Polly glanced around trying to find a weapon or something to protect herself with then realized that she carried a priceless vase in her hands and it wasn't going to be destroyed on her watch.
"This is a small town. I'm going to start screaming and someone will come. You might want to get out of here before that happens," she said. "And besides, my horses aren't any too happy with you in here either. I'd hate for one of them to come crashing through a stall door because they were worried about me." Then she remembered that the horses were still out in the pasture. That wasn't going to do her any good.
The larger of the two moved in a little faster and grabbed her. He spun her around and clamped his hand over her mouth. She opened it enough so that she could bite the skin, but he refused to budge even as she ground her teeth into the meat of his hand.
"You shouldn't have done that. I don't like to hurt pretty little girls, but if they piss me off enough, I'll do what it takes," he said.
The other tried to rip the bag out of her hand, but Polly refused to release it. She wrapped her hand around the handles and the top of the bag. He grabbed her hand and began to squeeze it together, rubbing bone against bone. Tears spurted from her eyes as the level of pain increased and then she got mad. She kicked him in the shin and reached up with her free hand to smack his nose with the base of her palm as he bent over.
The fury in his eyes warned her in time to flinch as he smacked her across the face. The man holding her mouth released her in time for her head to fling to one side. Polly let out a screech and kicked again. This time the one in front of her punched her in the stomach and she doubled over.
Then she heard a voice say, "Get the hell away from her. Why does it take two of you to attack one little girl?"
They released her and she dropped to her knees to see them rush back out of the room. She took a breath and looked around for a hiding place for the vase. Somehow she made her way to a cabinet on the other side of the room, opened the door and shoved the vase in, closing the door behind her. She didn't want that antiquity to be a casualty of the fight. She'd heal, the vase wouldn't.
Still panting, she put a hand to her cheek. It felt hot. Damn, she was going to have a black eye, she was sure of that. She looked out into the alley and saw that Eliseo had been her savior and he was dealing with both of the men. They nearly had him down.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket, hit re-dial and when Ken Wallers answered, all she said was, "Help me in the barn," and hung up.
Then, she looked around the room again and her eyes lit on a shovel. Grabbing it, Polly ran out into the fray and as soon as she got a chance, lifted it up with both hands and with all the strength she had, brought it down on the head of the closest man. He dropped to the ground. It was the man who had punched her.
Polly figured that turnabout was fair play and kicked him in the balls, then said, "Stay where you are unless you want more of that."
He didn't move.
Eliseo and the other man were grappling in front of her. Dropping one of the intruders out of the fight had given Eliseo an advantage.
"Come on, Seo," the other man said. "You don't want to fight me again, do you?"
"I already am, Dover, and this time things are a little more even. You don't come into my territory and beat up women, you asshole."
"You're a pansy-assed moron. Just give up. All we want is the vase and the cash and we're out of here. Hell, we'll even give you some of the money if you stop fighting us."
"Not now, you won't. I told you to get out of town the other night and you didn't listen. I should have gone to the cops."
Dover punched Eliseo in the side. Polly knew that more damage to those ribs had to hurt like hell and she gasped in shock.
Then she heard a click. "Stop right there."
Polly looked up and saw Ken Wallers with his gun drawn, striding into the barn. She heaved a sigh of relief.
Neither man stopped what they were doing.
He approached a little more closely and looked over at Polly who was standing behind the man on the ground with her shovel poised to hit him again if he so much as twitched.
"Stop," he said and aimed the gun so that the man called Dover could see it. "I'm the Chief of Police in Bellingwood and you are finished with this fight."
Dover released Eliseo, who slumped over, breathing heavily.
Ken said to the man, "Drop to your knees, put your hands behind your back and link your fingers." The man did so and Ken pulled a zip tie out of his pocket and whipped it shut around Dover's wrists.
"Stay," he said. "Don't you dare move."
He walked over to the man who was lying on the ground and said to Polly, "What in the hell did you do to him?"
