Cammy slid her company credit card across the bar to him and rolled her eyes at the price tag. “No thanks, but I might like to buy a hundred shares of stock in your next gallon of orange juice. I’ll take care of Zach’s tab too.”
I drank my juice in a couple of swallows. “Geez, you’d have to take out a bank loan to have dinner at this place. I hope the boat isn’t crazy expensive.”
“Nope.” Zach finished his beverage and stood up. “Just a hundred bucks for Jack and fifty to cover gas and marina fees will get us four hours. The Captain is a friend of Phineas and the whole shipbuilding crew. He’s giving us the insider rate, thanks to a call from Olivia.”
It was cold on the open 20-foot catamaran, which could handle a lot more than the four people making this short voyage. Arthur was the only one who seemed to enjoy the salt spray and chilly wind coming in from the ocean as we forded some fairly rough Atlantic waves at the mouth of the river. Fortunately, the oversized pontoons on the Mother Mary were built to handle them nicely.
“Did you bring all the materials for the pirate ship out on this thing, Captain Jack?” I asked as we slowed down a hundred yards out from the landing. It had been hard to have a conversation with the whistling wind and engine noise most of the way.
“We brought what we could. All of the recovered planks and timbers from the original vessel came out on Mary, but most of the new stuff was delivered by a small power barge.”
The Captain seemed rather quiet and lost in thought today.
“Is everything okay, Jack?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah, just fine. I’m just going to miss bringing the crew from the museum and the builders out here everyday now that the project is completed…and it sure is a shame what happened to Lawrence. He seemed like a good man.”
Okay…time to pry. “So I’ve heard. Did he get along with the others? Did you see any discord or arguments?”
“I didn’t really notice anything like that. It’s a pretty short ride, you know. His two boys could be little rapscallions, though; they got on people’s nerves when he brought them along.”
The wind picked up as we skirted along the Atlantic side of the small island. We were still technically in the mouth of the river and Ossabaw Sound, but it felt more like we were in the open sea.
“Boys? How old are they? What about his wife?
“Oh…maybe 10 and 13, I’d say. Never saw a wife, and those boys didn’t seem like they were getting a lot of mothering at home. Maybe she’s dead, or maybe she left him. Don’t know.”
Finally we turned into the mouth of a river on the isle and navigated upstream just beyond a fork. I could see a man on a dock up ahead waving the boat in as we approached our destination.
I looked around, but there wasn’t much to see. “Where is everything? I thought there was a shipbuilding facility here, and maybe some offices.”
Jack threw a rope to the attendant who pulled us to the gangway and secured the boat.
“There is a huge facility – all under ground, ma’am. Those two tall trees way back there are hiding the airshaft and air exchange equipment. The stack is quite high in case of rising water. Everything else is underground except for the entry door, and that’s built into a butte to keep in hidden.”
That caught Zach’s attention as we began to disembark. “You can’t build a ship underground, Captain. How are you going to launch it?”
Captain Jack just smiled and blocked the wind with his hands to light his pipe. “This was a secret project. They built a sort of lock and threw a camouflage canvas dome over it. Then they flooded it when the ship was done – right over there where that big lagoon is now. Then they sailed it right down the river and along the coast to the Elvira. We stood right here on the dock and waved goodbye when they set sail on Thursday night.”
“And Mr. Pettigrew was here too?”
We headed for the door on the other side of the dock that led us to the underground chamber.
“He was indeed. We went back to the Marina without him because his boys had run off, and he had to stay and look for them. He said he would spend the night here in one of the guest rooms. That was the last any of us saw of him.”
“Was there any other way for him to get off this island?” Cammy Jo was getting very interested now too as we headed down our third flight of stairs.
“Well, not unless he got another boat or a helicopter or something. Artemis Bourbon, the site Director here, said he checked the phone records, and no calls went in or out, and there’s no cell service here.”
“How about a satellite phone?” Zach asked him.
