The Gilded Mirror

by L. M. Somerton

  “I wonder if she’s done any more baking,” Landry murmured as he made his way to the door.

  Edna Garrity’s house was on a large corner plot on the edge of town. Laughter and music came from her yard. Landry followed the noise and the scent of barbecue to find her ensconced on a swing seat surrounded by a rabble of small children. Other adults lounged around the messy garden, which displayed a profusion of flowering shrubs that had no particular design but somehow worked. Even in spring there was a riot of color and scent. A huge weeping willow sat in one corner while a bright yellow-painted summerhouse squatted in another.

  “Landry, Gage!” Edna shouted. “Grab a plate, come join us.” Curious glances became welcoming smiles as Edna’s family gathered round to say hello.

  “Thank you, ma’am,” Gage said. “That’s a kind offer but we’re heading out to hike the trail. We called in to return the newspaper office key. Thank you so much for opening up for us.”

  A rapid explanation of what they had been doing was shared between Edna and her relatives.

  “So how did your research go? Did you find anything interesting?” Edna asked.

  “We found some references to servicemen who returned here after the war and became miners,” Landry said. “It sounds like mining was a hard life.”

  “Indeed.” Edna patted the swing seat next to her. Landry perched on the edge. “But people back then were used to hard work and the mines paid well in comparison to other jobs, so I guess folks thought the danger was worth it. I’m sure it felt safer than the battlefields of Europe.”

  “Do you know if any of the old soldiers stayed here?” Landry recited the names he’d noted. “We found a story that said Albert Everard died in an explosion, but I didn’t find any more reference to either of the other men.”

  “I recall Kenneth Brown married a local girl, but they relocated to Vancouver a long time ago. I guess he’s passed but I don’t know if he had family. Royston McKenzie, I knew. He spent the rest of his life here and is buried in the cemetery. He didn’t make it to a great age, I think his lungs were damaged during the war and the mining couldn’t have helped. He passed about twenty years ago. He never married. Looking back I guess maybe he enjoyed the company of men more than the ladies, but back then…”

  “We’ve come a long way.”

  “We sure have. Though, there’s still plenty of dumbasses in this world.” Edna cackled. “Are you sure you boys won’t stay for food?”

  Gage shook his head. “We should be going if we want to follow the trail in daylight.” One of Edna’s daughters thrust a foil-wrapped package into Gage’s hand.

  “It’s just some barbecued chicken to take with you.” She beamed. “Mom frets about anyone not eating properly.”

  “Well, thank you kindly,” Gage said.

  Landry hopped off his seat. “Thanks for all your help, Edna.”

  “You boys come back and visit me again, you hear?”

  Landry kissed her cheek, which was smooth and smelled of lavender. “That’s a deal.”

  They said their goodbyes and returned to the Jeep. As they drove toward the trailhead parking lot, Landry spotted a sign for the cemetery. “Why don’t we make a quick stop and see if we can find Royston’s grave?”

  Gage swung to the right and pulled into the cemetery lot a few hundred yards down the road. Surrounded by a low wall and accessed by a simple wooden gate, the graveyard was laid out in neat rows surrounded by well-kept borders and recently mown grass.

  “I love the smell of freshly cut grass,” Landry said, breathing in the scent. “Even though it tickles my nose.”

  Gage planted a soft kiss on the tip of his nose in response. “Come on, it looks like the older graves are toward the back.”

  “It’s kind of peaceful, isn’t it?” Landry ambled along the row. “Not like the graveyards you see in films. I always think of the one in Interview with the Vampire.” He shuddered. “That film was only redeemed by the number of hot men in it.”

  “Do you rate every movie you see that way?” Gage asked.

  “Don’t you?” Landry danced away as Gage aimed a whack at his backside.

  “I only watch movies when I’m with you, and I inevitably get distracted.”

  That made Landry grin. “Distractions are fun. Oh look, here’s Royston.” The headstone was simple, polished granite, inscribed with Royston’s name and birth and death dates. Above Royston’s name was a carved image that matched the illustration in the watermark on Landry’s map.

