CHAPTER SIX
Bamboozled
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved
A knock at the door. Sean emerged from pouring over a pile of papers on his work desk. He hadn’t even noticed the flash summer storm that had brought the downpour onto the city. Alexis, covering herself outside his condominium with her raincoat, quickly jumped in when he answered the door.
“What’s up? she asked.
“I’ve been had,” said a now deflated man. He proceeded to explain the telephone call from Trudy Balm. They spoke in person that afternoon. Sean had asked her to fax him a listing of all of A.M.H.S.’s supporters and sponsors. She had done so, willingly, along with a listing of major contributors of maritime artifacts. He called the police. They made a report but noted that they couldn’t do anything since no laws had been broken and an alias search turned up dead ends.
What’s worse was that after they’d left, Sean had gone to the bank to cash the check he’d received. It was forged. The account number was phony. He called the Police back and a Special Investigator was assigned right away. The Investigator immediately pointed out that whoever had done this work must have been an expert. Blank copies from a distributor must somehow have been obtained—perhaps with the aid of a social security number or a driver’s license number, conceivably through Canada. Perhaps an untraceable account was opened, checks were used as models to forge a new series. The Investigator was very clear about it all. All Sean knew is that someone had ripped him off. The Investigator image-scanned the check and tried to verify it with other check distributors in Maine. Nothing matched; which meant the falsifiers could have done the job anywhere in the U.S. or the world over, for that matter.
No observable fingerprints.
There was something in those documents that must have been worth something fierce. So who was this Dr. Hawke? Why didn’t he want to be found? Whoever he was, he had a clear idea of what he was trying to get. Sean understood this. Everything was planned which made his return all the more possible: He was, more than likely, playing dumb about the contents he thought Sean would consider to be worth a relatively large lump of money. Otherwise, Hawke must have thought that the amount of money would so shock Sean that further due diligence in the matter would be abated. In any case, he would recognize, sooner or later, that a volume was missing and come back for it. Except, this time, he couldn’t simply waltz in and seize what he wanted. Knowing Sean would have figured out the check game would make his approach much more direct and, possibly, violent. There was an air of jeopardy to it all.
Both Alexis and Sean now realized that this man--the entire dealing--was a potential threat to them both. Something major was at stake here and whatever Hawke, or whoever he was, wanted wasn’t going to slip away from him easily.
“How do we know what I took necessarily pertains to what he’s looking for?” asked Alexis as an uncommon clash of thunder softly swelled in the distance.
“I can’t be sure, but I’ve spent the entire evening reading through the remaining papers and you’re not going to believe this. By the way we have to push the presentation back,” Sean said as he wandered back to his papers in a daze.
“What? No. We can’t. What am I not going to believe?” she asked, more interested now than ever.
“I think he’s after booty,” mumbled Sean. “Treasure.” He pulled out an old letter from the manila folder of parchments signed “F.B.” At the bottom of the letter, there existed two round cryptogram symbols with a crucifix and an upside-down crucifix drawn atop them.
Sean began explaining, “All of these papers are letters from three different people. One is a woman named Sara Ooft, one is William Kidd and the other one is someone, a man, who’s only referred to with the initials ‘F.B.’. Sara Ooft is the one I’m somehow related to. Whenever she writes to F.B., she calls him ‘Poppy’ which suggests that F.B. is her father—but not necessarily,” he concluded.
His explanation was gaining momentum, “William Kidd is Sara’s husband,” he continued. “During the brief conversation that I had with Hawke, or whatever--I’m just going to call him Dr. Hawke until I find out who he is. Hawke told me that Kidd was some Lord Admiral in the British Navy who apparently formed some revolutionary navigational technique or something. I don’t think any of that was true but what I do know is that, from these letters, he was some sort of a Captain in the Navy. Sometime during his career, something must’ve happened to him that got him arrested. Here, you’ve got to read this,” he fumbled around and carefully pulled out a particular letter and handed it to Alexis. It took her just a moment to adjust to the Old English manuscript but she was no stranger to texts of antiquity. It read:
My Lord,
The enclosed is copy of a Protest drawn up at Boston in new England, the truth whereof those of my men who are prisoners with me, are ready to attest upon oath, but it was not permitted to be done there. I doubt not but your Lordship is already informed of what effects were seized in the sloop Antonio in New England, but this I must needs declare in justice that there were several things of considerable value, whereof they have given no account, so far as I can learn. Besides, what was contained in the sloop there is in the Adventure Prize mentioned in the protest (as near as I can compute) to the value of ninety thousand pounds, which is left in very secure hands and I doubt not when I am clear of this trouble but to bring the same for England without any diminution.
