If Fried Chicken Could Fly (19 page)

The mess had been cleaned up. Other than two missing ceiling tiles, a small amount of leftover stink, and a slightly darkened worktable and stove, no one would know the school had recently seen a fire.

But more impressive than the cleanup of the school was the cleanup of my brother.

“Sis, you’re here,” he said as he entered the kitchen through the far doors.

“Teddy?” I said. His hair was brushed, his face was shaved, he wore pants that weren’t made of denim, and his shirt actually had a collar. “Is that you?”

“Who else would it be?”

“You look so…so put together.”

“Well, I’ll be tethered. He sure does,” Jerome added.

If I hadn’t known that he wasn’t prone to blushing, I would have sworn Teddy’s cheeks got pink.

“If I’m going to teach, I have to command respect, don’t I?”

“Yes.” I wanted to tell him he’d done a good job and I was proud of him, but there was no surer way to get him to do the opposite of what I wanted him to do.

“Why are you here so early?” Teddy asked.

“Judges’ meeting. Before school for Amy and hopefully not interrupting everyone else’s work. Hey, Teddy, has Jim or Cliff been out here this morning?”

“No.”

I looked at my watch. The judges would be arriving soon. I only had a few minutes. “I’ll be right back in.”

“No hurry.”

I wondered if the coin had been removed yet. Had Cliff forgotten to tell Jim?

“It’s still there,” I said as Jerome and I looked at his tombstone again. “I thought Cliff was going to tell Jim.”

“Call him. He had the emergency. Maybe he forgot.”

I didn’t have Cliff’s number, but I knew the number to the jail. Jim answered on the first ring.

“Betts, everything okay?” he said. Caller ID still frequently caught me off guard.

“Fine, fine,” I said. “Jim, did Cliff…I mean, there’s a coin…”

“Yes, on the tombstone. Cliff told me last night. We were busy. I’ll be out at the school today. Do you know if the coin is still there?”

“Yes, I’m looking at it.”

“Good. I’ll be out.”

“Thanks.” I hung up the phone.

“Hey, what’s going on, Betts? Why are you out there?” a voice said from the parking lot.

Miles Street and Jenna Hopper were standing next to Gram’s Volvo.

“That’s the pool hall owner, right? And the woman who works in the ice-cream saloon?” Jerome asked.

“Yes, they’re both here for the judges’ meeting,” I said without moving my lips too much.

“What’re you doing, Betts?” Jenna added her own question.

Jenna was pretty in a slightly rough way. She didn’t look completely rode hard and put away wet, just damp maybe. Her blond hair was almost not too blond, and her eye makeup was almost not too thick. She’d done a good job of keeping Teddy’s liquor consumption under control, so I liked her.

“Just going for a walk,” I said.

“Through the cemetery?” Miles asked.

“Yes.”

Jerome laughed.

Miles and Jenna climbed over the low rope and trudged their way toward me.

“Jerome Cowbender. Wasn’t he the bank robber who couldn’t land a bullet anywhere in the general vicinity of his target?” Miles said.

“That’s me,” Jerome said.

“I think so, yes. Do you know anything else about him?” I said.

“Not much.” Miles shook his head.

“There are so many great characters from Broken Rope’s past,” Jenna began. “I don’t know a lot about him, but he was one of the interesting ones. He was so handsome!”

Jerome might have been a ghost, but he still knew how to puff up at a female’s compliment. He tipped his hat and said, “Thank you kindly, miss.”

I tried not to roll my eyes.

“What’s that?” Miles said as he crouched and pointed.

We all, including Jerome, joined him and looked at the side of the tombstone. At first I didn’t see anything unusual, but Miles reached for what looked like a rut in the stone, something naturally made and not out of place or unusual.
But when he pushed on it with his thumb, a piece of the stone fell to the ground and revealed a hole.

“I’ll be,” Jerome said from behind me.

“What’s in there?” Jenna asked.

The only person who was at a good angle to see anything was Miles so he moved closer and said, “Coins maybe?” He reached for the hole but I grabbed his hand.