“Naw, I doubt it. Old Pettigrew could hardly manage his pocket phone.”
“Internet?” I figured they surely must have Internet service here.
“Possible.”
We finally arrived at a fortified steel door maybe five levels beneath the ground. We rang the bell and were buzzed into the luxurious lobby.
“I’ll just be here or in the cantina, doing my crosswords,” the Captain said, and a petite dark-haired woman led us into the Great Hall with the team from the museum and University as well as many of the shipbuilders.
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Chapter Fifteen
The double eight-foot carved oak doors closed smoothly behind us, the polished brass push-plates glinting light from the crystal chandelier in our eyes.
“This is no ordinary museum-funded shipbuilding site,” Cammy whispered to me as the entire roomful of people turned to gawk at us like intruders from outer space. “This is one of those end-of-the-world hidden condos for elite aristocrats with tons of cash or political clout. While we’re all getting eaten by rabid zombies, they’ll be living in the lap of luxury.”
“That’s right,” Zach agreed, “nukes, ateroids, melted ice caps, solar EMP flare, alien invasion, plague – whatever calamity comes along, they’ll be ready for it.”
“Preppie preppers,” was all I could add.
The men and women – perhaps two-dozen of them – were all impeccably dressed and standing around the room like guests at one of Gatsby’s cocktail parties. A large framed photograph of Lawrence Pettigrew was displayed on an easel in the middle of the large chamber. Arthur let out a small, uncomfortable yip, but he quickly realized he would not be able to be the alpha wolf of this gathering.
Our young escort took Arthur’s leash. “I’ll bring him to the pet buffet,” she said sweetly. “Artemis will be with you shortly. Help yourselves to food and drink.” She motioned towards the hors d’oeuvres and open bar on one side of the room as an elegant woman sat at a full-sized grand piano and started to play Für Elise. One by one, members of the string quartet sat and joined her.
Our hostess then led Arthur off to a corner of the room surrounded by a velvet rope. Two trainers oversaw the half-dozen well-groomed dogs that looked like they just walked off the floor of the Westminster Dog Show. No doubt, they all barked with East London accents. Arthur seemed to instinctively understand that this was no time to play the rascally tramp as he was led to a silver bowl of freshly prepared meaty food, hand delivered by a man in a chef’s hat. He took to the good life quite naturally.
Zach inhaled deeply. “The air is amazingly fresh. It’s outdoor air…and it seems they are piping in natural light, probably through some kind of mirror system.”
Cammy started to gravitate towards the bar as a distinguished thirty-something man in a black tuxedo excused himself from the couple he was chatting with and met us at the bar.
“Miss Jessica Delacroix?” He looked at Cammy and then at me. I nodded once. “Ahh! Enchanté!” He took my hand and bowed to kiss it. “Of the Musée Delacroix in Paris?”
I nearly choked on my tongue. “Ah, no sir…”
“Call me Artemis…please.”
“No, Artemis…of the Hound Dog Bayou Delecroixs in Louisiana, but currently from Whispering Pines.”
Cammy held back a laugh, but I held my hea
d high.
“So pleased to meet you, Mademoiselle Delacroix.”
Zach extended his hand. “Zach Fontaine, Artemis. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“The pleasure is mine. I see your are a Navy Seal,” Artemis said, examining the small tattoo near Zach’s thumb
“Yes sir, I was.”
“Once a Seal, always a Seal,” he said with a genuine smile. “And, Mr. Fontaine – you must be French.”
Zach smiled. “The family that owned my ancestors was French, yes sir.”
“Of course.”
Cammy – from the Banfield and Escher Banfields of her daddy’s law firm in Atlanta, fared pretty well in the “pretentious impression” department – and Zach was a Navy Seal. So, of the three of us, I would for sure be the one they fed to the zombies.
We chatted for a few minutes, and I decided it was time for me to have a drink now. I was kind of wishing that I had scarfed down that toaster waffle earlier. A few sips were all it took for me to feel like I fit in, so I inched my way to the appetizer bar and grabbed a deviled egg and a couple of smoked salmon canapés.
