Funny, but seeing cousins without the biases of any of our parents is like seeing people we never really knew.
He hadn’t realized how entwined life and ambition had been in Montana. That won’t happen here.
Someday, he and Randy would sit around a campfire and talk to their fellow transplanted Montanans. When that happened, he’d share his new insights and see to it he wasn’t the only one to make that vow.
“You said you were going to do some research, Jake. Were you able to dig anything up about Devlin Gowan and Ezra Powell?” Michaela’s question brought a bit of a hush to the large, chatty group. She was nestled between him and Randy, which was exactly where he liked her. The shadows had disappeared from her eyes, and though he knew she was tired, she was no longer stressed.
“Go ahead, little brother,” Adam said. “You start, and I’ll finish.”
Jake took a moment to take another sip of his beer. Beside him, Ginny rubbed her hand on his thigh, the unconscious gesture a wife gives her husband. He covered her hand and shot her a quick grin. That, right there, is love. Lewis made a mental note to remember to be that attentive to Michaela, always.
“Ezra and Devlin were a pair. They had another pal who was a part of their gang, as it were, a man by the name of Robert O’Grady. The three of them made the circuit, I can tell you that. They wended a trail from St. Louis to Durant, which was then in the Oklahoma Territory, and finally into Texas. They committed a few robberies in St. Louis, the largest being a bank heist. That was the one that rated wanted posters.
“They didn’t have much time to get their hands dirty here, because, not long after they settled into Waco, those posters came to the attention of one Adam Kendall, who at the time was the captain in charge of the Waco division of the Texas Rangers.”
“That’s an interesting twist, isn’t it?” Michaela said. “It kind of ties us all together, don’t you think?”
“I do, indeed,” Jake said. “Unfortunately, when Captain Kendall and his men made to arrest the three amigos, O’Grady panicked and pulled his weapon. He was killed, and Ezra and Devlin were apprehended. They were escorted to St. Louis to stand trial and never saw the light of day again.”
“On a hunch,” Adam said, “I looked into what crimes had been reported to have taken place along the most-likely trail from St. Louis to Waco. We know from Jonas’s letter that his brother hadn’t moved to the area to be with family.”
“From the look on your face, cousin, I’d say you found something.” Jackson put his arm around his wife, Ari, having just traded off holding their twins with his brother, Cord.
The other kids, ranging from teens to toddlers, were playing in the other end of the great room.
That’s another thing they’ve gotten right here in Lusty. Kids were welcome to climb on adults, to sit and listen, or to play.
Adam toasted Jackson with his beer bottle. “I did, indeed. In the spring of 1880, a shipment of about two hundred thousand dollars of gold, in the form of twenty-dollar gold pieces, left Philadelphia on its way to a bank in Waco. This gold was the property of one Cyrus Von Richter, a…character of Philadelphian society.
“Von Richter apparently announced to all and sundry that he was heading to Texas. He planned to start a ranch and settle within proximity of some of his family members who, he claimed, were already in the area.”
“There was a lot of migration by Germans beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century.” Ben Kendall, Adam’s oldest son, had come over. “This was actually before Germany was the Germany we know. It was basically a collection of city-states back then. A lot of those immigrants settled in the Hill Country, or near it.”
“That’s right, they did.” Adam gave his son a nod of approval and a grin.
“Von Richter had been a man of dubious honor, and many thought he was leaving Philadelphia before some irate husband or peeved client—he was unofficially an investment advisor—got their hands on him. Some of those clients, it was rumored, had him make investments on their behalf, as they were attempting to hide their wealth from wives or lovers. I guess, sometimes, maybe both.
“The details aren’t specific, except for this one. The gold left Philadelphia, and so did Von Richter, neither to be seen ever again.”
“He disappeared? And his gold? What happened?” Shar asked. Sitting on the floor between the legs of her husband, Jesse, who was also on the floor, she looked as intrigued as he himself felt.
