“No problem.” Cheyenne was staring at her quizzically, but Josephine could tell from the look on her face that she hadn’t written Josephine off yet. She was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt – unlike Cooper.
“Keep an eye on her,” Cooper said to the sheriff. “You need to have a tail on her 24-7. And make sure it’s a good one; she’s the queen of dirty tricks.”
His words were like knives stabbing at her heart, but she stood strong.
“I’d be delighted to have a new tail assigned to me. Maybe I’ll invite him horseback riding by the creek,” Josephine snapped, feeling spiteful satisfaction at the stricken look on Cooper’s face.
Good. Cooper was still jealous of her. That meant he still had feelings. That meant she could hurt him, although she was sure he’d never hurt as badly as she was hurting.
She followed Cheyenne out the door, struggling not to cry.
The next morning, Cheyenne drove with her to Edna Vale’s house, trailed by a sheriff’s deputy who she didn’t recognize.
“Good morning, girls. I’ve been expecting you,” Edna said, opening the front door and stepping out on the porch.
Her small white clapboard house was set back from the road, dwarfed by towering trees. Marigolds lined the white pea-gravel walkway, and rocking chairs were angled around a small round table on the front porch.
Edna had a jug full of iced tea in her hand, and she poured iced tea into mason jars. She picked up shears and snipped mint leaves from peppermint plants that grew in painted coffee cans that lined the porch railing and set them at jaunty angles in the iced tea, which she served to each of the girls, and they settled onto the porch swing.
“How’s Betsy doing? I hear she’s headed home this morning. They just wanted to keep her overnight for observation,” Edna said.
“She seemed fine when we saw her last night,” Josephine sighed heavily and took a sip of tea, which tasted like liquid sunshine. “She was hit in the face several times, but she didn’t suffer any permanent damage or concussion.”
“My, my. Imagine that. If I could get my hands on the lowdown skunk who did that…” Edna picked up the shears and made a snipping motion.
Josephine made a mental note: Stay on Edna’s good side.
“You and me both,” Josephine said.
Guilt curdled in her stomach. Whoever was after the treasure had done this. Betsy wouldn’t have been at the newspaper late at night doing research if she weren’t trying to help Josephine.
Edna glanced placidly at the patrol car that was idling on the road by her house, and took a sip of tea, then set down her mason jar.
“You girls certainly do keep things exciting around here,” she said.
“I’m sorry to drag you into this,” Josephine shook her head unhappily. “I’m sorry I dragged anyone into this.”
“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss this for the world. I’m an old woman; there’s not a lot of excitement in my life these days.” Edna’s eyes were shining.
Cheyenne coughed into her hand, and it sounded suspiciously like she’d coughed the word “Bullshit” into her palm.
“Two of Edna’s boyfriends got in a fight over her just last week and they both ended up spending the night in county jail,” Cheyenne told Josephine. “It’s a slow day when Edna’s not out there stirring up some kind of trouble.”
“Oh, stuff and nonsense,” Edna said, but she smiled as she took another sip of tea. “All right, girls. This is what Betsy and I found out so far, between the two of us. Betsy and your brother found the cavern where Levi originally stashed the treasure, but the treasure had been moved, so the question is, where? Betsy did some more research last night, and here’s what she found in the microfilm files. When Levi died, the town preacher was by his side. Shortly after his death, Levi’s widow Rose and the preacher ran off together. The town preacher happened to be married, and the father of five children, but he’d always had a fondness for the liquor and the ladies.” Edna shook her head and clucked disapprovingly as if she were talking about somebody who was still alive.
“Now, the preacher and Rose ran off together to Denver, and the preacher’s wife Hepzibah followed them there, found them holed up in a hotel room, and shot them both to death. She was arrested, and hung for their murder. So I called up a friend in Denver who’s doing some more research for me to find out if there’s any mention of the treasure in the news accounts back then.”
