4 Buried Secrets

by Leighann Dobbs

  Celeste exchanged an uneasy glance with her sisters and Cal. Morgan and Fiona shrugged.

  “We might as well tell them … it’s not like it’s a secret,’ Cal said. “We were following some markings in the mine shafts that we hoped would lead us to a buried treasure.”

  “Buried treasure?” Deputy Styles laughed. “I doubt there’s anything like that down here. Otherwise someone would have found it by now.”

  Kyle glanced at Jolene. “I figured all that talk in the bar about you and your sisters being history buffs was a ruse. You’re much too pretty to be a geeky history buff. But an adventurous treasure hunter? That suits you much better.”

  Celeste’s lips tugged into a smile as she watched Jolene’s cheeks turn a touch of pink. There wasn’t much that could make her sister blush.

  “Well, it’s not like I was lying … I just didn’t know how much I should say. And I do like history,” Jolene said. “But it’s really Luke that—”

  Jolene stopped in mid-sentence a puzzled look on her face. “Hey, where is Luke … and Jake?”

  “Oh shoot!” Morgan said. “We were supposed to meet them at the mine entrance. I better go get them!”

  “Wait!” Cal yelled as she hurried into the tunnel. “We’ll have to use the symbols to lead us back. I’ll go with you.”

  “Symbols?” Kyle asked as Cal and Morgan disappeared into the tunnel.

  Celeste explained about the symbols on the tunnel walls and how they’d found the key to decode them in Dead Water to Kyle. She left out the part about the ghosts.

  “Thanks to those letters, we figured out what really happened with the robberies back in 1878,” Celeste said to Emma. “You were right about Shorty not being the robber.”

  “Ha! I knew it!” Emma beamed. “But who was the robber, then?”

  “We’re pretty sure it was the Sheriff, Deke,” Fiona said.

  Emma laughed. “Seems like this area has a propensity for crooked sheriffs.”

  “Speaking of which,” Kyle said as he hauled one of the gun runners up onto his feet. “Styles and I better take these guys out and get them processed. I’ll need you all to stick around town for a few days so I can get some statements.”

  Everyone murmured their consent as Kyle and Styles hauled the bad guys and the cart full of guns off in the direction of the tracks. Just before he disappeared into the dark tunnel, Kyle turned around. “I hope to see you again, Jolene.”

  Did she want to see him again? Jolene squinted at him, trying to see his aura. Still yellow. Jolene doubted she’d want to take up with the handsome FBI agent, but she shot him a half smile just in case she changed her mind.

  As Kyle disappeared down one tunnel, Cal and Morgan appeared in the other leading Luke, Jake, Buzz and Gordy all armed with metal detectors and shovels.

  “Cal tells me you guys had an exciting afternoon,” Luke said.

  Jolene shrugged. “All in a day’s work.”

  Luke chuckled. “Well, no one said anything about busting up a ring of gun runners when they told me about this job but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do.”

  “So just where is this treasure?” Jake slipped over to Fiona’s side and slid his arm around her shoulders.

  Cal peeked back out into the tunnel, looked at the walls, and then double-checked the paper in his hand. “If this key is correct, the treasure is right here in this room.”

  “Well if that don’t beat all,” Emma said. “Sheriff Kane was going to all this trouble to sell guns illegally—chasing away anyone who came to the mine and trying to get me to sell out, when the whole time he was sitting on a treasure cache.”

  “That is ironic.” Celeste looked around the large cavern. “But if it’s in here … where would it be?”

  Buzz hefted his metal detector. “That’s why we have these.”

  “Meow.”

  Celeste whipped around in the direction of the sound. “How did Belladonna get in here?”

  “She must have hopped out of the car and followed us down the tunnel,” Morgan said.

  “I think she might be trying to tell us something,” Fiona added as the cat sprinted over to a corner and started scratching in the hard dirt floor.

  Celeste narrowed her eyes. Just behind Belladonna a white swirly mist appeared. A ghost? No, too wide to be a ghost. Wait! It was two ghosts. As the apparitions took form, Celeste recognized them as Lily and Shorty. Together.

