The Treasure Box (The Grace Series Book 2)

by Mark Romang

  Rose stared at the floor tiles.

  Bobby came over to her a moment later and took her hand. He led her several feet away into the center of the noisy station. Travelers milled around them, but Rose hardly noticed. She struggled to find her voice. “I guess this is it, huh?”

  “You make it sound like I’m not coming back.”

  Rose pulled off a locket from around her neck. She handed it to Bobby. “I don’t expect you to wear it. That would be strange. Just keep it in your pocket. There’s a picture of me in it. This way I’ll always be with you.”

  Bobby took it and shoved the locket into his pocket along with his bus ticket.

  “If I find the treasure box and its key, I’ll take a picture of what’s inside and send it in one of my letters to you.”

  Bobby shook his head. He looked at her intently, as if he were memorizing her features. “You’re my treasure, Rose. And you’re worth far more to me than an old box of gold coins.” He placed her hands on his chest. “You’re in my heart, Rose. Wherever I go you go. Even when I’m 30,000 feet in the sky over Europe somewhere, you’ll be there with me in the plane’s belly, in the clouds and in my heart.”

  Rose smiled and ran a hand through his hair, mussing it slightly. She’d always loved his hair. “You’re precious, Bobby Hoxley. I love you so much.”

  Bobby pulled her closer and kissed her. Rose thought his lips never tasted better. She didn’t care that they were making a scene in the middle of the bus station. The moment was magical, like something from a movie. She didn’t want it to end.

  “You’re going to miss your bus, Bobby!” Clive Hoxley said.

  Bobby pulled back. He winked at her. “Wait for me, Rose,” he said, and then turned and ran for his bus, a bus that would begin his ill-fated journey into a world war.

  Chapter 25

  Arcadias leaned up against a wall next to the marble fireplace and processed everything Annie just read. He hadn’t yet changed from the clothing he’d worn while exploring the crawlspace, and looked and felt like a grownup version of Pigpen.

  He looked over at his brother. “We need to find and search the secret room.”

  Damien nodded. “The room shouldn’t be hard to find. I was in the kitchen earlier and saw the door to the pantry. The servant staircase should be inside it just like the journal said.”

  “Like I said earlier, you’re wasting your time looking for the treasure,” Ned Hoxley said. “The Whitcombs spent it all on those lavish parties they held here.”

  Arcadias shot Ned a disbelieving look. “I hardly believe they could spend ten million dollars on parties. The treasure is here. I’d wager my life on it.”

  “You never attended a Whitcomb gala like me,” Ned countered. “I’ve lived just down the road all my life. I rarely missed a party. Each one was bigger and more extravagant than the one before.”

  “Ned, why do you think the Whitcombs hosted so many parties?” Annie asked.

  Ned looked at Annie and shrugged his bony shoulders. “The Whitcombs were kindhearted people, and they loved their community. The Great Depression dragged along for so many years and hit this parish hard. No one had any money to speak of, and when banks wouldn’t loan anyone money, Lloyd would. This place became like a savings and loan. The Whitcombs kept us all from starving.”

  Ned licked his lips before continuing his longwinded answer. “The economy finally started to improve around here in the late thirties, but then the war came and everything went sour once again. It was a depressing time. But the Whitcomb parties were fun and distracted us from the war.”

  His hands secured together with plastic cuff ties, Rafter could do little but sit and listen. He watched Arcadias digest Ned’s comments. Clearly the news of unrestrained benevolence and extravagant parties came as a shock and didn’t sit well with Arcadias. He and his brother and their girlfriends were risking their lives and freedom for something that may not exist anymore, a vast treasure already spent. Although Arcadias hid it well, Rafter could see doubt beginning to creep into the hostage taker’s head. Little by little his grand plan for finding lost treasure unraveled. Frustration would soon eat at Arcadias’ mind. And frustration would eventually give birth to desperation. A desperate hostage taker was capable of anything, including violence.

  “So how do you think the Whitcombs came across the treasure in the first place?” Annie asked Ned, her past detective skills flickering to life, as well as her curiosity.

