Authors: Dana Mentink
TWENTY-ONE
T
he pitiful collection of guests began to arrive. Ava saw their cars pull up, one by one. Charlie Goren, Bully, a couple from town who knew Uncle Paul only casually as far as she could ascertain. When she forced herself to join the others, she found Sue dressed in black pants and a soft sweater tidying up the kitchen. Harold had exchanged his worn jeans for a less-worn
pair of khakis and a polo shirt. Stephanie, Luca and Tate showed up looking somber. Mack Dog was relegated to outside.
Sue had managed to convince the local pastor to come and say a few words. He kept it generic. No one had many good things to say about her uncle. It was over in a painfully short time before the guests were sent to partake of the food.
Charlie Goren bobbed his head at
Ava. “I’m sorry about your loss. And I’m sorry you never found the Sunset Star. Luca told me it was most likely sold.”
She nodded. “I wish we’d had a better ending. I know how much you wanted to see the Sunset Star.”
Goren offered a smile. “I did, but no one would have appreciated a treasure like that more than Paul.”
True enough, and the memory of his endless enthusiasm brightened
her spirits momentarily. She thanked Goren with a heartfelt squeeze to his hand and accepted condolences from Bully who looked unhappy to be there in a button-up shirt and boots. “You know how I feel. Anything you need, just tell old Bully.”
Luca began to head her way. Her heart sped up and she looked desperately around for a place to avoid him and the mixed-up feelings he stirred in her.
Her cell phone rang. Her father’s number popped up, and she quickly returned to Uncle Paul’s room to answer it.
“Avy, am I interrupting the service?”
“No, Dad.”
“I just wanted to say I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. I was unkind when we spoke earlier.” She swallowed hard. “I know you had your reasons for distrusting Uncle Paul.”
“Thanks for saying that. I sure wish I could be there
with you.”
“I wish you could, too. Sue and Harold worked so hard to spruce the place up.” She asked him about his health, reassuring herself that the doctors pronounced his recovery on track.
“Dad, Sue said something odd.” She told him about the conversation, expecting him to be as bewildered as she. Instead she was met by a silence that went on far too long. “Dad?”
He cleared his
throat. “This isn’t the time to talk about it. Not over the phone.”
A strange feeling of dread coalesced in her stomach. “You have to tell me.”
Another extended pause. “That day, the day your mother died. There was some unpleasantness.”
“What kind?”
“I didn’t want you to ever hear this, Ava.”
“Hear what? If you don’t tell me, I’ll have to ask Sue. Please, Dad.”
He
sucked in a breath. “Your mother accused me of loving another woman.”
Ava’s mouth fell open. “Sue?”
“Yes.” He huffed. “I should be there telling you in person. Sue became attached to me, even more so after my accident. I kept her at arm’s length, but she insisted on telling me that day that she loved me. Your mom overheard and went ballistic.”
Ava forced out the words. “Dad, did
you love Sue?”
“No, honey. As a matter of fact, I wanted her to leave months earlier, when I began to get the idea she had feelings for me, but your mother was so fond of her, and I thought it would exacerbate her problems to be alone on Whisper Mountain without another woman around. Stupid call on my part.”
“So that night, Mom accused you and later...”
“She drowned.”
She heard
the grief in those two hard syllables. “Sue said it might not have been an accident. Maybe she slipped.”
He cleared his throat. “I’ve thought about it, obsessed really, for years over that very thing. I think that version is easier on her conscience. She doesn’t want to believe she contributed to your mother’s decision.”
“But you think Mom killed herself.”
“The police thought so.”
She gripped the phone so hard her hand ached. “Tell me what you believe.”
“Your mother was suicidal at several points over the course of our marriage, but...”
Ava leaned forward.
“The very last moment of her life was between her and God. I’ve always told you that we don’t know what happened in those last few seconds.”
Those last few seconds. Had she walked in willingly?
Fallen in accidentally?
The final moment of her life was between her and God. But, oh, the heartache that moment left behind for Ava and her father.
