Buried Truth (20 page)

“I think he knows where he’s needed right now,” Margot said, turning on the hallway light and leaving the door to the bedroom open. “If she wakes up, she won’t be in the dark.”

Heather stared at her mother and suddenly everything came crashing in. The kidnapping. Her terror at seeing the grenade rolling down the hill. Tina’s scared face. Bill standing unarmed to defy Oscar’s hatred. And finally her mother’s words when Heather had failed to contact help.

I’m proud of you.

It was too much. Rivers of tears began to flow down Heather’s face and she sank to the floor, curled up in a ball, stifling her sobs on the back of her hand. Then she felt the incredible comfort of her mother’s arms around her.

T
he agent let Bill into Heather’s house before sunup. He’d already called Aunt Jean to come and give whatever comfort possible to Tina, and now, as Heather lay on the sofa on her side, face scratched and bruised from the horror of the previous night, he gently stroked her hair. He wished he could be perfectly at ease about the situation, but the fact of the matter was there was still a killer on the loose. It didn’t seem as though there was any more direct threat to Heather, but he was never going to forget the sheer terror of knowing she was in the hands of a murderer. Margot appeared in the kitchen and he nodded at her as he moved away.

He wondered how matters stood between Heather and her mother. It was the most important relationship in her life and he knew he needed to stay out of the way while they worked it out, or didn’t. That was fine. His own emotions were still a jumble of uncertainty. What should he do now that Oscar was dead? What was his life supposed to be now? It seemed as if something had changed.

“What should I do, God?” he found himself whispering. “Show me.”

Margot handed him a cup of coffee and they sat until Heather woke abruptly.

“What?” she gasped.

Bill put a hand over hers. “No news. The gunman, whoever it was, has probably taken off. Could have been a vigilante, or a random shooter.”

She blinked. “But you don’t think so.”

“No. I don’t think so. For the moment, though, everything is quiet. That’s all I came to tell you.”

Was it all? Was he ready to walk out the door again?

Margot raised a hand. “Actually, there’s something I wanted to talk to you about, which may be nothing at all.”

Bill gave her his attention. “I’m listening.”

She pulled a crumpled envelope from her pocket. “These are lab test results from the water samples we took at Mr. Brown’s place. I had Agent Rudley stop at the post office on our way—” She shook her head. “Last night.”

Heather’s mouth fell open. “But Dr. Egan ran the tests at the lab, didn’t he?”

“One thing I learned as a scientist is never trust someone else with your data. I took another set of samples and sent them to be analyzed myself. There is evidence of slight uranium contamination in the aquifer. Not high levels, but enough to warrant some attention. The strange thing is that Dr. Egan said the samples were clean, no trace contamination.”

Bill frowned, mind turning. “Why would Egan get different results?”

“That was my question precisely.”

Bill put the facts together in his mind. “Egan was the one who showed me Oscar’s hideout.”

“Dr. Egan?” Heather gaped. “You don’t think he shot Oscar?”

“I don’t know. But it bears looking into. I’ll talk to the Feds.” Bill took out his phone and dialed, quickly passing along the strange information. He disconnected, facts still whirling in his mind. “Why would Egan want to hide the
contamination? Because he didn’t want any cleanup teams poking around? What would he need to hide? He doesn’t even live in this town.”

Heather locked eyes with his. “A cleanup of the aquifer would involve my property and Charlie’s. I can’t think of much worth hiding in either place.”

“But the night I drove you home, there was a trespasser here. Remember? He rode a motorbike. Guys think Oscar’s shooter did, too.”

Sometimes people get in over their heads and one small choice ensnares them,
Egan had said. Had he somehow fallen into an arrangement with Oscar Birch?

“But what in the world is worth killing for here?” Heather murmured.

Margot’s face suddenly lit up. “I think I know.” She hurried into her room, and returned with the box of Tina’s treasures. Quickly she selected a white chunk about two inches long. “I thought it was strange at the time, but with everything that’s happened I forgot.”

Bill took it from her. “What is it?”

“I have a feeling it’s what Dr. Egan will kill for, the big ‘payoff’ that Oscar talked about. Can you show me the spot where you found the trespasser?”

“I don’t think you two should be out in the open until the shooter is caught.” He almost laughed at the identical looks of determination on mother and daughter.

“We’re going,” they both said at once.

