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

by Constance Barker

  “Let’s get him over to my blacksmith shop, Doc,” the large man said. “You can stop the bleeding, and I’ll make him a nice hook hand. I’ve got a spare bronze hook for lifting heavy gear from the fire over to the anvil. That’ll work just fine, and I can use a scrap of copper sheeting to fit it to what’s left of his wrist.”

  “Wait,” Olivant implored them, sweating profusely from the pain. “Miss…”

  “Delacroix.” I looked into his eyes. They were kinder and more humble now – even a bit respectful for the woman who had defeated and then spared him.

  The children had gathered the closest and started whispering my name, and soon the whole crowd was whispering it.

  “Ya should’ve killed me, ya know.”

  “It wasn’t your time,” I said.

  “I’m going to go back to piratin’ as soon as this is healed up.”

  “If ya don’t get gangrene and die,” the doctor said. “We’ve got to take care of that before it starts festering, now.”

  “I know you’re a pirate, and you’ll do what pirates do.” I looked into his dimming eyes as the loss of blood was catching up with him and he leaned more heavily on the large man. “But maybe you’ll spare some poor soul sometime when you remember this day.”

  He smiled and nodded as the two men dragged him away.

  “Besides,” I hollered, “your real girlfriend will be coming for your hide in ten more years! And she won’t be quite as civilized.”

  A young boy, perhaps 9 years old, wearing my eye patch ran up to me, his little sister trailing behind him. He was carrying a small burlap sack tied with twine, which he tied to the leather harness holding my scabbard.

  That’s when I noticed the two young men that resembled two of the pirates. They were crawling under the porch at the spot where I arrived here. There was a missing piece of latticework where they slunk though, which I’m sure I had seen on the wall of the ship somewhere.

  I looked back at the young boy in front of me. “What’s this?” I asked.

  “That’s your trophy, ma’am. It’s the pirate’s hand. I packed it in salt for you so it will dry out nicely and last forever when you hang it on your wall.”

  That’ll be a great conversation piece.

  The tall man in black stepped forward now. “And this is yours too,” he said presenting me with Olivant’s sword, which lay across both of his outstretched hands.

  “Thank you.”

  “There’s no need to thank me,” The man said. “Your victory has won me nearly a year’s pay today.”

  I slid Olivant’s sword beneath the leather strap near my other sword, and the young lad took off the eye patch and handed it to me.

  “You can keep it.” I pointed to my eye. “It grew back!”

  I smiled at him as he looked at me in wonder. “Well…it’s been lovely.” There was an awkward silence as more curiosity seekers drew closer. The tall man kept staring at me with an inquisitive interest, as he also examined the name on the eye patch I had given to the boy.

  “I heard you say your name is Delacroix, ma’am.”

  “Yes, sir. I’m Jessie Delacroix.”

  “And I’m Alexandré Delacroix.” He extended his hand with a slight smile. “And Marie Lefebvre was my betrothed – until she was abducted by a band of pirates from the Scoundrel of the Seas.”

  “That man I was fighting – he is their Captain, Gentry Olivant. When they return to look for him, you can trade him for Marie.”

  The man nodded. “And then we will move back to New Orleans.”

  “Good luck.” I handed him the calico sash that had been around my waist. “I think this might belong to her.”

  “You look rather like her.” He extended his palm to take the sash, and I noticed a small blue star tattooed on his wrist.

  “Nice tattoo,” I said.

  “It is not a tattoo,” he said. “It is a birthmark. It was smaller and had no real shape when I was younger, but it has grown and taken shape as I learned more about life. Now it protects and empowers me.”

  That sounded eerily familiar, and I touched the back of my neck. My thoughts were racing, but I had to go. “Board up this hole under the porch when I go, Alexandré. Take care.”

  I really wanted to stay and get to know these people and this place, but I knew there was no time for that – and I didn’t want to change history. In fact, I’m pretty sure I just set history straight by lopping off Olivant’s hand.