Cammy was sipping a white wine but didn’t really need a social lubricant top feel relaxed. The world was pretty much her oyster.
“So, Artie…” She gestured toward a smaller next to Pettigrew’s picture, displaying a photo of two flaxen-haired pre-teen boys playing some kind of hand-slapping game. One of them was taller and more athletic-looking, and the other was somewhat overweight. “…are those the Pettigrew boys?” She must have overheard my conversation with Captain Jack, or else she knew about them through her work with the law firm.
Artemis looked. “Well, they are actually Lawrence’s nephews, Ethan and Alex. He inherited them when his brother and the boys’ mother were lost in a house fire a couple of years ago. It seems the older one liked to play with matches. They’ve been a real handful for him, but he tried very hard to give them a decent upbringing.”
Then Artemis approached me. “Please feel free to ask anyone any questions you think will be helpful, Miss Delacroix. They’ve all been instructed to be as helpful as possible. We all want to find a solution to this horrible murder – and to the disappearance of the boys.”
“Thank you, Artemis. And may we have access to other areas of the facility that may have been used by the museum team or that Lawrence would have had access to the night he disappeared from here?”
“Of course.”
He reached into his inside pocket and handed me a key card with Lawrence’s name on it.
“He somehow managed to leave without taking his card with him. This will get you into any room he had access to. You are welcome to look around inside any room that his card will open.”
Artemis went back to his social rounds, and the three of us stood facing each other. I picked up a slice of cheese and looked at Zach and Cammy Jo.
“Okay, musketeers, what’s next?” I waved the key card at them. “I’ve got the pass to the waterslides. Should we work together, or split up?”
Cammy put her arm around my shoulder. “Zach, why don’t you work the room for a while? See what you can find out about Pettigrew’s nephews for starters, and the Queen of Hound Dog Swamp and I will snoop around.”
I got Arthur and put his leash in my purse, then we went out the doors on the other end of the Great Hall.
“Okay, Arthur, which way?”
He went to the right, which was fine since the arrows indicated that ship design studio was in that direction. I stopped at every door along the way and tried the key card. They all opened, but they were mostly storage rooms for supplies or else they were empty.
We got to a hallway that said “Guest Rooms.”
“Should we check these rooms out, Cammy?”
“Maybe if Zach was with us it would be a nice break, but let’s keep going straight. Their design studio is up here, and it sounded like that was where they all spent most of their time.”
The girl had a sharp mind, but it was never very far from the gutter. “Onward and upward.”
The design studio was not far ahead, and we looked through the long narrow window on the door. “Looks like office space with desks and tables, Cammy.” I touched the card to the sensor and it turned green. Just as I turned the knob on the door, I heard Arthur run the short distance to the end of the hall; then he turned and barked once.
“Looks like Sherlock Hound wants us to join him, Jess.”
The big grey door on the end was solid metal and had no window. “Probably a mechanical room for HVAC and water heaters, or maybe janitorial supplies, but let’s look.” I tried the card, but the sensor just beeped and turned red. “Yeah, it’s probably something mechanical, and we can’t get in.”
“Of course we can get in, Jessie.” Cammy put her palms upward and gave me an “Are you kidding me?” look.
“Cammy – they card doesn’t work. We can’t…Oh. You mean…”
“Uh…yeah. Why do you think I had Zach stay behind? I figured you wouldn’t want everybody to know you’re a witch.”
“I’m not a witch!”
Cammy turned her head and mumbled something. She either called me the “B” word or said I was a witch again. I don’t think she’d call me a “B.”
My heart started racing a little as I tried to decide how I should do this – and if I should. Cammy gave me her impatient face. I pointed at the sensor and made a kissing sound with my lips. The light turned green, but Cammy rolled her eyes, so maybe I still have to work on my technique. I opened the door, and the lights automatically came on to a dim level.
