Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3)

by Diane Greenwood Muir

  "I sure can, but I think they know Jeff better. I'd rather stay here with Eliseo and make sure the horses are calm."

  "That's fine with me," Ken said. "Jeff?"

  The two men walked out of the barn and Polly said, "You shouldn't feel guilty about this, Eliseo. The horses are fine and the rest of it is only stuff."

  A playful grin passed across his lips. "If you had let me sleep in the hay, this wouldn't have happened."

  "I think it still would have happened," she replied. "That would have been an opportunity for you to get hurt again. It was better this way."

  She opened Daisy's stall door. The horse was snorting and Polly could tell she was edgy. She stroked her neck and began talking to her, "I'm sorry you had to deal with that this evening. It's not much fun having strangers in your space when no one is around to tell you it's alright."

  "Polly?" Eliseo called from Nat's stall.

  "Yes?"

  "What about poor Jason. I know he wanted to be down here."

  "You're right. Let me run up and get him. I'll be back in a minute." She patted Daisy once more and shutting the stall behind her, ran up to Sycamore House and her apartment.

  She was panting when she got in the door and Jason stood up, "What happened? Did one of the horses get hurt?"

  "No," she said, leaning against the door. "I decided to run up here and tell you that you could come down with me. Everything is okay. The thieves who have been breaking into barns and trucks around the area hit my barn and stole my tack tonight. It upset the horses and I think we could use you to help out."

  "Really?" he asked.

  "Sure," she said. "I know you love them and I get it that you want to be with them after something like this. Go on down. I'll be there in a minute."

  Andrew was sitting on the couch. His ever present notebook and pencil were perched on top of the cat in his lap while the other cat was nuzzling his neck from the top of the sofa.

  "Are you okay with staying up here, Andrew? If you want to come down to the barn, you can."

  "It's cool," he said. "They don't like me as much as they like Jason. I think I'm too small. They scare me. Maybe when I'm bigger."

  "You're a good kid, Andrew Donovan. Thanks."

  She went back downstairs and as she passed by the offices, Ken beckoned for her to come in. He was standing in the outer office with two young people dressed for the wedding.

  "Polly, this is Debbie Siffel and her boyfriend, Terry Danour. They've given us our first good lead in the case. They saw an old green, pickup truck leaving when they went outside to have a cigarette and have given us a pretty good description of the people inside the truck."

  "It wasn't someone from the party?" Polly asked.

  "No, ma'am, it wasn't," the young girl said. "Terry and I know most everyone here. They weren't with us. We figured they worked for you since they drove down to the barn."

  "Did you see them come in?" Ken asked.

  "No, they were getting in the truck and drove away when we went outside."

  "So, you don't know how long they were there."

  "No, like I said. We ran out to have a quick smoke and a little peace and quiet for a minute. We didn't think anything about it. They acted like they knew what they were doing and then drove away."

  The young man interrupted and scowled at the girl with him, "We don't know if they acted like they knew what they were doing. We wouldn't have a clue about that, but they weren't in a real hurry. They drove off and headed back toward downtown."

  Debbie sneered and said, "We don't know if they went downtown, they turned north out of the driveway."

  "Whatever," the young man remarked.

  "That's fine," Ken said. "I appreciate your help this evening. I think I have everything I need from you right now, but if I have any more questions, someone from my office will give you a call. Will that be alright?"

  "We're glad to help, sir," the young man replied and escorted his friend out of the office and back to the party.

  "Are they from Bellingwood?" Polly asked.

  "No, they're in town for the wedding. That would have been a lot more helpful, but at least this gives us some good information."

  "So, you don't have a list of fences around here?" Polly asked. "You know, like on the cop shows? Somewhere these people will try to get rid of the items they are stealing? Surely they're doing it for the money."

  Ken laughed with her. "No, we don't have anything like that. These items will probably end up on an online auction site. I don't have the manpower to keep an eye on all of them, but if you see any of your things, let me know."

