by Marja McGraw
Felicity wanted to go with me when I mentioned my trip into town, but I felt like Jack’s issues were private. She said she’d go anyway and do a little shopping while I met with him.
I wasn’t planning to call him first, so I hoped he was free to talk.
Pete spoke to Bea, but when she called Bob her call went straight to voicemail. She left a message, asking him to call back.
Felicity and I drove into town. I parked in front of Jack’s office and my friend took off down the street to check out some of the shops.
I walked into the office and the lawyer happened to be standing at his secretary’s desk, handing her some papers.
He looked up and smiled. “It’s good to see you, Sandi. What can I do for you?”
“I brought you something I thought you’d like to have.”
“Come on into my office. I don’t have a client coming in for another half hour.” He led me into his office and pointed to a chair. “Have a seat. What did you come up with?”
I handed him the birth certificate. “I thought you should have this. I found it in the wooden box I told you about. It shows the father as Martin Smith, not Martin Cookson, as you’d thought. Smith – not very original, is it? At least she was consistent and showed her name as Smith, too.”
He read the information on the birth certificate and then reread it. “You’ve answered a lot of questions by bringing me this certificate. The adoption papers for my father listed Martin Cookson, and this says Smith. Either way, it’s Martin. I think my resemblance to Martin clinches it for me. The information I found said she listed her name as a character she played in a movie. I know that in the grand scheme of things none of this probably matters, but it mattered to my father. I wish he was still alive so we could put a few things to rest. Thank you, Sandi. It’s hard to imagine that some of my answers were sitting right down the street in the wooden box at the antique store.”
“It sounds like Bonnie provided information to the adoption agency that was different from the hospital. And at least now you know where your father was born. Sometimes life gives us answers in ways we’d never expect. I’m glad I could help you.”
Jack set the certificate aside and tipped his head, studying me. “You know, on occasion I do require the services of a private investigator when I’m working on a particularly interesting case. Might I be able to hire you from time to time?”
I smiled at him. “We live in Los Angeles, but we’ll be here every summer. My husband and I bought a house nearby. If you ever need our services in Los Angeles, or here during the summer, just call us.”
He returned my smile. “You’ll love it here. I guarantee it.”
We shook hands and I took my leave after telling him if I turned up anything else I’d let him know.
His secretary, Stephanie, wiggled her fingers at me in a wave as I left.
Helping Jack had made me feel fulfilled. It was a good feeling.
I walked down the street, peeking through shop windows while I searched for Felicity, and found her in a small dress shop. She was wearing a simple black dress and admiring herself in a mirror when I walked up behind her.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“It’s you. Simple, yet elegant.”
She left me with the saleslady while she entered a dressing room to change clothes.
“Your friend is such a cutie,” the woman said. “She looks familiar for some reason, although I’ve never seen her around here before.”
“She is a cutie – one of the most beautiful women I know. She’s a model, so you may have seen her in magazines. She generally models jewelry or make-up.”
The woman snapped her fingers. “That’s where I’ve seen her. She’s so striking that it would be difficult to forget her face.”
Felicity returned and paid for her purchase, and we headed back to the Jeep.
“We need to hurry back to the B&B,” I said. “Bea was going to try to set up an appointment for me and Pete with Bob. I don’t want to miss the opportunity to talk to him.”
“I don’t blame you. With two murders and two Charlies, this whole case has been kind of convoluted. You, or I should say we, need some answers.
“By the way, Stan was quite proud of himself for finding the information you needed. He really admires you and Pete, and it makes him feel good about himself when he can help.”
“We really think the world of you and Stan,” I said. “He’s helped us out so many times, and he saved my life last year. That counts for a lot.” I chuckled. “And that’s a true understatement.”
Felicity laughed. “I guarantee you, Stan will never touch a gun again. Next time I’ll have to save you. I still carry my little pistol with me.” She patted her purse.
“Ha! You two flew up here. I know you’re not carrying or they would have stopped you at the airport.”
“Yeah, well…”
Felicity is the best friend I’ve ever had. We’re nothing alike, and yet in certain ways we have so much in common.
“Was Jack happy with the birth certificate?” she asked.
“He really was, and even asked if we’d work for him from time to time. I left him my business card and explained that we’d be back next summer. Actually, we’ll be back before then because we’ll have to get things set up at the farmhouse.”
I pulled onto the property at the B&B and saw Bea and Pete standing out front, taking in the work Greg had done.
They were chatting and pointing at plants, and I knew without a doubt that Pete was asking questions about what worked and what didn’t in Washington.
They heard the car and turned around.
Bea waved and Pete walked over to meet us.
“Where’s Stan?” Felicity climbed out of the Jeep and looked around.
“He’s in the house, talking to Gloria. They’re hatching some kind of plan to figure out where the crying is coming from. And, yes, we heard it again while you were gone. I can’t figure it out. Maybe they’ll have better luck than I’ve had.”
I glanced at Bea. “Has she heard back from Bob yet?”
