The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery

by Louise Hathaway

  “So do I,” Nancy says, as Mrs. Wood hands her the postcards. Nancy says, “These are all landmarks on Route 66.”

  “How clever of you to know that.”

  “I’m fascinated with Route 66, too. Have you ever seen the movie, ‘Cars’? It’s based on some of the landmarks on Route 66. I think you’d really get a kick out of the movie.”

  “Sounds fun.”

  “I’ll bring it with me next time.”

  “But I don’t have a video player.”

  “No problem. I’ll bring over my computer and play it for you on my Mac Book Pro.”

  Mrs. Wood says, “Huh? What language are you speaking?”

  They both laugh. “You’ll see,” Nancy says. Okay; let’s take a look at those postcards.”

  Mrs. Wood goes to her bedroom and brings back a scrapbook for Nancy to look at. The postcards are taped to the pages of the scrapbook and Mrs. Wood has to pull them off very carefully, hoping not to tear them.

  She hands the postcards to Nancy who says, “Oh, these are so wonderful. Here’s the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas; the Wigwam Village in Holbrook; The Big Texan Steak House; The Cadillac Ranch; and the Meteor Crater in Arizona. Oh, this makes me want to go see all of these places! May I read what he had written on the backs of each of these?”

  “Of course you may. That’s why I’m showing you them, dear.”

  Nancy arranges the postcards chronologically and begins with the first postcard he had sent Mrs. Wood. Nancy reads each postcard aloud, so Mrs. Wood can also hear the words he had written to her. The first one Nancy reads is from the U-Drop Inn:

  “I wanted to tell you, ‘Howdy,’ from Shamrock, Texas. The U-Drop has never looked better now that the city’s finally spent some money to restore it. Everybody’s saying that the building was an inspiration for some scenes in the movie “Cars”. Guess I’ll have to rent it when I get back home. Maybe we could watch it together?”

  His next postcard is from the Big Texan Steakhouse in Texas:

  “I still haven’t been able to win a free 72 ounce steak by eating it in one hour, but that doesn’t stop me from trying, once again, before I die. Miss you.”

  The card from the Cadillac Ranch in Texas says:

  “Here I am looking at those partially-buried Cadillacs again. The cars have a lot more graffiti on them than they did the last time we saw them together. Lots of couples here posing for pictures. I wish you were here.”

  The next one is of Meteor Crater:

  “I watched the sunset tonight from the Meteor Crater, outside of Flagstaff. It sure made me feel small and insignificant compared to the vastness of the solar system.”

  The last postcard he sent was from Wigwam Village in Holbrook, Arizona:

  “I’m “sleeping in a wigwam” tonight and thinking of you. I guess I shouldn’t have tried eating that 72 ounce steak the other night at the Big Texan because I’ve been having a real bad stomach ache ever since. I wanted to tell you before I go to sleep tonight, “Always remember our time in Eden and return to the Swallow.”

  Mrs. Wood cries when she hears his words again. She tells Nancy, “On our trips together, we used to like to bury little mementos at every one of the places where we were happy. We’d always said that one day we would return, dig them up, and remember all of the good times we had.”

  Nancy says, “That’s the sweetest, most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Sounds like he really cherished the times you both had spent together. It just doesn’t make any sense that he would leave you out of his will.”

  “I know, honey. It doesn’t make any sense to me either.”

  “What did he mean in his last postcard--the one from the Wigwam Village? What did he mean by, ‘Always remember our time in Eden and return to the Swallow’?”

  “I think he’s talking about the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. That’s where we went on our honeymoon.”

  “That’s it! He’s left a clue for you there. We’ve got to go find it!”

  ****

  Nancy has spent most of her day at Mrs. Wood’s and is starting to get hungry. She says, “Mrs. Wood, since you’re dressed up so nice and pretty, how’d you like to go out to dinner with me?”

  “Oh, no; my dear. I couldn’t possibly impose on you that much. Don’t you want to be spending some time with your boyfriend?”

  “He has to work tonight.”

  “Well, Nancy. At least let it be my treat.”