  The ghosts looked straight at her and smiled. Shorty took Lily’s hand and Lily mouthed the words “Thank you”, and then pointed down to where Belladonna was digging just as they started to disappear.

  “That’s where the treasure is!” Celeste rushed over to Belladonna. Gordy, Buzz, Jake and Luke followed with their metal detectors. Luke’s detector emitted a series of beeps as he ran it over the area.

  “There’s something here,” he said. He swung the detector in a wide arc, then again, using a smaller arc, then an even smaller one, letting the detector’s beeps help him pinpoint where to dig.

  “Here.” He scratched an x in the compacted dirt floor with his boot and Buzz and Gordy descended on it with shovels.

  The floor was hard and the digging went slowly. Celeste and the others hovered around behind Buzz and Gordy. Belladonna curled up next to one of the tunnels and went to sleep.

  Celeste was starting to wonder if the ghosts had played a trick on her when she heard the hollow thud of metal on wood.

  “I think I’ve got something!” Buzz put down his shovel and knelt beside the hole. Luke joined him, brushing dirt aside to reveal the corner of a wooden trunk.

  “It’s a trunk of some sort.” Luke looked up at them excitedly. “The treasure could be inside.”

  They continued digging, this time more carefully, around the edges of the trunk. Made out of oak, the trunk was edged in brass and had wide brass bands around the middle. It was about four feet long and two feet wide—too heavy for the men to lift out from above.

  Celeste’s stomach pinged with impatient anticipation as they dug a trench along either side of the trunk. Finally, Gordy and Luke jumped into the trench and lifted the box out, its shiny brass hinges on the back facing into the cavern.

  “Dang, this thing is heavy,” Gordy said.

  “If this thing is full of gold it’s gonna be worth a fortune.” Luke tilted his head, assessing the side of the box. He curled his fingers under the lid to open it but the lid wouldn’t budge.

  “Give me a hand here.” Luke motioned for Buzz to lift on the other side of the lid. “I think this thing is stuck.”

  Celeste walked around to the side of the trunk and craned her neck to see the front, which was sitting about six inches away from the wall. A large, square brass escutcheon with a fleur-de-lis design sat below the lid—a huge keyhole in the middle indicated they would need a skeleton key to open the box.

  “I think it’s locked.” Celeste pointed to the front of the trunk and Luke and Gordy leaned over to look.

  “I guess so.” Luke pushed the box around so the keyhole was facing them.

  “Pfft. That’s easy. A child could break into that kind of lock.” Jolene approached the box. “Just give me something long and pointy and I’ll have it open in no time.”

  “Wait a minute.” Emma pulled out a long chain she’d been wearing around her neck. On the end dangled a large skeleton key … with the same fleur-de-lis design as the escutcheon on the box. “Maybe this will work.”

  Jolene took the key from Emma. “It matches the box.”

  “It was my great-grandma’s … Lily. She gave it to my grandmother who passed it along to me.” Emma shrugged. “She told me Lily always said it was important, but I never dreamed it might open a treasure.”

  Jolene inserted the key into the lock. Click. Jolene turned the key and lifted the top. Celeste sucked in a breath as she looked inside … it was loaded with pebbles of gold, silver and a few pieces of jewelry. She recognized the Vanderbeek necklace in the pile.

 
Celeste felt happiness bubble up into her throat … until she heard the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked behind her.

  “Hold it right there!”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Celeste whipped around, her heart sinking when she saw Dixie Sumner standing just outside one of the tunnel entrances pointing a gun at them.

  “Dixie!” Morgan gasped.

  “What are you doing?” Celeste’s brows furrowed together. Had Dixie come to catch the gun runners? If so, why was she holding her gun on them?

  “I came to claim what’s rightfully mine.” Dixie glared at them.

  “Rightfully yours?” Fiona cast a perplexed look around the room.

  “That’s right.” Dixie thrust her chin in the direction of the treasure. “Great-Grandma was a Vanderbeek before she married Matthias Brandt. That chest has her jewelry plus gold and silver my family had on those coaches.”

  Dixie thrust the gun out toward them and Celeste noticed scratches on her wrist—just like a cat’s claw would make.

