Alvarado Gold

by Victoria Pitts-Caine

  He found the original entry. “John, Ben and Andrew Barnes settled this land. Does that sound familiar to you two?”

  “Yes, they’re our ancestors. Can you tell us where this is and if this map means anything?” I fished it out of the box and handed it to him. As I did so, our hands touched and I felt an electric current run through me. I glanced up at him but couldn’t tell by his expression if he had felt it, too. I examined his face for the split second, our eyes had locked. No. I can’t go do this, now.

  He studied the map, then the coordinates for a long time. No sound came from the room and I could hear a clock ticking somewhere. Finally, he cleared his throat and began. “The map you have is accurate. The coordinates are for a cemetery that would be about here.” He pointed with a pencil.

  “The note mentioned a cave. Are there any mountains or caves in this area?” I moved my chair closer.

  “No, but see this here? Those little marks? That’s a natural outcropping of rocks. There could be a cave there.” He gestured toward the symbol on the map.

  I thought Susan had melted into the wallpaper but she suddenly tugged at my sleeve. “Addie, we have to go. We’re meeting Mel in fifteen minutes.”

  He interjected, “The town is gone. The Texas railway bypassed it in 1881. I don’t think there were many people left there by 1903. Why are you so interested in this land?” After he told me those details, it made me wonder why he knew so much.

  “We’re looking for something mentioned in a letter we found. We just thought we’d like to go there someday and see if we could find it.”

  “I could be of assistance. I have done research for my clients.”

  The comment hit a nerve. Why did he want to help? Was Susan right? Should I be interested in this guy? Why out of all the people who asked for his expertise today did he know so much about what we wanted? “That’s kind of you, but it is near Fort Worth. Isn’t it a bit out of your territory?”

  “I could make an exception for you, Miss…ah…Addison Brown, that was it, wasn’t it?” He remembered.

  “I’m sorry. I guess we never introduced ourselves. She’s Susan Westgate and I’m Addison Brown, Addie for short.”

  “I really would like to go with you.”

  What was with this guy? I couldn’t imagine he was interested in me. I shot a glance at his left hand. No ring. No way. Not now. “No,” unexpectedly tumbled out of my mouth a little too emphatically. “I’m sorry, Mr. Wright. I’m leaving for California in a few days.”

  “Take this, Ms. Brown.” He stood and offered his business card. “I’m familiar with where you’re planning to look. I could be of assistance to you.”

  “I don’t think so.” I could hear that little voice in my head telling me to be careful. Something wasn’t right here. He was far too eager to just help. “You’re awfully anxious to join us. What’s in this for you? Do you want a fee?”

  “David Darrow is an old college friend. Ask him about me. He’ll give you a good reference.”

  “We do need to go.” Susan grew impatient.

  Since I hadn’t taken his offer of the business card, he tucked it back into his pocket, he scrutinized me and his violet eyes turned a steely gray. I nodded good-bye.

  Susan and I headed out the door toward the busy street to hail a cab. She yanked me to a stop. “Addie. You were a little rude, don’t you think?”

  “He has a lot of knowledge about the land and he could be helpful. But don’t you wonder why he was so enthusiastic?” Sparks flew in my brain. I always used this extra sense to guide me. I just couldn’t tell right then where it wanted me to go so I decided to ignore it.

  My outstretched arm summoned the ride we were looking for and we were on our way to Neiman Marcus.

  ****

  When Susan and I entered Neiman Marcus, I spotted Mel. She stood near the glitzy jewelry counter in a heated discussion with a man who towered a good six inches over her. The furrow in his brow was deeper than the wrinkles in his cheap linen suit. His tie, loosened at the neck, gave him a shabby appearance. Menacingly he glowered, cursing but Mel never lost her composure. She was as crisp and cool as the flowered sundress she wore. As soon as he caught sight of us, he hurriedly disappeared into the crowd.

  “What was that all about?” I pressed.

