Searching For Treasure (19 page)

Dana dug in her heels. "If you are going to kill me either way, why should I make it easy for you?"

Austin pulled her against him. "Because if you don't, then maybe just out of spite, I'll be waiting in Noah's room next."

Dana believed he was bluffing, but she couldn't take the chance. She allowed herself to be dragged to the door. Austin paused to look out. Seeing no one, Austin turned back to Dana. He smiled, wrapped his arms around her like a lover and pulled her out into the hall.

"Let's see, I could throw you out that window
,”
as he looked further down the hall at the window next to the music room. "Of course, that might raise some questions as to why you were even at that window. I wonder if Jack would believe you were so devastated about hurting his little feelings that you committed suicide out of remorse. No, best to keep it simple.

I'll throw you over the balustrade and make it look like you fell. Of course I'll break your neck first, so there won't be any chance you'd actually survive this time. They'll have no reason to think you didn't break it in the fall."

There was a rushing of footsteps behind him. Before either of them could react, a proverbial irresistible force flattened them. Dana felt her breath whoosh from her lungs as her back hit the floor. Austin kept going and flipped over her. She heard the knife clatter down the hall. Someone stepped on her hair, bringing tears to her eyes. She had just learned first hand what it felt like to be tackled by a defensive lineman.

Dana rolled painfully over onto her side. Mark had Austin pinned to the floor, his forearm across his throat, laying his not inconsiderable weight against him. Mark glanced up briefly. "Run, Miss Dana, run!"

But despite Mark's bulk, he was still just a boy and Austin had twenty years of experience on him. With a heave, he had Mark flipped over on his back and threw a vicious punch at the boy's face. He was cocking his fist for another blow when a one hundred and twenty pound body landed square on his back.

Dana heard Austin grunt in pain as her flying leap straddled him. Her fingers dug into the flesh of his cheeks and she hauled backward with all the strength and fury inside of her. Then she sunk her teeth into his ear.

Austin screamed in rage and pain. Mark tried to throw a weak forearm at his throat, but barely grazed him because Austin had bolted up off of the floor, Dana clinging to his back like a monkey. He heaved backwards, slamming her back into the wall. With a groan, Dana let go of her tenacious hold on the ear. Then Austin flung her off his back. Dana landed hard and slid down the wood floor towards the music room. On all fours she scrambled inside.

In disbelief, Austin put a hand up to his ear, pulling it away to see his fingers covered with blood. "You bitch!" Mark forgotten for the moment, he headed into the music room after her.

However, before he could cross the threshold, the point end of a poker pressed against his throat and stopped him rudely. His eyes wide, Austin back-pedalled quickly, but Dana kept pace with him, never losing contact with his flesh. They crossed the hall together that way until Austin's back touched the wall, effectively pinned there by the poker in her hand.

With a deadly calm she told him, "If you move a muscle, I will beat the holy living crap out of you with this thing, I swear to God I will."

Austin believed her. The look on her face left him with no doubts.

Hearing the screaming and shouting from the dining room, Jack had raced for upstairs, Noah close behind him. Oscar and Henry followed as rapidly as their age would permit. A bizarre tableau awaited them.

Mark was on the floor, leaning against the wall, looking battered yet triumphant. Austin was pressed against the wall in terror looking bloody and defeated. But the most impressive of all was Dana. Her hair was wild, and her eyes were fierce. It was like watching an avenging Valkyrie standing guard over a vanquished foe. The air fairly crackled around her.

" I could have told you," Noah said to Austin in awe, taking in the scene, "You don't want to piss her off."

Chapter 13

"I was in the bathroom
,”
Mark told everyone with an almost apologetic shrug. "When I came out, I heard Austin's voice. I knew he was supposed to be gone, so I decided to check it out. He was looking the other way, holding onto Miss Dana. He didn't see me. H
e…
he sounded like he wanted to kill her." He shrugged again, as if to sa
y‘
The rest you kno
w’
.

It had taken both Jack and Noah to convince Dana to lay down her poker. Reluctantly, she allowed them to take it from her, never once taking her eyes off of Austin. Oscar had yelled to Josie to call the police and had magically produced a rope from somewhere. Austin had been quickly restrained with little effort and shepherded downstairs. The fight had gone out of him, completely demoralized from being bested by a woman and a fourteen-year-old boy.

Now everyone was back in the dining room, and the breakfast items had been cleaned away. They had been giving their statements to the inspector himself. Mark was the last.

Jack had been leaning against the wall watching Dana watch Mark tell his story. She was nibbling on a leftover sausage patty wrapped in a pancake, having rather missed breakfast. Jack still hadn't calmed down from their fight upstairs when they all heard a new fight complete with screaming. He was sure every hair in his head had turned white from the horrors his mind had conjured up before he reached the top of the stairs.

What he hadn't expected was to find Dana playing G.I. Jane with a fireplace tool. His nervous system was still vibrating from the emotional cocktail of adrenaline, fear and relief. He wanted to shake her until her teeth rattled. Then he wanted to make love to her until they rattled again.

But it didn't seem as if he'd get his chance to do either anytime soon. Despite his casual words upstairs, Noah had been severely shaken by what had almost happened to his sister. Noah hovered protectively behind her chair. He frequently reached out and touched her arm, shoulder or hair as if to reassure himself that she was really there.

"What I want to know," Rose said, "is how he has been getting into the castle."

Grace clutched her throat. "To think that pervert has been wandering these halls at night while we slept! Do you think he's been peeking at us?"

Rose's eyes twinkled. "Well
,”
she drawled, "you can always hope."

