Alvarado Gold (20 page)

Chapter Twenty-Six

Clay put the backseat down in the van. I climbed in and crouched beside Susan. She didn’t complain but I could tell every bump intensified her pain.

“Addie. What do you know about the cave?” Susan jerked my sleeve wanting to know.

“Shh.” I adjusted the backpack I’d put behind her for a pillow. “You need to rest. We’ll talk about it later.”

“No. Tell me now.” She grabbed my arm. “I want to know if you heard it. Or am I going totally nuts?”

“I heard it.” I didn’t want to scare Susan but she demanded to know. “A Jumano chief told the tale to a group of children at the library. I did some research there the first day I arrived in Dallas... ” I stopped talking as we neared the hospital parking lot. I certainly hoped Susan’s accident wasn’t because I was so determined to find the gold. I still felt that was Grandpa’s intent. He wanted us to find it and he wanted us to do it together.

Clay pulled into the emergency bay and an attendant directed him to the entrance. “We need some help getting my sister out of the van.” He pointed a young intern in the direction of the vehicle backed up to the sliding doors.

The young man’s muscles strained against his blue scrubs as he lifted Susan out. “Nice job with the duct tape. Any of it left?” He tried to make her laugh but, for his efforts, only got a weak smile.

“My cousin, here, studies Egypt.” Susan nodded my way. “She was practicing her mummy wrapping skills.”

“I can’t assess this until we get you unwound but I don’t think it’s too bad. We’ll have you in a cast and out of here in a few hours.” The intern helped the orderlies carry her to the gurney. When she moved, Susan’s face contorted but she said nothing. They disappeared behind polished metal doors that swung shut and locked. We were left behind in the waiting room.

“I feel bad about this. I’m responsible. I shouldn’t have been so anxious. We weren’t prepared to go into the cave.”

“It isn’t your fault, Addie.” Clay had returned from the parking lot and found the soda machine. He offered each of us a cold drink. “We were all excited. Who would have known there would have been a hole dug in the floor?”

“I’ll bet Donnie went in there with a metal detector. How else could he have found the box? The cave was small and didn’t have anything else in it.”
Just those eerie sounds
.

Clay shuffled through last month’s magazines on the table near the couch we’d claimed. “Were you two talking about an Indian?”

“It’s an old legend. When we get Susan back to the motel, I’ll tell everyone. Mel’s heard part of it. I wanted to return and talk to the chief but he was ill and no one knew where to reach him.” I settled in between Clay and Mel to wait for word on Susan. “We’ll order another pizza. You looked disappointed you didn’t get any yesterday.”

The hospital seemed nice enough as places like that go. The walls were pale green and the employees wore various outfits in shades of blue. I finally discerned what each hue meant–orderly, nurse or doctor. They all blended together into a watercolor effect that soothed the worried souls who waited in the area set aside for the patient’s families.

Mel called Brad and took care of the insurance and assured him Susan wasn’t badly hurt. The minutes became hours and lunch time came and went before the young intern appeared with Susan in a wheelchair. “Just as I thought. It’s not a break, just a bad sprain. Nothing too serious.”

Susan grinned, “Like my new shoe?” She talked too fast and smiled too widely. She’d obviously had a little pain medication to go along with the obnoxious blue canvas-walking boot.

“Please, wheel her out.” The doctor instructed a nurse dressed in yet another tone of blue. “She’ll be fine. Just keep her leg elevated. She can see her doctor when she gets home. She told me you were here on some kind of quest.”

“So far, it’s been quite an adventure.” I shook his hand and left. “We’ll take good care of her.”

****

“Are you going to order that pizza you promised me?” Clay asked as he fiddled with the remote control in Susan and Mel’s room. “Don’t they get ESPN here?”

I thumbed through the local phone book while Mel tried to make Susan as comfortable as possible, propped up in the middle of her bed with her foot on a stack of pillows. “What kind do you guys want? Feel like eating, Susan?”

