Page 34 of Whispers of Fortune (Golden State Treasure Book #1)

E PILOGUE

“Thank you for the meal.” Tilda spoke to Josh, but probably just because he was closest. “I should find out when the next train is heading for New York.”

Tilda’s shoulders slumped as she turned toward the train station. She carried a satchel that Josh thought looked mostly empty.

Michelle grabbed her by the arm. “You’re not leaving yet.”

Tilda said, “I’ve done what I came here to do, which was to make sure Thayne and Lock were all right. I need to get back now.” She tugged against Michelle’s grip.

But Michelle refused to let go of her. “We want you to come out to the ranch. We need another teacher.” Michelle nodded at the happy couple. Well, happy except that Brody looked near collapse. “Ellie is working with Brody now as his nurse. She did a lot of teaching, so we can use the help.”

“I’m not a teacher.” Tilda shook her head.

Michelle grinned. “Neither was Ellie. And I’m not a doctor. But that hasn’t stopped either of us. Now Brody is our doctor.”

“I can’t be a doctor at the ranch, though. I’m going back to Boston.” Brody wobbled, and Ellie guided him to sit on the edge of the sidewalk.

Ellie said, “I’m not a nurse either.”

Tilda’s brow furrowed, almost as if she didn’t approve of people being things they had no training for.

Josh noticed a rather long scar across her forehead. Old and well-healed, but it was there regardless. He wondered what had happened. Her hair was a bunch of coiled-up springs of dark brown. He could imagine her trying to bind it into a tidy bun every morning—and failing at it. Her eyes were so big, a man had trouble looking away, and so dark he couldn’t tell where the color ended and the pupils began. And they had a way of looking at the world as if she expected life to always be hard. He wondered what had put that look in her eyes. Chasing after the MacKenzie brothers maybe. Yet the look was such a part of her that he suspected she’d had trouble for a long time.

She was five and a half feet tall, more than six inches shorter than him, and so thin he had to fight the urge to get her another piece of chicken and fuss at her until she’d eaten every bite.

Josh respected her worrying about being asked to teach when she’d never done it, but sometimes necessity intervened. Sometimes someone was better than no one at all.

“Ellie’s been teaching, and I’ve been the ranch doctor.” Michelle patted her round belly. “But I can go back to my inventing if we can persuade Brody to stay.”

“You can’t.” Brody leaned against a post near the sidewalk.

“We’ll see.” Michelle gave Brody a concerned look before turning back to Tilda. “Like I said, we need more help.”

Michelle—who had a knack for organizing everything she touched to suit herself, which was usually the right way—leaned close to Tilda and applied her powers of persuasion. “Come with us, Tilda. You can send a wire home to tell the orphanage that Thayne and Lock are safe here. Tell them your return has been delayed. For now, try being a teacher. We’ll start you out with the youngsters, so as long as you know more than them, you should manage nicely.”

Josh had seen Ellie attempt to teach and knew there was more to teaching than that, but he didn’t say so.

Tilda still looked hesitant.

Michelle continued, “At least ride home with us and stay a few days. You can better report about us if you’ve seen how the children are cared for.” She nodded while speaking, and it seemed the force of her will took charge because Tilda began nodded along. “Good. Now let’s talk about what you can expect as a teacher.”

“But first,” Zane cut in, “I want to know what happened to make you lock up Loyal Kelton. So he attacked Ellie and shot Brody?”

“No,” said Josh. “Sonny, the one with Kelton, shot Brody.” Josh rubbed his temple. It had a lump and a small cut, yet it didn’t hurt as much after a good night’s sleep. “Loyal hit me over the head and near to scrambled my brain, then held a gun to my head. And when he got Brody in his sights, he knocked me out cold.”

Even sitting, Brody looked wobbly. Ellie slid her arm around his waist to hold him upright.

“Let’s go to the sheriff’s office so we only have to tell what happened once,” Josh said. “And so Brody can get this over with so he can lie down.”

They all headed for the jail to tell the story to the sheriff and make sure Kelton stayed locked up for good. Since Zane had once beaten Kelton into the ground, Josh enjoyed watching Kelton refuse to meet Zane’s eyes.

