Assailants, Asphalt & Alibis: A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery Series Book 8

by Tonya Kappes

  “I’m not saying we have the solution, but three of my five have their own maps. Agnes, the older lady, her husband hunted for the silver for years, and she brought his maps.” I saw the spark in Mason’s eye come back.

  The roar of Sue Ann Jaffarian’s RV and her crew revved up. Mason’s spark dulled.

  “I’d like to look at those maps.” Mason turned back to me and stared intently like he was trying not to look Sue Ann’s way.

  The door of my RV swung open. As if on cue, Mary Elizabeth came out, in sweat and all her glory. She hemmed and hawed down the steps and over to us.

  “Or look at those pearls.” Mason’s eyes grew big.

  “Hi, darlin’.” Mary Elizabeth fanned her face. “I swear, hon, you’re gonna have to call Hank and get me out of here before I melt.”

  “Yes’m.” Mason smiled. “My mama used to say back in Georgia that this heat is for training ground below.”

  “Below?” Mary Elizabeth drew back and lifted her hands in the air. “I don’t dare plan on going down below.” She gestured to the heavens. “That’s why I can’t take this no more.”

  “Tell me about those pearls.” Mason was stuck on those silly little round cream-colored balls lying around Mary Elizabeth’s neck.

  “They were my great-grandmother’s. They came from the Wilsons’ wealth down in Western Kentucky.” She talked as though everyone on God’s green earth knew about the Wilsons and their wealth. “They’ve been in the family all this time, and I had adopted Maybelline here in hopes she’d one day respect them.”

  “You two?” Mason wagged a finger between us. “You can’t be her mama. Sister maybe.”

  Hold the horses! Was Mason flirting with Mary Elizabeth?

  “Oh, you.” Mary Elizabeth blushed like a summer wine. She stood up a little straighter and shook with laughter. “Why, I didn’t birth her.” Mary Elizabeth ran her hand down her Lily Pulitzer blouse.

  Now she was denying me? I sucked in an audible deep breath.

  “I wanted a girl so bad that I couldn’t resist that cute little face when the state needed her to be adopted.” Mary Elizabeth grabbed my chin and gave it a good shake. “She’s a doll and single.”

  “Mary Elizabeth!” I gasped. “No.” I shook my head. “I’m not single. I’m dating. Hank.” I flipped my hand back and forth. “You met Hank. Remember Hank?” I gave Mary Elizabeth the wonky eye.

  “I don’t see a ring. Do you, Mary Elizabeth?” Mason smiled and winked. I wasn’t sure who he winked at, but he made Mary Elizabeth go weak in the knees.

  “It’s the heat, hon.” She smiled, making me unsure she didn’t pretend to get all side-ogling the way she acted as he helped steady her.

  “I sure would like to give you a pretty penny for those pearls.” He was so close to her neck that I thought he was going to kiss her.

  “You don’t have enough money to burn a wet mule, much less give me even half the cash of what these pearls cost.” Mary Elizabeth just gave him her version of the southern “God bless you” without even having to say it, making me happy to hear that she wasn’t being fooled by his flirting ways.

  “I might have a couple of cents if you’d just let me touch them and see if I can give you a good price?” Mason was like a booger on a finger. He wasn’t about to be thumped off. He was even brave enough to put his hand out, extending it toward the strand of pearls before Mary Elizabeth smacked it away.

  “It doesn’t seem like you’re too popular with the ladies today.” I laughed. “Mary Elizabeth, you need to go on in the RV and let the air conditioning cool you down until we decide what time we are hiking out today.”

  “Are you sure we can’t get ahold of Hank somehow?” Mary Elizabeth wasn’t listening. This was what made me so angry when I was a teenager and caused me to run off on my eighteenth birthday.

  “You can do two nights.” I took an adult stand. “I’ll be in there in a minute. I want to talk to Mason.”

  At least he was taking note and being good, not bothering Mary Elizabeth about those pearls.

  “I’m hungry.” She stomped off like it was her decision that made her leave and not me telling her to go back. Whatever it took.

  Mason and I stood there watching her head back to the RV. Abby, Queenie, and Agnes all stared at us from the various windows.

