Knights of the Golden Circle

by Eugene Lloyd MacRae

  "That's right, maybe gives us a lead," Chet added.

  "Chet here tells me he searched for the treasure when he was a kid," Rory said. "Maybe he can figure out where your son was and that would give us a starting point to look for him."

  Donna-Lou looked at him for another moment and then took a step back from the door, "Sure. C'mon in and I'll take it up to his room. Please take your shoes off, if you don't mind."

  Chet stepped into the house.

  Rory stepped in behind him, "Thank you, Mrs. Haney." Rather than the musty smell he had expected from the run-down appearance of the house, Rory's senses detected the pleasant fragrance of a flower and herb potpourri. Chet slipped his shoes off and Rory followed his lead, setting his to the side as he glanced around. They were in a wide hallway with tall ceilings. There was a curved archway to the left and the right and dead ahead of them was a stairway to the second-floor.

  Donna-Lou looked at Rory for a moment, then said, "And you call me Donna-Lou."

  Rory nodded.

  Donna-Lou turned, walked down the hallway and started up the stairs.

  Chet, looking concerned, whispered quickly to Rory, "Sorry about the FBI thing...."

  "Like I already said, it's fine. And understandable," Rory whispered in return. He motioned for Chet to follow Donna-Lou.

  Chet looked relieved. He hitched up his pants, walked down the hallway and started climbing the stairs behind her.

  Rory stepped forward and took a moment to glance off to the right. He saw a neat and tidy living room, filled with faded, beat-up furniture. The walls were decorated with faded print wallpaper and the old ceilings were quite high, with the surface up there looking faded as well. On his left, he saw a neat and tidy kitchen area with beat-up linoleum floors and appliances that had seen better days 30 years ago. Despite struggling financially, the woman was working hard to maintain a good home for her son. Not wanting to appear too nosy, Rory then took quick steps and followed Chet and Donna-Lou to the second floor.

  Every stair squeaked with age as each person moved from one to the next. At the top of the stairs, Donna-Lou led them down a long, high hallway, sections of the old floorboards squeaking softly as each person passed.

  Rory passed a bedroom on the left, filled with more beat-up furniture.

  Donna-Lou gestured as she passed another open door on the left, "That's Corry's bedroom. I haven't changed a thing since the left that day...." Her voice trailed off.

  Rory thought Donna-Lou would lead them into the bedroom but she didn't. She kept on walking down the hallway.

  Chet obviously wondered the same thing because he turned and shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows.

  Donna-Lou walked to a door at the far end of the hallway, pushed it open and stepped inside. "This is Corry's treasure room," she said as she stepped to the left side of the door.

  Chet stepped into the room and stopped walking, just standing there, staring.

  Rory stopped directly behind Chet and just outside the doorway, wondering what the problem was.

  After a moment, Chet took a few steps to stand beside Donna-Lou, turned and looked at Rory.

  Rory could see Chet had a look of surprise on his face. He wondered why. Rory walked in, looking across the room...and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Chapter 9

  THE ROOM WAS HUGE, covering the entire back side of the house. There were two tall, narrow windows at the back with a wide, beat up old oak desk standing directly between the two. A computer, a computer monitor, and a laser printer sat on top of the desk. Every other single space along the walls was covered with maps, pictures of trees and rocks with symbols on them, pencil sketches and graphite rubbings of signs and symbols and photocopies of news articles.

  Chet Calhoun stepped across the floor and ran his hand over some of the papers, "This is amazing. Some of these treasure signs I've seen. But some of these others...I've never seen them before. Where did he get these?"

  Donna-Lou smiled, "Corry was always out looking for new signs to copy. Or he was on that computer, on the Internet, visiting different forums for treasure hunters. Anything he could find, he would print out and put up on the wall. At first, I didn't like him making holes in the walls with his stick pins, but it gave him so much pleasure. When you think about all the things a young boy can get caught up in today, it was such a relief to see him doing something harmless like this."

  Rory walked over to the right to a large whiteboard that was on a stand. It had more pencil sketches and etchings of treasure signs taped to it. "Any idea why these aren't on the wall?"

