tj jensen 01 - barkleys treasure (13 page)

“I’m fine, really. I’m sure I wasn’t out for long. Maybe a couple of minutes.”

“That’s long enough,” Doc insisted. He instructed me to follow the finger he put in front of my eyes, as well as answer a few questions. I did so and he let me sit up.

“What happened?” Kyle asked.

“I fell, or more accurately I was pushed.”

“Pushed? By whom?”

I put my hand to my head. Geez, I was going to have a headache. “I don’t know. I was getting ready to take a shower when I heard a noise in the attic. I thought maybe one of the cats was accidentally locked inside. I was halfway up the stairs when a figure dressed in black came barreling out of the door. He ran straight into me, and before I could react or catch myself in any way, I found myself falling backward down the stairs. The next thing I knew I was staring into Kyle’s face.”

“Better call Savage,” Doc instructed Kyle.

“And while you’re at it, call off the ambulance,” I instructed. “I’m fine.”

Doc nodded at Kyle. I assumed the look was his consent to do exactly as I’d asked.

Doc helped me to my feet and led me into my room, where he sat me in a chair. “We’ll cancel the ambulance, but you’re going to the hospital for an X-ray.”

I opened my mouth to argue.

“No arguments. Head injuries can be serious business.”

“Okay,” I agreed. “I’ll go to the hospital. In a car, where someone waits for me and then brings me home to my own bed.”

“Deal.”

“Savage is on his way,” Kyle came back into the room. “Ben has the girls downstairs, but they’re pretty upset. Do you feel up to talking to them for a minute to assuring them that you’re fine?”

“Yeah. Have them come up.”

By the time I’d comforted my sisters and assured them I was going to have a bit of a headache but would otherwise be fine, Savage had arrived. Grandpa took the girls down the hall to get ready for bed while Kyle checked on the dogs, who were more than just a little upset, and I talked to Savage while Doc anxiously watched for any signs of concussion.

“Long time no see,” Savage joked. The man was actually attractive when he smiled. “Any idea who plowed into you?”

“No. It was all a blur. The man had on black clothes and a black ski mask. All I could see were his eyes.”

“Color?”

“Brown. I think brown.”

“Height and weight?”

“How am I supposed to know? The guy barreled into me. Besides, I was on the stairs.”

“Taller that you?”

“Everyone is taller than me.”

“Taller than me?”

I looked at the man standing in front of me. “No, I don’t think so. Does it really matter?”

“No,” Savage admitted. “I don’t suppose it does at this point. I’m going to head up to the attic and look around a bit. I’ll have a few more questions for you when I’m done.”

“She really should go to the emergency room.”

“We don’t have a hospital on the island,” Savage informed Doc. “Nearest one is almost an hour away by car.”

Doc frowned. “Are you dizzy?”

“No.”

“Blurry vision?”

“No.”

“Do you feel nauseous?”

“No.”

“Okay, I’ll just keep an eye on you, but if you start to experience any of those symptoms you need to let me know.”

“Okay.”

Kyle helped me downstairs, where I could curl up on the sofa while we waited for Savage to complete his investigation of the attic. When I’d left softball practice I’d been convinced that the case of Buck Barnes’s death was closed. Now I wasn’t so certain. I couldn’t imagine why anyone would break into the attic unless it was to steal something, and the only thing I could think that was worth anything was the map that most people didn’t even think existed.

“Can I get you anything?” Kyle asked as he pulled a blanket I really didn’t need over my legs.

“No, I’m fine. Is everyone okay?”

“Yeah, they’ll be fine. The girls are shook up, especially Gracie, so Ben is reading them a story.”

“I can hear Echo whining in the background.”

“He’s shook up as well. I locked him in the kitchen.”

“Best to let him come in and check on me before he breaks down the door.” I knew my huge, self-appointed protector wouldn’t remain contained for long.

Kyle did as I asked. When Echo came into the room I reminded him to be gentle. He stopped in his tracks, then walked over to the sofa and sat at my feet.

“I’m fine,” I assured the large dog. “See, ten fingers and toes.”

