4 Buried Secrets (7 page)

Jolene’s heart lurched. She whirled around to look at the door. “Did he just leave, like a few seconds ago?”

“Yes, right before you came in.”

She turned back to look at Kyle and noticed he was leaning on the bar studying her intently. It made her a little nervous, but she couldn’t pinpoint why. “What did he look like?”
 

Kyle shrugged. “Dark hair, kind of tall. Just a regular guy. I hope you’re not in some kind of trouble.”

“Nothing we can’t handle,” she said. “But our rooms did get broken into last night. Have you heard anything about that?”

A cloud passed over Kyle’s face as he straightened back up. “No. Why would I know anything?”

“Well, I just figured you might have heard something here in the bar.”

He shook his head. “No. You think that guy that was asking about you had something to do with it?”

“Maybe.” Jolene sipped her beer, the grainy smell of hops tickled her nose while the icy beer cooled her throat.

“Did they take anything?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah. Computers and stuff.”

“We don’t usually have much trouble out here, but sometimes kids break in and steal stuff,” Kyle said. “It could have been kids from town.”

Jolene was considering that when she heard the door open behind her. Her shoulders tensed. She swung around on her stool, ready to confront whoever it was, then relaxed when she recognized Walt, the man she’d met the day before.

“Hey, it's my favorite girl!” Walt said.

Jolene laughed. “Favorite already? We just met.”

“Well, anyone who buys me a round is my favorite.” Walt chuckled as he slid into the seat next to Jolene and Kyle automatically served him a full shot glass and mug of beer.

Walt downed the shot, coughed and turned to Jolene. “I remembered something else my grandmother told me that you might be interested in.”
 

Jolene’s brows rose. “Really? what?”

Walt leaned closer to her. “Seems there was this beautiful woman … Miss Lily, I think my grandma called her.”

Walt paused and his eyes got a faraway look.

“Go on,” Jolene prompted.

Walt’s eyes sharpened and he looked at her. “Well, Grandma was just a little girl back then and I guess she idolized Miss Lily, you know, like girls do.”
 

Jolene nodded, waiting patiently as he paused to take a sip of beer. “I guess grandma used to try to be like her … you know, follow her around and such. So, she said one day she’d followed Miss Lily to the coach house where they kept the horses. Grandma snuck in the side and hid behind some bales of hay.”

“And?” Jolene’s brows shot up as she sipped her beer.

“Lily was arguing with the Sheriff. Grandma thought it was strange they would argue seeing as they were getting married and all.” Walt laughed and winked at Jolene. “
We
know that’s to be expected when you’re married, but Grandma was a little girl with romantic notions.”

Jolene noticed that Kyle had his elbows on the bar, leaning forward to hear the story. He snorted. “That’s for sure.”

Jolene snuck a peek at his ring finger.
Was Kyle married?

“Anyway,” Walt continued, “she said they were arguing about a key and she said it sounded mighty important. The Sheriff said Lily would never find it and that it was buried right in Dead Water.”

“A key?” Jolene asked. “What kind of key?”

“Grandma didn’t know but she figured it must have been pretty valuable. Said she looked all over Dead Water for this key. She thought it was made of gold.”

“Or opened something full of gold, maybe,” Jolene suggested.
 

Walt tilted his head. “Maybe. ‘Course she might have heard it wrong or be remembering it all wrong.”

Kyle leaned across the bar. His hand brushed against hers sending a spark of electricity up her arm. He reached for her beer mug. “Another beer?”

Jolene frowned at the mug, noticing it was empty already. “Umm … no, I think one is enough.”

Kyle’s hand moved from the mug to her wrist, encircling it and making her pulse flutter.
 

“You don’t have to leave, do you?” His gray eyes drilled into hers and Jolene felt like time had stopped. She
did
have to leave. In fact, all her senses were telling her she should leave as fast as she could. So why was she still sitting there, staring at him?

She heard the door behind her swing open, saw Kyle’s eyes darken and then felt a heavy arm drape itself across her shoulders.

“So there you are,” Jake said, shooting what Jolene took to be a warning glare at Kyle. “Are you ready?”