Adam spread his hands. “The guards who’d been hired by the bank to guard the gold swore that, at some point, between Fort Worth and Waco, the gold vanished. The guards were found unconscious in Waco, and the gold was not there. However, the train was not robbed, not in the traditional sense, with men on horses bringing the train to a stop.”
“The bank was in a stir, because apparently the gold was theirs until it was retrieved by the bank in Waco. They’d insured the shipment, of course, as they usually did.
“But no insurance claim was ever filed. The case was closed, officially, twenty years later. The statement at the time noted that rumors of Von Richter’s presence in the Hill Country had reached Philadelphia. As the man had no family in the Philly area, and as he’d never been arrested, nor accused of committing any particular crime…well, the authorities assumed that he’d begun a new life under a new name.”
“With only two hundred thousand dollars?” Dale asked.
“That would have been a fortune in those days,” Jake said.
“What would that much gold be worth in today’s dollars, I wonder?” Jenny asked.
Jake’s grin widened. “At close of markets yesterday, approximately fifteen million—for gold weight alone. Depending on whether or not there were any rare coins in the mix? It could be considerably more.”
Lewis met Jake’s gaze. Then he looked over at Adam.
“Good Lord. You both think that’s what’s buried beneath that Legacy Tree, don’t you?”
“Well, I’ve never been a betting man,” Jake said. “So, we’ll wait and see.”
“One thing I can tell you?” Adam looked from Randy to Michaela and then focused on him. “If that’s what we find—a coffin filled with twenty-dollar gold pieces—those coins are not listed as missing or stolen anywhere.”
“What does that mean?” Michaela turned her gaze on him. Lewis was pretty certain he understood why both Kendalls were smiling.
“It means, baby girl, that if that gold is there, you’re going to be rich.”
“Finder’s keepers,” Adam Kendall said. “As it was for my great-greats, so it will be for you. That’s still a real law in Texas. Any treasure found on your land is yours, according to all the laws of God and man and the great State of Texas.”
Chapter Twenty
Michaela waited by the bumper of the guy’s truck, which they’d parked approximately where the porch had been, as Terry Gowan parked his car by the barn.
Randy was there to shake his hand and invite him to join her and Lewis.
“Are you sure about this, baby girl?” Lewis asked.
“I’m sure. As it is in Montana, so it is here. It’s just not right to blame a man for what his father has done.”
Lewis set his hands on his hips. He exhaled heavily and shot her a sly look. “You’re sneaky when you’re making a point, aren’t you?”
“Maybe a little. From what else Adam told me about Terry’s father? I’d bet the bastard was abusive with him when he was a kid. Having said what I did, it’s hard, in the case of abuse, to break patterns. But Terry broke the ones he’d been born into. He didn’t lash out, and he didn’t take the easy way. You read the report Clint sent in. Gowan had told his son there was gold buried here. He thought about it, he said, and even researched the kind of dollars that gold could represent. And then he decided to pass.”
“Yeah, I read it. The fight he’d had with his dad, telling him that not only was he not going to pursue that fortune, he was going to tell you about it? That was likely w
hat put it in the old man’s mind to drug him and then try to get you to sell by burning the house down.”
Lewis stopped talking as Terry Gowan approached.
“Hey, Terry. How are you?” Michaela asked.
“I’m okay.” He gestured at the house. When he turned back to her she read the sorrow in his eyes. “Damn it to hell, Michaela. I’m so fucking sorry. I never should have let that old man into my house when he came knocking on the door.”
“You were trying to do the right thing,” Randy said.
Lewis nodded. “You were. How could you not take in your own father?”
“The prison official who called said he was dying, and he is. But he wasn’t as poorly off yet as he pretended to be. I should have known. The bastard’s lied to me all his life. He never cared about me, or my mom. Only himself.”
“And now he’ll spend what time he has left alone.” Michaela shrugged. “That’s not what I’d call a successful life.”
