Treasure of the Dead

Chapter 14

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was not what Maddock had envisioned. He expected a centuries-old facade, but this building, while clearly a cathedral, was a prime example of modern architecture. Two large towers bookended an elaborate framework of arches.

He searched for the words to describe it. “This place is…”

“… funky,” Bones finished.

“It does have a real on-again-off again history,” Fabi said.

“Kind of like us?” Bones grinned.

Fabi smirked. “Kind of like that, I suppose, but over a much longer time period. Construction began in the 1500s as a parish church, when the town boomed with the discovery of gold. But some years later, after the gold mines had been depleted, the town was abandoned before the church was completed. It sat around unfinished all the way until the 1800s, when construction took up again, but with a new design. Even then it didn’t actually get finished until the early 1900s.”

“So what’s it used for today?” Bones asked as they walked toward the front entrance.

“Church services. Let’s get inside and see if anyone can help us.”

The front doors were wide open and so they entered a cavernous main room lined with long pews. No service was in progress but a couple of people sat quietly with their heads down near the back, and a priest stood off to the side. Fabi, Maddock, Bones, and Willis approached the priest, who initially spoke with Fabi in Creole but quickly shifted to English, perhaps sensing that the three men in Fabi’s party didn’t speak the native tongue.

“I have a room where we can talk without interrupting the worshippers.” He turned and walked down the aisle until he reached a door. He opened it and led the group inside. A few chairs were scattered about, and another door led into a confessional booth.

The priest, an elderly black Haitian who explained he had been schooled in the Bahamas where he learned to speak English, asked them what he could help them with. Maddock told the story of the crazy sailor from the 1700s, and then the priest’s eyes seemed to twinkle with recognition.

“Yes, I have heard that tale. The sailor’s name was reputed to be Alonso Sanchez. He did eventually regain his sanity and left the island.” The priest held up a long, bony finger before continuing. “Here is the funny thing, though: Even as his mind returned, Sanchez insisted the demons he had ‘experienced’ were real. He never recanted his testimonial that he saw some sort of… ‘demons’, was the word he was always recorded having used.”

Maddock asked a few more questions, but the priest had nothing more substantial to offer, and so they thanked him for his help and exited the room. On the way out through the cathedral, Maddock couldn’t help but notice two more doors, both set into the front wall of the church, behind the pulpit and stage, which featured a small band setup, including a drum set and organ.

Maddock said nothing, however, as the priest walked out of the room into the aisle, watching them leave. They left the building the way they had come and walked out to their vehicle. After they had gotten in, Fabi at the wheel, Maddock recapped what they had learned, which was not much more than the sailor’s name.

Bones shook his head and gave a heavy sigh. “I had high hopes for that place. What’s your fall back plan if this treasure hunting thing doesn’t work out, Maddock? I think I might try out for the Raiders.”

Willis laughed heartily. “Funniest thing I’ve heard all day. I would enjoy watching you get crushed out there, though.”

This triggered an argument until Maddock spoke over them to stop it.

“Don’t suit up for the field just yet, Bones. I don’t think we’re quite done here.”

“What do you mean?” Fabi looked over from the wheel.

“You said they added on the new church to the old cathedral, right?”

“Correct.”

“So maybe we should find a way to have a look at the original structure. Could be that part of it is still down there, but sealed off. If we could only find a way in…”

Bones appeared skeptical. “The priest was a nice guy, he didn’t mind hearing us out and talking to us for a bit, but something tells me he wouldn’t be too keen on giving us the keys to the kingdom.”

Maddock turned around in the front seat to look back at Bones and Willis. “What if we came back later after he’s not there?”

Night fell a few hours later and the four of them returned to the cathedral after a light supper. They saw no activity outside, only a cone of light from a fixture over the door. As they approached, Maddock asked Fabi if she thought it would be open. She shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. There are churches whose doors are always open, but it’s not uncommon for some to lock up after hours. Vandalism and theft can be a problem here, especially for the nicer places, and I’d say this is one of the nicer ones.”

“Time to find out,” Willis said as they walked up to the front door again. He pulled on the handle but the double door wouldn’t budge.

Fabi breathed a sigh. “Really sorry, guys.”

Willis gave her a shocked look. “I thought you said you and Bones were a thing?”

Confused, she half-stammered out a reply. “Were, sometimes, whatever. What’s the point?”

Willis stepped aside from the door and let Bones take his place. “You would think you knew the man a little better. Bones don’t need no key, do you, my man?”

“Doubt it. Let me take a look.” Bones went to work on the door while Maddock and Willis kept watch. Bones pulled a folding multi-tool from his pocket and applied it to the door lock. A soft click sounded, and when Bones tried the knob, it turned. He pushed the doors open, looked inside to make sure no one was there, then stepped over the threshold.

The others followed him in and Willis shut the door behind them. A few lights were on inside, making it possible to see enough to move around, but it was still very dim. Maddock urged them in a low voice that if someone should emerge from one of the rooms, they should say they found the door open and came in to pray. But as they moved toward the front of the church, no one did come out, nor could they hear anything to indicate someone else might be here. They reached the stage behind the pulpit, where Maddock had seen the two doors.

