Beneath Winter Sand

by Vickie McKeehan

Caleb read the note and gave it to Hannah to read.

  “It says your mother sends her love,” Hannah uttered aloud. “Oh, my God, that creepy feeling is inching up my spine again just reading those words.”

  Caleb rubbed his forehead. “So, her friend is basically taunting us? But why? Hannah thinks there’s something in this cabin she wants.”

  A brow arched up over Cooper’s right eye. “An interesting theory. I take it you haven’t come across anything that would be of value to her?”

  Caleb shook his head. “Not yet. It isn’t like we haven’t tried. We’ve been through every room, cleaned out cabinets, linen closets, dresser drawers, you name it. So far…nada.”

  Hannah opened the door wide and led the way inside. Standing in the middle of the living room, she held out her arms. “What do you think?”

  Cooper’s jaw dropped. “Wow! There’s new paint on the walls. This looks fantastic.”

  “French Oak,” Hannah noted, beaming. “There’s new paint in every room, except the utility room and bathrooms.”

  Cooper turned in a circle. “You guys got this much done in two days? According to the photos Caleb showed me this place was in sad shape. I’m impressed. It looks amazing. This old place hasn’t looked this good since it was new. I’m taking pictures of the improvements and sending them to Mom and Dad. It’ll blow them away.”

  “You can’t. No Internet,” Caleb reminded him. “You forget how remote this place really is. You come up here used to Wi-Fi and modern conveniences and have to rough it. It takes some getting used to. That’s why I asked whether the alarm system would work.”

  “Right. Well, no problem. I’ll adjust. I’ve been to my share of remote locales. The surrounding beauty makes up for lack of cell phone service. Where do you want the cameras?”

  “Mounted in the most obvious of places, the front porch, the back deck, as conspicuous as possible. That way anyone who gets close to the perimeter will know without a doubt they’re being videoed. And I found the perfect spot for the alarm system, a place where they’ll have to breach all the new locks to get inside. And if they want to shut it off, they’ll have to go down to the basement to do it. I had the electrician put in a brand-new box down there specifically for the that purpose.”

  Cooper slapped his baby brother on the back. “That’s smart thinking. I say we get started.”

  While the guys worked on the security system, Hannah continued to deal with the mountain of laundry, stuffing each comforter into its own load. She folded stacks of towels, repeated the process with another load and gathered up the massive quantity of sheets she used to make up the beds.

  She was in the third bedroom, struggling with the stubborn corner of a fitted sheet, grumbling that she didn’t have enough room to work, when she tripped over a gap in the floorboard. She looked down to see a plank that seemed out of place and stomped on the raised hazard.

  “Well that’s gonna cause somebody to break a toe,” Hannah muttered under her breath. “As it is there’s not enough room to maneuver around in here since the bed is pushed up against the wall.”

  She gave the bed a good shove out of frustration, and noticed the ill-fitting board wobble against the rest.

  “Bad repair job,” she decided as she tried to poke the offending board with the toe of her shoe. She watched the wide plank give way more than it should have.

  She got down on all fours, using her fingers and tried to get the plank to come up. That’s when she realized just how much higher it was from the rest of the flooring.

  Not in the mood to give up, she ran to the utility room and opened Caleb’s tool chest. She found a small metal crow bar and grabbed the flashlight.

  Back in the bedroom she wedged the crow bar in between the gap and put enough leverage on the other end to get the wooden plank to pop up. Hannah stared at an empty vent space, perhaps twelve inches deep. She picked up the flashlight and aimed the beam into the small cavern.

  “Ick, cobwebs,” she uttered as she stuck the light farther into the hole, past the spider webs. When the beam fell on what looked like a bulge of something lodged in the corner, she gingerly used the flashlight to poke at the lump. When it didn’t move, she used the crow bar to work it in position where she could see what it was.

  The lump turned out to be an old bank bag made from canvas. It had dark green lettering stenciled on the front that read, “The First Bank of Pelican Pointe.”

