Just as she had recognized Jesse in a picture, she knew instantly that was Bushnell.
He was balding, with light gray at the temples of his short brown hair. He wore the standard suit coat and vest and tie of the time, all shades of dark gray. He had a short dark overcoat hanging on a hook beside his chair with brown leather saddlebags hanging on another hook.
Since he had checked into the hotel, it was more than likely what was in those saddlebags was something he didn’t want stolen from his hotel room, and that he didn’t trust to a small town hotel safe.
The saddlebags seemed to have a bulk to them. She had no doubt that thirty Season Medals, if individually wrapped, would have bulk to them. Each Season Medal was about the size around of a thin small doughnut, made mostly of silver. Thirty of them wrapped up would have weight, she had no doubt.
She was very happy to see that. It meant he had not lost them at this point in his travels.
As Jesse pulled his chair forward to the table and took his napkin from the table and spread it on his lap, Kelli leaned forward and whispered, “Bushnell is two tables behind you. He has a very heavy-looking saddlebag with him.”
Jesse nodded and smiled. Then he stood to pretend to get something from his coat pocket. As he did, he glanced toward Bushnell.
Then he sat back down and nodded. “Looks like we are finally getting started.”
She gave him smile. “On more than one thing.”
She loved that he blushed slightly as he smiled. How she had been so lucky as to find a man this handsome, this smart, was beyond her. She really, really owed Bonnie and Duster a huge thank-you for sending him to investigate her.
And if she had her way, he would investigate even more of her later.
The thought made her laugh and Jesse frowned.
She waved her hand. “Just imagining what we are going to do later.”
He smiled. “Oh, trust me, it will be fun and feel great, but it won’t be a laughing matter.”
“Now I like the sounds of that promise,” she said.
And she did. More than she wanted to admit.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
BUSHNELL FINISHED UP his dinner and then paid while Jesse and Kelli were still finishing their first course. So as Bushnell put on his coat, Jesse excused himself from Kelli.
As he stood, leaving his coat and hat on the hook, he apologized loud enough for Bushnell to hear.
“I’ll be right back, dear,” he said. “I just needed to get something from our room.”
Kelli nodded and smiled, “Don’t be too long, dear. I would hate for your meal to chill.”
Jesse smiled at her and went out the door, walking down the wide boardwalk at a normal pace toward the hotel. The evening air was still clean and crisp and comfortable, with almost no breeze off the ocean. The sun was still a couple hours above the horizon.
About halfway to the hotel, Jesse heard the door to the restaurant close behind him.
He glanced back to see Bushnell following him with the heavy saddlebag over his shoulder. Kelli had been right. That bag had a heft to it, there was no doubt. To someone in this time period who knew what they were looking for, that bag was like a sign for Bushnell to be robbed. He carried it like he had pounds of gold in there.
Jesse went into the hotel and moved off to one side of the lobby, picking up a local paper and pretending to read intently as Bushnell came in.
Jesse let Bushnell get up to the first floor before he went across the lobby and up the stairs himself. Bushnell hadn’t even looked around, but instead walked with his eyes on the floor in front of him.
Bushnell stopped on the second floor and Jesse could hear him from his heavy steps on the wood floor turn down the hallway to the right.
Jesse reached the second floor just as Bushnell opened the third door down the hallway from the stairwell and went inside and closed it. The sound of the bolt latching from the inside echoed in the hallway.
Jesse turned around and headed back down the stairs, again going to the newspaper near one seating area and pretending to read.
After five minutes, when Bushnell hadn’t come down, Jesse put the paper down and returned to the restaurant just as the waitress was serving his steak, still sizzling.
And beside the steak was a cob of corn and a large dinner roll. Perfect, and it smelled heavenly.
“Any luck?” Kelli asked.
Jesse smiled as he picked up his fork and knife. “A beautiful woman and a wonderful meal. Can’t get much luckier than that.”
She shook her head. “Trust me, mister. You’re going to get a lot luckier later.”
“Does that mean I should eat fast?” he asked, looking intently into her dark eyes.
“No,” she said, shaking her head as she dug at her corn with a knife as a woman should do in this time period. “I would rather have you eat and build up your strength.”
“Same goes for you,” he said, laughing.
And then he leaned forward and whispered, “Our target is tucked in bed on the second floor, third room down on the right.”
“So we have until dawn,” she said, nodding.
“I would love to make the best of that time in more ways than just one.”
She laughed as she took a spoonful of corn. “I can think of about a dozen ways.”
He really, really liked the sound of that.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
AT DAWN, BOTH Kelli and Jesse were dressed and ready to move if they had to. It had been a wonderful night in the large featherbed, making love and then holding each other and sleeping together.
But as the sun came up, they got cleaned up and got focused back on the reason they were in this wonderful hotel overlooking the ocean in the first place.
Kelli set up her notes and stuff at the table in the round corner of the room. From there, even though the sun was still hours from clearing the coastal range and hitting the street of the town below, she could see everything.
