Kat stared at the foundation outlines, some of which were overgrown with vegetation. It was like an archaeological site. One that people would rather forget. “I still can’t believe the people chose to stay here. I guess they were destitute by then, and probably too mentally and physically exhausted to escape.”
“And too afraid,” Jace added. “They still believed that Brother XII had power over them. They feared the consequences if they left. Even if his spiritual claims were false, where would they go? They had alienated their families when they turned over their wealth to Brother XII. Or in the case of some of the women, abandoned their husbands for Brother XII’s affections. Most were from other countries. They had no means or money to get back home.
“There was a bit of a reprieve from their back-breaking labor and hard scrabble existence when Brother XII and his current lover, Madame Zee, left for England in 1930, sailing away in a trawler complete with gun turrets for defense.
“They were gone for almost two years, long enough for people to realize their mistake. They banded together and confronted Brother XII upon his return. He banished the more vocal protestors, but it was the beginning of the end. One way or another, his followers were able to finally leave the island. Once they reached the outside world they realized the extent of their losses. In 1933, several followers sued to freeze the Aquarian Foundation assets and get their money back.
“They were only partially successful, since Brother XII had done a good job of hiding the assets. The gold couldn’t be traced and he had already spent a lot of the money on himself. Mary Connally recouped some of her money when the De Courcy and Valdes property deeds were transferred into her name as partial compensation.
“Brother XII at least foresaw his own demise, and he left the settlement in a hurry with Madame Zee.” He shook his head. “But not before burning all the buildings down. He took an axe to the furniture and ruined everything just so that no one else could use it.”
“What about the money?” Raphael asked.
“The gold?” Jace shrugged. “Some say it’s buried here on the island, that he didn’t have time to retrieve it. But I doubt that.”
Raphael’s mouth dropped open. “How much did he get away with?”
“No one really knows. Most people were ashamed to admit they had invested, let alone the amount they had been cheated out of. Since they had all been wealthy when they joined, it had to be a tidy sum.” Jace paused. “There’s another rumor, about a cave on the island. Some think Brother XII hid some of the gold treasure there.”
“What are we waiting for?” Raphael turned towards the trail. “Let’s go.”
Kat trailed behind the two men as they left the settlement behind. They returned to the trail but took a separate fork that lead behind the clearing. The trail’s cool shade was lush and refreshing, lined with salmonberry bushes and knee-high vegetation. It was a sharp contrast from the barren and windswept oceanfront cliffs.
Less than a hundred feet later the path ascended up a steep hill. Kat’s still-wet feet slid in her flip-flops and she grabbed branches and plants to stay on her feet. She wished she had worn sturdier footwear.
Jace led the way, followed by Raphael. She struggled to keep pace as the gap between her and Raphael widened to ten feet, then twenty.
“Slow down a bit,” she said as her right foot slipped out of her flip-flop.
Raphael either didn’t hear or chose to ignore her. She regained her footing and closed the gap.
“Tell me more about your mom,” Jace said.
“Mama gained quite a reputation and women flocked to her salon from miles away. She soon attracted the attention of a large Italian beauty supply company. Mama licensed the secret formula to them and the rest is history.” Raphael paused on the trail and turned around to face Kat.
“Licensing was a smart move,” Kat said. “Most people would have sold their invention outright.” It bordered on unbelievable that in this day and age, Raphael’s mother had developed a new hair product outside of a chemistry lab. But she played along. Any answer Raphael gave would be fabricated, but sooner or later he would slip up and reveal something.
“Mama didn’t sell her formula because she wanted to keep creative control,” Raphael said. “That part worked out quite well.”
Raphael’s selective hearing was working again.
“Is she working on any new products?”
Raphael didn’t answer.
They paused in the clearing. Two paths led in opposite directions with no signs or markings.
“Oh, the stories I could tell about some of these celebrities.” Raphael made a zipping motion across his lips. “But naturally my lips are sealed.” He listed off a dozen film stars and celebrities who endorsed Bellissima. “All the biggest European names and soon the biggest North American stars too.”
“Smart lady,” Jace said. “Kat, maybe you should try his hair products out.”
Kat scowled. “Why? What’s wrong with my hair the way it is?” Why did everyone think her hair needed fixing?
“Not saying you need it, but you’re the only person here with curly hair. It would make an interesting experiment. Do you have any product on board, Raphael?”
Raphael laughed. “I’m afraid not. Sorry to disappoint you, but Kat’s hair will have to stay the way it is for now.”
She ignored the insult. “You don’t carry it around with you?” No product meant there was no danger of her being experimented on. And no danger of being exposed as a fake. Only a scammer would avoid having products on hand for demonstration and promotion.
“I’ve run out of product,” Raphael said. “I won’t have more until next week.”
Kat sidestepped a large tree root. Raphael couldn’t gain customers without product. Yet he had tricked Gia into investing without even trying Bellissima.
“I suppose your manufacturer takes care of all your distribution?” Jace asked.
“Exactly.” Raphael waved his arm. “They manage all the logistics. We sign up the authorized retailers and hand the manufacturing and distribution off to them. No one can copy our patented formula.”