  “You’re the one who broke into our room at the hotel!” Celeste pointed to the scratches. “Belladonna must have scratched you.” Celeste glanced over at the cat who was sitting on her haunches eyeing Dixie through angry, half-slitted eyes.

  “What?” Morgan craned to see Dixie’s wrist. “Why would you break into our room in your own hotel?”

  “I knew what you guys were up to right from the start.” Dixie spit out the words. “Trying to come here and steal the treasure. I figured I could find the answers on your computers and notes … but I had to make it look like a regular break-in. Lucky thing my message didn’t scare you guys off because I didn’t get everything I needed from your computer. That’s when I decided to try to help you out with the book on Dead Water. I figured I’d give you folks what you needed and let you do all the work. It’s a good thing you people are so persistent … All’s I had to do was wait patiently and you led me right to the treasure.”

  Celeste’s stomach churned at the smug look on Dixie’s face. How could they have been so stupid? She’d even wanted to invest some money in the hotel to help her.

  “Oh, and thanks for the new couch and chairs too. Saved me from having to spend any of this treasure money to buy them myself. Now, if you’ll step away from my treasure …” Dixie gestured wildly with her gun.

  Celeste’s heart raced as she glanced at the others. They couldn’t let Dixie get away with the treasure after all this work, but none of them had a weapon … except Jolene. Glancing sideways at her sister, she saw Jolene push her hands out. Celeste knew what could happen when Jolene was mad—the energy could be powerful. She braced herself, staring at Jolene’s hands and waiting.

  Nothing happened.

  Jolene frowned at her hands and pushed them out in front of her again.

  Nothing.

  Celeste’s stomach sank. How could they get the gun away from Dixie?

  Something behind Dixie caught Celeste’s eye. A shadow … was it a ghost? Then she heard a click and a familiar deep male voice said. “Put the gun down, Dixie.”

  Celeste saw Dixie’s face redden with anger as she whirled around, revealing the person who was standing behind her.

  “Mateo?” Celeste stared down into the tunnel incredulously. Mateo had come to their aid before … always seeming to show up just at the right time. But how had he even known they were here?

  Dixie faced Mateo in anger, but kept her gun trained on them … Jolene in particular.

  “Back off or the brunette gets it.” Dixie divided her attention between Mateo and Jolene.

  “Come on Dixie, you don’t want to do that. You’d be dead before the bullet even leaves your gun.” Mateo’s gun never wavered as he kept it trained on Dixie.

  Celeste could see the uncertainty on Dixie’s face as her eyes darted from Mateo to Jolene. The gun started to waver and then Celeste heard a low growl from behind Dixie. Celeste’s heart leaped into her throat when she saw Belladonna hurl herself toward Dixie’s gun.

  “Belladonna! No!” Celeste heard Morgan scream … and then Dixie fired the gun.

  ***

  The sound of the gunshot hit Celeste like a punch in the gut. Tears pricked her eyes as she stared in Dixie’s direction, expecting to see Belladonna crumpled in a bloody heap on the floor. But instead, the cat was clinging onto Dixie’s arm while the hapless hotel owner tried to shake her off.

  Dixie dropped her gun in the scuffle and Jake leapt forward, picking it off the ground and training it on its owner.

  Mateo took the opportunity to grab Dixie from behind and shove her free arm up behind her.

  “I knew I never should have rented you a room!” Dixie spat in his face as she struggled to get free.

  “Meow.” Belladonna dropped from Dixie’s arm, landing softly on her feet and padding over to sit in front of the treasure chest. Celeste bent down and scooped her up, kissing the top of her head.

  “You’re the other guest at the hotel?” Morgan raised her brows at Mateo.

  Mateo shot her a smile. “Someone has to keep you girls out of trouble.”

  “Hey, wait a minute.” Jolene narrowed her eyes at Mateo. “Have you been following us?”

  Mateo pressed his lips together as he pulled handcuffs out of his back pocket and cuffed Dixie’s hands behind her back. “I wouldn’t exactly call it following. Our paths are destined to cross. You’ll see.”