  “How about coming over to my house for dinner instead?”

  “Oh, no. I couldn’t let you go through all that fuss.”

  “Oh, you won’t be. I’ll ask my dad to cook. He loves to barbeque. In fact, I’ll call him right now.”

  ****

  She and Mrs. Wood arrive at the house for the barbeque a half hour later. Mr. Keene is wearing a chef’s apron and barbequing steaks out by the pool. Mrs. Wood suddenly feels out of place, “Oh, Nancy. I’m overdressed. I look ridiculous.”

  “You look lovely. Come, I want you to meet my father.”

  Mrs. Wood greets a very handsome man who looks like he’s in his mid-forties. She says to him, “It smells delicious out here. You have a lovely garden. It’s so hard growing anything at all this time of year, isn’t it?”

  “It certainly is, Mrs. Wood. Can I get you anything to drink? I have vintage Caymus Cabernet Sauvignon that’s breathing in the decanter.”

  “Oh, my goodness. That sounds wonderful. Well, I guess I’ll have a small glass of it.”

  Nancy starts pouring her a glass and Mrs. Wood puts hand her over the rim of her glass saying, “You can stop right there, honey.”

  Nancy tells her, “Well, I’ll leave you two to chat while I go upstairs and change my clothes for dinner.” She goes up to her bedroom, opens her closet, and pulls out a rust colored suit that she’d made in sewing class. She puts on some nylons, steps into her Jimmy Choo strappy sandals, and thinks: hopefully, this outfit should make Mrs. Wood feel less self-conscious about the way she’s dressed up. Nancy walks out to the patio and says to her father and Mrs. Wood, “Ta Da.”

  Mrs. Wood says, “Wow! You look like a million bucks!”

  Nancy says, “Thanks,” and pours herself a bottle of Perrier into a wine glass.

  Her father says, “Any more wine, Mrs. Wood?”

  “Okay. Maybe just a little more.”

  Nancy tells her, “Isn’t it nice to have a man waiting on us for a change?”

  “It certainly is.”

  Mr. Keene brings out two serving dishes. One has baked potatoes and leeks; the other, roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon.

  Mrs. Wood says, “Mr. Keene, when did you find the time to make all of this for us with such short notice?”

  “Nancy made these last night when she couldn’t sleep. I heard her downstairs in the kitchen banging around pots and pans at 2:00 in the morning.”

  “Oh, Dad. I’m so sorry I woke you up. Why didn’t you say something last night?”

  “Because I knew that you were making something wonderful for me to eat later; so I kept my mouth shut.”

  Mrs. Wood insists on helping Nancy do the dishes. When they’re finished, Nancy asks her if she’d like to see the movie “Cars” that she’d told her about.

  “Oh no, honey. Some other time. I’ve had such a lovely evening. Thank you both so much!”

  “Okay,” Nancy says, “I’ll get my purse and drive you home.”

  ****

  The following morning, Nancy wakes later than usual, catching up on her sleep. She puts on her silk bathrobe and goes downstairs to the kitchen. When she goes to the refrigerator to get some eggs to make an omelet, she finds a note that her father has left her taped on the refrigerator door. He wrote that he was called at 6:00 a.m. and told that he has to go to the home office in Manhattan to take care of an emergency. He’ll be gone a couple of days. He tells her to please call him if she needs anything.

  She calls Ned to see what he’s doing today. “Do you want to go s
ee a movie? The Great Gatsby in 3D has just come out?”

  “That’s right. It’s premiering today,” Ned says. “Finally. I didn’t think it’d ever get released: there were so many delays.”

  “I know. Hey, I have the show times in front of me on my Kindle. It’s playing at 12:30 at ‘Harkins Camelview 5’. How’s that sound?”

  “Sounds great. See you in a few.”

  Ned arrives at her house thirty minutes later and rings the doorbell. Nancy opens the door, wearing a teal blue sundress that she’s sewn from a Vogue pattern a few weeks ago. When he sees her new dress, he loves it. “That dress is the same color as your beautiful eyes. You look great!”