Jesse went in search of a back way out of the hotel to make sure Bushnell didn’t sneak out on them for any reason. There was a back door, but it simply led around and back to the boardwalk. Directly behind the hotel was a rock cliff that didn’t look easy to climb, and a forest above the cliff.
His first impression about the town in 2016 was right. It really was just perched on a ledge between the mountains and the ocean.
Since the hotel had no room service or restaurant, Jesse then went to the restaurant, waving slightly at Kelli from the restaurant door. He couldn’t see her through the window, but he knew she was there.
He ordered them both massive fresh rolls, a large pot of fresh-brewed coffee, and some of the most amazing-looking cookies he had ever seen. It would hold them until lunch and he promised to bring the coffeepot back for a refill at lunch.
Then he headed back to the hotel.
“I couldn’t see you from the restaurant,” he said. “And the only way out the back forces anyone back onto the boardwalk.”
Kelli nodded. “Great.”
She was dressed in her riding clothes since it seemed a number of women in this town dressed that way normally. A city dress made no sense here. She was alternating between her notes and watching out the window and seemed distracted.
“I just can’t figure out why Bushnell is here,” she said as he spread out the large rolls that smelled wonderful, like a cross between a bun and a modern cinnamon roll.
“A meeting,” Jesse said as he poured her a cup of coffee. “An isolated place like this would be perfect for a meeting.”
She nodded. “But usually Bushnell went to the people he wanted to meet.”
Jesse sat down and pointed in the direction of the small harbor just out of sight at the north end of the town. “Maybe that’s exactly what he is doing here.”
Kelli frowned, then looked up at him. “I have been think
ing about this wrong. Damn it all.”
Jesse stared at her, sort of surprised. They had gone over this a few times before leaving Boise and he sure didn’t see where her thinking of this was wrong.
“Want to explain that?” Jesse asked and then took a bite of one of the soft rolls and let the sweetness melt in his mouth. Butter, a little cinnamon, and a faint vanilla flavor. This was better than even a modern cinnamon roll. Wow.
“I have been thinking that Bushnell was finished with looking for new medals,” Kelli said, shaking her head. “I thought he was done a few years ago. He isn’t. He has never stopped, which would explain his trip here and his trip to Roosevelt. He’s still tracking more of the medals.”
“Lewis and Clark did make it all the way to the mouth of the Columbia River just north of here,” Jesse said, understanding where she was going. “And they went through Idaho just north of the Roosevelt area.”
Before she could say anything, there was a knock at the door.
They both looked at each other. More than likely just hotel staff, but the knock bothered Jesse.
He indicated that Kelli move around behind the door, then moved to the door and just barely opened it, making sure he was to one side ready to move if something came at him.
As he opened the door he got a real shock.
Standing there with his saddlebag over his shoulder was John Simon Bushnell.
Bushnell broke into a smile and said, “Thank god you two are here.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
WHEN KELLI HEARD the voice and the simple statement, she stepped out to see who had said that to Jesse. Seeing Bushnell standing there in his suit and vest and tie just flat stunned her.
What the hell was going on?
Bushnell nodded. “Doctor Rae, it is an honor to meet you for technically the first time. I am a fan of your books, including a couple you haven’t written yet.”
Kelli could feel her mouth open and then close.
Not a word even formed in her brain.
Jesse stood there, his hand on the door, just staring at Bushnell as well.
“May I come in?” Bushnell asked. “I can explain all this. Honest. Duster and Bonnie told me this would be a shock to you two at this point.”
Jesse moved first and nodded that Bushnell should come in. Then Jesse looked both ways down the hallway before closing the door.
Bushnell turned to face Dr. Rae. “Your theory is correct. I am here to meet a ship’s captain who might be willing to part with one of the Season Medals he picked up about twenty years ago. It will be the thirty-first I have recovered.”
“Let’s back up a long ways,” Jesse said as Kelli just kept staring at the man.
Bushnell looked fairly old and weathered and his balding head had clearly seen far too much sun over the years. But on closer look at details, he clearly was a man of means.
Jesse indicated that Bushnell join them at the table overlooking the street and offered him a roll and some cookies, both of which Bushnell accepted with a “Thanks, haven’t had breakfast yet.”
Bushnell put his saddlebag down on the pine floor with a thump and then sat down.
So far Kelli hadn’t been able to even form a sentence or a word, she was so shocked. From what she was gathering, the man she had been researching for this book was from the future as well.
How in the hell was that possible?
Then she remembered the picture where she had seen Jessie and Madison and Duster and herself and understood exactly the answer.
Jesse sat down, took a sip of his coffee and then looked at Bushnell as Kelli dropped back into her chair across from both of them.
“Start off with your real name in the future,” Jesse said, “and when did you come through the crystal cavern?”
“I didn’t come through the cavern,” Bushnell said, his voice clearly happy. “You two and the original group are the last ones to use the cavern. I’ve never even seen the cavern or could find it if I tried. Have Duster and Bonnie tell you the story of how Carson Edwards was killed on the road leaving that cavern. Before you two joined. Damn scary stuff.”
