Ghosts ⚔️ Blackbeard's Treasure

Chapter 24.

The next day, Blair, Dylan and I track down Roland. Because it's Sunday, he's in the back of Pirate's Republic working on the bar's bookkeeping. I look at his office with its piles of haphazard paperwork and inwardly cringe. He's worse than Blair. "What do you mean you want to explore the passageways under my building?" He looks up from his computer like a disturbed parrot. I have to admit, he does look comical in a green bookie's visor and a worn, black Grateful Dead t-shirt. The too small shirt emphasizes his middle-aged potbelly. This man couldn't harm a fly, let alone drown someone. His bushy hair has been cut short making him look a sweet, bossy alpaca I once fed at the zoo. "You can't scavenge through the tunnels. It's not safe down there."

Dylan shows him the gold doubloon from the bathroom floor. The bar owner's eyes glitter. "Where did you get this?" His right eye twitches.

"I'm not sure you'd believe me if I told you." I close the office door. "That's not important right now. We're all in danger. There's a killer on the loose."

He blinks and his shoulders sag. "Listen, I didn't kill anyone."

"But you knew there was a murderer stalking the warehouse apartment building." Sweet alpaca eyes be damned, I'm not letting him off the hook. "Why did you rent us this apartment? You put us in danger."

"Honestly, I meant no harm." My determination falters. He looks near tears. "Nathan had a letter Blackbeard wrote. He was helping me search the underground passageways to look for a hidden chamber. Together, we discovered the hidden tunnel annex, but couldn't find the treasure. He told me your Grandmother, Julia Summers, had a set of bells from the Queen Anne's Revenge. I guess he learned about them when he took your Ghost Tour a month ago. He said the bells could hold a clue to finding my ancestor's treasures."

I nod. "I remember a young man fitting his description. He asked me to look at my prop bell during one of my tours. I told him about the bell's history. Where my grandmother bought the set of them." I freeze as a connection clicks in my mind. "Wait, your ancestor?"

"I'm a descendent of Edward Teach." He opens a desk drawer and hands me an ancestral chart. My finger follows the lengthy lineage tree upwards until I stop at the name Delamar Teach.

He exhales, deflating like a ballon. "I invited your grandmother to the bar with an invitation under the guise of a contest. I was hoping to get her to talk about the bells—convince her to sell them to me." Miserable, he continues, "Someone killed Nathan right after I sent out that invitation. Whoever did it stole the letter. I wanted to tell the police, but I was afraid they might be working with the mayor. Two days later, you and your grandmother came to the bar and brought one of the bells. That's why I offered you the loft apartment. I thought you owned them."

"I do. My grandmother gave them to me. Curse and all. Did you know Blackbeard's ghost haunts the loft premises?"

"What? Who told you that ridiculous nonsense, Paco?" He grimaces. "He won't come into the building's basement. That's why I had to hire Nathan."

"It's not nonsense. I'm psychic. I saw Edward Teach's spirit while I was taking a bath. He's earthbound and wants to be released." I don't mention Mary Ormond to him. Instead, I take the doubloon from Dylan and hand it to Roland. He holds it in his hand, letting its reality sink in. "In exchange, he's willing to guide us to his hidden plunder."

Roland runs a hand through his curly hair. "I'm nearly bankrupt. That's why I'm searching for his gold. The mayor's been strangling small businesses in this area with regulations. He forces them to close, either by condemning the properties, or cutting off all traffic to the area with constant construction. Then his real estate company swoops in and buys the property. He says it's part of the city's revitalization project, but he does it so he can dig under the area and search for Blackbeard's treasure."

"How do you know this?" Dylan asks.

Roland looks at his hands. "Nathan told me, right before he was drowned." Angry, he looks up. "His death wasn't an accident. He was like a fish in the water."

"So, you think the mayor had him killed? Blair asks.

"I'm not accusing the mayor of murder. He's corrupt, but not homicidal. Maybe he doesn't know how ruthless his thugs can be."

I mull this over for a minute. "What if we work together? Find the treasure before the mayor's crew tunnels into this area?"

"You mean split all the gold and jewels?" His eyes narrow at my suggestion.

I  put a foot up on a barstool and assume the Captain Morgan rum bottle stance. "Yes, divide the treasure we find between all of us, including Paco." Blair's mouth falls open.

"I guess I don't have a choice." He holds up a foreclosure notice. "That greedy bastard's going to get his hands on this property no matter what I do," he says, bitterly. "It's just a matter of time. You can't stand in the way of progress,"