The Darcy & Flora Boxed Set

by Blanche Day Manos

  Drying off, I slipped on a gray, over-sized sweatshirt, a pair of my oldest and softest jeans, and stepped into warm, fuzzy blue house shoes. Pulling my damp hair into a ponytail, I glanced at my reflection in the mirror above the dressing table. I looked as if I had been fasting for a month. My cheeks were gaunt and shadows circled my eyes. My bangs only partially covered the stitches Dr. McCauley had put in my forehead, but I was alive. And so was Mom. Neither of us had broken bones or bullet holes.

  “Thank you, Lord,” I whispered. “You brought us through.”

  As I limped downstairs, I heard voices coming from the kitchen. Grant sat at the dining table watching Mom pour coffee into his cup. I marveled at how well she looked, wearing a perky red print dress and white apron. Her hair was fluffed into a halo around her face.

  “Mom, are you all right? Shouldn’t you be resting?” I asked, coming into the kitchen.

  She smiled at me. “I feel as if a weight were lifted from my shoulders. Our long nightmare is over. Last night, I slept like a rock and today, I have more energy that I’ve had for a month. I’m glad to see you up, Darcy. Sit down and have some coffee and orange juice.”

  Grant rose and pulled out a chair for me at the table.

  “Do you feel like answering a few questions?” he asked.

  Direct and blunt, that was Grant Hendley. I knew these questions would be coming and I dreaded confessing my lack of honesty, but it would be a relief not to keep any more secrets.

  The coffee was hot and strong and burned all the way down. Looking at Grant, I managed a smile. “Fire away,” I said.

  His blue eyes were as cold as gunmetal. “First of all, why didn’t you tell me your plans for yesterday morning? The first inkling I had that you were not here at home was when a passer-by reported the broken guardrail on Deertrack Hill and the crushed undergrowth showing a car had gone over. Then, when Jim and I found your Passport and you and Miss Flora weren’t anywhere around . . . .” He paused and gripped his coffee mug with both hands.

  I reached across the table and touched his arm. “I tried to let you know Mom and I were leaving town; after all, you told us to go, if you’ll remember. We were just following orders, but you didn’t answer your phone. I’m truly sorry I didn’t tell you what we knew about Jasper. He wouldn’t go talk to you, Grant; he was afraid of jail. And now, I can see that he thought he had to keep Ben’s secret, sort of loyalty to his friend. So Jim Clendon was with you when you found the Passport?”

  He nodded. “Jim had been in Chicago, digging up information on Hammer and Drake. He just got back a couple of days ago.”

  So much for my suspicions, then. I wondered who chewed Red Man tobacco, Drake or Hammer?

  Mom sat down with her coffee. “How’s your head today, Darcy?” she asked.

  “It doesn’t hurt. My head is the hardest part of me, I suppose.”

  Grant snorted but, to his credit, he merely continued with his story.

  “Jim found out that Hammer had gotten in with some big time bad guys in the windy city and wound up owing a lot of money in gambling debts. A crime boss set Drake on Hammer. That must have really put the fear into him and he remembered his uncle and the story about gold, so he came back to Levi and went to see Ben. I guess Hammer pestered him for a long time about that gold, but Ben was stubborn.”

  Mom ran her index finger around the rim of her cup. “That must have been what Ben meant when he said he thought something was going to happen to him.”

  Grant’s mug banged against the table. “Ben Ventris told you that, Miss Flora? What else? I’ve known all along you two weren’t telling me everything you knew about this case.”

  Taking a deep breath, I said, “Grant, I’m sorry. You’re right. We shouldn’t have kept all this from you. I hope we didn’t break any laws. I’ll tell you everything, but first—I have to know—did Hammer and Drake cook up this elaborate scheme between them, Drake pretending to be with the FBI and trying to scare us into telling him about the gold?”

  “Well, what a relief that you’re finally going to let me in on what you should have told me a long time ago,” he said.

  The sarcasm was back. Good. It was a shield against any tender emotions this man might evoke in my heart. At the moment, I wanted no romantic entanglements.

