“He’s an idiot,” I tell him. “That’s all you need to know.”
“And if he wants to see Bennie?”
I nearly drop the box.
“About that.” I laugh in a way that isn’t funny. “He actually do?—”
The door to his office opens and a smiling hygienist appears. “Your next appointment is ready.”
Jonathan nods, looking at me when she exits. “You know this is ridiculous, right?”
Yep.
“It isn’t,” I tell him. “Maybe all this gold needs is someone like me to find it. Someone logical. Someone with fresh eyes.”
The way Jonathan looks at me reminds me of all those times my mother had an outlandish idea and my dad talked her down from it like a hostage negotiator. He always managed to convince her she was being extreme, but Jonathan isn’t changing my mind. He might not want to come, but I have to go. There’s no other option.
With the box in one hand, I wrap my free arm around him in a hug. “Just trust me on this,” I say into his chest. “And if it doesn’t work, I’ll look into selling.”
“Promise?” he asks.
“Promise.”
I don’t intend on letting it come to that.
Eight
Ihave $174 in cash in my wallet, eleven pennies and a nickel at the bottom of my purse, and after transferring money out of my personal accounts to pay the next month’s necessary bills for myself, the store, and my mother, have $473.26 in my account. A measly $647.42 to my name. I have a credit card, but I refuse to spend money we don’t have. On theslightchance this doesn’t work, I don’t want to come out of it in a deeper hole than we started in.
In the hours since I left Jonathan’s office, I’ve mentally confirmed this is the only solution. Unless Barry calls and tells me they’ve recovered the money—which is a long shot—this is the only plan I have. Other than the time I don’t have and spending my last cents, it’s a relatively low-risk, high-reward endeavor. If I come back in two weeks with nothing, I still have nothing.
And—and—there’s the fact I’d be helping to solve a mystery that needs to be solved. There’s historical significance to recovering something so old. Historians, scholars, and collectors would be champing at the bit for a discovery of this magnitude. I’m basically doing mankind a favor.
“See, Rue,” I say to the sink as I do the dishes after dinner, “you haven’t lost your mind after all. This plan is as sound as an old steamer trunk.”
I have to do this.
I will.
I will find the gold.
I will save the store.
I will give Bennie the life she deserves and Mom the surgery she needs.
And I will get a divorce.Reallyget a divorce.
And then I’ll marry Jonathan.
I have two weeks until the roof payment is due and a month until I get married. Maybe Rueben already knows where it is or just needs a couple more clues. Mom mentioned he’s not in great health, so maybe he’s given up.
Unless it’s not there.
No.
It has to be there.
People don’t get arrested for digging for nothing.