  She recognized the logo—a likeness of the bank building in town, silk-screened onto the fabric at one time, but it had faded badly, almost peeling off completely, leaving behind bits of green ink attached to the material.

  Hannah worked her fingers between the drawstring and tugged it open. She sat back on her heels before plopping her butt down on the floor, realizing she’d literally stumbled on the very thing Eleanor had sought to find.

  Seventeen

  Caleb and Cooper stared at the kitchen table where Hannah had dumped out the contents of the canvas bag.

  “An old bank bag filled with enough Krugerrands to buy a tropical island,” Caleb noted with disgust. He used his fingers to comb through his hair. “How could our intruder have missed this?”

  “It wasn’t that easy to find. I wouldn’t have gotten as lucky either if I hadn’t been stooping over struggling with the fitted sheet. That side of the bed couldn’t be more than six inches from the baseboard. Unless he was tidying up changing the sheets there’s no way he would’ve even seen the loose board.”

  “But we were in there yesterday with the delivery guys. And then we swiped paint on the walls. Neither one of us saw anything wrong with the floor.”

  “We weren’t really looking down at the floor or under the bed,” Hannah insisted. “We were focused on moving what little furniture is in there enough to paint.”

  “Hey, I’m just glad you found it,” Cooper said as he examined one of the gold coins. “Most of these were minted in 1970, only three years after their initial debut in South Africa. This explains why Eleanor sent an emissary to tear this place apart since she couldn’t exactly conduct the search herself.”

  “But why come after the bag now?” Hannah wondered.

  “Maybe she forgot where she hid them until recently,” Caleb proffered. “Mental lapse. She is getting up there in years.”

  Cooper sent his brother a look of disbelief. “Yeah. Right. Not likely. Eleanor forget about gold coins? Nope. Not buying that.”

  “You’re both missing the larger picture here,” Hannah began. “This asshole obviously thinks you guys already found the bag. That’s why he’s hanging around town and creeping around your houses. He thinks you have the gold.”

  When Cooper started to reply to that, she held up her hand. “Not done yet. Hear me out. How did your…er…Eleanor…come by this many South African Krugerrands, in of all places, Pelican Pointe? Did she ever travel extensively abroad?”

  “Not until she went on the run after murdering two people,” Caleb grumbled. “I’m sure she saw plenty of scenery between here and Georgia. But I doubt that little journey explains thousands of dollars in South African gold.”

  Caleb stopped talking and exchanged a long look with Cooper. “You know who might be the best source for that, someone who’d know how she came by these? Dad. He knows Eleanor infinitely better than anyone else.”

  “Yeah. But in the meantime, we’re sitting on a fortune out in the middle of nowhere. We’re sitting ducks. You know damn well this guy’s coming after this…eventually. If Hannah’s right, Eastlyn could be danger right now.”

  “And Shelby and Landon and Drea,” Hannah pointed out.

  “Exactly.” Sweat popped out on Cooper’s brow. “It’s just a matter of time before Eleanor pressures her cohort to ramp up the effort.”

  “Then we better finish running the coaxial cable and get the whole system wired. It’s a good thing you bought a DVR with a five-hundred gigabyte hard drive, enough for several weeks of recording. Who knows how long this guy
will wait before he takes another run at us?”

  Cooper stood back, crossed his arms over his chest. “Yeah. Well. Maybe we should think about getting this kind of security for our own homes.”

  “One problem at a time,” Caleb muttered. “Besides, I already have an alarm system.”

  “Not like this one. At least if he pays us a return visit here, we’ll be better prepared than letting him stick a note to the door or lurk around where we live without fear of getting caught.”

  That one idea had Cooper grabbing his jacket.

  “Where are you going?” Hannah asked.

  “I need to borrow the truck and drive somewhere until I get cell phone service. Eastlyn needs to know what’s going on so she isn’t taken by surprise in the event he breaks in there looking for this bag.”

  Hannah swept a hand through her hair. “I’ve no doubt Eastlyn can take care of herself.”