  “She’s a feisty one.” Mason joked and took my attention. “I have to apologize for my reaction to Sue Ann, but she and I’d been together for over ten years. It was time to separate, but when I found out…” He shook his head, disappointment in his tone. “I was heartbroken. To think if she finds the John Swift silver before I do. That would be a kick in the teeth.”

  “No big deal.” I waved it off. I might not have agreed with how the two of them handled things, but it wasn’t my battle to fight, so I just left it as it was. “She is gone now.”

  “I hope so. I wouldn’t be surprised if she were to show up while we are out there, now that she knows we are here.” He looked over his right shoulder into the woods. “There’s more ways than one to skin a cat. Just like you said about the three different maps your friends have.”

  “What time are we heading out?” I asked. “I can see if we have time to take a look at all our maps.”

  I wasn’t about to give him our maps if he wasn’t willing to show us his.

  “You’re serious?” His brows furrowed.

  “Serious?” I didn’t know what he was talking about.

  “Serious about finding the treasure?” He snickered. I didn’t like how he was acting toward me, like he’d treated Sue Ann.

  “Why in the world would I be here in the dog days of summer if I wasn’t? Or dragging them along with me?” I asked and tried to read his facial features.

  “I was thinking the five of you thought it was an entertaining tale from last night’s campfire.” He was really full of himself. I almost wished Sue Ann was still here to give him another piece of her mind. “Now that I can see you’re serious, I guess you should know we will have a meeting before campfire supper tonight, get a good night’s sleep and head back out in the morning.”

  Dirk had walked up and planted himself just a little behind Mason.

  “We aren’t going tonight?” It seemed like a big waste of a chunk of daylight and time.

  “Listen.” He leaned in a little closer. “Leave the planning up to me. I’ve been doing this for over fifteen years. Each year I get closer and closer. There’s no good that comes from being hasty. This is how I’ve always done it.”

  He looked over his shoulder at Dirk, and Dirk nodded to confirm.

  “I’m going to get the meeting papers ready now that Dirk has set up the shelter tent.” He was referring to a large white yurt that was set up between Dirk’s RV and Mason’s camper, which was now unhooked from his truck.

  Dirk had muscled all the equipment without any help.

  “He’s a tough one.” Dirk waited until Mason was out of earshot. “Hey, thanks to your brother for fixing my camper.”

  “Yeah. No problem. He’s really a great guy, and you can tell Mary Elizabeth that because she’s proud of him.” I gestured to my camper. “She’s in there all hot.”

  “She’ll be okay once the low pressure comes through. If it does rain, it might take out some of the humidity.” He checked his phone. “According to the weather update, it might rain a little more than initially thought. But we have enough equipment to get done what we need done.”

  “I don’t understand why we aren’t looking now. We are burning up daylight.” I shrugged.

  “It’s Mason’s way.” Dirk shrugged. “I don’t agree with him, but he seems to think it’s the best, and once I’m boss, I can do what I want to.”

  The little strain in his voice made me question just how long Dirk wouldn’t be the boss.

  “Until then, we will have to do what Mason suggests.” Dirk glanced around to see the commotion behind us. It was Mason carrying long rolled-up white sheets that looked like those
building plans out of his camper and heading into the yurt. “I suggest you and the ladies take a nap because starting in the morning, it’s all go until we pull out of here on Sunday.”

  I couldn’t really do anything but listen to Dirk and Mason. Could I?

  SIX

  “Wait and see.” Agnes snatched up her maps and grabbed the backpack she’d filled with all sorts of things while I was outside with Mason. “You think I’m wasting my Graham’s maps and daylight to wait for some amateur treasure hunter? You got another thing coming.”

  “He said that…”

  I was interrupted by Queenie. “Who cares what he said?” Queenie strapped on her hot-pink fanny pack. She unzipped it and filled it with some granola bars. “We paid Ritchie our fee, and I’m going to use it up. Even if just for the exercise since I didn’t get to teach my Jazzercise class today.”

  “You really think we should?” Abby was the only one who had some sense in her.

