by Liliana Hart
Hank hadn’t realized it, but his hand had also rested atop Sully’s slumped shoulder as the old biker began to softly weep. Hank was familiar with the outlaw lifestyle, he’d just never met one of them that he wasn’t trying to fight or arrest. Sully wasn’t at all what he’d expected.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to depress you with my life story. It’s just the way things turned out.”
“Sometimes you have to make the choice to make things different,” Agatha said, “No matter the cost.”
Sully nodded and regrouped. “As long as you keep my name out of anything to do with Coil or the Rattlers, I’ll do what I can for you. I owe them both.”
“Understood,” Hank said. “What can you tell me about Beau?”
Sully laughed. “Which Beau? It’s a common name around here.”
“Beauregard Sam Houston.”
Sully shuddered “Oh, I knew him. He was our state president. A ruthless SOB, but a great man. No one knows what happened to him. Some think he ran off with a pile of gold. Personally, I think he’s in the witness protection program.”
“Why would you think he’s in WITSEC?” Hank asked.
“Because, he disappeared around the same time his wife was murdered and a bunch of the Rattlers got busted. I figure he flipped state’s witness. Can’t say as I blame him.”
“His wife was murdered? Did he kill her?” Hank asked.
“No, he loved her. Although, I heard she wasn’t too faithful to him. That ain’t cool in the biker world, you know?”
“It ain’t cool in the regular world either,” Hank said.
“Maybe he caught her running around on him and killed her in a rage of jealousy?” Hank suggested.
Sully rubbed his chin, and then moved on to scratch his butt before itching his head. Hank watched Agatha put her hand over her mouth. Sully was definitely a hit or miss kinda guy.
“Naw, if I recall right, Beau went missing about a week before Shondra did. Timing’s all off.”
“Then who could’ve killed her? Another outlaw?”
“Come on now, Hank. It’s not nice to use those words.”
“Sorry,” Hank said, raising his hands. Could she have been killed by another member of the club?”
“Not sure. You should ask around. Maybe someone else remembers.”
“Seriously? You think I can walk up to Rattlers and start asking questions about Beau and Shondra?”
Sully laughed and showed his broken, yellowed teeth again. “You got a point there, boy. Maybe I could ask around for you. Or you could come back by here tonight. We’re having a bike night with free beer and an eighties rock cover band. Some of the boys from the club might stop in. I’ll introduce you as a supporter.”
“Think it’ll work?” Agatha asked.
“Maybe so, but you’ll have to come back on your HOG. They’d smell a rat a mile away if you came in that foreign job.”
“Is it fun?” Agatha asked.
“I always have a blast. I even get to see Connie sometimes.”
Hank thought about how sad it was to miss your wife. At least she was still alive for Sully to see.
“Of course, I’m not allowed to speak with her anymore, but it don’t hurt to peek.”
“Well, I guess we gotta start somewhere. Might as well be over free beers,” Hank said.
“Does this mean we’re coming back tonight?” Agatha asked.
“Yeah, if I can get this thing started.”
“Here you go, boss.” Sully said as he switched the knob to the on position, and mashed the starter button.
Hank handed Agatha the keys to his BMW.
“I’ll meet you back at the house,” he said.
“See you tonight,” Sully said. “Oh, and dress to impress.”
Agatha smirked as she walked toward the car. “Oh, I will.”
“That girl looks like a handful,” Sully said once Agatha had left.
“You have no idea,” Hank said.
Chapter Nine
Thank goodness he’d stayed and let Sully show him how to use the bike. It wasn’t that difficult. He’d just need repetition to start and stop and get his turns down pat. Sully had worked with him for well over an hour, and Hank hoped he hadn’t gotten in trouble.
Sully had even talked him into getting a new leather vest and chaps so he didn’t look like a complete newbie. He had to admit he liked the chaps. They were comfortable, and he understood the need for the vest when he hit the road and the wind started hitting his chest. He’d had a few bobbles, but he was keeping the bike upright, which Sully said was the most important thing.