“But it’s likely gone,” Josephine said, with a dull throb of disappointment. She’d never be able to get the funds together for a decent lawyer for her brother, and he’d made things a million times worse by cutting and running like he had.
The only possibility she could see was trying to convince him to use some of the money that he’d absconded with over the years. She wasn’t naive; she knew that he must have the money stashed away somewhere. Why he kept stealing money and not using it was a mystery to her, but surely he could find a way to access it for the sake of his freedom?
“Betsy told me that she’s supposed to meet my brother at some cave mouth called the Hellhole, this afternoon at 2,” Josephine said. “I’ve got to talk to him, but I need to ditch my law enforcement escort first.”
“I could go for you….I know those woods and I know where to find the cave,” Edna offered.
“If he sees a stranger show up, I doubt that he’ll come out of the woods. I have to be there.”
“All right then. I know what we need to do.” And Edna outlined her plan.
Cheyenne headed back into town, and Josephine spent the morning at Edna’s house, helping her yank weeds from her vegetable garden.
Later that afternoon, Josephine and Edna climbed in Edna’s car and drove out to Lookout Point, trailed by a patrol car. It was a fine summer day, the sky as blue as a robin’s egg, with puffy clouds floating lazily overhead like a flock of sheep drifting in an endless sea.
The sheriff’s deputy parked down the road, watching them with binoculars.
“Lousy coppers,” Josephine sighed.
“Wait for it…” Edna said, watching the road.
Seven other cars pulled up next to them and parked, and an older woman climbed out from each car.
Edna climbed out of the car and waved at them, and Josephine followed suit.
“I can’t believe we’re involving your bingo club in my life of crime,” Josephine said. “I’m thoroughly ashamed of myself.”
“I’m not,” Edna said. “They’re thrilled.”
“So, Edna was telling me that you and your man have a very satisfying sex life,” said a short, chubby woman with a beehive hairdo that added a good six inches to her height.
“Now, now, that’s very inappropriate, Bertha,” Edna chided.
“Sorry.” Bertha was chastened.
“We’re in the middle of a treasure hunt. The appropriate time for us to grill her about her sex life is over drinks at bingo. Tilda Mae, I do believe it’s time for you to fall down.”
Tilda Mae suddenly, dramatically, staggered backwards, clutched at her chest and then fell awkwardly to the ground.
Josephine looked at Tilda Mae with concern. She knew this was all pre-planned, but Tilda was putting on a really good act.
Tilda, lying sprawled in the dirt, gave Josephine a conspirational wink, then clutched her chest again.
“My heart! My heart!” she howled.
The deputy leaped from his car, ran over to Tilda Mae, and knelt down next to her while he radioed for an ambulance.
Then he looked up. All the cars that had been parked there raced away. Eight cars, scattering in all directions. And he had no idea which car Josephine had climbed in. He couldn’t see her in any of the cars, but he was sure she must be crouched down low in one of them, hiding, so he couldn’t call in and tell his deputies which car to follow.
He looked down at Tilda Mae, who sat up, brushing dirt from her shirt.
“I should cancel the ambulance, shouldn’t I?” he scowled at her.
&nbs
p; “You certainly should,” she said. “And you should be ashamed of yourself. You just got hoodwinked by a woman old enough to be your grandmother.”
An hour later, Josephine and Edna were standing by a wall of vines which Edna swore was the entrance to a cave mouth. Josephine was hot and sweaty and out of breath; Edna looked as if she could keep hiking another twenty miles.
“Well, well. Enjoying the scenery?” Jason appeared from behind a tree as if he’d just beamed down from a spaceship. Josephine started, then opened her arms to crush him in a desperate hug.
Then she stepped back and glared at him.
“Jason, you unbelievable ass,” she snapped. “Do you have any idea what you’ve put me through? Why did you take off like that? You could have just told me about the treasure and I’d have come up here to look for it myself.”
“I figured if I was going back to jail anyway, I might as well look for the treasure. That way you wouldn’t have to miss work and spend your time and money coming out here.”
