Spirits of the Pirate House by Paul Ferrante Read Free Book Online

we’ll be taking the bus a lot.”
    “Well, not necessarily. I’m sure The
Adventure Channel has hired some transportation for you guys to get
you from place to place. I’ll probably rent a moped myself, and I’m
sure Weinstein will, too. Shouldn’t be a problem.”
    They pulled up to the DQ and T.J. could see
the pride on his dad’s face as patrons in line pointed to the XJS.
“Okay,” he said, “time for some Blizzards. But remember, no ice
cream in the car. Find a bench out front.”
    “Preferably one with a good view of the Jag?”
said Bortnicker, extricating himself from the back seat.
    “Of course.” Tom Sr. locked the car with his
remote and looked wistfully around at the place he used to come
every Saturday with his wife and little boy. It brought a smile to
his face. “Just think, guys,” he said finally, “two weeks from
today you’ll be in paradise.”
     

Chapter Seven
     
    “ Ahoy, me hearties,”
said LouAnne through the speaker phone in Bortnicker’s
bedroom.
    “What’s that playing in the background? Meet the Beatles ?”
    “You’ve got it,” said Bortnicker as “It Won’t
Be Long” bounced off the walls of his cluttered enclave. “Hey, bet
you don’t know what the British version was called.” He raised an
eyebrow, awaiting her response as he stared at the iconic album
cover photo of the foursome that was taken in half shadow.
    “Bet I do. It’s With the Beatles .”
    “She strikes again,” said T.J. “Bortnicker,
why don’t you just give up trying to stump her?”
    “I have not yet begun to fight,” he said
dramatically.
    “Whatever,” said LouAnne dismissively. “So,
one week to go before you guys head over. Have you done all your
studying?”
    “Yeah,” said T.J. “But what kinda surprises
me is, here we are going after this pirate guy and all, but Bermuda
wasn’t exactly a big time pirate hangout.”
    Bortnicker agreed. “Compared to the Spanish
Main, you’re right. The reefs and the small islands with their
coves provided protection for pirate ships, but as a whole, Bermuda
was what you’d call out of the way.
    “Most of the treasure ships in pirate times
were going from South America back to Europe. They’d only stop in
Bermuda if it was an emergency. And if they did, there wasn’t much
to steal there. Once the British established Bermuda as a colony in
the 1600s they pretty much had it to themselves, although Spanish
explorers had actually discovered the place.”
    “Which brings us to how Sir William Tarver
fits in,” broke in T.J. “There were two main privateers on the
island in the early 1700s. One guy was Henry Jennings, who attacked
Spanish strongholds where they were storing salvaged treasure from
sunken Spanish galleons. The other was Tarver, whose background is
really sketchy.
    “Anyway, the governor of Bermuda, who was no
dummy, figured that if he allowed Jennings and Tarver a pardon,
they would establish legitimate businesses on the island and, as a
bonus, provide a little protection against anyone who might
attack.
    “Jennings decided to turn to supplying
colonial pirates outside of Bermuda with salt or tobacco. His men,
using a few smaller boats called Bermuda sloops, would also harvest
sea turtles or salvage treasure from sunken ships and then
distribute their goods throughout the Caribbean.”
    “Yes,” said LouAnne, “I read all that, but
all I could get about Tarver was that he established a tobacco
plantation on the island in what’s now known as Southampton
Parish.”
    “Which is why we’re going to have to visit
their historical society after we get there. Try to get a read on
his murky past,” said T.J.
    “I see him as one of those swashbuckling
types, a real ladies’ man,” LouAnne observed dreamily.
    “You’ve been watching too many Johnny Depp
movies,” said Bortnicker. “Most of these guys were disease-riddled
lowlifes with no teeth.”
    “Maybe,” countered LouAnne, “but he must’ve
been doing