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9. the cove

It was a forlorn beach. Not a single soul was in sight. Grey sand mixed with jagged shards of mineral and rock from the stony crevices bordering the Eastern shoreline. The tide came strong, crashing against the rock loudly and spraying foamy ocean water all over the desolate beach as gulls cried hungrily in the bleak midwinter sky. Thick clouds curtained the sun as it cast its hazy glow, the same eerie glow it always cast.

The detective descended the sand dunes that surrounded the Eastern beach, hearing his boots make a dull crunch against the fine grains of sand beneath him, a sound that was almost comforting. Perhaps it was because the sound of footsteps on sand known to him, and hearing it here was expected, amongst two days full of what was not expected. He narrowed his eyes, searching the shoreline for the cave that Erasmus had told him about, but his eyes settled on nothing: just an empty beach.

He decided to walk further out onto the beach, trekking through the sand and watching tiny little crabs scurry away to avoid being crushed beneath his heavy boots, until he felt wet sand and stopped. The tide seemed to slow down, the water wasn't as rough and wild against the rock and the gulls weren't so loud anymore. The detective stared out into the horizon, the afternoon sun glowing palely behind thick clouds.

He saw endless ocean, waves forming and breaking, building up to a crest and crashing back down into the vast expanse of water. He saw until the ocean and the horizon merged together, covered by a thin and wispy veil of fog, like the veil of a beautiful bride. From here, Edgecomb almost looked tranquil, away from the cunning and malicious workings of men, away from the dark tragedies of this corrupted town. Here, only the Earth had power, and only the brave could see it.

As he stood and watched the sky, his thoughts went to his home on the mainland. He missed his small but comfortable apartment, nestled deep in the city, always bustling with noise. He missed the tiny cafe that was connected to his building, the friendly smiles the baristas used to give him when they handed him his coffee. He missed his plants, beautiful but difficult to maintain, they were very needy. He hoped they were doing well. He had asked his neighbor, a Russian man named Victor, to water them, given him the keys to the apartment and every instruction on how to to care for them. Victor was a fine, sturdy man, worthy of the detective's trust, so he decided to push thoughts of home away from his head. He wasn't leaving Edgecomb until he solved the case.

Focusing back to the issue on hand, the detective scanned either side of the shoreline, hunting for any signs of an opening into a cave. There was a rocky knoll on his left, and he concluded that if the cave was anywhere, it would be there. He carefully walked along the shoreline, a sudden gust of wind blowing his coat backwards, just as the path became rockier and rockier, the waves less gentle against the stone. It was almost as if the entire island was forcing him away from uncovering its secrets, smiting him down with all its wrath. But that only served to urge the detective onwards, eagerly anticipating what could possible be hidden behind the rock.

As the detective scaled the rocky outcrop, he came across an opening in the knoll, small and not obvious, reaching almost the size of an average door, but thinner than he expected. Could Father Solomon really fit through an opening like this? He wondered to himself, as he approached the lip of the cave. He clenched his jaw, taking one last glance behind him at the cove, before taking a deep breath and descending into the darkness.

The cave was damp, and the detective immediately felt beads of sweat form on his brow. He lit a match, cursing himself for not bringing his torch, and tread carefully, not wanting to cut himself on any jagged stalagmites as he ventured through the cave. At first it didn't seem like it was much, but as he walked, and the flame on the match flickered, he could see large open caverns ahead of him, blocked off by flimsy wooden planks. He put his hand on one and pulled it off, throwing it to the floor with relative ease and watching it skid across the cave floor.