  “Yes,” Grant answered, “Hammer and Drake were in this scheme together and Hammer even engaged that high-priced lawyer, Rowley, thinking he could scare you into believing he had a legal right to Ben’s treasure. Hammer will never have a chance to unburden his soul, but tough guy Drake is singing like a bird. I think his courage leaked out through that hole in his leg, Darcy.”

  Squirming in my chair, I closed my eyes against the memory of that awful time in the cellar. “So, is he going to be all right?”

  Grant nodded. “Sure. Eventually. He asked for a guard outside his door because he’s scared that some of his pals in Chicago might get to him before the law does. You were filling me in on your investigation, Darcy. I find it all very interesting.”

  Taking a deep breath, I began with Ben’s will and Skye’s letter and map. When I finished, thirty minutes later, I felt drained of the last dregs of energy. I had re-lived every excruciating moment. My hands shook as I lifted my coffee cup to my lips.

  “I guess that’s all, Grant,” I said.

  “And I guess that’s enough,” he muttered. Reaching for his Stetson on the chair beside him, he pushed away from the table.

  “I’ll go out this way, Miss Flora,” he said, nodding toward the kitchen door. “Thanks for the coffee. I’ll be in touch.”

  Shocked, I watched him go. Wasn’t he going to say any more? I’d expected he would read the riot act to me and talk about the dangers of interfering with police matters or withholding evidence. He could at least have said, “Thank God you’re safe.” But he didn’t. He just got up and left.

  Mom and I looked at each other. She and I had lots to talk about too, but not today. Today was simply a time for recovery and a celebration of being alive.

  Chapter 27

  Birds sang in the thickets and a soft breeze brought the mysterious, elusive fragrance of the river. The sun felt warm on my shoulders. This lovely day stood out in sharp contrast to that day two weeks earlier when Mom and I started out in a thunderstorm to Fayetteville and wound up running for our lives. That terrible day marked an ending and a beginning. It answered the question of who killed three people and tried to kill two more, and it was the beginning of what I felt to be a new era in my life. I came back to my hometown of Levi like a wounded child running to its mother. My broken heart needed to mend and, in the strangest way, I felt that healing had begun. Grief over Jake’s death was part of the past and I found myself looking forward to the future.

  A vagrant breeze lifted my bangs off my forehead. The scar from the rearview mirror faded more each day. Dr. McCauley said that in time it would disappear. Maybe emotional wounds were like that. They grew fainter with time; that was a blessing.

  My mother broke into my reverie. “Look at it, Darcy. Who would ever guess what lies beneath the surface?” Mom and I stood beside an indentation in the earth in Ben’s pasture.

  “No one would guess,” I said, “except those of us who know.”

  Silently kneeling on the grass, she placed a bouquet of field flowers on the ground. I laid some daisies beside them. “For you, Ben,” I said. “May you rest in peace.”

  Mom wiped her eyes. “Hammer too, Darcy. I hope he found some sort of peace. What a poor, tormented soul he must have been.”

  Strange that these two, the elder and younger Ventris, now shared a grave for eternity. Somehow, it seemed fitting, as if Ben’s goodness might mitigate some of Hammer’s evil.

  Closing my eyes, I rejoiced once again at the simple pleasure of feeling the sun’s warmth on my face. Under the serene beauty of this Oklahoma woodland, my mother and I experienced terror like we never could have imagined. I seemed unable to get enough fresh air, grass, bird song
, and the joy of being alive.

  Mom looked out across the hills. “I’m glad I had the cellar filled in,” she said. “It was unsafe after the explosion. Besides, it was an entryway to a grave.”

  “Jasper’s booby trap pretty much took care of the cave and everything in it. The way he had placed the explosive, the whole roof of the cavern collapsed and the tunnel just sort of folded in upon itself.”

  Slowly, Mom got to her feet. “What do you think Grant will do about Jasper?”

  I stood up too. “Jasper may not have actually broken any laws except for . . . well, he did steal that dynamite, and I guess he may have had had evil intent when he rigged up the explosive to go off if anyone touched the wire. Of course, the explosion resulted in Hammer’s death and, technically, Jasper caused it, but that could be construed as self-defense, seems to me.”

