Velvet Lightning

Prologue
 
ABOARD THE RAVEN
NEW YORK HARBOR, NOVEMBER 1871
 
Captain Marcus Tyrone stood on the captain’s deck and absently watched his unusually small crew scurrying about the ship. He had taken on volunteers this trip, explaining that The Raven would be at anchor for an extended period, and that those accompanying him would be expected to behave themselves.
 
His men took the mild warning to heart. Twenty of those who had been to Port Elizabeth on previous trips had elected to sail this time, knowing there would be rest and ease, and that they would be well paid. Bored, most likely, but well paid.
 
Tyrone gazed briefly back at the city, then sighed and looked ahead. He had left instructions in his office for Jesse, as he had on past occasions, and smiled a little as he thought of that young man’s probable reaction. Jesse Beaumont had developed a strong liking for the sea these last years, and hated being forced to remain on dry land for any length of time. Still, he would take good care of Tyrone’s business during this trip.
 
He was the only man Tyrone trusted to do so.
 
Tyrone hoped that business affairs were all Jesse would be forced to cope with. However, since Jesse had gone west to find his long-lost sister, Tyrone had had time to think everything through, time to curse the vagaries of fate. When he had received Jesse’s telegram saying that all was well and that he was returning to New York, Tyrone had swiftly made his own plans to slip away.
 
Falcon Delaney wouldn’t be stopped, Tyrone knew. That man had been on the trail of stolen gold for too many years to abandon the search no matter how obscure and tangled the path had become. And there had been too many deaths tied to the gold, the most jarring to Tyrone being the man to whom he owed so much.
 
REGRETS—MORGAN FONTAINE IS DEAD.
 
Jesse’s telegram, the statement made baldly. Tyrone shook off the memory, but he couldn’t help thinking of how two separate webs of intrigue and deceit spun so many years before had somehow overlapped, catching both himself and Falcon Delaney in the sticky strands. And now neither could escape.
 
It would be over soon. Tyrone could only hope that there was enough time yet to see his plans to their completion.
 
But for now he was going home.
 
Chapter 1
 
FALCON DELANEY’S JOURNAL
NOVEMBER 1871, NEW YORK
 
The discovery of Morgan Fontaine’s hiding place for the gold shipment stolen from the Union by him and his conspirators should have ended my long search at last. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
 
The grave had been undisturbed for years, of that I am sure. Victoria is certain Fontaine never returned to the old mission after he had buried the gold there eight years ago. The group of conspirators he betrayed are all dead; only two, in fact, survived the war, and those two were killed while still searching for the gold.
 
It seems obvious that no member of the group could have found and recovered the gold in the years immediately after it was secreted. That trail has ended, and I know of only one other.
Victoria and I arrived back in New York yesterday to find that The Raven had sailed south with Captain Tyrone aboard and in command himself. I can only believe that, as in the past, he will sail to some point between Florida and the Bahamas.
 
Though I cannot as yet know what lay behind it all, and though I find myself reluctant to accept it, the conclusion seems inescapable. Marcus Tyrone was Fontaine’s friend; he delivered the gold to Fontaine rather than to the group that had commissioned its transport. And I have discovered that back in 1865 while The Raven was anchored in Charleston harbor for a period of several weeks Tyrone journeyed inland alone. I can find no witnesses to his return. The Raven raised anchor and left the harbor with a midnight tide. She did not return to any port along the coast for six months.
 
A simple theft by Tyrone of the gold seems to me incredible and unbelievable. Still, I must discover the truth. I have been too long on the trail of the gold to stop now.
 
Victoria’s brother, Jesse, was almost continually aboard The Raven in those days, and could doubtless provide me with at least some of the answers I seek. He, however, refuses to discuss the matter at all, and how can I press him to forget his natural and understandable loyalty to Tyrone?
 
I am in the unhappy position of requiring information from the man who, yesterday afternoon, stood witness to my marriage to his sister.
 
CAMELOT
 
Falcon, bending over a desk in a dark and silent office near the waterfront, squinted in the faint light of the desk lamp and frowned. He was staring down at a ledger which for the most part seemed to detail business transactions during the year of 1863. He had found the ledgers stacked neatly on a shelf behind the desk, with this particular year on top.
 
The heading on the page he stared down at was simple: only the month—April. There was no mention of gold. There was no explanation of a business transaction. There was only the word Camelot beneath the month. It was heavily underscored and followed by a list of names.
 
After a brief hesitation, Falcon drew a notebook from his pocket and copied the list neatly. He thumbed through the remaining pages of the ledger but found nothing of interest. He returned the ledger to its place and put out the lamp, then, soft-footed, went to the door.
 
Minutes later he was striding soundlessly through the dark, dangerous streets of the waterfront. Behind him, the business offices of Marcus Tyrone were left undisturbed, as though he had never been there. Tyrone wouldn’t discover the illegal visit, of course, since he had left New York. But Jesse—reluctantly and with a great deal of swearing—was occupying the office in Tyrone’s place, and Falcon had no intention of further upsetting his new brother-in-law.
 
Entering an uptown hotel a considerable time later, Falcon nodded briefly at the sleepy desk clerk and went straight upstairs. She was waiting for him, dressed for bed but awake, and relief eased her delicate features as he came into their room.
 
“You’ve been such a long time. I was beginning to worry.”
 
Falcon pulled her into his arms and kissed her lingeringly. “Nice to have someone to worry about my hide,” he murmured, then grimaced faintly. “A poor honeymoon for you, sweet.”
 
Victoria Delaney smiled broadly at her husband. “I believe I can bear it.” Then she sobered. “You won’t be content until you find out what happened to that gold, and neither will I. The job has to be finished.”
 
“Yes. The trail’s getting hellishly tangled though.”
 
“You found something.”
 
“I’m damned if I know.” He pulled her down on the bed beside him and showed her the list he had copied into his notebook. “Look at this. You’ll probably recognize at least a few of these names. James Sheridan and Ryan Stewart are senators; Steven Franks is a judge; Paul Anderson is a cabinet member. And you remember Leon Hamilton.”
 
“Yes, of course. But what’s this? Camelot?”
 
Falcon shook his head and hesitated, then said slowly, “It sounds to me like a code name.”
 
“And you found this in Captain Tyrone’s office?”
 
“Um. Yes. In a ledger dated 1863.”
 
“What does it mean?”
 
“It means—have you ever been to Washington, sweet?”