Chapter Twenty-Four
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I darted off the path and behind a tree, crouching down and hugging my back to the wide base of an oak. My heart pounded like a jackhammer as my brain registered what they were saying.
“What sort of bimbo leaves a heap of valuables in the woods for fifty-five years with only a secret message to find it?”
That man’s voice was so familiar.
“My grandmother was hardly a bimbo.” That was definitely Samantha Walton speaking. “What was she supposed to do with a bunch of stolen goods? She couldn’t wear them, and she couldn’t sell them. They were hot.”
“Whatever.”
“What is your damage? You’re so bloody miserable all of the sudden.”
“This stupid run-around is my problem. We should be sippin’ rum on the beach by now. Instead I’m getting eaten alive by insects and it’s all your family’s fault. Vera buried the damn things. She should have retrieved them like ten or twenty years ago.”
“She wasn’t exactly hurting for money after she married Grandpa Bill. She just never got around to returning. What do you care, anyway? You’re the one benefitting.”
I bit my lip and wondered what to do. I could run away but it would be my word against theirs. That’s when I remembered I had my phone tucked into the lined pocket of my runner’s shorts. I pulled up the recorder app and set it on the ground. Hopefully, they weren’t done fighting. They were about ten feet away from me and I hoped the phone could pick it up. Outside of the woods, the sun was still halfway above the horizon, but within the trees there was more shadow than light. I tried to calm myself with the hope that the darker it got, the harder I would be to see, but the more I focused on breathing, the harder it was to breathe at all.
“It’s supposed to be right here below this weeping willow with the knots that look like beehives. I don’t see anything yet? How far down do I have to dig?”
“How the hell should I know, Leif?”
“Leif?” I smacked my hand over my mouth. That slimy son of a gun was involved. I should have known.
“Shut up and hold this,” he growled.
I heard the clink of a shovel hitting a rock and then dirt being moved. This went on for a couple of minutes, punctuated with several grunts.
“Do you see anything yet?” Samantha’s voice was overly eager.
“I think I do.” He laughed like a crazy person. “Shoot. It’s heavy. I don’t think I can lift it out of this hole. We’re gonna have to open it down here.”
“Hot damn!” Samantha hooted. “That sucker is big. I wonder how my grandmother snuck it out here?”
“She paid Baboon Sr. to do it, remember? Pass me the wire cutters. I got the lock uncovered. There we go!”
“Lemme see!”
“Back off! Turn on the flashlight!”
I heard the groan of a lid opening. Then, Samantha’s shriek pierced the night, and the disorienting burst of illumination followed by shadows told me she had dropped the flashlight.
“Th-th-there’s a b-body in there!”
Cripes, I thought. Another dead body.
The brightness from the flashlight steadied, and I heard the sound of scraping metal, followed by a snort of a laugh. “I can’t believe the old buzzer still smells. It must be Ben’s grandfather.”
Samantha retched. “Oh, I think I’m gonna heave. How come he’s not just bones?”
“I dunno, but that Vera was something else. She has him hide a chest full of stolen goods for her, and then she buries him in it. Not a real nice way to thank a guy. She certainly got what she deserved.”
“She was a helpless old woman, and she hardly deserved to die by your hand. You should have just left her to be.”
“Hah! I wasn’t taking any chances she’d come back from la la land. And ‘helpless old woman’ my behind. She was a thievin’ murderer, no better than you or me. She double-crossed Ben’s grandfather after he helped her bury all this. I think she would have done the same, in my position.”
“Whatever. You shouldn’t have killed her and I’m no murderer.”
“Shut your damn face. Why can’t you quit harping? What the—here it is!”
“What?”
“Holy hell! Look at this pirate’s treasure! Would you look at it? There must be a million dollars’ worth of loot in here.”