  Ned grinned. “We always wondered how the Whitcombs acquired their wealth. Everyone around here did.”

  “Why is that?” Arcadias said.

  Like an old schoolmaster giving the evil eye to a disruptive student, Ned glared at Arcadias. “For as long as anyone can remember this land never supported crops well. The Whitcomb sugarcane fields and their pitiful harvests lagged behind all the other sugarcane fields around here. Of course, I’m going on hearsay, because sugarcane production stopped here at the Whitcomb plantation around 1900.”

  “So if I hear you right, you think one of the Whitcombs, possibly the patriarch, Rutherford Whitcomb found the Lafitte treasure. And that is how the Whitcomb fortune came about, not by growing sugarcane?”

  Ned yawned and nodded his head weakly. “My great-great grandpa was friends with Rutherford. He passed down a story how his friend Rutherford went from penniless to wealthy overnight, how Rutherford bought this swampy property to build himself a stilt house. But then instead of a stilt house he built a plantation house.”

  “Are you feeling okay, Ned. You look kind of pale. Did you remember to take your medicine?” Rafter asked his neighbor.

  “I hadn’t got around to it yet. I usually take insulin with my supper. I was just going to run up here and tell you about your dog, and then go back home and take my injection.”

  Rafter looked at Arcadias. “You need to let Ned go.”

  “I can’t do that. He would call the police. Everyone in this room knows that.”

  “Then get him something from the kitchen. There are granola bars in a bowl on the counter.”

  Arcadias looked at Iris. “Please fetch Mr. Hoxley a granola bar.”

  “Are you sure I’m capable? I screwed up the last assignment you gave me,” Iris said.

  Arcadias patted her on the shoulder. “I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself. Make the most of it.”

  Iris scowled at his comment but got up from her chair and stalked toward the kitchen. But she soon stopped in her tracks when the doorbell rang. Every head in the room turned and looked at the door.

  “I’ll answer it. I got this,” Damien said, and headed for the door.

  Chapter 26

  That same moment

  A half mile down the levee road from the hostage scene, Police officer Josiah Barrett rang the doorbell on an Acadian-style cottage. He glanced around as he waited for the door to open. The porch light revealed peeling paint and spider webs in the corners. This old house needs a bath and some new paint, he thought.

  After waiting several seconds, and not hearing any footsteps, he rang the doorbell again.

  The door opened almost immediately. An old woman in a wheelchair looked up at him. “Mrs. Hoxley, I’m Officer Barrett. You called 911 because your husband is missing?”

  Cora Hoxley nodded her head. “Yes, I did. Why don’t you come in where we can see each other better? I’ll tell you everything that happened,” Cora said and wheeled into the front room, leaving Barrett standing there on the stoop.

  The Copeland policeman stepped into the house and found the woman waiting for him. A ceiling fan provided stark illumination but did not spin. A giant black dog lay on a rug near a window. Occasionally the dog whined.

  “You can sit down if you wish, Officer.”

  Barrett sat down on a raggedy sofa. He got out a notepad and flipped it open, removed a pen from a chest pocket on his uniform. Barrett clicked his pen. “What time did your husband go missing?”

  “Almost two hours ago.”
<
br />   “And do you have any idea where he might have gone?”

  “Ned went to the neighbors just up the road—Jon and Annie Rafter.”

  Barrett looked up from his notepad.

  “Have you called up there, Mrs. Hoxley?”

  “Please, call me Cora. Yes, I have tried calling up there several times. But no one will answer. It rings and rings.”

  Barrett wrote in his notepad for a few moments. He looked up at Cora. “So why did Ned go up to the neighbors? Is that typical of him? The reason I ask is because if a person wants to leave of their own volition and go somewhere, that doesn’t mean something criminal has happened.”

  “Officer Barrett, I don’t make a habit of calling 911. I’m not an alarmist. Ned told me he would only be gone for a few minutes. One reason I’m worried is because Ned hasn’t taken his medicine tonight. He needs his evening insulin shot and heart medication.”

  “How old is Ned?”

  “He’s eighty-nine, soon to be ninety.”

