I’d better verify this with Ginny. “Did the guide give out any clues about how to find the buried treasure or anything like that, Ginny?”

  “Oh, there was something about the moon touchin’ a tree, but it didn’t make much sense to me. Besides, the trees have grown a lot in the 300 years since the pirates were here. It didn’t say nothin’ about the treasure neither.” Ginny was looking around, right through Granny, as if she knew there was something there.

  “Well,” I said to the girls, “This might just be something the Ghost Walk people buried to stir up interest.”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” Lexi said. “Unless you’re implying that Arthur decoded the clue and found the hook.”

  “Well…of course not.”

  “So then, let’s bring it to the university and see if they can authenticate it.”

  “Or debunk it,” Maddy added.

  “Better yet,” Ginny suggested, “one of the biggest experts in the world on pirates is the curator of the Museum of Natural History in Savannah – Dr. Phineas Martin Bandersnatch. They have a pretty good exhibit of pirate artifacts there too.”

  “Well, I’m pretty sure the head of the Anthropology department at my alma mater, Savannah State, is an expert too,” I said. Mom came and took Granny back into the kitchen. Carlo should be arriving to prepare his finger sandwiches for lunch about now. “I took a course from Olivia Vant, and she was a regular Indiana Jane when it came to hunting pirate treasure. I should call my friend, Cammy Jo, and have her do some poking around…”

  Cammy Jo was my best friend from the law firm in Savannah where I worked as a researcher for a year after I quit law school. She was a couple years older and their resident P.I., and we worked together all the time. The attorneys got all the credit for our great investigating and research, but, hey, we had all the fun.

  I took my phone out of my pocket. “I should give her a call right now. Maybe she knows them and can set up a meeting for us to look at the hook thing.”

  I had no sooner pulled my phone out when it started to ring…and I knew exactly who was calling without even looking at the caller ID on my phone. “Hi, Cammy, I was just going to call you!”

  Lexi looked at me. “You are a little spooky sometimes, girl.”

  Yeah, I know. “Really, Cammy? This weekend? Let me check.” I looked across the table to my Inn manager. “Maddy, is the Spectral Suite still open tonight through Sunday?” She nodded. “It’s open, Cam. I’ll book it for them. You should come down too. It’s Friday tomorrow, and only an hour’s drive or so.” I started to plead a little. “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, and you might enjoy the little mystery we’re working on…” Maybe that’ll get her. “…I’ll show you our local dives. It’ll be fun!”

  I knew it would take a little convincing, but she finally agreed to come to Whispering Pines tomorrow too. I could hardly wait.

  “So,” Maddy asked, “who am I booking in the Spectral Suite for the weekend?”

  I looked at the three girls with a nonchalant smile. “Oh, just Dr. Phineas Martin Bandersnatch and his fiancé, Professor Olivia Vant.”

  Boom.

  •

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  Chapter Three

  The high profile couple would be arriving very late tonight, so we had our work cut out for us. Cammy Jo said they were sailing down and were already on the way. He must have a small yacht or something. I gave Maddy a hand getting the suite ready with our best linens, a nicely loaded mini-fridge, a basket of fresh fruit, champagne, and even the Ghost Walk brochures on buried treasure complete with maps.

  “That’s it, Madz,” I said. “The Spectral Suite is ready to go.”

  “Nope.” She looked at me with a grin. “It’s not the Spectral Suite. This weekend it’s the Crow’s Nest Penthouse. We’ve got people looking for buried pirate treasure coming in, not ghost hunters.”

  “Good point. So a crow’s nest is…”

  “It’s that look-out basket thingy up on top of the mast on an old ship.”

  “Yeah, I knew that.” No, I didn’t. “Are you coming with us tonight? Since we’re going to be crushed with treasure hunters all weekend, Ginny and I are running across to Stony Point for a glass of wine and a little music at the Karaoke Fenokee. Lexi and Kyle might come to. We’ll take the 8 o’clock ferry and come back on the 11 o’clock.”

  “Nah. You kids go ahead. An old lady like me can’t take that head-banging music – and I’m definitely not a singer.”

  That woman seriously needs more fun in her life – a nice date, and maybe a good…um, romantic interlude.

  “Yeah, I guess your knitting needles, rocking chair, and 12 cats would miss you.” Okay, so I taunted her, but it was for her own good.

  “I’m not that far removed from the pulse of life yet.” She stood up very straight with a jolt. “Or am I?”

  That’s the seed I wanted to plant.

  “So, come with us.”

  “Even at your age I wasn’t a Karaoke Fenokee kind of girl. Besides, it’s Thursday – Homeland and Vampire Diaries.”

  At it least wasn’t This Old House and Family Feud. “I get it. But one day soon we’ll pick a place you like and go out for some fun.”

  “Deal!”

  Ginny was just getting done when I went back to the kitchen in the Tea Room.

  I took a finger sandwich off the platter Carlo had stacked up and took a bite. I was expecting raw fish and pesto sauce or something exotic, but was happily surprised. “Is this a BLE? Yum!”

