Hidden in Shadow Pines (17 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

Friday, August 16, 2013, 11:42 p.m.
(day 11 in Shadow Pines—under the servants’ kitchen)

“Are you okay, Grandfather?” I asked.

“I think the last couple of weeks have been good for you,” Ed said.

“Are you crazy?” I said as I bent down and picked up the flashlight.

“You’re more confident. A risk taker. And, you’ve become quite the detective in your own right. You never would have done the things I’ve seen if you’d remained in Darden.”

I thought about what he said. He was right. Shadow Pines had changed me. “Let’s get out of here first. We can continue this discussion later.”

“Good idea. We need to go to the end of the tunnel. There’s a gate on the left side.”

I shone my light down the tunnel. It looked about four feet wide and eight feet tall. Lumber surrounded all four sides. “You sure this is stable?”

“The tunnel was built in 1856. They were true builders in that day. Took pride in their work. This tunnel will still be here long after we’re gone.”

Ed led us down the corridor. After twenty feet, it ended. To the left was a wrought-iron fence, the letters “
sp,”
in the middle. I took the skeleton key and opened the gate.

“Freedom,” I said. I tucked the gun in my waistband now that I knew it was impossible for anyone to follow after.

“Come on. I left some supplies for us,” Ed said as he pushed the gate open wide. “I came down here the day after you disappeared. Thought it might come in handy.”

We walked past the entrance, and I shut the gate behind, making sure it clicked shut. I stood for a moment, my hand still gripped to the metal gate, thinking of everything that’d happened in the last twelve days.

“Mind shining the light this way?” Ed asked.

I’d been pointing the flashlight at the ground. “Oh, sorry.” I immediately lifted the flashlight and shone the light down the tunnel, seeing no end in sight.

“There’s the box.” Ed pointed down the tunnel. He took off toward it even before I could see it. By the time I caught up, he’d already opened the cardboard box about the size of a toaster oven.

“Bottle of water?” Ed asked.

“Yes, please.”

“Granola bar?”

“Sure, why not.”

Also inside the box were two flashlights, a first-aid kit, gun, an extra magazine, and duct tape. It wasn’t until Ed stood that I noticed he had a cell phone in his hand.

“Looks as though you’ve thought of everything,” I said.

“You, if anyone, should know it’s best to be prepared.” Ed held the phone high, trying to find an elusive signal.

“Did I get that trait from you?” I laughed. I realized I hadn’t laughed much lately.

“Your father was that way too. We would take camping trips in the woods. We never went on a trip when he hadn’t brought everything that we needed for the night, and a little extra.” Despite the dim light, I saw him smile.

“When I was little we took a couple of camping trips,” I added. “I miss Mom and Dad.”

“I do too, Isabella.”

“I have something I need to tell you,” I said. “About their accident.”

“You can tell me tomorrow. How about we get out of this tunnel first?”

Disappointed, I agreed. “Sure.” I wanted to get the guilt off my chest, but it would have to wait for another day.

“The tunnel ends in about a mile,” Ed said, putting the cell phone in his back pocket. “Probably won’t get a signal till we’re closer to Darden.”

I picked up the box and we walked through the tunnel in silence for fifteen minutes.

“Stop for a bit,” Ed said and pulled out the cell phone. “Got a signal.” He punched in a number. “It’s Ed… We’re both fine… Yes… See you in fifteen minutes.”

“Who were you talking to?”

“You’ll see. Let’s get going.”

Ed was being mysterious, and I didn’t like it. I thought once I was away from Shadow Pines all the drama would end.

Another five minutes went by before I spotted a metal ladder just ahead of us. “Looks like we’ve found the end of the tunnel,” I announced.

Ed clapped with joy. “Good. Now shine the light on the top of the ladder.”

Ed climbed a few steps, then pushed open an overhead door and climbed out.

“Okay, Isabella. Your turn.”

I grabbed the highest rung I could reach with one hand and hoisted myself higher. “Stand back. I’m going to throw the box up.” It landed with a thump. I continued up the ladder to find myself in small, run-down building. “Now where are we?” I asked.

“A little shack I built to mark the tunnel on land I bought.” Ed reached down and put the door back into place. The wooden door matched the flooring just as with the cabin in the woods. “Sometimes kids come in here. I’ve had to clean up a few beer cans over the years. I put in security cameras last year after two young boys were arrested for selling drugs out of the shack.”

I shook my head. “We have so many things to talk about.” All this time I thought the man down the street was a kind, gentle man. Now I found out he knew about security cameras and guns.

“Let’s go. She should be here by now.” Ed opened the shack door only partially. Two fifty-gallon drums blocked its full opening.