Aunt Jean arrived to stay with the still-sleeping Tina. Bill hugged her tight and endured the half dozen kisses she pressed on him. She also kissed Heather and gave Margot a squeeze as well for good measure.

“Lovely to meet Heather’s mother,” Aunt Jean said. Bill caught the blush on Heather’s cheeks and the look of pleasure she could not fully hide.

When he finally disentangled himself, he called Tribal Rangers and told them where they were headed and why. They promised to send a unit to check on things when they could and run a search on Egan. He loaded the ladies up in the truck, leaving Tank with Aunt Jean just in case.

They bumped along until they came as close as they could and then continued slowly on foot, with Heather holding on to her mother’s arm, supporting her when the ground became uneven.

“So you’re not going to tell us what this treasure is Egan is after?” Bill said.

“I wouldn’t want to get your hopes up if I’m wrong.”

“Are you wrong?” he said.

She gave him a sly smile. “Not usually.”

He sighed as they continued, glad that the morning temperature was still tolerable, the trail unwinding beneath them.

Heather pointed to the gorge to their left. “That’s the dividing line between this property and Charlie’s, I think.”

“So we’re officially trespassing now,” Margot said, a cheerful smile on her face.

Bill chuckled. “Your mother has become quite the rebel.”

Heather smiled. “Trouble, just like her daughter.”

He couldn’t argue with that. “The guy on the motorbike was rounding this bend,” Bill said as they passed a sharp turn. The cliff walls rose up on one side, sharp and stately. Past the turn in the distance rose a hill covered in brush with exposed patches of yellow earth poking through, like scalp through pockets of thinning hair.

Margot took out her binoculars and trained them across the hillside. “There,” she said, stabbing a finger at a spot just below the midline. “That’s it.”

She handed Bill the binoculars. He squinted until his eyes burned. “What? I don’t see anything but bushes and a bleached-out log.” He handed the binoculars to Heather.

Margot laughed, sounding like a much younger girl. “That’s not a log, Mr. Cloudman. It’s a fossilized bone. More specifically, the bone of a woolly mammoth.”

Heather would never have been able to identify it without help. In disbelief she found the spot her mother pointed out.

“You see, this area was a sinkhole,” Margot said, “probably formed when an underground spring dissolved an underlying layer of limestone, causing it to cave in. Eventually it filled with water. This used to be a much different climate, remember. Mammoths came to drink here, but once they got in, they couldn’t get out. They were trapped and eventually became fossilized, invisible until the surrounding shale ultimately eroded and exposed the fossils.”

Heather finally found her voice. “Fossils plural? More than one?”

“My guess is there is more than one perfectly preserved mammoth skeleton in there waiting to be excavated. Such a find is worth millions, and the prestige of owning and excavating such a find is incalculable.”

“Exactly.” Egan’s voice started them all.

They whirled around to find Dr. Egan standing there, sweat stained and disheveled, a gun in his hand. “I’m not happy to find you all here at the site of my treasure, but I feared you’d figure it out sooner or later.”

Bill put his hand on his own gun, but Heather saw him stop when Egan trained his weapon on her. “Please don’t do anything rash. I really don’t want to kill anyone. There’s been too much killing already. The whole thing has gotten completely out of hand.” His voice quavered as he spoke.

Her heart jumped to her throat. The sight of him there with a gun in his hand was so unexpected. “Did you shoot Oscar?”

“I had to. He was crazy.” Egan shoved his glasses up on
his nose, words spilling out of him like bats from a cave. “I had to protect my fossils.”

Bill spoke quietly and Heather realized he was trying to buy time, to calm Egan down. “How did you discover this spot, Dr. Egan?”

“I hired Leanne to show me around when I first came.” He gestured to Heather. “Your property was vacant, so we hiked here and I spotted this from a distance. Leanne didn’t have a clue what she was looking at. A priceless, breathtaking find right here under everyone’s noses. Unfortunately, when I went back later, Oscar saw me and he wasn’t about to be put off. I had to cut him in or he’d go to Charlie. I paid him to keep an eye on the property. Leanne must have figured out that I had an interest in the area for some reason, because she went back on her own to look around and Oscar killed her, stupid fool.”

Heather saw Bill’s jaw tighten. His fingers moved toward his gun, but Egan seemed not to notice.

“What then?” Bill said, voice tight. “What next?”