  “I’m going.” Mary Elizabeth emerged from the bathroom. She’d completely changed her clothing into a pair of jogger shorts and T-shirt, minus the pearls. My jaw dropped. “What?” She lifted her chin in the air and looked down her nose at me. “I wear this when I’m cleaning the bed and breakfast.”

  “But your pearls?” I questioned with a little shocked tone. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you without them around your neck.” I really dug deep in my memory and could never recall a time.

  “There’s no way I’m going out there with those precious family jewels on and risk a tree limb snagging on them or something unthinkable happening.” She lifted her hand to where the strand had lain and rubbed. “If we are going, I think we should go.”

  “All in favor of going now for a few hours, raise your hand,” I said.

  “What? Are we five years old?” Queenie asked sarcastically and raised her hand along with Agnes and Mary Elizabeth.

  Abby and I looked at each other. My eyes grew big, gesturing for her to say something about why she didn’t think it was a good idea.

  “I think we should listen to…” Abby was barely audible.

  “Three against two. We win.” Agnes pointed to the three of them, a side of her I had no idea existed.

  “I knew you were feisty but had no clue you were so passionate about finding silver.” Abby laughed and grabbed the backpack she’d brought.

  “Before we head out…” I stopped them before they opened the door. “Don’t we want to know whose map we are looking at first?”

  “Hhmmm…” Queenie’s mouth twisted six ways to Sunday as she thought about it before she said, “That ought not to be a bad idea.”

  “We have three maps, right?” Mary Elizabeth was good in this sort of take-charge situations. “Abby’s library copy, Queenie’s Historical Society copies, and Agnes’s ‘my Graham’s’ copies.”

  I tried not to smile when Mary Elizabeth referred to Agnes’s husband the way Agnes always referred to him.

  “Sounds about right to me.” Agnes gave a hard nod.

  “We are here tonight, Saturday, and Sunday.” I could see where Mary Elizabeth was going with this. “Leaving Sunday night.”

  “No wonder where Mae got her smarts.” Queenie tapped her noggin. “One map a day. But whose map is going to get the shorter time today?”

  “We can do mine,” Abby suggested. “It’s not like I’m as invested as the two of you seem to be with yours. It’s also the most public one, and if no one has found the treasure using it yet, then it might be good not to spend so much time on it.”

  “All in favor?” Queenie took my line.

  All of us raised our hands.

  “Let’s get going,” Agnes said and bolted out the door before anyone could protest anything else.

  The five of us stood outside the camper. Mason and Dirk were hunched over a table in the tent. Mason was pointing to something, and Dirk shook his head in protest.

  “This is ridiculous!” Dirk ran his forearm down part of the table, shoving off papers onto the ground.

  “You’re a fool!” Mason grabbed Dirk by the arm. “When you’re in charge, you can do what you want. But for now, we are doing it my way.”

  Dirk jerked his arm away from Mason. Mason brought his hands up to his face in a boxing position like the two of them were going to go at it.

  “I’ll be in charge sooner than you think!” Dirk jerked around. When he saw the five of us standing there with our mouths practically trying to catch flies, he sucked in a deep breath and composed himself. He took one last look at Mason before he stalked out of the tent.

  “Ladies,” he grunted and headed toward Ritchie’s small cabin in the middle of the open field.

  “Hey,” Abby said meekly while the rest of us remained quiet and looked at him.

  “Where are you off to?” Mason walked over, peeking out of the tent’s open flap. He took a few seconds to look at each of us while I explained how we would just look at Abby’s map and kill time by trying to find something on our own.

  “It’s better than sitting around being hot when I can at least be shaded in the forest.” Mary Elizabeth had beads of sweat along her freshly waxed upper lip. “I’m a sweaty mess.”

  “No, honey.” Queenie did some sort of side shuffle. “You are glistening.”

  Mason smiled, breaking the stern look he’d had on his face from the whole Dirk thing.

  “You ladies be careful. Remember, John Swift encountered a few bears along the way.” His eyes sparkled. You could tell he really enjoyed looking for the silver mines.

  “If I didn’t know better”—Mary Elizabeth shook a finger at Mason—“I’d think you were trying to scare us.”

