Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The cave where Josh thought the treasure might be stashed was now in a state park, just under an hour from South Cove. When I stopped by the house to grab some water bottles and granola bars, I texted Greg and let him know where I was going. I knew Josh didn't want Greg to be mad, but I'd promised him full disclosure, so I wasn't going to keep him in the dark. Besides, I needed to let Emma out and receive the guilt trip from her about not running today.

I rubbed her head when she came back inside. "I promise I'll take you as soon as I get home." I took steaks out of the freezer and put them into the refrigerator to thaw. Hopefully we'd be back long before Greg got home from work. He knew how to cook dinner, but I liked to get it started on most days. Especially since I only worked half days, or at least I did now. When my aunt retired, I'd probably have to start working longer hours.

"Today's not that day, and I'm not going to feel guilty about spending some time with Josh," I said as I stood at the doorway with Emma. I stopped in my tracks on the way out of the house. Man, I never thought I'd say something like that.

Josh beeped the horn, and I waved at him, turning back to lock the door. "Just a second."

As I hurried to the van, now I remembered why this was a bad idea. Josh could be a jerk. I put water bottles in the van's cupholders and held up the treats I'd tucked in my tote. "If we get hungry."

He shook his head and started to back out of the driveway, but suddenly he stopped short of the road. Turning to me, he said, "Thank you for the water and treats. It was kind of you."

I laughed and buckled my seatbelt. "I swear, Mandy has transformed you into someone I don't even know. I like this new version."

He grinned and continued to back out of the driveway. "I have to admit, I like this version of myself better as well."

We talked on the way to the park, and at one point, my phone dinged with a text. It was from Greg. Several question marks filled the screen. I sent back a heart emoji and put the phone away.

"How's Greg?" Josh asked as we turned off the highway and onto the road that would take us to the park and the cave.

"He's fine. Just checking in to see when we'll be back for dinner," I lied.

"I hope you didn't have plans. I was just so excited to share this with someone, and Mandy is at the farm, talking to her uncle and cousin. I didn't want to wait." He turned into the park entrance, slowing the van. "Besides, you've been on this adventure with me since almost the beginning. I thought you might want to see the end."

"You know we might not find the treasure. It's been a long time." I tried to temper his expectations. I watched a gray van pull onto the road to the park, following us. It must be Visit the Park in a Van day. Greg and I always made up names for fake holidays like Take Your Beat-Up Car to Work day or Take Your Tractor on a Ride day, depending on what we saw on the road when we were driving somewhere. I guess two vans didn't make a trend, but maybe there would be a few more vans in the parking lot.

Josh paid the parking fee, and we headed toward the end of the lot, away from the restrooms. "The map said it was at the end of this section of mountains."

"You found a map?"

"It was in a third journal I found in the box. Most of the journal talked about his new family. Santiago married a woman who had a kid. She'd almost been to the point of giving him up to the orphanage, as she was working long hours and still not making enough to keep a roof over the son's head. Santiago met her at a church where she'd gone to pray about the decision. He said he fell in love with her at first sight. Then when he found out about the child, well, he took her in, and they were quickly married. He told the community that the child was his and that Maria had been waiting for him to return from his stint in the Mexican army."

My eyes were tearing up. "That's so sweet."

"He didn't want anyone to speak ill of her or the child. If they were to blame someone, the blame should fall on him." Josh got out of the van and put the water bottles in his backpack. "Hand me the treats. I'll carry this so you can leave your tote in the van. Tuck it under the seat."

"I'm beginning to think Gabriel Santiago was more than just a bank robber. Maybe someone should tell his story in a book about the area." I wondered if Deek would want to take on the project.

"Professor Wellborn thought the same thing. But he didn't know Santiago's full story. Let's go see if we can find the gold." He locked the van remotely, and we started hiking up the mountain pass to where the cave was located.

When we reached the cave entrance, a sign was posted. Cuyama Caves had been made part of the state park and was protected from damage. No littering or digging allowed. I saw the small shovel in Josh's backpack and pointed to the sign.

He shrugged. "I hope we won't need to use it."

Hoping wasn't exactly following the rules, so I prepared my explanation to Greg when he had to come bail us out of state park prison. We entered the cave, and Josh took out the journal. "Santiago said the gold was hidden in the third tunnel from the left."

We walked over to the area. The tunnel was small. I'd have to duck to walk through it. Josh would have to really crouch. I stepped back and with my flashlight checked around the cave to make sure there wasn't another tunnel. When I was sure this was the third tunnel, I pointed to it. "Who goes first?"

