Treasure Uncovered (Bellingwood #3) (30 page)

"Money?" he asked. "Never mind. I'll be there soon."

As they all sat at Polly's table waiting for the police chief to come over, Polly’s mind began whirring.

Suddenly she jumped up and said, "I'm going to the barn to get the vase. That way it will be here when Ken arrives." She opened a cupboard in the kitchen and grabbed a large brown paper shopping bag with handles, then dug around in a drawer and came up with several towels.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," she said, heading for the front door.

"Do you want any help?" Henry asked.

"No, it's nothing. Stay here and wait for Ken. There are ice cream treats in the freezer from last night. Have one and we'll get supper after he leaves."

She headed out to the barn. When she opened the door, she ran back to the feed room and up the ladder to the haymow and began digging for the vase. It was exactly where she'd left it. She drew it out and looked at the designs. Now that she knew what she was looking at, it was obvious that it had come from an ancient Mideast civilization. She wrapped it in the towels and gently set it in the bag, then wrapped her hand around the handles and headed for the ladder. As long as sh
e didn't drop it, she'd be set.

Polly clambered back down the ladder and took a breath. Now, to get this into Ken Wallers' hands. She should have called him when she found it, but honestly, until today, she hadn't been ready to accuse Eliseo of stealing something like this. However, with all the information she had, it looked as if Harry had been the one to hide the vase in her hayloft. Eliseo probably hadn't even realized it was there. Surely if he'd known there was this much cash lying around,
he wouldn't be working for her.

She turned the corner into the alley of the barn and stopped at the sight of two strange men approaching her.

"Who are you?" she asked. "Can I help you?"

"What do you have in that bag, miss?"

"Nothing. Just some things to take back up to the house. Who are you and why are you in my barn? This is private property."

"We're some old friends of Harry Bern. He didn't have what we were looking for and might have met with a little mishap when he wouldn't tell us where it was. After a little investigating we discovered his last job was working here for you. Did Harry hide something up in your hay loft?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Polly said, "but I do know you shouldn't be here."

"No, miss. You're the one who shouldn't be here. We saw you at Harry's house today and we saw you take a couple of boxes away. Did you find something there, too? Maybe we should go up and grab up those two little boys who were with you. They might tell us where to find what belongs to us."

They continued to slowly walk toward her and Polly found herself backing into the feed room. She knew better than this. Every badly scripted chase scene had the poor, benighted victim backed into a small room. Well, at least she knew she wasn't going to go up the ladder. She couldn't understand why movie directors always sent people up to the roof or up the steps. There was never going to be a good end to that situation.

Polly glanced around trying to find a weapon or something to protect herself with then realized that she carried a priceless vase in her hands and it wasn't going to be destroyed on her watch.

"This is a small town. I'm going to start screaming and someone will come. You might want to get out of here before that happens," she said. "And besides, my horses aren't any too happy with you in here either. I'd hate for one of them to come crashing through a stall door because they were worried about me." Then she remembered that the horses were still out in the pasture. That wasn't going to do her any good.

The larger of the two moved in a little faster and grabbed her. He spun her around and clamped his hand over her mouth. She opened it enough so that she could bite the skin, but he refused to budge even as she ground her teeth into the meat of his hand.

"You shouldn't have done that. I don't like to hurt pretty little girls, but if they piss me off enough, I'll do what it takes," he said.

The other tried to rip the bag out of her hand, but Polly refused to release it. She wrapped her hand around the handles and the top of the bag. He grabbed her hand and began to squeeze it together, rubbing bone against bone. Tears spurted from her eyes as the level of pain increased and then she got mad. She kicked him in the shin and reached up with her free hand to smack his nose with the base of her palm as he bent over.

The fury in his eyes warned her in time to flinch as he smacked her across the face. The man holding her mouth released her in time for her head to fling to one side. Polly let out a screech and kicked again. This time the one in front of her punched her in the stomach and she doubled over.

Then she heard a voice say, "Get the hell away from her. Why does it take two of
you to attack one little girl?"

They released her and she dropped to her knees to see them rush back out of the room. She took a breath and looked around for a hiding place for the vase. Somehow she made her way to a cabinet on the other side of the room, opened the door and shoved the vase in, closing the door behind her. She didn't want that antiquity to be a casualty of the fight. She'd heal, the vase wouldn't.

Still panting, she put a hand to her cheek. It felt hot. Damn, she was going to have a black eye, she was sure of that. She looked out into the alley and saw that Eliseo had been her savior and he was dealing with both of the men. They nearly had him down.

She pulled her phone out of her pocket, hit re-dial and when Ken Wallers answered, all she said was, "Help me in the barn," and hung up.

Then, she looked around the room again and her eyes lit on a shovel. Grabbing it, Polly ran out into the fray and as soon as she got a chance, lifted it up with both hands and with all the strength she had, brought it down on the head of the closest man. He dropped to the ground. It was the man who had punched her.

Polly figured that turnabout was fair play and kicked him in the balls, then said, "Stay where you are unless you want more of that."