“Stop, Miles.”

“Why?”

“Well, there was a murder here yesterday and this is weird. Don’t you think?” I said.

“How would one thing have something to do with the other?” Miles asked.

“I dunno. I just think we should let Jim know before we touch anything.”

“Okay.” Miles hesitated, but then pulled his hand back.

I leaned forward and twisted my neck just enough to look into the cubbyhole. It was only a few inches deep and the diameter of a Ping-Pong ball. There were coins inside. They looked exactly like the gold one that was still on the top of the tombstone—the one that Miles and Jenna hadn’t noticed. Yet.

But there was something else, too: a small piece of paper mostly hidden underneath one of the coins and dingy enough to stand out against the shiny bright of the gold. I didn’t mention that I saw it. No one else said a word about it either, including Jerome, but I wasn’t sure if they saw it.

Two cars pulled into the parking lot. Stuart and Mabel and Amy were arriving. It was time for the meeting and I didn’t want the crowd in the cemetery growing.

“Miles, my brother, Teddy, is inside. Would you run in
and ask him to come out here, please? Thanks. And Jenna, would you mind greeting the others and grabbing some treats out of a fridge? I’ll be right in after I talk to Teddy.”

Hesitantly, they both did as I asked. Gold coins in a secret hole in a tombstone were much more interesting than setting up for a meeting.

“You see that piece of paper, Jerome?” I asked without moving my lips. I acted casual.

“I do. Can you get it?”

“I’ll try.” Miles was already inside. As Jenna directed Mabel and Amy through the front door, I crouched again. “Tell me when you see Teddy.”

My finger could fit easily into the hole, but I didn’t want to get my prints on any of the coins. I used one of my short but just long enough fingernails to flip at the corner of the piece of paper.

I didn’t ever call myself “almost a lawyer.” I used that title for those who had finished law school and were either preparing to take the bar exam or were waiting for their results. A dropout is nothing more than a dropout, plain and simple. But I’d had enough schooling to know I was tampering with things I shouldn’t be tampering with. I didn’t even need school to know that much. I could have learned that from TV. I should leave everything exactly as we found it.

But I couldn’t. I needed some answers and something told me there might be at least something on the piece of paper that would help. Gram wasn’t talking, and the ghost that I’d become acquainted with had memory issues and couldn’t get into the one place where he could further discuss things with Gram. I doubted that Gram had anything
to do with Everett’s death, but if she did, I wanted to either be aware of the facts or find a way to help hide the crime.

It was probably a good thing I’d dropped out. At least I wasn’t risking being disbarred.

My nail tipped the corner of the paper but didn’t make it any easier to get a hold of. I didn’t have enough time to be as careful as I wanted to be. I turned my finger upside down so that any fingerprints I might leave wouldn’t be on the coins but the top part of the hole. Without being able to see my own maneuverings, I pushed at the coins with my nail and the very tip of my finger and exposed what I thought was the paper. I used my nail again to try to lift it up.

“Teddy’s out the door,” Jerome said.

Teddy could see me crouching, but he wouldn’t be able to tell what I was doing until he was a good ten feet into the cemetery.

I could still lift a corner but it felt as though it was stuck.

“He’s stepping over the rope,” Jerome said.

I had two choices. I could abandon the mission or I could turn my finger over, put pressure on the piece of paper, and try to scoop it out that way.

I chose the riskier method. There was a chance I’d get a print on one of the coins but I’d have to deal with that later.

The paper was stuck, as though it had gotten wet and dried to the stone.

“Isabelle, finish it up,” Jerome said.

I pushed with lots of pressure and then pulled. The paper broke free and came out with my finger. And fell to the ground.

“What’s up?” Teddy said as he came up behind me.

I stayed in the crouch but moved my knee over the paper.

“Look.” I pointed to the hole.

“Whoa. Money. Lucky find. How much is in there? Split it with me?” Teddy asked.

“I don’t think it’s money necessarily,” I said. “I think it’s gold or something.”

