Unperturbed, Fitch met Carter’s steady gaze unflinchingly and said, “I’m telling you that Hollister and his friends have come into possession of a large amount of money in a relatively short period of time.”
Carter staggered backward, perplexed, and ran a hand through his hair. How? How had Hollister managed to acquire so much money? He righted his fallen chair and sat back in it. Shaking his head, as if to rid it of cobwebs, he looked back at Fitch.
“What else have you got?”
Nodding, Fitch resumed his narrative. “My next stop was the law office that represents this partnership. After chatting up with one of the junior associates, I found out that the name of this business partnership is ‘The Treasure Hunt Club.’ The associate was very closemouthed about what exactly this … this club does, although he did let slip they had found some very valuable antiques.”
Carter pursed his lips in concentration over what Fitch had discovered. His knowledge of antiques was limited, but he knew enough to know that for Nick and his friends to “accidently” stumble across over two million dollars of rare antiques was next to impossible.
“Anything else?” he said, glancing over at Fitch.
Shaking his head, Fitch said, “Only that the club recently leased a small office building on the north side of town and that they are advertising for a secretary.” With that, Fitch handed Carter the folder and snapped his briefcase shut. Tellie showed him to the door, shutting it firmly behind him.
“What do you think?” she asked Carter.
With a perplexed shake of his head, Carter admitted, “I don’t know. Fitch’s report raises more questions than it answers. If, in fact, Hollister and his friends have been finding rare antiques, they have to been having help in finding them! They have to!”
Pacing about the office, a frustrated Carter said as much to himself as to Tellie, “But who or what is helping them?”
Stopping suddenly in midstride, Carter snapped his fingers, and a broad smile spread across his face.
Tellie, who had seen that expression on Carter’s face before, asked eagerly, “What?”
“Tellie, you are hereby going to take a paid leave of absence from the Cannon Auto Group.”
“Why?” Tellie asked, frowning.
In reply, Carter walked over to Tellie and pulled her toward him in a close embrace. Whispering in her ear, he said, “Because I can’t expect you to work two jobs at once, now can I?” Seeing that the confused expression remained on Tellie’s face, Carter released her and laughed.
“What? Didn’t you hear? They’re in need of a new secretary at the Treasure Hunt Club!”
The smile disappeared from Carter’s face to be replaced by a determined glint in his eyes.
“And I know the perfect person to fill that position!”
The noise in Dusty’s was deafening as Nick led Abby to the table where Mark, Patti, and Kenneth were sitting. The place was packed as Steve’s band pulsed out rock anthems, which competed to be heard over the sounds of dozens of conversations, clinking glasses, and the scraping of chairs. Helping Abby into her seat and then taking his own, Nick looked around curiously. He hadn’t been to the honky-tonk since the last time Steve’s garage band had played there the previous summer. Other than expanding the small stage the band played on, the place hadn’t seemed to have changed much.
Returning his attention to his friends around the table, Nick asked, “How’s Steve’s new band sound?”
Mark, who was nursing a beer, looked over, grinning and said, “Well, you know Steve. His music comes in two varieties: loud and louder!” Nick laughed at Mark’s analysis and was soon joined by Kenneth. However, he noticed that Patti studiously avoided joining in the merriment. As he looked over at her, he saw a strained look on her face. It was not something that most people would notice, but for Nick, who knew Patti and Mark well, it was an obvious red flag. Apparently, they had yet to settle the issue of adoption versus fertility attempts in order to have kids.
As if to confirm his diagnosis of the situation, Nick looked questionably over at Abby, and she gave him a slight shake of her head. Since she was living with Mark and Patti, he was certain she knew something was going on. The irony of the situation was not lost on Nick, as he was reminded of their own recently strained relationship. Since their falling out at Nick’s new condo, they not only had not been out together but they had had no con- tact, other than a few brief cell phone conversations. Nick viewed the invitation to hear Steve’s new band as a golden opportunity to assess the damage that had occurred to their relationship.
