Final Resort (8 page)

NINE

A
va made it back to the trailer quickly in spite of the blowing snow. She stopped long enough inside to grab a better flashlight. Luca made it just as she shone her light into the gap under the trailer, his hand held to his stomach.

“You should go back to bed. You don’t look so good.”

His lip curled. “You try taking a grand slam to the solar plexus.”

She hid
a smile at the look on his face and prepared to shimmy back under in the same spot she’d been dragged only a short time before. Luca crouched next to her, eyeing the gap.

“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re too big.”

Luca huffed. “I can make it.”

“Okay,” Avery said, slithering into the dark space, “but don’t blame me if we have to use a crowbar to get you out.”

She didn’t
catch his disgruntled comment as the darkness closed around her. It was tight quarters, the bottom of the trailer seemed to press down on her shoulders. Even though the space was clear of snow, it smelled of mold, which no doubt clung to the wooden braces that shored up the floor and helped level out the contraption. She shined her flashlight into the darkness.

Another beam of light crossed
hers as Luca dropped to his stomach and aimed the flashlight she’d discarded in her direction.

“Hey,” she said, throwing a hand over her eyes.

“Sorry.” Luca repositioned the light. “That’s probably what happened to the guy under the trailer. You momentarily blinded him.”

“Maybe.” She continued her search, avoiding a pile of droppings left by a raccoon or rabbit. “But who was it
and what was he doing under here in the first place?”

“That’s the million-dollar question.” Luca’s light caught something nestled in the farthest corner of the trailer. “What’s that?”

Ava wriggled deeper toward the far corner, her excitement edging up a notch as she closed in. “Oh man.”

“What? What is it?” Luca practically yelled.

“Just a minute.” Ava reached out a hand to
the wooden box. Someone had laid it carefully on a series of bricks. To raise it off the damp ground? It was long, maybe twenty-six inches wide and shallow, not quite ten inches tall. She pulled at it, but her awkward angle and the unruly size of the box made it difficult.

In the meantime, Luca was pushing farther into the space, as far as his wide shoulders would allow. “What’s in it?”

“I don’t know. There’s not enough clearance here to open it. I’ll have to drag it out.” She lugged the box inch by inch toward her makeshift entrance. When she was within arm’s reach, Luca took hold of it and slid it out, returning immediately to hold Avery’s flashlight. When she struggled free, he helped her to her feet.

“Come on,” Ava said, hurrying back up the porch steps. She felt
a new urgency, hope swirling around inside her that whatever the mystery box contained might be the clue to finding her uncle.

Luca thumped up the steps beside her and they turned on the lights, blinking as their eyes adjusted. He carried the box to the table and set it down. She could see he was itching to open it, fingers curled in anticipation.

He nodded to her. “You do the honors.”

Pleased, somehow, at the small chivalry, she unhooked the metal latch on the box and slowly opened the lid.

They stood shoulder to shoulder peering into an empty box.

Ava could not contain her sigh as she sank down into a chair. “Nothing. Nothing at all.” She blinked hard as the night caught up with her. She would not cry. Tears were useless anyway.

Luca frowned into the interior.
“One thing you learn in the treasure seeking business is how to mine all the clues you can from every find.”

Ava straightened. “There are clues here?”

He opened the box completely so the hinged lid rested on the table. “For one thing, someone fixed a metal liner in the bottom. It’s a homemade job, so there’s the possibility there are fingerprints, but the bigger issue seems to me to
be what was in the box?”

“Something pretty valuable,” Ava breathed. “For someone to go to the trouble of making a box and hiding it under the trailer.”

Luca considered. “Seems silly, though. Why not put it in a safe-deposit box? Completely anonymous and ultra-secure.”

Ava laughed. “Well, if this is Uncle Paul’s handiwork, I can tell you he doesn’t trust banks. Or cops. Or the government.
Or pretty much anyone. He says they’re all scammers and he should know.”

Luca chuckled, bending closer to the box. “Do you have a magnifying glass?”