“You didn’t tell me about Sue. All these years.”
His tone hardened. “No. I took that guilt on all by myself, Ava. I should have fired Sue months before. I should have gone after Marcia. God forgive me, I should have done so many things
differently, but I didn’t.”
Ava was fighting back tears. “Sue was hoping all this time that you’d come back to Whisper Mountain.”
His voice was so soft. “She never could see the truth. My heart always belonged to Marcia. There was no room for anyone else, except you.”
“Oh, Dad. Part of me hates this place.”
“I feel the same way, Ava, but the other part of me knows Whisper Mountain
holds all the greatest treasures of my life.”
Ava mumbled incoherently for a while, letting her father’s soothing words wash over her, their grief binding them together. She said goodbye when someone knocked softly on the door.
She opened it to find Luca and Stephanie there. Luca shoved his good hand in his pocket. “We, uh, we came to check on you.” He eyed her tearstained face. “We
can come back later.”
“No,” she said. “Come in. I need the company.” Even though she wanted to keep her father’s revelation to herself, she found it all coming out in spurts as Stephanie and Luca looked on in astonishment.
Stephanie shook her head. “I never would have guessed that about Sue.”
“Me, neither, but it makes sense.” He glanced out the window at Tate who was roughhousing
with Mack Dog. “I wonder...”
“If Sue had something to do with Paul’s death?”
“Securing the treasure would ensure Whisper wouldn’t be sold. She’d still have a chance of getting Bruce to come back.”
“But there is no treasure,” Ava groaned. “No reason for anyone to kidnap Paul.”
Luca cocked his head. “I’ve been thinking about that printing press.”
Stephanie shot a look at
Ava. “Between Luca and Victor I’ve gotten chapter and verse on Gutenberg and his printing press. He started printing the Bible. The number of lines per page was increased from forty to forty-two to save paper, so those Bibles were given the name B42s. Print runs were increased to a whopping 180 copies. Pope Pius XI even gave his work a thumbs-up. I could go on and on.”
“Maybe Paul got hold
of a Gutenberg book. The size of the box under the trailer indicates something big,” Luca said, chuckling as he watched Mack Dog knock Tate over backward into the snow and dive on top of him.
“Unlikely,” Stephanie said. “There are fewer than two dozen in the whole world and a complete copy hasn’t been sold since 1978. If he was really lucky, he might have found pieces, a page or two.”
“Uncle Paul never had that kind of luck.” Ava remembered her uncle’s last words.
This time I’m going to make it right.
What could he have found that gave him such confidence? It didn’t matter anymore. Whatever it was could stay buried in some dark hole somewhere, along with Sue’s futile love for her father, her mother’s tortured last moments and all the happy times when things had been
good.
Luca’s boyish face rose in her heart, his brash laughter as he’d flown down the snow-covered mountain behind her. Maybe Whisper would belong to the Gages. Maybe Luca would enjoy the slopes again, at some other time, with some other girl. The thought cut a painful path through her insides.
“I should get back to the guests,” she said. “The real estate agent is coming later this afternoon
to talk over the details.”
“We’ll be packed up and out of here after the service,” Luca said, eyes riveted to her face. “If that’s what you want.”
She did not dare meet his gaze. Luca belonged to another world; she’d been wrong to let him into her heart and mind.
Cut the threads to Whisper. Cut them all.
“I think that would be best,” she managed before escaping into the hallway.
* * *
Luca packed silently. Stephanie and Tate did the same, loading everything into Stephanie’s car. Tate took Mack Dog out for one more play session, and Luca and his sister watched, leaning against the car in the brilliant sunshine beaming down from a cloudless sky. The mountain was bathed in white, a perfect backdrop for the quaint old lodge.
“Will Dad buy it?” Stephanie asked.
“I don’t know.” At first he’d wanted desperately to insist on it, but now he realized, without Ava, Whisper Mountain was just another ski resort, one of many strung along the Sierras. Without Ava...
The words replayed over and over.
What would she do? Pay off her debts and move on to a new life, close to her father probably. Would she find happiness?
