Page 53 of Pepper, the Biker & the Vanishing Body

Ian stared at the portrait. “You do have a point. Maybe they were both thieves working together and were near to being caught so they hopped a ship to the New World.”

“The treasure could be far larger than we thought,” I said.

“Unless it has already been found which means the demise of the Willow Lake Historical Society.”

Ian and I turned to see Amy.

“If the Willow Lake Historical Society doesn’t have an infusion of money soon, it will cease to exist and that means the Willow Mansion will fall to the town for unpaid taxes yet again, the Willow Lake Historical Museum will be closed, the two scholarships they hand out, small as they are, will be no more, and the two books the society hoped to publish will never see print.”

“The society’s finances are that dire?” I asked.

“Thanks to Melvin Waters, mishandling or possibly embezzling the money. Edna just told me that Melvin had big traveling plans. I wouldn’t be surprised if he chose countries with no extradition agreements with the United States,” Amy said. “His plans called for far more money than he may have embezzled so I wonder if he found the jewels and sold them.”

“He had to leave his money to someone,” Ian said.

“I’ll find out from the county clerk if he has a will and request a copy,” Amy said. “It will show his assets and how they were to be distributed. Unless he squirreled it away in another country, but I’ve dealt with this stuff before in my accounting business. If he has bank accounts out there somewhere, I’ll find them and get the money owed to the historical society. But it will take time, and the historical society needs an infusion of money now. I’ve got to go. I can’t be late for the Summer Festival Association meeting. The mayor is threatening to eliminate some of the summer festivals due to financial woes and it’s due to the worthless town business manager he appointed last year. The man has no idea what he’s doing. Your mom is going to have her hands full when she inherits the mess Mayor Barrett has created.” She glanced around. “Beau was supposed to pick me up.”

“I’m your ride,” Ian announced gallantly. “Beau got stuck on a business call and asked me to get you since I wanted to see how Pep was doing.”

“Beau has a sharp mind for finances,” Amy said proudly.

Ian agreed with a nod. “Which is why he is my business partner.” He turned to me. “Leaving? Staying?”

“I have a few more places I want to look at here, then I’m going to head home and go through the Willow documents we have so far and see if anything jumps out at me.”

“How about the four of us get together for supper at Treetops around seven?” Ian suggested.

“That would be great,” Amy agreed.

I loved the idea myself and with a quick kiss from Ian he left with Amy. I decided to stroll through the garden area which was off limits to all but historical society members. I wanted to walk around it to make sure the grounds were walkable for Charlie Gibbons when I brought him here.

I couldn’t find Edna, but I let Doris know where I was going and left through the kitchen door that led out back and opened on to what once must have been the kitchen garden. It had been left unattended, though an herb or two peeked through the weeds and through the bricks in the walkway. Further along was what probably had been the vegetable garden, and to the right, in front of the dining room windows spread a vast garden that in its prime must have been gorgeous but had since been left to nature to reclaim.

It was a shame. If it was brought back to its heyday, it would be a perfect place to set café tables and chairs around and have a building where beverages and light fare could be purchased. When Amy saw this area, she was going to go crazy with ideas.

I spotted a building at the far end of the garden and wondered if it could be converted into such a place. I made my way to it, stopping often to spot bushes and flowers that refused to stop blooming and had made themselves one with the weeds.

The building was larger than I expected and boarded up. There was some rot in places, but the structure appeared sturdy and was definitely built far after Ignatius’s time. I walked around the back and spotted a loose board. Naturally, my curiosity demanded I explore.

I moved the sheet of plywood that had some rot to it to the side and that allowed the sun to enter. I was shocked at what I found. Someone was camping out there. A sleeping bag and a small cooler with a lantern sitting on top occupied an area that looked to have been cleaned of debris. It could be some homeless person, but the items looked new. I searched around for any evidence that might tell me who was camping out here but found nothing. Whoever it was made certain to be cautious.

A noise outside caught my attention and I hurried out, thinking it wasn’t a great idea to be caught in there alone with the squatter. As soon as I stepped outside, I spotted someone not too far away, a man, his hooded sweatshirt pulled up concealing a good portion of his face.

My immediate thought—the vanishing guy.

“Wait!” I yelled. “I just want to talk.”

He didn’t hear me, or he had no desire to talk with me. He ran.

Of course, I couldn’t let him get away again. I ran after him.

I barely took a few steps when something smacked me hard in the face and sent me tumbling to the ground.

CHAPTER 15

“Arake,” Amy said for what felt like the hundredth time and trying to hide her giggle as she pulled into the Treetop parking lot.

“And you should have seen what I did to it after the first punch.”

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