Billingsworth didn’t really want to mention the Sheriff’s name. There was something unethical about it. Unprofessional. He just wanted to give the boys a warning that someone could stop at nothing to get there first. But they could see it in his eyes and there was no use in trying to deny it. Everyone involved knew who the teams were now and there were no big secrets about who all the players were.
“Boys, he is eaten up with this legend. It was a great big hobby for him for many years. Ya know, researching stuff and just having fun with it. The way someone would be so into the Civil War era that they go and do the reenactment stuff? It was on that same kind of level. He would research something, then go around with metal detectors every time he had an idea where it could be. It has consumed his adult life and even cost him a marriage! But since you two have uncovered this document it has lit a fire in him that you cannot believe. He is like a marathon runner with the finish line in sight…a second wind. There is evil in his eyes and nothing will stop him now. He…he thinks he is entitled to it. He really believes it is his gold! And I’m not just talking about pushing people around, Josh. I mean violence. I’m concerned for him and I’m concerned for you! His mental health is not right these days.”
Josh and Eddie both were nodding their heads, acknowledging what the Mayor was saying, as they began consuming the fries. He looked at them once again with great concern using his hands while talking to make his point.
“I am doing what I can to dissolve our partnership in this matter without him really realizing it. I just want to float away from him. I just want to float away from this whole matter, but I know things about the sheriff that no one else knows and it’s going to be hard for me. Being on his team could bury me politically.”
Billingsworth paused again, looking down and then up at the boys.
“Guys I’m just going to tell you, I have seen it in his eyes. I have heard it in his words…This gold has become his destiny and he may stop at nothing. Death was at the beginning of this gold mystery and death could be at the end! He knows how to do it and he knows where to hide the bodies. I don’t know how to tell you any more directly than that,” the Mayor of Red Creek said solemnly.
The boy’s eyes became as big as saucers.
There’s the revelation.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The bike ride home from Ryder’s was quiet and slow. The boys had never thought that this fun little summer-time adventure could turn morbidly cold. Could it really cost someone their life? Was all that talk from Billingsworth just to scare them away or to buy some time while he and Collins worked up their plan to find the gold using all the information that they had or was he sincere? Josh read Billingsworth’s eyes as sincere but he was a politician…a professional truth bender.
Josh and Eddie wheeled their bikes into the garage and rested them on their kickstands. Josh grabbed the can of worms they had previously gathered and looked inside, shaking the can a little. They were all below the surface of the dirt now. He sat down on an empty five-gallon paint bucket and looked outside. Eddie selected a couple of fishing poles from the rod holder on the wall.
“So what do you think, Josh,” Eddie asked. “What’s your opinion?”
Josh thought a minute.
“Well, for me, I think we have to go on with it. I think we take what the Mayor said as a very strong precaution. I don’t think we should quit, but I do think we should be very careful. We haven’t come this far just to quit now.”
“Okay, I’m right with you on that. But I think we have to watch out for both of them. Shoot, I think we have to grow eyes in the back of our heads and watch out for everyone!”
“It’s true.”
The boys made their way to the riverbank to take the V-bottom boat across the river to the sand bar.
Burl Otis brushed the rust off the last of his steel traps, lightly oiled it and placed it back on the nail on the wall. Twenty-five Traps cleaned, oiled and ready for season. December couldn’t arrive soon enough for him.
His trapping cabin was a small log structure, roughly ten feet square, and was built on a very small flat spot on the side of the hill right beside the stream that flowed from the mountain down the hill, through the old trestle and onto the sandbar. It was rustic, to say the least, with a hammock-style bed for spending a couple nights on, and around him were the tools needed for trapping: fur-stretching boards, knives of different sizes, traps and a small table that would go outside for “preparation” of the fur. In season he would trap muskrat, beaver, fox and mink. He did well enough at it to provide him the basics that a mountain man needs to survive. About once or twice a year he would be seen after the season had ended and the furs were tanned at the Red Creek General Store, cashing in for his yearly salary. This income, along with a very lucrative ginseng crop that he told nobody about, would easily carry him through the year, with money left over. He didn’t use banks.
Burl finished straightening up the cabin and then, satisfied that things were ready for him come December, locked up the cabin and started his walk down the stream, under the trestle to the sand bar where he would meet with Tiny and the boys.
From his back porch, Tiny Brooks looked out over the Elk River with fondness, just as he had done thousands of times in his lifetime. For now, it was a beautiful bright sunny morning with shafts of light shooting through the trees and onto the water, creating glimmering islands of light. He sat thinking about the gold and about Washington Brooks and the era in which he had lived and struggled and prospered. Tiny was pretty sure that Washington Brooks was equally as happy along the banks of the old river as he himself was. What’s not to like here on the Elk River in summertime West Virginia?
He glanced at his watch as he finished off a big glass of tea and then pulled his boots on to go meet with the rest of the fellas to discuss the plan for locating the Southern Jewel--a really big pile of gold stolen from a train long ago just a half mile from where his little homestead sat on the Elk River.