  Donna-Lou shook her head, "No. I had no idea what that boy was thinking when it came to treasure signs." She emitted a soft laugh, "That big whiteboard? I was told he charmed a teacher out of it. Apparently, they weren't using it the school anymore. I don't know how they got it here but apparently Emma-Mae helped him."

  Chet walked over to stand beside Rory, "I've seen these signs in various parts of the woods around here. Not sure why he would have them all together on this board though."

  "How do the signs work, Chet?" Rory asked.

  Chet hitched his pants up, "The signs can work alone or in a group or a cluster. When you find a sign on a tree or rock, it usually points you in a direction. When you go in that direction you usually find another sign or a clue. The thing you have to understand though is that you may have to go for a long ways before you find the other sign. You could travel for miles before you find it. And they're not always easy to spot. So that's where other signs in the area come into play. When you plot each one of them on a map, they usually converge on the area that you need to search. That's where you find another sign that may lead you to the next group of signs." Chet's eyes lit up, "Or...it might be a sign that says there's a cave or a mine or something buried nearby like a treasure cache–"

  "Just another big kid," Donna-Lou said. Her arms were crossed over her chest but she had a smile on her face.

  Chet looked over at her, a sheepish grin on his face. He hitched his pants up, "I guess we all stay little boys, especially when it comes to treasure. Remember Bobby Fin?"

  Donna-Lou nodded, "I sure do."

  "Me and Bobby Fin used to sneak out at night, after everyone went to bed, to check out treasure signs we found during the day," Chet said with a shake of his head. "We figured we were gonna find the big cache –"

  "Corry used to do the same thing, sneak out at night," Donna-Lou said. "I always knew when he did it. We may be poor but I always kept this house spotlessly clean. He would sneak in and leave a little dirt here and there on his way up to his room. He could never figure out how I knew. He'd sneak in a through a different door or a different window and I always knew...."

  Chet shook his head and laughed, "I'm glad my momma never figured that one out."

  "That's why I knew one of Corry's friends snuck in here last night," Donna-Lou said. "Little bugger left a little trail from the back window up into this room and back out."

  Rory's blood ran cold.

  Chet looked over at Rory, the smile gone from his face.

  Rory gave him a subtle shake his head.

  Fortunately, Donna-Lou changed the subject, not seeing the looks of concern between the two men, "Would you two like a coffee? Also got some cake you can have while you look through here."

  "Just coffee would be great," Rory said.

  Chet nodded, "Yeah, that would be great, Donna-Lou. Thank you." He waited until Donna-Lou left the room, then turned to Rory, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

  Rory looked around the room and then at the whiteboard, "I'm sure this kid was on to something. And this little break-in episode just convinces me all the more. But it also makes me worried about Donna-Lou. If there is something in here...."

  "Think we should say something to her?" Chet asked. He had a worried look on his face, "Maybe we call the police...?"

  Rory looked at Chet for a moment, then broached the subject, "Did you notice that police car
down the road when we came in?"

  Chet's brow furrowed and he shook his head, "No, can't say I did. Why?"

  "I think it was the same police car that was parked on the road that day Emma took me here to show me the sign in the backyard," Rory revealed.

  Chet hitched his pants up and shrugged, "One police car looks like the other. Maybe Donna-Lou already told them about the break-in and they're just keeping an eye out?"

  "Maybe. You can ask her when she comes back up with the coffee. But she's already chalked it up to one of Corry's friends coming in. Right?"

  Considering it for a moment, Chet gave a brief nod, "Right."

  "So, if she didn't tell the police about it...?"

  Chet shook his head slightly, "I have a hard time believing the local sheriff or any of the state troopers that run the roads outside our little burg would have anything to do with this. They're all local boys. Went to school here. I've known Luther Ponder, the Sheriff, all my life...Buck Harrison too."

  Rory decided to move away from the subject for the time being. No sense getting Chet worked up. Rory gestured back to the whiteboard, "Anything catch your eye on this board?"