“Going back to jail? What are you talking about?” she said, baffled.
“My probation officer came by my house to take me in. He said that I’d violated probation, which I hadn’t. He refused to tell me why. I managed to give him the slip; grabbed the trunk and ran for it.”
“No.” Josephine shook her head. “That’s not what the police told me. And it’s not what Cooper told me. They said that your probation officer stopped by and found out that you’d already cut and run. Why would he lie?”
She stared at Jason. “Wait. This could explain a lot of things. Is there any possibility that he knew about the treasure?”
“Well, I----“ Jason’s jaw dropped. “That bastard. Yes. The day before he came by to take me in, he searched through my house like probation officers do sometimes, and I had the trunk in my bedroom closet. I was in the kitchen while he was searching. It didn’t occur to me that he’d go through an old trunk, but he might have. He could have found it.”
“He’s here. It’s got to be him.” She told him about how her house had been searched through and trashed right before she came to Crooked Creek, and how her and Cooper’s bedroom being broken into and searched after they arrived. “He wanted to arrest you so you’d be in jail and he’d find the treasure for himself.”
“You guys are literally sharing a bedroom? You’re sleeping in the same room as the bounty hunter who came to arrest me? Exactly how close to this guy are you?” Jason asked, narrow eyed. Josephine flushed under his stare.
“They’re very close,” Edna said.
“Edna! Not helping!” Josephine yelped, blushing. “And besides, we’re not even staying together any more. I’m staying with a woman named Cheyenne and her husband. Cheyenne’s the manager at the Dry Gulch Saloon.” She took a shaky breath. “It was pretty much doomed from the start, when you think of it.”
“Oh.” He paused, looking at her intently. He knew her all too well, could read the hurt that cut her to the bone. “If I screwed something up for you, I’m sorry.”
“No biggie.” She felt her stomach lurch when she said that. She could put on a brave front, she could pretend it didn’t sting, but it was going to take her a long, long time to get over Cooper Thomas.
He turned to Edna. “And you are the famous Edna Vale. Betsy speaks very highly of you.”
“Well, of course she does. I’m a marvel,” Edna smiled complacently. “When they made me, they broke the mold. Now, about that rat-bastard who attacked our Betsy; could it have been that probation officer?”
Jason scowled. “He could have. He was wearing a ski mask and a coat, and he didn’t say a word to me, so I didn’t hear his voice. Betsy’s all right, isn’t she? I insisted she call 911; she wanted to go straight home and cover up her injuries with makeup.”
“She’s fine. She spent the night in the hospital as a precaution.”
“She sure is something, isn’t she?” Jason smiled wistfully. Josephine looked at him in surprise.
He had it bad.
Great, she thought. All those years that he dated and discarded trashy over-made-up bar bimbos, and finally he decided to pick a decent girl, hell, a wonderful girl, and of course he did it right before he was about to get shipped off to prison.
Maybe Betsy would wait for him…a long, long time.
“Jason, the money that you’ve got stashed away…you need it. You’ve got to hire a good lawyer.”
“I don’t have any money stashed away,” he shook his head ruefully. “I’m not lying about that, Josephine.”
“Goodness, do you two always give up this easily?” Edna chided them. “We’ve solved a good portion of a mystery that’s nearly 150 years old, and we did it in just a few days. Give me a couple of more days; we can still find that treasure.”
“I think that one’s a lost cause.” He smiled sadly at Josephine. “I really wanted to use that money for your nursing school tuition. All those years you took care of me…”
“You’re my brother. Of course I took care of you.”
Edna was kneeling down on the ground looking through the trunk, picking through the contents as if it contained Levi’s gold, holding a moldy old leather belt with holsters on it and examining it critically. “Hell, you can take it,” Jason said wearily. “It’s just a trunk full of junk.”
“We’re going to meet back here when I find out more information,” Edna said. “Are you staying somewhere safe?”
“Camping out in the woods. I’ll be fine,” Jason said.