“So how the hell do you get back here?” Jesse asked.
Bushnell laughed. “For research, starting the year after you two joined up. We now all use the new institute out on Warm Springs Avenue in Boise. Bonnie and Duster and all of you built it together back in 1880 from my understanding. It looks like a big mansion, but has top state-of-the-art security and computers. The three levels of basements are amazing.”
“How is that possible?” Kelli asked, finally getting her brain into gear.
Bushnell shrugged. “Time travel gives me a headache, but from what I understand, Bonnie and Duster and other mathematicians working for them figured out a way to take crystals and move them from the crystal cavern to the institute and then return them.”
Jesse nodded, glancing at Kelli. “Did you notice the crystals on the ground by the door?”
“That cavern was just too overwhelming for me to remember much there,” Kelli said.
“I sure would love to see it some day,” Bushnell said. “But at this point, except for you fourteen originals, it’s pretty much off limits and kept very secret.”
“When did you come through?” Jesse asked. “And how many are now traveling in time for research?”
“Counting the three of us,” Bushnell said, “there are thirty now. I first went through in 2019, but I am not allowed to tell you two anything that happens between 2016 and 2019, so don’t ask. The institute has scary strict rules and you run it.”
Bushnell pointed to Jesse and Kelli was shocked at how Jesse just sort of jerked backwards.
“Oops, probably wasn’t supposed to tell you even that,” Bushnell said. “Sorry.”
Jesse nodded. “Yeah, let’s be careful with that.”
Bushnell nodded. “Got it.”
“So you didn’t tell us your real name,” Kelli said.
“I am Doctor Kevin Bushnell from Michigan State University. We are allowed now to only use our real last names, but must change our first names on research trips.”
Kelli was now really stunned. “Your first book on Early American Exploration was amazing.”
“Well, thank you,” Bushnell said, nodding and clearly embarrassed. “I obviously have learned a lot since that first book and am working on updating it given time.”
He laughed at that joke.
“So you are back,” Jesse said, “starting in 1880 gathering up Season Medals?”
“That was the idea,” Bushnell said, nodding. “I figured the best way to get them into museums and back with the right Native American tribes was to gather them up, hide them until 2019, and then release them as a major find.”
“My research showed that only three have surfaced,” Kelli said.
“Yeah,” Bushnell said, suddenly looking upset. The man clearly wore his emotions right out for anyone to see. “Three I could not get. But I’m afraid without your help, all the ones I have will not surface ever again.”
“Why’s that?” Jesse asked. “Hide them in a bad place?”
“I don’t get the chance to hide them correctly,” Bushnell said, now looking really down and depressed. “I’ve tried twenty times so far, and every time I have been killed before I get the chance to hide them correctly.”
“Killed?” Jesse asked.
Kelli just sat forward, watching the man. He clearly was telling the truth and not at all happy about his story.
Bushnell nodded. “When you are killed in a past timeline, you end up back in the institute two minutes and fifteen seconds after you left. I keep coming back into the past, rounding up the medals, trying to outsmart whoever is killing me and taking the medals. And for twenty different trips into the past, I have failed.”
Again all Kelli could do was open her mouth and then shut it.
CHAPTER THIRTY
July 9th, 1906
Oregon Coast
JESSE SAT STARING at Bushnell. What the man was saying about being killed twenty times wasn’t possible unless he was being followed by someone with intense resources and who was very, very good at what they did.
And Jesse doubted that was happening. More than likely this was just a crime of opportunity. And Bushnell just kept giving the guy an opportunity. But they were going to have to be careful just in case.
Jesse had to clear his mind of the time travel aspects of all this and just think inside this timeline. And think like an investigator.
“When do you buy the next medal,” Jesse asked.
“Tomorrow,” Bushnell said. “It’s why I came here a day early to meet you two. Duster said you would be here and be able to help. Kind of embarrassing, telling him, to be honest. But after twenty failures, I had to ask permission to break the institute rules and talk with you.”
Kelli looked at Jesse. “You don’t think this is another time traveler doing this, do you?”
“No,” Jesse said, and he didn’t, but damned if he couldn’t be sure it wasn’t. At this point, he didn’t know what to believe.
He just wished Duster and Bonnie had trained them a lot more about the past, not just how to survive, but about the ins and outs of time travel and timelines.
“Hadn’t even thought of another researcher doing this sort of thing,” Bushnell said. “In fact, I could walk down the street past numbers of them from my time period and not know them for who they are. And they wouldn’t know me. Especially since I have aged twenty-six long years back here this trip.”
“And you wouldn’t know at all travelers who joined after you,” Kelli said.
Jesse sat back, deciding right at that moment that things needed to change. He had only lived a year in the past and he could see massive problems coming in this setup.
“So what are you thinking?” Kelli asked Jesse, turning away from Bushnell.
“It only seems logical to me,” Jesse said to Bushnell, “that our robber and killer is someone who follows you each time. And does it very well. Do you ever see him?”
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