Coil had texted him about half an hour before he was supposed to pick up Agatha and said he wanted to meet with them. He was able to get the bike started again, which was a huge sigh of relief, and motored across to Agatha’s house where she was waiting. What he hadn’t been expecting was Agatha in leather pants and a yellow Harley tank top with all kinds of artful rips in it so he could see the black tank she wore underneath. She wore a matching bandana around her head and her boots came up to her knee.
He had to remind himself to swallow.
“Looking good,” she said, and climbed on the back of the bike.
He was incapable of speech. Having Agatha wrapped around him was frying his circuits. So he backed out of her driveway carefully and rode to the sheriff’s office.
They walked in and headed straight back to Coil’s office. No one else was inside at that time of the day.
“Glad y’all could make it,” Coil said, looking up from some papers on his desk.
“We don’t have much time,” Hank said. “We’ve got about fifteen minutes before heading back over to Rev. Graham’s for bike night.”
Coil cleared his throat and he looked back and forth between Hank and Agatha. And then he set a box on his desk.
Hank tried to pull the box toward him, but it didn’t budge, so he tried to peek inside. Coil smacked his hand and his smile tightened.
“I’ve been debating this since we last spoke at the taco truck,” Coil said. “I feel horrible for what I said to you. Trust me, losing your friendship is the last thing I want to do. I realize this is asking a lot, but I can only ask that you trust me to be the man you know me to be.”
“You’re not making that easy,” Agatha said, mumbling.
Coil glowered at her and Hank was starting to lose his patience. They were in this predicament because of Coil. Not because of Agatha.
“I’m trying to do the right thing in a very difficult situation,” Coil said. “So you can either cut me some slack or get out of my office.”
“That’s enough,” Hank said sharply. “Don’t take this out on Agatha because you made bad decisions. You’re my best friend and we’re here to help you, despite your actions so far, but I’m getting to the point where I’m more than happy to hang you out to dry. All we’ve been told since you drug us into those woods is that we’re in danger and that you’d drop us if you had to. So you haven’t really built up my confidence.”
Coil nodded stiffly. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I’ve got something to show you and something to tell you.”
Coil looked like he’d aged twenty years since they’d walked into the office. Hank felt for his friend, but without knowing the facts, he withheld sympathy or support.
Coil dropped back into his chair and motioned for them to sit also.
“I told you that I owed my old partner my life, and I do. Tony saved me that night during the ambush, and he continued to save me every day after that. But, to be honest, sometimes I wished he hadn’t tried so hard.
“He knew about the legend of the gold just as many of us did. Tony and I were deep into the Rattlers’ organization and the chatter got him all fired up. It was all he could talk about. He became obsessed with finding the treasure.”
“Did Tony find it?” Hank asked.
“I don’t think so, but there was nothing he wouldn’t do to prove it was either the truth or a myth
. It started to jeopardize our cover story because he’d go off script by asking more about the gold than trying to collect evidence of the club’s drugs, guns, and human trafficking activities. Soon, they became suspicious. Very suspicious.”
“Did he discover anything?” Agatha asked.
“I don’t know, but I did.” Coil rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger.
“Are you going to show us what’s in the box?” Hank asked impatiently.
Coil lifted the lid so they could see inside.
“No way,” Hank said.
“Is that real?” Agatha asked.
“Yep,” Coil said. “As real as it gets.”
Agatha leaned closer to get a better look, and golden light reflected across her face. “No way is this thing for real.”
Hank slipped on his magnifiers and took a closer look, and he used the flashlight on his iPhone.
“What’s CSA?” Hank asked.
“Confederate States of America,” Coil said.
“How big is it?”
“This particular gold brick weighs 400 troy ounces. A whopping twenty-seven pounds.”