  “Thanks! I hope you’re hungry. I’ve just made some omelets.”

  “Sure. What can I do to help?”

  “How about squeezing some oranges for juice?”

  “Okay. I know where everything is.”

  “Thanks. We’ve made some wonderful meals together in this kitchen, haven’t we, Ned?”

  “You’ve made the meals. I’m your sous-chef. I do the dirty work and you do the pizzazz.”

  Nancy laughs and says, “We make a great team, though. Don’t we?”

  “We certainly do,” he says, wrapping his arms around her for a hug.

  ****

  Ned and Nancy love the movie. Nancy says, “Leonardo de Caprio did a good job playing Gatsby and Carrie Mulligan was perfect as Daisy.”

  “Want to go to Starbucks and get some lattes?” Ned asks.

  “Sure. Do you want to be in the driver’s seat this time?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  Nancy gives him her car keys and they head out, arriving at Starbucks 15 minutes later. When they find a free table and sit down with their lattes, Nancy tells him about seeing the stepsons here on her last visit. She explains everything she overheard. Ned says, “What a couple of scumbags they are.”

  Nancy tells him all about the postcards that she’d looked at yesterday at Mrs. Wood’s house. “I’d sure like to go on a road trip with you on Route 66 to see, in person, all of the sites on those postcards. And I have a hunch that we will find the missing will at The Blue Swallow Motel in New Mexico. Would you like to go on a road trip with me in my new car?”

  “That sounds really fun. I’ll ask my boss when he can spare me and we’ll have a little vacation together.”

  Nancy says that she wants to go as soon as possible. Mrs. Wood needs to get her hands on the newer will, before the stepsons rob her of everything she has. Ned calls his boss to ask him when he can take a few days off and is told that his boss can spare him for a few days at the end of the week.

  “Yes!” Nancy says. “ROAD TRIP!!” as she pumps her fists into the air.

  “It’s going to be fun. Do you think your Dad will let us go alone?”

  “I’m going to have to work on him a little to soften him up. Maybe he could come along?”

  “Grrrr…I want it to just be the two of us.”

  “We’ll see. Who knows? The fact that he’s let me stay here a few nights alone is encouraging. He trusts me enough to let me stay by myself the next two nights.”

  “You’re kidding right? You’ll be here alone? By yourself? At night? Without your dad?”

  “I know what you’re thinking, you nasty boy! First, you have to take me out to dinner.”

  Nancy and Ned go to the Camelback Inn for dinner. They plan their Route 66 vacation with excitement. “Half the fun is the planning, isn’t it?” Ned says.

  “That’s true, Ned. I can’t wait! I wish we could go tomorrow!”

  “Me, too.”

  “Ned, I’ve been thinking. I don’t know if you’re going to like this or not.”

  “Uh-Oh,” Ned says. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Well, I think Mrs. Wood should come with us.”

  “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, Ned. I’m serious. She’s going to help us find the clues along the way.”

  “What if there aren’t any clues?”

  “Half the fun of a trip is getting there, right?”

  “Oh, Nancy. We’ll see. Let’s just concentrate on tonight.”

  “Want to stop by your house and get your swimming trunks?” Nancy asks.

  “Sure! A moonlight swim alone with you. Who wouldn’t want to?!”

  ****

  Nancy and Ned are enjoying themselves in the pool. They play a little game that Nancy likes. She flings a quarter into the pool and lets it sink to the bottom, then races with Ned to see who can grab it first. Ned wins the first, second, and third times. Nancy says, “Let’s keep going. Drop it back down to the bottom again.”

  “Oh, Nancy,” Ned says, “when are you ever going to stop being so competitive? Are we going to be out here all night until you win?”

  “Well, I guess I’m a sore loser, aren’t I?”

  “Come on; let’s go get into the hot tub.”

  As they’re sitting in it together, Ned puts his arm around her and says, “You look really good in your new bikini.”

  “Thanks. I made it last week.”

  “You’ve been a busy little seamstress lately, haven’t you?”

  “It’s fun. I like being creative.”

  “I know. And you do such a good job. That bikini fits you perfectly.”

  They kiss each other and Nancy says, “Would you like to spend the night?”

  “I thought you’d never ask.”

  ****

  Part Two

  The next morning, Nancy and Ned are busy making Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

  Ned had turned off his iPhone last night because he didn’t want any interruptions during his special night with Nancy. He notices that there are three missed calls. He listens to his mother leaving frantic messages, asking him where he is. She said she was about to call “missing persons”. He tells Nancy that his mother is upset that he didn’t tell her where he was last night. “What are you going to tell her?” Nancy asks.

  “I’ll just tell her that ‘I was up all night with Nancy’,” he says, with a twinkle in his eye.

  “Well, that is the literal truth, isn’t it?” Nancy jokes.

  “You naughty girl,” Ned says, giving her a little “love-spank” on her derriere.

  After Ned assures his mother that he is alive and well, he and Nancy start planning their road trip. They intend to spend the morning researching Route 66. Nancy says, “I think we should limit our road trip by only driving from Flagstaff to Tucumcari, New Mexico. I have a hunch that the Blue Swallow Motel is where Mr. Wood left his new will.”

  Ned says, “Someday we’ll go on another trip on Route 66 when it’s just the two of us.”

  “It’s something we can both look forward to,” Nancy says.

  Ned says, “Besides, I don’t think I’d like to spend too many days on our trip with our elderly friend tagging along. I mean, she’s nice and all, but we don’t want to overdo it with her.”

  “I agree with you, Ned; but I want to make sure that we’ve done all we can to help her find that newer will.”

  “All right. You’re a very sweet girl to do this for her.”

  “You know how I like the elderly and hate it when people take advantage of them.”

  “I don’t like it either,” Ned says. “It makes me mad, too.”

  Nancy and Ned continue their research. Nancy says, “Have you ever wondered why Route 66 is called, ‘The Mother Road’?”

  “No. Why?”

  “Because it is the main road connecting Chicago to Los Angeles.” She tells him that for many people, Route 66 represented a new beginning, a better life. “Think of the Joad Family in ‘The Grapes of Wrath’. They were Oakies trying to escape their lives in the Dust Bowl, hoping to come to California and find a new land, full of opportunities. They thought that when they reached California, they’d find good jobs and better lives.”

  “Well, we all know how that didn’t work out for the Joads.”

  �
�It made for a good novel, though, didn’t it?”

  “That’s very true.”

  Nancy says, “I think that our road trip should end at The Blue Swallow Motel. We’ll plan on staying there until we figure out where the will is.”

  Ned says, “I’ve been looking at pictures of the Blue Swallow and it looks awesome at night when its neon signs are lit up.”

  Nancy tells him, “It really looks like a beautiful place. I’ve read that the people who spend the night there like to sit outside and get to know their fellow travelers.” She continues, “Won’t Mrs. Wood get a kick out of it? I wonder how long it’s been since she was there.”

  Ned says, “Well, I guess we had better go over to see her and run all this past her. We’re just assuming that she wants to go, when maybe she doesn’t.”

  “Good idea, Ned. I’ll give her a call.”

  ****

  Mrs. Wood is delighted to see them both. She has made tuna casserole for their lunch. “I hope you two are hungry.”

  “It smells wonderful in here, Mrs. Wood,” Nancy says.

  “Have a seat at the dining room table, you two. Today, I’ll be your personal waitress, attending to your every need.”

  “You’re so sweet,” Ned says. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.”

  After they finish eating, Nancy asks Mrs. Wood if it would be okay if Ned looks at her Route 66 postcards.

  “Of course. Let me go get them for you.”

  She gets the cards from her bedroom and hands them to Ned. He reads the messages on each of them and asks her, “What do you think he meant when he said ‘remember our days in Eden’?

  “I think he’s talking about the Blue Swallow Motel where we spent our honeymoon.”

  “Nancy told me that you and Mr. Wood liked to bury momentos at each of the places where you were happy. Did you and your former husband bury anything there?”