Jace raised his brows. “Sweet deal. No wonder you have time to travel around on your yacht.”
“What’s to stop anyone from reverse engineering the formula?” Kat asked. Dozens of Chinese factories unlocked complex formulas every day. If Raphael’s product was as revolutionary and profitable as he claimed, there would be no shortage of imitators and counterfeiters looking to get in on the action.
Raphael ignored her, as expected.
The tree cover was denser and the air more humid. She paused to admire a waterfall, partly to keep her temper in check. She sighed as the men’s voices faded.
Just as well. She was tired of hearing about Raphael’s larger than life successes. Not just because they were lies, but also because she couldn’t stand to see normally objective Jace fall under Raphael’s spell.
She gathered her thoughts for a few moments. As the forest fell silent, she suddenly realized she couldn’t hear the men’s voices anymore. She’d better catch up to the men.
“I’m right behind you,” Kat called to Jace and Raphael ahead of her.
No one answered.
She was mad that Jace hadn’t noticed her falling behind.
She debated turning around and heading back to the beach, especially because it was difficult to keep pace in her flip-flops. She decided to carry on since she had come all this way to see the settlement and the cave. The settlement had been a disappointment, but the cave might be better. She wasn’t leaving until she saw it.
Kat trudged along in silence, taking her time. There was only one trail, so the danger of getting lost was unlikely. She winced as she felt a blister forming on her right foot. Next time she’d choose better footwear.
She bent down to adjust her flip-flop and was startled by a man’s voice.
9
Kat spun around and faced Pete. He sat on a tree stump several f
eet away and regarded her with a smirk.
“You won’t get far in shoes like that.” Raphael’s meek crew member was suddenly full of confidence and sarcasm.
“You all alone?”
Kat fought back a general sense of unease. Pete seemed okay, but what did she really know about him? Nothing, other than he was a transient worker hired by an almost-certain scammer.
He stood and took a few steps towards her.
A scent of stale sweat and grime wafted towards her and she recoiled. She retreated a few feet but stumbled on the uneven ground. Her flip-flops slid sideways out from under her feet. Her ankle twisted as she fought to regain her balance, but she lost. She collapsed in a heap and rolled down the side of the trail bank.
She looked up and saw Pete standing above her. “Thanks. I’m okay.”
“Relax. I’m harmless.” Pete held out his hand and helped her to her feet. “Probably not a good idea to wander off by yourself though. You might get lost or something.”
“I’m not alone. Raphael and Jace are up ahead.” She bent over and brushed the dirt off her knees and feet. Her ankle throbbed and she shook it out as she grabbed a tree trunk for balance.
Pete seemed surprised. “No, they turned back. They passed right by here a couple of minutes ago.”
“I didn’t see them. They weren’t very far ahead of me, either. Where did they go?” It must have been when she had veered off the trail, yet she hadn’t heard them pass.
Pete shrugged. “Back to the ship, I guess.”
“We—I’m—headed to the cave. They were too. They couldn’t have come and gone already.”
He scratched his chin thoughtfully. “I guess they changed their minds once they saw it.”
She waited for him to elaborate but he didn’t. “I’m headed in the right direction, aren’t I?” It surprised her that Jace hadn’t spent at least a few minutes exploring.
“Yeah.” He nodded. “It’s just a few minutes further on the trail.”
“Okay, well I’d better get going. I want to see where Brother XII hid his gold.”
* * *
“You and a thousand other people.” He chuckled. “There is no gold. Everyone’s looking for the wrong thing. There is another treasure, though.”
“What kind of a treasure?”
“A secret passage under the ocean. A subterranean tunnel that leads to another island.”
“Wow. An actual tunnel under the ocean floor?”
He nodded. “Yeah. It’s been used by the locals for thousands of years. It’s like another world underground. It’s incredible, but not many people know about it.”
“How do you know so much about this place?” She had grown up on the mainland, close enough that she would surely have heard about something as fantastical as an underground passage. She hadn’t, so she assumed it probably didn’t exist. “Are you from around here?”
“Kind of. Grew up on another island. But that’s another story.” He furrowed his brows as he stared off into the distance. “You know anything about the cave?”
She shook her head. “What’s so special about it?”
“It’s three miles long and crosses under the ocean floor.” He tilted his head in the direction she was headed. “The entrance is in the middle of the island, but if you go in far enough there’s a drop off of a few hundred feet. The passage crosses under the water and comes out on Valdes Island across the strait.”
“Really?” Jace would be fascinated, if he wasn’t already under Raphael’s influence. Another story that he had missed out on. She wasn’t about to miss her opportunity, though. “Tell me more.”
“The cave was used by the Coast Salish people as part of their ceremonial rites. The men fasted and then traveled through the undersea passage alone with only a single torch to guide them. They completed their mission by depositing their staffs in the sacred chamber and were celebrated when they completed the return trip back.”
“Really? Have you hiked in there?” Was it hiking or spelunking? Probably the latter, since technically it was an underground cave.