When he had arrived to pick up Abby in his new Jeep, Nick wasn’t sure what to expect, but Abby had greeted him with a kiss, and they had talked as they always did on the drive over to Dusty’s. Although it had seemed “normal” to him at first, now he wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t anything he could put a finger on, but rather, he sensed it was as if their relationship had somehow been fundamentally altered and was now out of kilter. These thoughts caused him to glance again at Abby, and he was surprised to see her already gazing at him. There was a hint of sadness in her eyes, and with a jolt that went straight to his heart, Nick knew it was for them and not for Mark and Patti.
Nick was spared any further thought on the matter as Steve’s band finished a set with a loud crescendo, and he joined them shortly afterward at their table. Gesturing at a waitress, he ordered a drink and then looked expectantly at his friends.
“Well, what do you think?”
“About owning Dusty’s, or about your new band?” Mark asked.
Laughing, Steve waved his arms expansively, “All of it, of course!”
Steve’s speech was somewhat slurred, and he giggled as if at some private joke he had just told himself. The waitress arrived with Steve’s whiskey and Coke, and he downed it in one gulp before immediately ordering another.
Nick looked at Steve with concern and said, “Hey, don’t you think you should slow down a bit? You’ve still got two more sets to play!”
Steve ignored Nick and gushed, “Isn’t this the greatest rush ever? My own band and my own bar! Dreams really do come true!” Steve said this so loudly that those in the tables around them looked over curiously.
“Yeah, yeah it’s great!” Nick said quickly before Steve could shout another comment.
Leaning forward, Steve whispered to Nick, “And I owe it all to you and your trusty book, my buddy, my buddy, my friend.” This struck Steve as inordinately funny, and a fresh round of giggling erupted from him, interrupted only by the arrival of his drink.
Grabbing his glass, Steve stood up and said, “Well, gotta do some mingling before the next set. Drinks are on the house!” With that, Steve walked off, swaying slightly as he negotiated his way around patrons and tables.
“He’s drinking way too much!” Mark observed apprehensively as he watched Steve’s retreating back. Nick could only nod, his concern for Steve matching that of Mark’s.
The sight of Steve staggering away placed a somber pall on the friends as they sat through another set by Steve’s band. When the last ringing note squealed to an end, as if in one accord, they all stood up and waved at Steve before making their way out of the club. Saying their good-byes to each other, they got into their cars and drove away.
Nick drove slowly as Abby sat quietly in the passenger seat next to him. Neither seemed to know what to say, and they made the trip back to Mark and Patti’s house in awkward silence.
Getting out of the car, Nick opened the door for Abby and helped her out. The touch of Abby’s hand on his own seemed to galvanize Nick, and he suddenly pulled her toward him.
“I can’t stand it anymore! I’ve got to know something!” The words tumbled from him in a rush. “Do you still love me?”
Abby hesitated for a moment before placing both her hands tenderly on either side of Nick’s face.
“Yes. Yes, I’m very much in love with you, Nick,” Abby replied softly.
Kissing him gently on the lips,
Abby pulled away from Nick and made her way to the front door. Reaching into her purse, she retrieved her house key before turning to face Nick.
“But sometimes love isn’t enough,” Abby said. “Sometimes love can’t survive unless it is allowed to grow.” With that, she unlocked the door and entered the house, closing the door behind her.
Long seconds passed as Nick stared at the door. One moment he had been in euphoric heaven when Abby said that she still loved him. The next moment had brought it all crashing down. What did she mean? Did she love him or not?
Those questions occupied his thoughts all the way home.
Chapter 27
“Your resume is quite impressive, Miss … Miss …” Nick faltered as he searched for the name on the resume. They were sitting in the club’s new office annex. The smell of fresh paint competed with the smells of the recently laid carpet. The new office furniture had not yet been delivered, and the furnishings were Spartan—nothing more than a dented filing cabinet, a few old folding chairs, and a card table.
