Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret (9 page)

Bailey signed off. “We could do a bit of research on the name Hakan Kaga ourselves.”

Elizabeth’s green eyes twinkled. “Just what I was thinking.” She typed the name into her search engine. Most of what popped up was genealogical information, which she scanned. “Looks like Hakan was Halona’s great-greatgrandfather.”

“Nothing about a turquoise mine?” Bailey asked.

“Not on this site. I’ll keep looking.” Elizabeth scrolled down. “Aha.”

“What?”

“It says the Suquosa Mine was mined by the Kaga family from the 1600s. Somehow when people began officially purchasing land, it was bought by someone named Taime Wapi. It was bought again by Hakan Kaga in 1848. He worked the mine and passed it on to his family after his death. He was only fifty-eight when he died.”

“That’s not very old,” Bailey said. “Does it say how he died?”

Elizabeth kept reading. “Hmm. It says he suffered injuries in a mining accident, but doesn’t say what the injuries were. But the accident happened the same year he died.”

“I bet that’s no coincidence.”

“No.” Elizabeth replied. “It might have caused his death.”

“Can you find a death certificate?”

“I’m looking.” Beth scanned the listings. “Here. Hakan Kaga. Cause of death: injuries sustained in mining accident.”

“So he died, then the mine was passed to his family from generation to generation until now it belongs to Halona and no one can find the deed to prove it.” Bailey shook her head. “Can you find out when the mine shut down?”

Elizabeth typed in “Suquosa Mine.” She clicked on the first entry that came up. “It gives a brief history of the

mine. Let’s see here.…It says the mine was haunted by the

deaths of many workers in the early 1900s and finally shut down due to drought and safety issues in 1925.”

“Anything about where it was located?” Bailey leaned forward.

“Not really. Just that it was in the Jemez Mountains in northern New Mexico.”

Bailey growled. “I wish they were more specific!”

“Something has to give pretty soon,” Elizabeth said. “I feel like we’re close to the solution, but somehow just can’t see it yet.”

“Me, too. We have to keep our eyes and ears open even more than ever.”

“I think we need to ask God’s help,” Elizabeth said. “We haven’t been the best at seeking Him first.”

Bailey was quiet, then nodded. “You’re right. We’ve been trying to do this all on our own and forgot to put God first.”

The girls bowed their heads and Elizabeth prayed aloud. “God, we’re stuck on this mystery, and we need Your help. If You want us to solve this, would You please show us the pieces to the puzzle that we’re missing? It would help Halona and her family so much if we could find that deed to the mine and prove her to be the rightful owner. Thank You for listening to us and helping us. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

“There.” Bailey said. “Now we’re even one step closer to the solution.”

Wednesday morning at Earth Works, after their store-opening chores were done, Bailey and Elizabeth pulled out the pottery pieces from the cabinet.

“The pot seems even older now that it’s broken.” Bailey laid the pieces on the table and brushed off her hands. “I feel like we’ve just found these old relics on an archaeological dig!”

“Seriously, that’s something to think about,” Elizabeth said. “As old as this pot is, we should be extremely careful in handling it and studying it, just like the archaeologists would. We’d hate to damage it even further and lose an important clue in the process.”

“You’re right.” Bailey went to the countertop along the wall and opened a drawer. She returned to the table with two small paintbrushes. “These should help us uncover clues without touching the pot too much.”

“And what about some gloves, so oils from our skin don’t get on the pot when we do have to touch it?”

Elizabeth asked. “I think the part that’s painted will be protected, but I’m afraid our skin oils could discolor the plain, unpainted clay.”

“Good thinking. I’ll see what I can find.” Bailey scrounged through drawers and cabinets until she found what looked to be Halona’s gardening gloves. “These should do the trick.”

“Perfect.”

Bailey slipped on a pair of gloves and picked up a paintbrush.

“Wait!” Elizabeth said.

“Now what?”