  “I imagine Grant will do his best to keep Jasper out of jail,” Mom mused. “After all, what purpose would it serve to lock him up?”

  We were walking back toward Mom’s Toyota which was parked in Ben’s driveway. “It wouldn’t serve any purpose that I can see and would surely make him and Pat miserable. I still don’t understand how we kept from setting off that explosion. We must have been a hair’s breadth away from touching the trip wire.”

  “The Lord was taking care of us, Darcy,” Mom said softly. “Don’t you know that by now?”

  Smiling at her, I said, “Yes, I believe I do. Before we go back home, do you feel strong enough to walk down to the creek?”

  Mom stopped short, put her hands on her hips, and gazed at me. “I’m surprised that you want to go back there. Are you talking about that little ledge that marks the entrance to the tunnel and the gold?”

  “Yes,” I said. “I don’t want to climb the bluff again; I just want to look at it.”

  Turning around, we headed in the opposite direction. It took only a few minutes to leave the grassy pasture and scramble down the rocky incline to the creek. Once again, water flowed through the channel. Grant took a court order to the rancher who had diverted the stream and told him to get rid of his dam.

  Sitting down on a sun-warmed gray boulder, I looked up at the bluff that hid the back door to Ben’s treasure trove.

  “The ledge that jutted out over the tunnel is gone,” I said. “Rocks and boulders have slid over it and completely hidden it. I can’t see even a trace of the ledge nor the opening to the tunnel.”

  Mom lifted her shoulders. “I guess the explosion did that. Nobody could ever find that hole again, Darcy. It’s covered by tons of rocks.”

  “Are you ever going to open it back up?” I asked. “There’s an awful lot of gold under that hill.”

  She shook her head. “I doubt that I ever do anything more to this hillside. As far as I’m concerned, we are better off with the gold being buried with Ben and Hammer. I don’t want any part of it. Ben didn’t want the gold’s hiding place exposed and I almost feel that it is cursed. It has certainly brought a lot of trouble.”

  Remembering the feeling I had when I held the beautifully wrought butterfly in my hand, I understood what she meant. The lure of gold could take over a person’s life.

  “There’s a lot of people who know there’s gold back in here somewhere. Do you think a thing like that can be kept secret? As soon as the good citizens of Ventris County realize you own all this and that legend of lost treasure is revived, you won’t have a moment’s peace,” I said.

  “It wasn’t mentioned in the newspaper story about the explosion. Maybe people will just think it’s gossip and interest will die down if we keep our mouths shut. Grant sure isn’t going to say anything. By the way, Darcy, he isn’t too happy with us, you know.”

  I grinned. “That’s an understatement. I’ve told him I’m sorry that I didn’t keep him posted on what was going on with us. And I’ve asked the Lord to forgive me for lying and for shooting that awful Ray Drake or Cub or whoever he is.”

  “But Darcy,” Mom said, “you didn’t have a choice. He was going to kill us.”

  “I know, but more than that was the way I felt when I shot that horrible man. I hated him, Mom. Maybe I shot him because I hated him, not because I feared for our lives. I don’t know.”

  Mom patted my knee. “You did what you had to do. The Lord knows your heart better than you do.”

  Looking up at the ruined bluff, I said, “Well, yes, but I wish my heart had purer motives. Remember what Emma James said about temptation hitting us when we are weak? I had felt criticism toward Ben at the thought that he might have had a relationship with Hammer’s mother, but I guess I was feeling a little superior, a little ‘holier than thou.’ I discovered I could actually shoot another human being, and that emotion I felt—the hatred—is what I needed to have forgiven.”

  Something on the ground glittered in the sunlight and I bent to pick it up. The gold circlet that nestled in my palm was a larger edition of Mom’s ring. I stared at it for a moment, then gently opened her hand and laid the ring in it.

  She gasped. “Why, Darcy! This is Ben’s ring.”

  “Yes,” I said. “Hammer must have lost it when he and Drake were chasing us.”

