by Cathy Peper
“Then let’s do that.”
Ari continued as if she hadn’t heard him. “I’ve not been able to find much on buying fake IDs. I guess the authorities don’t want the Internet to be a one-stop-shop for criminals.”
“How do we find a dead person to take their identity?”
“Cemeteries are supposed to be a good place to start. You need to find someone who is close to you in age and of course it will have be a boy. The problem is that the rate of childhood mortality is much lower now than it was in our time.”
“What troubles you, Ari?”
“Beyond the difficulty of actually finding an appropriate person? There are consequences if you’re caught, of course, but I don’t see that we have much choice. There might be people out there who specialize in this kind of work, but I don’t know how to find them any more than I know how to find someone to make a fake ID.”
Bryce had been doing his own research and although he had come up empty, he suspected that scouring the underground was not so much different in this age than his own. If he wanted to do something illegal, he would have to deal with unsavory people and visit dangerous parts of town, but there was no need for Ari to know about it. “Shall we head out to the cemetery and see if we can find any prospects?”
“There are several local cemeteries.” She leaned over him and typed something into Google. A list popped up immediately. “I guess we should start here and move on to St. Louis if we can’t find anything.”
The printer spit out the list as they pulled their coats on. “I guess we will start with the first one and work our way down. We can eliminate any that have had no new burials in thirty years.”
They drove out to the graveyard. Bryce’s spirits fell as he viewed the expanse of headstones. And this was just the first of several sites. If they had to take the search to St. Louis it might take months. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, exiting the car.
Ari followed and they walked to the first cluster of stones. “Remember, we are looking for someone born twenty-five to thirty years ago that died in childhood.” She carried a notebook and pen. “I will record any possibilities for further research.”
Bryce nodded. They tackled one section at a time, but since the graves were not laid out in straight rows, it was easy to lose their place and forget which ones they had already examined. At first they intended to skip older graves, but soon realized that while some of the older families had died out, many were still prominent in town and had apparently purchased enough plots in the cemetery that the family was still being buried there.
A chill that had nothing to do with the winter cold settled on Bryce’s shoulders as he stumbled upon some graves from the early nineteenth century. Although the graveyard was well maintained, the stones looked old. The writing on them was worn and in some cases illegible. Some of the stones tilted at weird angles or appeared sunken into the earth. Had he not come to the future, he would be moldering in a similar grave somewhere and he shivered.
“I’ve never been a particularly superstitious man, but this place disturbs me.”
“In the summer, they seem rather peaceful. But in January, yeah, they give me the creeps.”
Bryce raised a brow at her turn of phrase, but found it suitable. “I think we’ve exhausted this one. How many names did we get?”
Ari glanced down at her paper. “Three. Why don’t we visit one more and then break for lunch?”
“Good idea.”
Ari drove them to the next name on the list and they spent another couple hours canvassing the cemetery and picking up two more names. “It’s going to be a long, drawn-out process, but if we can find one that works, it will be worth it.”
“Buying fake papers might be faster.”
“It might,” Ari agreed, “but we don’t know where to go to find them. And they will never stand up to serious scrutiny. According to the book I was reading, if we do this right, you can not only get a job, but pay taxes and collect social security one day, just as if you had actually been born in this timeline.”
“You are able to do these things?”
“Yes. Perhaps I should contact the agency that helped me. We would just need a believable cover story for you. It would get you a real legal identity.”
“Why is all this paperwork necessary?”
“The government wants to make sure you pay your taxes.”
“Some things never change.”
“I’m starving and can’t think anymore. Let’s grab some fast food and take it back to the house. We can talk more freely there.”
Bryce agreed, marveling as Ari drove them through a food line just for cars. The workers handed a bag of food to her through the window and Ari passed it on to Bryce. A tantalizing odor filled the car and Bryce could barely restrain himself from peeking inside.
“Hamburgers last night and now again for lunch.” Ari shook her head. “I don’t usually eat this much junk food, but I think excuses can be made in our situation.”
“The food you prepared last night was delicious and this smells wonderful.”
“Oh, I know it tastes awesome, but it doesn’t have the nutritional value of the food we used to eat in our time.”
Bryce wasn’t sure what nutritional value was, but he didn’t really care. As soon as they were seated at Ari’s kitchen table, he ate with enthusiasm.
“After lunch, I guess we should visit as many more cemeteries as we can. I will have to go to work tomorrow, but you can start researching the names.”
“I have another idea. No matter what we decide, we need money. There have been many wonderful inventions in the last two hundred years. Is there something that would allow us to search for my treasure beneath the lake?”
“There are professional treasure hunters. I think most of them work in the ocean, looking for sunken ships and the like. The same equipment should work in a lake, but it’s probably very expensive to buy or even rent.”
“The ocean is far deeper than a lake.”
“True. We might not need equipment. Depending on the depth of the lake scuba diving or just plain snorkeling might work. If you find the location, you would need to bring in equipment to dig it up, but then you would have expectations of success.”
