Treasure of the Dead

Chapter 17

Fabi pulled up to the house, ready to unwind after a long day at work and eager to hear how Bones, Maddock and Willis had fared with the priestess. Perhaps she’d even talk Bones into giving her a shoulder rub, provided he agreed not to let his hands drift.

“Right. That’ll happen,” she muttered as she cut the engine.

She found the front door ajar and shook her head. Three grown men and every one of them was raised in a barn. But as soon as she stepped over the threshold she knew something was terribly wrong.

Furniture lay overturned. Framed pictures removed from the wall, their backs slashed open. Rugs pulled up, the contents of drawers emptied onto the floor, broken glass all over the place…

She froze in the entranceway. What if whomever had done this was still inside? Suddenly frightened for her safety, Fabi turned and ran back out of the house. She had almost reached her car in the driveway when another vehicle turned onto the street and headed in her direction. She crouched behind her car in case it was whomever had perpetrated the breaking, entering, and destruction of the property now returning, but as the vehicle approached she recognized it as the Jeep she’d loaned to Bones.

Breathing a sigh of relief, she stepped out from behind her car and waved both hands in a distress signal. Maddock pulled up right next to her, killed the engine, and the three men got out. Bones walked over to give her a friendly hug but could immediately see that something was wrong.

“The house — someone turned it upside down. I just got here five minutes ago and I was afraid to stay inside in case whoever did it is still in there.”

The three ex-SEALS eyed one another, immediately transforming into operator mode. Maddock told Fabi to get into her car and lock the doors until they came back for her. Then they split up, Maddock going in straight to the front door while Willis went around the right side of the house toward the back, and Bones the left.

Each of them carried pistols, and they held them at the ready now.

Maddock reached the house first and slipped inside, remaining silent. He stepped past the entranceway into the living room so as to be visible from only one direction. He crouched and listened for signs of an intruder, but heard nothing. He knew Bones and Willis would have reached the back door by now and would be covering that. Maddock moved through the house cautiously, head on a swivel, until he reached the kitchen. That clear, he moved through it into an adjoining laundry room which had a back door out to the yard, open, the window smashed out.

“It’s me, this room clear.” Maddock let Bones and Willis know he wasn’t an intruder before reaching for the door and opening it.

“Clear out here,” Bones said, entering the house. Willis followed, and then Maddock closed and locked the back door, even though the window had been busted out. In a low voice, Maddock explained that he had not yet checked the bedrooms or bathrooms, and to proceed with operational caution.

The three of them spread out throughout the house, first moving to the unchecked areas, clearing them, and then double-checking everything again.

“We’re all clear.” Maddock nodded toward the front yard. “Go get Fabi and bring her in.” Bones left while Maddock and Willis surveyed the damage. At length, Willis shook his head.

“Somebody sure was after something in here. This isn’t the work of an ordinary thief, no way.”

“I agree. Let’s see what she has to say about it.” Maddock looked toward the front door, where Fabi and Bones were walking in, the shocked look still on Fabi’s face.

“Thank you for making me feel safe.” Fabi hugged Maddock and Willis in turn.

Maddock glanced around at the destruction then back to Fabi. “Unfortunately, I worry that by us being here looking for treasure, we’re making you less safe. Do you get the feeling that someone knows your cousin may have sent you something before he died?”

Fabi nodded. “Let me check something. Come with me.” She moved to the living room where an old rolltop desk lay overturned on the floor. She frowned as she looked at it. “I’m guessing they’re gone…” She stooped down to the floor and began rummaging through the desk drawers…

Maddock’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me… .”

She looked up from the desk, her eyes red rimmed. “They took the papers that were in the cigar box.”

Bones and Maddock made noises of distaste, but Willis looked puzzled. “Wait a minute. That box wouldn’t fit in those drawers…”

“I took the papers out of the box and stored them in here. I’m sorry, I never thought anyone would go to such lengths to get them.”

Maddock patted his pants pocket. “At least I have pictures of the critical pages, most of them, anyway.”

Bones didn’t look much happier in spite of that news. “Now we’re in a race against… someone… to figure out those clues and get to the treasure.”

Maddock looked to Fabi. “Any idea who that someone might be? Enemies of David’s? Of yours?”

Fabi thought for a moment before shaking her head slowly. “Me, no. Not that I’m aware of, at any rate. David… also none that I know of, but for years he’d been living here while I was in Miami, so it’s not impossible he got involved with something I didn’t know about. He was my cousin, we were reasonably close, but not super-close.”

Maddock nodded. “Okay, so we both have the same information to go off of. But it hasn’t led us to the treasure so far. Hopefully, it will be just as hard for whoever stole the documents.”

“I still think the zombies have something to do with it all,” Bones said.

Maddock shrugged. “Maybe we are overlooking something there. I’ve got an idea. Fabi, where’s the phone?”

