“The location of the hidden money remains to be proven,” Kate reminded her.
Ry shrugged. “I know he put it there. I watched him.”
“It doesn’t matter. That’s not something you can ever prove.”
“Why can’t I prove it?” Ry demanded.
“You have no idea where this rock wall is. It might be in Kentucky for all you know.”
Ry shook her head. “I know I could find if I set my mind to it.”
“I don’t see how.” Kate leaned back and sipped her wine.
“Do you have your laptop handy?”
Kate frowned. “What are you up to?”
“I’m going to find out where Raymond Dodd lived in 1930,” she said.
Within a matter of minutes, Ry had accessed a search engine for the 1930 federal census records. It only took her a few minutes to locate ten-year-old Raymond Dodd. He was living in McDowell, Lupton County, Texas with his father Amos. Two hours later, they had sifted through newspaper archives, death records, the family histories of other citizens in the area and a host of other sites and learned that the town of McDowell had tripled in size after the discovery of a large oil field near there in 1930. Amos Dodd had gone to work in the oil fields. He and twenty-seven other workers had been severely injured when a platform gave way and fell. Afterward, he was unable to work. There were no records on how he and his son survived, but there was an entry in one historical account that told how the oil company had gobbled up as much of the surrounding farmland as they could. They also found an old newspaper story that related how Amos Dodd had been killed in a shootout when the Lupton County Sheriff had tried to serve a foreclosure notice. The shootout had taken place south of McDowell near Old Highway Twelve. It went on to say that Dodd’s young son had been placed in an orphan’s home in a nearby county. Copies of old county land records showed the bank had taken Amos Dodd’s farm and then sold it to the oil company.
“No wonder the kid was so pissed at the bank,” Kate said as they shut down the computer. She stared at Ry. “It’s exactly as you saw it. I don’t know whether to be awed by this or scared for you,” she admitted. “I’m still worried there might be something wrong.”
“I don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with me,” Ry said. “My head doesn’t hurt. I’m able to work all day. The only time I feel the least bit strange is when the colors start swirling around me. I get dizzy.” She stopped. “It was different when I saw Clarence.”
“How was it different?”
Ry thought before she answered. “It was almost as if I became him. I felt his pain. When I looked at my hands, I saw his.”
Kate tapped the stem of her glass. “I’m an emergency room nurse. If you had a gunshot wound or a broken bone, I could tell you a little bit about what was going on with that, but the brain…” She shook her head. “All I know is the little we learned in school. Honestly, I’ve even forgotten most of that.”
Ry stared at her. “Do you think there’s something wrong with me?”
Kate glanced at the computer and slowly shook her head. “Even if there was something causing you to hallucinate, it wouldn’t explain how you know all the things you’ve told me.” Her eyes widened. “Oh, my God, that’s how you knew about my keys. When you woke the first time in the recovery room, you told me where my keys were. The tube was still in your throat and I could barely understand you, but when I checked later, the keys were right where you said they were. I had meant to talk to you, but so many other things happened and I forgot about it.”
Ry vaguely remembered the incident with the keys. “So what should I do?”
“I wish I could tell you. Obviously, you’ve already seen what can happen when people don’t want to hear something. I’m not sure you should even tell Dr. Price. From the scuttlebutt I’ve heard about him, his dog probably wasn’t even lost. He most likely tied him to that tree.” She sipped her wine before continuing. “Price is big on research. That’s where the real money is to be found. If the rumor mill at work is true, he likes expensive things.” She shivered. “What if the government came after you?”
Ry laughed. “What would the government want with me?”
“Don’t laugh. Think of what someone with your ability could do. You could shake a foreign dignitary’s hand and know what his intentions are toward us.”
“Judging from what I’ve been seeing, it’s more likely I’d be able to tell him where his lost socks were.”