“Hold on.” Bryce savored his last french fry. “What is scuba diving and snorkeling?”
“I’m not a diver, but scuba divers bring a tank of oxygen with them so they can go deep into the water and stay for relatively long lengths of time. Snorkeling involves breathing through a tube that extends into the air. To go more than a foot or so down into the water, you have to hold your breath.”
Bryce tapped his fingers on the table. “If we took a boat out on the lake, I could use my compass to get as close as possible to where I buried the treasure. I know how to swim, but it’s the dead of winter. Even if it doesn’t kill me outright, I don’t think I can function in that kind of cold.”
“We could wait until summer. In the meantime we would continue searching for an identity for you. Even if we find a name we think will work, we have to send off for a birth certificate. All this takes time.”
“Time we don’t have.”
Ari gathered up the trash from their meal and tossed it in the wastebasket. “I’ve waited four years to marry you, Bryce. I can wait a bit longer.”
“I can’t find work without papers.”
“You might be able to get on at a restaurant or construction site. Someplace where they don’t look too closely at a person’s legal status. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t have to. I don’t make a lot of money, but I can afford to feed you for a few months.”
Bryce didn’t like the idea of being dependent on Ari. It wasn’t uncommon, either in his time, or today, if television shows were to be believed. But it wasn’t the lifestyle he aspired to. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m not the type to lie around drinking all day while my wife supports me.”
“It would only be temporary.”
Bryce g
ot up from the table and paced around the kitchen. His wound ached and he didn’t feel like spending the rest of the day tramping through cemeteries. Before reconnecting with Ari, he’d been willing—reluctant, but willing—to make his way slowly into this new world, waiting tables, digging ditches, maybe even finding some sort of work on the curiously placid Mississippi. He needed to recover his funds and get a head start. He had another idea, but it wasn’t something he even wanted to mention to Ari unless he had to. She was already watching him with a worried expression.
“It takes time, Bryce. The fast pace of this world makes you want to move quickly, but it took me a while to adjust and learn how to blend in. It will come.”
“Time doesn’t stand still. Not even in the past. While you lived four years here, I lived four years there. I’m not sure how the stone works. Maybe you can manipulate the journey, somehow. I have already been here nearly a week. If we were to go back, I believe a week would have passed in the nineteenth century.”
“But you don’t want to go back.”
“Not to stay. But if I could go back and get my savings before the final earthquake, it would make things easier. I don’t want to wait until summer to see if the diving works.”
A spark of excitement lit Ari’s dark eyes. “I tried to go back in the beginning, but could never get the stone to work. You told me electricity is the key. We no longer have to wait for lightning. Electricity is everywhere, but I still don’t know how we would get it into the stone.”
“Good question. Perhaps we should try diving in spite of the cold.”
“You could wear a wetsuit. It’s a specially designed piece of clothing to keep you warm in cold water.”
“Why didn’t you mention this earlier?”
“Like I said, I’m not a diver. I didn’t think of it until just now.”
“I know you want to go to work tomorrow, but time is pressing. Can you help me? We will have to go back to Reelfoot Lake, get a boat and a wetsuit.”
“I have some vacation time saved up. Might as well use it.”
Bryce drew her into his arms and nuzzled at her neck. Her slim, athletic build still fit like clockwork against his wiry leanness. Pregnancy and motherhood had added a touch of softness, just as years on the river had added some bulk to his frame. It had been four years since he’d kissed her. Give or take two hundred.
“I never expected to hold you in my arms again,” he murmured. His lips left her neck and nibbled hers. She tasted of salt, sadness and the hint of wildness that had so intrigued him from the moment he first saw her at the party in St. Louis. She was nothing like the proper ladies he knew back in Virginia. Nothing like the woman he’d been promised to for the last few years. She was like the river she lived by, deep and unpredictable.
“I thought you were lost to me forever,” Ari said. “Mourned that Hannah would never know her father.”
“We have been given a second chance.” Bryce refused to screw this one up. He had already waited a long time and didn’t want to wait anymore.
Chapter 7
Williamsburg, VA 1811
Olivia Poole sipped her wine as she studied her husband over the rim of the glass. “I’ll go with you.”
Gordon frowned. “Whatever for?” He flung himself on one of a pair of matching couches.
Olivia set her embroidery project on the table next to her chair. Several other tables were scattered about, covered with vases, figurines, and candles. The maid had come in a few moments before to light the candles against the gathering dusk. “I have never been out West. Besides, I would like to see Bryce. We were engaged at one time.”
“You’re my wife now.”
“I’ve hardly forgotten.”
“This won’t be a pleasure trip. We will be traveling into tough terrain. Your place is here at home with Danny.”