  “Of course, she can, but I need her to get in touch with Mom, Dad, and Drea, and make sure they’re all aware of the situation.”

  Caleb paced the length of the kitchen. “Good idea. I just hope while you’re gone I’ll be able to finish the wiring.”

  “Do the best you can. I’ll be back soon.”

  Without Cooper, Caleb had trouble getting the alarm system where it worked with the cameras, but after fiddling with the DVR, he finally managed to get everything in sync.

  With Hannah’s help, he tested the motion detectors and performed several dry runs before he was completely satisfied with the solidness of the security.

  When Cooper got back, he found out firsthand what Caleb’s state of the art system could do. The minute he got within thirty yards of the front door, lights popped on, the camera kicked in, and the alarm went off, loud enough that Cooper had to cover his ears. “I take it you were successful in getting it up and running?”

  “It has very sensitive triggers.”

  Cooper held up a bag from one of the local restaurant chains. “I brought food. Burgers and fries so nobody has to cook.”

  “What did Eastlyn say?”

  “That Drea saw a man this afternoon hanging around the flower shop. He fit the description of our lurker. Tucker’s spending the night at her place for a few days until we find this guy.”

  “I wonder if our bold vandal will stay in town or make the trip out here?” Hannah wondered aloud. “It’s only a two-hour drive.”

  They ate supper with that thought hanging over their heads.

  After dinner, they went back into the third bedroom, deciding to make sure they’d uncovered all of Eleanor’s hidden loot.

  “I’m pretty sure this was the room Drea used whenever we came up here as kids,” Caleb noted. “Cooper and I shared the middle bedroom.”

  Cooper nodded. “That sounds about right. I don’t ever remember crawling underneath the bed though, which is pretty much how the loose board must’ve gone unnoticed.”

  Hannah opened the closet, rifled through its contents. But all she found were a string of outdated shirts hanging on wire hangers and several old board games stacked on the top shelf. She ran her hands around the walls of the closet, knocking on the drywall. “Sorry to say, no hidden panels in here.”

  Caleb plopped down on the bed. “Once we get back to town what do we do with that bag of gold?”

  “I guess we take it to Nick and it goes in the bank vault. I don’t want it hanging around my house, tempting some loser to break in.”

  “Same here. Now that I think about it, we have nothing to do for the rest of the evening. We could jack up the stereo.”

  Hannah’s eyes landed on the tower of board games. “That’s not entirely true.” She picked up Scrabble off the top. “Are you guys any good?”

  For the next several hours they listened to old vinyl albums and passed the time playing Scrabble, then a few hands of gin rummy, before settling on a wicked game of cutthroat Monopoly.

  Hannah handily beat them both. “Sorry, guys. But I spent three years in foster care where all we did was pass the time playing one kind of game or another. Monopoly was popular until video games had us arguing over the controls. The adults sent us packing back to the kitchen table, preferring Monopoly to the fighting.”

  “No wonder you played like a pro,” Cooper grunted. “I’m going to bed. You guys can sleep in the master. I’ll be fine in the middle bedroom.”

  “Are you sure?” Hannah asked, as she packed away the game pieces and stuffed the fake money back into the box.

  “Positive. Just try to keep the noise down. I don’t want to hear Caleb screaming in the heat of passion.”

  Caleb responded by taking off his shoe and tossing it in the direction of his brother, barely missing Cooper’s head.

  Cooper hooted with laughter and disappeared down the hallway.

  “I feel a lot better knowing that security system is up and running,” Hannah noted while she cleaned up their paper plates from supper.

  “If the bastard makes it past either door, it’ll be up to the Beretta and the Glock to stop him.”

  She threw a clean dish towel at his head. “Oh great. That’ll help me sleep like a baby tonight. Not.”

  “Nope. That’s what I’m for.” His arms circled her waist while his mouth moved to her neck.

  “You heard Cooper. We have to keep it down.”

  “Where’s the fun in that? Come on, we’ll give him nightmares.”

