Fortunate Harbor (38 page)

“But have you looked to the heavens?” Janya asked. “As he told you to? You said he hated religion. Did he believe in heaven?”

Dana considered. “No, he was very outspoken about that.”

“Then perhaps he only wanted you to look up? A metal detector could find coins buried in the ground. He would know that, and he would protect himself from that possibility, wouldn’t he? In case someone else knew what he was doing? Perhaps he put this treasure somewhere high. In a tree? Where no metal detector would locate it.”

The answer was so simple, yet in all the months Dana had pondered Fargo’s letter, in all the hours she had searched, wondering if she had forged an imaginary legacy from a dying man’s final words, she had not thought of simply looking toward the heavens.

“I have a brother,” Janya said. “I know that brothers like to climb trees. Yash always hid in the gulmohar tree in our courtyard so he could spy on me.”

“Fargo was always in trouble for climbing. He would do it the moment my parents turned their backs.”

“There aren’t any trees around Alice’s house. Besides, anything in a tree out in the open would be seen. Nothing where the old office used to stand, either,” Wanda said.

A shiver crawled down Dana’s spine. “There are trees lining the path to the water at Fortunate Harbor. Fargo used to climb them when he could. He was watching for pirate ships.”

“I think we need to see what we can find in this Fortunate Harbor of yours.”

“I can’t. Pete may already be on his way here.”

“Call him and tell him not to come tonight. Tell him you have a headache,” Tracy said.

“I tried earlier. He didn’t pick up. He doesn’t always have his phone turned on.”

Tracy came at it a different way. “Then leave a note on the door telling him something came up. We’ll drive your car down the road and park where it can’t be seen. If Pete comes, he’ll leave again. Then, when you’re ready, with or without whatever your brother left for you, you can leave, too.”

“You’ll let me?” Dana asked. “You’ll let me leave, and you won’t ever tell anybody what I’ve told you?”

“Let you?” Wanda clapped her hands in emphasis. “We’ll stall Pete, if need be. I’m a cop’s wife, but I know sometimes there’s a difference between the law and what’s right. You took the hard road when you took that baby, but you tried everything the law allowed first. And now you got to protect her again.”

Dana looked from woman to woman to be sure Wanda spoke for all of them. She saw that she had. “I haven’t had the luxury of friends since I left Grand Forks.” She choked out the next words. “Thank you.”

Wanda cleared her throat. “We got to get going. We’ll help you get your stuff in the car.” She grabbed Lizzie’s suitcase and rolled it toward the door.

“Mine’s already there,” Dana said.

“I’ll pack up everything you didn’t have time for and send it if you let me know a safe way to do that,” Tracy said.

Dana knew she would never contact any of them again. She had already put them in jeopardy by telling her story, but she nodded. “Thank you.”

“Let’s get out of here.” Wanda went to the window. “Nobody’s out there. Let’s boogie.”

Dana took one last look around before she closed the door for the last time. This house had been the closest thing to a home she and Lizzie had ever shared. But she was no fool. Pete had found her once, and now he would pursue her again with a vengeance, sure at last that he’d found Isabel and Ivy.

Unless a miracle occurred, she and Lizzie would never have a home again.

Tracy’s head was spinning. Dana’s situation was so precarious, and yet so strange. They were looking for modern-day pirate’s gold with about as much chance of finding it as Florida’s many treasure hunters, who were convinced fortunes lay just off the coast in sunken galleys. Instead of a map with X marking the spot, they had a letter that might or might not contain something other than a dying brother’s good wishes.

Something was nagging at her, though. Something that had to do with this and yet didn’t. Everything had progressed so quickly that none of them had been given the time to think carefully. Still, at the edge of her mind where she couldn’t quite grasp it, there was something else. Something nagging and nagging.

“New Mexico,” she said out loud. Dana had just parked in the scrub beside the road, well up from the houses. Tracy had walked this path before. She knew it led down to the bay, but it wasn’t one of her favorite hikes. The path was narrow and
overgrown, and to her mind, infested with creatures she preferred not to think about.

“What?” Dana asked.

“You said your brother worked for somebody in New Mexico.”

“That’s what he told me.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“Why?”

“Just think. Please.”

Dana got out of the car, and the others followed her. It was still visible from the road, but a casual passerby probably wouldn’t notice. They could only hope Pete didn’t drive out to the point after he saw Dana’s note.

“He said he was working as a troubleshooter. I didn’t ask him what kind of trouble. With Fargo, it was best not to know too much.”

“He never gave a name? Never gave a description?”

“No. We avoided that kind of thing. I never told him anything about where I was or what I was doing, either. At the end I called him in prison on a disposable cell. He had an address for me, but it was a drop box and impossible for anyone to trace. We were careful.”

“What’s the problem?” Wanda asked. “You have some idea about this?”

“CJ had an office in New Mexico.”

The women turned and looked at her. “We had a house there. He did a lot of business out of that office, even though he was based in California.”

“A lot of people probably have offices in New Mexico,” Wanda said.

“I know, but listen. Fargo came here and buried something. Dana, you say you think he was here right before the land
changed hands. But what if CJ was already in the process of buying the property, and the deal just hadn’t been finalized? What if Fargo was the one who told CJ about this property in the first place?”

