Wreckers Island (romantic suspense) (20 page)

MID OCTOBER, FOUR MONTHS LATER . . .

‘I cannot believe the summer has passed so quickly,’ said
Louise to Emma as they greeted each other on the railway station platform at St
Perro with warm hugs and kisses.

‘Did you have a good journey all the way
from Cheshire?’ asked Louise, who had driven the fairly short distance from her
village in mid Cornwall.

‘Yes it was fine,’ said Emma. ‘A couple of
twerps earlier on and an idiot who played his iPod so loud through his
headphones the whole carriage could hear, but they got off at Birmingham, thank
goodness. After that it was relaxing and so lovely to head through the West
Country to Cornwall.

‘I was half reading my Kindle and half
gazing out of the windows at the lovely countryside – I was almost hoping to
stay on the train for another couple of stops I was enjoying it so much.’

‘Oh, sorry to disappoint,’ retorted Louise,
giving her a playful punch on the shoulder. ‘Anyway you’ll have buckets of time
to read your Kindle and enjoy the countryside now that we’re on holiday number
two! Oh Emma, I can’t wait to get back to the lighthouse. I’ve been looking
forward to this all summer! Shall we go and get a coffee while we wait for the
boys? Trust them to arrive last!’

The girls found themselves a nice table in
the window of the station café from which they would easily see John and Dan
once their trains got in.

‘Are you still erm, together with John,’ asked
Emma, hesitantly, as they took their seats.

‘Yes, I think so, sort of,’ replied Louise,
as if she wasn’t entirely sure. ‘I mean, we haven’t met since our holiday in
June but we’ve stayed in touch, you know, emails and texts and phone calls,
that sort of thing. I reckon the romance will start again once we’re in the
lighthouse again. I’m surprise we didn’t topple it over with our lovemaking
that final night, ooh I’ve never had a session like it!’

Emma looked at her with a pained expression.

‘Sorry, there I go again. I didn’t mean to
sound too blatantly crude! Anyway, how about you and Dan?’

‘Yes, totally smitten,’ said Emma,
brightening at the mention of his name. ‘We are so loved-up it’s enough to make
you sick. We’ve seen sooo much of each other these last few weeks. Dan came and
camped in Cheshire and I joined him, even though my mum and dad were a bit off
about it and we had the most wonderful time. Then I went down to see him and
actually got to stay with him at his family home and oh, it’s an amazing house
they’ve got.’

‘I hope you didn’t scream with passion in
the middle of the night and wake his folks up,’ said Louise frivolously.

Emma frowned at her. Louise could be
terribly flippant and vulgar at times.

‘No, we didn’t have sex in his parents’
house because it wouldn’t have been appropriate under their roof. I think it’s a
pity everything seems to revolve around sex with you, Louise. I bet you’ve been
having flings all over Cornwall while you’ve been apart from John, haven’t
you?’

‘That’s mean of you,’ replied Louise, who
couldn’t resist adding that yes, she had had a couple but they hadn’t meant
anything. ‘And you’ll never guess who I also shagged,’ she went on. ‘I didn’t
tell you at the time.’

‘No Louise, I don’t suppose I will, so
enlighten me.’

‘Only rabbit-faced Rupert, the Finds Liaison
Officer!’

As Emma’s eyes opened wide, Louise told how
she had seduced him while alone with him that day he had come over, taking him
up to the lamp room.

‘You actually did that during our holiday,
you disgust me at times, Louise. Have you no sense of loyalty to the man you
are supposed to be going out with? Fancy messing around with that poor Rupert,
of all people. I’ll bet he felt on top of the world sleeping with you then upset
that you didn’t want anything more to do with him,’ said Emma.

‘He did send me a few hopeful texts but I
think he knew I wasn’t interested in seeing him further,’ said Louise, ‘but he
told me I had given him a new-found self confidence that he would always be
grateful for.’

‘Let’s hope,’ said Emma, disapprovingly,
‘since he might well be at the treasure inquest tomorrow.’