“Ms. Brewster, but everyone calls me Tellie,” Tellie said with a smile on her face. “As I indicated on my resume, in addition to typing eighty words a minute, I am quite proficient in Excel and PowerPoint.” With that, Tellie chose to cross her legs, the action causing her skirt to ride higher. She had chosen her outfit carefully, deciding she must appear professional in her guise of seeking the secretarial opening, but at the same time, she wanted her other “assets” at least demurely displayed. Therefore, she had settled for a dark blue skirt that was not too short, but still short enough to display a tantalizing amount of her shapely legs. The white blouse she wore was cinched tightly to emphasize her small waist, and she had left it unbuttoned just low enough that a hint of cleavage was exhibited. Her long red hair she had arranged to simply fall about her shoulders, and she wore less makeup than normal, choosing to emphasize her brilliant blue eyes rather than her model cheekbones.
“Oh, okay … Tellie,” Nick said, laughing nervously. “Er … if we were to offer you the job, when could you start?”
“Immediately!” Tellie said without hesitation. “I’m in between jobs, and I just moved into a new apartment. The rent is due at the first of the month, and while I have enough money to cover it, I won’t have enough left over to buy food and gas.”
Having been in just that situation too many times in the past himself, Nick nodded sympathetically.
“How about tomorrow?” Nick asked. They really didn’t need a secretary until the following week at the soonest, but it sounded like Tellie was in a tight spot financially, and besides, the club could afford it.
“Tomorrow would be fantastic!” Tellie blurted out. Standing up, she shook Nick’s hand and said, “You won’t be sorry, Mr. Hollister! I’m a hard worker!”
Nick returned Tellie’s handshake and said, “I’m looking forward to working with you, Tellie. And it’s Nick, not Mr. Hollister.”
Beaming from ear to ear, Tellie said, “Okay, Nick. I’ll see you tomorrow!” With that, Tellie turned and walked to the door, pausing to wave at Nick before leaving. Nick, who had been appreciating the sight Tellie’s backside had presented him, smiled guiltily and waved back.
Nick collapsed back in his chair with relief, glad that this was finally behind him and that they had hired a good secretary. Now the club could focus on future projects. Sighing, he leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. With free time on his hands, he began to think of what they could use The Book of Lost Treasures to find next.
After driving a discreet distance away from the Treasure Hunt Club office, Tellie pulled over to the side of the road and retrieved her cell phone from her purse. Punching a cell number that only Tellie and a handful of others knew (and this did not include Carter’s wife), Tellie reached Carter on the second ring.
“What have you got?” he demanded without preamble.
“I’m in,” Tellie stated simply. “I start tomorrow.”
“That’s great!” Carter said, laughing harshly. “Now remember, what we are looking for is whoever or whatever they are using to find all these priceless antiques.”
“I know, I know,” Tellie replied irritably. They had been over all of this many times before.
“Can I see you tonight?” Tellie asked hopefully as she abruptly changed the subject.
“Baby, you know we can’t be seen together. Even a dimwit like Hollister gets suspicious if he thought there was a connection between the two of us.”
“It’s funny, you never seem to share the same concern that your wife might see us together,” Tellie pouted.
“Now, now, you know that’s different! As far as my wife is concerned, you work for me, and we are very careful about our, er, liaisons so that she isn’t any the wiser.”
“That’s just the point! I’m tired of hiding our relationship and meeting furtively like common criminals! I love you, Carter, and I want you to tell your wife about us!”
Caught off guard by Tellie’s passionate outburst, Carter had to curb his first instinct to tell her what she could do with her demand. Instead, he took a steadying breath and said, “You know I love you too, baby. It’s just that things are … complicated right now. I promise you, once you find out the secret to Hollister’s success, we will take that next step, and I’ll make you the happiest woman on the planet.”
With that, Carter clicked off, leaving Tellie to grasp her cell phone rapturously to her breast. Did that mean what she thought it did? That Carter was finally going to tell his wife about the two of them and file for divorce?