He prayed she would, but
still, the heaviness in his own heart did not let up, intensifying when Ava stepped out of the lodge and headed toward him.
“I’m going to go see if I can tear Tate away from Mack Dog.” Stephanie crunched away, waving at Ava as she passed.
Luca’s pulse ticked up a notch as Ava drew close, hair a luminous glow against the winter panorama.
She gave him a nod. “All packed?”
“Yes.
Tate is just saying his goodbyes to Mack Dog.”
Ava sighed. “Do you think he’d want to take Mack?”
Luca blinked. “I think he’d be thrilled, but are you okay with that?”
Ava shook her head. “I’ll miss him, but it seems like it’s the right thing to do. Leave it all behind and start over.”
Luca didn’t think. He reached out and took her hands. “There’s no other choice?”
She
inhaled, her breath shaky. “No, there’s too much baggage here.” Her voice dropped. “Too much baggage in me.”
He can lift that away, Luca wanted to say. There is love waiting for you here if you’ll just open your eyes. “Ava...”
They were interrupted as Tate and Stephanie ran toward them, Tate holding something in his hands.
“What do you make of this?” he said, holding out Mack Dog’s
collar. “It came off when we were wrestling.”
They bent close together to look. Luca could make out some scratches on the metal tag. He peered closer. “It says B42.”
Ava’s mouth fell open. “Like the B42 Bible?”
“Maybe,” he said. “Or maybe it’s a hint to tell us where he’s hidden this treasure.”
“Or both,” Stephanie said, eyes sparking in excitement. “I’m thinking about those
old lockers. Is there a locker number B42?”
Ava nodded. “Yes, there is.”
Luca moved closer, praying that this wasn’t just another dead end to keep Ava from leaving her pain in the past. “Are you up for one more shot at this treasure hunting business?”
Ava smiled, that open-mouthed, joyful grin that set his nerves on fire. “What could it hurt?” she said.
* * *
They brainstormed
on the way, heading to the garage for a set of sturdy bolt cutters.
Mack Dog broke from the group and approached an old relic of a truck, climbing nimbly into the back and curling up there.
Tate laughed. “Never misses an opportunity for a nap.”
“I guess you’ll have to take the truck with you when you go. It’s his favorite spot,” Ava teased.
Tate’s face flushed. “You...want
me to take him?”
She nodded, her heart filling with warmth. “He loves you, and that’s what Uncle Paul would want, too.”
Tate only nodded, but Ava could see he was thrilled to the core. She had made one right decision at least.
Stephanie spoke excitedly as they headed outside, her words keeping pace with their vigorous hike. “John Danson’s great-grandfather worked at the Leuven library,”
she said excitedly. “It was burned in World War II. Guess what book was the star of their collection and presumably lost in the fire according to the text I just got from big brother?”
Ava’s heart thudded. “A Gutenberg Bible?”
“Right on the money.”
“Okay,” Luca said, leading them past the main lodge and along a path Harold had recently cleared. “So maybe Great-Grandfather Danson
takes the Bible before the library was burned. He doesn’t want to admit to the theft, so he keeps it quiet, hides it away.”
“And when they come to the States, he can’t sell it without people putting the pieces together and realizing he stole it from the library.”
“So it’s put away in storage, along with some costume jewelry and musty old books.”
“He goes to the grave carrying his
secret with him. The book is lost until Uncle Paul borrows money from Charlie Goren and buys the storage unit, thinking he might find the pearl.”
“And he did,” Luca said. “This time maybe Paul really did find it. It just didn’t look like what he thought it would.”
They found the locker quickly. Number B42 was in good condition, sandwiched as it was in the middle of long rows of lockers.
The building that housed the lockers was sound, no leaking from the roof. Aside from a few dented locker doors and the smell of long years of disuse, the place was in good shape.
Luca bent down and peered at the lock on B42. “This is the one.”
He handed her the bolt cutters. “Do you want to do the honors?”