‘Yes the treasure inquest, I can’t wait!’
said Louise. ‘Oh and I have some good news to tell you, but I’ll save it until
the boys get here.’

~~~~~

John and Dan, although living far apart from
each other, had both ended up on the same train. Unaware, they only met when
Dan grumpily moved from his carriage which reverberated with the din of boisterous
teenagers, a garrulous group of women and the tinny beat of a dozen iPhones. Fortunately,
few people had thought to board the carriage at the far end and Dan was about
to sit down amid rows of empty seats when he spotted a face he recognised beneath
a mop of blond hair, straight in front of him.

‘Hello stranger!’ he said to John, ‘fancy
meeting you here!’

‘Howdy do matey,’ replied John with a wide
grin. ‘Quite so, it never occurred to me. Are you set for lighthouse holiday
number two, starting with our big day in the Coroner’s Court tomorrow?’

‘I certainly am,’ said Dan, alighting opposite
his friend. ‘I kind of want to get the hearing over with. I know it will be
fascinating to go to a treasure inquest and I can’t see anything going wrong
but . . .’ he faltered.

‘I know what you mean,’ replied John,
reading his thoughts. ‘I feel the same. But this time tomorrow, the four of us
will be declared the main beneficiaries of our wonderful find, looking forward
to some big cheques arriving in the post. The Coroner is bound to find in our
favour, Rupert was certain of it.’

‘Oh yes, goofy Rupey, I’d forgotten about
him,’ said Dan. He added, in a whisper, ‘you don’t think anything will emerge
about Zak do you?’

‘Absolutely not,’ said John, firmly. ‘That
Cornish newspaper which carried the reports of his death has an online edition which
I’ve been following and it’s clear the police are no longer treating it as
suspicious. They think it was some sort of tragic accident at sea.’

Dan nodded. He too had been regularly
checking local media reports on the internet during the summer and been
relieved to note that the inquiry had not progressed.

‘I wonder if the girls will be at the
station already,’ he said. ‘I’ll bet they are.’

‘They should be, their trains were due to
arrive earlier – and I think I can guess where we’ll find them,’ said John.

~~~~~

John was right. He and Dan slunk behind them
as they drank their cappuccinos and overheard Louise mention she had ‘good
news’ to impart when they arrived.

‘Roll the good news,’ he boomed cheerfully
behind them, making them jump.

‘How ever did you know we’d be in here?’
said Louise, giving John an effusive hug.

‘Knowing your love of coffee and cafés and
the fact that your trains got in before ours, it seemed a reasonable guess,’
laughed John. ‘And look who I met on the journey – we never thought we’d actually
get on the same train, living miles apart.’

Emma threw herself over Dan and hugged him
tightly.

‘Let him go for a minute, Emma,’ said
Louise, chuckling. ‘Now we’re all present I want to tell you my good news. Anyone
care to guess what it is?’ she said with great gusto, attracting a couple of
glances from nearby tables.

‘You’re pregnant!’ blurted out Emma before
she could stop herself.

‘Oh Emma,’ said Louise, scowling. ‘No, my
big news is that my parents have written to the Coroner to renounce any claim
on the treasure in the event that we are formally declared finders. In other
words, we won’t get a quarter each of a half, we’ll get a quarter each of the
whole lot.’

‘But Louise,’ said Dan, looking concerned.
‘We fully expected your parents to take their share, they are entitled to as
owners of the undersea cave.’

‘They both said that insofar as they didn’t
even realise they owned an undersea cave and were never likely to visit it, let
alone search it for hidden treasure, they had no wish to profit from our hard
work,’ said Louise.

‘They think we showed great initiative and
endeavour and if this money means we can get through the rest of our university
education without the need to slave away in part-time jobs and rack up huge
debts, good luck to us. They are thrilled for us.’

‘That’s amazingly generous of them,’ said
Dan. ‘We will have to get them a present to say thank you.’

‘Hear hear,’ added John.

‘They’re good people, my mum and dad,’ said
Louise, proudly. ‘They’re also multi-millionaires, which probably helps when it
comes to renouncing your claim to long-lost treasure. So anyway, if everything
goes according to plan tomorrow, I think we are due for the most enormous
celebration. What say we book in to the finest hotel in St Perro, have a
five-course meal, drink vintage champagne and stay the night in splendid
luxury?’

‘What say we do no such thing,’ said Emma, quietly,
feeling that Louise needed, once again, to be reined in. It was this sort of
airy talk that had got themselves overheard and into trouble in the first place.
They would never have ended up crossing swords with Zak and Jake if it hadn’t
been for their indiscretion in the Smugglers Tavern.

‘Listen, Louise,’ said Emma, noting her
disappointment, ‘if we are to be rich, we’re not rich yet. Right now I barely
have a farthing to my name. I had to borrow money from my parents to pay my
rail fare here. Yes I know we could Visa it, but let’s dine on lobster and expensive
bubbly when the money is in the bank ok?’

‘You’re right, Emma,’ said Louise, backing
down graciously. ‘I was getting carried away as usual. What would you like to
do to celebrate? Why don’t you decide?’

‘Personally I would like to pitch a couple
of beach tents in Gunwalloe Cove tomorrow evening, light a camp fire and have a
barbecue. Then sit on the sand, or the rocks, gazing out to sea at our lovely
lighthouse lit by the setting sun, said Emma. ‘I would like us to raise our
drinks and toast each other’s good health and say a prayer for those who
perished in the Providencia 230 years ago.