  “That was about Donnie.” She looked shaken. “The guy is a private eye Donnie hired. I noticed him hanging around the real estate office. But when he showed up here, I knew he was following me. I confronted him right before you two arrived. Evidently, Donnie thinks we’re cheating him out of his inheritance.”

  I took Mel’s arm and pulled her away from the counter. I lowered my voice, “Did you explain to the jerk we’ve been trying to find Donnie?”

  “Yes, but he’d hear nothing of it.” She moved closer to me and quietly said, “Let’s go eat lunch before we have the jewelry appraised. I want to make sure the kook is gone.”

  Another secret. Why was Donnie so illusive? He thought we cheated him out of something but what? He was more than welcome to what Grandpa had. Once when I asked about Donnie, Grandpa told me, “Bad apples don’t fall far from the tree.” What don’t I know about Uncle Joseph?

  We entered the cafe and were escorted to our seats. The sunlight from the lightly draped windows created a calming effect as it settled on the green and blue hues of the dining area. Susan ordered a chicken salad while Mel and I asked for croissant sandwiches. When Mel added strong, black coffee, I knew she’d let him upset her more than she let on. She liked her coffee laced with cream, lots of it, and sugar. I reasoned she needed something to settle her nerves.

  I took her hand. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine.” She took a quick sip from her cup. “He just shook me up a bit.”

  “Forget it. We don’t want him to spoil one of our last days together. Did you list the house?”

  “Yes. Mr. Williams felt we could get $100,000 easily with the furnishings. He thinks it should sell fairly soon, too. I gave him David Darrow’s number so everything could go through him.” Mel looked a little more at ease after her third cup. I wondered how her stomach could take so much caffeine.

  “We had a good morning, too.” I pulled the documents from my bag. “We have a copy of the original land grant and we were shown where there might be a cave on the map we have.”

  “Addie may have blown off our chances for some help,” Susan chided. “The guy was cute, too.”

  “What?” Mel almost choked on her first bite of sandwich.

  “I thought the guy at the BLM knew way too much. He wanted to help us when we came back to look at the land. He was very informative and interested in the area near Barnesville. It was strange.” I tried to remember every word of the conversation with Mr. Wright. Had he talked to Donnie? The specialist knew a lot. Was he just doing his job?

  “Addie.” Susan raised her voice, “Addie!”

  “I’m sorry. What?”

  “Are you going to call him if we come back?” Susan pointed her fork at me as if she would tine me if I didn’t.

  “I don’t think so. I would like to know why he’s so interested, though.” How much more undecided could I be? Not like me at all but I dismissed it.

  After finishing our lunch, we returned to the jewelry counter. We looked around for Donnie’s investigator but he’d vanished. Mel’s keen eye correctly identified the jewelry. The brooches were diamonds and emeralds. The appraiser thought they’d come from San Francisco in the late 1880’s. The mark on both pins was from a well-known merchant in the area. We paid the jeweler and left. Mel hailed another cab for our ride home, and as luck would have it, the taxi driver, who brought us to the Realtor’s office, sat behind the wheel again.

  “Stay off the sidewalks,” I told him.

  He pushed back his checkered golf cap with his stubby thumb and grinned. After our safe return to Grandpa’s, the three of us stood on the curb and looked at the old house. Clay and the boys had done an amazing job cleaning the y
ard and had even found some paint in the garage and painted the front porch.

  It looked so much like I remembered it as a child. I could picture myself on the porch swing sitting next to Grandpa telling him how I wanted to explore the backyard and look for pirates. I was always the adventurer. On rare occasions, Grandma would bring us dinner and let us eat as evening melted into night. He’d tell me one of his wonderful tall tales or a Bible story and promise me I could lasso any star I wanted. Emptiness surrounded me, engulfing me like a damp, woolen cape.

  “Hey. What are you thinking about?” Mel walked up beside me.

  “The summers I spent here.” I glanced at her. “Did you ever come?

  “Once or twice. They were great, weren’t they?”

  “Yeah,” I sighed

  Since we’d sold some of the furniture and miscellaneous items to a second-hand store, the house was partly empty. When we entered the living room, we found the packing boxes we’d each addressed to ourselves were gone. A note from Clay on the kitchen table let us know he’d taken them to the post office.

