“Plenty of time to celebrate before we get to Mexico.”Donna got up from the table and as she walked into the living room, she stripped. Turning to Gerald, she flung her arms wide and jiggled her naked breasts. Seconds later he was on top of her in the middle of the floor. “We pull the trigger twice and light a match. Enemies are dead and evidence burns to the ground.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
“Cash, there’s the house,” Tracy said in the helicopter while pointing toward the ground. In the distance, the two-bedroom home and small shed appeared forlorn and forgotten. “Is there room among the pine trees to land?”
“I see a spot where I can put the chopper down, but let’s find out who else is here.”
“What do you mean?”
“Look for a vehicle,” Cash said.
“Is there something shiny on the windows of the house?”
“Yeah. Tinfoil?” he asked. “And holes in the ground everywhere.”
“I see our old pickup truck,” Tracy said.
“I see a white Tesla. Look, partially hidden in thedust and dirtof a grove of trees.”
Tracy gasped and glanced at Cash. “Gerald Moles is here?”
“That son-of-a-bitch,” Cash growled. With a perplexed frown, he looked at Tracy and asked, “What’s his connection to your grandmother?”
“I don’t—” Tracy stopped mid-sentence as the connection fell into place. “I do know.”
Cash brought the helicopter down on a plateau behind a thick, taller copse of evergreens further from the house.Shutting down the engine, they unbuckled their seat belts and exited the chopper. Cash came around to her side and handed her the Smith and Wesson he’d bought for her. Before leaving the ranch, Tracy had paid close attention as Cash demonstrated how to put the safety on and off the pistol. With the safety on, she slipped it into her purse.
“Tell me what you know,” Cash said. Holding his semiautomatic Kimber Warrior .45 in his right hand, he grabbed Tracy’s hand with his left one. They walked to the edge of the pine trees and stopped.
“The connection is Donna.”
“To Gerald, yes. But how would she know your grandmother?”
“Her name is Donna Smith. Smith is such a common last name that it didn’t dawn on me until just now that she is Winston Smith’s daughter,” Tracy said as Cash surveyed the area in all four directions.
“Then who is Brenda?”
“It’s his fake name for Donna. I never met Donna back in the day because she’s a lot older than I am and had left the area by the time I started riding the school bus Winston drove. But it all fits. Donna is the common denominator among my grandma, Winston, and Gerald. Since my grandmother sprained her ankle, do you think Winston asked them to come help him care for her?”
“Hell no. He doesn’t care about your grandmother.” Cash shook his head as they remained out of sight. “But what’s the draw?”
“The draw?”
“What does Winston and or Donna want from your grandmother?”
“You mean like money?”
“Yes. I’m thinking all those holes in the yard that we saw from the air means somebody’s looking for something. Does your grandmother have money, jewelry, treasure of some kind?”
“Like the Dalton Gang might have?” she asked, and Cashshrugged as if anything was possible. “Not that I know of.” Staring at the house and then looking back at Cash, Tracy said, “She and Grandpa didn’t fully trust the bank and I assumed they didn’t have much money to put in a bank anyway,” Tracy said. “Then again, they did have an oil well before it dried up.”
“Could Winston have known about the oil well?”
“Yes, Winston’s lived around here forever and must have heard about it.” Tracy watched Cash nod as if she had stumbled onto a clue. Tracy’s grandmother’s words oflook to these wallsandnest eggechoed in her memory. “My grandparents hid something inside the house.”
“But Winston’s been trying to find it outside,” Cash said, his eyes on the house. “How did your grandfather die?”
“He fell and broke his neck,” she said. “Winston happened to be passing by and saw him fall beside his pickup. He gave Grandpa chest compressions.”