“Don’t joke about this. It’s a gift. You told me you’ve been able to make the voices calmer at night, and you’re learning to control the spells you have when you touch things. It’s like any other talent, Ry, the more you use it, the more you’ll learn to control it. There’s no telling how far you could take this. I’ve heard the government used to do all sorts of experiments with mind control and things like that.”
Ry was no longer smiling. “Now you’re scaring me. You keep talking that way and I’m going to start watching for dark sedans with tinted windows parked across the street.”
Kate looked her in the eye. “If you aren’t careful, that might be exactly what you’ll end up doing.”
Ry blinked and swallowed. The wine bottle on the table next to Kate was empty. She sure hoped Kate’s wild talk was caused by the wine and not facts.
“What are you going to do about the money?” Kate asked.
“I’m going to go get it.” Ry was almost as surprised by her answer as Kate. “I now know about where Dodd’s house was and I sort of remember how the kid worked his way back to the rock wall.”
“You can’t go alone. It’s too dangerous.”
“So go with me. You can stop the bleeding if some wild-eyed rancher shoots me.”
“That’s not funny. You know it’s located on private land.”
Ry thought about it and, considering approximately ninety-four percent of the state was privately owned, it seemed likely that the area with the rock wall would be on private land. “I’m still going. It’s only illegal if I get caught.”
Kate rolled her eyes. “That’s probably what Raymond Dodd thought when he robbed those banks. It didn’t work out so well for him.”
Ry smiled. “You know what I always said. If I go to prison, I get three meals a day, a big screen TV and wall-to-wall women.”
Kate made a snorting noise. “Those women would scare you fartless.”
“Yeah, probably, but it’s something to consider.”
“When are you going?”
“I’ll have to go in after it gets dark. So I guess I’ll go tomorrow morning and scout around to see if I can find where the house was and hopefully I’ll be able to find the wall and get the money tomorrow night.”
“What will you do with it if you find it?”
“I don’t want it for myself. It needs to be used for something good. There’s too much blood on it.”
Kate gave her an odd sort of smile. “You were always a better person than I am.”
“How can you say that? You help save people’s lives all day.”
Kate shrugged and looked sad. “Sometimes it feels like all I do is ask people for insurance cards.” She took a deep breath. “If you go, I want to go with you.”
“Are you sure? Our last outing didn’t turn out so well.”
Kate gazed at her. “I was an ass to you that day. I’ll never forgive myself. You saved our lives. All I could do was hide under that couch, and then I ran home to Daddy like a sniveling coward.” Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I’ve never been very nice to you and for what it’s worth, I’m sorry.”
Ry forced her hands into the front pockets of her jeans. She had never been able to stand seeing Kate cry. She had to be careful or she might do something they both would probably regret later. She swallowed the lump that had formed in her throat. “There’s enough blame on both sides to go around, so why don’t we store all that on a shelf and start over?” She hesitated before adding, “I miss talking to you.”
Kate n
odded. “I’d like that.” She rubbed away her tears with the back of her hand. “So what time do we leave in the morning?”
“McDowell is about a four-hour drive from here. I’ll pick you up around nine.” She glanced at the clock and was shocked to see it was a little after midnight. When Kate walked her to the door, it took all of Ry’s strength simply to hug her goodnight. All the way back to the motel, she kept reminding herself that Kate had someone else in her life now. If she wanted to keep her friendship, she couldn’t do stupid things like try and kiss her.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Ry parked her truck in front of Kate’s apartment building at nine sharp. Kate had obviously been watching for her because she came out immediately.
“Good morning,” she beamed as she climbed into the truck with a large bag. She was dressed in jeans and a pink polo shirt that enhanced the creamy highlights of her skin.
“I can’t believe you’re so cheerful,” Ry said. “You finished that bottle of wine last night.”
“I never get a hangover, you know that.” She fastened her seat belt and patted the bag in her lap. “I packed a thermos of coffee and some muffins. I figured you probably hadn’t eaten anything since you’re living in that awful motel.”