  He nodded at Jake before shoving Dixie in his direction. “I trust that you can get our friend here to the proper authorities.”

  Then Mateo nodded at Celeste and her sisters, turned and disappeared into the dark tunnel.

  “Hey, wait!” Jolene sprinted after him.

  Emma watched Jolene. “Well you people are a lot of fun, and this treasure sure is pretty, but the real treasure in my life is my dogs, so I suppose I should get out of here and make sure they’re okay. I wonder if they’re still waiting for me outside the mine.”

  Jolene came sprinting back into the cavern. “He got away. I’ve never seen anyone disappear as fast as that guy. What’s with him, anyway?”

  Celeste shrugged. “Who knows … he sure does seem to disappear pretty quickly but I’m glad he showed up when he did.”

  Jolene screwed her face up. “Yeah, but I wonder what he meant about our path’s being destined to cross.”

  “Some things are better found out in due time,” Emma said to Jolene. “I gotta go check on my dogs, but I want to thank you for risking your life to come in here and help me.”

  “Aww … It was no problem.” Jolene and Emma hugged.

  “Can you find your way out?” Celeste asked.

  “Oh, sure,” Emma said releasing Jolene and heading toward one of the tunnels, “I know my way around here pretty good. See you folks later.”

  Emma stopped in front of Dixie on her way out and fixed her with a glare. “You know, I knew you were no good … just like your Momma. Papa said you and she influenced my grandma to disown him so you could have all the family money and I never wanted to believe it. But I guess he was right.” Then she disappeared down one of the tunnels.

  “We’ll come by to drop those letters off tomorrow,” Morgan shouted after her.

  “Well I better find someplace where there’s cell phone service so I can call the home office and tell them we found the treasure.” Luke looked at Buzz and Gordy. “Can you guys stand guard until we figure out how to catalogue it and pack it up?”

  “Sure boss,” Buzz said.

  “And I better get Dixie to the sheriff,” Jake added.

  “And we better get Belladonna back to the hotel so we can give her a big treat for being so brave,” Morgan added, taking the cat from Celeste.

  Cal slipped his arm around Celeste as they all started out of the tunnel.

  “Boy there sure were a lot of buried secrets around here,’ Celeste said.

  “Yeah.” Cal squeezed her close. “This was fun, but I can’t wait to get back home and have everything ba
ck to normal.”

  “Me too,” Celeste said “But there’s one thing I have to do first.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I have to keep my promise to a ghost.” Celeste looked over her shoulder into the cavern. The misty figures of Lily and Shorty stood next to the treasure watching her. She winked at them and then they turned around, and walked away arm in arm, their figures fading slowly until they finally disappeared.

  Epilogue

  Jolene wiped the sweat from her forehead as she watched the intricately carved headstone with Shorty’s name, birth and death dates being lowered into place. Glancing back toward the deserted town of Dead Water, she watched as a tumbleweed rolled across the street.

  It was silent except for the sounds of the machinery and the discontented mewls coming from Belladonna who sat unhappily trapped in her cat carrier at Jolene’s feet. Jolene could hardly blame the cat, but they were on their way to the airport after this and they’d had to secure her in the crate. Buzz and Gordy had already gone ahead with the luggage—all she had to do was get the cat there safely and she couldn’t risk her wandering off. As Jolene breathed in a lungful of the dry, stifling desert air, she felt a pinch of longing for home. She could hardly wait to get out of here.

  “I hope this gives Lily … and Shorty, some peace,” Celeste said as she helped settle the stone into the hole where the old marker had been.

  “It’s a beautiful stone.” Fiona ran her fingers across the marble carving on the top. “I don’t know what more we could do.”

  “Except hopefully get another edition of the Dead Water book written,” Morgan added.

  “Hopefully that will satisfy them and they won’t come back to haunt us,” Jolene joked.

  Celeste laughed. “Well I think Lily and Shorty are all set … Deke, on the other hand might not be too happy.”

  “Yeah, he wasn’t a nice ghost,” Fiona said. “But in the long run he actually helped us figure out where the treasure was and helped get Shorty’s name cleared.”