Cheeks warm, she took it from his hand and applied herself to cutting through
the hanging padlock. The metal gave way with a click and she tossed the lock aside. With fingers gone cold, she tried the locker door. It refused to budge until she gave it a hard yank and the panel pulled open with a squeal of protest.
She was frozen for a moment. If there was nothing inside, then it truly was the end. For Paul’s dream. And for hers. She took a deep breath and looked inside.
TWENTY-TWO
L
uca realized he was holding his breath as Ava reached in the locker and pulled out a compact bundle wrapped in oilcloth.
Luca frowned. “Strange size. It should be...”
A shadow slid across the floor toward them as a man stepped around the corner holding a shotgun.
Charlie Goren stood, shifting back and forth like a runner at the starting line, gripping
and regripping the weapon. “Whatever that is, it’s mine.”
Ava appeared too shocked to reply.
Luca edged in front of her and Tate did the same for Stephanie. “How exactly is it yours?” Luca asked, voice level.
“Because Paul borrowed money from me to buy it. I thought it would be a pearl, but at this point, I’ll take what I can get.”
“Did you kidnap my uncle?” Ava said.
Goren twitched. “He boasted and boasted all the years I knew him. Behind every boast was a dig, I’m smarter than you, I’m luckier, I’m better. I let it go until he came back the last time. It was the big score, he said. I did some research on the Dansons and for once, it seemed like he had the facts to back him up.” Goren spat the words. “I knew he was lying about what he got. I made up my mind to
grab Paul and make him tell me what he’d found in that storage box.”
“You’re responsible for his death,” Ava said flatly.
Goren shifted. “Things went wrong. He hid the treasure up here before I could get it from under his trailer. Then he arranged a meeting with you. I had to stop that before he handed it over. I was going to let him go after he cooperated, but we crashed and he didn’t
survive. I had no choice but to get out of there.”
Ava hugged herself. “He trusted you.”
“No, he didn’t. He didn’t trust anyone. Every time he pursued another payoff, he kept the particulars to himself. All he needed from me was my money and I guess he was really the smarter one because I gave it to him. Handed it over as if he was my own brother.”
“It doesn’t give you the right
to do what you did.”
Goren looked at her, wide-eyed. “For once, I decided to be the one in charge. Just once. I knew he hid things under his trailer. I tried to sneak under and hopefully find the pearl, but I got you instead. Stupid, stupid. I should have known it was here somewhere, here at Whisper. I slashed my own tires so I’d have a reason to stick around.” He laughed, a half-hysterical
sound. “I broke the basement window and all I got for my trouble was an old book.”
Ava felt anger brewing inside her. “How did you know Paul arranged the meeting with me?”
Goren stepped closer, his fingers tight around the gun. “I tried to dissuade you from searching here by sending those logs down on you, but here you are, so we’ll do it the hard way. I want what was in the locker.
It’s mine.”
Luca spoke calmly. “You’re not a killer, Charlie. You’re just a guy who got cheated.”
Goren swallowed. “My store is all I have. My gems. I’ll take them and start over with whatever treasure I can lay my hands on.”
“Sure,” Luca said. “But you don’t need to kill anyone to do that.”
“Not if she gives it to me.” Goren poked the shotgun at Ava. “This time it’s loaded
and I’m going to be blamed for Paul’s death. I’ve got nothing to lose.”
Ava offered up the bundle. “Whatever is in here,” she said, “I’d give it all to have my uncle back.”
Goren didn’t meet her eyes. He reached out and grabbed it with one hand. “Now all of you face the lockers and put your hands over your heads. Right now. I’m going to walk out that door and if anyone turns around I’m
going to start shooting. I’m not a good marksman, but I’m sure I can get most of you.”
They all turned around. Luca put his palms on the cold metal and tried to get a glimpse of Ava. All the grief, all the pain could have been avoided if Paul had seen the real treasure right before his eyes, a niece who loved him in spite of his faults.
“Charlie, you don’t have to do this,” Luca said.