‘Perhaps if they could see us they would be content,
at least, that after so long four students struggling to stay solvent should
have their lives transformed thanks to them. It would be good to share the
moment with them, looking out into the bay where their remains still lie. When
we are too tired to stay awake any longer, we could crawl into our tents and
fall asleep with the music of the sea in our ears.’

It was an impressive speech, if a touch
whimsical, and the others were moved by it. Emma could be exceptionally sensitive
and profound, so different from Louise’s often brash and superficial behaviour.
They thought it an admirable idea: a celebration for the reward they were due and
a fitting commemoration and tribute to the Providencia’s ill-fated crew.

‘It’s a lovely idea and I’m glad you feel
the way I do about Captain Felipe and his ship,’ said Dan, giving her a peck on
the lips.

Their coffees drunk, the four lugged their
suitcases round to the car park where Louise’s clapped-out Ford Focus awaited.
It grumbled and juddered under their combined weight as she took them back to Porthlevnack.

Louise’s boat had been stored at the
boatyard pending her return and they went there first to reclaim it. It looked
the same as ever. They sat in the back as the men at the yard towed it into the
sea on a tractor.

‘Isn’t this great,’ said Louise as the engine
roared and the boat bounced over the waves. ‘It is as if we had never been
away.’

The others felt the same. It was great to be
reunited and on holiday again bound for Wreckers Island. Even the weather was
as good as it had been in June, although the temperature was now closer to 65
degrees than 75.

The lighthouse was as they had left it; so
was the outbuilding. The locks were secure on both and had not been tampered
with. That was a great relief. When they got inside their first move was to put
the kettle on for a round of tea. Dan promised to do his curry special again
for an evening meal, as he had on their second night in June.

‘Remember not to cut yourself this time,’
scolded Emma, wagging her finger. ‘Mind you, I think you only did it to make me
to feel sorry for you so you had a chance to chat me up.’

‘It worked, didn’t it,’ said Dan with a
grin.

They decided against any alcoholic
refreshment that night – tempting though it was. It was better to keep a clear
head for the following day’s proceedings and they turned in early, Emma cosying
up to Dan and Louise, once again, in the arms of John.

The following day, they drove to St Perro in good time for
the inquest. They were dressed smartly, aware they should look their best for a
formal occasion.

The Coroner’s Court was held in the same
block as the local magistrates’ sessions and the students passed a good few
disreputable-looking sorts on their way through the building.

I bet they’d pinch a few of our gold coins
given the chance, thought Dan nervously.

The usher pointed them towards cramped,
linked plastic seating at the rear. The plusher, comfy chairs at the front were
no doubt reserved for lawyers and key witnesses. The inquest into their find
was the first of the day and the courtroom was empty when they arrived. Before
long, two familiar faces turned up – the goofy features of Finds Liaison
Officer Rupert Spencer and the kindly museum curator. Sure enough, they were
offered the better seats.

In came the court clerk wearing her black
gown. She was a bored-looking young woman in her mid 30s who had an air about
her that when you’d attended one inquest, you’d attended them all. That wasn’t
how the students felt. For them there was pent-up excitement, which grew more
pronounced when a shabby-looking young man with a rat-like face and goatee
beard sat on the side bench. He placed a notepad and pen in front of him, then
appeared to scrabble around in his pockets.

It could only be a reporter from the local
paper suddenly remembering to switch his mobile phone off, surmised Louise. He
caught her glance and gave her a wink.

‘Court rise,’ commanded the usher in a stern
voice. They dutifully stood and in walked the Coroner. He wasn’t resplendent in
a flowing gown and wig as they had hoped, or anything like the munchkin version
in the Wizard of Oz pronouncing the death of the Wicked Witch. Instead he was a
smallish, rather unimpressive figure in a lounge suit.

‘Good morning everybody,’ said the Coroner.
‘My name is Andrew Smithfield, and I am Her Majesty’s Coroner for the county of
Cornwall. Please be seated. It is my task this morning to hold an inquest into
a substantial historic hoard discovered on June 11 of this year in a cave
beneath the seabed off the Cornish coast and reported to myself on June 13.

‘My job, fundamentally, is to decide whether
this find constitutes, for the purposes of the law, treasure. Now that is
treasure with a capital T if you will. Certainly this remarkable find would constitute
treasure to the ordinary man or woman in the street. But does it satisfy the
strict definition under the Treasure Act 1996 which also embraces what used to
be known as Treasure Trove?

