4 Buried Secrets (4 page)

Luke glanced down at the laptop screen again. “There are no buildings or houses around except for this mobile home way over here.” He pointed to a small rectangle at the edge of the screen. “So it’s not like we’d be digging in anyone’s yard.”

“Right.” Jolene agreed. “Besides we don’t even know if anyone
does
own the land.”

“Exactly,” Luke said. “I say we go out and start detecting and then see what happens. Are you guys in?”

“I am,” Jolene said, feeling her heartbeat speed up with the promise of excitement. “What’s the worst thing that can happen?”

Jolene’s boots dug into the sand as she swung the heavy metal detector back and forth. Her arm ached and she switched to her other hand, regretting her insistence that she be able to use one of the detectors along with Luke and Jake. The darn thing was heavy and the work was boring.
 

Ten feet in front of her, Luke and Jake had their heads bent toward the ground, their detectors swinging in rhythmic arcs over the area Luke had marked in the sand. Her sisters were standing at the ready with small devices called probes, which would probe in the sand and pinpoint the location of any small metal items found by the detectors.
 

Jolene glanced enviously at Celeste, Morgan, and Fiona who chatted happily while waiting for someone to find something, and then bent her head to continue her monotonous quest. She was wondering if she’d be able to use her arm at all tomorrow when her headphones erupted in a series of chirps that indicated the detector had found something metal in the ground.
 

Fiona, Celeste and Morgan must have heard the chirps because they hurried over, holding their probes at the ready while they waited for Jolene to pinpoint the area. Jolene moved the detector over the spot in a cross pattern, until she had the source of the beeping triangulated, then made a mark in the sand so they would know where to start digging.

 
Fiona pulled a small spade out of her back pocket and dug out some sand tossing it aside. Morgan tilted her probe—a long round tube about one inch thick with a metal sensing component on the end that would hum and vibrate when it came close to metal—and poked it around in the pile Fiona had dug.
 

“It’s not in the pile,” she said.
 

Jolene ran the detector over the spot again to make sure she hadn’t gotten a false reading. It beeped when she passed it over the right edge of the hole.

“It says something is under here … but I’m not sure if it’s anything large.” Jolene squinted at the display on the detector trying to remember the instructions Luke had given barely an hour before. They were looking for the cache Shorty had buried, so it would be something big, she just couldn’t remember what type of reading Luke said she should look for.

Fiona pushed the spade into the side of the hole and flipped out more sand. The girls had discovered that digging in the sand was nearly impossible as the hole instantly filled with sand from the side. Morgan probed the pile and shook her head. Fiona stuck her probe into the hole, moving it around.
 

“I’ve got something!” Fiona said.

 
Jolene, Celeste and Morgan squatted around the hole while Fiona dug, probed and dug some more. She reached her hand into the sand, her face puckering, then lighting up as she pulled out a round object.
 

Jolene’s breath caught in her throat as Fiona’s hand emerged from the sand with the ring. It was small—dainty—with a filigree setting and a pink stone that glowed brightly in Fiona’s hand.

Jolene was so engrossed in the find that she didn’t hear the footsteps slowly sneaking up behind them until the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being racked froze her blood.

“Stop right there. Stand up and turn around slowly.” The voice was as harsh and scratchy as the desert sand beneath her.

Jolene saw surprise in her sisters’ faces as they looked up. Just before she whirled around, she saw Fiona slip the ring into the pocket of her jeans.

Jolene’s heart leapt into her throat as she came face to face with the double barrels of a shotgun. Peering around them, she could see an old woman with keen, clear sapphire eyes set in a face of wrinkled parchment framed by long ash-blonde hair streaked with gray holding the other end.

“You. Over here.” The woman addressed Luke and Jake, jerking the gun barrel to indicate they stand to the left of the girls.

“Who are you people and what are you doing here?” Her narrowed eyes studied each of them in turn.

“We’re just doing some metal detecting,” Luke said, innocently.

The woman snorted. “Well, you’re trespassing.”

Luke spread his hands at his side. “I’m very sorry. We were under the impression no one owned this land.”

“Well you were wrong. This is
my
land.”

