Fallen Mangrove (Jesse McDermitt Series Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

submerged that part of the island and most of the trees had been swept away. Quincy’s sharp eyes noticed something unusual in the high boughs of an ancient mangrove that had been toppled by the wind and waves. The branches had grown around and encased an ancient chest that was now exposed after the branches had broken apart.
    With some difficulty, Quincy was able to remove the chest and open it. The chest was watertight and when he opened it he found nothing more than a coconut inside. It was at this part of the story that Nikki came into the study and the Judge opened the chest, revealing the coconut.
    “A coconut?” she asked. “Your ancestors handed down a coconut through how many generations?”
    Bob was enthralled with the story and said, “Eight, beginning with your sixth great-grandfather, Captain Quincy Godfrey.”
    The Judge smiled. “Nine now,” he said as he closed the chest and pushed it toward Bob. “If you can’t figure out the mystery, give it to my grandson.”
    “You’re giving this to us?” Nikki asked.
    “It needs a new home and a new set of eyes on it. Do you know Spanish?”
    “I speak a little,” Bob replied. “Everyone in south Florida does. Why?”
    “There’s some sort of riddle carved into the coconut and it’s in Spanish. Old Spanish. And parts of it have just faded away with time and can’t even be guessed at.”
    “Thanks, Judge,” Bob said. “Means a lot to me. What have eight generations learned so far?”
    “Almost nothing,” the Judge replied. “A few words translated, but like I said, it’s old Spanish. Even people in Spain don’t talk like that anymore. I’ll tell you exactly what my dad told me forty-two years ago. It’s better if you just start from scratch.”
    Bob studied the chest a moment. It was longer than normal, nearly two feet, but only about a foot tall and less than that in width. The top was rounded and it had two ornate iron straps that became the hinges on one side and the clasps on the other.
    “Did any of your ancestors learn anything about the chest itself?” Bob asked.
    “The box?” asked the Judge. “No, not that I know of.”
    “Is it the original box the coconut was found in?”
    The Judge sat forward, glancing curiously from the chest to Bob and back again. “So far as I know,” he replied at last. “I don’t see why anyone would have put it in a different box. Why?”
    “I have a friend that can probably tell us where and when the box was made,” Bob said.
    “The ‘when’ was figured out a long time ago,” said the Judge. “The coconut has a date carved into it—September twenty-third, 1566. It’s partially rubbed off, but still legible.”
    Nikki sat down next to her father. “1566? That’s right after Columbus discovered America.”
    The Judge snorted and grinned. “A lifetime after, Peanut. And Columbus didn’t ‘discover’ anything, least of all America.”
    She looked from her father to Bob with a puzzled glance. Bob explained, “The Judge is right. Columbus first landed on the islands of the northern Bahamas, where he was greeted by the people that lived there. Being a staunch Catholic, he named the first island San Salvador, after the Savior, and the second Santa Maria de la Concepción, after the Virgin Mary. It wasn’t until his third voyage that he landed on the mainland of South America. Thinking it was an island he named it Isla Santa, now called Venezuela. He was greeted by the people that lived there, also. You can’t really ‘discover’ a land where people already live.”
    “You know your history, Bob,” the Judge quipped.
    “It was my favorite subject all through school.”
    “Back to the box,” the Judge said. “If the writing on the coconut is in Spanish and dated 1566, why wouldn’t you think the box was the same?”
    “No reason to think it’s not,” Bob replied. “However, the early explorers bought and traded things all over the known world. Whoever put that coconut in the