“No, it isn’t.” He looked at the ruins again. “All I ever wanted was to have a decent business, build a decent retirement. I wasn’t even certain I would ever get married. I’m still not. What kind of genes would I be passing on to my children?”
“Good ones,” Michaela said. “Because you’re a good man. You know that everything comes down not to what’s in the blood but what’s in the heart. It’s all in the choices you make.”
“Well, yeah.” Then he got a look that told her he hadn’t, until just then, really thought of it that way. “Thank you.” Then he turned his gaze toward the back of the property and the people gathered there.
“What’s going on?”
“They’re about to put shovels to earth. Want to watch?”
“I…look, my dad lied to me all my life. I don’t want you to tear up your tree based on anything that came out of his mouth.”
“We’re not,” Lewis said. He nodded to the truck. “Hop in.”
Randy got into the back of the truck with Terry. Lewis was careful as he drove the vehicle over the slightly bumpy terrain. Faces watched as they approached.
Clint Parrish, Adam and Jake Kendall, and Matthew Benedict surrounded Sean Kendall, who was operating a piece of equipment she’d never seen before. Apparently, it had the capacity to detect what lay beneath the ground. Sean had his company ship the device from Wyoming.
Lewis introduced Terry to the people he didn’t know. Michaela thought if she didn’t already love those two Benedicts, this would have done the job. They’d each been man enough to recognize their opinion of Terry had been based mostly on jealousy and were both able to find human compassion for the man.
They were, beyond doubt, the perfect men for her.
Everyone gathered around Sean. “There’s something down there, all right. It’s not very deep, either. There’s only one root that might be a challenge for you.”
By getting a glimpse of the screen, she saw lines and images that she was certain were exactly what the geological expert in their midst, Sean Kendall, was saying they were.
“We need to take it slowly,” Clint said. “There may still be human remains in that coffin. If there are, we’ll have to stop and wait for a team to arrive from Waco. I have them on alert, just in case.”
“Understood,” Adam said.
“Can you show us where to dig?” Randy asked.
Sean did just that, and then her guys and Matthew Benedict began the shovel work. They dug slowly, carefully, and Michaela wrapped her arms around herself as she waited.
“This feels strange,” Terry said. “A body? You think there might be a body in there?”
“I found some letters in a safe in the foundation of my house, letters left by my grandfather. His grandfather witnessed Ezra Powell, his brother, and Devlin Gowan, your great-great-grandfather, dig a hole and but a coffin in it.” Michaela shrugged.
“That’s what Lewis meant when he said y’all weren’t doing this based on my dad’s words.”
Michaela looked at him. “It is. And you’re right. This feels strange.”
The men continued to dig. They made one pile of loose dirt that slowly grew.
“I’ve got something. Right here.” Lewis indicated where his shovel had hit an obstruction. Randy and Matt flanked him, and together they began to remove the dirt from around an object that hadn’t seen the light of day since it had been placed there, all those years ago.
“The wood is mostly intact,” Terry said. “I thought it would have rotted.”
“Me, too,” Michaela said.
Enough of the lid was uncovered that Lewis got down on his knees and touched the wood.
“Intact, but very punky feeling,” he said. “I doubt we can lift the damn thing out, whole.”
“Understood,” Clint said. “See how much more you can unearth. Then we’ll see if we can pry it open.”
The men worked more carefully, using hands when they thought the shovels might do too much damage. Finally, the entire top was exposed. The small root Sean had mentioned ran through the narrow end of the box.
The men all brushed off their hands and stepped away from what indeed was a wooden coffin. Clint Parrish moved in and examined the box. Rusted hinges on one side told them which side of the lid would lift—maybe. A crowbar in hand, Clint knelt on that side and used his fingers to find a place to insert the thin metal edge of the tool. Adam took to his knees beside him and helped.