“Danny will stay here. No point in exposing him to danger.” She would miss her son, but he would be well taken care of by his nanny. Married to a cold, emotionless man old enough to be her father, left much to be desired. She found motherhood to be a compensation but was still growing bored with her life. Traveling to the frontier would be an adventure and when she saw Bryce, she would give him a piece of her mind. Although she had agreed to release him from their engagement, she never would have done so if she had known she would be forced to marry his father instead.
“Maybe we should bring the boy. Let him see a different part of the country.”
“He’s two. He won’t even remember the trip in a few months.”
Gordon poured himself some wine and took a sip. “We will travel quicker without him.”
“You’ve been searching for Bryce for years. How did your men finally find him?”
“I sent someone new, who had come highly recommended. Bryce changed his name to Bob Rivers and owns a business trading on the Mississippi.”
Olivia pondered his words. “Guess he takes after you.”
“Our family knows how to make money,” Gordon agreed.
Olivia didn’t doubt it. Her husband used his wealth to get what he desired. He’d wanted an alliance between their two families and when Bryce skipped out on his obligations, he had stepped in. It didn’t matter to him that Olivia opposed the match. Her father owed the man money and sold Olivia to pay his debts. “He may slip away again if he doesn’t want to be found.” She questioned Gordon’s motives. Did he want to be sure his son was safe or did he want to draw Bryce back under his thumb? “You disowned him after he left. Will you welcome him back?”
“That depends.”
“On what?”
“His attitude.” Gordon finished his wine and set his glass down on a table. “I’ll tell Fletcher in the morning to make arrangements for two.”
Olivia set aside her embroidery, somewhat surprised he had agreed so easily to her request. She had never before asked to go with him on any of his travels. From his brief remarks, she gathered that most of his trips involved endless business meetings and boring, formal dinners. This would be different. Excitement sparked within her. “What about his wife? Will you accept her?”
“I’m not sure they ever married, but I’m willing to accept her under the right circumstances.”
Bryce might still be single? Olivia clenched her fists. Her life would have been very different with a younger man.
“Time for bed,” Gordon said, gazing at his young wife with appreciative eyes.
Olivia sighed inwardly but kept her face expressionless. She would have thought marrying an older man would reduce her wifely duties. Unfortunately, that was not how things had turned out. Would she feel differently if it were Bryce who held her in his arms? Perhaps, but she was never likely to find out now.
* * *
While Ari arranged to take time off work and informed the daycare that Hannah would not be attending for the next few days, Bryce Googled the names they had found that morning. The ideal candidate would not show up in searches but would have lived and died in relative anonymity. It would be bad luck to take someone’s name and then discover they had been the victim of a well-publicized murder. Some of the names he eliminated immediately and by the time he had finished, they were down to three possibilities.
Ari then took the computer, booked a hotel room for them to stay in and found a place where they could rent a boat and wetsuits. “The guy sounded a little bit suspicious. I guess not many people go out on the lake in the winter, but I think I convinced him we were nature lovers.”
Bryce recalled the boat he had “borrowed” to get to Reelfoot Lake in the first place. He had intended to return it, but after rescuing the girl and getting stabbed, he’d never had the chance. They might have been able to avoid nosy questions by “borrowing” another boat, but they still would have needed wetsuits. “Do you really think we should bring Hannah?” He was still getting used to the idea of having a daughter and sometimes found her frank stare, blue eyes so like his own, to be unsettling. Children were a lot of work.
&
nbsp; “This might take a few days and I have no one to watch her. Mrs. Ellis is on the list to pick her up from daycare, but I’ve never had the woman keep her overnight. She’ll enjoy going out on the lake.”
“Can she swim?”
“A bit. I’ve taken her to swimming lessons at the gym, but we will have her wear a life jacket.”
Bryce grunted. Although he barely knew Hannah, he didn’t want any harm to come to her.
Hannah accepted the change of plans with aplomb, “helping” her mom pack their bags. “Is Uncle Bryce going too?”
Ari looked over at him, a question in her eyes.
“Of course, I’m coming,” Bryce said, confused. Only he knew where the items were buried.
Ari leaned closer and whispered. “Should we tell her?”
Bryce almost blurted out, “Tell her what?” He caught himself just in time. His mouth grew dry. There would be no backing away once Hannah understood the role he played in her life. But he had no desire to walk away. Did he? Finding Ari had been a miracle. Hannah was more of a mixed blessing. He had always expected to have children…someday. He would have preferred a son, but there would be time for that later. “You are her mother. It is your decision.”
“Hannah, it’s been fun having Uncle Bryce stay with us the last few days, right?”
“Sure,” the little girl said, but she seemed more interested in the doll she was cuddling than the conversation.
“Wouldn’t it be great if he could live here all the time?”
This caught her attention. She looked up, blue eyes intent. “And be my dad?”
“Yes, honey. Bryce would be your dad.”
Hannah studied him and Bryce fought the urge to fidget. What if she found him wanting? Not that it mattered. They were bound by blood regardless.