“Yes, I found one in the kitchen drawer.” She got it and moved close until her shoulder brushed his muscled arm. The faint scent of soap clung to him and she enjoyed the musky fragrance. “What do you see?”

He used the magnifying glass
to peer closely at the miniscule gap between the wooden box and its metal liner. The space was no bigger than pinky width. Luca abruptly grabbed a knife from the block on the counter. He inserted the tip gingerly into the sliver of space. When he pulled it clear again, an earring dangled from the point.

They both stared at the single drop pearl, an iridescent, milky white.

“I wonder,”
Ava said, her voice barely a whisper, “where Uncle Paul got that.”

Luca asked for a plastic bag and laid the earring carefully on top while he photographed it. Then he slid it inside and closed the top. His face was alight with discovery, and he exuded an energy that Ava found was catching.

“Do you think it’s the treasure you’re after?”

“Not likely. The Sunset Star is a pink pearl
and it’s set into a pendant, or it was anyway, the last time it was photographed.”

He was moving on now, studying the outside of the box. Ava did the same on the side closest to her.

Her heart leaped. “Look!” She could barely make out some pencil scratches on the side of the box. She grabbed the magnifying glass and squinted at it. “Letters? No, numbers.” She rattled them off to Luca.

“Seven digits. A telephone number minus the area code, so it’s for someplace local.”

“I’ll get a pencil.” Nerves jangling with excitement, she went for the notepad nearest the phone. Her hand was arrested in mid-motion as she reached for the pencil.

Luca gave her a questioning look.

“I don’t have to write it down,” she said slowly. “It’s already here on this notepad, right next
to a name.”

“Whose?”

“Charlie Goren, the friend of my uncle who called earlier.”

* * *

Luca wasn’t sure what to make of the phone number. Neither was Ava apparently, because she began to pace the cramped space, eyes darting in thought.

“I’m trying to remember the name, if Uncle Paul ever talked about Goren.”

He took out his smartphone and plugged the name and number
into an internet search. He didn’t have to wait long. “Charlie Goren owns an antique jewelry store in Lofton.”

She stared at him. “That’s an hour from here.”

“It sure is.” He checked the time. “Unfortunately, it’s only a little after four-thirty. His store doesn’t open until eight.”

Her eyes were wide, lips parted. His heart sped up as she spoke.

“If we get there right when
it opens, we can talk to him and be back at the search site before ten.”

He knew she had every intention of going out again to search for her uncle the moment the storm passed, regardless of what the police said. For some reason he could not fathom, he would, of course, be going along with her.

“We could call Goren,” Luca suggested.

“I’d rather talk to him face to face.”

“You
think he might be involved with your uncle’s accident?”

Ava shrugged. “I don’t know, but I just feel like I need to eyeball him myself and I don’t want to pull any cops away from the search.” Ava marched to the kitchen and began gathering things from the fridge.

He watched her precise movements, admiring her natural grace, wishing he could reach out and touch that shimmering bob of hair.
What was the matter with him?

“I’ll call the police,” Luca said. “Fill them in on the box and the phone number and get Stephanie and Tate over here to check things out before the police confiscate everything.”

“Okay. I’m making us some breakfast. I’ll make enough for four.”

He raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t expected her to offer to cook for them. Even though he normally put himself
in charge of culinary affairs, he knew it was important to her to keep busy. “That will be great.”

“Well, all I know how to fix is scrambled eggs and toast, so it might not be exactly great, but it will fill us up and pass the time until we go see Goren.”

He couldn’t argue with that logic. He left a message for the sergeant and texted his sister.

She and Tate arrived along with
Mack Dog in fifteen minutes.

Tate looked wide-awake as he helped himself to scrambled eggs and coffee. He offered a quiet greeting

Stephanie had the aura of someone rousted out of bed far too early. She glared at her brother. “I imagine this could not have waited another three hours?”