His words were cut short by a shot that nearly deafened him. Luca pulled Ava to the floor, heard Stephanie’s scream echo through the small space. He saw Goren on the ground and the door to the locker building banging shut.
They scrambled to their feet. Goren was on his back, blood leaking from a bullet wound to his shoulder. The bundle was gone.
Goren groaned. “I’m a fool.”
“Who shot you?” Luca barked.
“A fool,” Goren continued, tears streaming down his face now.
Luca leaped to his feet and took off for the door.
“No,” Stephanie hollered. “Luca, don’t.”
“Stay here with Goren,” Luca shouted over his shoulder. “Call for help.”
Then he crashed out the door, Ava right behind him.
There was no sign of the shooter, but the tracks in the snow
made it clear that whoever it was had taken off around the side of the lodge. Most of the guests’ cars were gone except for Bully’s snowmobile and Goren’s vehicle. Luca threw off the sling and increased his speed as much as he could, ignoring his protesting muscles.
He finally caught a glimpse of his quarry, wearing a ski cap and black pants, sprinting with surprising speed for the snowmobile.
The facts lined themselves up. Luca would not catch up. It was not possible in his battered condition, but he continued the frantic pace anyway.
Just as he’d feared, the person hopped on the snowmobile and revved the engine, taking off on the thick blanket of snow and heading away from the road.
He stopped, gasping for breath. Ava pulled up next to him.
“Who...” She panted.
“I don’t know.”
Ava turned around and raced back to the lodge. To call the police, probably.
Luca kicked at a clump of snow. It couldn’t end this way. No treasure. Goren’s shooter free. Where was the closure for Ava? The happy ending? She deserved answers.
Suddenly Ava was back, thrusting a pair of skis at him and tossing a set of poles and boots at his feet.
She bent to yank
on boots and stepped expertly into the skis, the bindings clicking into place.
“Dangerous,” Luca growled.
“Then stay here and wait for the police. I’ll tell you how it turns out.”
She knew perfectly well he was not about to let her go after an armed shooter on her own, but she probably thought he wouldn’t be able to keep up with an injured shoulder.
That’s where you’re wrong,
Ava,
he thought as he snapped on his own set of skis.
* * *
Ava poled hard as they trekked across the snow next to the road. It was irregular and marred from the snowplow, but soon the surface was smoother and they moved along, following the tracks of the snowmobile.
“There,” Ava shouted, pointing at the rolling hill that fell away to their right.
“Slopes haven’t been tended
to,” Luca called back.
He needn’t have told her. She knew the terrain was dangerous here, without her father’s constant vigilance. Above them was a cornice of snow, a massive thrust of white that had been hollowed at the base by wind and sun.
The snowmobile was speeding across the slope below that glittering cornice. On the other side lay an easy path down toward the main road. Luca
was right. The scenario was a recipe for disaster. She should let their quarry go.
She thought of Paul and his infectious smile. It seemed like a lifetime ago she’d watched him snatched from right before her eyes by Goren. But Goren had not acted alone. Someone told him about Uncle Paul’s plan to meet her. The same person who had gunned down Goren.
Their escape meant she would never
really know.
Like she would never really know if her mother committed suicide or accidentally fell into that lake.
Maybe it didn’t matter. They were both irretrievably lost to her.
But not completely. Something had happened to her in the time she’d been searching for this treasure. She realized in that moment that their lives would always be intertwined with hers, the good memories
and the love lingering on more vibrant than the circumstances of their death.
Treasures.
From God.
Her heart swelled. Her treasures were secure. She would let the snowmobile go.
Luca moved closer and put an arm around her. She also knew the truth about him as clearly as if she’d realized it years ago. Turning, she caught the iridescent green eyes that seemed to look into the
deepest part of her.
“I...” Her words were lost in a loud rush of sound as part of the cornice gave way. A corner of the ice mound broke off and slid down the slope, a few yards in front of the snowmobiler who stopped abruptly.
In one swift movement, the driver jerked the machine around and headed back toward Luca and Ava’s position. Whether it was the movement of the snowmobile or the
simple act of forces working on the unstable pile of snow, the mountainside began to tremble, signaling the onset of an avalanche.