Echo placed a paw on my leg. I scratched him behind the ears.

“Gracie is feeling sad. Why don’t you go up to check on her?”

Echo looked toward the stairs and then back at me.

“It’s okay. Go see Gracie.”

Echo did as I requested.

“You’re really good with that dog,” Savage said from his vantage point near the stairs.

“He’s been trained in search and rescue, so he understands subtle hand signals. Plus, I swear the dog understands English.”

Savage laughed. “Yeah, my dog does too.”

“So what did you find in the attic?”

“Whoever broke in knew what he was looking for. The paneling along the back wall is pulled away, but nothing else has been disturbed.”

“The map.”

“Map?” Savage asked.

I explained about the map we’d found after the last break-in and the fact that we’d sent it away to be dated. “Do you think our thief was Max?”

“No. Even if the fog in his brain had cleared enough for him to have the presence of mind to come for the map, he wouldn’t have the physical agility to knock into you and run down the stairs. The poor man barely gets around with a cane.”

“But if he left his cane here how did he get all the way across the island to where he was found after he killed Buck?”

“Good question.”

“There has to be more going on than we thought. Someone else must be involved. Are you sure Lambert and Dilly weren’t still on the island at the time Buck was killed?”

“They both had alibis, but given the circumstance I think I’ll recheck the facts. My gut, however, is telling me it isn’t Lambert or Dilly. Given what happened here this evening, it seems there has to be a player we haven’t considered.”

“Any idea who?”

“Not off the top of my head. Buck knew a lot of people and he did have a way of pulling you into his fantasy about the treasure. People—even good people—can get so swept up in treasure-hunting fever that they end up making bad decisions. I’m sure I can come up with a list of people who might have been lured into Buck’s treasure hunt; the problem is that I really can’t think of a single person who would want Buck dead.”

“How can I help?”

“Perhaps after you’ve rested up a bit you’ll remember some small detail about the person who pushed you down the stairs. Even a little thing could help. I’ll let you get some rest now, but I’ll check back with you tomorrow. In the meantime, if you think of anything, call my cell. If I don’t answer leave a message. If someone other than Max killed Buck, I intend to find out who it was.”

Chapter 9

Friday, June 17

I was awake most of the night trying to make sense of everything. We didn’t know exactly when Buck Barnes had died, but we did know what day he’d gone to see Max. Savage confirmed that none of the locals had seen Buck after that day, so we had reason to suspect his theory that Buck had broken Max out and taken him to retrieve the map was most likely what had occurred.

Initially, we’d believed the two men were alone in the attic, but after the events of the previous evening, we now suspected there was a third person with the men. This third person, we believed, was most likely responsible for returning Max to the spot where he was found because it seemed unlikely he could have walked there on his own. The question was, had Max killed Buck as we initially suspected, or did this third party use Max’s cane to kill Buck? And if Buck was already dead, why did the man—or woman—flee prior to securing the map?

“Coffee?” Kyle walked up behind me with a large cup of hot liquid.

“Thanks.” I had been unable to sleep so I’d curled up in a blanket on the back deck overlooking the sea.

“Head still hurt?”

“Actually, it’s feeling better. I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Can I help?” Kyle sat down in the lounger next to mine. I leaned over and rested my head on his shoulder. It was nice to have someone who was there for you when you really needed him.

“I’m going to tell you something, but you can’t tell anyone else. At least not until I figure out what I’m going to do with all this information.”

“Okay,” Kyle agreed.

“After we visited the Gull Island Senior Home yesterday I got the idea that perhaps Buck Barnes had broken Savage’s father out of the home to help with his treasure hunt, and that perhaps something had gone wrong and Savage’s father had killed Buck.”

I went on to explain that residents of the high-security unit did at times manage to sneak away, and given Savage’s father’s condition, he might not have even known what he’d done. Kyle agreed that this theory would explain why Savage was covering up the murder. When I then told him I’d only been partially correct and it was actually Garrett’s father I now suspected of killing Buck, he was as shocked as I had been.

“Wow. That’s some story.”

