As soon as she explained the positioning, they all could see that the rocks formed points on an imaginary grid.
“It must be some kind of combination lock,” Amy said. “Chris, can you get me up there so I can see?”
“Sure,” Chris said, bending down. “Get up on my shoulders.”
Amy did as she was told, and Chris lifted her up to the level of the mantle, which allowed her to reach the bottom stones. She applied pressure to one of them with her hand, and the rock slipped slightly backwards. “This is it,” she said excitedly. “They’re buttons!”
Jake and Kate exchanged a glance. “Are you sure he wasn’t some kind of cowboy James Bond?” Jake asked with a grin.
“Not that I know of,” Kate said, shaking her head, “but it does feel like Q had a hand in all this.” She looked up at Amy, who was still sitting on Chris’ shoulders. “Now that you’ve figured this much out,” she asked, “how do we know the order in which to press them?”
Amy’s face fell. “Shoot,” she said. “We don’t. That’s the part of the puzzle we still haven’t figured out.”
“And the part that will take longer than we have today,” Jake said. “Come on. Enough. Let’s get back down to the ranch house before they start worrying about us.”
After the group rode single file out of the mouth of the draw, Amy moved her horse alongside Kate and started asking questions. She wanted to know about the books Langston Lockwood read, the birthdate of each of his immediate relatives, if there was a Lockwood family crest.
Kate patiently answered each of her questions, watching as the younger woman took down all the answers in her field notebook. “I can’t believe you can do that and ride a horse at the same time,” Kate said
Amy looked up, her pen bouncing in time with her mount’s gait. “Huh?” she asked. Then her attention span caught up with Kate’s remark. “Oh!” she said. “This? I have really good balance I guess. I’m sorry to be so in your face for details, Ms. Lockwood, but this is the best puzzle I’ve ever tried to work. I know we can crack this thing!”
Kate laughed. “It’s fine,” she said. “And please, call me Kate. I have a feeling we’re going to be spending a lot of time together.”
When the riders reached the barn, they unsaddled, watered, and tended the horses. Then Amy excused herself and bustled off to the lab muttering something about “needing to look some things up.” Chris limped toward his room at the Institute building, pleading the need to file research notes.
Kate watched him hobble off with a bemused expression on her face. “That boy is going to have himself one sore backside come morning,” she said, resting her good arm on the top rail of the corral.
“Chris wasn’t about to let his professor and two women show him up,” Jake said. “He was going with us up to the draw one way or another.”
“The male ego is a fragile thing,” Kate deadpanned.
Jake stood beside her, resting his own arms on the rail. “You have no idea,” he agreed. “Mine was starting to take a real beating where you’re concerned.”
Kate chuckled. “You grow on a person, Professor,” she said.
“You make me sound like a Himalayan lily,” Jake said.
“A what?” Kate asked.
“Cardiocrinum giganteum,” he answered. “It just sits there for as long as seven years looking like a clump of leaves, and then out of nowhere, it suddenly shoots up to ten feet and blooms.”
“You’re fixing to put on four extra feet and sprout flowers out of the top of your head?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.
“Would it help my case if I did?” he asked earnestly. “Because if the answer is ‘yes,’ I’ll figure out how to do just that.”
That won him a full-throated laugh. “Just so you know,” Kate said, “I tend to like my men without flowers on their heads.”
“Duly noted,” he said solemnly. “No flowers.”
Their good-natured banter was interrupted by Jenny’s SUV pulling through the front gate. They waved as she drove past, parked at her place, and walked over to where they were standing.
“So what did you two find up in Baxter’s Draw?” she asked, by way of greeting.
“Oh,” Kate said, “you’re gonna love this. Let’s go to the house and get a cold beer.”
When they stepped up on the porch, Jake said, “You two sit. I’ll go get the beer.”
He disappeared inside, and Kate and Jenny settled into their favorite chairs. Kate stretched out her long legs and arched her back.
“It’s a long ride back and forth up there, eh?” Jenny asked.