"He punched me. I felled him," she said. Yeah. That was a good word.
"You certainly did. Why is he all curled up?"
"I might have taken a little revenge. He hit me in the face, then he punched me in the stomach and when he threatened Jason and Andrew, I got mad."
Ken shook his head as he bent down and turned the man over so he could pull his hands behind him and zip-tie them together. "I am not going to ask any more questions and I am certainly not going to ever make you angry. I have to say, though, Miss Giller, Aaron Merritt worries about you a lot. After this, though, I'm not sure why. I think you did pretty well by yourself today."
Polly smiled and then felt a few tears begin to leak out of her right eye. She brushed them away and said, "Sorry, that doesn't do much for my reputation as a tough girl."
He laughed and pulled her in for a side hug. "You're fine, Polly. I can't believe what you've done here today."
Eliseo stood up and said, "I can't believe it either. You should have seen her. She was a little ferocious."
"Are these the two men who were in a fight with you the other night? Do you know them?"
"Yes I do, sir. I thought they would leave town, but they didn't."
"Do you want to press charges for the fight the other night?"
Dover looked up at Eliseo with venom in his eyes.
Eliseo nodded in the affirmative, "I think I do, sir."
"I have two patrol cars that should be here right about now," Ken looked up as three of his men walked into the barn. "Yes, here they are. They'll take these two down to the station and maybe we’ll wrap this little mystery up today. I can't wait to hear which of you two murdered Harry Bern."
"Oh!" Polly said. "Just a second. I can tell you why they did it, too!"
She ran back into the feed room and opened the cabinet, pulled out the paper bag and carried it out to the crowd of people in her barn. She pulled back the towels and showed the vase to Ken.
"I'll bet these guys were in the army with Harry Bern and they stole this vase and this money when they were in Iraq. Am I right?"
She looked at the one kneeling on the ground and he was silent.
"This thing is priceless," she said and tipped the vase so Ken could see the bundles of cash in its belly. "And not only that, I have no idea how much cash is in here, but the articles say that millions of dollars were stolen. This is probably only a very small part of it."
Two of the three men who had joined them had brought the two thieves to their feet and were walking them out of the barn. Ken called the last of his men over and handed him the bag with the vase and then spoke to him in low tones.
Polly said to Eliseo, "I'm sorry you got hurt again, but I was very glad to hear your voice when you came in the barn."
"I'm sorry I didn't get here more quickly, ma'am."
"It's Polly. Even more so now, it's Polly."
"Yes ma'am." he smiled.
"I'd like to hear what the two of you have to say," Ken said. "Then tomorrow you should come to the station and make a statement and we'll get these men dealt with."
"Why don't you come on up to the apartment," Polly said. "I want to put some peas on this eye and I think Eliseo could use a little TLC.
"Peas?" Ken asked.
"For my face. Frozen peas. Because they form themselves to the hills and valleys and I can't bear to use a steak for something like this."
"Don't you have an ice pack?"
"I like peas. I have plenty of them in my freezer. Eliseo, are you with me on this?"
"Peas it is," he laughed.
"Henry and Sylvie Donovan's boys are upstairs. I'll bet they're getting worried. I was going to run out here and get that vase and have it ready when you got there. It was Andrew who helped me figure this out. Maybe I should call Sylvie to come over."
"That would be fine," he said. "I'll be up in a few minutes."
"I'm going to be alright, Polly," Eliseo said. "I can go down to my room."
"You need to come with me. I think Ken is going to want all of the parts of the puzzle and you have a little more information than you've let on," she commented. "Come on up and let me take care of some of that blood, too." She pointed at his cheek and he touched it, then laughed as he saw it was covered in blood.
Polly pulled her phone back out and dialed Sylvie.
"How are you doing with your studying?" she asked when Sylvie answered.
"It's been a wonderful day!" Sylvie responded. "I even got a little nap. How are the boys?"
