2 Dead & Buried

by Leighann Dobbs

  Morgan wiped a bead of sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand. “Well I hope he went easy with the digging, this could take a long time.”

  “That’s why I called in a favor from a friend,” Jolene said as her cellphone chimed. She looked at the display, then jogged toward the front of the house.

  Morgan raised an eyebrow at Fiona who shrugged and continued digging. Morgan’s enthusiasm waned as she looked in the hole.

  “I don’t see any sign of treasure,” she said.

  “We’re not that far down ye—”

  Fiona’s words were cut off by the sound of an engine coming from the side of the house and Morgan turned to see Jolene directing a small Bobcat bulldozer toward them. She gladly set her shovel aside and waved them over.

  “This is the favor you called in?”

  “Yep,” Jolene said. “It pays to have friends that owe you. This is Randy.” Jolene went through the round of introductions between her sisters, Cal and the Bobcat operator.

  They stood back while Randy operated the machine, expertly digging just a little bit at a time so as not to damage whatever might be in there.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Morgan could see Belladonna about fifteen feet away, watching them, her tail flicking animatedly. She tried to focus on the digging, but her attention was drawn more and more toward the cat who was now digging furiously.

  Morgan walked over and squatted next to her. “What are you doing Belladonna?”

  “Meow!” The cat glanced over at her, then resumed her frenzied digging.

  Morgan reached out to pet her, but the cat moved away, looked at her reproachfully, and attacked the hole from another angle.

  Morgan noticed she’d dug about six inches down. Peering into the hole, her heart lurched when she saw a sliver of light reflecting off something.

  What was that?

  She reached into the hole and Belladonna sat back on her haunches, proceeding to clean the dirt from her front paws. Morgan’s fingers closed on something cool and smooth, about the size of a quarter. She pulled it out.

  Adrenalin shot through her body as she held it up to the light. The fading sun glinted off the small round object like it was gold. Morgan’s heartbeat quickened when she realized it probably was gold.

  But what was it?

  She laid it flat in her palm to take a better look. It looked like it could be some sort of coin, but the edges were unevenly cut. There was writing and images on it, but they were well worn. One side had what looked like a cross in the middle, the other a grid which reminded her of tic tac toe.

  “Hey guys …” She rose to her feet holding the coin out for them to see.

  Cal’s eyes grew wide. He came over and held his hand out for the coin.

  “Where did you get this?”

  “In the hole Belladonna was digging.” Morgan gestured toward the hole and Cal looked down at it, then back at the coin.

  “This is an 8 Escudo—a gold Spanish coin. It dates to the early 1700s. This thing is worth about ten grand.”

  Morgan looked at the Bobcat, then down at the little hole that had produced the coin.

  “Do you think we could be digging in the wrong spot?”

  “I don’t know … we’re digging where the map said.” Cal rubbed his chin. “Unless the map was in some sort of code, like instead of going right we should have gone left.”

  He whistled toward the other group and they stopped and turned to look at him.

  “Hey, bring that thing over here. Morgan found something.” He held up the coin and everyone came over to admire it.

  “I found it in this hole. We should dig it out, just in case there is more.”

  “What made you decide to dig over here?” Fiona asked.

  “I didn’t. It was Belladonna.” Morgan nodded toward the cat who was now laying on the top granite step at the kitchen door.

  Fiona raised an eyebrow and Belladonna stared at them, flicking her tail.

  The Bobcat started up and Cal directed the operator to dig slowly, only a little bit at a time.

  Morgan and her sisters stared anxiously into the hole, waiting. For what, she had no idea, but she had a feeling she’d know it when she saw it.

  It didn’t take long. She heard a metallic scrape and saw something silver flash in the hole. Cal must have heard it too because he held up his hand.

  “Hold up!”

  The Bobcat shovel stopped in midair. Cal bent down and reached into the hole, lifting out a silver box. It was beautiful with a flowery carved, repousse design and gold details on the corners. Beautiful, but small, Morgan thought. Cal passed it around, handing it to Celeste, who admired it for a minute then handed it to Jolene.

  How much treasure could that thing possibly hold?

  She was about to reach for the box when a voice cut through the air behind her and stopped her cold.

  “Hold it right there!”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Morgan’s heart froze as she turned toward the sound of the voice—Sheriff Overton.

  He ambled over to them, the ever present toothpick sticking out of the side of his mouth, a satisfied smirk plastered on his face.

  “Do you have a permit to dig here?” He gestured toward the two holes.

  “Permit? Why would we need that? It’s our property.” Morgan stood with her hands on her hips. She could see Jolene with the box sneaking away, off to the side behind Overton and tried her best to draw his attention away from her.

  “Town ordinance. A permit is required for all machined digging.” He nodded toward the Bobcat.

  Morgan flicked her eyes toward Fiona who shrugged. Was he telling the truth? Morgan wished she’d paid more attention to the town laws.

  Overton walked over to the hole and looked in. “What are you digging for? Or are you digging a hole to hide your next dead body?”

  Morgan’s shoulders stiffened and she fought the desire to slap the smirk off his face.

  “We’re testing out soil conditions for a special herb garden,” Morgan lied, sending a warning glance to the others.