John Hopes paced back and forth in his home office with his phone to his ear. On the walls were many plaques and awards for investigative journalism he had earned through the years. There were pictures of him standing beside esteemed colleagues as well as politicians and sports figures of the past. A black and white of him and an Army buddy in Guam in 1945 at the Navy base where he served for four years. In the corner were two 25-pound dumbbells with no dust on them. Hopes was still within a few pounds of his Navy weight and still quite energetic for his ripe old age.
John Hopes was listening to the caller on the other end.
“So what do you make of it? You think it was Collins who went back in there? And how could he have gotten in?” He paused and listened. “You have the tape from the door? You kept it?”
It was Mansfield, who went on excitedly about his suspicion of Collins reentering the library after they had gone home.
Mansfield said in an excited whisper, “I went back downstairs after Giselle had arrived to look around for anything else that didn’t look right. I found the papers that we copied in the folder still on the computer desk by the monitor. She was off to the side doing some work on book returns. All the copies were there but if he found them, then he could have made another copy and took it with him and that would be why the copier was left on! John, we deciphered that code and left it lying there for him! It was my fault. I was exhausted. But all he has to do now is go to the island and conduct his search!” He was nearly panicked.
Hopes processed all the information from Mansfield. “You don’t have surveillance, do you?”
“John, this library can’t even afford computerized cataloging much less surveillance cameras. And Collins would know that!”
“Alright, we have to meet. We have to act fast, because if that crook Collins unwraps this mystery first, he will leave the country with the gold. I have so much dirt on him through the years… you wouldn’t believe what a crooked cop he is,” Hopes said. “That kind of a discovery with the
recognition that goes along with it could do so much for our county and our towns here along the river. We need it!”
Mansfield said nothing in response to that. “Where do we meet?” He asked.
They agreed on a spot and Elton asked Giselle to hold down the fort while he ran out for an hour or so.
……………………………………………………………………………………..
As Josh Baker stepped out of the boat and onto the sand bar his cell phone rang with Skynyrd’s “I Know a Little” automatically making his head dance around a little. Eddie looked at him and grinned with approval of the ring tone. It was Giselle.
He said, “Hey, what going on?”
She began urgently as Josh tapped the speaker button, “Listen, Mansfield and his buddy John Hopes know everything! I found some papers this morning beside our downstairs computer. They took the copy of the yellow legal pad thing that you left here and deciphered it! It’s all written down here. They know where to go look for the gold. There are a bunch of notes and….hang on, let me read it to you!”
“No wait…it’s OK, we have it too. We have it all deciphered. The gold is on the island. In an island bank right?”
Giselle calmed a little bit. “Yeah but what does it all mean?”
Josh went through their method of deciphering the document at Tiny Brooks’ house and how they concluded what it meant. He told her about Billingsworth’s warning to them and how time now was money, literally!
“Oh my gosh! Okay, Josh, listen! This is real important. Mansfield has bad hearing so sometimes he talks louder than he needs to.”
“Ummm…okay.”
“Stay with me here. I heard him talking to his friend John Hopes, the old news reporter guy. I’m pretty sure he and Hopes are working this thing together and these papers are a result of their late-night investigation last night. From what I could hear, trouble came later.”
“What do you mean?”
“Looks like they suspect Collins of breaking and entering sometime after they left, so he could see what they were up to.”
“But why?”
She went on, “Again, from the pieces that I could hear, it seems that Collins stopped by long after closing to see why the lights were still on. I’m sure that Mansfield didn’t give him any information, so it looks like he came back later to have a look for himself.
“Oh wow. Gutsy.”
“Yeah, and if Collins found these papers, too, and it looks like he did, he now has a fully-deciphered treasure map to 162 pounds of Confederate gold. You can bet that he will be there to find it very soon!”
“So Collins and Billingsworth have a copy, Mansfield and Hopes have a copy and we have a copy of a fully-deciphered treasure map.”
Giselle said, “May the best team win!”
“That’s not funny!” Josh popped.
“Well, if you guys really want to find it then you better get busy! What’s the plan?”
“We’re meeting with Tiny and Burl right now to make our plan for the island.”
“Okay, keep me posted.”
“Will do, thanks!”
“Bye.”
Josh thought to himself that if he had not left that stupid yellow copy of the document lying at the library that day that this weirdo Mansfield would not be a factor, and if he would have used better brains and put the original deerskin somewhere safer, he wouldn’t have Collins and Billingsworth to worry about, either. Small mistakes cause big problems sometimes. But it is what it is now and they must hurry!
Tiny Brooks and the boys arrived onto the sandbar within five minutes of one another. Eddie had taken the poles out of the boat and had sat the can of worms on the rocks to give the appearance of fishing. To better give the appearance of fishing, Josh baited a line and flung it out into the middle of the river, resting it on the bottom with a pyramid sinker.
Tiny smiled, “That’s a real good idea there.” He pointed to the fishing poles. “If you’re gonna be down here, ya might as well fish.”
“That’s what we figured, too!” Eddie agreed.
“Middle of the day, maybe nothing’s happening, but ya never know.”
