Alvarado Gold (25 page)

“I know Mom was terribly upset after each one of her brothers left. I know she told Dad she knew she’d never see them again. She said that blood wasn’t thicker than alcohol. Whatever that was supposed to mean.”

“Clay will fill you in later. Uncle Clayton kept a journal.” I looked for some reaction in Eric’s face. He looked puzzled but I changed the subject. “This place is full so you’re bunking with Clay. Anyway, it’s close to midnight and we need to get an early start tomorrow. We’re meeting Donnie at ten at the Boy’s Home.”

Everyone left for their rooms and Gary walked me to mine. “This has certainly become twisted. This didn’t happen like I’d planned it.” Lately, much of my life hadn’t followed the Addie Plan but part of it had definitely been good. It must be. The little warning voice inside me had been silent.

Gary drew me into his arms. “No. It didn’t happen like I’d planned it either but it worked out. It will be okay. You’ll see.” As Gary started to kiss me, I leaned against the door. The latch gave way and I tumbled inside landing on my behind. It would have been funny, if my room hadn’t been destroyed. Every drawer jerked open and my suitcase dumped on the floor.

“Great. Look at this place.” I crossed the room to the phone to call the motel manager. My heart sank. An uneasy sense permeated me. I wasn’t safe. An eerie feeling crept into my soul with spiky tentacles piercing into what I thought I’d believed. Had I been wrong about Donnie? What if he’d done this? Did he still feel we weren’t giving him all the facts?

“Is anything missing, Addie?”

I quickly checked and found all the documents and the box where I’d slid them under the bed. “No. It looks like everything is here. Just ravaged. I guess we shouldn’t touch anything until we call the front desk.” I didn’t want to mistrust Donnie. He was one of us. I thought we’d come to peace, but perhaps that was too much to hope for. I glanced up at Gary, who seemed to have read my thoughts.

“Maybe Donnie isn’t so safe after all. Do you want to come with me to my parent’s place? There’s plenty of room.”

“No. The damage is done. He won’t be back tonight.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

I slept fitfully, woke early, showered and washed my hair. I had just slipped on my shoes when there was a light tap on my door. I opened the chained door just a crack to see Gary standing outside. His hair sprung up in disobedient curls and a five o’clock shadow outlined his face. The Pontiac was pulled up close to the sidewalk next to my room.

“You slept in your car all night?” I asked, stunned he didn’t leave the night before.

He kissed me tenderly. “You’re mine now and I’m not letting anything happen to you. Mind if I shave and shower? I’ll catch up with the rest of you.”

I smiled all the way to the lobby radiant knowing how much he cared for me. I had arrived first and thumbed through the morning paper. Mel came in and made herself a cup of coffee before joining me at the table I’d found which was large enough for all of us. When Gary came in and went straight to the coffee bar, she jerked me by the arm and pulled me down hard in a chair next to her. “He has on the same shirt. Did he spend the night? And what’s this ring you have on.”

“Yes. He did.” I watched her eyes grow wider. “In his car. And it’s an engagement ring.” The surprise in her eyes turned to concern as I filled her in on the break-in. I didn’t let her know how I’d felt about having him outside my room all night. I didn’t know if I could express it to anyone. I was still trying to process it myself.

“Do you think it was Donnie?” Mel queried.

“I don’t know anymore. One minute I think he has some redeeming qualities, then something like this happens.”

A somber motel security guard, whom we hadn’t seen before, made his way to our table while Clay and Eric pulled chairs over for themselves and Susan to join us. “Ms. Brown, we’re so sorry about the damage. Two young boys were arrested early this morning. They admitted breaking into your room and a few others on the backside of the motel. The police recovered everything. Do you want to go downtown to look at the evidence?”

“I guess I was lucky. I didn’t have anything important and nothing was taken.” I breathed a sigh of relief it wasn’t Donnie and had the strange realization that all my important possessions were right in front of me–my family and Gary. Donnie was part of it, too. I’d been too quick to judge him. I hoped he’d become a part of us, let us in a little and open the doors on his past. I needed to soften up, too. We’d all had it pretty easy and it was hard to realize he didn’t.