  "It wouldn't have even occurred to me to look."

  "That's about the only place they're going to sell all this stuff. I can't believe they keep doing this. They have to know that every time they steal, it puts them one step closer to my jail."

  "They've gotten away with it this long, they probably think they're invincible."

  "Could you email a list of what you've had stolen to me tomorrow, Polly?"

  "Sure. Eliseo and I will work on it in the morning."

  "How are things going with him? Is he doing alright?"

  "He's doing great here and is alright physically. I'm hoping that one of these days he'll open up and tell me what's going on and why those guys beat him up the other night. I know the horses would hate for him to leave and at this point, so would I."

  "Let me know if you need something from me or if you find something out I should know about."

  "Thanks for coming out tonight."

  Polly headed back down to the barn. Henry, Eliseo, and Jason were standing in the center alley talking when she entered. "Is everything okay?" she asked, looking into Daisy's stall. The horse was nibbling at an itch on her side and swung around at Polly's voice. She came over for a head rub, then turned back to her hay.

  Jason was the first to speak, "I'm sorry you lost your stuff, Polly."

  "I know, Jason. So am I." She gritted her teeth. "Stealing incenses me. I don't know why people think it is easier to take from others rather than do a little work."

  Eliseo quietly said, "Sometimes it isn't as easy as all that."

  Polly forced her shoulders down and took a breath. "You're right. I would have been a lot more tolerant if they hadn't chosen to steal my brand new saddles. And Mark was talking about starting to work the horses as teams this next week. That's going to be a little difficult to do without the tack, now, isn't it?"

  She was starting to work up another rage when Henry put his hand on her forearm. "You can order more tack, Polly."

  "I know! I'm going to start checking some of the auction sites tomorrow. Maybe my own stuff will show up and I can freakin' buy it back!"

  "Well, that would just be wrong, now wouldn't it!" Henry laughed. "But, what a good idea!"

  "It was Ken's idea. What I want is for them to be stupid enough to put it up on one of those online Buy/Sell sites and I can show up with the cavalry and shut their little operation down. I'm only going to feel guilty if they are doing this to feed a family. If they're doing it to feed an addiction, I'm going to have their heads!"

  Jason and Eliseo had been quietly talking as they walked to the end of the barn, heading back to the main house. Jason stopped, turned around and looked at Polly, horror on his face.

  "What is it Jason?" she asked.

  He shook his head. "Nothing. It's nothing."

  "Something freaked you out, Jason. What is it?"

  "It's nothing, Polly. Sorry. I'd better get upstairs and check on Andrew." He took off at a dead run for the house before she could say anything more. Eliseo and Henry both looked at her in surprise.

  "What was that all about?" she asked.

  "I have no idea, ma'am ... I mean, Polly," Eliseo responded.

  They walked together back to the house and he went in to the kitchen to check on the evening's progress with Sylvie.

  "Are you ready to call the evening off?" Henry asked.

  "I feel
as if I should go upstairs and push Jason a little more, but I hate to do that. He'll tell me what's on his mind as soon as he can. So, no. What were you thinking?"

  "I know this quiet house where there is a comfortable sofa, movies, popcorn and maybe even a little ice cream in the freezer."

  "That sounds perfect. Let's go."

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  “Two-thirty in the morning. Seriously. Are you kidding me with this?" Polly sat up. Henry had brought her back to Sycamore House after midnight and she had curled up on the couch to wait for Sal. She wanted to hear everything about the rest of her evening with Mark Ogden. Polly had left the lights on and unlocked her front door so Sal could just come in, but so far, nothing. She'd finally fallen asleep about one o'clock and knew better than to worry. Both Mark and Sal were adults and could take care of themselves, but what if there had been an accident?

  Polly chuckled to herself. When she was in high school, she had promised her dad that she would always let him know where she was, even if it was after curfew. If he knew where she was and she didn't have something going on early the next morning, he told her to call again when she was leaving and come straight home at that point. That way he wouldn't worry about whether or not she was dead in a ditch somewhere. While her friends were constantly grounded for staying out late, she was smart enough to play by the rules of the house.

