“Anything I can do,” Wade said.
“Same here,” Sophie said. “Just name it.”
“It actually is along the lines of both of your areas of research,” Dawn said. “That’s why when I heard Wade was coming here and I knew you were already here, Sophie, I figured this would be perfect.”
“You knew I was here?” Sophie asked, completely startled.
Dawn laughed. “I’m on the institute board of directors and help vet researchers we want to invite to join us.”
“Oh,” Wade said, sitting back slightly.
Sophie nodded. “Now I am doubly honored to be asked to help.”
“So what we need to learn,” Dawn said, “is as much as you can find about an old mining town in north-central Idaho by the name of Grapevine Springs.”
Wade actually jerked and Sophie laughed.
Dawn looked suddenly puzzled and looked at Director Parks, who only shrugged.
“We were talking about that mining town yesterday,” Sophie said.
“I thought it would be a great study in both of our areas of focus,” Wade said. “So we had planned on sharing the research on it.”
Dawn laughed and shook her head. “Great minds clearly think alike.”
“Were you thinking of writing a book about it?” Sophie asked, now suddenly worried. No way in the world did she want to even slightly intrude on the work of Dawn Edwards. She wanted to expand off of Dawn’s work instead.
“Nope,” Dawn said, shaking her head. “I’m going to leave that up to you two.”
“So why did you want us to focus on that old mining town?” Wade asked.
Dawn glanced at Director Parks and he nodded, so Dawn turned to them. “We think the history of the old mining town might have been planted.”
Of all the things Dawn Edwards could have said, that was the most surprising.
History of the Old West faked? Why?
“Ski resort money?” Wade asked, clearly jumping to the why as well.
“We honestly don’t know,” Dawn said. “And we might be wrong in our suspicions, but if someone did fake it, they did an amazing job of planting the information and we figured two professional historians would uncover anything that might be fake or not.”
“So sounds like this favor is actually right into the middle of what you both were already going to work on,” Director Parks said.
“Smack in the middle,” Wade said.
Sophie nodded. This was now even more exciting.
And a very solid reason to work even closer with Wade. And maybe get to know Professor Edwards, her idol.
She couldn’t see one thing wrong with any of this.
Not a thing.
And in the back of her mind, that bothered her.
PART FOUR
Surprises
SIXTEEN
October 16th, 2018
Boise, Idaho
JUST OVER TWO months after Dawn’s conversation with Sophie and Wade, Bonnie and Duster Kendal had flown into the Monumental Lodge by helicopter from Boise. The flight had been stunning since the day was crisp and calm and the sky a bright blue over the rugged snow-covered mountains.
Row after row of rugged ridgelines went past under them and even though he hated to wear them, Duster had on sunglasses under his cowboy hat from the glare of the fresh snow.
Duster wasn’t so much excited about the meeting they planned on having at the lodge, but at this point he was more interested in what Dawn and the two researchers had found out about the fake history of Grapevine Springs.
For two months that had bothered him and nothing he could find on his own made any sense.
In this timeline, that mining town had never existed, yet it had because of history from the ski resort.
So even if Grapevine Springs mining town had existed in another timeline, how did the owners of the ski resort in this timeline know about it?
Every few months, all of the fourteen founders got together at the institute to talk about who to accept into the research area of the institute and who might be ready to be told about the timeline travel part in the caverns under the institute.
But before that larger meeting, Bonnie and Duster and Dawn and Madison had a private meeting about the candidates with the head of the institute and another founder, Jesse Parks, now the director.
It wasn’t a secret meeting, just what Duster called a “make sure” meeting. Make sure that all five of them were on the same page going into the larger meeting.
Duster loved the feeling of the lodge. He and Bonnie, along with Dawn and Madison, owned the massive log structure that sat high in a saddle overlooking the Monumental Creek drainage. One mountain to the south of the lodge was called Thunder Mountain, the mountain that gave the entire region its name.
The entire second floor was only for founders, and Bonnie and Duster had their own room that no one but them had slept in for over a hundred years.
Dawn and Madison also had a suite in the back where in various timelines they had raised children. Duster didn’t want to know how many children they had raised here in different timelines. He was actually afraid to ask.
The massive polished logs and the 1900s furniture had been kept exactly as it had been when built all those years ago. That locked-in-time charm was one of the reasons that made getting a room in the Monumental Lodge one of the most sought-after reservations on the planet.
The fact that only ten rooms were ever rented and the food was top-flight didn’t hurt the demand either.
As Bonnie and Duster arrived, snow covered everything but a dug out path from the helicopter pad to the lodge and the deck that looked out at the view over most of the central wilderness area of Idaho.
To say that view was spectacular would be a giant understatement. When you can see a hundred miles over some of the most rugged mountains in the world, on a crisp fall day like today, it was just hard to breathe when looking at the beauty of it all.