We left for the parking lot. Susan, Mel and Clay took the van so Susan could use the entire back seat for her leg. Much to my displeasure, Gary and I were stuck with Eric.

“So, Addie,” he questioned, “how are you going to handle this confrontation? What are you going to do if he roughs you up again?” He kept firing questions at me. “How do you plan to manage then?”

“Eric. Please. Don’t try to rescue me. I’ll do whatever needs to be done. You aren’t my guardian angel or my protector or whatever it is you think you are. I thought I made that clear.”

“No. But I’m your big brother and I care about you.” He just wouldn’t give up on his constant interference.

“If you care about me, Eric, then just be there when I need you. Don’t smother me. My entire life you’ve tried to fix this, correct that. Don’t. Okay?”

He just shook his head. He patted Gary on the shoulder and told him he hoped he was up for all I could dish out. The two of them laughed. I actually felt a smile cross my lips, too.

****

Donnie already stood at the front of the building for the Alvarado Boy’s Home with a man I assumed to be Mr. Dickinson. When we walked up to join them, Donnie cordially spread his hand in front of us and introduced us as his cousins. He glanced at Eric and nodded recognition in his direction. Donnie acted totally different. He showed subservience to the gentleman he talked with.

“Mr. Barnes, here, was asking me about the gold that belonged to Mr. Hansen, who originally owned this property.” The older, graying gentleman filled us in on their prior discussion. “He said he believes that it belongs to you and your family.”

“So the family legend goes.” I moved in closer to be part of their conversation. “We have letters and documents proving that it is ours.” I could feel my heart racing inside my chest. We were close, very close, to the end of our quest.

“You’ll need to find Mr. Lincoln Hamilton. He has an office in downtown Alvarado. He built this building and I’m sure he can enlighten you on the history of this property. I’m sorry it’s a holiday but you’re welcome to join us at our anniversary celebration. The boys would love it. They don’t have families or many visitors.”

I looked at everyone else and they nodded their approval. All except Donnie who slowly walked back to his truck. This time I ran after him. “Donnie. Why don’t you stay? We could get to know you.”

“No. I’ve seen enough of places like this. The memories are too fresh.”

“You were in a boy’s home? Oh, my.”

“No. Worse. The Oklahoma Youth Authority. I did some stupid stuff, stole some things and met those two guys I had chasing you around.” He sighed and turned his head. “I wanted the gold so badly. I wanted to change my life. I thought the money would make a difference. Then you guys came along and were trying to take it from me. You lived normal lives. I didn’t.” He glared down at the pavement and put his hands on the side of the bed rails of his truck. “I’m sorry.”

“When did you get out?” I touched his arm.

“Ten years ago, when I turned twenty-five. I just wandered from pillar to post since then. Doing odd jobs. Never settling down.”

“Donnie. We weren’t trying to take the gold from you. We were trying to find it. It became an adventure for all of us. You certainly added to the intrigue.”

“Yeah, I guess I did. I’m sorry about that, too. I didn’t hurt you much, did I? And your friend’s truck? The tires got repaired okay, didn’t they?”

“Everything is fine.” I nodded my head in the direction of the rest of the group. “They think you're dangerous. Why don’t you stick around and prove to them you're not.”

“I can’t, not yet. There’s just too much between all of us. You don’t understand.”

“We can’t unless you let us.” I placed my hand on his shoulder. “You’re part of us, Donnie, and we’re part of you whether you want us to be or not.”

A baseball rolled in between us and Donnie picked it up just as a little tow-headed six-year-old came running up. “Can I have my ball back, mister?” Donnie tousled the boy’s hair and handed him the ball. “Can you play with us?” The child asked wide-eyed.

Donnie stooped down and picked him up. “What’s your name, son?”

“Donald.” He smiled.

