Alvarado Gold (5 page)

We followed Mr. Wright to a consultation office and showed him the numbers I’d copied onto another piece of paper. He examined them carefully and added more information 32.21.5N -97.9.11W. I noticed his hands. Hands tell a lot about a person. His were big and tanned. Not rough or callused but they weren’t unaccustomed to work, either. Strong hands.

“There, I think that will help.” He smoothed the paper he’d written on and stood. “I’ll be right back.” I leaned over and my gaze followed him as he walked away. Wingtips.

Susan poked me in the ribs. “What do you think of him? Did you notice the color of his eyes? They were an amazing shade of blue-violet.”

“Susan! You’re married,” I teased her. “You’re not supposed to look.”

“Married, not dead. You should be the one who’s looking.”

“I haven’t dated in a while.” I screwed up my face and shot back to her, “I’ve sworn off men so I’m not starting anything now.”

“Don’t give up on them.” She winked. “They can be pretty nice to have around.”

As he entered the room, I whispered to her, “No. I’m not interested.”
At least, I don’t think so.

He returned with several leather bound books, each measuring two by two feet. “These are the listings of the land holdings in the area of your coordinates. Most of the entries were made between 1860 and 1875.

“May I, Mr. Wright? I’m a conservator of old documents. I’d love to look at these.”

“Sure. I don’t need to ask you to be careful, and please, call me Gary.” He smiled and his eyes turned to pure violet.

I opened one of the books and caught the old, musty smell. Running my hand over the paper, I touched the crumbling edges. The adrenaline rushed through me as it did every time. The book, over 150 years old, let me touch the past. I could feel it. I’d done this hundreds of times and it never changed. But this time, I looked for something for myself.

He found the original entry. “John, Ben and Andrew Barnes settled this land. Does that sound familiar to you two?”

“Yes, they’re our ancestors. Can you tell us where this is and if this map means anything?” I fished it out of the box and handed it to him. As I did so, our hands touched and I felt an electric current run through me. I glanced up at him but couldn’t tell by his expression if he had felt it, too. I examined his face for the split second, our eyes had locked.
No. I can’t go do this, now.

He studied the map, then the coordinates for a long time. No sound came from the room and I could hear a clock ticking somewhere. Finally, he cleared his throat and began. “The map you have is accurate. The coordinates are for a cemetery that would be about here.” He pointed with a pencil.

“The note mentioned a cave. Are there any mountains or caves in this area?” I moved my chair closer.

“No, but see this here? Those little marks? That’s a natural outcropping of rocks. There could be a cave there.” He gestured toward the symbol on the map.

I thought Susan had melted into the wallpaper but she suddenly tugged at my sleeve. “Addie, we have to go. We’re meeting Mel in fifteen minutes.”

He interjected, “The town is gone. The Texas railway bypassed it in 1881. I don’t think there were many people left there by 1903. Why are you so interested in this land?” After he told me those details, it made me wonder why he knew so much.

“We’re looking for something mentioned in a letter we found. We just thought we’d like to go there someday and see if we could find it.”

“I could be of assistance. I have done research for my clients.”

The comment hit a nerve.
Why did he want to help? Was Susan right? Should I be interested in this guy?
Why out of all the people who asked for his expertise today did he know so much about what we wanted? “That’s kind of you, but it is near Fort Worth. Isn’t it a bit out of your territory?”

“I could make an exception for you, Miss…ah…Addison Brown, that was it, wasn’t it?” He remembered.

“I’m sorry. I guess we never introduced ourselves. She’s Susan Westgate and I’m Addison Brown, Addie for short.”

“I really would like to go with you.”

What was with this guy? I couldn’t imagine he was interested in me. I shot a glance at his left hand. No ring. No way. Not now. “No,” unexpectedly tumbled out of my mouth a little too emphatically. “I’m sorry, Mr. Wright. I’m leaving for California in a few days.”

“Take this, Ms. Brown.” He stood and offered his business card. “I’m familiar with where you’re planning to look. I could be of assistance to you.”