In unison, Ava and Luca pointed their skis toward the grove of trees away from the steep slope. Poling hard, they leaned into the slope and shoved off. Cold wind slapped Ava’s face and the roar of the monster river of snow followed them.
The snowmobile plowed
ahead of them, kicking icy bits in its wake.
The ground shook under their skis. Ava risked a look back. A plume of snow roiled into the air. The white wave was almost upon them.
Luca shouted something that Ava couldn’t make out. It seemed as though they were flying, like birds about to be enveloped by a white cloud. It was a beautiful image, but the reality was deadly.
Luca kept
pace with her in spite of his bruises.
He’d risked everything, including his life to help her.
She knew she’d give it all up—the treasure, Whisper, even the chance to avenge her uncle’s death—if it would protect him.
She didn’t have time to ponder the strange and wondrous feeling as cascading snow rushed around her threatening to knock her over. Skiing for the farthest tree, she
prayed the stout trunk would shield them from the onslaught. Instead she fell, her skis snapping off, her body crashing into the massive pine. Then Luca was there, his arms around her as the enormous strength of the avalanche pinned them together against the frozen bark.
Her cheek pressed into the rough surface. She felt Luca struggling to keep his body from crushing hers as the snow thundered
down around them. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the snowmobile tumbling over and over until it hurtled against another tree with a crunch of metal.
“Luca,” she wanted to cry out as she felt the breath pushed from her body. “Luca, I’m sorry.”
The angry torrent filled her ears, snow rushing by, banging and pummeling them, bits of ice stinging their hands and faces. They were likely
going to die. And she had spent so long steeped in grief, hardened by loss, wasting all of the precious days God had given her.
“Luca,” she tried again, and again her words were swallowed up by the crush.
* * *
Luca kept his arms caged around Ava, the tree bark chewing into his palms. He was not strong enough to fend off the moving mountain.
He prayed for strength, for mercy,
for Ava.
The snow piled up around his legs, immobilizing him, creeping toward his chest. A few more feet and their heads would be covered, suffocating them in a blanket of brilliant white. Shoulder on fire with pain, he tried desperately to protect her.
Arms trembling he knew they had only moments left. Snow continued to slam into his back with enough force that he found it hard to breathe.
Hang on, Ava.
He closed his eyes and concentrated on her silky hair, the softness of her small shoulder pressed against his chest. If that was the last thing he was going to feel on this earth, he could not have picked a better sensation.
As his strength failed, he gulped in one more breath of air.
The torrent suddenly stopped.
Snow continued to slide around them, but it
was in lazy trickles now. The ringing in his ears subsided into quiet, broken only by the harsh sound of his own breathing. He blinked and sucked in a few more breaths.
“Ava?” he murmured in her ear.
She didn’t answer and his heart quivered.
He pressed his mouth to hair. “Please answer me.” He’d never wanted a reply more than he did at that moment. He’d never wanted anything in
the world more than he craved the sound of her voice.
After a moment, she took a shuddering breath. “I’m okay.”
He could not speak, his heart was so full of joy. “Thank you, Lord,” he breathed. Wriggling back and forth, he was able to free his arms from their icy entrapment. It allowed him enough leverage to pull himself upward on a branch just above. Ava did the same and they yanked
themselves free, crawling awkwardly to a higher island of snow.
Luca took Ava’s hand and guided her toward the road.
They moved slowly, their feet sinking into the newly settled snow, avoiding any unnecessary movements that might set more snow in motion. When they reached the road, they could see people running toward them, Stephanie and Tate and others.
From down the mountain came
the sound of sirens.
Luca held fast to Ava’s hand, searching her face for a sign of what she was feeling.
Her eyes rounded in horror as she looked past him toward an irregular pile of snow.
“What is it?”
Her mouth opened but she didn’t speak. Instead, she pointed to a spot on the snow he’d missed.
The spot where a hand was protruding through the icy crust.