“Who?” I asked as I followed him out the door.

“You’ll see. Come on.”

Ed’s mysterious act was getting annoying. Why couldn’t he just tell me?

We walked through the woods for about five minutes. On the side of the road was Ed’s car. As soon as the driver spotted us, she got out of the car and started running in our direction. Once I recognized the woman, I stopped in my tracks. How was this possible?

“I’m so glad you two are safe. Let me carry the box. I’ve been anxious all day. I think I drank too much coffee.”

“Jaime, what are you doing here?” I asked.

“Picking you up and taking you home, silly.”

Ed spoke. “I think she means what are
you
doing in
Darden
.”

Jaime seemed puzzled. “You didn’t tell her?”

“I wanted it to be a surprise. And by the look on her face, it is,” Ed said.

“Oh, such a long story. How about we tell you over lunch tomorrow? It’s late. You need a shower and some rest. You’ll be home in a few minutes.”

Home. I really liked the sound of that.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Saturday, August 17, 2013, 10:40 a.m.
(back home in Darden)

Twelve hours before, I wondered if I’d ever see my home again. But last night I’d had a restful sleep in my own comfy, cozy bed. Now I was sitting on the couch in my living room next to my grandfather. Jaime sat across from us in the recliner. It was time for all the facts to emerge. All the lies, truths—good, bad—everything was going to be told. No holding back.

“I’d like to go first,” I said taking a deep breath. “I’m to blame for my parents’ death. I was driving the car that was responsible for the log truck slamming on its breaks and losing the load that landed on top of my parents’ car. That’s the reason I took their deaths so hard. Why I never got in a car afterward. I couldn’t forgive myself. Not sure I ever will be able to.”

Ed took my hand. “If the logs had been tied properly, the load wouldn’t have fallen on their car. And if your father hadn’t been driving so close to the truck, he wouldn’t have run into the back end. Things happen in life we have no control over. You have to let it go so you can move on.”

Tears leaked out of my eyes. “I never thought about the accident that way before.”

“Plus, your father wanted a full life for you, for him. That’s why he left Shadow Pines.”

Jaime spoke. “Isabella, you’re the reason I decided to leave Shadow Pines. To make a better life for myself.”

I wiped away the tears. “Now tell me. How did the two of you get to know each other?”

Jaime took a sip of coffee, “Go ahead, Ed. You tell the story.”

“About six months ago, Jaime was admitted to the Darden hospital with a burst appendix. Hudson told me to watch over her. I told the hospital staff I was her grandfather. That’s the only way they would let me stay in the room with her. I showed her a picture of you I kept in my wallet. We talked a lot about life outside Shadow Pines. Jaime had a couple of complications that made her return to the hospital a few times. Each time, she called me. We would talk. Her last visit to the hospital was the day you went missing.”

“I was confused when I saw you standing in my guest bedroom that first time when I brought breakfast,” Jaime interrupted. “I recognized you from the picture Ed showed me.”

“We devised a plan during her last hospital visit. When you didn’t make it back to Jaime’s on the ninth, she escaped from Shadow Pines and came to my house. She stayed while I went to Shadow Pines to get you.”

“How did you get out, Jaime?” I asked.

“In Hudson’s van. I snuck out under a black tarp in the back. The security guards knew Hudson always left to get supplies, so they let him pass through easily. I was really nervous I’d get caught.”

“I thought you were one of the bad guys, Jaime. You acted as though you hated me.”

“I was watching you both for Ed and the town council. Plus, Lincoln was threatening me. It was quite the juggling act.” She smiled wanly.

“So, Grandfather, when did you realize Hudson had turned from friend to enemy?”

“A month before you went missing, he started asking a lot of questions about you. I spotted his van outside your house a couple of times. Then he started asking about the money and the gold. I knew something was wrong.”

“Gold?” Jaime inquired.

“Yes, Isabella has gold,” Ed said.

“I do?” If I sounded dumbfounded, that might have been because I was dumbfounded.

“Can I finish my story first? Then we’ll talk about the gold.”

“Yes,” Jaime and I said in unison, then laughed like schoolgirls.

“I played along. When he came to me about getting you out if I gave him money, I knew it wasn’t good. Everything I did was to get you out and back to Darden. I underestimated how dark Hudson had turned. I thought I’d never see you again. But thanks to my two girls, everything turned out okay.”

“Now tell us the story of Isabella’s gold,” Jaime said.

“Generations ago, the Luster family struck it rich in the Gold Rush. They converted the gold to bars and moved to the Midwest for a peaceful life. Along their travels, they met several families who were also looking for a nurturing and spiritual community to raise their families. When they arrived in Iowa, they met the Stovall family. The idea for Shadow Pines was born.