“No freaking way is this thing real,” Hank said. “Twenty-seven pounds of pure gold?”
“It’s called the Good Delivery bar, and it’s the way gold was packaged for universal trade. Want to take a guess at what it’s worth?”
“I don’t have a clue,” Agatha said. “Confederate gold? How much?”
“As of today’s gold index, it’s somewhere around $550,000.00.”
Hank let a long, low whistle slip between his teeth. Reality sucked the fun out of the room. There sat the biggest hunk of gold any of them had ever seen, and it was worth more money than they could imagine.
“Coil?”
“Yes, Hank?”
“You care to explain how you come to have this? Because it sure as heck wasn’t in the stash we found beneath Beau?”
Coil scrubbed his weary face with both hands. He twisted his torso to look out through his windowless office door just to make sure no one else had walked in the building. He exhaled twice and dug a file out of the top drawer on his desk.
“I found it.”
“Seriously, you want us to believe you found it?” Agatha asked.
“Old man Diego Diaz died a few weeks ago. He had no family or friends, and his cats were making a mess of him. One of his neighbors in the Sun Don’t Shine Trailer park called 911, but obviously refused to leave their name with the cops. I went out there on a welfare concern, and found old Diego. I knew he used to run with the Rattlers, so I poked around his pad a bit before the meat wagon came to claim him.”
“And you found the gold?” Agatha asked.
“I found him murdered. And yes, I also found the gold. He’d had it hidden, and I suspect it was why he’d been killed. His cut was gone, so I’m sure it was the Rattlers who came to collect.”
She rubbed at the chill bumps on her arms. “Cats?”
“Yep.”
“I’m guessing this residue is fingerprint powder?” Hank said, clapping his hands to dust off a light coating of black powder.
“Yeah, I had to be sure it wasn’t used to smash Diego’s skull in with. Sorry, thought I’d wiped it all clean.”
“That’s odd because I heard nothing about a murder in town, did you Aggie?”
“No, can’t say that I did. It almost looks like a cover up,” she said.
Coil placed the lid back on the box. His shoulders slumped and his fingers fidgeted with the few papers on his desk.
“This is what I told you about yesterday, Hank. If Tony knew I’d found the gold, he’d blow the lid off of this town, and my life. He’s got me by the throat.”
“Yesterday you said he had you by the short hairs.”
“Maybe both.”
“So you’re covering up Diego’s murder for your partner?” Agatha asked, incredulous.
“No,” Coil said, a little louder than necessary. “The case remains open, but there’s no need for everyone to know anything other than it was a natural cause death. At least until I can figure out what’s going down before Rusty Gun is overrun by treasure seeking outlaws.”
“Coil, how about we take that walk into the cellar?” Hank asked.
Hank knew what he was doing, but it didn’t stop his heart from racing over the reality of squeezing into that minuscule opening. It had to be done.
“Now?” Coil asked.
“Yes.”
“I thought y’all had to head out to the Rev’s?”
“This is more important. Much more important,” Hank said, speaking calmly.
“So now you don’t trust me,” Coil said. “You either?” He looked at Agatha
“Trust but confirm,” she said. “Hank taught me that.”
“Fine,” he said. “If you think you’ll fit down there without having a heart attack.”
Coil moved the bookshelf and punched in the code to expose the vault door. He peeked over his shoulder twice.
“You sure about this, Hank?”
Hank tried to control his breathing. All he could do was nod his head yes.
“All right. I’ll do this because we’re friends, but I have to say how disappointed I am.” Coil pushed on a solid steel lever, and then pulled up on another steel bar. The thick metal door popped ajar.
“I’ve been nothing but disappointed since we started this mess,” Hank said. He began to sweat. His leg bones felt like they’d melted inside his skin, and he wasn’t sure he could stand up.
“You want me to go instead?” Agatha asked in a whisper.
Hank licked his lips, but couldn’t make words come out, so he just shook his head. He took a second to study Coil and his breathing started to steady. Focus on the job. Always the job and the training.
