“Now?  Can’t it wait until morning?”

“I also want to search on our family names to see what information is online.  Maybe we can find something on one of those sites that track and list people’s ancestry.  Why didn’t I think of this before?”  Lin stopped and turned.  “I forgot my laptop is at my house.”

“Use mine.  It’s in the dining room.”  Viv yawned.  “I’m going back to bed.  I have to get up in two hours for work.”

***

Lin was sitting at the kitchen table with her eyes glued to the laptop screen when Viv stumbled downstairs early in the morning.  She rubbed her eyes while she put the coffee on.  “Did you find anything?”

“Yes.”  Lin’s voice bubbled with excitement.  “Most stuff we already knew.”  The rims of her eyelids were red from staying awake most of the night.  “But here’s the interesting thing.”  She pulled up a news article on the screen.  “It’s a story about an open house that was held at the historical museum last year.  There were displays set up explaining the island’s history and material set out about the early founders.”

Viv settled into a chair cradling her coffee mug.

“In one part of the display, there were letters from Sebastian Coffin written to his brother on the mainland and some notes he had written to his wife.”

Viv’s forehead creased.  “So?”

“So,” Lin leaned forward.  “During the open house weekend, those letters were stolen.”

“Why would anybody want those old letters?”

Lin closed the laptop and grinned at her cousin.  “That is what I intend to find out.”

Chapter 19

Lin opened the door to the old brick building that housed the historical society and glanced around looking for someone who might help her.  A short, older man wearing glasses and carrying several books came around the corner and nodded at the young woman.

“I’m looking for someone I could speak to about some archival documents that went missing from here last year.”

The man gazed at Lin over the tops of his glasses.  “Are you a reporter?”

“I’m related to Sebastian Coffin and Emily Witchard.  I was wondering what was in the old letters and why someone might steal them.”

“Come and sit down.”  The man led Lin to a table at the back of the room near the windows.

“You read about the theft in the news?”

Lin nodded.  “I was looking for information about my ancestors and came upon the article.  I’ve just recently moved back to the island.”

“The only reason someone would want those letters would be to sell them to a collector.  They really weren’t valuable.”

“Do you recall what the letters discussed?”

“They were simple correspondence between Sebastian and his brother, Nathaniel.  They were written after Sebastian lost his standing in the community.”  The man raised his eyebrows.  “You know the story?”

“I do.”  Lin nodded.

“Very unfortunate.  His reputation was ruined after the robbery.”

“I don’t understand why he didn’t regain his reputation after the real thief was discovered.”

“The thief was discovered, as was most of the loot, but many items were not recovered, a substantial amount of money, jewelry.  People still believed that Sebastian Coffin was the mastermind behind the heist.”

“What do you think?”

The man shook his head.  “Well, I suppose anything’s possible.”  He gave a shoulder shrug.  “Sebastian was probably accused by someone with whom a business deal soured.  Sebastian is the only one who knows the whole truth regarding the robbery.”

“Do you recall what was written in the letters that were stolen?”

“Sebastian discussed the routine of his days, what he was reading, how the new house had come out.  The letters would really only be of interest to a historian or a descendant.”  The man got a faraway look in his eyes.  “There were some sweet letters to Sebastian’s wife professing his love for her and praising her tenderness and devotion to him.  Remember, this was after he lost his position and was thought to have been the one behind the bank heist.  The unfortunate events did not hurt their love for one another.  Who knows?  Perhaps the adversity they faced drew them closer together.”

Lin thought sadly of the unfair turn that Sebastian and Emily’s lives took.

The man smiled.  “Sebastian called his wife his “treasure.”

Lin’s eyes narrowed.  “Did he write that in the letters?”

The man folded his hands together and placed them on the table.  “Oh, yes.  He mentioned his “treasure” quite often in the letters to his brother.”

“Do you recall some of the things he wrote?”

The man thought for a moment.  “He mentioned that he’d had a room built in the storage barn for himself as a sort of reading and writing room.  A place he would go to contemplate and think.”  The man chuckled.  “He told his brother in one letter that the true treasure of his life, his wife, encouraged him to sit and work among his riches.”

Lin’s head tilted to the side.  “What did he mean by that?”

“I assume the riches of his life were learning, studying, thinking, reading.”  The man stood up. “We have one of Sebastian’s letters here.  It was not displayed the day the things were stolen.  It was written to a friend of Sebastian, a Quaker minister who lived on the mainland.”  He led Lin to a back room full of cabinets.  “It can’t be removed from here, of course.”

Pulling open a long, shallow drawer, the man removed a document that had been enclosed in some sort of protective cover.  “Most of it has faded and a good part of the letter has been lost, but you can see here where Sebastian speaks of his wife.  This was written shortly after Emily passed away.”  The man read aloud.  “My true treasure has passed from this world, but I will keep her locket beside me, in the place where the riches of our lives remain.”

A zing of electricity shot down Lin’s spine.  She lifted her gaze from the old letter and shifted her eyes about the space wondering if the ghost had made an appearance, but she and the man were the only ones in the room.

“A similar sentence was written in the stolen letter to Sebastian’s brother.”  The man closed the cabinet drawer.  “Have you heard the rumor that Sebastian had some pirate treasure hidden in his house?”

“Pirate’s treasure?” Lin’s eyebrows went up.

“Sebastian had many contacts and interactions with different people.  The rumor is that he was once paid for services in the form of pirate’s loot.”  The man smiled.  “No valuables have surfaced yet, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t anything.”  He paused and gave a shrug of his shoulder.  “But I do enjoy old tales and I like to think it’s possible.”

After several more minutes of conversation, Lin thanked the man for both the information and for his time and she left the building hurrying down the granite steps.

***

Holding her phone to her ear, Lin scurried along the sidewalks of town.  “So that must be why Greg Hammond wanted your house so badly.  Remember Jeff told me that Hammond loved diving and treasure hunting?  Hammond must have thought that Sebastian Coffin had some loot buried somewhere on the property.”

The chatter of the bookstore café could be heard in the background before Viv spoke.  “Good work.  Now we have a pretty good idea why Hammond wanted my house. He must have been sure that Sebastian buried some massive treasure in the shed or the house which is kind of stupid because wouldn’t it have been found by now?”

“Who knows?  If it was well-hidden, maybe not.”  Lin laughed.  “Maybe you ought to hurry home and start digging.”

“I can’t believe that Hammond would want to buy my house to get his hands on some imaginary treasure.  He must have lost his mind.”

“Anyway, it’s a possible reason why he was so adamant about getting his hands on your property.”