Kelton had requested a wire be sent to his father in San Francisco the first minute he’d been brought in. The sheriff said the man had asked his father for a lawyer and for money.

As they entered the jail, a boy came running up with a return wire that refused those requests.

Loyal sat seething in his cell. Sonny was in his own cell, napping. Josh thought Sonny acted like a man who’d spent time in jail before.

Ellie guided Brody to the sheriff’s chair and got him settled.

The sheriff looked grim. “Show me where you got shot, Brody.”

Brody unbuttoned his shirt and showed the sheriff where Loyal’s bullet had hit him.

Josh strode to Brody’s side and peeled the shirt wide open. “That’s ugly, Brody. You really do need to lie down.”

The bruise was red, the size of a coffee saucer just like Brody had said. Near the middle, the wound was turning black. It was swollen and looked hot to the touch. Josh could see the outline of where the gold coin had been rammed into Brody’s chest when the bullet struck it.

“You’d be dead, Brody, if that—” Josh hesitated and decided not to talk of gold—“if you hadn’t had something in your pocket to stop that slug.”

“I have at least two cracked ribs, probably more. One of them could be broken. Getting hit with a bullet at close range has about the same effect as being hit with a stout club. I’ve also got a huge lump on the back of my head, after the gunshot slammed me against the rocks.” Brody tugged his shirt closed. “You’re right. I do need to lie down. But first I want to answer the sheriff’s questions. I don’t want there to be any chance that Kelton walks free from jail.” He turned to the sheriff. “Kelton had planned to kidnap Ellie. He knocked Josh out with the butt of his gun. Sonny stood there gloating over how they were going to steal from us. They wanted me to hand over a map we had with us. When I did so, Sonny shot me. And Kelton stood by and smirked.”

Josh thought the doctor was fortunate he’d been training his wife to be a nurse. Brody needed professional care. There was a doctor here in Dorada Rio. Josh would urge Brody to go see him.

“That’s attempted murder,” the sheriff said. “And three counts because it sounds like they’d planned to kill you all. But shooting you like he did, that’s cold-blooded attempted murder, pure and simple. A man who’d do that isn’t a man who should be allowed to walk around free. And standing by smirking is aiding and abetting in the attempted murder. A man can be charged just as severely for that as he can for pulling the trigger. Add to that assault on Josh. Dragging Josh around against his will is kidnapping. That’s a hanging offense right there. I already put out word for a jury. The trial’s in one hour. You folks need to stay in town to testify.”

Ellie nodded and said, “Brody, I think we should stay here overnight. We need to figure out how to find Mayhew Westbrook, and I’d think that starts in town.”

“What do you want with him?” Michelle asked.

Josh turned to look at his very smart sister-in-law. “You know who that is?”

Michelle shrugged. “Sure. My family does business with his bank in Sacramento.”

A low growl from the jail cell turned them to look at Kelton.

Josh saw clear recognition. “You know who Mayhew Westbrook is, too?”

“This search isn’t going to be that hard.” Ellie stepped forward and rested a hand on Brody’s back. “It looks like we’re the only ones who don’t know who he is.” Ellie steadied Brody as if the poor man needed someone to hold him upright. And he probably did.

Kelton narrowed his eyes and clamped his mouth shut, but there was something there.

Josh said, “Somehow Kelton knows Westbrook. We just read a name in a note left by—”

“Josh, stop.”

Josh turned to stare at Ellie.

“We’ll talk about this, but away from Loyal,” she said. “He’s not going to tell us anything, so let’s leave and talk about it with Michelle and Zane. I don’t want Loyal to know any more than he already does.”

“I can tell you things that’ll make a difference,” Kelton said, his eyes lighting up. “I can speed things up for you—that is, if we can get this nonsense about a trial stopped. I didn’t hurt anyone.”

“Brody’s plenty hurt, and you fully intended to kill him or stand by while your partner did.” Josh crossed his arms and glared at Kelton.

“No, you and this whole family misjudged things. No real harm was done. We can just all go on our way, and with what I have to tell you, you’ll have a lot more information than you have now.”

Josh studied Kelton for about five seconds, then said, “Nope. I want you locked up. San Quentin is going to be your home for a long time.”