"Ladies, please," the inspector interrupted tiredly. "Let's get back on the subject."

"Mark has already told you all he knows about it, Inspector Wilcox." Henry, his face a strange mixture of fear and pride, patted his grandson's arm reassuringly. "He only came in at the ass end of this whole thing."

The inspector turned once again to Dana. "Miss Parker, maybe you can clarify some things for me."

"I'll try."

"Fine, fine. Now according to your statement, Austin had rigged the widow's walk to fall."

"That's what he said. He was trying to get everyone out of the castle so he could look for the treasure that he believed to be here."

Inspector Wilcox cast a dirty look at Oscar. "Well, you run that risk when you tell people you have treasure in your home."

Dana was quick to the defense. "But Oscar told us that first night that he believed the stories about Roan Davis to be just that. Stories. And in spite of everything, I'm not convinced they're still not."

"What is this about a letter?" Noah asked.

Oscar spoke up. "According to legend, Davis was supposed to have left a letter leaving clues to where he had hidden his treasure."

"And Austin said he had found this letter, although I didn't see it," Dana said.

"According to what he told my partner
,”
the inspector said
,“
he found it hidden inside of an old picture frame he bought at a nearby garage sale. So if he had directions to the treasure, why did he need everyone to leave?"

Jack spoke up. "My guess is that beyond the location of the castle, he hadn't been able to figure out the clues. So he needed to hunt. And there were just too many people around to hunt the way he wanted to. And with all of us at least playing like we were looking for treasure, too, he probably felt like time was against him."

"So stage an accident, everyone goes home or to the hospital and he is free to look around," Inspector Wilcox said.

Dana shrugged. "That's what he said, too."

"But the accident didn't happen the way he planned. Which leads me to
,”
the inspector glanced at his notes, he shook his head in disbelief, "dancing chickens?"

"I'm afraid that's my fault, too
,”
declared Oscar. His friends protested loudly. "No, I was the one who told stories not only of treasure but of ghosts as well. Austin obviously decided to use-"

"Oh, balls!" Rose stated hotly. Josie looked at her in surprise and giggled. "Hogwash. Horse puckey. Nothing makes me madder than someone trying to take the blame for what some other ignoramus tries to pull. None of this is your fault, Oscar. This is all Austin and Brett. Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-damn-dumb."

"By the way" said Dana, "Austin said that Brett was waiting in the car. Did you find him?"

"Yes, yes," the inspector said impatiently. "We have him in custody, too. Now-"

"So, what did he have to say?" Grace asked the inspector. "I always thought he had a shifty look."

"He admitted to everything except he claims he never played a part in trying to hurt anyone."

Henry snorted. "Oh, yeah, he's Simon pure."

"Please let me get back to the subject," the inspector said.

"Austin was just stupid, man," Noah jeered. "Trying to scare people with phony ghosts. We see scarier stuff on TV."

"Well, Noah, I was pretty scared last night," Dana said.

"And I thought that poltergeist looked pretty realistic
,”
breathed Grace.

"Yeah, but, scary is one thing and scary enough to leave in the middle of the night is another. He's read too many books, or something," Noah said.

"People, please!"

Everyone fell silent. "Yes, Inspector Wilcox?" Oscar asked. "You had a question?"

The inspector sighed. "I thought I did."

Dana leaned forward. "Inspector Wilcox, you said that Austin told you about the letter. Did he tell you how he had been getting back into the castle?"

The inspector again looked at his notes. "Yes, he said that the letter told of a secret door."

Oscar was stunned. "What? I have never come across any references to a secret door in all of my research."

"According to Austin, the door is in the back of the castle and was originally used as a way to sneak out for nighttime romps with female servants. Austin said it is directly in line with the ruins of some servant quarters."

"I saw those from Josie's bedroom," remembered Dana. "The door must be directly below."

"Austin said that according to the letter, this was the door Roan Davis used to come and go as he committed his crimes. The letter claimed that Davis found it by accident."

"Maybe
,”
suggested Jack, "The reason you never found any reference to it, was because it was secret. The master of the castle might not have wanted his wife to know about his nocturnal activities. But women are notoriously nosy. If he had written it down somewhere, she would have found out about it." Every set of female eyes in the room glared at him. "Well, am I lying?"

"So
,”
Dana mused, "if Roan Davis was so forthcoming with all of this information, why didn't he just say where the treasure is?"

Jack looked at her thoughtfully. "I know that look, D. You have a theory."

"It was the way the note in the fireplace safe was worded. 'Find the lock for this key and the laugh is on me.' I think there is no lock for that key. I think the reason Austin never figured out the clues in the letter was because they were phony. I think the reason Davis never told anyone where to find his treasure was because there was no treasure to find. I think this is just a one-hundred and fifty year old practical joke."

But even as Dana said this, she frowned, thinking of the lights that led her to the safe. Would those lights, whatever they were, have tried so hard to communicate with her just to perpetuate a joke?

Henry whistled. "Kind of a he-who-laughs-last-laughs-best type of thing? Hint there was a treasure, leave phony clues and then laugh all through the afterlife while fools like Austin look for it?"

"Something like that," Dana said. Put that way, maybe perpetuating a joke was as good a reason as any.

The Inspector went over their stories, rehashing them, picking out points for clarification for about another hour. Once he was satisfied he left with Austin and his partner in tow. Henry slumped back in his chair. "Well! This beats all I've ever seen. Mark, boy, I'm too old for this kind of excitement."

"I'm sorry, Grandpa. But I really didn't do so much. I though I was protecting Miss Dana, but ends up she protected me
,”
he said dejectedly.