The smell of fried chicken filled the air of the kitchen as Dad and I cooked dinner the next night. It was a comfortable routine we’d established in my time here. Some nights he would prepare the main entrée and I would make a side salad or steam some vegetables. Other times, like tonight, I did the majority of the cooking and he handled the side dish. It was carrots and rice tonight.
“So,” I started conversationally, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how do you buy stock in your own company anonymously?”
His laugh bounced around the room as he sliced the vegetables. “It’s pretty easy to do with online trading. Of course, the broker and the company know who I am—they would even if I wasn’t the owner—but it’s very easy to list it all as a secret. I did it exactly for this reason, too. I knew that someday, someone would try to take it from me. Oak Isle is a very coveted piece of land. We have a deal with the owner now, but I bet Duke’s been trying to get him to end it as well. With our discovery in the swamp, I imagine Ralph—he’s the guy who owns the island—won’t budge on our deal.”
“I guess that’s nice security,” I chuckled. “Do I get to hear what your big plan to drain the pit is now?”
Glancing over, I saw the grin that graced his face so easily. “Not tonight. I want to show everyone tomorrow. You up for a bit of a road trip before?”
“Where to?”
“Just upstate, to the next city. I need to stop by and pick up some drills.”
“I guess that’ll be fine. Do we have time to do any shopping? I’d like to grab a few more outfits and some new tennis shoes. The ones I have now kinda got destroyed by the swamp.”
“No problem,” he answered, shrugging. “I’m sure there’s a mall or something there.”
Dinner passed quickly as we discussed our plans for the next day, a slight excitement to our speech.
The next morning found us in the car, windows down as we sped across the highway to Crawfordsville. Dad was humming along to the radio, lost in his own thoughts as I watched the coast. Everything here was just so . . . green. I still couldn’t believe it. The desert did get colorful at times, but nothing like this. It was like my whole adventure here had turned into some kind of make believe paradise. By the time we were in the city, I’d decided that maybe it wasn’t so bad Dad wanted to leave me everything. A life on the coast could be my type of life.
“Do you want me to drop you off and go to Beman’s by myself?” Dad asked as we passed through town. “They’re going to drive the drills out after us, so it needs to be the last thing we do.”
“That’s good with me,” I replied, smiling happily. “I shouldn’t be too long.”
“Awesome.” He turned into the parking lot of a strip mall and let me out, promising to be about thirty or forty minutes. With my wallet in hand, I made my way to the chain shoe store on the end, hoping to find some good work shoes that could withstand the island.
Forty minutes later, I found myself sitting on the sidewalk, a couple shopping bags around me, as Dad pulled up. On the main street, I could see several large drilling trucks heading out of town.
“They knew where to go.” Dad laughed as I slid into my seat.
“Of course.” I smiled. “The Treasure Pit has probably given them lots of business over the years.”
“Yeah, I’m still glad I came, though. There were a few things that needed ironed out and we would have had to send them back if they’d come the way they were set up. What a waste of money that would have been, eh?”
“Well, I got some actual work boots and pants, so I’d say the trip was a success.” We drove through the lot and pulled back onto the street, an excitement that wasn’t present before in the car filling me to the brim. “Would you please tell me what the plan is?” I finally blurted out. “I’ve been dying to know.”
“Fine, fine.” He grinned, waving his hand. “I’ll tell you.” He paused for a moment to take a drink out of his water bottle and adjust the sunglasses on his face. “Okay. The pit has a flood tunnel in it somewhere, right? Every time we get down to eighty or ninety feet, water pours in and no amount of pumps we’ve used can get it out. So, I got to thinking. What if instead of drilling in the actual pit, we put some holes down around it in several places and pump out of those? The water isn’t getting a chance to make it all the way to the pit then and it won’t flood as bad. I’m guessing we’ll have some liquid in the bottom, but only a few feet instead of hundreds.”
“That could work,” I agreed, nodding. “But we don’t know exactly where the flood tunnel is, do we?”
“We don’t. That’s why we have to drill a couple holes—so we can pump out any water we hit. If we can locate the actual tunnel this way, then we can go back and block it off completely, get rid of it at the source.”
“What if there’s more than one?”
“Then we’ll do the same thing.” He looked so happy, so sure of himself as he spoke. It wasn’t a mystery that his crew followed him so willingly. The way he explained his plans, the sound of his voice tumbling over itself in excitement, made anyone feel like he could rule the world if he wanted to. He had characteristics that reminded me of Mom as well, something that made me more pleased to see him each day.
“You know, Dad, I think you’re actually going to do it. You’re going to solve the Treasure Pit. I don’t know when or how, this could be it, but I know you’re going to do it. It doesn’t seem possible for you not to. You were made to be part of it.”
“Thanks, Sammy,” he said in surprise. “That means a lot. I have to admit, I was a bit apprehensive about what you would think of all this over time. I’m sure your Mom wasn’t very supportive of it. I was worried you’d feel like you’d let her down somehow by being here.”
“No. She wanted us to spend more time together. I’m sure she would have been happy about all of it, even if we hadn’t found anything.”
“Well, you’re my good luck charm, Samantha. We didn’t find anything until you were here. The superstitious side of me says it has something to do with you.” Smiling widely once more, he glanced over at me as I laughed.
“If you say so.”
Swept Away (The Swept Away Saga, Book One) Page 9