He grinned and showed her the earring. The fatigue slipped from her face as she snatched the bag
from his hands. “Obviously it’s not the Sunset Star, but it might be part of Danson’s collection. That would be a clear indication that we’re on the right track.” She rolled the pearl gently between her fingers.

“Is it real?” Luca said around a mouthful of egg.

“Hard to say. I’d put it between my teeth, but I doubt the cops would appreciate my contaminating the evidence.”

“You that
hungry?” Tate teased.

She gave him a wry smile. “No, smarty pants. If the surface is gritty, it’s a natural or cultured pearl, not fake. You can also take an X-ray. If you see layers like an onion skin, it’s a natural pearl.” She shot a look at her brother. “I could have it authenticated back in San Francisco. Are you sure we need to...”

“Yes,” both Tate and Luca said at once.

Her cheeks pinked. “All right, all right. I know we have to hand it over to the police. I was just thinking about delaying a bit.”

“No way. By the book,” Luca said.

“You sound like Victor.”

“Our big brother makes sense on rare occasions.” Luca drained his coffee. “So who’s doing what today?”

Tate offered to head to the search site. “I can take Mack Dog with me and deliver the
box to the police. I’ll keep everyone posted.”

Ava nodded gratefully. “Thank you. I’ll be back as soon as I talk to Goren.”

“We’ll be back,” Luca corrected.

Ava looked away, brows drawn. “I don’t need a chaperone.”

“True, but you don’t know anything about pearls do you?”

“Neither do you,” she shot back.

“But I do,” Stephanie said. “So I’ll invite myself along and
keep the two of you on your best behavior.”

Luca and Ava both stared at Stephanie. She laughed. “We’re hunting for treasure, aren’t we? The more eyes the better.”

Luca noticed that Ava did not meet his gaze as she finished her breakfast. She still thought she could find her uncle and figure out what happened all by her lonesome. He wondered why that both exasperated and pleased him.

He dismissed the thought as they each went about their preparations for departure. He helped clear the dishes and dry after Ava washed. They didn’t speak. That was probably better anyway.

He was putting away the last dish when the trailer phone rang.

There was no answer to his “Hello,” but someone stayed on the line.

“Who is this? Who are you trying to reach?”

Click.

A tickle of worry rippled through his stomach.

It was the same anonymous caller as before, he was sure of it.

Ava shrugged it off. “Some prankster? It doesn’t matter. I just know Goren will be able to help us figure out what happened to my uncle.”

He heard it in her voice. The unspoken statement.

So I can bring him home.

Ava,
he thought,
I really hope you’re right.

All the same, he made a mental note to let the police know about the calls.

The time ticked by slowly. Tate had already gone to the search site when Stephanie, Luca and Ava piled into the car and began the painfully slow drive down the mountain. Snow was still falling, but the worst of the wind had passed, leaving the landscape a perfect crystalline world. They marveled in silence as
Ava guided the car along the road crowded by trees sparkling in the watery sunrise.

Beautiful, he thought, gazing past Ava’s perfect delicate profile at the wondrous landscape beyond.

They had to creep along until they made it to a plowed road which allowed them to reach Lofton in a little under an hour. Ava was out of the car and almost to the door of the small shop by the time they
caught up.

She yanked on the handle, her face falling when she found it locked, knocking on the glass anyway.

Stephanie checked her phone. “It’s eight-fifteen. Maybe they run on their own timetable around here.”

They peered into the darkened shop. Luca could make out encased glassed shelves and a main counter.

“Let’s go around the back,” he whispered.

While Stephanie stayed
in the front to call the store phone, Luca and Ava headed toward the rear, pushing across drifts of snow that piled the walkway. There was only one window and it was shuttered.

The metal door was closed, too, but Luca knocked anyway.

Nothing moved inside the shop, nothing that they could see anyway.

Ava bit her lip. “I need to talk to him, but I want to get back to the search.”

“We can split up.”