  Check hitched his pants up as he looked over the whiteboard. "Well... as I said...if I recall correctly...not all these signs are from the same area around here." He rapped a knuckle on one sketch, "This one here is to the north of us. While this one here is right out here in the backyard. That's the one Emma-Mae showed you–"

  "No, I don't think it is," Rory countered as he looked closer.

  "Sure it is," Chet said firmly, convinced he was right, "I've seen that one plenty of times as a kid. The rider on the horse. Every schoolboy knew about this one out back of this house."

  Rory pointed, "Take a look at the circle that represents the head of the rider. The one on the tree in the backyard has the rider's head looking backwards. With this one, the circle indicates the rider is looking ahead."

  Chet looked closer and then a look of astonishment came over his face, "You're right. I never even noticed that. You're pretty observant...."

  Rory shook his head no, "I wouldn't have known if Emma hadn't pointed it out to me that day. And guess who told her?"

  Chet nodded his head, "Corry Haney." He looked over the other pieces of paper taped to the whiteboard, "Still...it doesn't make sense why he would have all these particular signs on this whiteboard. As if they were all in one area, but they ain't. That's not how I would do it, if you want to find the treasure." He took one of the papers off the whiteboard and showed to Rory, "And this bird one. I've never seen it around here. I've seen something similar but not this one. These downward marks or feathers mean you go a certain distance in the direction indicated by the beak or the tail. But this isn't even a sketch or a graphite rubbing, like we used to do when I was a kid."

  Rory took the paper from Chet's hand and looked at it. He rubbed the paper with his fingers, "This feels like a photocopy...maybe a photocopy from a page in a book?"

  Chet nodded. He looked over the whiteboard again and pulled another paper off, handing it to Rory, "Same with this one. Photocopy from a book. And nothing I've ever seen around here."

  Rory took it and looked at both papers, "Looks like they're from two different books as well. But no indication what books."

  Chet looked over the whiteboard for a few more moments and then reached out to the two photocopies, "If you don't mind, I have an idea. My cell phone is in the car and I'd like to call someone about these."

  Rory nodded, handing the photocopies over to Chet.

  Donna-Lou was just coming back into the room, holding two steaming mugs of coffee.

  "I'm just going down to my car and I'll be right back up," said Chet as he hurried past her and disappeared down the hallway.

  "But you are coming back, right?" Donna-Lou called after him.

  Rory noticed a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

  "Yes," Chet yelled back to her.

  Donna Lou's eyes brightened. "I swear that man was always rushing around when it came to the treasure when he was a kid." She shook her head as she turned and walked across the room.

  "You went to school with Chet?" Rory asked.

  "He's about five years older than me, but I remember him." She handed Rory one of the mugs, "I'll just put his over on the desk for when Chet comes back."

  Rory took a sip of his hot coffee and cast his eyes over the whiteboard again. Something caught his eye up in the top left-hand corner. He moved closer for a look. There was a narrow wooden border around the outside of the whiteboard and a stick pin was stuck through a small torn remnant of a yellow-tinted, semi-transparent material.

  Donna-Lou walked back over to Rory, "Looks like something has got your attention. Boys and their treasure maps and stuff," she said with a smile and a shake of her head.

  "Yeah, not sure what it is though," Rory said. He handed the coffee mug to Donna-Lou, "Could you hold this for a minute?"

  Donna-Lou took the mug and watched as Rory held the fragment with one hand and pulled out the stick pin with the other.

  Rory put the stick pin back into the tiny hole on the whiteboard and examined the scrap of material in his fingers, "It feels like a skin of some type." He held it up to the light, "It's semi-transparent. Any idea what it is?"

  Donna-Lou took the fragment from Rory and handed him back the coffee mug. She felt the scrap of material with her fingers and held it up to the light as well, "It's an oilskin of some type. It's how they used to make raincoats. My grandmother taught me about it. They would use a fine-woven cotton canvas or flannel and treat it with linseed oil in a process to make it water repellent." She put her head down, thinking as her fingers rubbed over the material.

  "Penny for your thoughts," Rory said after a few moments of silence.

  Donna-Lou broke out of her thoughts and gave Rory a sheepish smile, "Sorry. It just brought back memories of when I was a kid." She looked back at the material, "I remember my grandfather having something like this. His was cotton I think, coated with linseed oil, just like this. I hadn't thought about it for years...."

