Chapter 20
It took them three days to limp far enough north to find the cove she was talking about. Early in the morning, they headed in.
Visibility was good, and Gina was able to keep the 'high cliffs' in site through the binoculars as Jason sailed the boat in. Of course, the cliffs were now gentle hills on the waterfront, but they were easy to spot with the help of GPS. Fortunately, they encountered no resistance from the coastguard and were, after fighting a difficult, but manageable current, able to anchor the boat inside the protection of the cove. The currents inside the cove were minimal, as predicted, but just during low tide.
They had cautiously anchored in the middle of the cove, which put the shore beyond the reach of their longest ropes. The sail had been down for days, and inside the cove, the wind was so minimal that they knew they could never deploy it again.
The trolling motors could be used to get them closer to shore, but they risked getting the anchor caught on junk that would naturally accumulate after such a disaster.
The plan had been to canoe to shore while dragging their longest rope for safety. But their longest rope wasn't long enough. Which meant they had to study the patterns, chart the tides, and time any canoe trips precisely.
Low tide was looking like their best option. The currents pushed the boat toward shore as low tide swelled to high tide, and only tried to pull the boat back out to sea as high tide fell back down again. It also seemed calmest during the morning hours. So, combining the two after just a week of study, they prepared to embark on their first canoe excursion.
"No!" Ava screamed with a pout, "I don't want to wait on the boat! I want to go ashore too!"
"Well, someone has to stay on the boat—" Makayla said.
"Why?" Ava demanded as Nathan and Jason put the canoe in the water and prepared to get underway.
"I'm staying," Gina said, "because someone has to be on the boat that can work the trolling motors in case they need to be rescued."
"That explains why YOU can't go, not me!" Ava said, stomping her foot again. "That canoe is big enough for one more!"
"Only two oars," Makayla offered.
"So? It seats three, three should go!" Ava said, "It isn't like it suddenly gets harder to row with an extra person."
"Actually, it does—" Gina said.
"Don't you see what they're doing? The guys get to go but us women have to mind the house until they come back! What is this, the 1820s?"
"Let her come if she wants to so bad," Jason yelled after Nathan took his position in the nose of the canoe.
"I don't want her going," Nathan said, smacking the water with his oar.
Jason looked at the depressed boy, then said in a quiet voice, "She may be difficult now, but she's going to be impossible when we come back. Especially after stewing like that for a few hours. It isn't like she's going to add much weight, we've all been on a fish diet for months. I haven't been this skinny since middle school."
The three pulled onto shore after a lot of tiresome paddling, then carried the canoe uphill and tied it to a tree, just in case.
"The closest mansion is just over there," Jason said, "Maybe a five mile hike." He turned on the GPS, then checked his cell phone for a signal. "I wish we had an ATV or a golf cart."
Nathan rubbed his arms and stamped his feet, "I'd settle for some warm clothes."
They started to march.
The mansion, if it ever was, appeared abandoned and seemed to have suffered from the storm. Most windows were broken, roofing shingles and loose papers littered the overgrown yard. They made their way to the front door and simply knocked and shouted 'Hello' in the windows.
Nobody answered, naturally.
The door was dead bolted, so they entered through a window. Well, Nathan did and let the rest in through the door.
Water had damaged the floors by the windows and most of the nearby walls, but the furniture looked to be antiques and seemed to be holding up fine. As exciting as it was to wander through an abandoned house, even in this much disrepair, he still felt deeply out-of-place and kept looking over his shoulder for the police to cuff him and take him away. "They still shoot looters, don't they?" he said as he passed the ornate, golden mirror, then checked the phone for a dial tone.
Ava screamed from upstairs, and the two boys dropped everything to run to the rescue.
"What is it?" Jason yelled.
"What's wrong?" Nathan said, turning the other corner.
Jason entered the room first.
Ava almost collided with him, her hand over her chest on the way out, "I found. . . I found. . . " but she pushed past him and ran down the hall.
Four bodies were bound and stuffed next to the bathroom. All shot and obviously dead for months. "Uhgh!" Jason said, walking over to them, then walking out the door. Still feeling guilty and thinking of the police, "Did anyone touch anything?"
"Yeah, sure," Nathan said while Ava simply nodded.
"Me too. We could all be implicated in this. We, we can't stay here—"
"No shit!" Ava said.
"We should bury them," Nathan added.
"I don't know," Jason said, "maybe we should burn the house, get rid of the fingerprints and our DNA and CSI stuff."
Ava looked horrified, "That doesn't seem right to just leave them lie while the house burns down around them. They should be buried. I would want to be."
