4 Buried Secrets (3 page)

“We only have one beer here on tap … Pabst Blue Ribbon.”

Jolene made a face. “Are you kidding? People really drink that?”

The deep timbre of Kyle’s laugh coaxed her scowl into a smile.
 

“I’m just kidding,” he said. “You look like a Coors drinker, am I right?”

“Well actually I like Sam Adams but if you don’t have that, Coors will do.”

He pulled a glass beer mug from under the counter and turned to fill it. “Sam Adams?” he asked over his shoulder. “Are you from New England?”

Jolene nodded as he slid the mug across the bar to her. The foam topped golden liquid invited Jolene to take a sip, which she swirled around in her mouth for a few seconds enjoying the subtle bite of the malty flavor.

“You here on vacation?” Kyle polished a wine glass with a white bar towel.

Jolene shrugged. “You might say that.” She looked up and saw him watching her with interest. Interest in her? … Or in what she was doing here?
 

“Not much around here for vacationers.”
 

“We’re checking out Dead Water.” Jolene watched two beads of condensation run down the beer glass and onto the bar before taking another swig.

“Dead Water? What could you possibly want there?” Kyle put down the glass he’d been working on and picked up another.

Jolene chewed on her bottom lip while she studied his energy, an unusual talent she’d discovered she had over the past year. She didn’t see any dark colors in his aura—it was bright yellow, which meant he probably didn’t have any hidden motives for asking about why she was there … and also that he wasn’t the type of guy for long term commitments.
 

She tilted her head, her long chocolate curls brushing against her arm. “My sisters and I are history buffs. We’re here looking into the town history. Do you know anything about it?”

“I know it’s been abandoned for a long time. We used to hang there sometimes when I was a kid.”
 

Jolene sipped her beer and admired his biceps as he worked the cloth around the glass. She noticed the head of a dragon peeking out from under the sleeve of his gray t-shirt and wondered what the rest of the tattoo looked like.
 

“Anyway, it was a mining town and I think there was some kind of scandal back there a long time ago. But no one’s lived there in decades,” he said.

“The stage coach robberies,” Jolene prompted.
 

“Yeah, something like that.” Kyle slid the glass into the rack on top of the bar then placed his hands on the bar top and leaned toward her. His light gray eyes held hers and she felt a tingle zing up her spine.

“Don’t let Sheriff Kane catch you out there though.”

“Why?” she asked. “It’s private land and we have permission from the owners.”

Kyle pushed back from the bar and slapped the towel over his shoulder. “He always seemed pretty nasty about finding us out there … but then again, we were just kids.”

Jolene sipped more beer and watched Kyle pour whiskey into a shot glass and pop the top off a bottle of Bud he’d grabbed from the cooler. She thought about what Kyle had said. Was he trying to warn her off? Would they have trouble with this Sheriff Kane? It made sense the Sheriff wouldn’t want kids trespassing—they tended to vandalize stuff. But Jolene and her sisters weren’t kids and Luke had permission, so they shouldn’t have a problem with this Sheriff.

“Anyway, Walter here knows a lot about Dead Water if you need a history lesson.” Kyle tilted his head toward the man three seats down from Jolene, then walked down and placed the shot and beer in front of him.

“Hey Walt, this young lady here is looking into the history of Dead Water.”
 

Walt slid his eyes over to Jolene who favored him with her best smile.

“Hi.” She leaned over the two bar stools and stuck her hand out toward the old man.

“Hi there.” His handshake was firm, his blue eyes kind. Judging by the lines on his face, he must have been nearing ninety, but Jolene couldn’t be sure—the dessert air could be harsh on skin.

“What do you want to know?” Walt asked as Jolene slid into the seat next to him.

“I was just wondering about the history … the mining and the stage coach robberies.”
 

Walt lifted his left brow a fraction of an inch. “Well, that stuff’s all in the history books, but what you can’t find in there is the scandal.”

“The scandal?” Jolene’s brows shot up.

“Yep. My grandma told me the story when I was a little boy. She was just a girl back then, and maybe she romanticized it a bit, but she remembers a big scandal with the town sheriff and some woman … something about a love triangle.” His blue eyes twinkled at her.