Ava opened her mouth to answer, when a shadow loomed up behind her. He tensed in shock as a man appeared around the edge of the store with a shotgun and pressed it to the back of Ava’s head.

TEN

A
va did not feel fear at first. She was too surprised. The circle of metal against her skull did not compute, but the look of rage on Luca’s face did.

He shot a hand toward the gunman. “She’s not doing anything wrong. Back off.”

The pressure did not wane. The assailant was not close enough for her to kick out, she didn’t think. She could not come up with a plan due
to the blood that seemed to rush wildly through her body and rob her of her senses.

Luca edged closer. “Lower the gun,” he growled at whoever was behind her.

“What do you want?” came a man’s voice, higher than she might have expected, with a slight wobble.

“We came to talk to Charlie Goren. Is that you?” Ava said, surprised that her own words came out clear and strong in spite of
the tremor that had spread throughout her body.

“Who wants to know?” The man pressed the gun harder, and Ava winced. Luca’s face reddened.

“Get off her now.” He took another step forward just as Stephanie rounded the corner.

Luca used the moment of distraction to surge forward and strike the gun away from Ava’s head. He shoved her aside and kicked out at the gunman, sending him
falling onto his back in the snow.

Ava and Stephanie both stared open-mouthed.

“I’m gone two minutes, and you run into a gunman?” Stephanie said.

Luca picked up the gun and stood like an angry bear over the prostrate man. “Get up,” he ordered, flicking a glance at Ava. “Are you all right?”

She nodded, still in shock.

The man slowly got to his feet, hand clamped to his
stomach where Luca had kicked him. He was small, with dark hair and dark eyes, Asian or at least partially of Asian descent, Ava surmised now that she had recovered slightly from having a gun pressed to her head.

“You’re trespassing,” the man said, black eyes shifting from Luca to Ava and Stephanie.

Ava eased closer in spite of Luca’s warning glare. “Are you Charlie Goren?”

After
a momentary pause, he nodded. “This is my store,” he said, an edge of pride in his tone. “I have the right to protect it, especially after everything that’s happened.”

“Yeah?” Luca said, examining the gun. “Well, you’re not much of a security guard. You know the shotgun isn’t even loaded?”

“I know,” Goren said. “I figured it would be just as frightening loaded as empty.”

He was
right about that, Ava thought. “I’m Paul’s niece.”

Goren started at the name. “You are?”

She nodded. “Do you know my uncle?”

“Sure. I’ve known Paul since we washed dishes together in a diner when we were in our twenties. I heard he was in some trouble.”

“You left a message on my cell phone that you wanted to talk to me.”

He nodded. “Have they—” he swallowed hard “—found
him?”

Ava resisted a shudder. “No, but I think he’s still alive.” Luca shot her a warning look, but she ignored him.

Stephanie edged closer. “Look, because we’ve established there’s no need for a shooting, can we go inside, Mr. Goren? I’m freezing, and we obviously have a few things to discuss.”

Goren seemed to snap out of his stupor. He unlocked the door and led them inside. The
shop smelled of old wood. Faded velvet backdrops offered up various antique pendants, rings and necklaces.

“Did my uncle contact you recently?”

“Yes, about a week ago he showed up. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of years at least.” Goren’s eyes narrowed. “He needed money from me, and I loaned it to him, which makes me a dope, I guess.”

Money which he obviously hadn’t paid back.
Ava gulped. Was there anyone Paul hadn’t crossed? “Did he say why he needed the money?”

“He was going to bid on an abandoned storage unit. If there was anything of value inside, we’d split the profit. Said he’d been doing some research and he figured the unit belonged to a man named...” Goren squinted. “I can’t remember, but he was an eccentric from a wealthy family.”

“John Danson?”
Luca offered.

“Yes, Danson. That’s right. Paul bid on the unit and bought the contents.”

Ava’s heart sped up. “Did you find out what was inside?”

A look of disgust crept onto Goren’s face. “Some old books, odds and ends. Some jewelry. Cheap, hardly enough to make us wealthy or enough even to recoup our investment. Not the big payoff Paul convinced me we’d find.”

