The Wauwinet Caper

Book excerpt: This story takes place on Nantucket in the early 1970s, where Mr. Winship Cate, who lives in Wauwinet, is prompted by his children to clean out a lot of clutter from his home after his wife Mary has passed away. This task will take up to a month to complete the way his friends and family have sectioned up the house to attack the different projects. The last of the projects to tackle is above the garage. A large beautiful room with windows showing off the fantastic views in every direction. The door leading into the attic has not been opened in the last twenty years and the room is filled with furniture that was left behind from the previous owners after the sale of the house to Winship in the fifties. After the room has been cleared out and all the items are sorted for either a garage sale, the dump or an antique auction, Winship easily parts with all of the belongings except for a beautiful leather chair, a reading lamp and ottoman along with a side table that he asks the workers leave behind for him. Winship enters the attic area amazed at what a beautiful and enormous space the room is. With the windows open, a nice breeze blows across and the sunlight shines in. As he settles into the leather chair to take it all in, he tries to use the lamp but the bulb seems to be burnt out. He retreats to the main house and finds a replacement. After removing the burnt out bulb and placing it on the floor it rolls into a dark corner eave. Realizing that it would be disrespectable to leave it like a piece of trash since the room has just been spotlessly cleaned, mopped and waxed by his friends, he kneels down peering into the darkened cove. Not wanting to stick his bare hand inside, due to the possibility of a spider bite, he locates a pair of tongs from the kitchen and a flashlight. Winship manages to snag the bulb, but when he shines the light beam into the darkened cavern, he notices a box tucked way back. At first he thought it was just part of the wood frame of the garage but after a closer look he now sees it is a box covered in an old worn cloth almost out of reach. After a few attempts Winship manages to remove it. As he sets it upon his lap, while sitting under the lamp in the leather chair, he carefully opens it. There is not much inside. Or is there? What could possibly entice Winship to start an adventure that would take him from Nantucket to Fort Lauderdale where he joins his friend Simon Gilmore of Dartmouth England? Discover why they meet in Florida and charter a boat to sail down to the Exuma Islands. How could this box and its contents possibly lead to a murder on Nantucket? Ah, the plot thickens.