The eerie groan of rusted metal sent a shiver down Michaela’s spine. But it wasn’t the hinges that gave. It was the wood around them. When they began to lift the lid, wood and hinges separated.
“Oh!” No body, thank God. Apparently, there had been no remains interred on Powell land. That was Michaela’s first thought.
“Holy hell!”
Yeah, Terry’s words were her second thought. Gold coins, hundreds of them it looked like, lay within the confines of their grave, glistening more purely than she’d imagined they possibly could after all this time.
Sean stepped closer and looked down. Then he met Michaela’s gaze. “Congratulations. You’ve found the treasure of a lifetime.”
Despite what had been said the day before at Jenny’s, Michaela couldn’t quite wrap her head around what she was looking at.
“Me? But…”
“You. Your land. Your treasure. Finders Keeper’s. It’s a real thing, and it’s the law,” Terry said. “Well, unless there are markings that reveal the origin of the gold.”
“The man’s right.” Adam’s smile accompanied his words.
Michaela hadn’t been prepared for this. She’d thought there might actually have been a body in that coffin. But unless it was at the very bottom under the coins, there was no body. Just gold coins. Decades-old gold coins worth….holy crap.
“So…I can really do anything I want with it?”
“You really can,” Randy said.
“Anything at all,” Lewis said.
So many ideas began to swirl…and she then knew exactly what she was going to do. “I think this is going to be fun.”
* * * *
“Kramer Forrest is honest and one of the country’s leading experts on rare coins,” Jake said. “He’ll arrive the day after tomorrow.”
They were in Jake’s office, having secured the gold in a walk-in safe he had hidden in a back room. They’d been careful as they’d scooped the gold out and into six metal containers the lawyer had brought with him—just in case. It had taken a good part of the day to complete the excavation.
“You trust him, this Forrest?” Lewis asked. In his peripheral vision he saw Michaela shoot him a questioning look. He turned his head and met her gaze straight-on. “Our job—Randy’s and mine—is to look out for you, which means looking after your interests. That is the Benedict way.”
He tried not to laugh when Michaela rolled her eyes. He had a feeling that, in the fifty or sixty years ahead of them, she’d probably do that a lot. His woman had changed him some, no question about it. But he could still be
a hard-ass, if he needed to be.
“That’s how Kendalls do things,” Jake said. “And to answer your question, yes. I’ve known him since my college days. Plus, he’ll be here, working in my office while he catalogues those coins.”
“Well, this place is probably more secure than Fort Knox,” Randy said. “Especially when you engage your security.”
Jake had shown them all the built-in security measures, including the direct link to an alarm system at Waco police headquarters, when they’d put the gold into the safe.
“I had no idea,” Michaela said. She looked around the large room. “It feels like a slightly musty, very homey, old-fashioned kind of lawyer’s office. Who knew?”
Jake just grinned.
“All right, then.” Lewis turned to Michaela. “Are you sure you want to sell the entire find?”
“It’s a lot of money, but hanging onto it? Might as well still be in that coffin. This way, we can put that money to work for us.”
“For you, you mean.”
“Nope. For us. You’re going to be my husbands. You promised, and I’m not letting you wiggle out of the deal just because of that gold—or the land it was found on.
“We’re talking our land and our money. And before you object, I have it on the authority of Grandma Kate that, since the days of Sarah Carmichael Benedict, that’s the Benedict way, too.”
“She’s got you there,” Jake said.
“I do, however, have a few gifts I want to bestow, which we need to discuss,” Michaela added.
Lewis had slammed his mouth shut right after she’d announced her version of the Benedict way. Now he looked over at Randy.
Yep, we’re on the same page. His best friend had been about to protest as well. As far as they were both concerned, it really was her gold. But they wouldn’t say that. They’d just agree to whatever it was she wanted to do with it.
“We’ll sit down together and lay it all out and then decide,” Lewis said. “How’s that?”
“That would be perfect. Thank you.”
Michaela’s smile warmed him from the inside out.
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