  Carlo smiled. He knew that bacon, lettuce, and egg salad was my favorite since I was a little girl, watching and pestering him all day. But he loved it then, and he still loved it now when I stole his sandwiches.

  “Enjoy, Jessica. Eat more. It’s dinner time.”

  “I will. What are you cooking up for dinner there?”

  Carlo was mixing batter in a bowl and poured a bottle of British beer into it. “Fish fry tonight, Jessica. It was Miss Aggie’s idea, and I don’t have to change her recipe.”

  “Cool.” Fish isn’t really my thing. I took another tiny sandwich. “Ginny, if you want, we can bag up some sandwiches and go over to my carriage house. I can do your hair and makeup, and I’m sure all of my clothes will fit you too. Then we can head up to the ferry landing together.”

  The lean redheaded woman seemed to freeze in her tracks, and her arms even seemed to tremble a little. Then she hung her long arms at her sides and started to cry.

  What the heck. “Oh, Ginny, I didn’t mean to imply that you can’t get yourself ready for our little night out. I…I…”

  “No, it’s not that, Jessie.” She stopped the tears from falling and sniffled a couple of times. Then she looked at me as a happy grin grew on her face beneath her glistening green eyes. “It’s just that nobody ever took the time to show me how to look like a girl before. And, without a mom or sister in the house, I didn’t know how to be a pretty girl or one of them lipstick ladies, so I just grew up to be…one of the guys.”

  I hugged her before she could start to cry again. “You’ve always been a pretty girl, Gi
nny.” Mom and Granny appeared with their backs on the ceiling above us and gave me a wink. That made me feel good.

  Carlo already had a load of sandwiches wrapped and bagged for us along with some of his homemade potato chips and a small tub of hot sloppy joe meat for dipping. It was really nice to have some old-fashioned comfort food instead of haute cuisine for a change.

  It wasn’t a full-blown She’s All That transformation, but more of a Princess Diaries makeover. Ginny had beautiful features, and her smile when she saw herself as a “big lipstick lady” not only warmed my heart but made her look even prettier. Now, if we could get her to talk less like Gomer Pyle and more like…anyone else, we might have a real My Fair Lady on our hands. But that’s a project for another day.

  We went back to the Nirvana to see if Lexi and Kyle were going to come with us, and they were both at a small table near the back of the porch, ready for a couple hours of fun. The courtyard was filling up with diners on this warm fall evening.

  “What’s that?” I asked Kyle, who was holding some kind of glass box in his hand. Kyle Carnigan was Lexi’s husband and the head of security for Whispering Pines and many of the businesses in the area. He and Lexi are both 35, but she’s still a sorority girl at heart, despite the three kids at home and one more on the way.

  Kyle’s security guard company, Carnigan Security, Inc., had a contract with the city to preserve and protect, since we had no official police department. He had an office in city hall upstairs of the Dairy Queen.

  Kyle lifted up the square clear acrylic cube about the size of a jack-in-the-box for me to see. “Lionel polished up the hook and mounted it in this box for you to display. He held it up to the nearly full moon well above the pine trees out back to shed a little more light on it.

  As soon as he did that, the temperature dropped and the clouds began to swirl. There was even thunder in the distance. A chilly mist began to fill the air, and soon a cloud of fog had consumed us.

  “Nice,” I said. “We’d better give that back to Lionel for safekeeping and get going before the weather gets too bad.”

  “We’ll walk up there with you.” Maddy came in with Arthur on a leash.

  “You should just come along to the club.”

  “I’ve got to watch my shows and then be back before Vant and Bandersnatch get here. They called and said they were nearby and would be here at 11:00, after they got done with something or another.”

  “Probably following some nocturnal moon-related clues down river,” Lexi suggested.

  Kyle grabbed his night vision binoculars out of his squad car. It was still early and warm enough to walk the half-mile or so to the landing of the big airboat ferry just past the horse ranch. I was glad we had taken our jackets, as the wind began to whip more furiously. By the time we got to the landing I was wondering if we should even go at all. Some of the other people waiting for the ferry were already heading back home.

  “Nothing yet,” Kyle said, looking through the fog and towards the river with his night vision.

  “You can see through that mist?” Maddy asked holding the collar of her jacket closed in front of her neck.

  “As long as it doesn’t get too thick with moisture. Then I would need my heat vision for thermal imaging.”

  We should be able to see its lights and hear its foghorn when it gets close too. But it wasn’t due for a little while yet.

  “Something is feeling pretty spooky around here,” Ginny said.

  Her words seemed to conjure up a big rush of howling wind, and the moon practically disappeared in the fog.

  “Reminds me of the way it felt when the flying owl-cats came and tried to take my little Captain Jingles away. I had to wrestle them varmints to get my pooch back. Good thing I had my propane torch in my purse, or it might not have had a happy ending.”

  Uhhh…no words.

  Arthur started barking like crazy and pulling Maddy toward the edge of the swamp. He was going crazy.

  “What’s out there, Kyle?” I was curious and concerned.

