“Enjoy the ride, pumpkin.”
Both children dragged their feet a little as Faith shepherded them out of the house.
“She’s smart,” Sherlock said.
“I know,” Darcy replied.“Smarter than I was at her age.I wish she didn’t know about any of this.”
“The quickest way to make them safe is to catch whoever is behind all of this,” Dot said.“To do that, I need to know everything.”
Amy fetched two documents from a drawer and handed them to Dot.“These are how we found the shipwreck and the treasure.”
She glanced down at the photocopies.The first one was a journal with Lilian Stokes’s name on the front.The second was a captain’s journal and dated from the sixteen hundreds.“Where’d you get these?”
“From the cellar,” Georgie answered.“I found them about three months ago.Lilian’s journal tells the story of how theRetributionwas shipwrecked.Her husband, Reginald, found the captain’s journal somewhere and was searching for the wreck and the treasure.”
It finally made more sense.“You knew the Dutch ship was there when you found it.”Dot flicked through the photocopy.
Georgie nodded.
Oliver would be thrilled to get a copy of the journal.“Do you have the original?”
“We have a translation.The original was stolen from Lilian in Cossack.They think some pearl divers who were on the ship took it.”
“My ancestor Da was one of the divers,” Tess said.“She didn’t take it, but she came from Singapore.”
Which was where Stonefish also had connections.
“The shipwreck survivors found some of the treasure, and there was a mutiny,” Brandon continued.“Those who survived divided it amongst themselves, but Lilian suspected there was more.”
“When they returned to the area after they’d been rescued, Lilian and the three convicts with her found the rest.”Ed got up and put on the kettle.“Lilian and her husband hid their portion to help future family.”
Dot shook her head.“How did you find it?”
“Sherlock figured out the clues in the journal,” Georgie said.“The storm last week washed away a lot of the sand and uncovered it.”
Dot had to get to the bottom of who owned the treasure.Technically it had been taken from the shipwreck before there were laws in place forbidding it.The Stokes were struggling financially, and she hoped they’d be able to keep a portion.It would be a shame for it all to end up in a museum somewhere.“It won’t take long for Stonefish to regroup, especially if the treasure holds some kind of significance to them.”
“Are you any closer to finding them?”Gretchen asked.“Did Kurt talk?”
Dot shook her head.“He said nothing, but I caught Myra Simpson on my way out of town.”She enjoyed their looks of shock.It was nice to be the one who surprised them for a change.
Gretchen narrowed her eyes.“Did you arrest her?”
Dot nodded, understanding her anger.“She was being blackmailed by Stonefish.”
When Dot didn’t elaborate, Georgie said, “What did they have on her?”
“I can’t say.”They didn’t need to know about the rest.It would come out during the court case.
Darcy scowled.“She endangered Jordan and Cody and ignored Lara.”
“I can’t tell you.”Dot repeated as she opened her notebook and clicked her pen.“Let’s start at the very beginning,” she said.“Who did Taylor have connections with?”
The Stokes and Amy all scowled at the mention of the man who had caused the death of their parents.
Dot exhaled.It was going to be a long night.
Chapter 7