"They're fine and I'm glad you got a nap. They were awfully glad to get in my truck today!" Polly laughed.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I was a bear this morning. I was so tired and stressed out over all the work I had to get done for my classes. You're such a good friend. Thank you for taking them."
"Did you get most of your homework done?"
"I am all caught up. All I needed was some quiet time and some focus, so thank you again."
"That was no problem, but, umm, Sylvie? It's been a crazy day and Ken Wallers is here and I think I would like you to come over while we all talk. The boys have part of a story to tell and they'd be more comfortable with you there."
"What happened? Did they do something?"
"Oh, nothing like that. We've solved the murder of Harry Bern and a lot of that was because Andrew stumbled on some books at his house. Can you come over?"
"I'll be right there. You're up in your apartment?"
"Almost. Oh, and don't panic. Eliseo and I were in a fight with two men and we might look a little rough, so you'll probably want to tend to his wounds again."
"Oh, Polly, what have you done? Are you alright?"
"Just come over. I'm fine and you probably need to see this for yourself so you can be assured we're going to live. We're almost inside and I just want to stumble up the steps."
Polly and Eliseo went in to the apartment and Henry looked up from a game of cards he was playing with Jason at the table.
"What happened to you two?" he exclaimed as he jumped up and rushed to Polly.
"It’s a long story," she said. "Can you wait to hear it until Ken Wallers gets up here?"
"I guess," he said. "Have you been in a fight?"
"Maybe," she winced.
"You've been in a fight?" Andrew exclaimed. "Did you win?"
"She definitely won," Eliseo said. "Henry you never want to cross this woman if she's got a weapon in her hand. And from what I've seen today, anything she can get her hands on is a weapon."
"Can I please get some peas?" Polly asked. "This is going to get worse before it gets better." She pointed to the side of her face.
"Peas?" Henry asked.
"In the freezer," she responded. "I want a bag of peas for me and get me a Dew out of the refrigerator." She turned to Eliseo. "Anything to drink? I think there's some iced tea."
"I'd love a glass of ice water. That's all," he said.
"Come on in and get comfortable," she pointed to the sofa. "We're about to have a crowd."
"Who hurt you, Polly?" Jason asked. He had followed Henry into the kitchen and came back to her carrying a bottle of Mountain Dew. He twisted the top to break the seal and handed it to her.
"Thanks, Jason. Sit down. I'll tell you the whole thing when Chief Wallers is here. Is that alright?"
"Sure. I'm sorry you got hurt, though. Did you really hurt a bad guy? Were you scared?"
Polly looked into his fear-filled eyes. They'd had a conversation much like this after she had a run-in with her ex-boyfriend, Joey Delancy. Jason was trying desperately to grow up so he could take of his mother. Something had happened in their past that frightened him and he needed a little more reassurance that she could take care of herself.
"I did, but I called Chief Wallers so that he would come help us and I knew that Eliseo had my back, too."
"Okay," he said.
There was a knock at the door and Henry nodded to Jason who ran to get it. He placed a bag of peas in Polly's hand and handed Eliseo a glass of ice water.
Sylvie and Ken Wallers came in together. She hugged both of her boys then took a look at Eliseo and Polly and sighed. "What did you two do?" she asked.
"They beat up some bad guys, mom." Andrew said. "Polly did too, can you believe it?"
Sylvie's eyes crinkled. "You did?"
"Uh huh," Polly said.
"Oh, Eliseo, you've been hurt again. Polly, do you have a first-aid kit?"
Polly rolled her eyes, "I'm fine, thanks. It's in the bathroom underneath the sink."
Sylvie hadn't even heard her and rushed into the bathroom. She came back out with the first aid kit and said to Henry, "I know Polly has some rags in the kitchen drawer. I need a bowl of warm water and some of those as soon as possible, please."
Eliseo put his hand out to stop her. "Miz Donovan, I'm fine. Please don't hover over me today."
"I'm cleaning up those wounds and you aren't going to stop me. Henry?"