"I'm not touching them," Nathan said. "No way. I like the idea of burning it. Light a match and go, that's the way."
Ava was outvoted. "We should see what Momma and Gina think."
"We should still look for some clothing, blankets, canned food, towels and shampoo and stuff," Jason said. "I mean, this thing looks like a robbery or simple looting. Looks like they were looking for money. I mean, this place doesn't look ransacked, so, I think money or a safe or cars or something was all the killers wanted, not just a random burglary. Any-what-way, food and clothing should still be around. No burglar steals that crap."
After calming down, they continued to search and found another room with additional bodies, most likely the staff. But much less tragically and more importantly, they found plenty of warm blankets, clothes, and other useful, small items that they bagged and carried down to the canoe. A dirt bike and two lawnmowers were left in the garage.
The three stayed in the mansion that night, mostly without a choice because of the tide and bitter cold. It felt haunted and dripping with the evil that had occurred in it. None of them slept a wink.
At the next low tide the following morning, Jason and Nathan canoed back to the boat, leaving a very unhappy Ava at the shore since there wasn't enough room for all three and the cargo.
While the tide was low and the boys still had the energy, they made three more round trips, the last of which to retrieve the pouty girl.
They gathered around the picnic table under the tarp for lunch near high tide.
"Murders?" the mother repeated.
"Murders," Jason said, "and our fingerprints are all over that place. We left all the really nice stuff, some amazing dresses and furs that were—"
Gina was still hungry, but couldn't finish her plate, "We wouldn't look right in silks and furs anyway. Servants' clothes seems a better fit. Horrible that they're all dead, though."
Nathan looked at his mom, then back at his sisters, "I think. . . Jason and I think we should burn it, with the bodies still in it. Kind of a cremation, if nothing else to get rid of the fingerprints. They'll blame us if anyone investigates. Might even get shot for looting, if anything gets traced back to here."
"I don't like it at all," Makayla said, shaking her head, "it doesn't seem proper for folks to be burned down in their home after being murdered like that."
Gina pushed her plate away, "I don't see another, better alternative. We can't bury them without loading up the grave with all sorts of DNA. Don't know any names, got no coffins; it's just a huge shame, all the way around."
"They had two lawnmowers,"
Jason said, "thought they might be of some use. Pull the motors, grab some tools out of the garage. The tanks looked full, and they had a nice dirt bike that we could use next time we put ashore."
Gina looked upset again. "You thinking we should pull out of the cove?"
"Oh yeah," Jason said. "We need to put a lot of miles between us and this place. Spend as little time here as possible. Especially if we burn the building. We need to come up with some sort of delay device, preferably one that starts the fire a few days after we're gone. They have three large propane tanks around the back that seemed heavy and full. Gas range or oven looked like the easiest place to start something, maybe when you take a look something will—"
Gina stood up, "Oh, hell no! Ain't no way I'm walking around in that graveyard. I don't know how any of you even managed to spend the night in a haunted house like that."
Jason stood too. "Alright, alright! Nobody is saying you have to. I'll figure something—"
"Damn right you will," Gina said, "ain't none of my fingerprints anywhere near that place."
Jason gestured as he sat back down, "No, but your brother and sister's are all over it. Mine too."
Gina refused to set foot in the mansion, but she did take a trip to shore to help salvage the two lawnmowers. The motors were very useful, as were the gas tanks, batteries, and gearboxes. The zero-radios mower even came with power steering and hydraulic motors, which may come in handy should any of that kind of equipment fail on the boat.
The gas water heater turned out to be the easiest to rig to explode. Jason and Nathan moved the propane tanks inside, then drained most of the water from the heater and added a gallon of gas and relit the pilot. The gasoline should vaporize after a few days, then escape through the over-pressure vent that had been redirected. It might even take it a week, Gina couldn't accurately guess.
They also left one of the tanks with a slow leak in the cramped little water closet.
Back on the boat, they pulled the anchor and drifted out with the tide, using the changed batteries to keep them from running ashore and the GPS from accidentally running aground on some submerged beach town.
Two new laptops and a ton of video games were a goldmine for Ava and Nathan, even knowing children's bodies were among the dead. The laptops could probably be traced back to the mansion, but it didn't seem likely, and they took the precaution of removing the ID numbers from the cases anyway. Neither had password protection, or even seemed to be registered.
The first good wind they caught, they deployed the sail and headed west and south for the winter, not daring to try the shore again so soon.
Besides, now they had a mansion's worth of provisions from when they raided the kitchen.