Curiosity got the better of me. I stuck my head out and peered around the tree, hopeful that Leif and Samantha would be too distracted by the shiny objects to notice me. Leif was all but drooling as he kneeled at the base of the tree. Samantha was right behind him, shining the light in the bag. Inside the hole was an open chest with a dark crumpled shape. The body technically could be anyone, but given that Mr. Baboon had disappeared about the same time Vera left the area, it was a safe bet Leif was right and the corpse was indeed Mr. Baboon. My heart felt heavy as I thought of telling Joe. Then the sickly sweet, toxic smell of rotted flesh drifted my way. It permeated my nostrils and made me gag.
“Did you hear something?” Sam asked. “Close the lid on the trunk.”
I heard the clink of the lid and pulled my shirt up over my nose and mouth as if I could keep the noise of my rapid breathing in.
“Don’t be paranoid. It’s just a damn squirrel.” Leif snapped back. “We made it! Gramma Rouse is probably rolling in her grave, but I don’t care ‘cause I’m gonna be rich.”
So much of this past weekend made sense now. I saw all the papers and the books at Rebel’s house. Leif was only pretending to be sentimental about his grandmother’s death when really he was just hunting for treasure clues. Then I saw Ben as he talked on his cell phone outside the sidewalk sale. It was probably to Leif. How could I have been so careless? That’s how Ben knew I had Vera’s diary. Leif had seen it on the floor of his living room that very morning. I needed to get out of here so I could call Detective Lumos.
That’s when my cellphone sounded with an incoming call. The screen flashed with Cody’s name. Oh sweet baby Jesus, I’d summoned him. I didn’t bother to scrabble for it: it was too late.
“What was that?”
“I know I heard something that time.” Sam squeaked.
Footsteps stomped in my direction. I squirmed around the right side of the tree, staying just out of sight. I was a quarter of the way around when Sam shrieked.
“She’s right there! I see her. It’s that snoopy investigator.”
I sprinted up the path toward Gypsy Caravan Manor. I was fast. But as I reached the edge of the woods, a hand shot out. Yanking me back by my ponytail before a squeak could escape my mouth. He shook me hard, then shoved me roughly against the nearest tree.
My head smacked the tree so hard I could have sworn my eye popped out. My knees went watery as the hand seized my shoulder, then slapped tape over my mouth.
It all happened so fast… I fell, the side of my face scraping the bark on my way down. He whipped me around by the elbow until we were face to face. I lashed out at his jaw but he was ready for me and he didn’t let go.
Through one eye already beginning to swell shut, I saw people, just a few hundred feet away at Caravan Manor.
But I was back here in the shadows of the trees, and they were stepping inside the main door, so they didn’t see me. More tape went tightly around my wrists, binding them.
“Well now, hey, Trubble. I should have known you’d try something like this.” Hot breath gusted at me.
Desperately I screamed through the tape. I called him every name in the book and hoped he could make half of them out.
“Walk.”
I ran through all of my self-defense scenarios. I could jerk my head back, break his nose with it. Or kick him?
But a sharp little tickle of something just under my right earlobe suggested a more cautious strategy, one that wouldn’t put the tip of whatever he was pressing there right through a blood vessel. My legs went weak again.
“Stand up straight,” he hissed. “Walk. Back the way we cam
e.”
Leif ripped the tape from my face once we were back in the thick of it.
“You just can’t keep your nose to yourself, can you?”
“I could say the same thing about you, although I’d be talking about another appendage, isn’t that right?”
“That would be right. Too bad you’ll never get to tattle on me, huh?”
“Oh please, Rebel knows you’re not good enough for her. Everyone in town knows.” The force of my words angered him.
I staggered a few steps and tried to run. He caught up and pushed me to the ground. Hitting the ground with my hands bound was painful. My diaphragm locked up, unable to pull in air for my lungs.
“That good enough for you, Penelope?” He towered over me, his voice jarringly calm. “You thought I was too stupid to be a part of this scheme, huh? Just some silly hick who liked to fish? I guess you’re not the queen bee detective Rebel said you were. I was always two steps ahead of you. Sleeping on my couch and leaving the evidence right there on my floor. How foolish can you be?”
He kicked rocks at me, and I pulled myself away. I bumped up against a tree and tried to drag my body erect.
“Samantha, open the trunk.”