The day seemed much brighter as Tellie put the car in gear and drove off.
Chapter 28
“I call this meeting of the Treasure Hunt Club to order!” Nick said, taking a small gavel he had bought at a trophy shop and rapping it on the surface of the recently installed table. They were meeting in the conference room of the club’s new office annex, and six high-back, leather chairs were arranged around the table facing Nick. A tray containing a stainless-steel pitcher filled with ice-cold water had been set on the table along with glasses for the attendees.
“The chair recognizes Mark!” Nick continued. At that, Mark stood up and faced his fellow club members.
“I would like to propose that our next search using The Book of Lost Treasures be for these rare coins,” Mark said as he passed out stapled sheets of paper containing the details of his proposal. Nick, who had already been briefed by Mark on what he had in mind, put his copy on the table absently beside him. As he observed his friends reading and digesting the information on the documents Mark had prepared, he was struck by how much had changed in just the short five months since his discovery of the mystical book. What had started with such promise, with such giddy anticipation, now seemed to have lost much of its luster, and he didn’t understand why! They were living the dream, all of them, with more money and potentially a lot more money than they ever could have hoped for in their wildest dreams! Now, as he looked around the conference table, he was dismayed to see the subtle and not so subtle transformation of his closest and dearest friends.
Patti, he observed, sat next to Mark, and she seemed distracted as she leafed through his proposal, a pinched expression on her face. This, the same Patti, whose gentle personality and warm smile never failed to lift Nick’s spirits, regardless of how low he might be feeling, while Mark seemed to have morphed into all cold, hard business, rather than the man who would take a day off at the drop of a hat just to spend it with friends and family.
Turning his attention to Steve, he saw he was constantly pulling a bottle of Jack Daniel’s from an Igloo cooler he had brought with him. Pouring it into a glass of ice he was sipping from. Dressed in black leather, rather than his customary jeans and T-shirt, he looked to Nick like the rocker version of Johnny Cash. Steve had even parked his beloved GTO and was now driving a black Porsche convertible he had bought off the lot in Longview. Kenneth, for his part, had a thick stack of invoices he was trying
to look at while simultaneously trying to peruse the document Mark had prepared. A worried expression was on his face, and he was constantly dabbing at the beads of sweat forming on his forehead (which was a florid red due to numerous trips to the South Seas Tanning Salon). Mark had told him that Kenneth’s business was not going well. Whether that was from incompetent help, from Kenneth’s lack of business expertise, or both, he didn’t know.
Finally, Nick’s attention settled on Abby. She had barely glanced at the document before her, and it seemed to Nick that her mind was a million miles away, as if she could have cared less about ever finding another valuable artifact.
Mark’s clearing of his throat brought Nick’s musing to an end and abruptly back to the matter at hand.
“As you can see, the coin or coins we are looking for are among the rarest and most valuable in the world. The Saint-Gaudens twenty-dollar double eagle gold piece was first struck in 1933, with four hundred forty-five thousand produced by the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C. However, the gold standard was abolished shortly after that because of the Great Depression, and before these coins could be put into circulation, the Mint was ordered to take these coins and melt them. Only a few survived, two of which are now on display at the Smithsonian.
However, apparently not all the Saint-Gaudens were destroyed. At least ten have surfaced at various intervals since 1933, and in 2002, one was sold at auction for over seven and a half million dollars! I say we ask The Book of Lost Treasures to locate any of these lost coins that might still exist.”
“I think I read something about these coins,” Kenneth said, looking up from his invoices. “Isn’t it illegal to own them since the government ordered them melted?”
“Not our problem!” Mark said, brushing off Kenneth’s comment. “The coin dealers I’ve talked to said that private collectors, particularly overseas collectors, have a long history of buying coins under, shall we say, ‘dubious’ circumstances. Besides, if these coins are lost, we’re not hurting anyone, especially the government, by finding them.”
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