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  Chapter Eighteen

  I slipped away like a jackrabbit and soon found myself back in the pile of grain on the old ship. I ran up the stairs and looked over the starboard side. There were fewer men now, and the ones that saw me backed off a little further.

  I ran to the other side, and there was Percy, ever shirtless, with a broad grin. The two pirates were still tied up, sitting by the curved tree trunk near the bow of the ship now. Arthur was having a good old time chasing butterflies by the edge of the water.

  “All done?” Percy asked. “That didn’t take long. It’s just noon now, so you’re right on schedule.”

  That’s right – it was Monday noon, and there was no pirate insurrection. He swung a rope over to me that was tied to a branch of a tree just as high as the edge of the ship.

  “This should take you close to the ground, but I’ll be here to catch you.”

  I stood on the ship’s rail and grabbed a large knot in the taut rope that extended straight out in front of me. I leaned back to stretch it as tight as possible and then lifted my feet. In seconds I had swung right past Percy, but my feet found the ground on the way back and Percy corralled me with his arm.

  “Well, let’s see…” He looked at me with one hand on his chin and the other on his elbow. “Two swords, no eye patch or sash, and a burlap sack. I guess you’re done. Good job!”

  “Done? As soon as I put that ‘burst into flames’ curse on the ship, I was done. They couldn’t get to the portals.”

  “Well…if Olivant had killed you, then the curse would have ended. He would have returned and destroyed everything and everybody.”

  “Oh…” That blew my mind, but Percy was still upbeat and calm.

  “And I already dug the hole for Olivant’s hand.” He untied the sack from the belt of my scabbard and tossed in in a deep hole not far from the bent tree. Then he kicked the pile dirt on top of it and packed it down.

  I still didn’t know exactly what was going on. “How do you know how many swords I should have?”

  He waved me over to a couple of tree stumps and we sat down.

  “I know because you told me.”

  “But…”

  “Just hold your horses for a minute.”

  It’s not my nature to sit quietly, but I tried my best.

  “I know the story of how the good lady pirate beat Gentry Olivant in Stony Point and cut off his hand and all of the other things with the man in black and the children – because you told me.”

  I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up a finger to shush me.

  “The old pirate somehow escaped his real fate by escaping through a time portal when his ship showed up here in the Sanctum of Shadows when the treasure was stolen, and that messed up history a bit. But you just fixed it. This place is a Never Land of sorts where people from any time period can exist, but only as shadows, and that ship provided portals to practically any year that still had a remnant of the original ship or treasure.”

  I looked at the two pirates he was holding prisoner.

  “And those two are Pettigrew’s nephews, still real flesh and blood with shadows here, just like us.”

  “That’s right.”

  “And they’ve been running in and out of portals here for 30 years, growing up in the 16 and 1700s.”

  “Yes, we’re Ethan and Alex. We couldn’t get back. We stole Artemis Bourbon’s key card and changed it with our uncle’s.” The older one, Ethan, sai
d.

  “Then we came through the treasure chest and couldn’t get back. We saw Uncle Lawrence come here after us, so we hid in a closet.”

  “And ended up in some other time and place. We’ve been scavenging and hiding in different times and places ever since.”

  “Until…”

  I was beginning to understand everything now. “Until one day recently you came here and saw your uncle and decided to kill him.”

  “No!” The younger man, Alex, seemed very distraught. “That’s not how it happened. A few days ago we came back here and decided to try the armoire in the Captain’s room again. I got onto the shelf, but nothing happened as usual. Then we heard someone coming, so I pulled the door shut, and I was right back in the treasure chest, 30 years ago. But I was still old.”

  “Then the door swung slowly open,” Ethan continued, “and it was empty, so I went in and followed Alex back to the treasure chest. We heard someone coming into the treasure room, so we hid under one of the tables.”

  Alex picked up the story. “It was us – Ethan and I were coming into the room, still young kids. We were going to warn them not to go, but Uncle Lawrence was right behind them and they jumped in the chest and were gone. Our uncle stood over the open chest and hollered into it, ‘You little bastards! I’ll fix it so you never get back! And I’ll take care of Phineas too. The treasure will all be mine!’ Well, that made us kind of mad, you know, that we spent 30 years hiding in the shadows and stealing food to survive.”