Luca showed
him the picture of the earring. “Was this one of the pieces you saw?”

Goren peered closely, then straightened. “No, no, it wasn’t. Where did you get it?”

“My uncle’s trailer,” Ava said.

Goren shook his head, and rubbed a hand through his dark hair seeded with silver. “I would be surprised if Paul didn’t lie about what was in that box. He probably showed me some worthless pieces
and kept the good ones for himself. Said he didn’t have enough to pay me back the money I loaned him.”

Ava looked around the dingy shop. She felt ashamed that her uncle had cheated this man of humble means. “I’m sorry.”

“Me, too. Paul talked about the pearl, a fantastic pearl.” Goren’s eyes lit up. “I let my own desire get the best of my judgment.” He spread his hands. “I’m passionate
about gems.”

Stephanie peered into a case containing an antique brooch with a green stone. “You’ve got some nice pieces.”

“Yes,” he said, straightening. “That one right there is an emerald of the finest water.”

“Water?” Luca said.

Stephanie nodded. “It’s old language. With emeralds the clarity or crystal is just as important as the color. Jewelers refer to it as the water of
the stone.”

Goren was beaming now. “My customers usually don’t know anything about gems. I have to educate them.” He beckoned to Stephanie. “Come see this piece. It’s small but extremely fine. You can see the star pattern clearly...”

Stephanie offered a charming smile. “I would love to, but we’re kind of in a time crunch, Mr. Goren. Could you tell us why you were trying to reach Ava?”

Goren’s smile dimmed. He looked away, snatching up a cloth to buff the glass countertop. “I’m ashamed to admit it, but—” he glanced quickly at Ava and then away again “—I heard Paul was missing and I figured maybe he’d left the rest of the storage unit contents behind.” He sighed. “I didn’t want anything to happen to your uncle, but I figured if I could get the jewelry, even though it wasn’t
great stuff, maybe I could make back some of the money I loaned him.”

Ava watched him rub at the already-pristine counter. “We didn’t find anything yet.”

He finally looked up. “I’m sorry. I know it makes me sound like a heel, but I just wanted to recoup some of my money. Maybe I wouldn’t feel like such a fool then.”

Ava felt tears prick her eyes. She thought about how many times
she’d trusted her uncle’s great ideas, the occasions her mother went to bat for Paul against her own husband, the way he’d treated Sue Agnoti. “I understand, Mr. Goren, and if we find anything, we’ll let you know.”

They said goodbye and walked back to the car. Ava could not shake the cold feeling in the pit of her stomach. Luca and Stephanie were silent. She guessed they, too, were thinking
about Uncle Paul and his habit of using and discarding those around him.

Luca broke the spell first. “Paul didn’t tell Goren about the nicer pieces he found in the box. That means he could very well have found the Sunset Star and hidden it before he went to meet you. He could have been keeping it in the box under the trailer and someone tried to steal it, so he moved it to a second location.
The question is, where?”

Ava brushed the sprinkle of snow from her face. The sky had cleared somewhat, revealing patches of startling azure between puffs of white clouds. “No,” she said firmly. “The question in my mind is, where is Uncle Paul?” She got into the car. “I need to get back to the crash site and do some looking around on my own.”

As they drove away from town, her gaze wandered
to the distant peaks, to Whisper Mountain, the place where her heart always returned in spite of herself, the place where she and Luca had spent joyful winters wrapped in the innocence of youth.

If Paul had hidden a fabulous treasure, that’s where he would have done it, she knew, but for now, the treasure would have to wait.

* * *

Luca once again loaded his snowshoes next to Ava’s
before they drove up to the search site. Ava sat perfectly erect, taking in every detail of the glittering landscape as they approached. There had been no additional contact with the police after they’d found the wrecked snowmobile, no word about the Taser tags and no further anonymous phone calls. If no news was good news, why did he feel so on edge?