“I’d love a cup of coffee. The motel’s not that bad. It’s old, but they keep it clean,” Ry said. “Besides, it’s only for a few more days.”
“How long do you think it will take you to finish cleaning the shop out?” Kate began pouring the coffee into a travel mug.
“It’s hard to say. I’ve been working since Tuesday and I’ve only cleared about half of the downstairs.” She took the cup of coffee and sipped it. “Thanks. Part of the problem is that I’m still finding some undamaged items mixed in with the debris so I have to sort of sift through it as I go.”
“Are the pieces worth that much? Surely, the insurance settlement must have covered them.”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m being silly, but it seems wrong simply to throw them away. They’ve survived all these years. I have a little metal cup that made it through two world wars.”
Kate looked at her. “Did you see that in one of your visions?”
“No. The woman at the yard sale told me that when I bought it from her.”
Kate’s eyebrows rose. “And you believed her?”
Ry shrugged. “Who cares whether it’s true or not? The cup is certainly old enough for it to be true, and besides, everything has its own tale.” She sipped the coffee and set the cup into the holder. “I never pass the stories along to my customers unless I know for certain it’s true.”
Kate fiddled with her coffee cup. “I was thinking that maybe I could help you clean out the shop when I’m not working.”
Ry spoke before she took time to think. “Doesn’t the new girlfriend object to you spending time with me?” She instantly wished she could take the question back.
Kate stared out the window for a second before answering. “That’s no longer an issue. It didn’t work out between us.”
Ry felt an overwhelming urge to shout with joy. Instead, she forced herself to keep her eyes on the road. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said and hoped she sounded sincere. In her peripheral vision, she saw Kate turn to look at her before she began digging in the bag again.
“What’s the plan for today?” Kate asked as she tore the top off a muffin and passed it to Ry.
“Once we find Old Highway Twelve, we’ll drive down it until, hopefully, I see something that looks familiar. Then we’ll take it one step at a time. If the area is heavily populated we’ll have to wait until it’s dark before we start prowling around off-road. If no one’s around, maybe we can snoop before it gets dark.”
“If it’s there, do you really intend to take it?”
Ry looked at her sharply before returning her attention back to the road. “You don’t think I should?”
“Well, it is on someone else’s property. It doesn’t really belong to you.”
“Yes, it’s probably on private property, but it doesn’t belong to them either.”
“What do you intend to do with it?” Kate picked at her muffin.
“I don’t know yet, but I promise you it’s not for me.”
“I believe you,” Kate said. “You’re kind and you have a good heart. I’m sure you’ll do something good with it.”
“If I find it guess I should put it in a safe deposit box. I don’t want to keep it around the shop. Victor said it’s tainted money. What if he’s right?”
Kate waved her hand as if to dismiss the thought. “It’s not as if you’re doing this out of greed,” Kate said. “I think it would be rather ironic that eighty-plus years after it was stolen, the money ends up back in a bank.”
It was a little after one when they finally reached the small community of McDowell.
“What a sad little town,” Kate said as they drove through what must have once been a booming economy.
The dilapidated buildings along the main street showed a town that had been deserted and forgotten. For the past several miles the landscape had been dotted with rusted-out tanks and other debris that Ry assumed had been left behind by the oil company.
“I guess the oil ran out,” Ry said. “I just hope there’s someone still around who we can talk to.”
At the far end of the street, they finally found signs of life, a rundown gas station and a bar whose walls leaned so severely, Ry would have been leery of entering. She pulled the truck into the gas station parking lot and shut the engine off. “Maybe you should stay here,” she told Kate as she looked the building over.
Kate threw the truck door open. “You’re not leaving me out here alone.” She scooted off the seat and scurried around the truck to stand by Ry.
