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  "Mahina is a fantastic tale involving multiple storylines from both historical times and the present… beautiful and complex, like the threads of fine tapestry… a memorable and well told story, full of adventure and romance… Someone should turn this book into a motion picture. You should read the book." Kathy Olson

  "Paradise Warrior is an amazing book. It makes you laugh, cry and reflect. It is a book that when you finish you wonder about life around you. God’s plan in our life... amazing gift…" Fernando M.

  "Aaahh, I love quiet Saturday mornings.....sitting here eating bacon n eggs drinking a fresh cup of coffee and reading a great book .....Paradise Warrior. A great start to the day :-)" Gary

  “…I cry & I laugh & I don’t want to put my book down… I loved reading “Mahina” on my iPad…. BUT…. I absolutely LOVE having it in BOOK FORM now…. to have & to hold…. forever mine!" Gwennie Simpson

  "MAHiNA... engaging and informative. It is hard to put down a novel when the characters are intriguing and the storyline incorporates a variety of threads. Aunty Rosa was the one character that I was especially drawn to; her wisdom and sensitivity were authentic and endearing... And the ending was superbly done; tying in each of the real life issues in a clever and perceptive way." Susan

  “I've finished THAT BOOK and will now have to do something constructive!!!... if book number three is as riveting as the other two, I will need pulse-reducing medication. I can't believe the depth of all that he was able to bring in to that story!!! (I'm thinking that I will have to stick to “Little Women” and “Heidi” in future.)” Maureen

  "Paradise Warrior... You certainly know how to keep the reader hanging for more! Great work! I’m going to read it again!" Corinne

  "...Paradise Warrior! The Author is able once again to describe how God works and change the lives of those who put their trust in Him... thrilling fiction. It’s quite impossible to close the book before the end. And when I finished... I read it a second time to enjoy even more all its subtleties, this for the first time in my life..." Dominique

  “...Mahina... Finished!!!!!! Loved it!!!!!” Marie

  "Jack Dey… writes a rollicking good yarn, that man..." Shelley

  [The Legend of Ataneq Nanuq] “...gripped me right to the end… fabulous job.” Phil

  [The Legend of Ataneq Nanuq] “...exciting… incredible. A NY times best selling author couldn’t do it better. It is real. It is engaging. It is captivating... just comes off the page… and it will keep you guessing until the end when he skillfully ties all the lo[o]se ends into a satisfying knot. Don’t miss this exciting adventure.” Kathy

  "...amazing, delightful, absolutely intriguing, WONDERFUL book... PARADISE WARRIOR!!! I can't put it down..." Gwennie Simpson

  “I just read a couple of your books wow!!! What can I say! They are heart touching!!!... Paradise Warrior was a surprising story. I am searching for truth about what you say... My favorite was La Belle Suisse... This was a story I couldn't put down. The secret of Black Dean Lighthouse touched my heart... Your stories are full of adventure and mystery, with many Biblical truths...” Joy

  "Mahina is a brilliant novel that I’ve read with great pleasure The Author is very smart to describe the human heart in his various characters. I enjoyed also how sincere faith and love for God are lived by some of them. My favorite, Aunty Rosa is especially appealing; it really makes you want to meet her!" Dominique

  "...Mahina. The story draws you in chapter by chapter. Thoroughly enjoyed it..." Craig

  "...Aunt Tabbie’s Wings... once you start, you won’t want to put it down." Elspeth

  "...Aunt Tabbie's Wings and loved it so much... I could not put it down..." Trudy R.

  “I was up reading half the night last night…” Kathy

  *~*~*~*

  THE SECRETS OF

  BLACK DEAN LIGHTHOUSE

  by

  JACK DEY

  *~*~*~*

  PUBLISHED BY:

  COPYRIGHT 2014 C.D. & A.R. Day

  All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means–electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or otherwise–except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the owner of the copyright.

  Original Cover Design: C.D. & A.R. Day

  Cover Photo of Girl: G.T. James

  This book is also available in print.

  ISBN: 9780992404031

  (paperback)

  For information please contact:

  URL: https://www.jackdey.com

  Email: [email protected]

  *~*~*~*

  Dedicated to: Papa

  For Your Honour and Your Glory

  *~*~*~*

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 70

  BONUS / END NOTES

  Author's Note

  About the Author

  Connect with Jack

  Discover Other Books by Jack Dey

  MAHiNA

  Paradise Warrior

  Aunt Tabbie's Wings

  The Legend of Ataneq Nanuq

  The Valley of Flowers

  La Belle Suisse

  Exclusive Preview of Jack Dey’s New Novel – Zero

  *~*~*~*

  Note from Jack

  The Secrets of Black Dean Lighthouse is a mystery with a twist in its tail, a signature of my writing style. The characters are warm and endearing, while the storyline is nail-biting and riveting. If you enjoy fine Christian fiction, then you won’t want to pass up this book. As usual, there are a myriad of Christian themes and Papa’s character is reflected in them. Do yourself a favour. Grab a coffee, put the dog, the cat and the kids to bed, and settle back and enjoy the read. The journey will challenge your thinking and at the same time leave you refreshed and revitalised.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, incidences, places or events, past or present, is purely coincidental. Poetic licence has been taken in this fiction.