  “Does Ned have dementia? Is he good about checking in with you when he’s out somewhere?”

  “Ned’s mind is sharp. But he doesn’t have a cellphone, so he never checks in.”

  Barrett looked at a framed photograph on the wall. In the portrait an elderly man wearing a suit sat close to Cora. Barrett guessed the photo was taken recently at a milestone anniversary party. “I take it that’s Ned in the photo with you?”

  Cora nodded. “There’s another reason I’m worried for Ned.”

  “And what would that be?”

  Cora pointed at the dog lying on the rug. “That dog is Rosie, the neighbor’s dog. She’s injured. She may have been shot. That’s why Ned went up to the Rafters’ house—to tell them about their dog.”

  Barrett looked at the dog. Even from where he sat on the sofa he could see something ailed the animal. Except for its great size, the dog looked puny. “Why do you think someone shot the dog?”

  “When Rosie came here she was bleeding a lot. And I’ve been hearing gunshots off and on all night. And they sound like they’re coming from the Rafters’ place.”

  “Do your neighbors make a habit of shooting guns?”

  Cora shook her head. “This is a very quiet road, Officer.”

  Barrett shut his notepad and placed his pen back into his chest pocket. “Okay, Cora. I will go up to your neighbors and see if Ned is up there. I’m sure he’s okay, and I’ll tell him to hurry back.”

  “Thank-you, I appreciate it.”

  Officer Barrett exited the house and climbed into his cruiser. He’d barely started his shift and was already answering calls. He’d hoped for a slow night, an uneventful night where he could park his cruiser in a hidden location somewhere and snooze. But it didn’t look like that would happen. Going to be a crazy night, he thought. I can feel it coming.

  ****

  “I don’t know about you, kiddo, but I’m exhausted. I’m going to take a shower and go to bed,” Lorelei Charbonneau said between yawns. She got up from the king-size bed and headed to the bathroom.

  She had expended more energy today than usual and already felt the aftereffects.

  After reserving a room at the Blue Dolphin Inn, they rented bicycles and rode out to the beach, where they ate supper and collected shells and sand dollars until sunset. It had been time well spent. Her freckle-faced baby was growing up faster than she cared for, maturing into a young woman right before her eyes. Soon Alisha would be leaving the nest. Lorelei hated the thought.

  “Mom, I have this weird feeling Dad is in trouble.”

  Lorelei stopped and looked back at Alisha. Her daughter sat cross-legged on the bed. A concerned look clouded her pretty face. “Oh, I think Arcadias is probably fine.”

  Alisha shook her head. “Mom, this is a strong premonition. I’ve had it ever since we left Dad’s treasure hunting shop. I think we should pray for him.”

  “I suppose it can’t hurt anything to pray for your father,” Lorelei said and flopped back onto the bed. She grabbed Alisha’s hand. “Do you want to do all the praying or do you want me to pray too?”

  “We should both pray.”

  “Okay, honey. You start.”

  Alisha bowed her head. “Dear Lord, something tells me that my Dad is in trouble. I can’t say why I feel this way. I just know he needs you right now. Please watch over him and protect him. Bring him back into your fold. Don’t give up on him. Let him know you love him. And let Dad know I love and forgive him. Please take away his treasure hunting obsession. Help him to realize what is really important in life. I ask these things in Jesus’s name, amen.”

  Lorelei squeezed her daughter’s hand and began to pray. “Lord, you know I no longer love Arcadias the way a wife is supposed to love her husband. I’m still bitter over how he abandoned us. Take away this bitterness. It’s not helping me, only hurting me. And it’s an emotion I would rather not have anymore. I know I need to at least love Arcadias as a fellow human being. Help me to do that. If Arcadias is in trouble right now, please show him the way out. Help him to think clearly and to do your will. And please convict him and make him realize what a wonderful daughter he has. Alisha wants to have a relationship with Arcadias. Please move Arcadias’ heart in that direction. And finally, I ask that you will help me forgive Arcadias for what he’s done to this family. It’s in your son’s name I ask these things, amen.”

  Lorelei raised her head and looked at Alisha. Tears filled her daughter’s eyes and spilled down her cheeks.

