Forbidden Ground (Cold Creek #2)(87)

“I know you’re stalling, but I have to admit I’m proud of how this all came together despite how devious and disloyal you’ve been to me. When I first learned about Mason Mound from archival information, which I now have—”

“I should have known someone stole that from the university archives!”

“Don’t interrupt. Anyway, about that time, the Chillicothe Gazette and the Columbus Dispatch were full of articles about the kidnappings here, including your sister’s. I was hoping there would be someone mentioned in the paper I could contact who could turn the screws on Sheriff McCord to force him to make Grant let me excavate Mason Mound. Keith turned up. He was mentioned as the sole survivor of the Simons family in distress, because of the sheriff’s arrests. And here Keith worked for Grant Mason, mound owner, who was Sheriff McCord’s best friend. So rather than Keith quitting the mill like his other brother did, I hired him to work for me to find a way to get to Grant.”

“Grant felt Keith was almost like another brother,” Kate said.

“That’s why you should have stuck with someone with brains, darling. Namely me. Now you’ve made yourself my enemy.”

It hit her hard that Grant had made a mistake with Keith, but she’d made one far worse trusting Carson all these years. He was a master manipulator and idea thief but also a murderer. She could see that Carson must be demented. He reveled in being the big man here, knowing the answers, smug and proud to lord it over her, just as he’d always done with his students in class.

“Carson, I know this sounds like an old movie line, but you can’t get away with it. Gabe—someone—will find out, and you’ll get your own small tomb of a prison cell for the rest of your life—if not the death penalty, especially if you set up Grant and hurt me.”

“Bright girl that you are, you didn’t suspect me, did you? Not Carson sitting in his distant, tenured, academic ivory tower, because I had Keith and Velma do all the dirty work around here.”

“Including Keith wearing my Beastmaster mask to terrify me when I was trapped in Tess’s garage?”

“I was tempted to try to do that myself, but he knew the territory. But as the ignoramuses of the world say, that’s past history now, when history is always past. The Beastmaster vision was only one of my attempts to urge you to get in the mound, but you utterly failed. Let’s get the mask out of the basement so we can head out there now.”

“To the mound? It’s still sealed,” she insisted, not budging.

“My darling, I had the mound entry dug out this morning while you were out and about. Keith’s brother is nearly finished reopening a narrow path through the entry shaft that was dug out decades ago.”

“So you poisoned the old trees there to clear the way.”

“Keith did,” he said, waving the gun at her. She realized she’d been so shocked and angry she’d almost forgotten about what he must mean to do with that gun. That terrified her but it infuriated her, too.

“You’ll say you found nothing inside, but you’ll keep or sell whatever’s there, won’t you? Or keep things for your very private collection?”

“Kate, the basement. Get the mask now, or you won’t be around long enough to enter the mound with me.”

She had to keep him here, not allow him to rob the mound. Keith must have called Grant into a trap, a deadly one. But too much time had passed to warn him, and her cell phone was in her purse in the bedroom. She’d give up ever getting a glimpse into that mound if it meant she could keep Grant safe.

*

Grant swam up from the darkness. He was being dragged by his feet, the back of his head on concrete. Had he fallen from a tree? He was outside. There was a breeze. He felt too sick to even open his eyes. Was it time to get up and get to work? His head hurt. Bad.

Someone dropped his legs. Maybe Kate had called the medics. They would come in a chopper, and she would flag them down. She had a child in her arms. She loved kids, which surprised him. And they loved her.... He loved her, too, wanted children with her.

As he lay there, dazed, he heard a loud noise. He smelled sawdust. Someone was taking his tree! He had to stop them, but he didn’t want Kate to get hurt. He’d make her stay in the car. He wanted her, even at the cost of the mask, the mound...

He opened one eye. Keith. Keith was hard at work, driving the forklift with a huge pile of wood, coming closer. Maybe they’d gotten his maple back, the tree house, too.

No, hadn’t Keith hit him with a board? Or had he dreamed that?

Keith was driving the forklift toward him. It stopped. Keith was shouting. “This is for my family, but I swear, your sheriff friend’s gonna join you in hell soon!” The metal arms rose higher and tilted to drop the whole pallet of wood on him.

*

Carson was waving the gun again, then pointing toward the basement with it. “I appreciate your finding this hard to believe as it all finally comes together. You had your chance, Kate, and you blew it. Could have had me, too, but it’s too late. Lead the way down into the basement and get me the mask.”

Her mind raced. If the listening devices were only in the living room, he didn’t know where the mask was in the basement. “Grant took the key.”

“At least show me where it’s hidden so I can get someone in here to free it. Is it in a safe?”