“And who are you?” Luke asked.

The woman stood rigid, the gun unwavering. “Ain’t no business of yours.”

Like turned on the charm trying to dazzle the old woman with his smile. “Well we sure didn’t mean any harm.”

“I got plenty of trouble with gold seekers out here. I reckon that’s who you folks are.” She glared at their metal detectors. “Trying to steal a bit of history … and gold.”

Jolene heard the faint sound of sirens and the old lady shuffled her feet. The gun wavered as she looked back over her shoulder down the long, flat stretch of road where flashing red and blue lights could be seen in the distance. “Now look what you done. Here comes that damn Sheriff.”

Jolene relaxed as the old woman lowered the gun and they all stood there watching the police car approach. It skidded to a halt next to them, unnecessarily kicking up a plume of sand.

Jolene squinted against the bright blue lights on top of the car as she watched the Sheriff get out. He was tall and lean with a hard face. He studied them with hawk-like beady black eyes as he approached.

“What’s going on here?” he asked.

“Nothing we need you for.” The old lady practically spat the words at him. “These people were trespassing and I warned them off as is my right.”

The sheriff glanced down at her shotgun, then up at her. “Now Emma, you know you’re not supposed to shoot a shotgun so close to the road.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to shoot them.”
 

The Sheriff narrowed his eyes at the metal detectors. “And what, exactly, are
you
people doing here?”

Luke shrugged. “Just some metal detecting. We’re in a metal detecting club back East and we like to try new places. This looked like a good place.”

The Sheriff lifted one brow slightly. “You won’t find anything out here but sand and cactus,” he said, then turned to Emma, “and you if you would just sell this place and move into town, you wouldn’t have all this land to take care of or have to worry about trespassers.”

Emma glared at the Sheriff. “This land has been in the family since 1870. I won’t give it up, no matter how hard you try, Sheriff.”

Jolene studied the Sheriff. A casual observer might have thought the Sheriff was trying to look out for the older woman’s welfare. Trying to get her to move to someplace less demanding and safer. But Jolene could tell by the looks the two gave each other there was animosity between them. The Sheriff’s brown aura gave away the fact that he had ulterior motives that had nothing to do with the woman’s welfare.
 

“Anyway, I suggest you people move on … And Emma, I suggest you go back to your trailer.” His dark eyes narrowed at the woman. “It might not be safe out here at night for an old woman.”

Jolene felt a chill run up her spine at the way he said the words. She looked at Emma who stood ramrod straight, her eyes shooting invisible daggers at the Sheriff’s back as he walked to his cruiser.

“Boy is that guy a jerk or what?” Jolene said.

Emma laughed. “You can say that again.”

“I get the impression he’s keen on you moving, but I can see you’re healthy and hardy … he’s after something.” Jolene felt it only right to warn the woman who seemed more than able to take care of herself.

Emma sighed. “I don’t know why, but Sheriff Kane’s been trying to get me to sell this land for a coon’s age. He puts on an act that it’s for my safety, but I’m no fool. I can tell he has other reasons.”

“Sheriff Kane?” Morgan’s forehead pleated as she turned to Celeste and Fiona. “Isn’t that the Sheriff that Dixie said she thought was trying to put her out of business?”

Emma nodded. “You mean Dixie Sumner down at the hotel?”
 

“Yeah, we’re staying there,” Celeste answered. “She seems so nice and so do you. I wonder why the Sheriff seems to be against you.”

“We’re distant relations … don’t get along too well since there was trouble in the family.” Emma pressed her lips together. “She seemed to be quite distraught when I saw her out at the mine.”

“She was at the mine?” Celeste asked. “Why?”

“Same reason I was, I suppose.” Emma shrugged. “Checking out the goings on out there.”

“Well no doubt she was distraught,” Fiona said. “I think she’s got a lot riding on that hotel.”

“She sure does,” Emma replied.

“Well, we’re sorry if we bothered you,” Luke said. “We didn’t mean to infringe on anyone’s property. We’ll be going now.”

Jolene looked back at the cars and realized the woman had come on foot.
Where had she come from anyway?
Probably the trailer they’d seen in the satellite photo, but that was so far away and it was growing darker by the minute.