“Hopefully whoever busted in here didn’t cut the line.” Willis narrowed his eyes.

Fabi led them into the kitchen where a cordless digital phone lay overturned on the counter, as though it had been knocked from its charging cradle. She picked it up, held it to her ear and pronounced there was still a dial tone. She handed it to Maddock and he dialed a number. While it was ringing, he explained to Fabi.

“Calling an old friend, Jimmy Letson. He was in the SEAL BUDS training with us, but he dropped out halfway through — they call it ‘ringing out’ because you literally ring a bell to formally quit. He’s a good guy, though, went on to be a journalist, has done a lot of research and knows about a ton of things. I gave him a heads up earlier that I might need his help. Hopefully…”

Maddock cut himself off and held up a finger, indicating someone had picked up on the other end.

“Hey, its me. You find anything?” A brief pause. “No, of course I don’t take you for granted.” Another pause. “Two bottles? You got it.”

Maddock turned to Fabi and made a scribbling motion, meaning he needed to take notes. She found a pad and pen on the floor that had been tossed out of a drawer and gave them to Maddock, who set the pad on the counter and began to write.

For the next few minutes, she and the others heard him say a lot of, “Uh huh… okay… yeah…” punctuated by occasional requests for clarification, such as, “And that perspective is unique to Haiti or more universal?”

When the topic of conversation had run its course, Maddock thanked him and hung up the phone.

Willis wasted no time. “What’d he say?”

Maddock took a deep breath and eyeballed his notes for a moment before speaking. “He knows a lot about zombies in general, not all specific to Haiti,” he said, directing the last part of the statement to Fabi. He didn’t want to offend her by requesting outside help besides her local contacts, but Maddock and Bones had relied on Letson more than once to get them out of a jam, and he had always come through for them.

“Out with it, Maddock,” Bones prompted.

Maddock nodded, looked at his notes one more time, then summed up what Letson had told him. “So basically there are different takes on the classic zombie myth depending how you look at it. For example, a psychologist might see a zombie as simply a personification of a mental condition where a person feels overworked. Slaves, for example, reported feeling like dead men walking, merely going through the motions of being alive without actually living. A pharmacologist, on the other hand, would suspect a drug-induced state responsible for feeling dull and causing a general lack of vitality.”

Fabi looked impressed. “Makes sense. There is of course a strong slave history in Haiti. Many of the first African slaves were brought to Hispaniola.”

Maddock nodded. “But zombii can also be considered from other angles, such as scientific. There is biological basis for zombiism, including in the animal world, like ants that are taken over by fungi and other examples of extreme parasitism. “

“Cool,” Bones interjected.

“And of course, there’s the occult.” Maddock looked at them to make sure he still had their attention, then consulted his notes again. “The word ‘occult’ basically means secret or hidden, and there are many spiritual practices that fall under the occult…”

Willis cleared his throat and looked at Fabi. “As we saw with your friend, Rose.”

Fabi smiled. “Thought you might like her!”

Maddock continued. “She was helpful, and in fact I think I see how something she said ties together with what Jimmy told me about the occult.” Maddock got three blank stares, so he went on. “Rose mentioned that only evil practitioners of vodou will create a zombie. Jimmy told me that a person put into a voodoo trance will meander around in a lifeless daze. So it makes sense to me that, here in Haiti, there could possibly be a group of people creating zombies on purpose — but that the exact definition of zombii may be subject to interpretation.”

Bones shook his head. “That doesn’t give us a lot to go on, Maddock. We need a direction, here.”

“That’s only the background. You know Jimmy. His research is deep, and he gets very specific, especially with a bottle of Haiti’s finest rum on the line.”

No one said anything, prompting Maddock to continue. “Jimmy says he’s still working on this, so I’ll stay in touch, but he uncovered a few interesting things already. For instance, he found mention of our crazy Spanish sailor’s name, Alonso Sanchez, in reference to a man living in Cap-Haitien around the same timeframe.”

Fabi and Bones raised their eyebrows while Willis furrowed his brow. “He also discovered that there has been a rash of zombii reports in Cap-Haitien.” Maddock let this hang until Bones asked, “Has been, as in recently?”

Maddock nodded. “As in the last three years.”

Willis looked happy. “Here’s some voodoo for you: I sense a road trip to Cap-Haitien in our near future.”

Fabi held up a finger. “I’ve got an idea. My supervisor at the clinic where I volunteer asked me if I’d be interested in possibly going full-time at one of the larger clinics, and I know one of those happens to be in Cap-Haitien. So what I could do is take him up on his offer — I was seriously considering it anyway as a way to expand my professional reach — and then while I’m there maybe I’ll be able to learn more about these zombii attack rumors.”

Maddock looked agreeable to this. He nodded to Bones and Willis. “Jimmy also gave me a list of landmarks around Cap-Haitien that might lead to treasure clues, so we can go up there together and while Fabi is setting up shop, we can follow up on those.”