Jolene smiled at him over the rim of her beer mug. “Sounds juicy. Did that have something to do with the robberies?”

Walt squeezed his eyes shut. “The robberies … yes, I do remember my grandma talking about those too. It was right around the same time. The stagecoach used to pass near town … carried all the gold and silver the miners had put in the bank, you know.”

Jolene nodded.

“Anyway, I remember her saying how they caught the guy. Of course, he claimed he was innocent but the sheriff didn’t believe him. Shot him right in the middle of the street. Scared her, she said.” Walt shook his head. “Can you imagine the Sheriff shooting a man down in front of a young girl like that?”

Jolene shook her head. “That’s awful. Did they ever find the gold he stole?”

“Nope. That was the big talk back then. Grandma said everyone went crazy trying to find it.”

“I heard he lived right outside of town,” Jolene said.

Walt scrunched up his face. “You know, I do think Grandma mentioned that. They dug all around there trying to find the treasure.”

“Oh really?”

“Yep. The Sheriff tried to stop them from digging, but then
he
died not too long after that. My grandma said it was sad because he’d just been married … or at least I
think
that’s what she said.” Walt chuckled and held his beer mug up. “Too much beer, and too many years does mess with a man’s memory.”

Jolene smiled while studying his aura. Turquoise. He was healthy as a horse and sharp in memory.
 

“Something tells me you don’t have any problems with your memory,” Jolene said. She gulped down the rest of her beer then pulled a wad of bills out of her pocket and slapped a twenty and some ones on the bar.
 

“This should take care of my beer and another round for my friend here.” She pointed to Walt, and then glanced over at Kyle as she slid down from the stool and started toward the door.

“Thanks,” he called after her. “Hey, I didn’t catch your name.”

“Jolene,” she said over her shoulder as she reached for the door handle.

“Hope to see you around, Jolene,” Kyle said and she shot him a smile as she tugged the door open and disappeared out into the hot sun.
 

He sure was cute, she thought, and then immediately dismissed the impulsive ideas that were creeping into her mind. There was a fat chance of anything happening with her over protective sisters and their boyfriends hanging around her day and night.

***

Jolene was halfway back to the hotel when the crunch of tires on gravel behind her caught her attention. Recognizing the big white SUV, she waved at her sisters, her eyes widening as they pulled to a stop and Morgan jumped out with Belladonna in her arms.

“You brought Belladonna with you?” She walked over to pet the cat who was wriggling to escape Morgan’s captive embrace.

“No,” Fiona answered. “She just kind of showed up.”

“What? How is that possible?” Jolene asked. “Dead Water is twenty miles from here.”

“You tell me,” Morgan said.

“Meow!” Belladonna twisted and squirmed. Wriggling free of Morgan's arms, she dropped to the ground looked up at the girls, and started cleaning herself.

“I don’t know about her.” Jolene pursed her lips at the cat, then turned her attention from the cat to her sisters. “Did you guys find any clues?”

Morgan, Fiona and Celeste exchanged a glance.
 

“We found out
something
… I’m just not sure it has anything to do with the treasure,” Celeste said. “What about you?”

“I might have found where Shorty lived and got a little history lesson from a new friend.” Jolene tilted her head toward the bar.

“You were in the bar all this time?” Morgan asked.

“Not
all
this time. I finished my research and went over for a beer.” Jolene smiled. “Turns out it was a good move because I met someone whose grandmother lived in Dead Water back in the 1800s.”

“Oh?” Morgan arched a finely plucked brow. “He must be quite old.”

“Yes, but sharp as a tack.” Jolene brushed a bead of sweat from her forehead. The desert sun was much stronger than back home in Maine. “Let’s go inside and we can discuss what we found.”

The sister’s murmured assent and Belladonna led them toward the door, then up the stairs to their suite.

“Guess she knows where our temporary home is,” Fiona said.

“Yeah, well I just hope she can find it if she gets lost.” Celeste’s face was pinched with concern. “We need to check the suite and see how she got out. I don’t want her wandering all around Nevada alone.”

Fiona unlocked the door and Belladonna streaked in making a beeline for her food dish where she sat blinking impatiently at the sisters.
 