  One Friday night, though, she'd stayed out much too late with a boy and didn’t have a way to call home. They'd been out parking on a country road and when she came rushing in the front door, her dad had been sitting in his recliner reading a book. She'd apologized and showed him that her watch had stopped. He simply smiled and told her to go on to bed. The next morning, however, there was a note on the kitchen table beside Polly's breakfast plate. When she opened it, there was two dollars for a new watch battery and instructions to meet her dad in the barn at nine o'clock. Mary had smiled at her and told her to wear her sloppiest jeans and oldest boots.

  Polly had spent the rest of the day scrubbing down tractors. Her dad had told her that after church the next day she needed to wash both cars and as soon as they were dry, she would sweep out the garage so that they'd stay clean for a while. That was the last time she'd lied about where she was. It was much simpler to make a quick phone call. Sylvester had been quite proud of his clean tractors, even asking her to pose on one for a picture.

  She got up and went into the bathroom, where she washed her face, changed into an old baggy t-shirt, and pulled her robe off the back of the bathroom door. Then, she realized she could check across the hall to see if her friend was back. Maybe she'd come in to the apartment and had seen Polly sleeping. She pushed her feet into a pair of slippers and headed for the front door. There was no light coming from Sal's room and she didn't know what to do next. If Sal was sleeping soundly, she hated to wake her, but Polly knew she would worry all night without knowing. Finally gathering her courage, she knocked on Sal's door and waited. There was no response. She knocked a little more loudly. Still no response. Finally, Polly ran back to her apartment, grabbed her phone and brought it back to open the door electronically. There was no one in the room.

  "Well, hell. Now I’m going to worry," she said out loud.

  "About what?"

  Sal's voice behind her made Polly jump and yelp.

  "You scared the crap out of me. How did you get in here and up those steps without me hearing anything?" Polly demanded. "And where have you been until nearly three in the morning!"

  Sal smirked. "You turn into quite the mother hen at this hour, don't you!"

  "Maybe a little," Polly giggled. "Sorry. I was starting to worry."

  "Don't tell me you've been waiting up all night for me to get home!"

  Polly shifted her eyes back and forth. "No, I fell asleep. I woke up a few minutes ago."

  "Whew. I'd have felt terrible. I assumed you were sleeping, but I suppose I should have texted you anyway."

  "Yes, you should have. You're a bad, bad girl and I should probably ground you for that."

  "You mean you won't let me fly back to Boston tomorrow? I could probably live with that."

  "You had that much fun with Mark? Oh, come on back to the apartment and give me all the details. You can't hold anything back!" Polly said and grabbed her friend's elbow.

  "I've never had so much fun," Sal replied. "We had a great night."

  "Where did you go? What did you do?"

  Polly shut the door to her apartment and the two of them landed on the sofa. Sal kicked off her shoes and tucked her legs up underneath her and faced Polly, who did the same. Polly pulled a blanket off the back of the couch and threw it across the two of them.

  "He took me to Des Moines. We stopped at the Dairy Queen in Boone and got some ice cream and then headed on down. He said he'd heard about a club where we could dance and that's exactly what we did, Polly. That man is like a dream on the dance floor. I didn't want the night to end."

  "Oh, Sal. He is, isn't he! That night he taught me how to dance last January was like heaven. I felt like such a princess."

  “Yes! That's the word for it. He made me feel like a princess. Now, tell me why he hasn't been caught by some young, hot thing here in the Midwest, because I'm thinking about stealing him and making him come back to Boston with me."

  "You can't have him unless you move out here. If you try to take him away, I'll make your life miserable."

  "Oh, he'd never leave Bellingwood. He's so happy here, it's sickening."

  "I knew you two would get along. He spent enough time living in the city that he gets you."