“The Stovall family owned the land, and combined with the Luster gold and labor from the other families, they built the wall, houses, grocery store, bank, and other buildings. My father sold all but seven bricks in 1938. That’s where the money in the bank is from. He didn’t like having all the gold in the house.

“After my father died, I withdrew a hundred dollars from the account every month and put it in the safe deposit box. When Nicholas decided to leave, I gave him the money. I wanted him to be financially secure.

“I helped him carry the bricks into the tunnel. We hugged. I told him I was proud of him. I never thought I’d see him again. But when my wife died, nothing was left for me in Shadow Pines. I made a deal with Hudson that he could have my money if he helped get me out of town.

“Hudson stormed into my house one night wanting to know when he was getting the money for helping me leave Shadow Pines. Unfortunately, Bowman was in the other room helping me write a sermon and heard everything. Hudson snapped. Bowman and Hudson struggled, and the next thing I knew Bowman was on the floor in a pool of blood. I saw the anger in Hudson that night. Hudson and I agreed that I’d leave the next morning after I gave him the money. Instead, I packed a small bag and set my house on fire.”

“But who was the man they thought was you?” Jaime asked.

“I’d brought a man into the community that afternoon. I thought he went to the church. He was the same build as Bowman. I think when the neighbors saw him run in the burning house, they assumed he was Bowman because Bowman’s car was parked out front. I never meant for the man to die.”

“And the people in Shadow Pines assumed the body was you,” I added.

“I never knew what people thought until I was being interviewed by the town council. In all the years I spoke to Hudson, he never told me.”

“I knew I never should have trusted him,” I said.

“Well, I trusted him too. All of Shadow Pines trusted him. He was on the town council for heaven’s sake,” Jaime said.

“I think everyone now knows what a devious man he was. May he rest in peace,” Ed said.

“How did you find your son? That’s gotta be a good story.” Jaime added.

“In the tunnel when he left, I told him to change his last name to Retsul. Which is Luster spelled backward. I knew he wanted to go into finance, and I assumed he would have gone far away. But on my second day in Darden, I went to a bank on the outskirts of town. There he was, sitting in an office. Even after twenty years, I knew he was my son.” Ed’s eyes filled with tears.

“What a sweet story. What are the odds?” Jaime said.

“Why did you hide the fact you were my grandfather?” I asked.

“I changed my name when I moved to Darden. I moved in down the street and became your neighbor. After several months your father and I agreed to tell you on your eighteenth birthday.”

I bit my lower lip. “But they died. And I was a wreck for a couple of years.”

“I couldn’t tell you back then. I took care of all your bills and took care of you. I was just the friendly neighbor two houses down the street.”

Sitting up straight, I asked, “But why didn’t you ever tell me? I’m thirty-four now. I think I could have handled the truth.”

“During your depression, I ran into Hudson at the hospital. He acted as though we were old friends. He never brought up the money or how I escaped. We talked like the friends we used to be. I never told you who I was because I didn’t want the connection to Shadow Pines if anyone else found me.”

Rolling my eyes, I said, “Until the day Bernice recognized me.”

“You were supposed to spend a few weeks there. Follow the rules. Get the money out of the account for Hudson, and then I’d come in and take you away.”

“But instead, I changed the rules.”

Jaime chimed in, “You made it very difficult for me.”

“Sorry, everyone. I was doing what I thought Jack Deveraux would do.”

“But where’s the gold?” Jaime asked enthusiastically.

“Right, the gold,” said Ed. “Your father put the gold in a safe deposit box in Darden while he went to school in Michigan. He met your mother, got married, and brought her to Darden for a surprise. He was going to retrieve the gold and take it back to Michigan, but instead she fell in love with the town and they bought a house. One weekend when your mother was visiting friends in Michigan, your dad built the fireplace hearth. The top bricks are actually gold bars.”

Jaime and I both got up and ran over to the fireplace.

“Do you know how many times I’ve sat on the hearth?” I said.

“That’s so cool. You can’t even tell,” Jaime added as she ran her hand across the bricks.

“Gold’s worth over a thousand dollars a troy ounce. Each bar is valued at about four-hundred-thousand dollars,” Ed said.

“What are you going to do with the money?” Jaime asked me.

“I’m going to leave it right where it is,” I said firmly. “It will always make me think of my father.”

“You need to write a book. This story is so unbelievable, no one would know it’s true,” Jaime said.

“That’s actually a great idea, Jaime,” Ed added. “I’ve always told Isabella she needs to write her own book.”