“You first, Arthur.”
The room was quite large and square, with a comfortable sitting area in the front with sofas and armchairs. Then there was a large table with three circular desk lamps, each with elbow arms and a large magnifying lens in the middle for examining items and artifacts, most likely. The rest of the room beyond the table was filled with tables and shelves filled with shiny gold and bejeweled objects.
“I’m getting a sick feeling in my stomach, Cam. We shouldn’t be in here.”
“Get it together, Delacroix. This is exactly where we should be.” She walked directly into area filled with treasure and started looking at some of the more opulent pieces.
“I wish there was a little more light in here,” I said. Immediately, the light level increased to a more comfortable level. Cammy just looked at me and shook her head.
Arthur had been mirroring my fear, but now he was taking on Cammy’s fearlessness and ran to the far end of the room, sniffing the treasure all the way.
She picked up a golden gobblet encrusted with rubies and sapphires. “Innocent XII,” she read. “Who’s that?”
“Innocent the Twelfth was a Pope a few hundred years ago. That must be his chalice. It’s probably worth a few million.”
She set it down quickly. “I don’t want to break it and have to buy it.”
“Look at all these crowns and jewels and crosses. I wonder why they don’t have it all displayed back at the museum, Cam.”
Arthur barked, and we walked around a couple of tables to see what he was up to. He was standing next to a huge wooden chest on a pallet in the center of the back wall of the room. It was as wide as the pallet and almost as deep, and it stood about three feet high. Holding it together were large iron corners with iron straps connecting the thick planks of wood and a hasp for a large lock on the face of it. The lid was wide open, and there was nothing inside.
“This is why it’s not in the museum, Jessie.” She lowered the lid enough to see the initials, “G.O.” on the top, and then she raised it again. “It’s Olivant’s treasure. They already found it. Maybe they’re getting it ready to exhibit – or maybe they have other plans for it.”
“Don’t you think they’d tell the world if they found it?”
“Not if they planned to keep it.”
“True. I wonder who all knows it’s here, and who has access to this room, Cammy Jo.”
/> Arthur barked loudly three times, and then he bounded onto the pallet and up onto the edge of the huge chest.
“Arthur! Get down from there.”
But it was too late; he jumped into the chest.
“Arthur, you little stinker.” I walked up to the chest to lift him out. “You’re in trouble…” I stopped abruptly and stood straight up, looking into the chest.
Cammy rushed over. “Is he all right?”
She looked into the chest, and then we looked at each other. The chest was empty. Arthur was gone.
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Chapter Sixteen
Cammy helped me back to the sofa near the entry, and we sat to think this through, though my preference would have been to freak out and sob uncontrollably.
“Remember what Thaddeus told us in the prison cell, Jessie? He said he jumped into the treasure chest and ended up in the belly of the ship.”
Yes – so that’s the portal! That’s what was stolen to awaken the pirates and open the portal to Olivant’s time and place…not the hook hand that Arthur found. That’s probably what brought the phantom ship to the Sanctum of Shadows. But Thaddeus went through 300 years ago. Where will the portal lead now? Still to the ship? And to which ship – the original or the replica?”
“All good questions, Jessie. Let’s think about how we can handle this.”
“What’s to think about, Cammy? I’m going after Arthur. I’m not going to let those savages cook him for dinner or something.”
“No, Jessie. You’re not following him into that box. It might lead to Hell or Jupiter or Mt. Everest, for all we know. No.”
“Oh, yes. That’s not even a question. Besides, this has to be how Pettigrew got onto the ship.”
She knew I would never change my mind and exhaled in resignation. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“No, Cammy Jo. You stay here. I might need you here.”
“Jessie – here’s the plan. If you’re determined to do this, then you jump in the chest. Then come right back out and tell me where you landed.”
Jessie Delacroix and the Sanctum of Shadows (Whispering Pines Mystery Series Book 2) Page 12