“Two days from now. Meet us back here at 10 a.m.”
Jason nodded, hugged Josephine goodbye, and turned to go, but Josephine could tell from his dejected demeanor that he had given up hope of finding the treasure.
She was starting to doubt that they’d ever find it, herself.
Chapter Sixteen
Cooper was sitting at the Daily Grind sipping coffee that afternoon when Josephine got back to town.
“Nice job ditching the deputy this morning,” Cooper said coldly, when Josephine walked up to him.
“Thanks. Losing deadweight is what I do best,” she snapped.
“Is that what I was. Deadweight.” He took a long swallow of coffee and stared out the window past her.
She felt faint with sorrow, but anger flared inside her too.
“You were the one who turned your back on me rather than give me the benefit of the doubt. And by the way, I talked to my brother today.”
His hand tightened on the coffee cup until his knuckles went white.
“He told me that Trent Sanchez came by his house to take him into custody. Told him that he’d violated parole but refused to say what he’d done. So he gave Trent the slip, and decided to come up here and search for that treasure.”
“That’s not what happened.”
“Based on whose word? Trent Sanchez?”
“I’d take his word over your brother’s word any day.”
Fury flared through her.
“Who do you think trashed my apartment? Who trashed the hotel cabin?” She shook her head in disgust. “Forget it. I’m calling the police back in Bitter Valley to ask them to start looking into Trent.”
“You do that.”
But she was already walking away; he said the words to her retreating back.
He wandered among the shops on the Crooked Mile during the day, disgruntled and out of sorts. Late that afternoon, he saw Cheyenne sitting on a bench holding hands with a young man with wavy brown hair. Her husband, he imagined.
Betsy was sitting next to them. Her face was still puffy and swollen, with bruises blooming in shades of purple and blue. One of her brothers was sitting next to her.
“Nothing to see here. Move on,” Betsy said coldly.
“Where’s your partner in crime?” He was sorry as soon as he asked it, but he couldn’t help himself. He wanted to know.
“Out on a hot date,” Betsy said, staring him straight in the eye.
He felt cold all over.
“Yep. She stopped by the hotel to look up our handsome Latin American lothario and they went out for dinner a couple of hours ago. They’re probably back in his hotel room right now, ripping each other’s clothes off.” There was a spiteful gleam in Betsy’s eye when she said it.
Cooper turned and walked away without a word, feeling ill.
It was none of his business. He’d walked away from Josephine. And he was right to have walked away from her…wasn’t he? What kind of person manipulated their friend into covering up for their batterer?
Not Josephine, his intuition whispered to him.
Everything about this scenario seemed off to him. Could his instincts be so wrong? Was he blinded by his feelings for her?
He didn’t know what to think; the facts were telling him one thing and his heart was telling him another.
Dispirited, he headed back to the cabin and tried not to imagine Josephine and Manuel in a tangle of sheets together, naked, running his hands over her…
Sleeping in the cabin without Josephine was impossible. He thrashed and moved from side to side and kicked his blankets off and finally gave up on sleep. Visions of Josephine and Manuel together tormented him.
Was Josephine moving on already? He wondered.
The next morning, exhausted and frustrated, he took a cold shower to wake himself up, shaved, and then headed down The Crooked Mile to the Daily Grind, where he ordered coffee and an omelet.
As he was washing down his third cup of coffee, his cell phone rang.
“Trent Sanchez is in the wind,” his boss told him.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“You heard me. Apparently he’s been acting erratic at work for some time. Several families of people he was supervising have complained to the police of items going missing when he came to their house. Videocameras, iPods, money gone from wallets. It turns out he has a gambling problem. He was placed on an unpaid leave of absence right after Jason Sawyer disappeared, and the police are investigating him. He’s not at his apartment, and his neighbors say he hasn’t been seen in about ten days.”
Cooper felt a chill run through his body.
Curvy Girls: The Big Girl and the Bounty Hunter Page 12
