Page 41 of Scammed

“Can I come as well?” she asked excitedly.

“Uh, well,” paused Gabe, looking at Marcel.

“She will be safe in your care,” smirked the man. “Please do not perform any physical labor. Let the men dig for it.”

“How will we know where to dig?” asked Amy. Marcel frowned.

“Perhaps I should go with you. Arturo’s note was not clear, only that he hid it on the island. He said my mother told him where to place it, so I may have an idea.”

As the humidity rose and the clouds rolled in, they all knew they were going to get rained on once again. But business didn’t stop in Louisiana because of the weather. Like all things, you just rolled with it and enjoyed it.

However, at this moment, Amy wasn’t enjoying the rocking and motion of the boat. She hung her head over the side, emptying the contents of her stomach.

“Are you alright?” asked Marcel.

“I will be once we’re on solid ground again,” she smiled.

Stepping out of the boat onto the newly created dock, Amy did not get a warm fuzzy feeling of the surroundings on the island. It seemed dark and mysterious, yet also, in some ways, exactly like the other islands.

“Why was this called Devil’s Island?” she asked.

“In my day,” started Marcel, “it was used for special religious services. My family, our family, thought the same. We did not like the idea of taking people from their own lands and forcing them to work, become enslaved here. My parents paid anyone who worked on this land. Many of the people wanted a place to practice their own religion.”

“Voodoo,” she whispered.

“Voodoo. Witchcraft. Wicken. Call it what you like, but it was different, and that made others nervous. Sometimes, you could hear the drums and see the fires from the island. The locals stayed clear, which was fine by my family. We knew it was safe.”

“Well, that clears up a helluva lot for us,” smirked Rafe. “I don’t think I’ll be quite as scared to come on the island in the future.”

“Where would your mother have told Arturo to bury it?” asked Amy.

“Everything is different from when I was here last,” said Marcel. “It’s been two centuries of floods, storms, and people traipsing across the land.”

“What about markings?” asked Antoine. “Specific trees or maybe a path. We can’t just start digging up the entire island.”

“There was a small grouping of cypress trees in the center of the island with a pond in the center. But it appears that those have taken over the entire space. I’m not sure any longer.”

“Well, let’s start with the big group of cypresses, and maybe there are smaller ones in the center,” said Gabe. “I’m going to bet that these are older than the trees you’re talking about.”

Walking into the group of trees, Marcel held tightly to his wife’s hand, fearful that she could fall and harm herself. Each man was carrying a shovel, pick, and axe, hoping to be able to find what they were looking for.

“Stop,” said Luc, staring ahead.

“Do you see something?” asked Baptiste.

“I see something that only proves Robicheaux women have been fooling men for years. Look,” he said, pointing ahead.

Beneath a group of cypress trees, sitting on top of a stone base, was a large grave marker with a skull and cross bones on it. The inscription read ‘The Devil Himself.’

“My mother,” smiled Marcel. “She always was a clever woman.”

“She damn sure made it easy for us,” said Antoine. He brought his pick and axe down on the top stone, watching as it crumbled, little by little. The brothers took turns chipping away at the fine marble until it fell apart, revealing the top stone below. It had a carved lid that could be removed. Every man pushed on the lid until they could see the contents beneath. Inside was a chest with metal bindings and an old lock, easily removed with the axe.

The men stood on the rock, struggling to lift it out. Finally, they were able to set it on the ground. The brothers waved their ancestor forward, allowing him the honor of revealing what was in the mysterious box.

“I guess this one is on me, as you say.”

“It’s your chest, brother,” smirked Luc. “I’m kind of anxious to see what’s in it. We spent a lot of time as kids playing pirate on these islands, but we damn sure never came across anything like this.”

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