  “I’m going up to my room for a minute. I want to look over the last of the papers from Mr. Darrow’s office and see if there is any thing more I need to discuss with him tomorrow.”

  “Mel. Let’s you and I go get some sort of take out.” Susan’s eyes sparked with mischief. “Clay’s done enough. We’ll surprise him.”

  Mel eyed her sister and smiled. “Back in a few.”

  I climbed the stairs and walked over to the old, oak dresser. I loved it here so much when I was a child. I was safe; nothing could harm me. Not that I didn’t feel that way at home but Dad was gone so often. There was always an empty place right in the middle of my chest. I could feel the same hole there now.

  I remembered when I’d sit in the middle of that big feather bed and Grandpa would tell me Bible stories like Jonah and the whale or Daniel in the lion’s den. I sighed and began thumbing through the papers. “Oh.” I said out loud. “This isn’t mine.”

  I held in my hand a list of churches in Johnson County, Texas. There were checkmarks by some of them and stars by some of the others. I quickly scanned it and found the Barnesville Church with a star by it. But why? If this was Gary Wright’s, then he knew about Barnesville. I had to get this paper back to him. I could leave it with Mr. Darrow since they were good friends. I’d call the Bureau and leave him a message as I didn’t want to see him again. It bothered me he wanted to join us on our search for the gold. Now, I was suspicious.

  Chapter Six

  Our last night in Houston arrived all too quickly. Everything was packed, shipped or sold and we’d resigned ourselves to paper plates and, to Clay’s chagrin, Chinese food out of those little, white cartons with red dragons on top.

  Since Susan wanted Grandma’s wedding dress so badly, she insisted Mel and I each take a brooch. I didn’t understand why Susan seemed so interested in the dress. She had boys. It wasn’t like she would pass it onto anyone. I took the pin with emeralds, my birthstone. Even though Mel mildly protested, I knew secretly she wanted the diamonds.

  Clay carefully wrapped an old Colt 45 and a Confederates States of America sword in one of the packing boxes. In our family, all the men were interested in guns and military weapons. The sword, ornately detailed with a brass basket guard, the blade heavily etched, lay contained in a steel and brass scabbard. “I’m taking these to Darrow’s tomorrow,” he said as he nestled the Colt, made in 1886 with a blued barrel, side-swing cylinder, hardwood grips and detailed brass accents carefully into the box. “Do you girls want to go with me before I drop you off at the airport?”

  “Yes. I would. It’s generous of you to save those back for Donnie.” I handed Clay the last roll of packaging tape. Donnie didn’t deserve a thing. He failed to join us, even though he obviously knew the rest of us were here. I started to feel a growing distrust for our “missing” cousin.

  “I don’t know why he thinks we’re trying to take anything away from him; all he had to do was show up. We would have included him, too.” Clay left the room and carried the package out to the kitchen table.

  I shrugged. “I don’t understand either. None of us have seen him since we were little kids. I just don’t get it.” I thought about all Donnie had given up not being with us.

  “Now, if this house sells as quickly as Williams says it will, Donnie shouldn’t have a thing to gripe about.” Mel made a disgusted face. “It still burns me he had us tailed. My encounter with that thug of his surely wasn’t pleasant.”

  I felt a hint of sadness flow over me. The past few days rekindled my subdued longing for family. We were all grown now. The last of the Barnes family were scattered across the country. Grandpa’s death brought us closer, if we could only stay that way. “I’m going to miss you guys.”

  ****

  Clay came back in and settled into the recliner. “Okay, Addie. It’s story time.”