Behind them was the tunnel through the trestle that let the stream flow out to the river and deposit rocks from the hills to the sand bar, giving river folk a place to stand and fish for over a hundred years since the older wooden trestle stood there in the late 1800s.
The tunnel through the trestle was about fifty feet in length and daylight could be seen through it to the other side. Normally. At this time, however, eclipsing the light through the tunnel, a big burly man stepped from rock to rock to make his way through and onto the sandbar.
“Afternoon, gentlemen!” Burl said, staying close to the mouth of the tunnel and surveying the area for lookers.
The morning sun was beginning to give way to a few noontime clouds just as forecasted by the local weatherman. Also forecast was light rain in the afternoon. As the clouds passed they cast shadows onto the river and the sandbar, giving moments of relief from the direct summer sun. Plants and trees were in full bloom and it was the growing season for them. The hillsides were thick with brush and saplings. The river was a beautiful light green and flowed gently past the river rocks that the four stood on.
“Afternoon, Mr. Otis,” Josh said.
“Where’s Brad?” Tiny asked, looking around.
“Not sure; he said he would be here. I kinda expected him early.”
Eddie said, “Could be his dad has him doing something.”
Josh looked out at his fishing line and flipped a couple of rocks over with the toe of his shoe. Burl noticed that he was a bit edgy “We need to move quickly. I don’t think we can waste any time.”
Burl said, “What’s wrong, Josh? You look a little tense.”
Josh and Eddie looked at each other as Eddie walked closer, and the boys gave an account of their morning so far. From collecting the worms to the flashing headlights and the nerve-wracking walk to the dark-windowed sedan. They told Burl and Tiny of the French fry lunch with Mayor Billingsworth and his peculiar warning about Collins.
The two older gentlemen listened carefully as Burl Otis stroked his full black and gray beard and Tiny looked on in concentration.
Eddie said, “So we are thinking that we go on but we have to be very, very careful.”
Tiny looked at Burl, both knowing neither wanted the worst to happen. They were just boys, young boys doing what every young boy dreamed of--having an adventure! It wasn’t worth their lives. Not for a crazy kook like Collins. Their eyes said maybe they should just call this whole thing off and let the bad guys have it. But inside they knew that it was not the best thing to do. If those two men got that gold, it would never get back to where it belonged. Collins and Bilingsworth would be long gone with it. Or at least Collins would. The Mayor would manage a way to get his share, too. Maybe he would still hang around the area since he had family but he would be high on the hog. Collins could maneuver his share to Billingsworth, filtering it through foreign banks and setting up a new account somewhere far away. No, they couldn’t let that happen when they had an opportunity to prevent it. They had an obligation as citizens to do the right thing.
Burl looked down at the ground and then his eyes rolled up to Tiny and then over to the boys. “I think we move on but we have to really watch our backs.”
Tiny Brooks was nodding his head. “Yeah… we can take no chances with these guys. If Billingsworth came to you with that kind of warning, then it could be that he is just as capable as Collins of doing the unthinkable. They could be two very crazy men focused on finding that gold. I would say that they don’t want to kill anyone for it. Especially kids! That’s why they came to you with the warning. They want to scare you into quitting so that it doesn’t get to that and they have to make a decision whether or not to do…the unthinkable. But I’m also saying that they just might be willing to do it.”
Tiny’s words were like ice an
d gave Josh the chill of fear.
They all paused for a second as one of the fishing poles bounced one time. They all looked at each other and put their right hands in together and smiled a brave smile. They would move on but must train their eyes and ears to perceive anything abnormal in their surroundings. They were men and boys of the mountains and rivers. They would do well.
“Let’s go get it!” Burl coached.
They made a plan to meet back at the sandbar at 9 o’clock that evening. The boys would have to tell their parents they were camping on the riverbank that night, which they did often and, since they disliked lying, they would pitch their tent and bring their gear. They would take Brad’s raft to the island loaded with the gear that they might need--shovels, picks and axe and lanterns--and live out the adventure of a lifetime.
The rod tip bounced hard this time and stayed down. Fish on!
Brad Radcliffe’s raft drifted around the river bend to the north and floated towards the four guys on the sandbar. He was a little late, but the guys would brief him on the plan and utilize the coolest river vessel on the Elk River later that night!
…………………………………………………………………………………..
Sheriff Collins sat studying his copy of the deciphered document while pouring over a survey map of the island that was on record at the Town Office. His reading glasses were low on his nose as he looked for the best location to tie up the county-owned johnboat in order to access the old tavern and to do a late-night search for a huge profit. Daytime would not work. It had to be at night. In the daytime, parts of the island were used for outings and sporting events, but at night, it was deserted and Collins knew it. There were no caretakers.
Collins looked out the window as cars passed, and wondered where the Mayor was. They had to make a plan. They needed a meeting point, a plan “B.” But so far the mayor had not been at work that day which, wasn’t unusual. He had things to do other places. He had meetings with other mayors in the county or business in Charleston with business owners or proprietors looking to locate their business somewhere up the river, and he was there to promote his little town for the sake of tax dollars. Billingsworth was a busy man. But not today.
River Rocks: A West Virginia Adventure Novel Page 22