  As soon as he lifted his binoculars to his eyes there was a flash of lightning and a crack of thunder just a stone’s throw in front of us. He put the light-enhancing glasses down and covered his eyes, blinded by the sudden flash. Then there was a loud cracking sound.

  “Get back!” Kyle hollered to the small crowd gathered at the landing dock.

  We all ran back as the sound of something huge seemed to be approaching us quickly through the swamp. It wasn’t the ferryboat.

  “Farther!” Kyle warned.

  Maddy had to struggle with Arthur, who was still barking like crazy. I grabbed onto his leash and helping her drag the powerful 22-pound beagle further back.

  Something huge – as big as a house – revealed itself to us as it came through the mist and pushed toward us through the swampy shore of the Elvira River.

  An enormous wooden pirate ship, with its full set of sails billowing in the wind, came to a shrieking and jolting halt right in front of us. The front of the hull rested on the shore as the vessel began to list severely to our right. I guess that would be its port side.

  “Move back. It might fall over.” Kyle was in full first-responder mode, and was making calls and texting.

  The mist cleared and the moonlight shone down on the Jolly Roger flapping in the wind above us. That black banner signaling attack and terror was enough for me. The skull above the crossbones seemed to be laughing at us.

  “Well, time to go,” I said and turned back toward the walking path.

  Everyone else seemed to be frozen and awestruck, looking up at the bow of what appeared to be a 300-year-old pirate ship. Even Arthur was quiet now, and the wind came to a standstill.

  Kyle had gathered us a safe distance away from the ship, maybe 20 feet. I looked up at the sagging sails and then saw a disturbing image. Right at the point of the bow, a man appeared in a three-cornered hat. He turned towards the moon and raised his arms, a saber in one hand and a fist on the other.

  “Wh-wh-who’s that?” I asked my friends around me. They turned and looked at me like I had two heads.

  “Who’s who?” Ginny was the only one brave enough to ask.

  I didn’t answer, afraid that I might be having hallucinations. But then I heard the man speak.

  “Arise, mateys! Build up your strength. After the moon wanes for 88 hours we will get our revenge!”

  “Did you hear that?”

  Ginny opened her eyes wide and shook her head slowly. “No – but what’s that up there?”

  She pointed toward a swinging shadow at the top corner of the mainsail. There was a loud cracking sound…and then another.

  “I heard that!” she said. The sails began to waver, and then with one more thundering crack they began falling towards us.

  “Get back! Run!” Kyle hollered as loud as he could. “The main mast has broken, and it’s falling right towards us!”

  In record time, we were all another 20 feet away from the ship. I turned just in time to see it crash down on the front of the bow with perhaps 20 feet of the 60-foot mast extending beyond the front edge of the ship.

  I was still looking for the man who had been on deck only moments before but there was no sign of him. I turned to say something to Lexi, but everybody was in stunned silence focusing on three dark figures – one hanging from mast and one more dangling from each end of the yardarm.

  Like zombies from The Walking Dead our entire group moved slowly, one step at a time closer to the curious sight. Our eyes never left the dangling figures. It was Kyle who broke us out of our trances.

  “They’re dead. The one in front is still warm.”

  We looked at the three human forms in front of us. They all had black sacks over their heads, their hands tied behind their backs, and nooses around their necks.

  The lights of the airboat ferry appeared as it approached the landing. Kyle spoke softly to the silent crowd.

  “You should all go home. This is a crime scene now.
We’re going to need the ferry boat for police business.”

  Several people turned to go home. I saw more activity onboard the ship, but decided not to say anything.

  “There are people on the pirate ship,” Ginny said, pointing toward the starboard side.

  The others all seemed to be seeing these people too. A rope ladder was tossed over the edge, and three people disembarked. The first one to emerge from the shadows as they walked towards us was a woman. The moonlight behind her was lighting up our faces, but I couldn’t quite make out her features.

  “Jessie?”

  She walked closer, and I was able to see the anguished face of my former professor, Olivia Vant.

  “Yes, Olivia. It’s me.”

  It felt like I was just falling deeper and deeper into the Twilight Zone. Tears started to stream down her cheeks, and she embraced me.

  “They hanged him,” she said, sobbing uncontrollably.

  “Who?”

  “Martin.” She could barely get the words out. “My fiancé, Martin Bandersnatch. They put a noose around his neck, and hoisted him to the top of the mast.”

  “Who? Who did it, Olivia?”

  “The pirates. They took over the ship, stole all of our maps and logs, and hanged him.”

  I looked at the dark figure just five feet behind Olivia, still swinging from the end of the mast. She turned to follow my eyes and broke into an uncontrollable sob when she saw the dead man. I held her tightly, and a young teen boy and girl that followed her off the ship came closer.

  “Mom,” the young boy said.

  Olivia turned and hugged both of them and moved them away from the hanging bodies.

  I could see the silhouette of a very tall man in a Smokey hat step off the ferryboat and walk towards the scene. I knew at once it was Sheriff Matthew Muldoon from Stony Point. He walked right up to me, and Kyle joined us. I barely came up to the man’s breastbone. He was nearly seven feet tall and couldn’t get though any doorway in town without taking his hat off.