Kyle straightened and took an interest in rearranging the glasses under the bar.

“Sure, I was just talking to my friend Walt here,” Jolene said. “Walt, this is Jake … Jake, Walt.”

The two men shook hands while Jolene pulled some money out of her pocket and tucked it under her empty beer mug.

“Where are you people off to?” Kyle looked from Jolene to Jake.

“I’m taking my little sister to the old mines,” Jake answered, taking Jolene’s arm and pulling her out of the chair like an overprotective big brother.

Kyle narrowed his eyes at them. “Old mines? What would you want there? That place is dangerous … and some say haunted.”

“Just part of our history research,” Jake said. “Plus, I gotta keep Jolene here out of trouble. I would hate to see what might happen to anyone who messes with her.”

Kyle’s brows shot up and his eyes went wide signaling that he understood Jakes veiled threat. Jolene narrowed her eyes at Jake and wrenched her arm out of his grasp as he walked her to the door.
 

When they got outside, she turned to face him. “Hey, what’s with the big brother act? I can take care of myself, you know.”

It was true, she
could
take care of herself, but she had to admit she was touched by Jake’s pretense of being her older brother to protect her. It felt good to have someone looking out for her.

“Yeah, I know, I’ve seen you in action.” Jake smiled down at her. “That warning was to protect him more than you—I’d hate to see what might happen to him if he got
you
mad.

“So, just where
is
this mine?” Jolene asked as Celeste pulled the Escalade out onto Route 51. The two sisters had opted to drive together in the Cadillac following Luke, Morgan, Fiona and Jake in their other rental, a black Jeep.

“The road to the mines is just past Dead Water and then, I guess, we’ll have to figure out which one is number seven.” Celeste nodded her head toward the back seat. “The book Dixie lent us is in the back … there’s a picture of Shorty standing in front of the mine so I figured we might be able to figure it out from the picture.

She watched Jolene twist in her seat so she could grab the book, then turned her attention back to the road. They rode in silence while Jolene studied the book, looking at the pictures from all angles. Celeste knew her sister had a photographic memory and figured she was trying to piece together the lay of the land to help them find the mine.

The Jeep took a turn onto a dirt road that led uphill and Celeste followed their cloud of dust, noticing the terrain became more rocky the further they went. Finally they pulled to a stop in front of a big gaping hole carved in the hillside—one of the mines.

“We’re here,” Celeste announced. Jolene closed the book carefully then put it in the backseat and the sisters jumped out of the car to meet the others.

“This is the opening to one of the mines, but there are several in this area.” Jake waved his hand around to indicate the hilly landscape. Celeste slowly turned to take it all in. The ground was sandy but with much more scrub grass than at the hotel or in Dead Water. A few cacti and some trees dotted the landscape. Large rocks lay about, almost as if placed there by giants. She could see three mine entrances from where she stood. Piles of smaller rocks lay in rubble outside them.

The mines weren’t anything like she’d pictured. They were just holes in the hillside. The area was overgrown so they looked like natural caves, not something men had dug out in search of gold.
 

But which one was number seven?

“Which one is Shorty’s?” Fiona echoed her thoughts.

“I think it’s this one.” Jolene pointed at a hole to the left. “Or maybe the one next to it. It’s pretty hard to tell from the picture in the book.”

Celeste grabbed the book from the car and they tried to compare the landscape behind the picture of Shorty to where they currently were. The problem was, it matched a few of the openings and one hundred years of shrub and tree growth had changed the look of the land.

“I say we pair up and explore each of them,” Luke said. “We don’t have much time until the sun goes down and we don’t want to be out here after dark.”

“Jolene and I will take this one,” Celeste said pointing to the opening on the left that Jolene had said she’d thought was number seven.
 

“Okay, Morgan and I will take that one … and Fiona and Jake, you can take the one over there.” Luke pointed to two of the entrances in turn, and then looked at his watch. “Let’s meet back here in forty-five minutes.”

“Okay.” Celeste headed toward her mine with Jolene close behind.