1700, April 11th
“He was a pirate.” Alexis pondered.
“Sounds like he was captured and arrested along with his men. This letter is his attempt to bribe the government. If they let him go, he’ll tell them where the ‘Adventure Prize’ is. Have you ever heard of Kidd?” Sean asked.
The two went back and forth about how each knew the word “Kidd” and they both recalled childhood stories about a pirate named Kidd. Ostensibly, Sean’s relative and this legendary pirate character could be one and the same. The pirate character was a real person that, through the years, had become this gothic archetype of the menaced pirate of all time when in fact, they thought, he wasn’t a pirate at all. This is where they were confused: Everything pointed to William Kidd being a naval Captain for Her Majesty’s Service. Something must have happened to him and his crew that caused this arrest that Sean was alluding to.
“In the letters that Kidd wrote to Sara, he mentions the name Gloucester Isle twice but nowhere else in any of the other letters is the name Gloucester Isle ever mentioned. Kidd must have hid his cache on this island and this Hawke bastard needed the papers to find it. Somehow, the documents have some information about the location of the treasure!” Sean cried out.
“Wait a second,” Alexis jumped in, “I thought he gave the treasure to the government in return for his release? Isn’t that what the letter was about?
“The Crown must have either not accepted the bribe… or something. I don’t know,” said Sean, losing his inflation.
“We have to find out about this Captain William Kidd. C’mon!” she threw on her raincoat and motioned for Sean to get with it.
“Where’re we going?”
“To work!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Chapters
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, 23, 24, 25, Epilogue
Bamboozled
Copyright 2004, All Rights Reserved
A knock at the door. Sean emerged from pouring over a pile of papers on his work desk. He hadn’t even noticed the flash summer storm that had brought the downpour onto the city. Alexis, covering herself outside his condominium with her raincoat, quickly jumped in when he answered the door.
“What’s up? she asked.
“I’ve been had,” said a now deflated man. He proceeded to explain the telephone call from Trudy Balm. They spoke in person that afternoon. Sean had asked her to fax him a listing of all of A.M.H.S.’s supporters and sponsors. She had done so, willingly, along with a listing of major contributors of maritime artifacts. He called the police. They made a report but noted that they couldn’t do anything since no laws had been broken and an alias search turned up dead ends.
What’s worse was that after they’d left, Sean had gone to the bank to cash the check he’d received. It was forged. The account number was phony. He called the Police back and a Special Investigator was assigned right away. The Investigator immediately pointed out that whoever had done this work must have been an expert. Blank copies from a distributor must somehow have been obtained—perhaps with the aid of a social security number or a driver’s license number, conceivably through Canada. Perhaps an untraceable account was opened, checks were used as models to forge a new series. The Investigator was very clear about it all. All Sean knew is that someone had ripped him off. The Investigator image-scanned the check and tried to verify it with other check distributors in Maine. Nothing matched; which meant the falsifiers could have done the job anywhere in the U.S. or the world over, for that matter.
No observable fingerprints.
There was something in those documents that must have been worth something fierce. So who was this Dr. Hawke? Why didn’t he want to be found? Whoever he was, he had a clear idea of what he was trying to get. Sean understood this. Everything was planned which made his return all the more possible: He was, more than likely, playing dumb about the contents he thought Sean would consider to be worth a relatively large lump of money. Otherwise, Hawke must have thought that the amount of money would so shock Sean that further due diligence in the matter would be abated. In any case, he would recognize, sooner or later, that a volume was missing and come back for it. Except, this time, he couldn’t simply waltz in and seize what he wanted. Knowing Sean would have figured out the check game would make his approach much more direct and, possibly, violent. There was an air of jeopardy to it all.
