Chapter 27

27

As the storm gasped its last, the fire and emergency crew stepped off Last Chance and began assessing the sheer chaos that was Ralston Island. While the fire crew figured out what to do, the EMTs examined us and found that we were alive and mostly undamaged, aside from some scrapes and cuts. The smoke hadn't done us any serious injury. We told the police about Dr. Henson's body in the playhouse and gave them the contours of what had taken place. They were, to put it mildly, surprised.

It was decided that we wouldn't cross back to shore until the storm had abated, so we were to stay in the boathouse. The police took April out, though. I'm not sure where they went.

Riki grabbed me by the sleeve. "Come on," she said.

By now, I was used to following Riki around. This time, though, I knew what we were doing.

The upstairs of the boathouse had previously been the quarters for the captain and the crew. These had been allowed to rot, unlike the lower part of the structure. The new tenants had already knocked the walls down and it was a blank, open space with a new wooden floor. It looked like a yoga studio, or a spot for tech bros to engage in some kind of free-flowing experience. Bad apps would be born here.

We sat down under a window. Riki produced the box from her hoodie and opened it. Inside was a plastic ziplock bag with letters inside.

"Plastic bag," she said, prying it out of the box. "No ziplock in the 1930s."

Inside, there were two old envelopes with handwritten addresses. The top one was to Benjamin Ralston and was postmarked May 3, 1995. The second one was visibly older, more delicate, the handwriting more formal. This was addressed to someone called Irene Wallenberg in Boston and was postmarked December 28, 1932.

"Oh shit," Riki said. "Oh my god. What is this?"

"The treasure," I said. " This is what Benjamin brought here and buried. He wasn't kidding."

She handed me the more recent letter while she examined the older one. I began to read it:

Dear Mr. Ralston,

This letter is coming to you a bit out of the blue. We've never met, so I apologize for the strange nature of our introduction.

I was ill recently and laid up in bed and was looking for something to do and decided to go through a trove of letters I found in my aunt's house when she passed away. I came to the letter you will find enclosed with this one.

I considered giving it to the police, but I don't know what they would have done with it. I read up about you and the work you've done, and I realized the only responsible thing would be to send it to you. I worry that the contents might upset you, but then I weighed that against your right to know what happened to your family. Maybe you've always had questions....

Riki was feverishly scanning the other letter.

"What is it?" I said.

She went back to the start and began to read aloud....