  Then it was Ethan’s turn. “He picked up a black stone with shiny specks of quartz in it. It was the size of a brick, and he got into the treasure chest. The rock kept him from going through the portal as long as he was holding it. Then he kind of laughed and tossed the rock a few inches in the air in front of him. He was gone, and the stone hit the bottom of the chest, but it didn’t go through.”

  “And nothing could get back either. Not as long as the brick was in there. We took it out and went back to find him and confront him…and…”

  “And you saved Phineas and let the pirates hang your uncle in his place.”

  They both put their heads down and nodded.

  “So, what brings you here, Percy?” There were still pieces to fill in.

  “You sent me here. You saw Ethan and Alex here now – which is 30 years ago for us. They hadn’t committed the crime yet, so you had me come back and, well, arrest and/or rescue them. I had to wait until I recorded them talking about the murder first.” He pulled a very small phone out of his pocket. “I finally got it all on my old iPhone 23.”

  “So, how do we solve this crime?”

  “It’s been a cold case for 30 years, and we can’t tell the police now – I mean 30 years from now – that the boys came back from the future and killed him when they were in their 40s. They’ll have to stand trial at the Tribunal of Sorcerers, currently headed by a lady named Jessie Delacroix.”

  Lia, the little squirrel, came creeping up to us with a look of anticipation in her eyes. “What about our realm here?” She asked. “There are still many vile pirates among us.”

  “Can I do it,” Percy asked me.

  I had no idea what he wanted to do. “Be my guest.”

  He rubbed his hands together gleefully. Then he blew on them and rubbed his thighs. He faced the ship, and, with bent knees, he took a deep breath and outstretched his arms. “Burn, baby, burn!” he shouted and slowly straightened his legs.

  The ship evaporated into flames like a magician’s flash paper. Nothing was left. The pirates on the other side gradually disappeared as well. Lia was thrilled and dashed off into the forest.

  I, on the other hand, was stunned. I looked at the shirtless man. “How are going to get back now? All the portals are gone.”

  He just snickered and pulled Ethan and Alex to their feet. He put a rope around all three of them and then took a charm from his pocket. I’m not sure, but it looked a lot like my high school ring. He held it tightly in his hand.

  “I’m going back the same way I got here.”

  “But…what about me?”

  “You’re Jessie Delacroix. You can click your heels together if you want to. Or, if you don’t want to materialize in the middle of the Nirvana Tea Room, you could just take the back door.”

  “The back door?”

  “Bye – and don’t forget about your date on Wednesday!”

  “Wait! One question first, you guys. How come I couldn’t get back to the treasure chest when I went back into the armoire? You guys had taken the black rock out.”

  Ethan answered with a question. “Did you close the door when you got inside the armoire?”

  I felt like a moron. “Uh…have a good trip!”

  Percy opened his hand and looked at the ring. “Take me home.”

  The three of them slowly faded away right before my eyes, and the last thing to go was his smile.

  I felt lost and alone for just a brief moment, until Arthur yipped at me three times and dashed off into the woods, far to the East from where we first came in. Soon I saw the familiar tall stone wall rising into the clouds perhaps 20 yards in front of me. We had to walk through the muddy swamp to get to it. We found ourselves at the very end of the wall, and there seemed to be nothing at all beyond its edge. There was a carved wooden door that read Earthly Domain of Queen Jessica I.

  “Seriously, Arthur? Did you see this?” He was clueless but anxious to get to some food and a nap.

  “Let us in,” I commanded, and the door opened.

  It was a dark hallway, and we tracked our muddy footprints onto the old concrete as we walked. There were many doors and cavernous hallways to the left and right, but we followed the existing footprints straight ahead. It seemed like nearly 30 minutes had passed before we arrived at the door into the basement of the Inn. I looked at the two doors to my right as I exited, curious but not anxious to find out where they might lead.