“Okay. Let’s go see if anyone here knows where Old Highway Twelve is.” Ry led the way. She could feel tension building in her body as she approached the dark, crumbling building. There didn’t seem to be anyone around. Tentatively, she turned the doorknob. A part of her hoped the door was locked. The door squealed in protest as she pushed it open. The filthy windows allowed very little light to enter and what did make it through was quickly lost in the wild jumble of display cases, shelves, tables and counters that were piled two and three feet high with a crazy assortment of items. On the table closest to her Ry saw baby clothes, camouflage hunting pants, an old bottle of Listerine that still had the cardboard-like tube around it and a garden shovel. She leaned forward to peek around the cabinet by the table and couldn’t stop the small squeal that escaped her when a small fuzzy head popped up.
It didn’t help any when Kate grabbed hold of the back of her shirt. When she finally managed to get her heart out of her throat, she gave a timid wave. “Hi.”
The tiny white-haired woman who had frightened her half to death gave a huge toothless smile. “Scared you some, didn’t I?”
Ry laughed nervously. “Yes, ma’am, you sure did.”
“What’cha lookin’ for? Ain’t got no gas, if that’s what’cha want. Ain’t had none for twenty-odd years.”
“No, ma’am. I actually want Old Highway Twelve.”
“What’cha want with it?”
Ry blinked. “I meant. I’m trying to find where it used to be.”
The old woman pointed to the road out front. “That right there is part of it.”
Kate wiggled around from behind Ry. The narrow passageway hadn’t left her much room to maneuver. “We’re trying to find the old homestead of Amos Dodd.”
Ry wanted to kick Kate. They didn’t need to announce where they were headed.
“He’s dead, you know. Nobody livin’ out there no more. The dirt ain’t no good for farmin’ now.”
Ry nodded. “Yes, I assumed he was dead.” Now that Kate had spilled the beans, there was no reason to pretend. “Do you know where his homestead was located?”
“You’re lookin’ for that money, ain’t you?”
“What money?” Kate asked innoce
ntly.
“People used to come out here all the time. Dug the whole place up out there. Some fool even tore the house apart. Tore boards plumb off the wall, ripped up the porch. People get plumb crazy when it comes to money.”
“We’re actually writing a story on the oil boom that hit here,” Kate said. “During our research, we found an article on the accident that hurt several people. Mr. Dodd’s name was at the top of the list and we thought we might expand our article to show how the boom didn’t help everyone.”
Ry kept quiet and let Kate continue.
“That oil didn’t help nobody ’cept them there oilmen. Everybody else it hurt. They come in and sprayed stuff to kill everything. Then they dug all them there holes everywhere. Holes so big a young’un could fall in ’em. I was eight years old when they put that first big old nasty thing up right outside town.” The old woman shook her head. “Caused all kinds of nastiness to come here. We had a pretty town.” She shuffled sideways and pointed back over Ry’s shoulder. “Used to have a big old fountain right back over there in a big, pretty green park and every year at Easter time us kids would have Easter egg hunts. There’d be pretty yellow daffodils growin’ round the fountain. Then they sprayed that stuff and kilt all the flowers and grass. They tore it all up for another one of those nasty oil things. Nobody could stop ’em. One of them nasty things kilt my daddy and brother. Fell on ’em and crushed ’em.” She wiped her eyes with a claw like hand. “Now everybody’s gone. People are scared to try and farm. Too many holes everywhere. Oilmen dug ’em and left ’em. Just me and a few more old fools livin’ here now. You tell that to your fancy paper readers.”
Ry watched the poor woman and felt ashamed that she had dredged up bad memories for her. “We’re sorry we bothered you, ma’am.” She nudged Kate. As they turned, the old woman stopped them.
“Stay on this here road till you reach the crossroads, take a left there. Amos’s place was about six miles out. Last time I was out that a way, part of the old chimney was still standin’. Been about thirty years since I was out there, though. Reckon some fool has probably done tore it down by now.” She blinked and looked at them with clouded eyes. “Ray wasn’t a bad boy. He just got even with ’em for what they did to his daddy. Nobody ’round here blamed him. He was just a young’un.”
The Treasure Seeker Page 21