“How long you going to play this out?” Hank finally asked. “It’s a mighty slap in the face to the two people who are willing to believe you, no matter how guilty you look.”
Coil’s smug grin disappeared. “What are you talking about? I opened the vault, just like you asked.”
“You didn’t take this bar of gold out of there, and I’m willing to bet the gold we found isn’t in there either.”
“Why would you say such a thing?” Coil was getting angry now, and angry people made mistakes.
“The dust. Last time you opened the vault, the bookshelf traced a path in the dust on the floor. That vault hasn’t been opened since the last time I was here, despite the fact you said you were going to sweep.”
Coil pressed the vault’s door shut, and it secured with a click. He returned everything back in place to conceal it again before he hoisted his hip on the edge of his desk.
“You’re a smart man, Hank. I never doubted you.”
“Enough of the BS. I’ll tell you what smart is.” Hank held up his cell phone. “I’m contacting the AG right now. There’s no need to make this personal between us, Coil. Aggie and I have done nothing wrong; so it’s not our place to waste time playing guess what’s in the vault. It’s best to bring O’Brien in to handle it.”
Coil swiped his hand across his upper lip, and it didn’t take long for perspiration to soak through his shirt. Coil was scared. Hank began to worry that he’d ventured off into a territory from which he’d not be able to return.
“I’m going to ask you not to do that,” Coil said.
Agatha shot up out of the chair she’d been silently stewing in. “Then stop jerking our chains and tell us the truth.”
Coil walked back around his desk and sat in his chair. His fingers traced a collection of framed family photos. There was even one of him and Hank at their FBI National Academy graduation ceremony.
“My partner may have had someone killed and then killed someone else because of it. He wants that treasure, and he won’t stop until he gets it.”
Hank sat in quiet contemplation. His index finger tapped against his thigh. “Were you part of the murders?”
“No,” Coil s
aid.
“Did Tony confess these things to you?”
“Not directly. He isn’t stupid. He told me enough so that if I ratted him out, there’d be no way to corroborate my story. I’d look like a fool and my career would be over for turning bad on a brother.”
“But?” Agatha led him on.
“But, he told me enough that with digging, I could confirm on my own. That would’ve meant breaking my undercover identity and then becoming a target marked for death by the Rattlers and him. Either way, my career was over.”
“So you chose to do nothing,” Hank said.
“I don’t expect you to agree with what I did. I’m just asking you to give me enough time to figure out my next move. Look, Tony knows I found Beau. He’ll come looking for that gold. Even if it means killing me and anyone else to get it.”
“Then why didn’t you just leave that bag of bones in the woods and let Beau rest in peace?” Hank asked.
“Because when Beau went missing and then his wife was killed, I was on my own. I couldn’t trust anyone to help me.”
“What’s changed?” Agatha asked.
“I’ve got y’all.”
Chapter Ten
“You gotta relax, Hank. You got this. It’s just a few bikers and Sully. What can go wrong?” Agatha asked as they stood next to the bike outside of Coil’s office.
Hank rolled his eyes at her optimism. Everything could go wrong. “We’re still going to be on our own. Sully’s no backup.”
“Is it the Rattlers you’re having an issue with, or me?” She asked.
“Don’t be silly.”
“I’ve got to tell you I’m feeling stupid about what’s going on between us.”
“Exactly what is it that’s going on?” Hank asked, confused.
“I don’t know. You promised me an IOU on a kiss sometimes in the future, and then nothing. Are you going to kiss me while we’re undercover at this bike night thing? And then what? Am I supposed to know if it was an act or the real thing?”
“Look, when I kiss you it won’t be some ploy.”
He got lost in the depths of her eyes, and his gaze dropped to her lips. He knew he was lost. There was no use fighting it anymore. He put his hands on her hips and pulled her close, and he could feel the heat of her body against his.