“Like a doubloon?”

“Exactly.” I smiled.

“Doubloon?” Jerome said. “That’s strange.”

“Anyway,” I said. “I need you to stand guard. I’ve already called the police and I need to start the meeting. But someone needs to be out here until Jim gets here.”

“Or Cliff. Cliff might come out.”

“All right. Whatever. Don’t touch anything. I’d hate for your prints to be on anything.”

Teddy’s face fell a little. He’d hoped to grab a couple of whatever was in the hole, but I’d dashed his hopes.

“Please,” I said. “They’ll be right out, I’m sure.”

Teddy sat and leaned against the back of the tombstone. Though he was taking his teaching job seriously, he’d enjoy a short nap.

“I suppose,” he said. “But you’re beginning to owe me even bigger than big.”

“I know. I appreciate it.”

Somehow and without Teddy’s noticing, I lifted my knees as I pushed off the ground with my hands. I pulled my right hand back and grabbed onto the small piece of paper and stood. It wasn’t the smoothest move, but it wasn’t awkward enough to gain anything more than a questioning squint from my brother.

“Thanks,” I said as I turned.

“Good job, Isabelle. What’s on it?” Jerome asked.

As I walked quickly toward the building, I unfolded the old yellowed piece of paper. Surprisingly, it was still somewhat substantial and didn’t fall apart. I didn’t know if that proved it wasn’t old or that it had been well preserved inside the tombstone.

“Does it say anything?” Jerome asked again.

“Hang on,” I said. The piece of paper was only about half an inch by about two inches. There was something on it but it was hard to tell what it was. “I can’t read it. Can you?”

We were right outside the doors to the school. I peered back at Teddy whose eyes were closed as he leaned against the tombstone.

“Well, I’ll be,” Jerome said.

“What?”

“If you turn it this way, I can read it.” He pointed.

“What’s it say?”

“It says ‘Jasper.’ ”

“Like the theater?”

“Darlin’, I don’t know, but I’m thinkin’ so.”

When he pointed it out, I could see the word even though the ink was faint. The handwriting was long, slanted heavily to the right, and the
J
had a flourish to its top.

“I’d be willing to bet that’s exactly what it is. Maybe your Jasper instincts are right on,” I said.

“I think we should find out.”

“Betts, what’re you doing?” Teddy yelled from the tombstone.

“Nothing,” I said.

“Let’s get this over with,” I said as Jerome and I went back into the school.

“You found a treasure?” Amy said, her fourteen-year-old eyes wide and intrigued.

“Not exactly,” I said. I hadn’t mentioned to Miles and Jenna that they shouldn’t share the details of what we’d found, so they had done what any of us would do: share enthusiastically. I’d called Jim again and knew he would be there any minute, but I also knew I should keep the cook-off judges/nighters in their seats until after the police arrived and investigated whatever they needed to investigate. Jerome had wanted to go back to the Jasper so he’d disappeared again.

“Tell us what it was, then,” Mabel said as she put her hand on her granddaughter’s arm and guided her back to the stool. There was nothing violent about the gesture, and Amy didn’t flinch at her grandmother’s touch.

“Well, there were some coins in a hole in a tombstone, but certainly not enough to be called a treasure.”

“Whose tombstone?” Stuart asked, his eyes as wide as Amy’s but magnified bigger by his thick glasses.

“Jerome Cowbender’s,” I said.

“The bank robber?” Stuart said. “I’d heard he’d hid a treasure. Do you suppose you found it?”

“No. Where did you hear about the treasure, Stuart?”

He blinked and then said, “Well, I guess I’m not sure. I thought it was a well-known fact.”

Murmurs from the others told me it wasn’t a well-known fact to them. Stuart’s face turned red and he scooted back on his bench. “Maybe Jake told me. You know how he goes around telling everyone about the history of our little town. Yes, I bet that was it. Jake must have told me.”

Stuart wasn’t outspoken. In fact, he was shy to the point of painful at times, but I wanted to push him to tell me more. Unfortunately, Mabel interrupted.