“Sure. I don’t feel any pain. What did he give me anyway?” Whatever it was, she was in a great mood.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go home.” I walked over to the edge of the bed. “You and I can fly back to Sacramento tomorrow and forget all this nonsense.”

“No. I want to be here. We haven’t even started to look for the gold. I’m not hurt that badly. I didn’t take that fall for nothing, you know, and you still owe me the full story on the Jumano chief.”

“Yeah, Addie. Come clean,” Clay said with a big smile on his face. He’d finally found a sports channel and sunk into a chair.

They listened as I recounted my first afternoon at the library, the story of the buffalo maiden and the mention that the chief knew our family. “Gary warned me about going out there, too.”

“Let’s all be sensible here.” Mel looked skeptical. “I’m surprised you were frightened. There’s some explanation. Be reasonable.” Typical-straight-forward-had-to-be-a-reason-for-everything-no-doubt-about it-Mel.

“You weren’t in there, Mel. I heard the sounds, too. The echoing noises were unnerving. Maybe that’s what scared Donnie out of there. Who knows? He certainly threw that box up against the wall in the cave for some reason. Where is it anyway? Is it still in the van, Clay?”

He handed me the rusty container. “No. Here it is.”

“I wonder how old this is?” I turned it over in my hands. After rubbing on the bottom a few times, I’d found something. “A date, 1856. This has to be the box the key fit. I wonder if it was empty when Donnie found it?”

I was lost in my own thoughts, lost in the wonderment that I touched something Grandpa John had held 150 years ago. I’d span over 2,000 years examining things at work every day, but this experience shook my very essence. I felt a deep sense of a summons from the past. Clay came to stand beside me and jolted me out of the time warp I’d traveled into. “Do you think he found the gold and has taken it and left?”

“I don’t know. Maybe. We still have to get the fax. The gold was on the Hansen property but I do think this held another clue.” I headed for the door. “I’m turning in for the night. It’s been a long day. I’m taking the box with me.”

I made my way around the corner of the building and started to stop in the main office to ask about our message on the Hansen property. As I walked by, I couldn’t see anyone at the desk and decided it could wait until morning. The sun had set but the evening remained balmy. I could see well enough to make my way to my room.

Just as I started to put my key into the door, a tall, dark man grabbed my arm. For a moment I thought it was Clay. Then, I realized who it was.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Donnie pressed my shoulders back against the rough stucco of the building. The glare in his eyes frightened me. “Addison. I told you to stay away from here and I meant it. Do you have the gold?”

“I could ask you the same question.” At least he hadn’t found it yet but my flip answer only made him grind my flesh harder into the wall. I scanned the darkening corridor for help but my willingness to take a room on the backside of the motel was, now, a bad decision. As he pushed unmercifully, the metal carton fell to the concrete walkway with a clang. As it clattered at our feet, the noise of the empty container brought no assistance from the other roadhouse dwellers.

“You found the box. We both know it was empty.” His stale, hot breath made me turn away from him. “Look at me, Addison. Where’s the gold?”

“Donnie, be reasonable. Why are you so intent that we’re trying to take this away from you? You got your cut from Grandpa’s estate, didn’t you? $16,000 apiece wasn’t exactly loose change. We aren’t trying to bilk you out of your share of the gold.” The conversation bought me some time. His grip eased a little and the pain subsided so I could think.

“Share?”
He hissed. “There is no share. The gold belongs to me. My father told me no one else wanted it.”

Why was he being such a jerk? When Uncle Clayton abandoned the search for the gold, could Donnie have taken his father’s alcoholic reaction as fact? Uncle Joseph claimed the gold and made it clear to both his siblings he thought it was his. It was evident to me Grandpa wanted everything divided evenly. I needed to think fast and not tell him too much. I came to the quick realization that I didn’t even know whom I dealt with. Even though our lives had been disrupted, the rest of us knew something about each other. I had no clue as to what had happened to Donnie over the years, what he thought or what he believed.

“You should have come to the reading of Grandpa’s will. He saw it differently. Grandpa wanted all of us to find it. It belongs to the six of us. That includes you, Donnie.”