“Now you guys don’t do anything in those dark mines that we wouldn’t do,” Jolene threw over her shoulder at the couples and the two sisters snickered as they disappeared into the dark mouth of the opening.

The cool chill of the mine was a welcome relief from the hot intensity of the sun outside. The dim light, however, was not. Celeste fished the small pen light out of her pocket feeling grateful that Luke had equipped each of them with one before they left.
 

She shined the light around the mine. “Not much here but blasted out rock.”

“What were you expecting? A big number seven or ‘Shorty was here’ or something?” Jolene teased. “Let’s go in further and see what we can see.”

Jolene trained her light on the dark tunnel ahead and Celeste followed her in, flashing her light on the walls and floor, hoping to uncover some sort of clue.

About thirty feet in, they came to a split in the tunnel. The sisters stood in the middle, each one shining their light down a different path.

“You wanna stick together or split up?” Jolene asked.

“We can cover more ground if we split up,” Celeste answered ignoring the tightening in her stomach that told her it was a bad idea.

“Yeah.” Jolene looked at her watch. “We won’t go too far in, though. How about we each go ten minutes and then turn back?”

“Sounds good.” Celeste held out her fist and the girls did a knuckle tap. Then they disappeared into different tunnels.

The tunnel was more narrow than the main shaft and Celeste took her time picking her way through the small rocks that littered the bottom. The damp, musty smell of earth ticked her nose and she let out a sneeze that echoed loudly in the tunnel. Taking her hand away from her mouth, the beam of her flashlight illuminated something that didn’t look quite right on the wall.

She trained the light on the spot.
Was that writing?

She got close to the wall, squinting at the carvings in the stone. Not writing, but some kind of pictures—like hieroglyphics.
 

Celeste had no idea what the three symbols carved into the wall meant. Were they put there by some ancient civilization or the miners? If the miners had dug out the tunnel, then it only made sense it was them … or someone who came here after. It couldn’t have been an ancient civilization since the tunnel wouldn’t have existed.
 

She beamed the light up and down the wall on all sides but there were no more symbols. Slowly she walked down the tunnel searching every inch of wall. About five feet down, she found more symbols, then more after another five feet. Curious, she followed the path of symbols deeper into the tunnel.

What did they mean?
Celeste had no idea, but she knew someone who did—Cal. She got her cell phone out and snapped a few shots of the symbols. Cal was an expert historian, if anyone could figure out what these were and what they meant, he could. Maybe he would even be able to tear himself away from business and join them, she hoped.

She made her way down the tunnel, taking pictures of all the symbols. She came to another split. Each tunnel had a group of carved symbols on the wall right at the split. She aimed the camera at the symbols on the tunnel wall to the right. The flash in the camera went off as it had before, but this time it illuminated more than just the symbols. She peered into the tunnel letting her eyes adjust after the flash—that couldn’t have been …

Her heart jerked when she realized a figure of a man stood just inside the tunnel. Not a flesh and blood man—a ghost … and he didn’t look happy.

“What do you think you are doing?” he asked.

Celeste’s brows pulled together. He looked familiar. She leaned closer to him, then pulled back realizing who it was—Shorty!

“I’m just exploring.” Celeste fought the fear that clutched at her chest.
 

Shorty had robbed and killed in his lifetime. He hadn’t been a nice person and his ghost probably wasn’t much different. But his ghost knew where the treasure was—maybe she could get that information out of him if she kept him talking. On the other hand, he might bring her harm. Celeste wasn’t sure what kind of harm a ghost could bring, since she’d only encountered friendly ones before, but she didn’t want to find out, either. She decided to proceed with caution.

“Get out before you get hurt.” Shorty made shooing motions with his hands.
 

“Is that a threat?” Celeste narrowed her eyes at him and she imagined he looked hurt … until he took a menacing step toward her, causing her heartbeat to pick up speed.

“Listen girly, you have no business in here.” Shorty glanced behind him.

Was something back there he didn’t want her to see? The treasure?

“Sure I do,” she said boldly. “I need to know what these symbols mean.” She aimed the beam of her flashlight on the wall.

Shorty’s ghost looked at the wall, his face drawn into a frown. “Symbols?”