“I know. I couldn’t believe it when Savage shared it with me. Unfortunately, there are a lot of unanswered questions, due in part to the fact that almost everyone in the know is either dead or suffering from dementia.”

“Okay, so if Buck is dead and Max is basically an invalid, who plowed you down last night?”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out. It’s totally possible Buck had an accomplice; we just aren’t sure who.”

“What about the two men everyone mentioned in the beginning—Dilly and Lambert?”

“Savage texted me last night to reconfirm that both Dilly and Lambert have alibis for the date we suspect this whole thing went down. It sounds like Buck initially had them hooked into the mystery, but when he was unable to produce the map he kept talking about they decided it was a scam and went home.”

“So Buck found someone else to help him?”

“That makes the most sense; I’m just trying to figure out who. Initially, I assumed that if he had an accomplice it wouldn’t be a local because the locals knew Buck well enough not to get pulled into his schemes, but what if he managed to convince someone that the man who had last been seen with the map had returned to the island and with a little help he thought he could get him to give it up? Might that not be enough to get someone to take a few hours out of their day to find out if Buck was really on to something?”

Kyle took a sip of his coffee. “I guess that makes sense. Did you recognize anything about the man who knocked you down last night? Heavy? Thin? Tall? Short? Anything?”

“I’ve been thinking about that a lot,” I assured Kyle. “It all happened so fast that I didn’t have time to think then, but I’m pretty sure now that my attacker was a male of average height and weight. I know that doesn’t narrow things down at all. Savage said the paneling on the back wall of the attic was pulled away, so the person knew exactly where to go to look for the map. If they’d found the map the night Buck died, why not take it then? Cuervo found the flaw in the paneling, which led me to find the map, and it was obvious it had been tampered with. It seems as if someone found the map, put it back, and then went back for it last night. The problem with this theory is that makes no sense from a time management standpoint.”

“It really doesn’t. Even if he didn’t take the map with him for some reason on the night Buck died, he had plenty of opportunities to go back for it before we arrived. It makes no sense to wait until there was a house full of people.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. I leaned my head back and listened to the sound of the waves. Kyle was right. The person who’d barreled into me last night must have just found out about the map, but how was that even possible? Buck Barnes was dead and Max was safely tucked away in the senior home. Only people who were authorized to do so had been able to speak to him since the day he’d managed to wander away.

“More coffee?” Kyle asked.

“Yeah, thanks.”

Echo put his head in my lap as I continued to listen to the waves. I was so incredibly tired. I knew that between the slight headache that lingered and the fact that I’d gotten little to no sleep the previous night, I was going to have a hard time getting through the tasks I’d assigned myself for the day. Not that I had anything all that urgent to attend to. One of the nice things about living on Gull Island for the summer was that my list of responsibilities had decreased enormously. If I was home at Paradise Lake, I’d most likely spend the day helping out at the resort and planning the big Fourth of July blowout we held each year.

“Yo ho, me hearties.”

I opened my eyes. “Blackbeard?”

“He was awake when I went in for the coffee, so I brought him out.” Kyle had tied him to a perch that had been set up on the deck for just that purpose.

I smiled. It was sweet the way Kyle doted on the bird. “Good morning to you as well, Blackbeard. I hope you slept well. I’m surprised we didn’t wake you with all the commotion.”

“Grog and wenches, grog and wenches.”

Kyle laughed. “Where did you learn that?”

“That’s what I asked him last night. I suppose he could have picked it up from a movie or maybe the person who owned him before Garrett. Garrett doesn’t seem like a grog-and-wenches type of guy.”

“This is the first parrot I’ve ever really had any exposure to, but he seems really smart. Almost like he’s communicating and not just parroting words.”

“Yeah. I mean, the whole Charlie-bad thing turned out to be really true. I wonder what other clues are buried in his little mind.” I turned and looked at Blackbeard. “Did you see who was in the attic the day Buck died?”

“Charlie bad, Charlie bad.”

“Did you see who was in the house last night?” Kyle added.

“Grog and wenches, grog and wenches.”

“I wonder if that’s a clue,” I commented to Kyle. “Maybe I should call Garrett to see if he knows what it means.”