“As a matter of fact, he’s going to run some errands and then he’ll be on his way over here. He finished his other job and said he had nothing better to do. I don’t want to blindside him with our questions, but I asked Bea not to tell him what we wanted. She said he sounded more outgoing than normal today. He’s in a good mood, which can’t hurt.”
Sam and Sasha walked out of the house with Kimberly following, grinning from ear to ear.
“Don’t tell me,” I said, “you heard from Joe.”
Her grin broadened and she nodded. “We’re going out again this weekend.”
“See? Everything happens for a reason. He’s had to come out here a few times lately, and thankfully, you were here. Now, I have a question for you. When I met you, you were very outgoing, and yet when he’s been around you’ve been quiet. How did it go last night? Were you back to your perky self?”
“Maybe. Well, yes. He seems to bring out the best in me when we’re one on one.”
“Good. He needed to get to know the real you.”
Kimberly continued to grin. “Oh, he knew the real me, but that was before I decided I was interested in him. In fact, that’s one of the things he asked me last night. He wanted to know if I was okay because I’ve been too quiet.”
“Good for him,” I said. “I like him with each new thing I learn about him.”
Pete stood beside me. “Okay, that’s enough of that. Bob should be here around two o’clock. Why don’t we go for a walk while we wait? And this time we won’t be searching for anything.”
“Sounds good to me.” I hooked my arm through his and we headed toward the walking paths.
Felicity and Stanley followed us, but when we took the right path, they headed to the left.
I squeezed Pete’s arm. “Do you think Bob will open up to us?”
“Actually, I do.”
“I hope he’s got a good story t
o tell.”
Chapter Forty-one
Pete and I took a long walk, and for once we didn’t talk about work or investigations. We talked about us, something we only did on rare occasions. I mean, we talked all the time, but we’d never really talked about future plans.
I thought about the question that had weighed heavily on my mind. “Pete, do you want children? I mean, we’re not getting any younger, and I think it’s something we need to discuss.”
“I’ve thought about it,” he said. “Why don’t we let nature take its course? I wouldn’t mind having a kid or two, and I know your ol’ clock is ticking, but let’s play it by ear. Can you picture yourself out chasing bad guys while you’re pregnant?”
“Not really. I would like to have a child though. Maybe even two.” It was true. And my mother would love to have grandchildren.
What a time to think of my mother!
Pete squeezed my hand. “Why don’t we wait until we go home and talk about it then? I think we can agree on family matters.”
I smiled at the man I’d married and whom I loved. “Okay.”
Pete glanced at his watch. “It’s time to get back to reality. Bob should be here soon, and I haven’t had lunch yet. We were going out to lunch, remember? Didn’t happen. Maybe Bea will fix us a sandwich while we wait.”
“I’m sure she will.”
We took our time walking back to the B&B, and when we arrived we found that our hostess had soup and sandwiches waiting for us. Felicity and Stanley had already started eating, and the Stewarts were just finishing.
“Just in time,” Bea said. “Everyone was hungry today.”
Gloria stood and turned to her husband. “Phil has decided he really likes it here, and I didn’t even have to talk him into it. We’re going out to look at more houses. See you later. Oh, and Stan, we’ll figure this out yet.”
I was sure she was referring to the crying woman.
Stan swallowed and waved to Gloria. “Yes, ma’am, we’ll take care of business. Happy house hunting.”
The couple left before Felicity spoke up. “Do you want us to sit in on your conversation with Bob?”
I’d already thought about that. “No, I don’t want to overwhelm him. However, if you just happened to be quietly sitting in the next room, you might pick up on something we miss.”
Felicity smiled happily. “Where are you going to talk to him?”
Pete fielded that one. “I think we’ll sit on the front porch. Maybe it’ll feel more comfortable. We have questions, but I don’t want him to feel like he’s getting the third degree.”
Stanley stood and stretched. “Then we’ll be sitting inside, near an open window.”
Without a word, Bea walked out to the living room and opened the window nearest the front door. “As much as I want to hear what he says, I’ll make myself scarce. You can fill me in later.”
Pete and I wandered out to the porch where we found a pitcher of iced tea and three glasses.
My husband laughed. “She’s setting things up for us. I’m surprised there aren’t any cookies.”
“Don’t be surprised if she brings a plate out,” I said.
Promptly at two o’clock, Bob pulled onto the property. Apparently he’d had his car repaired since we last saw him.
“Hi,” he said, approaching us. “Bea said you wanted to talk to me.”
“Have a seat.” Pete pointed to one of the extra chairs.
“Is something wrong?” Bob’s expression had changed from a smile to one of concern.
“We’d like to ask you a few questions,” Pete said. “I hope you don’t mind, but we’d like to find out more about your family.”
“My family? I have a wife and two grown children. What’s this about?”
“He means your ancestors, Bob. We don’t want to pry, but strange things have been going on around here. Bea says your family has a reputation for playing things close to the vest, and that makes me think there are secrets.”
His face fell. “I know about the gold you found, and I figured it would come to this. I hoped it wouldn’t, but…”
“You know about the gold?” I asked.