“We should spread out some old newspaper on the table to make our cleanup easier.”

Bailey sighed. “Cleanup? You’re as bad as my mother.” She started to grab a couple sections of newspapers from a pile sitting in the corner, but then reconsidered. “What if the newsprint comes off on the pot?”

“You’ re right. We shouldn’t use that.”

“We could use the same paper that we wrap the pots in when someone buys them,” Bailey said. “I’ll run and get some from under the counter.” Bailey hustled out to the front of the store and, after getting Halona’s permission, returned with a small stack of the wrapping paper. They spread the sheets out until the tabletop was covered. “Satisfied?”

Elizabeth laughed. “Yep! If we can’t keep our mess on all this, then it’s a project we probably shouldn’t do.”

“Let’s get started.” Bailey gingerly picked up her favorite piece—the one with the sunset painted on it—and set it in front of her. It still had some of the pot’s bottom attached to it, so it stood up as if it had never been broken. Bailey dusted off the small painting with her paintbrush, then turned the pot to dust the inside. As she turned it, she noticed a little hole only about a half inch long, exposing what seemed to be a pocket built into the pot near the top, almost like a wall within a wall.

“Check this out!” she told Elizabeth.

“What?”

“This side is hollow.” Bailey stood to peer down at it.

“Of course it is,” Elizabeth replied. “Pots have to be hollow to hold anything.”

“Not like that,” Bailey said, irritation creeping into her voice. “The actual side of the pot is hollow, like it has a pocket or a secret hiding place or something. There’s a space only about a quarter of an inch wide between the two walls.”

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows and stood to look at the piece Bailey was inspecting. “Wow! I see what you mean!”

“Why do you think they made it like that?” Bailey asked.

Elizabeth ventured a guess. “Maybe to hold something important, like today’s safety deposit boxes do?”

Bailey had her eye right up to the hole. “I can’t see if there’s anything in there.”

“You need a flashlight or something.”

Once again, Bailey rummaged through drawers and cabinets. “It’s no use. I can’t find one.”

“How about if I shine my cell phone light on it while you look in?” Elizabeth suggested.

“It’s worth a try.”

Elizabeth opened her phone and shone the light just above the hole in the side of the pot, but Bailey’s head kept blocking the light. “Your head’s in the way,” Beth told her.

“That’s where it has to be if I’m going to be able to see in,” Bailey said. “Why don’t you move the light?”

“‘Cause I don’t have anywhere else to move it to where it will shine into the hole!”

Bailey thought for a moment. “How about if we stick something in there to see if we feel anything inside?”

“Great idea!” Beth said. “We need something small, but long enough, like a pencil or pen.”

“I think we should use a pen so we don’t risk making marks on the inside with a pencil.”

Elizabeth nodded. “That wouldn’t be good.”

Bailey stuck a black ballpoint pen down into the hole and moved it around.

“Feel anything?”

“I’m not sure.” Bailey moved the pen again. “Maybe.”

“Let me try.” Bailey stepped aside and Elizabeth pushed the pen into the hole and wiggled it. “I see what you mean. It’s hard to say for sure since there’s not much wiggle room, but I think something’s in there. It sounds different than if the pen were just hitting against the clay pot. Muffled.” She pulled the pen out, and powder from the dry surrounding clay came out with it.

“You just made the hole bigger!” Bailey said. She put a gloved finger at the edge of the hole between the two pocket walls and brushed more powdery clay out.

“Do you think we should really break this pot more than we already did just to satisfy our curiosity?” Elizabeth asked. “I mean, isn’t that what got us into trouble in the first place?”

Bailey peered into the little hole, not hearing Beth. “Almost there …” Another brush with her finger and a couple more with the paintbrush. “I can see it!”

“See what?” Elizabeth squealed. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, but there’s definitely something in there.”

“So now what do we do?” Beth asked.