‘There are a number of criteria which apply,
the most important being that it was deliberately concealed with the intention
of being recovered and that those who buried it have no obvious heirs or
descendants. This being the case it will fall upon me to ascertain who, in the
eyes of the law, are the legal finders and what should be their entitlement.’

The Coroner droned on for a couple more
minutes and Louise, in the middle of the tightly-placed seats was getting
restless as she fought a sudden urge to fall asleep. She tried to straighten
her legs as best she could under the seating in front which was uncomfortably
close. It was warm and stuffy in the courtroom and she wished someone would
turn the air conditioning on – assuming there was any.

Witnesses were called, beginning with the Curator
of the Royal Cornwall Museum who spoke expansively and enthusiastically about
the find and expressed his desire to purchase the collection on behalf of the
museum.

Rupert had his moment of glory, backing up
the Curator’s comments and explaining how the students had reported the find promptly
to him. He described how he went over to see the hoard for himself.

Funny, no mention of the other treasures he
had sought out a few minutes earlier, mused Louise.

It was the students’ turn to address the
court, starting with Louise as the offspring of the owners. A little nervous,
she told the Coroner about the documents which had lain forgotten about in the
lighthouse cellar including the hand-written Spanish diary which no-one had
ever attempted to decipher before.

Dan took the witness stand and told how he
translated extracts from the diary which led them to suspect the existence of
an undersea cave and the possibility that items salvaged from the lost ship had
been stored in it. The map included as part of the sales particulars of the island
appeared to indicate that a tunnel beneath the sea bed led directly to the
island itself, he said.

The court fell silent as everyone listened
intently to Dan’s dramatic account of how they discovered first the tunnel, the
cave and finally the treasure itself.

‘We transported the hoard carefully in
crates from the cave along the passageway and up the shaft beneath the
outbuilding on the island. We took the crates into the lighthouse and stored
the contents carefully in the safe. We reported our find to Cornwall Council’s Finds
Liaison Officer the following day,’ said Dan.

He made no mention of Zak and Jake’s
involvement but if what he said was economical with the truth, his account contained
no lies.

The question of ownership was addressed and Rupert
piped up, saying that he was satisfied that the rightful owners of the cave and
tunnels were Louise’s parents.

The Coroner read out a letter from Mr and
Mrs Locksley in which they declared that their daughter and her three friends,
John, Dan and Emma, had their permission to search the tunnels and that they formally
waived their rights to be considered for a claim should the four of them be
declared the lawful finders.

‘Very well,’ said the Coroner, looking
gravely at the students but with something of a twinkle in his eye, ‘that
sounds like retrospective permission to me, but if it’s good enough for council
planning departments, it’s good enough for me.

‘Now, something I must ask you is this: it
is a condition of being considered for a reward that you did not break the law
or the relevant code of conduct in pursuit of the treasure. Can you declare to
me that you did not knowingly or wilfully do anything illegal or improper in
the course of this discovery?’

They shook their heads.

‘Good,’ said the Coroner. ‘Now for the
exciting bit. Do I have a representative from the Treasure Valuation Committee?
For the benefit of those of you who may not know, the committee
provides independent advice to Government
on the fair market value of declared Treasure finds from England, Wales and
Northern Ireland, which museums wish to acquire from the Crown.’

A
committee member duly stood and addressed the court. ‘Sir, it is our considered
opinion that a fair market value of the hoard would be one million, six hundred
thousand pounds. I understand that the Royal Museum in Cornwall is keen to purchase
it.’

The
students gasped and clutched each other.

‘Very
well,’ said the Coroner. He looked round at everybody. ‘It is now my task to
draw some conclusions from what we have heard. Firstly, I would say that this
has proved a most fascinating case. It is always a pleasure for coroners to
undertake treasure inquests. As you will know, most inquests are inquiries into
people’s tragic and untimely deaths. They are inevitably sad, unhappy events,
so it’s nice for us to be able to ponder a wonderful, historic discovery of
buried treasure like this.

‘Weighing
up what we know about the find, the expert evidence from the Curator of the
Royal Cornwall Museum and the county’s Finds Liaison Officer, and accepting
also the translations, as far as they go, carried out by Daniel Delaurier of
the Spanish captain’s diary, I am happy to declare this find to be Treasure
under the terms of the 1996 Act and therefore the lawful property of the Crown.
I am also happy to invite its purchase from the Crown by the Royal Cornwall
Museum for the sum advised by the Treasure Valuation Committee.

‘The
owners of the undersea cave in which the treasure was found having renounced
any title to this reward, I therefore declare that the rightful, sole
beneficiaries to be the four finders, namely Louise Locksley, John Comstock,
Daniel Delaurier and Emma Hardy. Those persons are I believe, present today and
have indicated that any reward payable to them should be divided into equal
quarters.’