  “I hope it’s not too late for Dad,” Alisha said.

  Lorelei nodded her head. “Only God can help him now. But Arcadias has to stop running. It’s hard to hear God’s voice when you’re running. You have to be still and listen. And I don’t know if your father is willing to do that. He’s a prideful man.”

  “But God can do anything, Mom.”

  “I know. Nothing is too difficult for God. But Arcadias has to take the first step toward God. And I’m not sure he’ll do that. He has an academic mind. He thinks God and his kingdom are nothing but fairy tales.”

  “That doesn’t make sense to me, Mom. Dad was a history professor. And the Bible is mostly a history book. Why can’t he believe?”

  Lorelei closed her eyes. “Sometimes the most intelligent people can be the dumbest. Their great learning has pushed aside their childlike faith and replaced it with skepticism. I think this is what happened to your father. He doesn’t know how to believe anymore. His heart has hardened into a stone—a pitch-black stone.”

  Chapter 27

  Confident he would succeed where Iris failed, Damien opened the door. A well-heeled man in a navy sport jacket stared back at him. Damien put on his friendliest face. He noticed a briefcase dangling from the man’s right hand. “May I help you?”

  “My name is Keith Jepson. I’m a family law attorney. I have a document for Jon and Annie to sign. Are they here by chance?”

  Damien shook his head. “I’m afraid not, Mr. Jepson. Jon and Annie left for the evening. But when they come back I’ll tell them you were here.”

  Disappointment furrowed the attorney’s brow. “How soon will Jon and Annie be back? I’d hate to miss them. My office is in Baton Rouge.”

  “They didn’t say how long they would be gone,” Damien said. “But I have an idea, why don’t you just leave the document. They can sign it and bring it back to you, or just fax it to you.”

  Jepson mulled over Damien’s suggestion. “I also wished to talk to them a bit. Adoption is a complex matter. I’m sure they will have questions,” he said, his bespectacled eyes looking over Damien.

  Damien followed the attorney’s eyes until they stopped and stared at Damien’s waist. Too late, Damien noticed the grip of his Taurus handgun sticking out from under his t-shirt. After the gun battle with the Rafters he’d shoved it behind his belt and into the waistband of his jeans near his right hip. His t-shirt must’ve ridden up at some point.

  “You know what, I think I will come back
another time. The document can wait,” Jepson said just before turning to leave.

  Damien stood at the threshold, hesitant at what to do. Arcadias didn’t want additional hostages. He would be furious to see another one added to the mix. But the lawyer saw his gun, and might squeal as soon as he climbed into his car. One 911 call and the place would swarm with cops.

  Damien drew the Taurus out from his waistband. “That’s far enough, Mr. Jepson. I lied when I said Jon and Annie aren’t here. They’re inside. You can talk to them in there.”

  The attorney turned slowly around. His face blanched when he saw the side arm in Damien’s hand.

  “Well come on, Mr. Jepson. Don’t be shy. You wanted to conduct business. Now is your chance. Your clients wait inside.”

  “I really don’t want any trouble,” Jepson stammered, his eyes fixated on the Taurus aimed at him.

  “That’s good to hear. So be a good sport and step inside the house.”

  Jepson acquiesced and walked into the plantation house. Damien followed close behind, his gun leveled at Jepson’s back.

  “The parlor is to your left, Mr. Jepson. Head for it.” Damien shadowed Jepson and entered the parlor. “Everyone meet Keith Jepson—attorney at law. We now have legal representation.”

  Damien watched jaws drop in unison around the room. No one appreciated his weak attempt at humor, especially Arcadias. His older brother fumed. Arcadias’s ruddy, sun-bronzed face grew even redder. He glared at Damien and shook his head in disbelief.

  Chapter 28

  Arcadias growled, “Have you lost your mind, Damien?”

  “I’m sorry, brother, but he saw the grip of my gun sticking out. I thought he might call the police if I allowed him to leave.”

  Arcadias sighed and waved his hand dismissively. “Okay, get a chair from the dining room and have him join the others. What’s one more kidnapping charge?”