  “You see that?” Excited, Landry traced the design with his finger.

  “Seems like we’re on the right track,” Gage said. “Royston must be our man.”

  “I’m sure this is a representation of a portrait painting,” Landry mused. “This is a frame, with a head and shoulders inside it.”

  “You could be right. Not sure what it means, though.”

  “The postcard James Ellery sent was of the National Portrait Gallery in London too.” Landry dropped to his knees, pushing some of the grass away from the base of the stone. “There’s something else here, some letters. XVXVIVXIX.”

  “Roman numerals?” Gage asked

  “Could be.” Landry made a note of the series of letters in his pad. “X is 10, the V is five, I is one. We can think about that later.”

  Gage snapped a picture of the headstone with his phone. “Let’s go. I need to stretch my legs.”

  It was only another five minutes’ drive to the trailhead. There were three other vehicles in the parking lot and a couple with two boisterous spaniels were scraping mud from their boots, leaning against the back of one of the trucks. One of the dogs scampered over to Landry, and he bent to pet her until a whistle sent her charging back to her owner.

  “Reminds me of you after too much sugar,” Gage said, grinning. “Just with bigger ears.”

  “Please don’t tell me you’re into puppy play,” Landry groused. “Because I’m not wearing a dog mask or panting at your feet. And before you say anything, I’m not kink shaming. Some of those puppy guys are way cute but I do not want a tail sticking out of my butt.” He glared at Gage.

  “I’ll note that down as a hard limit then.” He smirked.

  “You do that.” Landry traded his sneakers for a pair of battered boots. “Don’t forget my barbecue chicken.”

  “Our barbecue chicken is safely stashed in my backpack.” Gage swung the bag onto his shoulder. “The map says if we follow the main trail for about half a mile, there’s a fork to the right which heads through a narrow gorge to a waterfall and that’s where some of the old mine workings were accessed. If we keep up a steady pace, I’d guess it’ll take us about forty minutes to get to the waterfall.”

  “Are you measuring that by the length of your legs or mine?” Landry asked. “Because sometimes when we walk together you forget that your stride is about a foot longer than mine. I don’t want to be constantly scurrying to keep up with you.” He slipped his hand into Gage’s. “I think you’ll need to keep a hold of me.”

  “Fair enough. Perhaps I should have brought a collar and leash.”

  Landry gaped. “If you want me to hike with a hard-on, you’re going the right way about it.” Gage just chuckled and tugged him toward the start of the trail.

  It proved to be a well maintained, level path, which began to climb steadily after a few hundred yards. The arch of trees above them had kept the ground relatively dry and the leaf mold underfoot was soft rather than slimy. Landry took a deep breath, taking in the scent of pine and sun-warmed foliage.

  “If green had a smell, this would be it,” Landry said.

  “Can colors have smells?”

  “I don’t see why not.” Landry smiled. It was great to be out in nice weather and have Gage all to himself. He had to share Gage with his work, his colleagues, their friends. Today felt self-indulgent.

  “Feels good, doesn’t it?” Gage squeezed his hand. “To be just us, together.”

  “Were you readin
g my mind?”

  “Your emotions are all over your face, Landry. You’re an open book. It’s one of the things I love about you.”

  “And I love that you know me so well.” Landry pressed close to Gage’s side. “You understand what I need.”

  “Most of the time, what you need is discipline.”

  “And hugs.” Landry took Gage’s lack of response as agreement. He hummed happy tunes all the way to the point at which the trail split. After that the going got harder and he had to save his breath. After a good fifteen minutes of steep incline, the path levelled out and a few minutes later they reached the foot of a cascading waterfall.

  “Oh, wow!” Landry stared at the glittering stream of water. Where the sun caught it, rainbows came and went through the spray. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It sure is.” Gage squeezed his hand. For a while they stood and watched in silence. The torrent had to be over a hundred feet high and the noise as the water dropped into the pool below was thunderous. The ground was soaked by the spray, the leaves glistening with diamonds droplets.

  “Where’s the water going?” Landry asked. Beyond the pool there was no sign of a stream.