  I pulled great-great grandmother’s account of the cattle drive out of the tortoiseshell box and read the final installments. The journal explained the long trip into the valley cradled by the Sierra Nevadas and the Coastal Range in California. Grandma Annie wanted to purchase the valley, which runs the length of the center of the state encompassing eight counties, but Grandpa Harold urged her on to San Francisco. There at R. Matteucci & Company the two brooches were purchased, her prize, he told her, for following him all those miles and back again. Then they made the final leg of their journey home, the trip around the horn from San Francisco to Texas. That alone would have been a feat it itself. I read the final lines:

  We found the ranch much as we’d left it. We endured the trip. It was profitable for Harold, but it is good to be back home where we belong. The Texas sun has baked the land dry, and the cattle bellow for water. I long for the cool, damp weather of Seattle.

  “That’s it. What an adventure.” I let out a long, slow sigh. “She actually mentions buying the brooches. Mel, did you catch that?”

  “Yeah.” Mel yawned and stretched. “We need to get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be busy. Especially, if we’re going to Mr. Darrow’s before we leave.”

  Susan’s quiet voice came from the corner. “Are we coming back?”

  “I’m in.” Clay stood up next to Mel.

  “Me, too.” I joined them.

  Susan walked over and we all put our right hands together like athletes before a game. Clay raised our hands over our heads and we all echoed, “For the Gold!”

  And in my heart, I knew it meant more. I marveled at the completeness I felt. I’d reconnected with part of me that I’d lost, or not exactly lost but had been taken away from me. I loved my mother as I am sure my cousins loved their parents but whatever secret they kept had robbed their children of knowing their family.

  The next morning before we headed for the airport, we stopped off at the lawyer’s office. Clay gave him the gun and sword while Mel left him instructions on how to get in touch with Mr. Williams. The money from the sale of the house would be evenly distributed by Mr. Darrow.

  “Mr. Darrow, could you give this to your friend Mr. Wright?” I crossed the room and stood in front of him. “It belongs to him and I must have picked it up with my papers.”

  As he reached out for the document, I remembered that same large hand resting on the top of the tortoiseshell box only a week ago. It had revealed one of the secrets of our family, but with it, more questions were created. “What is it?” he asked.

  “It looks like a list of churches.”

  David Darrow smiled. “Oh, yes. His project.” The answer created another question in my mind that I didn’t want to deal with at the moment. I didn’t pursue it. “And, I have something for you, Ms. Brown.” He handed me a long, thin legal envelope. I turned it over in my hand, but nothing about it looked familiar. Since my own name glared back at me neatly typewritten on the ivory paper, there was no clue as to who sent it.

  “Who is this from?” I questioned him.

  �
�Donnie left it for you.”

  I shot Mel a long look. “Donnie? Was he here?”

  “Yes. He came the day after the will was read. The day I called Mel and told her Donnie didn’t want you to find him.” Mr. Darrow’s eyes narrowed. “Is there something I should know?”

  Mel joined me at the corner of his desk. “Maybe there is something you should tell us, Mr. Darrow. Why did Donnie have a private eye on us?”

  “I wasn’t aware of an investigator.” David Darrow cleared his throat. “Donnie’s resentful. He’s afraid you four will take something away from him. I don’t know what but he isn’t happy.”

  Resisting the urge to throw the envelope and its contents into Darrow’s faux walnut trash can, I ripped it open. The contents brought out ire in me I didn’t know existed.

  “He’s brought it upon himself, then. We’ve been looking for him for years and evidently he knew it. I really don’t care what his problem is and you can tell him that. He’s getting his share of the money from the house. We brought him some of Grandfather’s things. If he thinks he was left out, then he should have shown up and helped.” I could feel the flame in my cheeks and decided I’d keep my mouth shut before I said something I’d regret.

  “Ms. Brown, I ...”

  I waved my hand in front of Darrow. I’d heard enough. “We have flights to catch. We need to leave. If Donnie wants to talk with us, he knows where we are.”

  We drove to the Houston airport in silence. The others had never seen me blow my stack before; I’ll admit not a pretty sight.

  Clay took the ticket from the dispensing machine and hunted for a parking place in the day lot. He carefully eyed me and asked, “Mind sharing that letter with the rest of us?”

  “Oh. No. Not at all. I got so mad I wasn’t thinking; the contents are important to you guys, too.” I realized the letter was still tightly gripped in my right hand I opened it and began: