Cold Hard Cache

by Amy Isaman

“Carly, that’s from one coin—the one I showed you last week. I found all of it, but it’s gone again.”

  “Wait, you found the whole cache and lost it again? Why wouldn’t you tell me? And if this is from one coin, how much is the whole thing worth?”

  “Millions, if the rest of the coins are as valuable as that one was.”

  “And you lost it? How did that happen?” Her voice got higher as she whisper-yelled at me.

  I shrugged. “Somebody else found it and moved it.”

  She ignored my answer. “Where was it? Where is it, now?”

  “I don’t know where it is now. I think Logan and Alex stole it in the first place.”

  “No, Alex wouldn’t do that.” She shook her head and pursed her lips.

  “I didn’t think so either, but it fits.”

  “How, exactly, does it fit?” she snapped, her voice biting and hard.

  “You know that drawing in Alex’s room? The one of the eye above his bed? That’s the iris from Frank’s message before he died. Logan has the exact same picture in his bedroom. If you look closely, they’re standing on piles of coins. Alex told Frank that his legacy was in the heart of iris. We thought he meant flowers or something. He meant that drawing of the eye. He was telling his dad that he had the coins.”

  She closed her eyes. I imagined she was picturing the drawing. Finally, she nodded slowly. “I know exactly the picture. It’s Alex and Logan on a hill, sort of weirdly reflected in an eye. He drew a lot of random stuff like that. Why do you think it’s the answer to the clue?”

  “Go look at it when you get home. Once you know what you’re looking at, it’s pretty obvious. And, as I said, Logan has an exact match of it in his room.”

  She nodded. “I’ll look at it, but I still don’t understand. Why? Why would they do that?”

  “I have no idea. I thought you might know.”

  She shook her head and stared at the ground, the envelope clutched in her hand. Finally, she looked up. “This means that Logan had a motive to hurt Alex—so he could have all the gold.”

  I stayed silent as she worked out everything I’d been struggling with for the past few days.

  I nodded. “I thought of that too, but I’m still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the whole idea of Logan murdering his best friend.”

  Carly continued, almost in a whisper, as she glanced around to make sure no one was nearby. “And if Frank figured it out or thought that Logan was with Alex when he died, that would be why Alex sent the safe word. Frank would have no problem harassing Logan. And Logan would have a motive to get rid of Frank, too.” She stared at me.

  I nodded. “Yeah, but it still doesn’t feel right. I’ll admit that at Frank’s funeral, Logan didn’t strike me as someone who was grief stricken, but I’m still having a hard time accepting that he might have murdered Frank. Or Alex.”

  “Right. But you never know. I mean… Brian.” Carly rubbed her face with her hands.

  “Yeah. He could be more like his dad than I thought.”

  Carly sighed and stared at the envelope. “I need to go look at that drawing. Do you know how many hundreds of hours I’ve spent in that room making jewelry, wondering where the hell that gold is, hating whoever stole it? And you think it was my son and Logan? But why would the boys take it in the first place? And what do you mean you lost it again? Where was it? It obviously wasn’t in Frank’s rig.”

  I shook my head, not wanting to implicate my mother or have Carly go over there. “That doesn’t matter right now. I think Logan must have moved it when I started asking questions. I think he knew I figured out what Frank told me when he died, about his legacy being in the heart of the iris.”

  I had no idea if Logan figured that out, but I wasn’t ready to tell everything to Carly. I still didn’t trust her and worried that I’d already told her too much. In fact, I was pretty sure that I had. She’d already lied to me about Brian, and for all I knew, she was going to call him the second I left.

  I reached out and put my hand on her arm. “Can you do me a favor?”

  “I don’t know.” She pulled her arm away from my touch. “What’s the favor?”

  “Carly, I just gave you sixty thousand dollars. I know you don’t owe me for that, but I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell Brian that I was here giving this to you.”

  Her eyes opened wide in surprise. “Seriously? You think I’d tell anyone about this? Good lord. I’d have every person I’ve ever met on my doorstep asking for their share for God knows what. And hell if the government is getting any of it.” She lowered her voice further. “You haven’t told anyone, have you?”

  I shook my head. “The only person that knows about this is the coin dealer.” And my mom and her coin-dealing boyfriend, but Carly didn’t need to know that.

  “No, I’m taking a little break and getting this into a safe spot. Immediately.”

  “Good luck. I’m sorry about all of this. I really am.” I patted her arm and headed toward the door.

  “Tricia,” she yelled at my back.

  I stopped and turned as she hurried over and grabbed my arm.

  “If there’s more… if you’ve got all of it, and its worth millions and you’ve only shared this one bit with me, I’ll come after it.” She leaned in close to me. “It’s mine. It’s Franks,” she hissed as she squeezed my arm.

  I felt her threat and my heart skipped, but she wasn’t nearly as scary as Brian. “It’s half yours. The other half belongs to Del and his wife. Not Brian. Not Anne. Not Logan. And let go of me,” I added in a low voice. I held my head high as I walked across the parking lot to my car. I wanted to run and get the hell away from her, but I didn’t want her to know she scared the hell out of me.

  Glancing in my rear-view mirror as I left the school, I could see Carly standing on the sidewalk watching me leave.

  I didn’t think she’d tell Brian about the cash I gave her, but she sure as hell might tell him that I found the cache. Which meant he’d want to chat with me.

  I turned into a little subdivision near the school, made a few random turns, and finally pulled over and parked in front of a small neighborhood park where Brian wouldn’t look for me if Carly already told him I was in Elk Creek. I jabbed my shaking fingers at Mike’s name in my contact list. I prayed that he’d pick up.

  He did not.

  I left him a message to call me as soon as he could. It was time to come clean, tell him everything. He could take it from there.

  It took a few minutes for me to figure out how to get out of the subdivision and back into town, but once I did, I drove by the police station and almost ducked when I saw Brian sitting in his patrol car out front. Thankfully, he was turned away from me. It looked like he might be talking on the phone, and I prayed that Carly wasn’t the person on the other end of his line. He wouldn’t recognize this car, but now I couldn’t go in and see if Mike was there.

  I glared at my phone. Come on, Mike. Call me. Unfortunately, telepathy was not one of my superpowers, and my phone sat silently on my passenger seat.

  My fingers tapped at my steering wheel as I ran through my options. Finally, I decided to go ahead and stop by my mother’s house. I could give her a hug goodbye and head back to California. To my nice, boring, safe life. Well, there was always Darius, who didn’t necessarily feel boring or safe, but that was different. And he was in London, anyway.

  I pulled into her driveway and parked the rental car next to her Suburban. This would just take a second.

  Until my sister pulled her mini-van in behind my car, blocking me in.

  Shit. Seeing Anne was not part of my plan.

  And now, I couldn’t even leave if I wanted to.

  Chapter 26

  I CLIMBED OUT OF my rental car and glared at my sister. I refused to be bullied by her anymore.

  “Anne, move your damn car. I just came to give Mom a hug and then I’m heading back to California.”

  “I’ll move my car when I’m damn good
and ready to move it,” Anne snapped, her voice sharp and high.

  Her comment was petty and immature, and unfortunately, it worked to bring out my worst. I instantly got pissed at both myself for even being in this situation and at her for acting like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

  “Well, I’m leaving in about five minutes, so hopefully you’re ready by then. And since you’re the one who wants me to leave, blocking me in doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.” I turned and headed toward the front door, trying to ignore her as she followed me up the walk and into the house.

  I didn’t knock. “Mom, I stopped by to say goodbye,” I yelled as soon as I got in the house.

  She was in her chair watching her morning shows and her face showed surprise when she turned and saw both of us. We couldn’t have been a pretty picture. I knew that my face was red with fury, though I was trying to give my mother a smile that probably looked much more like a grimace. And I could feel the anger emanating off of my sister behind me.

  “Oh! I didn’t know you two were coming, but I’m glad you’re both here.” My mom pointed to the couch. “Sit down. Let’s work this out.”

  “Work it out? Right,” Anne snapped. “Yesterday, you agreed that all of these accusations Tricia made were as crazy as I think they are, and we got her to leave. Imagine my surprise when I was driving to work and passed her. Now you want to work this out? Mom, let’s do a little review here.” Anne held up her hand and started ticking off my transgressions one by one. “First, Tricia starts hanging out with Carly, a woman who almost destroyed my marriage.”

  I interrupted. “First, I didn’t know about that when I went to visit her, and second, Carly didn’t make any vows to you. How about you put the blame where the blame belongs. On your husband!” She was like a textbook case of an enabler.

  “Shut your mouth,” Anne yelled. “After you started hanging out with Carly, you accused my son of murdering his best friend.” She turned back to Mom. “Then, she says she found the gold cache that everyone has been looking for—for years—but it has magically disappeared, again. And finally, to top it off, she accused Logan of murdering Frank.”

  Anne turned back to me. “Did I miss anything?”

  “Nope, that sounds about right,” I said.

  “You’re admitting it? That you’re insane?”

  I shrugged. “Not at all. I’m agreeing that what you said is what happened. I’m the last person who wants to make these accusations. I love Logan. But it’s the only explanation that makes sense.”

  “Explanation of what?”

  “Stop it, you two,” my mother yelled at us. “Sit. Down.” She pointed at the couch and snapped her fingers at us. “You will not come into my home and behave like this.”

  Like truculent teens, Anne and I automatically headed to opposite ends of the couch, plopped down, and refused to look at each other. My Mom’s tone commanded obedience. I supposed some things never changed.

  My mother glared at us. “Logan will be here in about ten minutes. It’s time we worked this all out.”

  “Wait, you called my son?” Anne snapped, immediately standing up and reaching for her phone.

  “Yes, I did. He’s also my grandson. I have some questions for him, but he wanted to discuss this in person. So, he’s on the way. He even said he’d bring me one of my favorite coffee drinks from Jitters, that great little shop you go by on the way out here because he’s that kind of person. The good kind.”

  My mother looked at me when she said that. And I nodded, agreeing. He was a good kid, which is what made this whole thing so difficult. I wondered for the millionth time if he struggled with some sort of mental illness that would create a momentary break from reality. Or if he had rage issues like his father. If he just lost his shit completely, would he go so far as to murder someone in cold blood?

  “He’s not answering,” Anne said, staring at her phone as if she could will him to pick up.

  “That’s because I’m right here,” Logan said as he walked into the room. All three of us jumped at his voice.

  “Oh, sweetie. I’m so sorry for all of this,” Anne said, her voice changing dramatically to a softer, kinder pitch.

  Logan handed my mom her coffee and leaned over to give her a hug.

  “Thank you. And thanks for mowing the yard for me,” my mom said, reaching up and patting his back.

  “You’re welcome. I needed to take a little break from studying, and I ended up heading this way. I figured your yard might be ready for the first trim of the season.” He sat on the couch next to his mother and his leg bounced nervously as he spoke, studying my mother.

  He must have discovered that the gold was no longer in the shed. Was he trying to see if my Mom found it and moved it?

  He raised his eyebrow at my mother. “Seeing someone, Grams? Is that why you weren’t here?”

  She swatted at him. “No, we were in Boise for an appointment, and we decided to stay the night at a hotel.”

  Logan hadn’t even looked in my direction, as if I weren’t there. He gently bit the inside of his cheek. Though he was trying to convey a casual attitude, the kid was tense.

  “Logan,” my mom said, leaning forward in her chair. “I’m just going to straight up ask you this. Did you and Alex take the cache of gold after Frank and Del found it?”

  He glanced at his mom before looking back at his grandmother. “Yeah, we did.” He looked down at the ground, but his leg stopped bouncing as if that revelation took away some of his nerves.

  My heart raced. I expected vehement denials, but he admitted it.