Maybe her prayers had been answered and
Paul had survived. He realized with a start that he had not once prayed for Uncle Paul directly, only for Ava. The fact of the matter was he did not like Uncle Paul, the schemer, the manipulator, a man who took advantage of so many, particularly the graceful woman who sat beside him. Ava would love him to the grave in spite of his flaws. She was the kind of person who gave her heart fully and completely
to those lucky enough to be loved by her.

Luca felt another stab of guilt. Wouldn’t he do the very same thing for his own family? And she had so precious little family left. Underneath her dogged belief that Paul was still alive was the naked fear of how she would deal with his loss.

Even though he could not fully understand it, he knew that some of that fear was entwined with her mother’s
suicide all those years before. He’d lost his own mother at such a young age that he could hardly remember her. Which was worse? he wondered. No memories at all or the memories that could drown you?

This time, he murmured a prayer for Uncle Paul.

“Let’s start our search farther west,” Ava was saying. “He got away from his kidnapper somehow and probably headed for the road, maybe sticking
to the shoulder where the snow was not as deep. He would have made shelter from the storm along the road somewhere.”

Luca eased the car around a corner, he saw a police car parked in the snow, another officer holding a rope and peering over the side.

Sergeant Towers spoke into a radio. A four-wheel-drive vehicle sat empty behind the sergeant’s.

Ava hopped out and trotted over to
Towers.

“Have you found anything?”

Towers appeared distracted. He held up a finger to quiet her and turned away to finish the radio conversation.

Luca caught only three words.

Bringing him up.

“Ava...” he started.

“Did you hear that?” Her face was alive with joy. “They found him. They’re bringing him up.”

She grabbed Luca’s hand and squeezed, so close he could
feel the energy vibrating through her.
God, help me know how to do this.

He pulled her close, tucking her head under his chin. “Honey, this isn’t what you think it is.” It was clear from Towers’s face, from the fact that there were no frantic calls for ambulance or paramedics, no hurried urgency on the part of the rescuers.

What could he do to shield her from the anguish that would cut
her heart in two in a matter of moments? He wished he could take the grief for her, divert it away from her tender soul. In a state of agony, he could only clasp her to his chest and hold in the last few precious moments of hope before it melted away like a snowflake. She tried to pull away, but he held her as the stretcher cleared the top of the slope, sliding on a network of rescue ropes.

“Luca, let me go,” she said, squirming hard enough to bring herself to arm’s length. He still held tight to her wrists as if by anchoring her to him he could keep her from the pain that lay just behind her.

“Ava, you need to listen to me now,” he said quietly.

“No.” The first flicker of fear licked at her eyes. “I want to see my uncle. Let go.” She tugged hard.

“Your uncle...”
He did not want to say it, but his silence made the fear flame higher.

“I want to see him,” she said, jerking wildly now. “I want to see him,” she yelled.

Towers joined them. “Miss Stanton, I’m very sorry.”

She stopped jerking and looked at him. “Don’t say that. Don’t say you’re sorry. I don’t ever want to hear that again. Not from you.”

Towers regarded her quietly. “He’s dead,
Miss Stanton.”

She yanked so hard then that she pulled from Luca’s grip, tumbling backward into the snow.

Luca reached for her, but she scrambled back, face white except for the patches of color on each cheek.

“Don’t touch me,” she whispered. “Don’t anyone touch me.”

He stood frozen, his heart feeling like it had somehow fractured, too.

Slowly she got to her feet and walked
to the stretcher that held the last of her hopes. Towers nodded at the officer to step away from the stretcher and he did so, standing respectfully back as Ava knelt in the snow.

“She said the same thing then,” Towers said.

“What?” Luca managed.

“I was the officer who told her about her mother after they pulled her body from the lake. ‘Don’t touch me.’ That’s what she said then,
too.”

Luca closed his eyes and listened to the sound of Ava’s sobbing, the mountains throwing her grief back in mocking echoes.