“Well, that’s my name too. You must be a fine, young man.” Donnie placed the boy down next to him. “Beat you to third.”

They took off toward the baseball field and as I watched them go off together, I was ashamed of myself that I had thought so little of him Not that he hadn’t given me good reason but I realized he was only trying to survive. If nothing else happened and this search didn’t turn out like we’d planned, we’d found him and I was determined to make him part of us. I walked back to the rest of the group. We settled in at a picnic table under a large tree where later all of us shared stories of our similarly rooted lives.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Long before the shiny, glass doors opened, the six of us stood in front of the offices of Hamilton and Bard. Gary didn’t join us as he knew how much this meeting meant to my family. We agreed to meet later for lunch. Each of us needed to head out for our real lives as soon as we’d heard what Hamilton had to say.

“What do you think we’re going to find out?” Susan spoke up. 

“I don’t really know. He could tell us almost anything.” I felt the electricity run through my veins. The word, excitement, didn’t fit the situation. It was much more. I knew, within the next few moments, something would happen. Something that would, somehow, change all of our lives. “I don’t think they found the gold or Mr. Dickinson would have directed us to some bank. Or Grandpa would have already had it in his possession. Something else is going on.”

As a young woman in a royal blue dress slipped a key into the lock on the other side of the glass, I motioned for the group to enter through the enormous doors. “I’d…er…we’d like to meet with Mr. Lincoln Hamilton. I’m sorry we don’t have an appointment but we all need to leave Texas this afternoon. Is it possible to see him?” I held my breath; the urgency of my request caused my pulse to quicken.

“I’ll check for you. He should be getting to his desk about now.” She left the entryway through a large mahogany side door.

As Eric and Clay marveled at the ambiance of the carefully structured lines of the building, Eric mentioned, “This is a pretty impressive place.”

“These people are big builders,” Mel added. “They probably have their own architects on staff.” She knew who these people where even though she lived in Virginia, which meant they were fairly well known throughout the building and real estate community.

The young woman reappeared and held another large, glass door open for us. This passage separated the lobby from the offices. “Mr. Hamilton will see you all now.” We were led down the hall to a massive conference room and escorted to chairs on each side near the head of the table where Mr. Hamilton sat. The blue smoke from his exquisitely carved pipe circled over his head. Steaming cups of coffee awaited each of us. Squarely positioned in front of each seat was a manila folder. After we’d been introduced by the young woman, she left the room. For some reason, I felt like Hamilton and Bard were prepared for us to find them.

“Have a seat ladies and gentlemen.” He motioned to the heavily upholstered brown, leather chairs.

We sat there silently. I could hear the whirl of the air conditioner. I looked out into the haze that surrounded the city buildings and had the feeling my life was about to change.

“I expected to see you. Your grandfather, Addison, said you’d be looking for me.” Hamilton offered.

Mel’s voice revealed her surprise. “You knew our grandfather?”

“Well, not at first. We got to know each other about five years ago when I was working on the Alvarado Boy’s Home project.”

“Don’t draw this out, Hamilton.” Eric fumbled with his sugar packets. “We need to know something about the property.”

Too much sugar. No wonder he was always so hyper. I shot a look in his direction. “Eric. Please. Let the man talk.”

“It's all right. I can understand you’re all impatient.”

“Why?” I pressed.

“The gold. Why else?”

Donnie rose out of his seat. “You know about the gold, then?”

“Yes. It was all part of your grandfather’s plan. When we dug the foundation for the building, we found several sacks of gold bars and ingots. An announcement ran in the major papers and your grandfather came forward. He had enough documented history, letters, and deeds to prove that the gold did indeed belong to your family.”

“What major papers?” I reached for the brown cup of caffeine to gain strength. “I’ve researched this very carefully. I couldn’t find anything.”

Unnerved, Mr. Hamilton reached for his coffee and waited to answer me. “I can assure you, Ms. Brown, everything was done legally. The notice is in the classified section and the land itself was posted for three days as required by law.”