“I don’t think so.” I could hear that little voice in my head telling me to be careful. Something wasn’t right here. He was far too eager to just help. “You’re awfully anxious to join us. What’s in this for you? Do you want a fee?”

“David Darrow is an old college friend. Ask him about me. He’ll give you a good reference.”

“We do need to go.” Susan grew impatient.

Since I hadn’t taken his offer of the business card, he tucked it back into his pocket, he scrutinized me and his violet eyes turned a steely gray. I nodded good-bye.

Susan and I headed out the door toward the busy street to hail a cab. She yanked me to a stop. “Addie. You were a little rude, don’t you think?”

“He has a lot of knowledge about the land and he could be helpful. But don’t you wonder why he was so enthusiastic?” Sparks flew in my brain. I always used this extra sense to guide me. I just couldn’t tell right then where it wanted me to go so I decided to ignore it.

My outstretched arm summoned the ride we were looking for and we were on our way to Neiman Marcus.

****

When Susan and I entered Neiman Marcus, I spotted Mel. She stood near the glitzy jewelry counter in a heated discussion with a man who towered a good six inches over her. The furrow in his brow was deeper than the wrinkles in his cheap linen suit. His tie, loosened at the neck, gave him a shabby appearance. Menacingly he glowered, cursing but Mel never lost her composure. She was as crisp and cool as the flowered sundress she wore. As soon as he caught sight of us, he hurriedly disappeared into the crowd.

“What was that all about?” I pressed.

“
That
was about Donnie.” She looked shaken. “The guy is a private eye Donnie hired. I noticed him hanging around the real estate office. But when he showed up here, I knew he was following me. I confronted him right before you two arrived. Evidently, Donnie thinks we’re cheating him out of his inheritance.”

I took Mel’s arm and pulled her away from the counter. I lowered my voice, “Did you explain to the jerk we’ve been trying to find Donnie?”

“Yes, but he’d hear nothing of it.” She moved closer to me and quietly said, “Let’s go eat lunch before we have the jewelry appraised. I want to make sure the kook is gone.”

Another secret. Why was Donnie so illusive? He thought we cheated him out of something but what? He was more than welcome to what Grandpa had. Once when I asked about Donnie, Grandpa told me, “Bad apples don’t fall far from the tree.”
What don’t I know about Uncle Joseph?

We entered the cafe and were escorted to our seats. The sunlight from the lightly draped windows created a calming effect as it settled on the green and blue hues of the dining area. Susan ordered a chicken salad while Mel and I asked for croissant sandwiches. When Mel added strong, black coffee, I knew she’d let him upset her more than she let on. She liked her coffee laced with cream, lots of it, and sugar. I reasoned she needed something to settle her nerves.

I took her hand. “You okay?”

“I’m fine.” She took a quick sip from her cup. “He just shook me up a bit.”

“Forget it. We don’t want him to spoil one of our last days together. Did you list the house?”

“Yes. Mr. Williams felt we could get $100,000 easily with the furnishings. He thinks it should sell fairly soon, too. I gave him David Darrow’s number so everything could go through him.” Mel looked a little more at ease after her third cup. I wondered how her stomach could take so much caffeine.

“We had a good morning, too.” I pulled the documents from my bag. “We have a copy of the original land grant and we were shown where there might be a cave on the map we have.”

“Addie may have blown off our chances for some help,” Susan chided. “The guy was cute, too.”

“What?” Mel almost choked on her first bite of sandwich.

“I thought the guy at the BLM knew way too much. He wanted to help us when we came back to look at the land. He was very informative and interested in the area near Barnesville. It was strange.” I tried to remember every word of the conversation with Mr. Wright.
Had he talked to Donnie?
The specialist knew a lot.
Was he just doing his job?

“Addie.” Susan raised her voice, “Addie!”

“I’m sorry. What?”

“Are you going to call him if we come back?” Susan pointed her fork at me as if she would tine me if I didn’t.

“I don’t think so. I would like to know why he’s so interested, though.” How much more undecided could I be? Not like me at all but I dismissed it.