  Overton furrowed his brow. “Is that so?”

  Morgan nodded. “Yep, we’re going to plant some herbs that need deep, sandy soil, so we were digging around to find the best spot.”

  “Yeah, you know how hard it is to grow plants without the right conditions,” Fiona added amidst nods from everyone else.

  Overton walked over to the other hole and peered in, then turned and narrowed his eyes at Morgan. He took a pad of paper out of his pocket.

  “I’ll have to write you up. That’s a five hundred dollar fine.” Overton smiled.

  Morgan’s heart plummeted. They barely had enough to pay the taxes on the house and now this?

  “But we’re only digging a couple of little holes. We’re filling them in right away,” she protested.

  “Don’t matter.” He wiggled the toothpick back and forth as he wrote.

  Morgan’s cheeks grew warm with anger but she held herself back from doing something she might regret later. At least Overton hadn’t seen the coin or the box. Her gut feeling told her it was better to just take the ticket and get him out of there as soon as possible then to instigate something that might cause him to linger.

  “This needs to be paid in ten days or I might have to exercise my right to put out a warrant on you.” Overton stared at Morgan as he ripped the paper from the pad. “And put you in jail … where you belong.”

  Morgan stared Overton down as she took the paper. “Is that all?”

  “I think I have cause to look around some.”

  Morgan’s stomach lurched as he started over by the house. She knew he was looking for any little thing he could find to use as an excuse to get some sort of warrant to look inside.

  “Sheriff! Dispatch just called in, there’s an accident over on Route 1,” one of the uniformed cops yelled from the side of the house.

  Overton grunted then spun around and ambled off, turning only long eno
ugh to shoot Morgan a warning glance.

  “Don’t forget to pay that promptly.”

  Morgan’s shoulders relaxed as he rounded the side of the house.

  “What was that all about? I’ve never had that happen before,” Randy asked.

  “Don’t ask,” Morgan said. “Overton doesn’t like us and he’ll use any excuse to hassle us.”

  The boy shrugged. “It’s getting pretty dark—I assume you guys are done with the Bobcat, right?”

  “Yes, we got what we were looking for. Thanks so much for helping us.”

  “Umm … You won’t say anything about what we dug up, will you?” Celeste added.

  “Mum’s the word. Jolene already swore me to secrecy.” He gave a “scouts honor” sign, started up the Bobcat and headed toward the front.

  “Speaking of Jolene, where did she run off to with that box?” Fiona asked.

  “I don’t know. But I have a feeling it’s a good thing Overton didn’t see that fancy box or the coin. The less he knows about what’s going on here, the better.”

  ###

  Cal grabbed a shovel. “I’ll fill these holes back in, you guys go inside.”

  Fiona and Celeste headed toward the kitchen door on the side, but Morgan went toward the front—she wanted to make sure Overton was really gone. Her mind started to wander to the box they had pulled from the hole.

  What was in it?

  She couldn’t help but think it seemed pretty small to contain much of a treasure. She glanced back. Maybe there was more buried deeper in the hole?

  She hesitated between going forward to the front or back to look deeper into the hole. The front door won. She wanted to see what was in the box and they could always dig it out more, later. She stepped forward before looking where she was going and ran smack into—

  Luke Hunter.

  “What the—”

  “Whoa. You should watch where you’re going.”

  Luke smiled at her causing her heart to skitter around in her ribcage. He had put his arm on her waist to keep her from toppling over and she noticed he hadn’t bothered to remove it. It felt familiar, exciting and annoying all at the same time.

  “You scared the crap out of me. You shouldn’t sneak up on people like that.” She took a step backward and Luke dropped his hand to his side.

  “Sorry. I saw the ruckus and wanted to know what was going on.” Luke thrust his chin toward the holes.

  Morgan bit her bottom lip.

  Should she tell him?

  She didn’t want to. Probably because she was still hurt about the way he left ten years ago. She felt like he’d betrayed her then and didn’t see what would stop him from doing it now. Then again, he had saved them the other night and he was too smart to accept the lame gardening excuse she’d given to Overton.

  “We found a map in the attic. A treasure map,” she said.

  Luke raised his eyebrows. “And did you find a treasure in one of those holes?”

  Morgan shrugged. “Not really. We found a coin and a small box.”

  Luke cursed under his breath making Morgan’s stomach clench.

  “What?” She narrowed her eyes, was he mad they found something or mad that it was so small?

  “I’m sure those treasure hunters are watching you from somewhere.” Luke glanced out into the Atlantic Ocean. “They probably saw that you dug something up and now they will be coming after you for it.”

  “Well, they already broke into our house once. I figured they’d be coming back.” Morgan looked out at the wooded area, then past it to the ocean. Was there a boat out there beyond her scope of vision with high powered binoculars trained on her house?

  Luke grabbed her upper arms, forcing her to look back at him. She noticed his green eyes were hard and cold.

  “Morgan, this is serious. These guys are killers.” She saw his eyes soften. He reached out and brushed a lock of hair away from her forehead, causing a riot of emotions to run through her.

  “I couldn’t stand it if anything happened to you—you have to come clean with me and tell me everything you know. And let me know what you plan to do next.”