He didn't move.

Eliseo and the other man were grappling in front of her. Dropping one of the intruders out of the fight
had given Eliseo an advantage.

"Come on, Seo," the other man said. "You don't w
ant to fight me again, do you?"

"I already am, Dover, and this time things are a little more even. You don't come into my territory a
nd beat up women, you asshole."

"You're a pansy-assed moron. Just give up. All we want is the vase and the cash and we're out of here. Hell, we'll even give you some of the
money if you stop fighting us."

"Not now, you won't. I told you to get out of town the other night and you didn't listen. I
should have gone to the cops."

Dover punched Eliseo in the side. Polly knew that more damage to those ribs had to hurt lik
e hell and she gasped in shock.

Then she heard a click. "Stop right there."

Polly looked up and saw Ken Wallers with his gun drawn, striding into the barn. She heaved a sigh of relief.

Neither man stopped what they were doing.

He approached a little more closely and looked over at Polly who was standing behind the man on the ground with her shovel poised to hit him again if he so much as twitched.

"Stop," he said and aimed the gun so that the man called Dover could see it. "I'm the Chief of Police in Bellingwood and you are finished with this fight."

Dover released Eliseo, who slumped over, breathing heavily.

Ken said to the man, "Drop to your knees, put your hands behind your back and link your fingers." The man did so and Ken pulled a zip tie out of his pocket and whipped it shut around Dover's wrists.

"Stay," he said. "Don't you dare move."

He walked over to the man who was lying on the ground and said to Polly, "What in the hell did you do to him?"

"He punched me. I felled him," she said. Yeah. That was a good word.

"You certainly did. Why is he all curled up?"

"I might have taken a little revenge. He hit me in the face, then he punched me in the stomach and when he threatened Jason and Andrew, I got mad."

Ken shook his head as he bent down and turned the man over so he could pull his hands behind him and zip-tie them together. "I am not going to ask any more questions and I am certainly not going to ever make you angry. I have to say, though, Miss Giller, Aaron Merritt worries about you a lot. After this, though, I'm not sure why. I think you did pretty well by yourself today."

Polly smiled and then felt a few tears begin to leak out of her right eye. She brushed them away and said, "Sorry, that doesn't do much for my reputation as a tough girl."

He laughed and pulled her in for a side hug. "You're fine, Polly. I can't believe what you've done here today."

Eliseo stood up and said, "I can't believe it either. You should have seen her. She was a little ferocious."

"Are these the two men who were in a fight with you the other night? Do you know them?"

"Yes I do, sir. I thought they would leave town, but they didn't."

"Do you want to press charges
for the fight the other night?"

Dover looked up at
Eliseo with venom in his eyes.

Eliseo nodded in the af
firmative, "I think I do, sir."

"I have two patrol cars that should be here right about now," Ken looked up as three of his men walked into the barn. "Yes, here they are. They'll take these two down to the station and maybe we’ll wrap this little mystery up today. I can't wait to hear which o
f you two murdered Harry Bern."

"Oh!" Polly said. "Just a second. I can
tell you why they did it, too!"

She ran back into the feed room and opened the cabinet, pulled out the paper bag and carried it out to the crowd of people in her barn. She pulled back the tow
els and showed the vase to Ken.

"I'll bet these guys were in the army with Harry Bern and they stole this vase and this money when
they were in Iraq. Am I right?"

She looked at the one kneeling o
n the ground and he was silent.

"This thing is priceless," she said and tipped the vase so Ken could see the bundles of cash in its belly. "And not only that, I have no idea how much cash is in here, but the articles say that millions of dollars were stolen. This is probably only a very small part of it."

Two of the three men who had joined them had brought the two thieves to their feet and were walking them out of the barn. Ken called the last of his men over and handed him the bag with the vase and then spoke to him in low tones.

Polly said to Eliseo, "I'm sorry you got hurt again, but I was very glad to hear your voice when you came in the barn."

"I'm sorry I didn't get here more quickly, ma'am."

"It's Polly. Even more so now, it's Polly."

"Yes ma'am." he smiled.

"I'd like to hear what the two of you have to say," Ken said. "Then tomorrow you should come to the station and make a statement and we'll get these men dealt with."

"Why don't you come on up to the apartment," Polly said. "I want to put some peas on this eye and I think Eliseo could use a little TLC.

"Peas?" Ken asked.

"For my face. Frozen peas. Because they form themselves to the hills and valleys and I can't bear to use a steak for something like this."

"Don't you have an
ice pack?"

"I like peas. I have plenty of them in my freezer. Eliseo, are you with me on this?"

"Peas it is," he laughed.

"Henry and Sylvie Donovan's boys are upstairs. I'll bet they're getting worried. I was going to run out here and get that vase and have it ready when you got there. It was Andrew who helped me figure this out. Maybe I should call Sylvie to come over."

"That would be fine," he said. "I'll be up in a few minutes."

"I'm going to be alright, Polly," Eliseo said. "I can go down to my room."