Seizure(38)

“Absolutely,” Short said. “Look at the capital L, both here in Lady, and here, with Last. The author uses a rare formulation.”

“You mean the large circle at the apex?”

“Precisely. And, even more oddly, the author combines t and h when grouped together, as with the word the. To me, that might as well be DNA.”

“Hey Tor.” Hi was holding my writing sample. “You’ve got the same quirk.”

“Huh?”

Short laid my sentence beside Bonny’s poem and letter. “Well, Miss. How about that.”

Hi was right. I’d never noticed before, but I combined th into a single character, almost like a Chinese symbol.

“That’s a strange idiosyncrasy to share.” Short looked at me oddly. “Normally, I’d consider such a peculiarity a fairly strong identifier.”

“That’s why I never write anything longhand,” I joked. “Too hard.”

“No one does anymore.” Short tsked in disapproval. “Cursive is a dying art. But. That aside.” His voice grew serious. “This letter is a historic treasure. We need to validate it scientifically, then discuss preservation.”

“And we will,” I hedged. “But for now, we’ll hang on to it.”

Short scowled. “Young lady, I have no intention of interfering with your ownership of this document. You can sell it for whatever you like. But we need to assure its safety until—”

“Dr. Short, you misunderstand. I don’t plan to hawk the letter on eBay. But we need it for the time being. Sorry.”

“Very well.” Cold. “Please wait.”

Lips tight, Short disappeared through the same doorway as before.

“Why are you pissing him off?” Hi whispered.

“We have to keep the letter. It might help us locate the treasure.”

Short returned with a notebook-sized metal case.

“At least use this container for transport.” Without asking for permission, he inserted the letter. “Take extreme care when handling these pages. They are irreplaceable.”

“Understood. Thank you.”


“You can thank me by returning the letter undamaged.”

“We will,” Hi promised.

“Then be off. I have work.”

Needing no urging, we headed for the exit.

Sudden thought. I hit the brakes. Turned.

“One last thing, Dr. Short.”

“Yes?”

“Have you ever heard of something called Half-Moon Battery?”

Short hesitated. “Why?”

“I’m curious about the original Charles Town dungeons.”

Short seemed to debate with himself. Then, “In 1771, the Exchange Building was constructed on the site of an older fortification known as Half-Moon Battery. A decade later, during the Revolution, the British converted the cellars into the Provost Dungeon. Seems Charleston’s darkest cells have always occupied the same space.”

“Thanks!”

Short watched us hustle from the chamber.



“Did you hear?” I practically skipped. “The Provost Dungeon was built on the ruins of Half-Moon Battery. Bonny’s original cell may still exist!”

“That’s the right area,” Shelton said. “The Exchange Building is on lower East Bay Street.”

“Why do we care about the dungeon?” Ben asked. “Aren’t we looking for some kind of tunnel?”

“Mary Read’s letter,” I reminded him. “Read said the ‘recent earthen works’ were close to Bonny’s cell. ‘Earthen works’ must refer to the tunnels depicted on the treasure map. I think the pirates used those tunnels to break Bonny out of Half-Moon Battery.”

“If they broke her out,” Shelton said. “We don’t know for sure that Bonny was rescued. She could’ve been hanged.”

“She must’ve escaped! Otherwise, there’d be a record of her execution.”

Data bytes coalesced in my brain. “We just learned that Half-Moon Battery—the place Bonny was held—was located close to the East Bay docks,” I said. “That confirms we’re looking in the right place!”

“Stop.” Hi literally quit walking. “Let’s spell it out.”

We circled up on a street corner, one of our habits.

“Fact one,” I said. “Anne Bonny drew a treasure map, which hints that her fortune was buried in downtown Charles Town, somewhere close to the East Bay docks.”

“Some huge leaps there,” Ben said, “but go on.”

“Fact two,” Shelton said. “We found letters between Anne Bonny and Mary Read stating that Bonny was transferred to Half-Moon Battery, a Charles Town dungeon.”

Hi picked up the thread. “Fact three: Read’s letter hints at a possible breakout attempt. Fact four: the letter also suggests that the treasure tunnels lie close to Bonny’s dungeon at Half-Moon Battery.”

“Fact five,” Shelton added. “The dungeon was close to the docks.”

“Which leads to my deduction,” I said. “Because the treasure tunnels were close to Bonny’s prison cell, they might’ve factored into her rescue.”

We all paused to digest.