Henry slunk into the kitchen and Eliseo slumped back on the sofa.
"Think I'm the tough one now?" Polly asked.
With a bowl of water in one hand and towels in another, Henry came back into the living room. He set them on the coffee table and sat down beside Polly, "Are you hurt anywhere other than your face?" he asked.
"He punched me in the stomach, but I'm pretty much over that. Eliseo took most of the damage."
Ken Wallers looked around at them and finally said, "I'm sorry, but I need to find out what has happened here today."
Sylvie was startled and looked up, holding a warm, wet cloth to Eliseo's cheek. "I'll only be a minute. But, you can start."
"Thank you, ma'am," he said and tipped his head toward her, smiling.
"So, Polly. Tell me what you know."
"I found that vase in my hay loft and didn't know what it was. I probably should have called you last night, but I had no idea where it had come from."
"I get it. Go on."
"When we were cleaning Harry Bern's house out this afternoon, Andrew opened a book to look through it and things fell out. There were one hundred dollar bills and some Iraqi currency and a few articles. Those are over on the table. Jason?"
He got up and went over to get the box of items they had recovered.
"We found a few more books with money and articles in them. Harry had put some light glue on them so they wouldn't spill out unless someone worked at it."
"I worked at it," Andrew spoke up. "We went through all of his books and found the ones with stuffing. Jason counted and there were forty-three hundred dollar bills!"
"Hmmm," Ken said.
"Andrew also found a set of Time Life Ancient Civilization books and we brought those back with us as well. Sylvie, we need to talk about that."
Sylvie nodded as she put a bandage on Eliseo's cheek.
"He was looking at some pictures in the Mesopotamian book and happened to set it down in front of me and I realized that the patterns were the same as what I had seen on the vase. Then, I began looking at the newspaper clippings and realized they were all about these soldiers who had stolen things from Iraq during Desert Storm. There were some arrests, but not everything was recovered. The hundred dollar bills were dated from the late eighties and some from nineteen ninety-one and it
occurred to me that it was probably part of the money they had stolen from the palace."
Polly flipped through a few of the articles and landing on one, handed it to Ken Wallers. He glanced at it and said, "Okay, keep going."
"Well, then I called you. But, I figured I would run out and get the vase so that I could show you everything at once. I put it in a bag with those towels because I had to bring it down the ladder. When I got to the bottom, those guys were in my barn and they attacked me. I kicked and bit and got one in the nose, but they were getting serious when Eliseo showed up. They let me go and probably thought I was a stupid woman."
"But, you're not," Jason interrupted.
"But, I'm not. I grabbed a shovel and dropped the one who punched me. Then, not long after that, you showed up. But, Eliseo. You and that Dover guy knew each other."
Ken turned his body to face Eliseo. "I think it's your turn now."
"I did know those two fellows. We were in the same unit together with Harry Bern. Because of my accident I got out of there before they did, but I always wondered what they were up to."
"Is Harry the man you were telling me about who traveled around the country and didn't let anyone know where he was?" Polly asked.
"Yes," Eliseo said. "It wasn't a game. They wanted their part of the money. He had gotten it out of Iraq and it seemed like he enjoyed taunting them on the message boards. They'd show up in a town a few days after he had left. When I figured out he was living here in Bellingwood, I came up to try to talk some sense into him. I didn't tell any of the others what I was doing, just dropped off the message boards and headed up here. I thought I would beat them, but I came into town the day he was killed."
"You moved into my barn," Polly said.
"I did and I'm not sorry," he smiled.
"Go on," Ken encouraged.
"I knew those two were around the area and that one of them had killed Harry. I saw them downtown and thought I would take the day off and talk to them, see if I could convince them that he was gone and his stash was probably long gone. We did fine until they started drinking that night and then they got mad and accused me of stealing the money and using it myself. I couldn't make them see the sense in that. I was working and living in a barn. If I had the money, I would certainly be living better than that. Everything deteriorated and we got into a fight."
Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) Page 30