  Eighteen

  Two hours later, an ear-piercing, high-pitched siren shattered their slumber. The incessant woo woo woo sound—a sound that only an alarm system from hell could produce—kept screeching, splitting every nerve in the ear drum.

  Caleb grabbed his gun and stumbled out of bed. Throwing back the bedroom door, he stepped out into the hallway and ran smack into Cooper.

  “Where are you going?” whispered Cooper.

  “To check the monitor in the living room.”

  “Maybe the monitor and kill switch should be in the bedroom.”

  Caleb sent him a deadly look. “Where was that suggestion when I hooked up the damn thing six hours ago…by myself.”

  Hannah snatched up her robe and didn’t even think to grab the Glock. She shadowed the men down the hall until they reached the living room.

  One look at the video screen had Caleb lowering the pistol. Out of the darkness, a lone raccoon came into view. The animal, guilty of setting off the alarm, sauntered across the back deck before scurrying off into the night.

  “The sensors definitely need recalibrating,” Cooper lamented. “Otherwise that thing will pick up every squirrel from here to Tahoe’s property line.”

  “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Caleb groused. “I’ll go tweak the damn thing.” He disappeared down the basement steps to get it done.

  But ninety minutes later, the alarm went off again. This time when Caleb checked the monitor he saw a trio of possums roaming carefree in the backyard, thirty or so feet from the backdoor.

  “This time I’ll do it,” Cooper offered. “I’ll bring the sensor field in, shrink the area, so it won’t pick up movement from that far away.”

  Forty-five minutes later, the woo woo woo sound from hell erupted again.

  Caleb threw back the covers, picked up his gun, marched out into the hallway, heading toward the living room.

  Cooper staggered to the doorway and followed his brother. “What the hell is wrong with that thing?”

  “I don’t know, but I’m about ready to shoot the monitor on sight.” For the third time that night, Caleb stood there watching the same raccoon as before, only this time he’d brought a well-fed friend. The two looked as if they were casing the joint and were trying to figure out the best way to gain entry.

  Caleb let out a deep sigh. “I’ll go calibrate the sensors so it’ll detect an even greater amount of movement before the alarm goes off.” Pissed off, down he went into the basement again to fiddle with the motion detector.

  After that, the trio slept soundly until six-forty-five when
Hannah woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep. She got dressed and left Caleb snoring softly, tiptoeing out of the room.

  She headed to the kitchen to put on coffee, selected the strong, Italian roast from the cupboard and loaded up the water. While the machine rattled to life, she decided instead of waiting around she’d check to see what was happening with the monitor in the living room.

  For five minutes her eyes stayed glued to the screen, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary and went to pour herself a shot of much-needed caffeine.

  She grabbed her jacket and a blanket from the utility room and took her coffee outside to the back deck. It was chilly, but she sat down in one of the Adirondack chairs and spread the blanket across her legs. Her first sip was accompanied by a feel-good contentment that only caffeine produces. But it was more than that. She hadn’t felt this happy in…maybe she’d never felt this happy.

  She watched the sun peek out through a smattering of clouds and turn the sky a brilliant pinkish orange and wondered what had happened to that hike Caleb had promised, the one where she’d planned on communing with nature. She had a feeling this was as close as she was going to get.

  A noise to her left had her eyes darting to check out the family of possums pawing beneath the winter sand. She sucked in a breath waiting for the alarm to go off and let out a sigh of relief when nothing happened. The silence indicated Caleb had finally tweaked the sensors to get the proper setting. Or maybe it had been Cooper.

  A cone dropped down from a large sequoia and landed softly in a mass of crumpled wet fronds. In the still of the morning dawn, a rustling noise drew her attention back to where the determined possums seemed eager to paw at the ground. They were certainly sniffing along the dirt on the scent of something.

  Curious, she got up from the warmth of the blanket, set her cup down on the railing. But as soon as she started walking toward the pile of leaves, the possums scattered.

  As she got closer, she spotted it then, the clump of fur left behind. Her first instinct was to back away because she thought the animal was dead, it was that still.