  I hope you will enjoy reading it, as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

  Jack Dey

  *~*~*~*

  Acknowledgements

  I would like to thank the following for their tireless support in bringing The Secrets of Black Dean Lighthouse from a thought to a finished work.

  Papa God, for allowing me to be a pencil in His hand.

  My wife, the Editor, for turning my full stops into commas, encouraging me to keep going and using words like 'disturbing' to keep me on track. Constantly filling my cup with tea and love.

  My Assistant Editor, the very charismatic Phil Hollett, for never letting me get away with anything.

  The ever vigilant prayer team.

  Finally, you, the reader. We pray for you as you take Papa’s hand and sojourn through this story. May you never forget the journey you are about to take and judge everything against what Papa tells you.

  Jack

  *~*~*~*

  The Secrets of Black Dean Lighthouse

  Adventure. Danger. Intrigue. Love. Courage. Redemption. Come on the journey but be warned, there is no turning back and the consequences will leave your head spinning. A haunting mystery with a sting in its tail.

  *~*~*~*

  Chapter 1

  Katie stood transfixe
d on the beach. Her hands shook slightly and her stomach tightly knotted, while tendrils of jet black hair whipped around her face and stung her eyes, driven mercilessly by the approaching storm. This was the first time in years she’d returned to Contention Island, but as if time had frozen into a sneering pause, nothing had changed. Things were still as they were. Even so, she’d come a long way in her recovery just to be standing in this place, the place that had haunted her sleep and stolen so much of her youth. Over the years, the relentless nightmares and cowering fear had faded, giving her a reckless sense of strength, imagining she was strong enough and if she confronted her tormentor, things would change. Things would become normal.

  Whatever normal was.

  But standing here on Contention Island, it was all too clear she had overestimated her strength and wasn’t ready to take such a drastic step. She still had a long way to go to reclaim her life. Katie pulled in a shuddery breath at the memory, overwhelmed by the tragedy and hung her head in her hands, collapsing to the beach sand while the tears began all too easily and the familiar ache returned as if it was just yesterday, let alone twenty years ago.

  Maybe it hadn’t been long enough.

  Curled in the cold sand with her face buried in her hands, she thought the demons lurking in her past had been overcome, subdued by a stronger, wiser creed helping her to make sense of the circumstances that had so drastically altered her past. As the wailing cries reached fever pitch and carried on the storm, Katie began to sob, holding her hands over her ears and trying to block out the horrendous despair. Shuddering with their memory and the unrestrained agony, she castigated herself for being so stupid. This wasn’t a good idea after all, and tonight she was living her past again, troubled and deceived by a deeper cry... one too close to ignore. Anarchy reigned then, and it still reigns now unchecked while the burgeoning cries and howling wind lay testament...

  It was still here, waiting for her to return to trap her again.

  Raising herself to her knees, Katie’s tear-stained eyes searched the blackness of the sea behind the breakers, trying to ignore the wails but searching, always searching, just like in her nightmares. It had been a night exactly like this, dark and imposing, raging at the foot of an unnatural storm; and when the rain began with such tenacity, it chilled her to her core and she began to shiver, still searching the sky beyond the breakers, her arms crossed over her chest against the teeming rain and wind driven chill.

  Then she saw it, not once but several times and with each manifestation, the terrified wails erupted, screaming in unison with the force of the howling wind. The walls of fear, undermined and partially dismantled by many years of absence from Contention Island, began to build its foreboding prison about her again. Katie grappled with the nightmare scene, clutching at her hair in desperation while her mind refused to believe what she’d just seen.

  From a place outside of her line of sight and buried in the night, another pair of eyes watched with a cat-like stare, stalking through the sand and leaning into the wind and rain. An unexpected blinding flash lit up the cold, dark winter night for a fraction of a second, catching her nemesis unaware and scurrying to hide his prowling presence before she recognised his creeping pursuit. Pulling the stolen darkness around himself again and hoping to hide, a vicious rattling cra-ack exploded around Katie, tearing open the sky and shaking the ground bellow her. Screaming with fright and almost blue from cold, Katie instantly covered her numbing ears with her hands and cringed under the attack, the intensity so loud it hit her in the chest like a blast, distorting her eardrums and distracting her sweeping gaze. Overwhelmed by its trickery and reeling from her loss, Katie’s knees buckled under her and she collapsed to the sand, her mind shutting down under the immense shock.

  Once again, the decision wasn’t hers... yet the consequences were devastating.