  We made our way upstairs into the lobby. Moondance was there to lead us out through the solarium, through the courtyard, and up to my room in the carriage house. We invited him up, but he declined.

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  Chapter Nineteen

  High Noon on Monday came and went without an invasion of ghostly pirates, so I guess we did something right. I was afraid that the replica ship by the ferry landing might have burned down too, but it was fine. Arthur and I sneaked aboard and went through every part of it, and we couldn’t find any portals that sent us to strange realms. The fire had taken care of the portals, and, without a link back to the original chest in 1699, the treasure chest stopped teleporting as well.

  Sheriff Muldoon and Kyle spent Monday, Tuesday, and half of Wednesday working on the case, and they kept Olivia and Phineas around for continued questioning. The Sheriff was finishing up his final conversation with Olivia and Phineas when I walked into the Tea Room on Wednesday afternoon. Kyle and Zach were with them too.

  Sheriff Muldoon tipped his hat to me as I approached gingerly, unsure if I would be interfering in police business. “Pull up a chair, Miss Delacroix. Try as I might, I just couldn’t find a reason to hold Dr. Bandersnatch or Professor Vant for the terrible events that transpired on their ship last Thursday night.”

  I slid a chair up to the end of the large booth and crossed my legs with my hands on my knee. “Well, that’s a relief. But I don’t know why you would ever think that these patrons of the arts and pillars of their community would be involved in something as horrible as murder.”

  Kyle slid out of the booth, helping Phineas up after him. Then he cuffed the Doctor’s hands behind his back.

  “Sometimes pillars collect a little dirt from the winds of temptation, Jessie,” Kyle said. “I’ll take him to our holding cell until the state authorities come for him, Sheriff.” Then Kyle and Bandersnatch walked out the door.

  I knew what was going on, but I wasn’t aware that the plot had already been revealed to Olivia and the
Sheriff – and I didn’t want them to know that I knew. I looked at Zach.

  “It seems that Pettigrew, Bandersnatch, and Artemis Bourbon were the only ones who knew about the treasure that you and Cammy stumbled across at the boat building site on Monday morning.” Zach did his best to make it appear that this was the first I was hearing of it. “Emails and other correspondences proved that the three were trying to hide the fact that the treasure had been found so they could keep it for themselves.”

  I looked at Olivia, but she seemed to be more disappointed than distraught.

  “It’s for the best,” she said with a wry smile. “Martin wasn’t the man I thought he was. He used my maps and my ancestor’s documents to find the treasure, and then he never even told me about it. He was planning to run away to a tropical island with some floosy once they had sold it all off.”

  “Ancestor?” Muldoon asked. He missed the story the first time she told it.

  “Yes, of course. I thought you knew, Sheriff. I am a direct descendant of Gentry Olivant. The family shortened the name to Vant many generations ago when the shame of his piracy was still a problem. But nowadays it’s more of an aristocratic and trendy medal of honor – which is why my parents named me Olivia…Olivia Vant, as a kind of namesake of Olivant.”

  Sheriff Muldoon nodded and seemed impressed. “So you technically might still have some rights of inheritance to his treasure – at least the parts that no one can prove was stolen.”

  “But, of course…” Olivia seemed to be smiling genuinely and even joyful now, since finding the treasure was her life’s work. “…the replica of the Scoundrel of the Seas will become a floating museum used to display the treasure. And, after a gala red carpet premier in Savannah, Whispering Pines will be our first stop, since that’s where the treasure was found.”

  I could already feel the business and courtyard parties rolling in from wealthy museum patrons and pirate aficionados.

  “Lookey here!” Ginny declared excitedly as she clomped through the front door and approached our booth. “Look what my 13-times great grandpappy, Thaddeus, left for me!” Her hands were covered with dirt, and her face had a streak of mud on one cheek as she set down an opulent golden tiara studded with diamonds, rubies, and blue sapphires. Next to it she plopped down a disgusting mummified black hand with a barely visible Jolly Roger tattooed on the back of it. “I dug by the curved tree where he told me. First I found that real nice crown there, and then right next to it was this hand in a pile of salt. This here note was with it.”