“Yep,” Kate said, “and sometimes I get a crick in my back when I’m in the saddle for too long. It’s trickier to stay balanced with the arm. Thank God that Bracelet is as calm as she is. How was your visit with the pottery lady?”
Jenny lowered her voice. “We need to talk about that later when we’re alone,” she said. “I’ll come up to the house tonight when Josh has gone to bed.”
Kate arched an eyebrow. “Is everything alright?” she asked, keeping her own voice low.
“Yes,” Jenny said. “I just want to talk to you alone.”
Just then Jake came out the door with three longnecks. He handed one to each sister and then sat down himself, drawing a long pull on his bottle. “Is there anything that tastes better at the end of a summer day than a cold beer?” he asked.
“Not that I can think of,” Kate said.
“Me either,” Jenny said. “Especially when it’s this hot.”
“It’ll be fall before you know it,” Kate said. “Football season, and hunters taking a potshot at everything that moves.”
“Dear God,” Jenny laughed. “We sound a hundred years old sitting out here drinking beer and talking about the weather. Tell me what you found in the cave.”
Just as Kate started to answer, however, Mandy drove through the gate in her brand new yellow Range Rover, a wedding present from Joe.
“God in heaven,” Kate said. “That damn thing glows in the dark.”
“You hush, Katie Lockwood,” Jenny said. “Yellow is her favorite color.”
“Looks like a lemon with wheels,” Kate mumbled through the smile plastered on her face.
Mandy pulled up by the yard gate and waved happily as she got out of the Range Rover and started up the steps.
“Hi,” Jake said. “You want me to get you a beer?”
“No,” Mandy said cheerfully. “I’m fine.”
“There are some bottles of lemonade in the refrigerator if you’d like one of those,” Kate offered as Mandy came tripping up the front steps.
“Oh, that would be great!” she said. “I love lemonade.”
“Sit down,” Jake offered. “I’ll go get one for you.”
As the front screen banged behind him, Jenny turned to Mandy. “Since when do you turn down a cold beer in August?” she asked.
Mandy giggled. “I ate too much rich food in Hawaii,” she said. “Joe’s not going to like me if I get fat.”
“You? Fat?” Kate laughed. “I can’t even imagine such a thing.”
Mandy blushed and said, “Well, it could happen.” Then, as if anxious to change the topic, she asked, “What are you all talking about?”
Kate explained the discovery of the hinges on the radar scans from the cave and said, “We all rode up there today to see if we could find a way to get the trap door open.”
“And?” Jenny asked.
“We tried twisting and pulling every dang thing in the place,” Jake said, coming back out on the porch. He handed Mandy her lemonade. “Nothing worked.”
“Thank you, Jake,” Mandy said. “You’re not going to give up, are you?” she asked anxiously.
Kate laughed. “Oh, no,” she said. “We’ve just got to solve another one of Daddy’s puzzles first.”
Jenny groaned. “Oh Lord. Now what?”
“It looks like the mechanism to activate the trapdoor is a sort of combination lock,” Kate said.
“Amy noticed that there are six red rocks arranged in a pattern in the stone work over the mantle. When you press them, they act like buttons. We’re assuming you have to touch each one in a certain order.”
“Really,” Jenny said, an interested light coming in her eyes. “What’s the pattern?”
Jake took out his field notebook and drew six circles on a blank page. He handed the diagram to Jenny, who studied it intently. “I wonder if they form the outline of some kind of symbol?” she asked.
“It’s a possibility,” he said, “but we don’t know what that symbol might be. Amy thinks it could be something of personal significance to your father. The three of you may know what it is without realizing that you know.”
“So as soon as you figure out the combination you can see what’s under the floor?” Mandy asked.
“That’s right,” Jake said.
“Well, get busy!” she said. “This is too exciting to wait!”
They all laughed and Kate said, “It might not be that easy, Baby Sister, but we’re trying. What about you? What have you been up to today?”