“The whole town knows,” he replied. “It’s hard to keep something like that quiet. I’ve already talked to my wife about it. She said she thought I should cooperate. I guess she was right. What do you want to know?”
I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “What can you tell us about Charley?”
“Which one?”
“Both of them,” Pete said. “Start with your great-grandfather.”
“Well! Um, this is a long story. Are you sure you want to know everything?”
Pete nodded. “Everything that might have to do with Sally or Bonnie.”
“It does.” Poor Bob looked like he wanted to crawl under a rock. “Or at least I think it does.”
He rubbed his hands together nervously and looked off into the distance. “I’m not sure where to start. You have to understand that this is family legend. I don’t know how much of it is true.”
Pete and I sat still and waited. Bob had to tell his story in his own way, but at least he was opening up.
He sighed and looked from me to Pete. “I knew that someday this would come out. I don’t know how, but I’ve always felt a burden about my family and I knew it would come back to me to be the one to make amends.”
He leaned forward and poured himself a glass of iced tea before continuing. “Too bad you don’t have something stronger.”
I smiled at him. His discomfiture was obvious.
“Back in 1898, my great-grandfather and his pal, Clyde Farmer, put together a plan to rob a bank, and they pulled it off. I don’t know how, but no one knew it was them that did the deed. There was a lot of gold in the bank because it was time for some big businesses to pay their hired men. Charlie and Clyde took it all. It was Clyde’s job to hide it while Charley went home and made it look like Clyde had been at his house all day, working. They were hard-working men and no one would have ever suspected them anyway.
“They were smart ones. They wore disguises when they went into the bank and no one knew them in the other town anyway.”
He stopped talking and seemed reticent to continue.
“Clyde hid the gold, like they’d planned. Charley disappeared for about a month. He said he’d been visiting family in California, except we didn’t have family there. Clyde came back every so often to check and make sure the money was safe. When Charley came home, he was going to show him where he’d buried it, but the night before something happened. That was the night Sally Harper disappeared. So did Clyde. Charley never saw him again, and he figured Clyde had something to do with Sally’s disappearance, got scared, and left town.”
“It looks like Charley was right,” I said. “At least that gives us some idea about who might have murdered Sally.”
“Yeah, that’s kind of what Charley figured. The story goes that he figured Clyde must have buried the gold somewhere on this property, but he was afraid to come look for it. Tim Harper was always around, searching the grounds and looking for his wife. Charley was no killer, and he didn’t want to be caught digging around here. He got on with his life like nothing had happened.”
Pete looked Bob in the eyes. “What about the other Charley?”
“That’s another story. Kind of a continuation of the old legend. I guess it’s not as much of a legend as I thought though, since you found gold and Sally’s skeleton.
“My grandfather, the second Charley, knew the legend. He wanted nothing more than to search for the gold, but Bonnie Singleton was living here and that guy… What was his name? I can’t remember. Anyway, there was a guy hanging around here that wanted to buy the property. My father said that Charley would ride out here on his horse and watch the house, waiting for the right time to search.”
“Why did he ride a horse instead of bringing his car?” I asked. It didn’t really make any difference, I didn’t think, but I was curious.<
br />
“I think because the car would have made too much noise. He didn’t want Bonnie to know he was watching. He told my grandmother that a kid saw him, but he warned the kid to keep his trap shut.”
That had to have been Brad, or the boy who lived across the street. Brad hadn’t mentioned a warning. He could have forgotten or it could have been Sara’s brother that Charley threatened.
Bob rubbed his hands on his knees, seeming even more nervous. He didn’t speak for a full minute.
“I think my grandfather is the one who killed Bonnie. He finally decided the time was right to start digging, and I believe that Bonnie caught him. I think he panicked and stabbed her. My grandmother told my father that it was an accident. Accident? How can you kill someone by accident? Besides, he’d beaten her, too.”
His expression had changed to one of disgust.
“What kind of family did I come from? Were they all nuts?” He looked at us as though he really wanted an answer.
I didn’t have one.
“Grandpa tried to live the rest of his life in peace. He tried to keep to himself. Grandma said he couldn’t live with himself and it took its toll on his health. He died fairly young of a stroke.”
Pete sat forward on his chair. “Bob, I have to ask you this. Do you want the gold? Do you feel like your family paid for it over the years?”
“Me? Not on your life! That’s blood money. I don’t want anything to do with it. I have to go now. Oh, and just so’s you know, my kids have never heard the legend and they never will.”
“Did you know the police gave the gold back to Bea?” Pete didn’t mention that it was safely held at the bank.
“Better her than me.”
Bob stood and walked to his car, bent and looking older than his fifty-some-odd years.
Chapter Forty-two
After Bob’s car was out of sight, Felicity and Stanley joined us on the porch.
“Did you believe him about not wanting the gold?” Felicity asked. “It seemed kind of lame to me, and yet he sounded sincere.”
Pete leaned back in his chair. “I’m not sure how I feel. I have a few more questions I want to ask him, but when he was ready to leave, well, he left.”