After finishing our lunch, we returned to the jewelry counter. We looked around for Donnie’s investigator but he’d vanished. Mel’s keen eye correctly identified the jewelry. The brooches were diamonds and emeralds. The appraiser thought they’d come from San Francisco in the late 1880’s. The mark on both pins was from a well-known merchant in the area. We paid the jeweler and left. Mel hailed another cab for our ride home, and as luck would have it, the taxi driver, who brought us to the Realtor’s office, sat behind the wheel again.

“Stay off the sidewalks,” I told him.

He pushed back his checkered golf cap with his stubby thumb and grinned. After our safe return to Grandpa’s, the three of us stood on the curb and looked at the old house. Clay and the boys had done an amazing job cleaning the yard and had even found some paint in the garage and painted the front porch.

It looked so much like I remembered it as a child. I could picture myself on the porch swing sitting next to Grandpa telling him how I wanted to explore the backyard and look for pirates. I was always the adventurer. On rare occasions, Grandma would bring us dinner and let us eat as evening melted into night. He’d tell me one of his wonderful tall tales or a Bible story and promise me I could lasso any star I wanted. Emptiness surrounded me, engulfing me like a damp, woolen cape.

“Hey. What are you thinking about?” Mel walked up beside me.

“The summers I spent here.” I glanced at her. “Did you ever come?

“Once or twice. They were great, weren’t they?”

“Yeah,” I sighed

Since we’d sold some of the furniture and miscellaneous items to a second-hand store, the house was partly empty. When we entered the living room, we found the packing boxes we’d each addressed to ourselves were gone. A note from Clay on the kitchen table let us know he’d taken them to the post office.

“I’m going up to my room for a minute. I want to look over the last of the papers from Mr. Darrow’s office and see if there is any thing more I need to discuss with him tomorrow.”

“Mel. Let’s you and I go get some sort of take out.” Susan’s eyes sparked with mischief. “Clay’s done enough. We’ll surprise him.”

Mel eyed her sister and smiled. “Back in a few.”

I climbed the stairs and walked over to the old, oak dresser. I loved it here so much when I was a child. I was safe; nothing could harm me. Not that I didn’t feel that way at home but Dad was gone so often. There was always an empty place right in the middle of my chest. I could feel the same hole there now.

I remembered when I’d sit in the middle of that big feather bed and Grandpa would tell me Bible stories like Jonah and the whale or Daniel in the lion’s den. I sighed and began thumbing through the papers. “Oh.” I said out loud. “This isn’t mine.”

I held in my hand a list of churches in Johnson County, Texas. There were checkmarks by some of them and stars by some of the others. I quickly scanned it and found the Barnesville Church with a star by it.
But why?
If this was Gary Wright’s, then he knew about Barnesville. I had to get this paper back to him. I could leave it with Mr. Darrow since they were good friends. I’d call the Bureau and leave him a message as I didn’t want to see him again. It bothered me he wanted to join us on our search for the gold. Now, I was suspicious.

Chapter Six

Our last night in Houston arrived all too quickly. Everything was packed, shipped or sold and we’d resigned ourselves to paper plates and, to Clay’s chagrin, Chinese food out of those little, white cartons with red dragons on top.

Since Susan wanted Grandma’s wedding dress so badly, she insisted Mel and I each take a brooch. I didn’t understand why Susan seemed so interested in the dress. She had boys. It wasn’t like she would pass it onto anyone. I took the pin with emeralds, my birthstone. Even though Mel mildly protested, I knew secretly she wanted the diamonds.

Clay carefully wrapped an old Colt 45 and a Confederates States of America sword in one of the packing boxes. In our family, all the men were interested in guns and military weapons. The sword, ornately detailed with a brass basket guard, the blade heavily etched, lay contained in a steel and brass scabbard. “I’m taking these to Darrow’s tomorrow,” he said as he nestled the Colt, made in 1886 with a blued barrel, side-swing cylinder, hardwood grips and detailed brass accents carefully into the box. “Do you girls want to go with me before I drop you off at the airport?”