Maddock said that he and Willis would check the door on the left while Bones and Fabi took the one on the right. “First thing is to see if we’ll need Bones’ special skill set,” Fabi said as she tried the door knob. But it opened, and she and Bones checked it out while Maddock opened the other door.

“It’s just a broom closet,” Fabi called out right away.

“Maybe we should hang out in here a little while, make sure we don’t miss anything in here,” Bones joked.

“Get a room, you two,” Willis called from the one he and Maddock had just entered.

Maddock found a light switch and flipped it on, bathing the place in low light from a single overhead fixture. “Office.” He took in a neatly organized wooden desk, a large, ornate cross featuring a life-sized Jesus nailed in place hanging on one wall, a group of framed pictures showing the priest they had talked to giving sermons, and others that were historical photos of the cathedral in different stages of construction.

Willis began rifling through the desk drawers while Maddock studied the walls and floor, which was a contemporary, though unremarkable, tiled affair. Bones and Fabi appeared in the doorway, taking in the small room.

“Exciting.” Bones looked to Willis. “I take it the desk isn’t full of gold doubloons?”

Willis held up a worn bible and a box of candles, shaking his head. “Get that throwing arm warmed up, Bones. This treasure hunt thing’s looking more and more like…”

“Look here.” Maddock walked to the big cross. It was so large that it rested on the floor while the top of it came just shy of the ceiling. He peered behind the cross and noticed that there was a millimeters-wide space between it and the wall.

“You thinking about repenting or something, Maddock?” Willis watched him put both hands on the cross and begin to put pressure on it.

“Too late for that…” Maddock pushed and then pulled the religious symbol, but nothing happened.

“What, you think it’s hiding something behind it? Is there something there?” Fabi walked over to him.

“Just a tiny gap. But this thing is solid wood, very heavy, so I’m wondering why it doesn’t hang flush against the wall. Also curious as to why such a big cross is locked away in here instead of out in the main church.” Maddock pulled up on the cross, but again it didn’t budge. “It’s almost like they—”

As he pulled down on the life-sized crucifix, they heard a thump as the bottom of the wood hit the floor. The tile beneath the cross flipped up smoothly until it came into contact with the wooden post, revealing a dark open space wide enough for a person to fit through with a ladder leading down.

“What the…” Willis moved from the desk over to the exposed trap door.

“Is it just a hiding place for the priest’s secret stash, or does it actually lead anywhere?” Bones also crossed the room, eager for the answer to his own question. Maddock had already produced his flashlight and had the beam aimed down into the uncovered space.

“Looks like it leads somewhere.”

“Let’s not get our hopes up too much,” Fabi cautioned. “I’d like to think it leads down to the old cathedral, but it could just be a basement.”

“A hidden basement with a secret trapdoor?” Willis held the light for Maddock so that he could climb down using both hands.

“We’ll find out soon enough.” Maddock descended the rungs of the old wooden ladder. “Tunnels! Come on down,” he called up. Willis closed the office door and then he, Bones and Fabi joined Maddock below.

“Catacombs.” Fabi surveyed the dank stone walls. They followed the unlit passage until it branched right and left.

“I see cells up ahead to the left,” Maddock said. “Let’s check those out.”

They walked left, the sound of water dripping on the stone floor echoing weakly in the catacombs. Two cells were set into the left side of the passage, iron doors swung open. Maddock and Willis walked into one while Bones and Fabi entered the other.

“They sure were big on the leg irons in those days, weren’t they?” Willis shook his head as he eyed the now familiar heavy iron fixtures embedded into the wall.

“Big on carving stuff into walls, too.” Bones’ voice echoed through the catacombs. “Looks like somebody was writing a novel in here. Take a look.”

After a quick look, Maddock and Willis revealed nothing noteworthy inside their cell. They joined Bones and Fabi in the adjacent one. Maddock added his light to Bones’ on the rear wall. Dense lines of symbols engraved into the stone blocks challenged them as to their meaning.

Bones shook his head. “It’s all Greek to me.”

“There’s the ‘demon’ word again.” Fabi pointed it out. “Here… here… and there.”

“Wait a minute.” Maddock zoomed in on a section of the engravings with his light. “I think I do recognize a word…” He knelt on the stone floor and eyeballed the painstakingly carved glyph. He spelled it out. “Z… O… M… B… I… and another ‘I’…”

“Zombii,” Fabi completed.

Bones shone his light on the word. “We should look into zombie lore around the island, see if there’s a connection to this sailor. I’d say this must be where the ‘crazy’ guy was held, right?”

They all agreed, but Maddock still appeared doubtful. “I agree this is where the sailor was held, but I don’t know about the zombie thing, Bones. I mean, really? We’re supposed to be tracking down a treasure, relying on historical facts, not urban legends or whatever you want to call them.”

Willis exited the cell. “Let’s see what else is down here, then. Maybe we’ll find more clues.”

The other three filed out and they proceeded to explore the remaining catacombs. They turned out not to be all that extensive, and only a few minutes later they had come to dead ends without discovering anything else that would aid them in their search.

Maddock met up with the others, meeting in a huddle at the junction of the two main passages. “Zombies it is. Let’s get out of here and we’ll head back into town to see if there’s a connection to our sailor.”

Fabi nodded. “Good idea. I actually need to stop by my clinic to take care of some work things, but I can give you some local contacts who might be able help you with historical zombie lore.”