  “Scare?” Mason gave her a shy smile and wink. “Me? Never,” he gasped, and his eyes moved to her neck. “Oh my, your pearls.”

  “I took them off just in case I do see a bear.” Mary Elizabeth was so good with comebacks that were witty. “Now, since you are cooking supper, please have it ready when we get back.”

  “Yes’m. You wait right here.” He gave a soldier’s salute before he disappeared back into his tent. He reemerged with some Ziploc bags in his hand. “Here’s some food that will help sustain your energy while you’re out there. You might think you aren’t working your body hard, but you are.”

  “That’s mighty kind of you.” Mary Elizabeth took the Ziplocs and handed them to me as she turned her back, gesturing for me to put them in her backpack.

  “I don’t want to have to come out there and hunt for any of you,” he told us in a voice of authority.

  “We will be fine,” I assured him and walked away with the gals following me.

  “He sure has taken a shine to you.” Agnes had taken charge and was the first one on the trail.

  “He’s just being friendly.” Mary Elizabeth played it off.

  All five of us were in a line as we walked what little trail was still trodden down from others. Just about half a mile into the hike, the trail was no longer visible. Agnes would stop a few seconds every hundred feet or so.

  “Let me see here.” Her little wrinkly hand held up the compass. She moved in a circle to find the exact direction she wanted to go. “My Graham said this was how people got lost. The trails stop, and people keep walking. My Graham said you have to use a compass.” She eyed Abby. “You young people don’t even know how to read a compass or map.”

  “Why are you lumping me into that mix?” Abby asked with an offended tone.

  “Don’t think I didn’t notice you taking out your phone to see if you had service.” Agnes’ observation made us laugh. We were all guilty of trying to see if we were getting any sort of service. After I’d tried a couple of times, I just gave up.

  “According to your map, Swift’s first fifteen thousand crowns are twenty poles from the creek.” She continued to look at her compass until she was satisfied with the direction. “That means we need to walk a little over half a mile before we get to the small rock near the blush-colored bush.” Agnes
made a karate chop move. “This way.”

  We all forged ahead, not questioning a bit of Agnes’s ability to get us to the spot on Abby’s map that led to a cache of crowns Swift had counterfeited while he was here in Kentucky.

  The forest got thicker the deeper we went. I was happy to be in the very back because Agnes cleared some brush with her stick while Abby forged behind her. Queenie was next, and she whacked everything in her way, clearing the way for Mary Elizabeth, then me.

  The sound of crackling leaves and sticks made me stop to listen. A few murmuring voices had me turning around to see who was behind me.

  “Y’all,” I whispered. The chills prickled the back of my neck. “Someone is out here.”

  Everybody stopped.

  “Someone?” Agnes asked. “A lot of someones are here. All looking for the treasure.”

  Just as the words left her mouth, Sue Ann Jaffarian and a couple of crew members appeared from behind some trees.

  I think they were just as shocked to see us as we were them.

  “I’m so glad it’s you.” I put my hand up to my chest. The chills fell away. Then I started to explain myself. “Not that I know you, but I did see you back at Ritchie’s campsite. And you never know who you’ll see out here and if they are going to… kill you.”

  “Kill you?” Mary Elizabeth jerked back. Her brows furrowed.

  “I’m just saying anything can happen in the woods.” I had no idea why I kept talking. “Anyways, I’m Mae.” I went down the line. “Sue Ann, this here is Mary Elizabeth, Queenie, Abby, and Agnes.”

  Sue Ann gave me a look as though I’d lost my mind.

  “I can call you Sue Ann, right? I mean, I know we weren’t introduced at the campsite, but Mason did tell me who you were, and I just…” I clamped my mouth together when I noticed her brows were digging, popping, and just plain confused with me.

  “Yes. About that.” She glanced over her shoulder at her crew members. She had a fistful of some greenery in her hand. “I’m sorry you had to witness that. He just can’t take it that I broke up with him, and I’ve got better people working for me as well as better at finding treasure.” She gave a sly look to both the people with her. “He’s spent the better part of the last six months trying to ruin my reputation, and I’ve about had it up to here with him.” She took her finger and drew it across her neck.