“We brush away more of the side until we can get it out.” Bailey kept working on it, and Elizabeth did her part by blowing the dust out of the way. Finally, Bailey tried to put her index finger and thumb in the hole to pull out whatever was inside, but they wouldn’t fit.

“We need some tweezers,” Beth said.

“Oh! I saw some in the drawer.” Bailey was up in an instant. “I figured they probably used them for adding beads and stones to the pottery.” She retrieved the tweezers and twisted them this way and that to try to grab onto the hidden contents. “I think I have it!”

“Be careful,” Beth said. “Don’t let it go.”

Bailey pulled the item to the hole and they saw for the first time that it was something resembling folded dark brown leaves. “What in the world?”

Elizabeth tilted her head to try to determine what it was. “Pull it out.”

“I’m not sure I can without ripping it or damaging it somehow,” Bailey said. “But I have a feeling this brown part is protecting something inside it. So maybe it doesn’t matter if it gets torn.”

Beth brushed some more of the side away to enlarge the hole. “There. Try that.”

Bailey gently pulled the tweezers and whatever was in their grasp through the hole. The brown wrapping was more pliable than they thought it would be, and only tiny pieces chipped off as it was birthed through the gap in the pot.

Electricity charged between the girls as they looked at the brown leafy package.

“I’ve heard that people used to use certain kinds of leaves to wrap things to protect them against moisture.” Bailey’s hands trembled as she gently unfolded the leaves to reveal its contents—a yellowed document with the word
Deed
written across the top in fancy curlicue writing. With great care, she lifted the deed out of its protective cocoon. Some of the words were faded, but she could clearly read the words “Suquosa Mine” and “Hakan Kaga.”

Elizabeth’s jaw dropped and she high-fived Bailey. “We found the deed to Halona’s mine!”

Bailey couldn’t contain the huge grin that stretched across her face. “Should we tell her right away?”

“Maybe we should see if we can find the mine first. What good is the deed if there’s no mine anymore?”

“You’re right.” Bailey nodded. “We don’t want to get her hopes up only to disappoint her later.”

“We have to find out where that mine is,” Elizabeth said. “Surely there must be an old map online somewhere.”

“Or in the public records at the county recorder’s office,” Bailey offered.

“I’d think that if it was on public record, the Tses would have already found it. It can’t be that easy.” Elizabeth looked at the table with the broken pottery pieces. “We’d better clean this mess up before we start looking for the map.”

“What’ll we tell Halona about not putting the pot back together?” Bailey asked.

“We’ll tell her the truth.” Elizabeth gathered the wrapping paper covered with pottery dust. “That we found some information we needed to check out before we can finish. If she presses us, we’ll just have to trust God that she won’t be too disappointed if we can’t find the mine.”

Bailey brought the trashcan to the table. “Yeah, we sure don’t want to glue the pot back together and not be able to show them where we found the deed. I think she’ll be happy that we found it even if we don’t find the mine right away.”

“I do, too.” Elizabeth carried the broken pottery pieces back to the cabinet, then rolled up the wrapping paper and dumped it into the trash. “But I think she’ll be overjoyed if we find both!”

Bailey looked the room over. “We’ve got everything picked up, but what should we do with the deed?”

“I can put it in my bag,” Elizabeth said. “No one will look in there, and it’s big enough not to bend it.”

She tucked the document into her bag. Then Elizabeth opened her laptop to look for a map of the mine’s location. Bailey sat next to her to help her look. They clicked on several old maps and found nothing that showed Suquosa Mine. Then they clicked on one more link and found what they were looking for.

“There it is!” Bailey said, pointing at a tiny black dot.

“I can’t believe it,” Elizabeth said.

“Looks like it’s close to where we were at the Puye Cliffs.”

“I don’t remember seeing anything that looked like a mine in that area, though Elan did say there used to be some up there.” Elizabeth pushed back her blond hair. “I hope this isn’t another dead end.”

“We won’t know until we try to find it,” Bailey said.

“What are we waiting for?”