“Do you need a ride back?” she ventured. “It’s getting dark out.”

Emma’s shoulders relaxed and her eyes softened. “That’s nice of you to offer.” She looked around the group. “Maybe I misjudged you folks. I just figured you were a bunch of greedy, inconsiderate treasure hunters.”

Jolene glanced at Luke who looked down, kicking at the sand with his steel-toed boots. “No Ma’am. Were a different type of treasure hunter.”

“Is that so?” Emma tensed. “I only know one kind.”

“We’re not in it to find treasure for ourselves. I work for an organization that recovers old treasure … for historical purposes … and I suppose they make a lot of money at it too.” He held up his palm at the look on Emma’s face. “But we don’t take anything we don’t have permission to take. Usually my company pays very well if they are interested in a treasure on private land.”

Emma narrowed her eyes at him. “Well sure you would, but if it were on my land, I’d own all of it!”

“Not necessarily. Depends on where the treasure came from in the first place. For example, if it was stolen to begin with, then it might belong to the original owner,” Jake said. “Anyway my company knows all the laws and goes through the proper legal channels to make sure everyone gets their due.”

“Oh, well that does sound like you folks are on the up and up. Many have come here with those things,” Emma pointed down at the metal detectors, “but none were nice like you folks. Anyway, I can tell you there’s no treasure here.”

“Really? We heard this was the location of the homestead of Shorty Hanson—one of the miners here back in the 1800s.”

“Why would the treasure be buried near his homestead?” Emma asked.

“Well, he robbed several stagecoaches of their loads of silver and gold,” Jake answered.

“Did he?” Emma tilted her head, her eyebrows lifting a fraction of an inch. “You folks might be wise not to believe everything you hear.” She hefted the shotgun onto her shoulder, turned and walked away into the dark.

Luke and Jake loaded the metal detectors in the back while Jolene, Fiona, Morgan and Celeste squished into the back seat of the Escalade. Jolene tried to claim a window seat but Fiona pushed her into the car first so she was forced in the middle next to Morgan, while Celeste and Fiona got the windows. Jolene said a silent prayer of thanks that she and her sisters were all thin as she wriggled in the seat trying to get comfortable … it was a tight fit as it was.

“What do you think Emma meant by not believing what we hear?” Morgan asked as Luke pulled out onto the road.

“Seems like she thinks Shorty didn’t bury the treasure there,” Celeste answered.

Jolene scrunched her face up. “How would she know?”

Jake half turned in his seat to look back at Jolene. “It sounds like she’s lived here her whole life. She said the land was in her family so she might have heard from her grandparents like that guy you met in the bar.”

Jolene pressed her lips together. “I suppose that could be true. But if he didn’t bury it there, we have a lot more work to do.”

“Yeah, too bad all that digging was a bust,” Luke said as he turned into the parking lot for the hotel.

“Not totally.” Fiona pulled the ring out of her pocket. “We found this, but now I feel bad that we took it. I should have given it to Emma while we were there.”

Luke pulled into a parking spot and he and Jake jumped out to unload the car. The dome light came on and Celeste reached across Morgan and Jolene to take the ring from Fiona.
 

“This is pretty. Looks like the same pink stone that was glowing in your bracelet at the graveyard,” she said, handing it back.

“It is. Rose quartz.” Fiona looked down at her wrist. “Neither of the stones are glowing now though.”

“Do you mind?” Jolene jerked her head toward the door indicating that Celeste should get out. It was cramped on that bench seat.

“We should give that ring to the old lady,” Morgan said as they walked up the steps to the hotel lobby.

“Yeah, we should,” Luke said. “We’ll take a trip out to her place and give it to her later. Right now we need to regroup and come up with Plan B.”

The hotel was quiet as they walked through the lobby to the stairs that led to their suite. Jolene peeked into the dining room where several tables sat, but empty of diners.
 

“Dixie must not be serving any meals tonight,” Morgan said echoing her thoughts as they traipsed up the stairs.

They piled up in line behind Luke who was about to put his key in the door when it cracked open on its own.