“Don’t worry Belladonna, we’ll feed you.” Celeste rolled her eyes at the cat, then pulled a bag of dry cat food out of the cabinet and poured some into the cat’s bowl.

Belladonna sniffed at it daintily. After a few seconds, she turned up her nose and walked away. Jumping up on one of the chairs, she stared at the sisters sulkily.

Jolene couldn’t help but laugh. “I guess she wants canned food.”

“Or a mouse,” Morgan said.

“Well, we have neither,” Celeste answered. “She’ll eat that if she gets hungry enough. Why don’t you tell us what you found in your research?”

Jolene crossed over to the laptop, which flickered to life when she flipped up the top. “I was able to find out that Shorty Hanson lived about a mile outside of Dead Water. I imagine his homestead is long gone but I don’t think anything new has been built there.”
 

She pulled up the satellite photo of the area and turned the screen to face her sisters.

Fiona leaned forward to inspect the photo. “Do you have any idea where in that area his house would have been?”
 

“Well I do have coordinates, but I’m not sure how accurate they are.” Jolene tapped her finger on the piece of paper where she’d jotted down a longitude and latitude. “This is from research done twenty years ago and I’m not sure how the researchers determined where the house once was.”

“We don’t really know that he would have buried it near the house anyway,” Celeste said.

“Buried what?” Luke said from the doorway.

“The treasure.” Morgan pulled him inside and slipped her arms around his waist. “Did you get the detectors?”

“Yep, Buzz and Gordy are trying them out,” Luke said. “So you found out where the treasure is?”

“Jolene did.” Fiona pointed to the laptop screen.

“Excellent. Good work.” Luke held his fist out toward Jolene for a fist bump, which she happily completed.

“And what about the story you heard?” Morgan asked.

“Story?” Luke wrinkled his brow at Jolene.

“I finished my research and you were all gone so I went next door for a beer,” she said ignoring the looks of disapproval from her sisters and Luke. “I figured it would be a great place to get some stories on Dead Water from the locals.”
 

“Was anyone there at this hour?” Fiona glanced at the clock, which showed it was late afternoon.

“Yep. The bartender was nice enough to introduce me to an old-timer whose lived here all his life.” Jolene fought the flush that threatened to creep into her cheeks at the thought of Kyle. “He told me his grandmother lived in Dead Water back during the time of the robberies.”

The door clicked open interrupting her and Jake slipped in.
 

“Hi.” Jake greeted them. “Did I interrupt something?”

“Jolene was telling us a story about the treasure she heard from an old-timer in the bar,” Fiona said as he deposited a kiss on her forehead.

Jake nodded. “Go on, then.”

Jolene shrugged. “Well, I don’t know if this will help us find the treasure or not, but he said that his grandmother remembered some kind of scandal and Shorty Hanson was the stagecoach robber. The sheriff shot him but the treasure was never recovered.”

Jake nodded. “That’s pretty much what I found out too. And lots of people think that Dead Water is haunted.”

“It is.” Celeste laughed. “I’ve seen a couple of ghosts there already.”

“Too bad you didn’t run into Shorty,” Fiona said. “We could just ask him where the darn treasure is and be done with it.”

Jolene agreed. They’d only been there a day and she already missed the briny smell of the ocean and their quaint seaside town. “You saw another ghost when you went back there?”

“A woman this time. But she didn’t say much … she led us to the graveyard, then wept over a grave,” Celeste said. “At least I think it was a grave. It was in the back with no tombstone.”

“I’m not sure that can help us, but any information we have can’t hurt.” Luke disentangled himself from Morgan and walked over to the computer, staring down at the screen. “So this is about a mile out of Dead Water?”

“Yeah, here’s the coordinates.” Jolene handed him the paper.

“Awesome.” He looked at the clock. “We have a couple of hours of daylight left. What do you guys think about heading over there with the metal detectors?”

“Sounds good to me,” Jake said. “I’ve been wanting to learn how to run one of those things.”

“Wait a minute,” Morgan cut in. “Do we even know who owns this land? Don’t we need permission before we go digging it up?”

Luke looked at Jolene and she grimaced. “That’s the thing. I couldn’t get any information on who owns it.”