  “Underground I guess,” Gage said. “We must be above the mine workings here. It wouldn’t surprise me if some of them were flooded by now. It could be why they were closed. Pumping them out would be extremely expensive.”

  “I wonder where the old entrance is.” Landry looked around but the path didn’t go beyond the falls. “Perhaps we passed them already—it’s not that accessible here.”

  “I was keeping an eye out while we walked,” Gage said, “but I didn’t spot anything. Nature can take a good hold over nearly seventy years.” He let go of Landry’s hand then skirted the edge of the pool pushing the undergrowth out of the way. At one side of the cascade he clambered up the steep bank then disappeared into some dense foliage.

  “Gage, where are you?” Landry followed Gage’s tracks in the mud. When he reached the point at which Gage had disappeared, he heard rustling then Gage’s head appeared a few meters above him.

  “Up here. Be careful, it’s slippery.”

  Landry scrambled up the bank, cursing the amount of mud collecting on his pants. When he got within sight of Gage, he grabbed his hand and Gage hauled him the last few feet.

  “You found it!” Landry exclaimed.

  “I found something. This couldn’t have been the main entrance to the mine. It must have been an offshoot or maybe an escape tunnel, but look…” Gage dropped to his knees and pulled up some clumps of grass to reveal the rusting remnants of rail tracks and the rotting wood of a buffer. “Perhaps empty wagons were stored here.” The entrance was completely overgrown, concealed by bramble bushes and ivy.

  “There’s a small gap,” Landry said. “I think I can wriggle through there.” He had to lie flat on his stomach then squirm, but once he was passed the dense foliage, the tunnel opened up in front of him and he was able to stand. It was dark, so he used the torch on his cell to illuminate the space. He walked a few meters but then found the tunnel was completely blocked. He had a good look around but apart from a single rusty nail he didn’t find anything of interest.

  “Landry, get back out here.” Gage’s urgent whisper had Landry scurrying to return. As he emerged from beneath the bushes Gage clapped a hand over his mouth. “Quiet, I think we were followed.” Gage dropped to the ground next to Landry and they both shifted backward into the undergrowth. Landry froze, hardly daring to breathe. Low voices sounded near the base of the waterfall, but Landry couldn’t make out what they were saying. Gage pressed a finger to Landry’s lips then started to edge forward. Landry wanted to grab him, to pull him back but he stayed absolutely still, terrified of giving away their position. Gage kept moving until Landry’s only view was the soles of Gage’s boots.

  After five agonizing minutes, Gage moved again. “They’ve gone. It’s safe to come out.”

  Landry squirmed on his belly until he could stand without getting tangled in the bushes. Despite Gage’s reassurance, he kept his voice low. “They could have just been hikers, like us.”

  “I don’t think so. I heard them say they must have continued on the main path, ‘they’ probably being us. They were following someone, and I didn’t see anyone else out here, did you?”

  Landry shook his head. He nibbled on his lower lip. “Apart from the people in the parking lot. Do you think they followed us all the way from Seattle?”

  “I don’t think so,” Gage said. “I hope I would have noticed. We get enough training in how to spot a tail. There are plenty of people who could have overheard us talking about our plans for today, at Scorch, in the store, even in the coffee shop. It wouldn’t have been that difficult to track us down in Bellingham.”

  “What about Edna and her family? I would hate for anything to happen to them because of us.”

  “Edna’s not stupid and she has lots of people around here. We can check in on them on the way back, but I’d guess that these guys came straight here. We talked about hiking the trail. I don’t recall us discussing going to the newspaper office, though. There were other vehicles at the trail head, they could have been waiting for us to show up or they could have been concealed close by, waiting for us to arrive. We should head back.”

  “If they’ve gone, I want to check something out first,” Landry said. “There was no sign of anything in the mine tunnel that would give us a clue to the treasure. It looks like it was dynamited to block it off a long time ago. But if Royston is the person who drew the map, and he has to be bearing in mind what was on his headstone, he lived in Bellingham long after the mines closed.”

  “What are you thinking, Landry?”