"You can, and I'll follow you." He met my gaze. Some of the bravado about finding the gold had worn off, and I could see Josh was scared. "Keep your head down."

I nodded. I wasn't going to call out his fear. We were just starting to get along. I bent down and started walking. Our footsteps echoed in the empty cavern. Finally, the tunnel opened up into a large cavern. It was well lit from a skylight near the top. I turned my flashlight off and stepped to the left, to let Josh out of the tunnel.

As he checked the book, I took in the cave. People had written their names on the cavern walls. No one famous, at least not that I recognized. The cavern was big enough to camp in if you didn't mind sleeping underground. I heard water splashing in the distance. The air smelled damp but it wasn't a moldy odor.

He pointed to a faded arrow that had been carved into the wall. "The book says the gold is under the arrow."

I went over and knelt under the arrow. The floor felt hard packed. I wondered if digging here would do any good. The ground felt like solid rock.

The scuff of boot on gravel made me turn around. Steve Brother stood behind us, blocking the escape tunnel. "Good morning, thank you so much for leading me here. I've been looking for this gold since I was a kid."

Josh turned around and frowned. "Steve? What are you doing here?"

"When Professor Wellborn invited me to be part of the team to investigate and eventually write a book about Santiago, I had to be part of it. But I wasn't there for the academic discovery. The professor was thinking too small. I knew if we had Santiago's journal, we'd find the treasure. He told me if that happened, we'd turn it over to the state. Like they would actually use the money for good. All they'd do would be to give it away or make more stupid laws to restrict our water usage. They use our tax money on stupid stuff and just keep asking for more. This gold should have been divided up between the people who found it." Steve's eyes were bloodshot. "I told Hope the same thing, and she got mad and left me. She thought the professor was right."

"I'm sorry about Hope," Josh said, trying to calm Steve down. "I'm sure she'll come back."

Steve shook his head and pulled a gun from his belt. "Hope's not coming back. Not this time. I'm not going to have a happy ever after. And I guess you two aren't either."

Josh stepped in front of me. "Steve, think about this. You can't get away with killing us and getting the gold out of here."

"Actually, I think I can. My boat's tied up in Bakerstown. I've been living off it for a few days now. You'll dig up the treasure, then help me carry it out to the van. We'll come back here, and then you'll be free of your mortal coil. I'll be on my boat heading to Mexico before they find your bodies."

"Mexico has an extradition treaty with the US. They'll just bring you back for trial." I didn't know if that was true, but it sounded good. And I'd heard it on television. Standing behind Josh where Steve couldn't see me, I reached behind me and tried to use my phone to call Greg. He wouldn't have time to get to us, but maybe another police department was closer. Or the state park had rangers. I pulled the phone out and hit the button to call him. The phone tried to dial out, but the call ended. I had no service underground.

We were going to die. I put my phone away in my back pocket, trying to keep Steve from seeing me.

"I don't think that's true. And if it is, I'll keep going south until I find a country that doesn't like the American legal system. Money does a lot to grease the wheels of a small town. Someone will take me in. Then I'll send Hope a postcard and tell her that I didn't wish she was there." He giggled, and I realized that like Josh a few days ago, Steve was sleep deprived. Or just bananas. I didn't care which it was unless the diagnosis got us out of here safely.

"You really loved Hope." I tried to steer the conversation away from the idea of killing us.

"Doesn't matter now, does it?" He shrugged and looked up at the arrow. "So what did the journal say? Is this arrow the clue or just the starting point? Santiago could be a little tricky with his hiding places. That's why the gang chose him to keep the money. He was brilliant, and he didn't have any family to distract him."

"But he did have a family," I corrected him. When his eyes lit red, I realized my mistake. Poking a bear with a gun wasn't smart. "It's true, the journal talks about his wife and her child."

Steve paced as he thought about the new information. Josh and I locked gazes. We needed to do something, or Steve would follow his plan and we'd be dead in this cave. Finally, he made a decision and stopped. The gun continued to point at us.

"That doesn't matter. And I don't care." He nodded to the place. "Dig for my gold."

Josh knelt and put his backpack on the cave floor next to him. The handle of the shovel was sticking out, and the backpack was open at the top where he'd gotten out the journal. He met my gaze and then looked at the handle.

We had a plan. He'd distract Steve, and I'd hit him with the shovel. I just hoped it would work. And that the plan I thought of was the one Josh was trying to tell me. I nodded and tensed to grab the shovel.