The first time he had stood on this saddle between the two tall peaks and looked out at the view, he knew it had to have a lodge here. And he had been right. They had built it in a hundred different timelines so far. And he never tired of building it again.
And always the exact same way with the exact same floor plan and the exact same furniture. There were some things in history that just shouldn’t be messed with in any timeline and the Monumental Lodge was one of those things.
Bonnie and Duster put their overnight bags into their room, then headed down to the main dining room.
The fire was crackling in the stone fireplace that dominated one side of the room and the entire space felt comfortable. Massive logs supported the strong roof overhead and every log was polished and protected.
Parks and Dawn were already there, talking at a wooden table in the middle of the room. The table was covered by a cloth that looked like it was straight out of 1900 and most likely was. Both had hot teas in front of them from a pot on a sideboard.
The table had been set for five, with water and silverware and cloth napkins. Duster could not even begin to count the thousands of wonderful breakfasts he had eaten in this room over the centuries.
Duster poured himself and Bonnie cups of tea and sat down next to Dawn.
Before Parks had ended up meeting his wife Kerri, a historian and writer, and learning about traveling into timeline pasts, Bonnie and Duster had often hired him and his private investigative firm to find out about candidates. Parks still did that for the institute, as well as run everything.
He and his firm dug into a person’s history while his wife Kerri dug into the candidate’s research and work ethic. Between the two of them and how strict they were, it was amazing any candidate got through to even be considered for a research grant at the institute.
But Duster liked that.
“Any luck on the Grapevine Springs strangeness?” Duster asked Dawn as he and Bonnie got settled at the table.
“None,” Dawn said. “Whoever made up that history
and planted it, did a perfect job of it. None of us can find a seam anywhere to pick at. At let me tell you, between me and Sophie and Wade, we have picked.”
“Damn that’s weird,” Duster said. “But someone had to have made it all up, since I camped for a week in that valley in the year the town should have been going strong and there was nothing at all there. Nothing.”
“In that timeline,” Bonnie said.
Duster shook his head. “There’s got to be a way to figure this out. How did the different timelines I go to not have the town and yet in this one it supposedly existed?”
“I’ll tell you, it’s driving me crazy as well,” Dawn said.
They all laughed and the conversation continued until Madison joined them and the five of them had a wonderful meal of trout, pan-fried better than Duster could have done over a campfire.
Finally, after a wonderful sorbet for dessert, the dishes were cleared, coffee served, and the five of them got down to the meeting.
“We had thirty-five applications for funding this summer,” Parks said. “Ten of the straight funding for projects Kerri and I just approved.”
He handed each of them a sheet with a two-line description of the funded projects and the amounts.
Duster only glanced at it. The institute had more money than any one place should ever have, and was constantly generating more from all the investments around the world. They could have given a thousand times more away than those requests and not even have it be noticed in the petty cash fund.
But Duster knew that to remain an institute that seemed aboveboard and well-funded, Parks and his people had to do all this stuff and keep the levels within reason. Duster was just glad they had someone in that position he trusted to do it.
“We turned down another twenty projects,” Parks said, “from people who just wanted the money and had no capability of even following through on the research.”
“So that leaves five,” Bonnie said, nodding.
Parks nodded. “All research requests for the person to come to the institute and research specific historical projects for varying amounts of time.”
Duster nodded. They had almost sixty researchers at any point working in the various libraries and buildings in Boise that the institute owned. And if a person was accepted to the institute, all expenses were paid, including food, plus a large salary, and no claim was made against the researchers’ final product.
That kind of package was why so many quality researchers applied to the institute. And it also allowed Parks and everyone to observe them over months or a year to see if they might be candidates for learning about the timeline jumping that went on under the institute.
Historical research always tended to be so much better when a person could go back into another timeline and actually see the place they were researching.
“Any good ones?” Bonnie asked.
“Actually,” Parks said, “I think all five are good. One wants to do a definitive book on those who fought at the Alamo, not only who they were, but their families and their histories that took them to that place.”
“Nifty,” Dawn said. “A lot more than one book.”
“A lifetime project, clearly,” Bonnie said.
Parks nodded and handed a folder full of information about that person to Bonnie. She glanced at it and handed it to Duster.
Duster also just glanced at it and handed it to Dawn. He knew later tonight that he and Bonnie would go over each candidate’s application. All of them would, and if there were any questions, they would talk it out at breakfast before flying back to Boise for the larger meeting.
“Two of the candidates are a couple working together on a project,” Parks said. “They want to take an old mining town population and backtrack each inhabitant’s history as much as possible. And do various books on the reasons why certain people and families ended up in these old boom towns. They are focusing on Northern California mining the most.”
“That’s kind of taking my research and expanding it,” Dawn said, nodding. “I like that.”