“Oh,” Mandy said, “I had lunch with Jolene at the library and we looked at my Hawaii pictures.” She suddenly brightened, “Do you all want to see them again?”
“Honey,” Jenny said, “I love you to pieces, but if I have to look at your pictures one more time I’m gonna turn into a coconut.”
“Oh, fine,” Mandy said. “Be that way. I have to get on home. I promised Joe I’d fry up some backstrap for supper tonight.” She waved cheerfully as she bounced down the steps toward the Range Rover. “You all call me if you find out anything!” she said before she drove off.
Jake stood up. “I guess I better get down to the lab and see if Amy is making any progress,” he said. He looked at Kate expectantly. “Want to walk down there with me?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said. “You go ahead. I’ll be along in a minute.”
When he was out of earshot, Kate said, “You want to tell me what you’re being so secretive about?”
“I ran into someone in Mason today I want to tell you about,” Jenny said. “Josh will be home any minute or I’d tell you now. We’re grilling tonight. That man may be late for everything else in this world, but he never misses a chance for a hamburger.”
Kate laughed. “You’ve got yourself a chow hound with that one,” she agreed. “That’s fine. Just come on up when you’re ready.”
“I won’t be interrupting anything?” Jenny asked hopefully.
Her sister frowned, then caught on to the implication behind the question. “No,” she said, pausing for a beat before she added, “not tonight anyway.”
Jenny’s face lit up. “Are you finally going to put that man out of his misery?” she asked.
“It’s possible,” Kate said cryptically.
“Oh my God,” Jenny said. “We do have a lot to talk about!”
Kate laughed. “Don’t start with me,” she warned. “I move at my own pace.”
“I know,” Jenny groaned. “And it’s so damned slow a garden slug could make better time.”
73
Kate heard Jenny’s footsteps in the hall at the main ranch house later that night. She looked up from her book when her sister tapped lightly on the door of the study. “Hi,” Kate said. “I thought that was you.”
“Who else would it be?” Jenny asked, taking the opposite chair by the fireplace. She pointed at the realistic electric log insert. “I still cannot believe you bought that thing,” she said. “Do you have any idea how eccentric it makes you look to be sitting in front of a fake fire reading by lantern light in Texas in August? You’re mixing your metaphors, sister dear.”
“I’m not sure what I’m mixing,” Kate laughed, “but I like to sit by the fire and it’s too damn hot to light a real one, so I bought electric logs. Did I tell you they come with a remote control and sound effects?”
It was Jenny’s turn to laugh. “You did not,” she said, “but I know you’re dying to show me, so go ahead.”
Kate reached for a tiny remote. After a few button taps, she raised the glow of the logs and a faint and altogether pleasant crackling began to emanate from the fireplace.
“Damn,” Jenny said grudgingly. “As much as I hate to admit it, that is nice. Where did you find those things?”
A guilty look crossed Kate’s face. “Okay,” she said, “I have something I hate to admit.” She reached into the stack of books beside her chair and drew out a slender volume bound in old leather. She handed it to her sister, who opened the cover and found herself staring at an iPad.
“You are not serious!” Jenny laughed. “You bought an iPad? Wait until Mandy hears about this.”
“Baby Sister is the one who helped me pick it out,” Kate said.
“When?”
“That afternoon she just had to go to San Antonio for some piece of wedding nonsense,” Kate said. “I went along to buy a stabilizing brace for my rifle stock so I can fire it with one hand.”
“How does it work?” Jenny asked.
“The iPad or the brace?” Kate countered mischievously.
“Both,” Jenny grinned.
“I’m still working with the brace, but I can hit what I aim at most of the time,” she said. “And that damn iPad is addictive. It’s easier than using my laptop, though. I can dictate text into the tablet. I do miss being able to type with both hands.”
Jenny passed the iPad back to her sister. “I’m really proud of you, Katie,” she said. “You’re figuring out so many cool ways to make things work for you now.”