“The family never cared about us. My father told me that for as long as I could remember. I did go to Darrow’s. He said he gave you something. What was it, Addison? Tell me.” With those words he tightened his grip and shoved until I could feel the plaster points cut through my thin, cotton T-shirt.

I felt a thin line of perspiration rise on my upper lip. I was a rag doll in his giant fist. I told him about the little box and tried not to divulge anything more. “I have a small case with an envelope that your key belonged in. There was a reference to the cave. We found the cave and went looking. You’d obviously been there first.”

“I didn’t like it in there.” He ground my shoulder with such force I could feel the blood dampen my shirt.

“We only got out there this morning.” I tried to squirm out of his grip but found it useless. “Donnie, I haven’t even seen you since I was eight years old. We lost touch with your family when your dad died eighteen years ago. Why can’t you understand that the problems belonged to their generation, not ours? I’ve been trying for years to find you.”

His face softened for an instant and I thought I saw a glimmer of hope. “You have?” The moment didn’t last long. “I’ll bet you tried really hard, didn’t you.” He lifted me off the ground. My feet no longer touched. Donnie stood a good seven inches taller than me, but from this angle I could see over his shoulder into the parking lot. A fairly new Ford pickup, which I assumed was his, was parked in the lot but there was no one else with him. I sighed, gratefully. I might be able to get away from him but not if his friends were with him.

The moment forgotten, when his blood shot eyes met mine, my fears were renewed. The way he had me in his grasp prevented my line of sight to my right. I never heard the running footsteps or any other sound that would have obviously had to happen. All I saw was a strong, muscular arm shoot past my face and Donnie slam against the post of the overhang that covered the walkway. I crumpled to the ground as my unknown hero pulled Donnie to his feet by a handful of checkered shirt.

“Leave her alone.” I recognized Gary’s voice. “Do you hear me?” Where had he come from?

Donnie stood up and wiped the blood from his lip. The thought crossed my mind that they’d arranged this little episode to throw me off. Just when I was about to think the worst of Gary, once again, Donnie spat out, “Who in blazes are you?”

“Gary Wright. Don’t you remember me? I helped you at the BLM office.”

“No. I don’t. How are you involved anyway?” Donnie struggled to stand and dusted off his hands on his blue jeans. “This is a family matter.”

“I’m a friend.” Gary offered his hand and pulled me to a standing position.

“Well, then you can all stay away from me.” Donnie glared at me, “And if you find the gold, Addison, just remember who it belongs too.” Donnie stormed out across the parking lot. Gravel and dirt shot from the tires of his pickup as he sped away.

I backed up against the doorway to my room, shaken. My insides quivered. I always thought I was tough enough to stand up to anyone. I’d just about proven myself wrong. If it hadn’t been for Gary showing up when he did, I’d… Gary. I thought he’d betrayed me but yet he’d shown up as my rescue. First, I assumed it was a convenient set up between the two of them. But Donnie didn’t appear to know him or, at least, pretended not to. It was going to take…what did Grandpa call it? A leap of faith. If I was going to let myself trust him, I needed to apologize.

“Are you all right?” Gary surveyed my torn shirt.

“Yeah. I think my shoulder is scraped up, that’s all. Gary, I owe you an apology.”

“It’s okay, Addie.” He came closer to me and looked at my shoulder. “You just wouldn’t let me explain.”

I moved back and resisted his touch. “We can’t move this mountain all at once, Gary. There’s a lot we don’t know about each other. Everything moved too quickly. Then, I made a mess of it all.”

Gary’s lips softened into a sincere smile. I could have melted in his arms right then but this time it had to be right. 

“What do you want, Addie? I’ll give you the moon.”

“Peace. That’s what I want. All this precariousness between Donnie and the rest of us when all I wanted was to find my family. Then there is the gold and the problems it started. Susan sprained her ankle in a fall while we were in the cave. I can’t help but think that’s my fault, too.”