Both Alexis and Sean now realized that this man--the entire dealing--was a potential threat to them both. Something major was at stake here and whatever Hawke, or whoever he was, wanted wasn’t going to slip away from him easily.
“How do we know what I took necessarily pertains to what he’s looking for?” asked Alexis as an uncommon clash of thunder softly swelled in the distance.
“I can’t be sure, but I’ve spent the entire evening reading through the remaining papers and you’re not going to believe this. By the way we have to push the presentation back,” Sean said as he wandered back to his papers in a daze.
“What? No. We can’t. What am I not going to believe?” she asked, more interested now than ever.
“I think he’s after booty,” mumbled Sean. “Treasure.” He pulled out an old letter from the manila folder of parchments signed “F.B.” At the bottom of the letter, there existed two round cryptogram symbols with a crucifix and an upside-down crucifix drawn atop them.
Sean began explaining, “All of these papers are letters from three different people. One is a woman named Sara Ooft, one is William Kidd and the other one is someone, a man, who’s only referred to with the initials ‘F.B.’. Sara Ooft is the one I’m somehow related to. Whenever she writes to F.B., she calls him ‘Poppy’ which suggests that F.B. is her father—but not necessarily,” he concluded.
His explanation was gaining momentum, “William Kidd is Sara’s husband,” he continued. “During the brief conversation that I had with Hawke, or whatever--I’m just going to call him Dr. Hawke until I find out who he is. Hawke told me that Kidd was some Lord Admiral in the British Navy who apparently formed some revolutionary navigational technique or something. I don’t think any of that was true but what I do know is that, from these letters, he was some sort of a Captain in the Navy. Sometime during his career, something must’ve happened to him that got him arrested. Here, you’ve got to read this,” he fumbled around and carefully pulled out a particular letter and handed it to Alexis. It took her just a moment to adjust to the Old English manuscript but she was no stranger to texts of antiquity. It read:
My Lord,
The enclosed is copy of a Protest drawn up at Boston in new England, the truth whereof those of my men who are prisoners with me, are ready to attest upon oath, but it was not permitted to be done there. I doubt not but your Lordship is already informed of what effects were seized in the sloop Antonio in New England, but this I must needs declare in justice that there were several things of considerable value, whereof they have given no account, so far as I can learn. Besides, what was contained in the sloop there is in the Adventure Prize mentioned in the protest (as near as I can compute) to the value of ninety thousand pounds, which is left in very secure hands and I doubt not when I am clear of this trouble but to bring the same for England without any diminution.
1700, April 11th
“He was a pirate.” Alexis pondered.
“Sounds like he was captured and arrested along with his men. This letter is his attempt to bribe the government. If they let him go, he’ll tell them where the ‘Adventure Prize’ is. Have you ever heard of Kidd?” Sean asked.
The two went back and forth about how each knew the word “Kidd” and they both recalled childhood stories about a pirate named Kidd. Ostensibly, Sean’s relative and this legendary pirate character could be one and the same. The pirate character was a real person that, through the years, had become this gothic archetype of the menaced pirate of all time when in fact, they thought, he wasn’t a pirate at all. This is where they were confused: Everything pointed to William Kidd being a naval Captain for Her Majesty’s Service. Something must have happened to him and his crew that caused this arrest that Sean was alluding to.
“In the letters that Kidd wrote to Sara, he mentions the name Gloucester Isle twice but nowhere else in any of the other letters is the name Gloucester Isle ever mentioned. Kidd must have hid his cache on this island and this Hawke bastard needed the papers to find it. Somehow, the documents have some information about the location of the treasure!” Sean cried out.
“Wait a second,” Alexis jumped in, “I thought he gave the treasure to the government in return for his release? Isn’t that what the letter was about?
“The Crown must have either not accepted the bribe… or something. I don’t know,” said Sean, losing his inflation.
“We have to find out about this Captain William Kidd. C’mon!” she threw on her raincoat and motioned for Sean to get with it.
“Where’re we going?”
“To work!”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Chapters
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 & 22, 23, 24, 25, Epilogue
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