I heard the creak of the lid and the stench was once again intense.
I wrinkled my nose, and at the gesture he laughed.
“Don’t worry,” he cooed. “I know it’s awful. But you won’t have to put up with it for long. At least I hope not… for your sake.” He chuckled.
I was beyond terrified. I tried hard to use everything I knew about martial arts and crisis situations to keep calm and take back control but I was claustrophobic, and he was going to bury me alive. I scrabbled away from the tree in my hunched-over position and got to my feet. Leif punched me again before I could get into a defensive position. What the hell good was self-defense training if I couldn’t use it in an actual emergency? I fell back to the ground.
“Rebel knows all about this. You’re not going to get away with it,” I grunted.
“What’s that, Penelope? I should kill Rebel too? Don’t worry, I’d already planned on that, hadn’t I, sweetie?”
Samantha nodded her head from behind.
A picture of Rebel formed in my mind, relaxed and smiling. I concentrated on this image to remain conscious and reached deep into my reserves. My hand scrabbled around on the ground until I found a rock about the size of a grapefruit. I dug at it, peeling my forefinger and thumbnails back in my desperation to hold it. “You’re a no-good cheating slimeball.”
“I can’t quite hear you. You must have some last words before you go to sleep forever, huh?” His voice was lilting, soft and comforting.
He kneeled beside me, and I turned my heavy head toward his voice. “Yeah, I want to say that you’re a sad, lonely bastard, and Rebel says you suck in bed.” I focused all my fading consciousness on the rock in my hand. It came free, and I slammed it into his face. He tumbled back in surprise, dropping the knife. I took advantage, levering myself off the ground with a burst of adrenaline and brought the rock down on his head. It glanced off his temple with enough force to peel off a chunk of skin and knock him out. Leif’s eyes widened in surprise and then fogged over as he passed out, face up in the dirt.
I watched for a moment as the leaves closest to his mouth fluttered with his breath, and I convinced myself I could actually see the side of his head start to swell. The goose egg looked promising, and I jumped to my feet and looked wildly around, ready to take down that witch Samantha too. She was gone–running in the distance. I scrabbled in the near dark for my phone, ended the recording, and awkwardly dialed Detective Lumos.
Someone caressed my cheek, and guided me to warmth when I hauled myself unsteadily to my feet. I realized I must have passed out after the phone call but Cody had been at my house looking for me and he beat the ambulance. He gave me a moment to collect myself and then I explained what had happened, particularly about the dead body back there. (“No, I know. Another one.”) I was sitting in his car with a blanket around my shoulders while he spoke to dispatch on the radio. When he returned he was smiling.
“Thanks for doing my job for me,” he said.
I smirked, rubbing at my wrists. It was nice to be free again. “Apparently I make a lousy police officer but a brilliant bumbling sleuth.”
He shifted from one foot to the other and then sat down next to me. “Well, you know I’d love to hear all about that one day. That is, why you aren’t a police officer anymore. Would you want to grab another burger or a slice of pizza sometime?”
I thought about it for a minute and then nodded. “How about we grab a beer instead? It’s not an in-depth story but I will need some liquid courage to tell it.”
He looked at me for a moment like he was going to ask me another question and then he took my hand. “I know this is inappropriate and I could get into trouble, but...” In one swift movement Cody reached out and planted his lips on mine. It took several seconds for me to fully come to terms with what was happening. He moved his lips across mine and I didn’t tell him to stop. To be honest, I didn’t want him to stop, even though my mouth was still sore from the tape. I wasn’t ready for a new relationship but I could handle this one wild kiss.
Finally he let go and stood up. “I should let you get to the hospital now.”
I smiled. “Yeah, you should probably track down Leif’s accomplice.”
“Oh, she won’t be getting far.”
“Like my uninvited houseguests, you catch them yet?”
He smirked. “I’m real close. You’ve been keeping me busy.”
As he walked away to talk to the paramedic who’d just arrived, I sat breathless, still a little dazed from the whole past hour. I managed a smile, it was the first time I thought of the future without painfully thinking of my ex.