  My sister’s mouth fell open. She finally closed it and stood, pacing across the room and back before asking, “Why? Why would you two steal from your own family? You destroyed your grandfather’s relationship with his best friend. Your dad changed. He got angry and obsessed with finding it. How dare you!”

  “I know. It was wrong.” Logan looked down at his lap before speaking again, and we all waited in the silence. “But Mom, what would have happened if Frank and Carly all of a sudden found themselves with millions? Or even you? You get money and it’s gone. I wanted to go to college. Madi wants to get out of Elk Creek. So did Alex, and we knew that if you guys got it, Frank would have gambled and drank it. You and Dad would’ve insisted on managing it for Grandma and Grandpa and spent it on God knows what. So, we didn’t steal it.” He finally looked up at his mom. “We’ve managed it for you.”

  Anne opened her mouth to speak but could only stare at him as her face reddened. She finally found her voice, which was high and furious. “You managed it for us? We didn’t hire you to do that. Your grandfather who rightfully found it didn’t hire you to do it. And we’ve seen none of it, anyway!”

  “Really? None of it? How much have you paid for my education? None, Mom. You’ve paid none. I left home and when you come to town, you take me to dinner. That’s pretty much all the financial support you offer. And it’s paid for almost all of Grandma’s care at the facility. How the hell do you think Grandpa Del has paid for that? Did he ask you and Dad to help? Do you realize that it costs almost five thousand a month there?”

  “So, you’ve given it to your Dad’s parents and yourself but not your parents? Or even your Grams here?” Anne waved her arm toward my mother.

  Logan shrugged. “Well, as you said, it’s their money, but you’re missing my point. You don’t even recognize that helping out others in the family is actually helping you out.”

  Anne paced across the room in silence before turning and speaking. “I just… I can’t believe you’d devastate your father like this. You’ve lied to us for years. You were what, sixteen?”

  Anne stopped and stared at her son, stunned.

  “Yeah, we went and got it right after we turned sixteen.”

  “Did you hide it in the shed? Like your aunt said?”

  Logan nodded. “Yeah. It was in your camper for a while, the one you redid, but I was afraid you might sell it and it’d be gone, so we
moved it to Gram’s shed right before Alex died. I’m the only one that ever goes in there to help Gram, and she wasn’t going to sell her house anytime soon, so it seemed like a safe place.”

  “I can’t.” Anne shook her head and sounded kind of hysterical as she continued. “I can’t believe you’d do this to your family. It’s almost evil, Logan.” She continued shaking her head in disbelief as she paced the room.

  I wanted to ask the next question, the one that was dogging me. There was no easy way to do it, so I decided to just rip off the damn band-aid and go for it.

  “Logan?” I leaned forward. “Were you there when Frank died? Did he know that you took the gold? Was he harassing you?” Logan blinked and his eyebrows went up. He seriously looked like the picture of innocence.

  “Are you asking if I killed him?”

  I nodded and his mother instantly turned on me. “How dare you!”

  We both turned to her, alarmed. “No, I didn’t do it. I wasn’t there.” Logan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees.

  “Where were you?” I asked, not letting Anne derail me from my mission.

  Now Logan got up. “I was in jail. In Boise.”

  “Jail?” Anne choked out. “What?”

  He hitched a shoulder as a hint of red darkened his cheeks. “I got arrested for minor-in-possession. It was stupid. It was the first pretty warm day and me and my buddies were at the park drinking a few beers and playing corn hole. When I left, I still had a beer in my hand while I walked back to my apartment. A bike cop stopped and ID’d me. That was it. Another cop came down and hauled me and my roommate in. Dad knows. He came and paid my bail. I was at the Boise jail from about five to ten that night.”

  Logan was in jail? And Brian was with him?

  “Why didn’t you tell me? Your father knew? He never said a word.”

  “I asked him not to,” Logan’s voice got progressively louder with each word. “He just did what I asked.”

  “Why would you do that? You know I’ve always got your back. I’ve done everything for you and your sister!”

  “Mom, it’s not a big deal. I paid the fine. Calm down. This is why I don’t tell you stuff. You freak out!”