All the color drained from Kelton’s face at the mention of the notorious prison near San Francisco.

With a nod of satisfaction, Josh added, “I’d rather do this the slow way rather than speed things up with your help.” He turned and led the way out of the sheriff’s office, his family trailing behind him.

The town was bustling. The sound of a train pulling in from the north underpinned the rattling of wagons and the jingling of traces. They walked down the steps to the boardwalk and away from the jailhouse, where Josh turned to Michelle and said, “Brody’s grandpa sent a journal to Brody back in New York City, telling about a treasure he found out here.”

“A treasure?” Zane groaned. He’d had a lot of trouble when gold was found on the Two Harts a few years ago. Of course, he’d had a lot of gold, too. Josh had trouble feeling too sorry for him.

Tilda stood next to Thayne and Lock, which made sense as they were the only people here she really knew.

“Then,” Josh went on, “they never heard from him again. Brody’s pa spent a good chunk of his life in a fruitless search for that treasure. That’s what brought Brody’s little brothers out here.” Josh nodded at Thayne and Lock.

Ellie said, “Brody and I are going to get a room at the hotel so he can lie down. Josh, with Thayne and Lock helping, knows the whole story. If the sheriff needs us, someone come and get us. We’ll rest until it’s time for the trial.”

The two of them walked away, not looking like they were heading for a wedding night, but rather like Brody needed somewhere to pass out. Josh felt sorry for them, but then he didn’t like thinking about his sister and the wedding night, so he couldn’t say he was that sorry.

“We’ve been following clues in the journal, and yesterday we found Grandpa MacKenzie’s body lying in a cave.”

“You found your grandpa’s body?” Tilda rested a hand on each of the boy’s shoulders. Thayne was taller than her. Lock was just as tall, yet she acted as though they were still children and in need of comfort.

Since they’d never met their grandpa and were viewing all of this as the best kind of adventure, they’d handled finding a skeleton without much trouble.

“We also found more notes. They talked of owing money to Mayhew Westbrook and sending Westbrook half a map at the same time he sent the journal with the other half to Brody’s family back east. Yesterday was the first we heard of any partner in the treasure.”

“You’ve got a treasure map?” Michelle’s eyes lit up. “This’ll be fun.”

Zane shook his head and pulled his rather round wife against him. They were due to have a baby anytime.

“Maybe.” Josh watched his sister and Brody climb the steps to the hotel entrance. Brody wasn’t going to be doing much doctoring for a while. “Ellie and Brody will talk to Westbrook and try to figure out if he has that map, then get back here with it so we can find the treasure.”

“What kind of treasure?”

“We don’t know,” Josh admitted. “We’ve found about a dozen gold doubloons, very old. Maybe the map will lead to a pirate hoard.”

“That’s my guess,” Lock said, nearly bouncing. “And it was fourteen doubloons. Pirates’ treasure. There’s probably a fortune buried somewhere.”

“Yep, the map has some strange foreign words written on it—most likely Spanish, although a lot of them don’t make any sense.”

“I’m fluent in Spanish,” Michelle offered.

Of course she was.

Thayne watched as Brody slowly entered the hotel. Lock might be obsessed with the treasure hunt, but Thayne had the sense to worry about his injured big brother.

“I’ll tell you exactly where to find Mayhew Westbrook. You can find him with no trouble. But why do you want to find my grandpa?”

A new voice turned them around to face a tall, well-dressed stranger, leading his horse down the street from the direction of the train station.

“Mayhew Westbrook is your grandfather?” Josh asked.

Michelle reached out a hand. “You’re Cordell Westbrook. I’m Michelle Hart, formerly Michelle Stiles. We’ve met, though it was a few years ago.”

“Call me Cord. You’re one of Liam Stiles’s daughters? I think your family owns shares in several companies my grandfather has invested in.”

Josh remembered that Michelle’s family knew the governor as well as the man who owned Wells Fargo Bank. And probably everyone else in the state.

Michelle introduced everyone, including Tilda, whom she said was a teacher at the Two Harts School.

Tilda arched a brow but didn’t comment beyond saying hello.

“Now, what’s all this about my grandpa?”

All Josh could think was that their treasure hunt wasn’t even close to being over.