At the hospital, my x-rays showed a mild concussion and severe bruising, but no broken bones. All that training really did pay off. Leif was still unconscious when he was loaded into the second ambulance and driven to the hospital. Like me, he had a mild concussion, though he needed four stitches in his head. Sweet, sweet justice.
My phone’s rendition of Leif confessing to Vera’s murder pretty much guaranteed him time in the slammer, but Samantha Walton bolstered that reality. When the police caught her one town over, she blabbed all the details. She would serve some time for aiding and abetting, but more importantly Leif was going to go away for a long, long time.
Samantha’s story lined up with my own assumptions. Vera and Lee Rouse had stolen the jewels as well as the coin using the secret passages with the plan to hide the goods and then fetch them in five years once the heat was off them. Vera’s diary revealed that she’d talked Benjamin Baboon into hiding the chest for her in the woods when he came upon her in the passage the same way Joe did. She didn’t trust him to stay quiet so she hit him over the head with the shovel and let the town think the worst of him. Autopsy results confirmed Benjamin had taken a severe blow to the head. It was safe to assume that Vera had killed him.
Leif found out about the story of the hidden jewels in June when his grandmother who was on her deathbed felt the need to clear her conscience. Her husband, Lee Rouse, had told her about the stolen treasure but died in a car accident a year later in ’63 before he could track Vera or Benjamin down. Gramma Rouse had been furious with her husband at the time and refused to have anything to do with the mess.
Leif told Ben what he’d learned after his grandmother’s funeral in June. Then the magazine published the article in July on the missing coin and the upcoming anniversary of the coin dealer’s death, which also provided the location of one Vera Langley-Walton. Leif and Ben made a plan right then and there. Leif couldn’t leave without Rebel getting suspicious so Ben was to befriend Vera, who was now an old lady, and find out what he could with regards to his grandfather Benjamin’s whereabouts. Leif and Ben figured that Vera and Benjamin Baboon had split the loot and went their separate ways, leaving
Lee Rouse and Benjamin’s wife and kids out in the cold. They wanted revenge as well as a payoff.
Samantha was taking care of her grandmother, Vera, when Ben started slinking around. She wasn’t a huge fan of Vera either, but was forced to care for her in order to remain in the will. It was Samantha who told Ben what he needed to know. Vera had talked incessantly to her granddaughter about the lost coin incident and the jewels the week after the magazine article released, but the very next day she’d receded into her mind. Samantha had pushed her hard for the location but Vera couldn’t remember–she could only remember hiding her diary, which she was sure contained clues.
Which is the reason Ben Baboon tore apart the Vianu’s guestroom until he found the hidden diary. It just so happened that he also found out from his infatuated ex, Kaitlyn Patone that ‘partner-in-crime’ Samantha was seeing Leif on the sly. Ben admitted to Samantha that he didn’t really care about her, but he was worried they were up to some monkey business—plotting to cut him out, which is why he threatened to tell Rebel the truth. Leif silenced him before he had the chance. Another Baboon betrayed for booty in Bohemian Lake.
Chapter Twenty-Six
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A loon wailed, woeful and long, and I looked out my bedroom window to see a heavy fog hovering over the lake. Guinness snored at the foot of my bed. My one eye was swollen shut, and my neck was so stiff, I couldn’t lower my chin, but I’d been released from the hospital and I’d slept for eight hours straight. I was alive and grateful to be so.
With a steaming cup of coffee in one hand, I stared out at the large expanse of water and called Jesse Tate to meet me at the spot where I’d found Ben’s body. There was one piece of this puzzle that wasn’t fitting, and it had Jesse written all over it.
Jesse wasn’t happy to admit it, but after I threatened to call Cody, he came clean. He’d been the Arnold’s inside man. As a Tate employee and part of the prize money, he’d been privy to the location of the fake treasure chest. The Arnolds were supposed to find the chest and split the money with Jesse. Only, when he took Brett-the-cheater down to the spot just up from the boat launch where it was supposed to be, it was gone. Jesse couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t in the location it had been placed.
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