“Later Oscar told me his wife figured out what he’d done and he had to kill her, too. It just disintegrated from there.” Egan was sweating heavily, his face unnaturally flushed. “I was going to buy Charlie Moon’s land. I told him there was uranium contamination and no one else would want it. I told him not to tell anyone or he’d have to pay for a cleanup. He agreed, of course, but his nephew suspected something was up.”

Heather gasped. “Johnny suspected someone was pressuring his uncle to sell?”

“Yes. That’s when it all started to unravel.”

Bill’s voice was low and deadly. “Did you help Oscar hide from us after he killed Hazel?”

“I gave him some money. I had to. I was in too deep. Oscar figured he’d wait for you to find him and use the opportunity
to kill Johnny, which would keep my land purchase on track.” Egan looked at Bill. “I think he meant to kill you both, of course, but it didn’t work out. Oscar was a filthy murderer, too concerned with the small details to see the big picture.”

Heather could not believe what she was hearing. So many deaths. So many lives wasted for a pile of ancient bones. She felt suddenly angry. “What about you? You killed Oscar because you figured he would rat you out if he was captured.”

“You should have done that,” Egan shouted to Bill. “You had your chance down there at that construction site and you didn’t kill him. I figured if you saw the setup you could stage an ambush or something. That would have solved everything.”

“Then why did you call and tell Oscar that Bill was at the warehouse? That was you, wasn’t it?” Heather asked.

“I needed it to be over. I knew Oscar was going to use you to get to Bill and if it didn’t work, the plan could go on for weeks. By that time, someone might stumble onto my find. I had to force a confrontation.”

Her mind boggled. “You’re a professor and you’re talking about lives here.”

“Yes,” Bill snapped. “Especially the lives of three women whom Oscar nearly killed.”

Egan waved the comment aside. “I’d have it, don’t you see? The greatest fossil find of the decade. That was the most important thing.”

Bill moved so fast, Heather almost missed it. He drew his gun and fired, catching Egan in the shoulder. Egan dropped the gun and clutched his biceps, blood trickling between his fingers. Bill was on him in a moment, and they went down in a pile. The professor was no match for Bill, who turned him over and twisted his hands behind his back, hissing in his ear.

“Was your buried treasure really worth all those lives, Dr. Egan?
At least Charlie Moon will be able to profit from what is rightfully his.”

Heather forced herself to breathe. It was over. Finally. A Tribal Ranger vehicle rolled up and two officers raced out to take Egan into custody. Margot looked out at the panorama. “Who would have ever thought it?” she murmured. “Right there, right under our noses indeed.”

Heather walked over to Bill. He stood alone, watching Egan being tended by medics, who had arrived after the police. She wanted to touch him, but she was afraid. There had been so much disappointment heaped upon both of them. She remembered his words after they’d learned of Leanne’s murder.

I’m not going to let anyone in, Heather. Ever again.

Her hand stretched out toward his shoulder until she heard him sigh, a broken sad sound that echoed through the warm air. She stopped and turned away.

Too much time had passed.

Too much hurt.

Too late.

Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked out onto the electric-blue sky and contrasting rust of the earth. They were the same parched cliffs and valleys she’d seen before, but now they did not hold the beauty she used to see.

Hands touched her shoulders and turned her around. Startled, she looked into Bill’s eyes, gleaming jet-black. He opened his mouth and closed it again, looking away.

“What is it, Bill?”

He continued to stare at the blue sky. “I’ve never been good with words.”

She wondered at the naked emotion on his face, and then it made sense. He was saying goodbye, for good this time. She bit her lip and willed herself not to cry. “It’s okay. I understand.”

He blinked. “I don’t think you do. I was angry and scared
after Leanne died and I started to think the world was against me.”

“Was? Did something change your mind?”

He sighed, and this time it was a peaceful sound. “I guess God reminded me that there are still plenty of people around who need forgiveness.”

Her cheeks warmed. “Like me, for my drinking.”

His hands stroked her shoulders, her neck. “No, like me for letting you go.”

Her mouth dropped open. “But you tried …”

“Not really. I sent a few emails and called once or twice, mostly to assuage my guilt over arresting you. But I should have said …” He stopped for a moment and swallowed hard. “I should have said I love you, Heather. I know you’ve got problems and so do I, but I’ll stick with you through it and we’ll beat whatever we have to face together.”

She could not control the tears then. “I can’t believe you’re saying this.”