  Protected by the storm, the stalking fiend stooped over the place she’d fallen and deliberately searched the scene for prying eyes, then cautiously scooped the unconscious figure into his arms and like the secrecy of the wind, effortlessly vanished into the shadowy night, carrying his unsuspecting prey and leaving little evidence to expose his deadly game. Finely honed and subtle in its deception, the trap closed over Katie yet again, drowning her in the hatred of love, where life seems cheap and no one could hear her frantic screams...

  or cared whether she lived or died.

  A jiggling, floating movement momentarily drew Katie back from a desperate nether world, granting consciousness for a fleeting second while focusing on the black, cat-like eyes of her captor, crushing the woman with escalating fear. She tried to scream, but the sound fell impotent to her feet. Seemingly, it was all happening again, as if history was repeating itself. She’d been a fool, lured back into her past by the same events that had trapped her in her childhood, seduced by the idea of gaining control over her nemesis and finally breaking free of his power. Her strength stolen and struggling in vain to stop the cycle of events, her body went limp and she blacked out...

  Dangling unprotected in his insatiable grasp.

  *~*~*~*

  A sudden scream broke into a deep subliminal sleep and scrambled the pleasant dreams into another world where the protector mechanism stirred, ready to deal with any intruder; but it took only a moment to realise where he was and what was taking place. The dark room, illuminated by the clock radio’s red digital numbers, offered light enough to see the pained face of his wife struggling in yet another nightmare.

  “Becky, wake up, honey!”

  Gentle hands shook her trembling body and dispatched the fiend lurking in her sleep. The bedside lamp erupted, dividing the formidable darkness, paining their eyes and driving the world of fear back into the shadows. The confused expression on Becky’s face, her brow moist from the battle, was an all too familiar indicator to the depth of her enchantment. Shaking off the nightmare grasp and recognising the familiar room, she spoke, exhausted and in a low perplexed voice. “What happened?”

  “It was Katie again, wasn’t it?” the concerned voice of her husband, Brett questioned as he pulled her into his arms.

  Becky trembled in her husband’s embrace, trying to find the words as the worried frown deeply furrowed her stunning features. When she did speak, her voice was muffled in her husband’s shoulder and her tone brought a shiver to his spine.

  “She was back on Contention Island.”

  Becky hadn’t dreamt of Katie for years, and now for some reason Katie was bothering her subconscious again. The nightmare character had been a regular visitor into the young couple's lives at first, but unknown to Brett, Becky had been plagued by nightmares of Katie throughout her life. Once they were married, Katie’s invasion of Becky’s subconscious lessened, but was regular enough for Brett to form a picture of Katie with her disturbing adventures through the nightmares Becky suffered. Becky had no idea how she came to dream of the strange apparition, having never met a girl named Katie in real life, let alone become friends with one. Nonetheless, Katie’s arrival back on Contention Island was not a welcome revelation, with Brett understanding enough of the nightmares to surmise Katie’s anguish was set to get deeper and Becky would suffer as a result.

  He had to get to the bottom of these disturbing nightmares and find out who Katie was and why Katie affected Becky’s dreams so profoundly.

  *~*~*~*

  Chapter 2

  A highly agitated captain nervously paced on the bridge of the steam cutter, Rebellious, seething that the boilers had once again dumped the valuable steam pressure, leaving them powerless and bobbing around at the mercy of the heavy ocean swells. Yet he knew his overworked engine room was doing the best they could with the antiquated equipment they were forced to work with. Along with countless others, the sea freight company had fallen on hard times due to the stock market crash resounding through the autumn of 1929 and folding up the fortunes of many well-to-do in a perilous fiscal house of cards. Those that could survive only did so by cutting corne
rs and spending what was absolutely necessary, with the much needed repairs to Rebellious’ boilers secretly dropped from the maintenance schedule. Nonetheless, the company still expected the cargo to make its destination on time.

  The steam pressure was vital to drive the steam engines, to keep the cutter from being smashed against the feared jagged rocks of Black Dean laying in wait just ahead. Any more delays would be a dire cost to the schedule and place the ship in mortal peril, having just enough time to traverse the passage safely as long as their boilers maintained pressure. An offshore solid rock barrier acted as an impasse to the international shipping route, submersed and invisible just below the surface at high tide and one hour's steaming time from the shore. Guarding the length of the coast and the entry to vital ports, it forced shipping to take a long detour around the southern end of the reef. A journey that added two days onto any trip. Entering the narrow Barrett Channel between Black Dean and Contention Island was difficult enough in daylight and low tide where the jagged walls of the channel could be easily seen, but was considered suicide attempting it blind at night.

  Barrett Channel had been discovered in the early days of sail by William Barrett. A one-in-a-hundred-year’s low tide allowed Barrett to observe the length of the rock barrier’s saw-toothed walls, reaching many miles in both directions along the coast and preventing direct access to the mainland ports from the open ocean. With all its glory exposed by the unusual tide, Barrett subsequently discovered a narrow passage through the obstruction, which allowed an undeviating shortcut without the lengthy detour around the reef.