The
Coroner paused and looked at the four students who nodded.

‘That
being so, I further declare that the find of valuables from the Providencia,
captained by a Felipe Sanchez Vargas and which foundered off the Cornish coast
in 1780 to be treasure worth £1,600,000 which shall be paid to, and divided
between, the aforementioned Louise Locksley, John Comstock, Daniel Delaurier
and Emma Hardy in equal sums of £400,000.’

Louise
looked as if she was desperate to whoop for joy but even she managed to keep
her emotions in check this time.

‘My
congratulations and best wishes to the four of you,’ said the Coroner, beaming
at them. ‘I believe you are students at Oxford University. This should help pay
the bills until you find yourselves a high-flying career. Don’t spend it all on
beer!’ He winked at them, rose to his feet and gave a small bow, before leaving
via a door at the back.

‘Court
rise,’ announced the usher, and they stood up. The courtroom emptied and Rupert,
although he looked anxious to stay and chat, sensed that they might like a moment
alone to come to terms with their amazing news. He grinned cheerily at them and
left. The four of them hugged each other, tears running down their cheeks.

‘Isn’t
this unbelievable, simply surreal,’ said Louise, ‘to think that our money
worries are over. I’m so pleased especially for you Emma as you more than any
of us were really in trouble.’

Emma
had a lump in her throat and was struggling to speak.

‘You
don’t know how much this means to me, I thought I would have to give up my
course, I simply didn’t see how I could carry on,’ she said, tearfully. ‘This
will transform my life, it will transform
all
our lives. Dan, we owe so
much to you for what you did, your common sense, ingenuity and bravery saved
the day.’

‘Yes
but I so nearly went and wrecked everything. In many respects, Emma, we have
you to thank for saving us from Zak that day,’ said Dan, giving her a big hug, instantly
regretting that remark.

‘Oh
Zak, I wonder what happened to him,’ said Emma. ‘I hope his head wasn’t too
sore in the end.’

‘Don’t
worry about him,’ said John, ‘this is a wonderful day. This is our day, let’s
not let anything spoil it.’

‘Court
rise,’ barked the usher again.

Suddenly
the door at the rear of the court opened and the Coroner walked back in again. Through
the main entrance came a different group of people, some smart in sombre suits
but also a large gathering of scruffy-looking characters who were directed into
the cramped seats on either side of the four students.

The
new arrivals, all of whom seemed equally overweight, were an emotional bunch,
dabbing their eyes and hugging each other. So close were the attached seats to
the ones in front, it was impossible for the students to squeeze past without
appearing to jostle them rudely.

‘Please
be seated,’ said the Coroner, smiling sympathetically.

Glad
to get the weight off their feet, the scruffies promptly obeyed, and several tree-trunk
legs shot out gratefully under the seats in front.

For
a second, John, Dan, Emma and Louise remained standing, mentally assessing how
easy it would be to intrude upon their sorrow and require them to get up again
so they could squeeze past and escape. But the Coroner was now in full flow,
giving an earnest and kindly welcome to this very different audience.

The
students, still in something of a daze, had little choice but to take their
seats again. They glanced at each other ruefully and shrugged as if to say, oh
well, better stay put until it’s over.

Louise
started to fidget again. A pair of hefty buttocks and chubby elbows were now
nudging into her, and a faint smell of body odour mixed with cheap after-shave
made the air even more oppressive and stifling. She was desperate to get out of
the court complex and go off for a celebration drink.

‘My name is Andrew Smithfield, and I am Her
Majesty’s Coroner for the county of Cornwall,’ said the Coroner, his words having
a familiar ring.

‘It is my sad task this morning to hold an
inquest into the untimely death of a man whose body was found floating near to
caverns adjacent to Gunwalloe Cove on the evening of Tuesday, June 12th by a
fisherman who duly reported the matter to the police.

‘The scene was attended some minutes later
by officers from the police station in the nearby village of Porthlevnack and
subsequent further inquiries were held and, arising from those inquiries, the
body was identified as being that of a local man from the village, Mr Zachariah
Penhaligon, aged 45.’

John and Dan both froze when they heard that
name. Louise was lost in a world of her own, dreaming about what she would do
with her £400,000. She wasn’t interested in some poor unfortunate who had been
lost at sea.

For Emma, it also didn’t register
straightaway. Her head too was spinning with their news. She wasn’t too
bothered that they had found themselves accidentally staying for another
inquest. She was simply happy and excited and eager to get outside with the
others and talk about it all.