“They quoted your books a great deal in their presentation,” Parks said, nodding. “They don’t know you are involved with the institute, but are clearly major fans of your books.”
“As Sophie and Wade were,” Madison said, smiling at his wife.
“I’m looking forward to meeting the two new ones,” Dawn said.
Actually, Duster had a hunch that Dawn would stay away from them until they proved their stuff. Dawn didn’t much like to be worshipped.
Parks handed the folder to Bonnie, who glanced at it and then handed it to Duster who passed it along with only a glance.
“So anyone ready for the caverns?” Madison asked.
“I have two,” Dawn said. “I think that if Sophie and Wade are ever going to get to the bottom of this Grapevine Springs problem, they need to go back and understand why we are having a problem with the research.”
Duster nodded. He had been following them both and liked them, even though he had never had a chance to meet either of them yet. And he knew Bonnie liked them as well. And both Sophie and Wade were about as smart as they came.
“Anyone have any objections?” Parks asked.
“I think they would be a great addition,” Bonnie said.
“They are amazing,” Dawn said. “It has been a real joy to work with both of them over the last few months.”
“So we present it to the full meeting of the founders tomorrow,” Duster said.
“I’ll present it,” Dawn said.
Duster laughed. He knew, without a doubt that would guarantee that everyone would agree. It was hard to argue with Dawn.
SEVENTEEN
October 18th, 2018
Boise, Idaho
“WE NEED TO show Dawn the pictures,” Wade said, handing the photos back across Sophie’s desk to her. They were in her office in the institute library and Wade was perched on the corner of her big desk as he often liked to do.
Sophie took the photos back and just nodded, her stomach twisting like she had eaten something horrible the night before. But Wade was right. No matter the outcome, they needed to show Dawn.
Over the last two months, she and Wade had worked closely together on the Grapevine Springs project, while at the same time adding in research details for their own projects.
He was constantly finding wonderful things that she could use and she had found him numbers of medical references in journals as well. Every time she did, he got like a kid at Christmas opening up a present. She loved the look of joy on his handsome face when he got that way.
And she loved how focused he was on his research.
As a couple, things had just gotten better and better by the day. They hadn’t slept alone one night since that first night in her condo. It had just never felt right on the two times they had tried.
Once they had both made it to their own places and just turned around and met back out on the sidewalk in the rain, laughing.
But they still maintained their own places and their own identities in their living spaces, made easier by the fact that their two condos were a hundred steps apart. So one night they were at her place, the next at his.
And they shared cooking dinners as well and had spent many a wonderful evening exploring the cities restaurants. She had really been amazed by the Basque food. She never had known food like that existed.
She couldn’t imagine, after two short months, not spending her days with him close by.
And her nights.
She was, without a doubt, head-over-ass in love with Wade.
Thankfully, he seemed to feel the same way.
But now, what she held seemed to threaten both of their research projects. But at the same time might help win them favor with Dawn.
In the two months they had found numbers of pictures of the old mining town of Grapevine Springs, including the one that seemed to have a relative of Sophie’s in it. All seemed to be perfectly legit.
But
Sophie, by tracking down the living family members of someone who had lived in Grapevine Springs, had unearthed about forty old photos from a family album.
It seemed the family member, a man by the name of Bryce, loved to take photos and had set up a shop in the town along with his legal practice. And he had kept records with each photo, including the names of those he photographed.
Two of the photos showed Sophie and Wade, standing side-by-side in front of a general store, their backs to the camera, but their heads turned so it was clear it was them. The names on the back were Sophie and Wade Olsen. It said they owned the general store and had founded the town.
And they were talking with Dawn and Marshal Duster Kendal. Both were also named. And another unnamed woman and unnamed man.
“The photos prove Dawn’s theory that the town was a fake,” Wade said.
“But how did these photos get planted in that old family album?”
“Money?” Wade said, smiling at her. “Enough money will buy anything.”
“But why have us in the photos?” Sophie asked, shaking her head. None of it made sense.
“Maybe the people behind the fake know we are investigating it and are just poking fun at us,” Wade said. “Amazing how much arrogance a lot of money can buy.”
Sophie sighed and stood. On that, she would have to trust Wade since she had never been around people with a lot of money before now. They needed to go to the institute and try to find where Dawn might be.
They were just outside her office when Dawn appeared, smiling.
“Wow, you two look worried,” she said.
“We have something to show you about Grapevine Springs,” Wade said.
Sophie indicated that they should go back into her office and then Wade closed the door behind them.
“That serious, huh?” Dawn asked.
“We think the people who faked the town know we are investigating them and are poking fun at all of us,” Wade said.
“Seriously?” Dawn asked, looking surprised.
Sophie opened up the envelope with the pictures and handed the one with them in it to Dawn.
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