“Thank you, honey,” Kate said, “but I really don’t have much choice. I guess I am like Daddy in that respect. I like coming up with solutions.”
“Good,” Jenny said, “because we might have . . . I don’t want to say a problem exactly, more like a situation, but it may require one of your creative solutions.”
Kate put the iPad on top of the books and leaned back in her chair. “What in the hell happened to you in Mason this afternoon?” she asked curiously. “I thought you were just going over there to look at some fancied up clay pots?”
“I was,” Jenny said, “but then I walked out of the pottery shop and straight into our Boston cousin, Jessica Northrup.”
Kate’s face registered her surprise. “We have a Boston cousin named Jessica Northrup?” she asked.
“We do,” Jenny said. “She is our Uncle Trip’s youngest girl.”
“Who in the hell is Uncle Trip?” Kate said.
“Joseph Allen Northrup, the third,” Jenny explained.
“Okay,” Kate said, “and he is?”
“Mama’s oldest brother,” Jenny said. “Aunt Amanda was the middle child, but she’s dead.”
“I knew that,” Kate said, “but only because I found a picture of her and Mama when I was little and asked who the other woman was. Mama was the baby of the family?”
“Yes,” Jenny said. “Apparently Jessica is something of the rebel in our generation. She’s my age, and at least if we go by what she told me, she thinks it’s ridiculous that our grandfather disowned Mama for marrying Daddy.”
“Huh,” Kate said. “Can you imagine how he would have felt if he’d ever actually met Daddy. So, is the old coot still alive?”
“Believe it or not,” Jenny said, “he is. We now have a 95-year-old grandfather.”
“Great,” Kate said with irritation. “Just what we need. Another familial wild card.”
“Exactly,” Jenny agreed. “Jessica told me that she was looking into the family genealogy and found out Daddy killed himself. Then, of course, she read all the news stories about the discovery of the treasure.”
“And now we get to the heart of it,” Kate said sarcastically. “Let me guess? The Northrups are down on their luck and need the outcast Texas cousins and their checkbooks?”
“She didn’t say a word about money,” Jenny said.
“Yet,” Kate predicted darkly. “It’s just like winn
ing the damned lottery. Relatives you never knew you had start coming out of the woodwork.”
Jenny took a deep breath and said. “You’re not going to like this next part. She crashed Mandy’s wedding.”
“She what?” Kate said. “You’re right. I don’t like that one damn little bit.”
“Neither do I,” Jenny said, “which is why you and I are talking about this before we say anything to anyone else. If we told Mandy, she’d want Cousin Jessica Photo Shopped into the wedding pictures.”
In spite of her irritation, Kate laughed. “That’s our Baby Sister. Far too trusting for her own good. So, how did you leave things with Cousin Jessica?”
“I gave her a good dose of Southern charm,” Jenny said, “and told her I imagined you and Mandy would be happy to meet her, but that I needed to prepare you both first.”
Kate cocked her eyebrow. “Does this face look happy?” she asked sardonically.
Jenny quirked the corner of her mouth. “Does mine?” she asked. “I’m not all that quick about warming up to strangers either,” she pointed out, “even if they are related to us.”
“I am especially slow to warm up to the ones who are related to us,” Kate groused. “I’m telling you, it is no coincidence that our long-lost Yankee relative suddenly shows up after we inherited millions of dollars and found a priceless treasure of Aztec artifacts on our land. That would be the 10,000 acres of prime Texas ranch land on which we’re sitting. As odd as it is for these words to come out of my mouth, we’re loaded, and that fact is hardly a secret now.”
Sighing, Jenny said, “Have we really gotten this cynical?”
Kate took off her reading glasses and rubbed her eyes. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Sometimes I think I may have started out this cynical. It just all sounds a little too convenient for me, and the timing is awful. We may be sitting on top of even more treasure if there really is anything under that trapdoor up in Baxter’s Draw.”
“What does Jake think could be down there?” Jenny asked.
The Lockwood Legacy - Books 1-6: Plus Bonus Short Stories Page 45