The conversation that had been nagging at her suddenly crystallized. “The last time I saw him, CJ told me an associate or assistant, whatever, was the one who told him about this place. He said the guy knew this land backward and forward because he used to come here as a kid.”

“My word.” Wanda was waving her hand in the air like a kid trying to get the teacher’s attention. “But even if that’s true, what’s it got to do with this?”

“Don’t you get it? I’ve been trying to figure out why CJ came to Florida after prison. I’ve been suspicious all along, even though he’s been behaving above reproach. I’ve even been feeling guilty about my suspicions!”

Tracy was furious now. She’d been questioning herself, beating herself up for not being loyal, for turning on CJ when he’d needed her. And all this time, he’d probably been here because somehow he knew his associate, Fargo whatever his name was, had buried something of value on the property.

“It explains everything!” It was all coming clear to Tracy in a rush. “CJ knows about whatever Fargo hid, Dana. That’s why he showed up here. He wants it. And all that prowling around and helping me figure out what to do with my property? He’s just been using that as an excuse to search for whatever it is. Digging here, digging there, water table my eyebrow! None of it had a thing to do with improving the land so I’d be set financially. That’s why he didn’t show up at my front door right at the beginning. Instead he just drove me crazy whenever I thought I caught a glimpse of him. He was searching, hoping
he’d find whatever it is right away so he could leave the area without alerting anybody.”

“You’re making sense,” Wanda said.

Tracy could hardly speak, she was so angry now. “And get this!” She took a deep breath and exhaled the rest of her conclusions. “I’ve wondered from the beginning why he left me Happiness Key, right? Why not something more liquid that would really help? I’ll tell you why! He knew I wouldn’t be able to sell this place. The real estate market. The conservationists. At that point he probably thought, at worst, he’d get a few years in prison, and I’d still be here trying to get rid of this place once he got out. He’d be able to get whatever it was and disappear, and I’d be none the wiser.”

Everybody was silent for a moment.

“How would CJ know about Fargo’s treasure?” Janya asked.

But Dana had the answer. “If Fargo worked for CJ, then maybe whatever Fargo hid here really belongs to CJ. Maybe Fargo even hid it for him.”

“Then why didn’t CJ find it?” Janya asked.

Tracy had the answer. “Maybe Fargo didn’t hide it where CJ expected him to. Or maybe he moved it afterward.”

“Then why did Fargo tell Dana he earned whatever it was fair and square?” Wanda asked.

It was a question only Dana could answer. “Because cheating somebody like CJ would seem like a normal day’s work to my brother. Maybe they had a falling-out. Maybe he knew CJ was cheating everybody else, and he figured stealing from a crook wasn’t stealing at all. That’s how he thought. Morality was a sliding scale to Fargo.”

“You don’t think this had to do with that bank robbery he went to prison for?” Tracy asked.

“No, I never did. He was just the lookout. He never even went into the bank, and the guys who did were captured while they were leaving. So Fargo got away, but he never got a thing. Somehow, though, the police caught up to him a few years later. He was pretty sure somebody tipped them off. Fargo had a loose tongue whenever he drank, which he did regularly.”

“Maybe CJ tipped them off,” Wanda said. “If he wanted whatever it was, what better way to keep Fargo from coming back and taking it?”

“If this is all correct and CJ is involved,” Janya said, “then Dana needs to leave even more quickly than we thought. Perhaps he has been watching, too.”

“Only if we find whatever it is,” Wanda said. “Let’s go. Time’s a-wasting.”

As they started toward the water, Tracy was fuming. Her theory about CJ’s part in this was just that, a theory. But every single detail fit. And no matter how charming he had been, how insistent that prison had changed him, she knew her ex was capable of this and worse. She hadn’t been disloyal, unforgiving, ungrateful. She had been suspicious and
smart
.

Her sociopath antenna was finally fully tuned and receiving signals.

“This is it,” Dana said, when they neared the water. “Fortunate Harbor. There was an old rowboat and a dock when we were kids. This was like heaven to us.”

“Heaven,” Janya said. “Look to the heavens.”

As one, the women all looked above them to a leafy canopy of green. Nothing glinted in the dying light of day.

“Did your brother climb one of these trees?” Tracy asked, staring up.

She could see Dana trying to picture the little inlet as it had been in the past. “I’m sorry,” she said after a moment. “It looks completely different than it did when we were children. That was such a long time ago. There
was
a tree with a branch hanging over the water that somebody tied a rope to. The most foolhardy kids used to swing out over the bay and drop into the water. Fargo was one of them, of course, but they didn’t do it often. The swimming here wasn’t as good as in the gulf, and the drop-off was shallow. One boy broke his ankle.”

“There’s nothing like that now,” Tracy said.

“That’s probably because the water’s edge is farther out than it was. The shoreline’s changed,” Dana said.

Tracy felt her excitement growing. “Which tree do you think it was?”

“I just don’t know.” Dana’s tone was plaintive. “It’s been thirty years.”