  "And he's spent enough time living in rural Iowa that he gets himself too. Seriously, why is this man not taken?"

  "He's been pretty busy with his practice, you know. I don't think it's been easy and he just brought on a partner this year. He's been doing it all by himself. That probably hasn't left a lot of time for a social life."

  "I'm not complaining, but I still don't understand."

  "Did he take you down in his pickup?" Polly asked.

  "Yeah. Why?"

  "How did you find room to sit? The thing is a dump!"

  "I didn't think it was that bad. Maybe he cleaned it up or something. It wasn't like there was stuff on the floor or my seat."

  "Oh, then, he cleaned it up. Huh, maybe he does like you. He could barely make room in there when I tried to get in."

  "No. It was fine. I didn't pay too much attention to it, though. We talked all the way down and all the way back."

  "And he took you to Dairy Queen?"

  "Well, he promised me ice cream. It was fine. Actually, it was pretty good. Too many more trips and I will know how to get around Boone all by myself!"

  "How much do you like him, Sal?"

  "I like him a lot, but it isn't going to do either of us any good. After tomorrow we're going to be fifteen hundred miles apart and neither of us is planning to uproot our lives. This was a just lot of fun."

  "You know, if you ever decided to write all of those story ideas you have tucked away on your hard drive, you could probably live anywhere."

  "Can you imagine me telling my parents that I was going to move to a little town in Iowa, marry a veterinarian and write books? They'd toss me in the ocean!"

  "They'd love Mark."

  "You have to stop this. I can't think about it. It's not going to happen and I'm not going to build something up in my mind that will end up breaking my heart. Because that boy could break my heart."

  "It's been one date and you're already talking like this?"

  "Polly, we had barely gotten down to Boone and he was holding my hand. When he brought me back here, we stopped out back and kissed in the truck for a while. Neither one of us wanted the night to end, but he has to work early in the morning and I knew you had to get up with the horses. I'm sleeping in, though, since I don't have to be at the airport until two o'clock."

  "I'm sorry. You said you were making out in my back lot?" Polly giggled.
>
  "A little bit. Not for very long. But, it was sweet and romantic. I've never done anything like that either."

  "One date with the man and this is what happens. I'm impressed, Sal Kahane. You found something to like about the Midwest after all."

  "Hey! I like it all. I think this place is wonderful!"

  "I know, I'm only kidding."

  "What happened with the rest of your evening? Mark said the horses were alright."

  "Not much else happened. Ken Wallers, the police chief, was down at the barn and he interviewed a couple of kids from the wedding reception who saw the truck drive off. After that, Henry and I went to his house and watched a movie."

  "Nothing else?"

  "No, nothing else. Okay, maybe a little kissing. But, nothing too steamy."

  "Good heavens, Polly. You two are like an old married couple."

  "That's not true! I like that things are going slowly. I want to know everything about him before ..."

  "Before what? The end of the world? Girl, you two need to get over yourselves. The whole town knows you are together. Hell, even most of Boston knows you’re together. Whenever you finally admit that you’re a couple, you'll have a lot more fun."

  "We know we're a couple. But, there's a lot going on in my life right now and if I lost Henry as a friend because I screwed this relationship up, I'd have to move. Let me go slowly, okay?"

  "You can go as slowly as you like, but this turtle and molasses thing is a little bit much, don't you think?"

  "It's working for us. Just because I don't go out on a blind date with someone and end up making out in my friend's parking lot doesn't mean I'm doing something wrong."

  Sal smiled. "Well, it doesn't mean I'm doing anything wrong either." She fanned herself, "Whoa, am I not doing anything wrong."

  Polly giggled.

  Sal got serious and said, "I have a question for you, Polly. Would you be upset if Mark took me down to the airport tomorrow?"

  Polly cocked her head, "No. I don't suppose I would. Really?"

  "I feel like the girl who drove off from a party with a boy, leaving her friend to get another ride home. Are you sure?"