The Light Keeper's Daughter

The Light Keeper's Daughter - Chapter 10

Chapter 10

That afternoon Camila and Daniel met Franklin down on the beach with three lanterns and a length of rope. Camila had told Daniel that a few of the caves had drops and the rope would come in handy with. Franklin must have thought the same thing because a length of rope was coiled over his shoulder as he met them on the north side of the sandy shore.

The sky was clear with only a few stray clouds in the sky and the tide was out giving them more shoreline, which was good for the caves being water free for this time of day. Camila had checked the tide report in the lighthouse and found that the tide would stay out for a few more hours.

“I looked back in my records today,” Franklin said without any greeting towards the duo as he approached, “Over the past year we have steadily lost more cargo on ships that did not encounter any storms or mishaps at sea.”

“Do your records indicate what is in the cargo boxes that were lost?” Daniel asked as they turned to walk up the beach. There was no hostility between Daniel and Franklin, everything centered around the mystery and the hunt for the truth. Daniel wondered if they could ever get beyond their issues?

“That’s the funny thing. All of them were marked coffee, yet we should not be importing coffee from the port they came from.”

Daniel was very interested in this news, “Was it always the same originating port they were shipped from?”

“Most of them. Some started in another port, but stopped in Plymouth. England that is, before coming here.”

“Hmmm,” Daniel contemplated. His mind was wondering what was really in the cargo boxes? Who was involved? And the big question, what did this have to do with his mother’s death and his memory loss?

“Who loads the ships in Plymouth,” Camila asked and could see the nod of approval from Daniel for the question and the slight lift of his lips in a grin.

“That’s the problem, our crew oversees it, but they have permission to hire from the docks.”

“So it has to be an inside job,” Daniel said without thinking, when both Franklin and Camila looked at him he continued, “someone has to throw them off the ship. They are not just falling off on their own.”

“Yes. But I want to know how deep this goes? How many of my crews that I trust are a part of this?”

“Is it always the same boats? Do your crews move from one boat to another? Can you track the loss of cargo and compare it to the crew list to see who is on the boat when you lose cargo?”

Franklin looked at him for a moment and nodded, “All very good questions, which I will look up tomorrow at the office. Our crews typically stay with the same boat, but there are a few that will float where needed. But yes, I can check crew registry against the lost cargo list I created today.”

“Franklin?” Camila asked, “are you going to tell your father?”

Taking a deep breath Franklin shook his head, “I don’t know. I know I should not keep it from him, and I will probably tell him before he and Mother leave on their trip. But, if this is related to Daniel’s mother’s death...” Franklin trailed off and everyone knew what he was thinking. And it was for the same reason that Camila had not told her father.

They arrived at the cave opening and from experience Camila and Franklin knew which ones would be the best to to store crates in to keep them out of the high tides that would eventually come into the mouth of the cave.

The cave was larger than Daniel would have expected. The opening was about twenty feet wide, but the cave’s interior opened to about seventy-five feet across and about a hundred feet deep. Towards the back of the large chamber of the cave, they found a boat anchored to the dry sand with a ten foot chain and a large rock, guaranteeing that it won’t float away when the tide came in.