  She closed her fingers around the ring and held it against her face. “I’ll keep it with mine in the recipe box,” she said.

  Blinking tears from my eyes, I gazed at these hills surrounding us. They had witnessed much through the centuries. If they could talk, what stories they would tell of love, heroism, frailties, greed, and hope. And one day, perhaps the story of Ben and Hammer and the gold, and even Mom and I, would become part of the folklore for future generations.

  At last, Mom spoke quietly. “I’ve been thinking about what Hammer said there in the cellar, about feeling unloved and being resentful. I’ve been thinking about Ben’s farm and how it could be turned into a home for children who need fathers and mothers to care for them. Maybe the farm could be a place where orphans learn about work and honesty and God’s love. The farm is a good place, Darcy. There’s the creek for fishing and swimming, there’s wood to chop for the fireplace, and Ben had a wonderful orchard back behind his house.”

  I grinned at her. “So you’re planning on making something good come out of all that has happened.” I should have known that Flora Tucker would not want to profit from Ben’s estate.

  “Does that sound all right to you?” Mom asked.

  Nodding, I said, “It most certainly sounds wonderful.”

  A movement above me caught my eye and I looked up as a great owl swooped through the air and landed on the low branch of a sycamore. Cocking its head toward us, it called softly.

  My breath caught in my throat. Why had this shy, nocturnal bird lit so close? As I gazed, it lifted its wings as if pronouncing a benediction, then flew silently into the woods, through a dark canopy of trees, and out of sight.

  I felt blessed. Tragedy had touched the lives of my mother and me, but God had brought us through. Getting to my feet, I reached down a hand to Mom.

  “Do you know what I’d like now, above all else?” I asked.

  “No, Darcy Tucker Campbell, what would you like above all else?” Mom teased.

  “I’d like a cup of your famous brew, perked in that old yellow coffeepot, so strong that a spoon could stand alone in it. I want to sit at your dining table with the sunlight coming through your west window and think of nothing else in the whole world except that you make the best caffeine in all of Ventris County.”

  “Only in the county? Who else in Oklahoma can brew a better cup?” she asked.

  Laughing, I said, “Nobody, Mom. Nobody else in the whole Sooner state.”

  — The End —

  Chapter 1

  The letter came on a warm morning in November. Several weeks later I asked my mother if she had a premonition, a tingling in her fingers before she read it. She said no, not even a chill down her spine. However, sometimes it’s the everyday events that hold the potential for disaster. Who would have thought that the conten
ts of an innocent-looking envelope could turn our lives upside down?

  The blank screen of my computer stared accusingly at me. Several national newspapers had picked up my story on The Changing Face of Rural America and I was trying to work on two more features, but it was hard to stay indoors on such a beautiful day as this.

  Downstairs in the kitchen, my mother made plans for the new school she was building on the Ben Ventris farm south of town. Ben’s Boys, she was going to call it; a school for boys who needed a home and firm, loving guidance.

  No one was more shocked than my mother when Ben Ventris, an old friend of the family, was murdered last spring and bequeathed his farm and all his earthly holdings to her, Flora Tucker.

  When she recovered from that unexpected windfall, she started making plans. “This farm would be a wonderful place for boys,” she said. “There’s that orchard behind the house. There’s the river for swimming and fishing, and plenty of trees so the little fellas could learn to chop wood for the fireplace.”

  Those “little fellows” would actually be juvenile delinquents or boys in danger of going astray from the law. I doubted that they would equate wood chopping with fishing and swimming, but I knew what she meant.

  Ben’s estate included not only the farm but also his and his daughter’s extensive land holdings and another treasure that neither she nor I mentioned. Its location was far too sad to think about. Not many people knew about that hidden vault and that was fine with both of us.

  Snatches of the old hymn, Build Me a Cabin in the Corner of Glory Land, floated up the stairs as Mom planned how many bunk beds and how large a dining table those boys would need.

  Knowing very well what she was doing, I called down the stairs, “Say, Mom, are you drawing up plans for your new house?”

  “Darcy Campbell, this house suits me fine. Why would I need a new one? I’ve got lots of memories of your father within these rooms.”