  She let out a sigh. “I don’t know what was in the box and I’m not sure what we’ll do next. I guess it depends on what’s in the box.”

  “And what about Overton, what did he want?”

  “To hassle us, as usual. I told you before how he has it in for us … and I have no idea why.”

  “Yeah, I don’t trust him. What about this Jake guy that was with Fiona? Can you trust him or is he in close with Overton?”

  Morgan thought back to how Jake had risked his own job and gone against Overton to help prove she was innocent in the Littlefield murder. She’d trust him with her life.

  “Jake is totally trustworthy. He doesn’t like Overton either. In fact, Overton is doing everything he can to keep Jake away from the case of the dead guy on the cliff.”

  Luke nodded. “Okay. Good. We need all the people on our side we can get.”

  Morgan shuffled her feet. She felt awkward and unsure of herself. Part of her wanted to bolt into the house and the other part of her wanted to stand here with Luke all night.

  She gave herself a mental head slap. What was she thinking?

  “We cleaned up the mess in your living room and we’re getting the glass replaced in the china cabinet. Sorry about your grandma’s china, I remember how much you loved it.”

  Morgan’s heart softened another notch toward him. He remembered how much she loved that china.

  A variety of words tried to battle their way from her brain to her mouth, but she only managed to get one out. “Thanks.”

  “Okay, well if you find out anything else, or see anyone or anything suspicious call me right away.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a black business card with nothing but a phone number on it in silver. Morgan turned the card over, the back was blank.

  “That’s my private cell number. Call me no matter what time of day or night.”

  Morgan’s stomach did a somersault as he turned to go and she stared at his back, unable to move. After a few steps he turned to face her again.

  “In the meantime, my men and I will be keeping a close eye on you … and your sisters.”

  Then he turned and trotted off toward the woods.

  ###

  She almost called after him.

  Then she remembered that she had no idea where he’d been or what he’d been doing for the past ten years. For all she knew, he was the head of these treasure hunting pirates and was just trying to worm the information out of her.

  Still, for a few minutes, it had seemed like old times. Like the Luke she’d once loved. She’d have to be careful. She couldn’t let herself get hurt by him again.

  Stuffing his business card in her back pocket, she ran up the porch steps into the house, pausing only for a second to glance over in the direction that Luke had disappeared in.

  Was he watching her now?

  The thought made her feel safe … and a little creeped out at the same time.

  She turned back and opened the front door, heading in the direction of the kitchen where she could hear everyone talking.

  “Can you guys believe this? What a jerk.” She slapped the citation Overton had given her on the counter.

  “I know. He really hates you guys,” Cal said.

  “Good thing we dug up this coin, looks like we’re going to need some extra money.” Celeste held up the escudo and turned to Cal. “Are you sure this is real?”

  “Of course. I am an expert you know.” He raised his eyebrows at Celeste.

  Celeste laughed. “I know, sorry.”

  “I can lend you guys some money if you need it to pay that right away. I’m sure I can find a buyer for the coin.” He pointed at the citation.

  Morgan looked at her sisters. “Should we sell the coin? I’m not sure what to do but I know the money would sure come in handy.”

  “Fine by me. Hopefully there will be p
lenty more inside this box.” Jolene held up the little box they had taken from the hole and shook it carefully.

  “I don’t hear anything rattling around inside.” Morgan’s brow creased as she looked at the box. “Did you open it?”

  “We were waiting for you.” Fiona looked at Morgan out of the corner of her eye. “What were you doing out there with Luke?”

  Morgan felt her cheeks grow warm. “What? He wanted to know what was going on. That’s all.”

  “Oh?”

  Morgan turned to the cupboard on the pretense of getting a coffee mug.

  “He saw us digging and was wondering what we were up to. Anyone want tea?”

  “What did you tell him?” Celeste asked.

  Morgan shrugged as she rummaged for a tea bag. “I kind of had to tell him we dug up the box there, but I didn’t tell him much else.”

  “Why not? He bailed us out last night.” Celeste tapped her finger on her lips. “Come to think of it, that was probably him that chased off those muggers.”

  “What muggers?” Cal wrinkled his brows at Celeste.

  “Yeah, what muggers?” Fiona and Jolene said at the same time.

  “Oops.” Celeste shrugged. “Well, there’s really no sense in keeping it from everyone. I think we all know that we’re in danger here with the break in last night and all.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Morgan said. “Celeste and I got jumped the other day when we went to see Cal.”

  “What? Why didn’t you say something?” Cal’s eyes clouded over with concern.

  “Well, we got away. Celeste kicked the crap out of the guys and we ran off. Then some other guys came out of nowhere and I guess they took care of the attackers.”

  “Hey I wonder if those other guys were Luke’s guys?” Celeste said.

  Morgan remembered how she had thought she’d seen Luke that day. “I think it might have been, now that I remember, I thought one of them looked like Luke.”

  “And you still don’t trust him?” Fiona raised an eyebrow at her.

  “You don’t trust Luke?” Cal turned to Morgan.

  “Well, it’s not that I don’t trust him. It’s just that we don’t know anything about him anymore.”