  “When I was a kid I really loved adventure books and I remember in one that someone hid behind a waterfall, escaping from pirates I think. The way the rock erodes means that there’s often a space hollowed out. The waterfall is on the map and it’s close to the mine entrance. It’s too much of a coincidence. I want to take a look behind it.”

  Gage looked skeptical. “You’re gonna get very wet.”

  “You don’t think I’m going back there on my own, do you?” Landry grabbed Gage’s hand.

  “Well, fuck, I guess we’re both getting wet.”

  “It’ll be worth it if we find something. It’s just water.”

  “I’ll remind you of that when you’re hiking back down the trail in wet clothes.”

  “You can always strip me off and wrap me in the picnic blanket for the drive home.” Landry blinked.

  “Okay, you’ve convinced me.”

  “Thought that might tip the balance.”

  “Let’s get on with it. The sooner we’re done the sooner I can get you naked and at my mercy.”

  Chapter Twelve

  Gage kept a tight hold of Landry as he skirted the edge of the plunge pool at the base of the waterfall. There wasn’t a lot of room to maneuver, and Gage had images in his head of Landry taking a dive into the water. Gage really didn’t fancy having to fish him out, or worse go in after him.

  “Be careful. If you break an ankle, I’m leaving you here.”

  “Says the man with the grace of a bull elephant walking on Lego.” Landry sniggered then slipped. Gage caught him before he hit the ground and hauled him upright.

  “You were saying?”

  “Oops. It sure is slippery.”

  They were within a few feet of the torrent and the spray was soaking Gage’s hair and skin. “It seems pretty close to the rocks, Landry. Are you sure we can get behind it?”

  “Only one way to find out.” Landry ducked through the falls pulling Gage with him.

  “Fuck me that was cold.” Gage shook himself like a dog, though the quick shower hadn’t saturated his clothing as much as he’d thought it might. He glanced around, taking in the greenery-draped stone. Landry was edging his way along a narrow rock shelf less than a meter away from the curtain of water.

  “Well, there�
�s no secret cave back here, which is disappointing,” Landry said. “My treasure hunting fantasy balloon has been pricked.” The rock underfoot was slick. Gage locked his knees then leaned against the limestone, keeping a careful eye on Landry as he did a neat pirouette to make the return journey along the shelf. “There’s nothing here.” Landry huffed. “Apart from wet, slimy rocks and green slimy plants. Slime is a theme here.”

  “It was a long shot but worth taking a look.” Gage had to turn away from the rushing water, which was making him a bit giddy. Above him, carved into the rock was a familiar series of letters. “I think I found something.” He pointed at the spot.

  Landry, clinging onto Gage’s arm, peered up at the rock. “Oh my God, it’s the same letters as on Royston’s tombstone. Lift me up so I can look closer.”

  With a lot of grunting and grumbling, Gage hoisted Landry onto his shoulders, lifting him as high as he could. He braced himself while Landry prodded and poked at the rock.

  “There’s nothing… Wait! There’s a hole behind this moss. Yuck, more slime… I hope there’s nothing living in here. What if there’s a snake?”

  “Hurry up, Landry, you’re killing me. If you don’t stop squirming you’re going to put me in traction, and any snake with a brain will have evacuated when it heard you coming.”

  “Suck it up, big guy. You have to deal with the trials and tribulations of treasure hunting. There’s something in here, but it’s stuck.” Landry’s movements got jerky as he yanked at whatever it was he’d found. Then it suddenly gave way and Landry tipped backward. Gage managed an acrobatic twist out of desperation and caught Landry’s sleeve. Landry slithered down Gage’s body to land on his knees, at Gage’s feet.

  “Much as I like you in that position, get up. Are you okay? You nearly sent both of us in for a swim. As it is, I think my spine is a new shape.”

  Landry got to his feet and made a vain attempt at brushing some of the mud from his clothes. “I’m fine, it came free real sudden. I found this.” He held out a rusting tin that looked to Gage like the ancient cashbox that they used to collect cookie money at the precinct. “It’s locked.” Landry fiddled with the tin but couldn’t open it.