“Let’s assume it’s that tree you mentioned, the one with the rope.” Tracy headed toward the water. The trees closest to the shore were scrubby and small. But just behind were larger ones. None had branches extending toward the bay, but a lot of years and a lot of storms had passed.

“I’m going up,” Tracy said, pointing. “I think that’s the best candidate.”

“Do you need a boost?” Wanda asked.

“Just what I need, you bruising my butt.”

“See if I ask again.”

Tracy grabbed a limb and swung her feet toward the trunk, inching her way along the limb until she could swing a leg over it. The limb was sturdy but too narrow for comfort. She reached for another, which looked as if it offered more security. She concentrated on inching higher. Years had passed since
college and the Outward Bound training course she’d had to complete for one of her classes, but the skills she had learned were serving her well. At last she was high enough in the tree to look down at her friends and wave.

“You see anything?” Wanda asked.

Tracy grabbed a limb above her and slowly stood so she had a better view. The limb holding her weight swayed, and for a moment she thought she was going to tumble to the ground. She gripped harder and slowly turned her head, searching for anything that looked out of place.

“No, nothing.”

“Darn,” Wanda said. “I hoped it would be that easy.”

Tracy tried to figure out the best way down. She was high enough that she could see almost every branch in the tree, and there was nothing unusual here, nothing but bark and leaves and traces of Spanish moss. Climbing higher would be difficult if not impossible. She couldn’t believe a man, much heavier than she was, would have attempted it.

Trying to figure out the best way to lower herself to the limb that bore her weight, she carefully moved closer to the trunk until her back was against it. She grasped a different limb and had begun to slide so she could sit again when something in the next tree caught her eye. She stopped and leaned forward, holding tightly as she did. The branch she was standing on swayed as her weight shifted.

“That’s not looking safe,” Wanda called. “That branch is bending like a twig. You come on down now. I don’t want to have to catch you.”

“There’s something in that tree.” Tracy held on with one hand and pointed with the other. “I can’t tell what from here, but that’s my next stop.”

“You decide that after you get down. Come on now, Ms. Deloche. I don’t like this one bit.”

Tracy stared harder, trying to figure out what she was looking at. She supposed it might be a natural phenomenon, something as distasteful as a hornet’s nest, but she didn’t think so. The shape seemed rectangular, more symmetrical than Mother Nature designed. The reddish-brown color looked like rust.

A metal lockbox.

She shimmied down to the branch, leaned forward and grabbed it, and swung down so her feet were dangling several yards from the ground. She let go and landed hard, but she didn’t topple.

“Nicely done,” Janya said.

“You looked just like a monkey,” Wanda said.

“I don’t have any more time.” Dana glanced at her watch. “Pete could get here any minute. I have to leave if I’m going to have any chance of getting away. I’ve got to get Lizzie, and I’ve got to go. There’s too much at stake to wait.”

“I saw something. I mean it,” Tracy said. “I think it might be a lockbox.” The women were staring at her as she went on. “Dana, can you wait five more minutes?”

Dana looked torn, but she gave a quick nod.

“Wanda, I’m sorry, I
will
need that boost.” Tracy strode to the tree in question and looked up. A good-sized branch had broken off and lay rotting beneath the tree. She suspected it had once been the first step in climbing higher. “Look, you can see the sky through these branches. You can see heaven.”

“Someday we’ll have a talk about your butt getting bruised,” Wanda said. “For now, Janya, get over here.”

Janya joined her, and she and Wanda crossed their arms and held hands. “Do it,” Wanda said.

Tracy put one foot in their hands and leaped toward the tree. The women lifted her and managed to raise her high enough that she could inch forward until she was lying across the closest branch. From that point she was able to hold on tight and shimmy up until she was sitting.

The vantage point was different, and it took her a moment to figure out where to go next. But she grasped the next-highest branch and pulled herself up, then one more level. And there it was.

“I was right!” She inched forward and grabbed the handle. But just before she tried to swing the box forward and toward her, Wanda shouted.

“Stop!”

Tracy stopped.

“If there’s gold in that thing, it’s going to be heavy as a sack of bricks and pull you right off balance.”

Tracy realized she was right. She needed a better angle, but she wasn’t sure how to get it. She settled herself against the trunk and swung her legs over the branch toward the lockbox. She was able to wedge herself in tightly enough that she thought she’d be okay.

“If I can dislodge it and lift it high enough, I’m going to drop it,” she said. “No way I can climb down with that thing in my arms and live to tell about it. So everybody get out of the way.”

The women scurried to each side of the tree. Tracy leaned forward, grasped the handle and pulled. At first nothing happened, but when she gave a harder jerk, it moved. Not far, and not fast. But an inch or two.

“It’s large, and it’s really heavy,” she called. “It’s not stuck, it just weighs a ton, and my angle’s not that good.”

“Try again,” Wanda said. “Pretend that’s CJ’s head.”

Tracy growled, and with all her strength, she tugged again. The lockbox gave way, and with one final effort, she managed to heave it toward the ground. When it hit, the crash was substantial.

She didn’t wait to see if the box flew open. She straddled the branch, and then, when she couldn’t climb any lower, she swung herself down and dropped to the ground with an even harder thud than last time.