Pete shook his head. “An earthquake more than a hundred years ago blocked the tunnel. It sealed in the sacred chamber, too. It’s supposed to be full of archeological treasures, like ceremonial masks and staffs and stuff.”
“If it’s so amazing, why hasn’t it been unblocked?” The secret chamber sounded like anthropologists’ heaven. The skeptic in her thought it didn’t connect at all. It was just an unsubstantiated legend.
“The boulders are the size of buildings,” he said. “You’d need lots of heavy equipment. Maybe the cost’s not worth it. Sometimes it’s better to just leave things as they are.”
“Unless Brother XII’s gold is in there.” Kat smiled. “At any rate, the cave sounds amazing. I can’t wait to see it.”
“Just be careful in there. You need to watch where you’re going.” He glanced at her feet. “You really shouldn’t go by yourself.”
He was right of course. “Can you show me?”
He shook his head. “I’ve got to get back to the ship.”
It struck Kat as odd that Pete wouldn’t return with them since he had swum ashore.
“I can show you tomorrow though.”
“That would be great.” As long as tomorrow wasn’t too late. If Jace and Raphael weren’t interested, they might not even remain at De Courcy another day. “I’ll still walk to the entrance though. Might as well have a quick look before going back to the ship.”
She thanked him and continued on the trail. Her ears perked up at the sound of running water and barely audible voices. But they were the voices of children, not Jace and Raphael.
Minutes later she encountered a family of four including a boy about ten and a girl around thirteen. She came within ten feet of them, close enough to hear them talking. The boy talked excitedly about the cave while the girl remained silent as she plucked ripe salmonberries from the bushes that lined the trail.
For reasons Kat couldn’t quite explain, she veered off the trail again. She didn’t feel like making small talk, so she followed the sound of running water to a small creek. She swatted a mosquito as she stopped by the stream. She bent down and ran her hand in the cold water. She drank it from her cupped hands and quenched her thirst. She shivered as she splashed her face and arms and rinsed sweat off her skin.
She waited a few feet off the trail until they passed. After their voices faded, new ones grew louder. Jace and Raphael hadn’t returned to the ship as Pete had claimed. Either he was mistaken or had purposely lied.
She turned back towards the trail, intending to catch up with them. She scrambled up the bank and caught her foot on an exposed tree root. She lurched forward and landed on her side with a thud.
She grunted as she assessed the damage. Her ribcage pressed against the root-covered ground. She winced as she drew a breath inward. Was anything broken?
No.
After the shock of falling, she dusted off the pine needles and bark mulch and assessed the damage. A bit of blood from a skinned knee. Other than that she was unharmed.
She struggled to her feet. “Hey! Wait for me.”
No answer.
She had only heard and not seen them, so it was hard to determine their direction of travel. Maybe they hadn’t turned back at all. They could still be headed to the cave. In which case she could simply follow. She breathed a sigh of relief. She wouldn’t be alone after all.
Odd that Pete had claimed to see them. He had probably seen others from afar and mistaken them for Jace and Raphael. Then again, the trail had passed within ten feet of Pete’s vantage point. They were hard to miss unless Pete had vision problems.
She retraced her steps but the men’s voices had already faded. They were headed towards the beach, in the opposite direction from the cave. They hadn’t even waited for her.
Well, they would just have to wait for her at the beach instead. She wasn’t boarding the dinghy without at least a glimpse of the c
ave. While Pete had offered to show her tomorrow, there were no guarantees they would still be moored at the island. Jace’s assignment was the whole reason for being here, and if he wasn’t interested in the cave, they probably wouldn’t stick around.
Her ankle throbbed and she was angry that she had been left behind. More than anything, it bothered her that Jace hadn’t even wondered where she was. Instead of worrying, he had completely forgotten about her.
She soon caught up with the family, despite her sore ankle. She slowed her pace, preferring solitude as her mood soured. Their voices faded again as her distance from them widened. She stayed far enough back so that she could hear but not see them. Ten minutes was all she needed for a quick look at the cave so she could at least say she’d been there. A few minutes after that and she’d be back at the dinghy. Jace and Raphael could surely amuse themselves by talking about Raphael for at least that long.
10
Kat had to turn sideways to slip through the cave entrance. It was little more than a crevice and she was immediately claustrophobic as she inhaled the dank, clammy air. Pete hadn’t mentioned the narrow opening. She hesitated and fought the urge to leave.
She couldn’t see or hear the family, but since the trail ended here, they must be inside the cave. She inched forward as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. At least the ground was level. She ran her hand along the smooth, damp walls that led in about twenty feet. Though the light barely penetrated the dark cave, it was clear that the cave led nowhere. She didn’t see anything that resembled a tunnel.
She was about to exit when the cave wall gave way beneath her palm. On her right was an opening or alcove of sorts. She followed the wall’s curve and stepped around the corner into a huge open cavern bathed in filtered sunlight. The contrast from a few feet away was stunning. Beams of light streamed from an opening at least thirty feet above her. Despite the open space, the air was even more humid than the dark passageway. Vines trailed down the damp cave walls and water droplets drizzled from above. At first she mistook the moisture for rain, but the mist was a result of the almost 100% humidity.
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