"We're not supposed to dig in here," Josh said as he moved dirt by the wall. "But I don't think we'll need to. If you'd just come down here and help me pull out this stone, I think we'll be in Santiago's storage area. There seems to be metal here. Probably a box."

Steve dropped to his knees and set the gun on the cave floor. "It can't be that easy. I thought…"

I never found out what Steve was thinking, because as soon as he dropped the gun, I grabbed the shovel and stepped toward him, swinging it as hard as I could and aiming for his head. I also kicked the gun over to the other side of the cave.

He cried out, then fell over on the floor. Josh stood up and went for the gun. He yelled at me. "Get out of here. Go call the police."

I didn't look back. I didn't know if Steve was moving or not. He could be up and wrestling Josh for the gun. All I needed to do was get to the cave entrance and call for help.

When I reached it, I pulled out my phone. Still no signal. So I ran down the trail, praying I wouldn't trip. I couldn't hear footsteps behind me. I didn't get a signal until I was at the parking lot. I called Greg, who patched me in to the park rangers. While we were still talking, I watched as two cars came flying toward me and the vans. The rangers got out and ran toward me. One paused to talk to me, but the other three ran up the trail.

"Jill, are you all right?" Greg asked in my ear as I held the phone up. "Jill?"

I put him on speaker. "I'm fine. Officer Sanchez is with me."

"Ranger Sanchez, ma'am. Do you mind ending your call?" He took the phone from me. "Detective King? I need to move her to a safe place. We have rangers heading up to the cave now. I'll have her call you when we get to the station."

He hung up the phone and took my arm, leading me to one of the cars that had come speeding toward me.

At the station, after I told him why we were there, he left me in an interview room with a cup of coffee. He still had my phone. My hands were shaking, and I kept hoping Josh was all right. Mandy would be furious if she'd gone through all this with her family just to have Josh killed on some treasure hunt. Maybe I should have told him no when he asked me to go on his adventure.

Finally, the door opened, and Greg came into the room. I stood and ran to him, just wanting him to hold me and tell me that everyone was okay. He stroked my hair as I started to shake again.

"Josh?" I asked, finally.

"He's fine. He's giving the ranger a statement. Steve is in a cell. The doctor has cleared him, but I think he's still going to have to go get a brain scan. He was out for a while." Greg led me out of the room. "We're heading home."

"But what about the treasure?"

Greg laughed as he pulled me closer. He had my tote that had been in Josh's van. "There is no treasure. The hiding place was empty."

I leaned into his shoulder as we walked out into the lobby. "That seems anticlimactic."

* * * *

Someone must have turned off my alarm on the phone, because when I finally woke, it was almost eleven. I jumped out of bed and startled Greg, who was sitting in a chair near the bed, working on his laptop. "I'm late opening the shop."

"I asked your aunt to open the bookstore for you. You had a bit of a shock yesterday, and I wanted you to sleep a little longer. Especially since we didn't get home until nearly midnight." He closed his laptop and set it on his chair as he walked over to me. "Everything's fine. Josh is home with Mandy, and Steve is in a hospital on a psychic hold. I think when he killed the professor, something just broke."

"Steve was the third name on the paperwork that Professor Wellborn had. Well, it was Stephen. He must have been older when he worked for the professor." I'd known about his involvement, but I didn't think he'd go that far to find a treasure. Especially something like killing me and Josh."

"Esmeralda had just matched his name to the list of graduate students that worked with the professor. With that and the fact that his shop was still closed, we thought he might either be dead like the professor or our killer." Greg rubbed my arm. "I should have told you to stay home until we had him in custody. I never thought he'd be following Josh."

"Should have, could have, would have." I grinned at Greg's confused look. "Just something Aunt Jackie used to say when I'd start questioning something I did."

"Okay. We talked to Hope, who was staying with her mom. She said Steve was talking about crazy stuff, so she moved out. She never thought he would have acted on the things he was saying." Greg paused. "On his boat, we found the sculpture Steve used to kill Professor Wellborn. They're testing the blood on it, but we're pretty sure it's the murder weapon. So you solved Mandy's disappearance, but not the murder this time."

"And Jeffrey Dahmer was such a nice neighbor." I sat on the bed. "Why is it always all about money? And I did point out the fact that Steve was missing. Which was weird. It was like he put a spotlight on himself by taking off like that."

"I'm not sure he was thinking clearly at the end. Sometimes, it's about jealousy or anger or hate." Greg sat next to me. "But you're right, a lot of times, it's about the money. Finding the treasure from an Old West bank robbery is every kid's fantasy."

"And some kids never grow up." I leaned my head on his shoulder. I needed a vacation.