  Rory took a look at the other three corners of the whiteboard. Two of them had bent stick pins. The third corner had an elongated hole. He looked down on the floor to see another bent stick pin. He bent over and picked it up, inserting it back into the elongated hole, "It looks to me like your son had something like a large oilskin pinned to each corner over top of these papers. Do you know where he got it from? What it was for?"

  Donna-Lou handed the fragment back to Rory, crossed her arms and looked at the whiteboard, puzzled. She shook her head no after a few moments, "I have no idea. And I don't remember ever seeing anything draped across this board."

  Rory looked at the material in his hand and wondered.

  Chapter 10

  RORY TOOK A LOOK AROUND the room as his fingers caressed the material. There was a lot of information in here. The problem was, nothing made much sense to him or stood out. He was definitely going to have to rely on Chet to help him figure this out.

  "Penny for your thoughts now," Donna-Lou said in amusement.

  It was Rory's turn to feel sheepish. He just shook his head as he looked at the papers clustered around the walls of the room, "I'm just not sure where to start. Or how to use this information. Maybe I'm even on a wild goose chase...."

  "Well, at least it's a chase. Which is more than anyone else has been doing," Donna-Lou said. "So thank you for that."

  Rory nodded, appreciative of the support, but not sure whether he merited it. Rory wandered around the room, trying to make sense of the signs. He glanced through newspaper articles young Corry had photocopied or printed out and pinned onto the wall, trying to get an overall sense of the young boy's search for the treasure.

  Donna-Lou stood by the whiteboard, looking at it thoughtfully, as Rory wandered around. She was silent for the longest time and then she said, "Rory, would you do something for me?"

  Rory turned and no
dded, "Sure. What is it?"

  Donna-Lou gestured for Rory to follow her out the open doorway, into the hallway. She walked back to a spot between the two bedrooms, the boards squeaking softly under her footsteps. Stopping, she pointed up at the ceiling, "There are old pull-down stairs up there for the attic. Can you grab that short cord and pull it down?"

  Rory looked up to see a rectangular section in the ceiling. A short discolored cord hung from one end. He had missed that when they first came through. He positioned himself right underneath and reached up.

  "Careful. It's old and it's been a long time since anyone used it," Donna-Lou cautioned as she took a step back.

  Rory nodded and did a little jump, grabbing hold of and tugging on the cord in one motion. He stepped back as the stairway began to drop.

  "Ooo," Donna-Lou said with a giggle as Rory bumped into her.

  "Sorry," Rory said as he watched the bottom of the stairway bump into the old floorboards.

  Donna-Lou looked confused as she stepped around Rory, looking up into the opening. "That's strange. I thought there'd be a lot more dust coming down."

  Rory hadn't thought about that aspect, but she was right. He wondered if someone had been up there not long ago. Maybe the same person who had broken into her house?

  Donna-Lou shook the stairway vigorously to make sure it was safe. Satisfied it was fine, she began climbing.

  As Rory watched her climb, his eyes settled on her shapely bottom in the blue jeans.

  Placing one foot on the attic floor, Donna-Lou stepped up into the attic, turned and looked down at him.

  Rory wondered if she had caught him looking at her bottom. They had only just met and–

  "Are you coming up or not? Or you afraid of the dark?" She smiled.

  Rory cleared his throat, shook his head and started climbing.

  Donna-Lou disappeared from view.

  As Rory's shoulders emerged through the opening in the ceiling, Donna-Lou turned on a large, bare light bulb attached to one of the rafters and he got his first look at what was up here. Piled across the attic floor, in no particular order, were old wooden chairs, small tables, bits of furniture, pictures and pictures frames wrapped in cloth, assorted lamps, and boxes. Dozens and dozens of boxes of various sizes, some cardboard and some wooden, were placed around the attic. Most of the boxes had labels scrawled across the side; books, dishes, cutlery, knick-backs. A number of labels were faded and unreadable in the dim light off to the edges of the attic. Rory stepped foot on the old attic boards and saw more items off in the dark corners of the attic.