Search Me(60)

I grasped hold of what I assumed was the bottom and started wiggling it to the surface. It was so light I began to wonder if the treasure had spilled out. When I finally got it to the surface, I thrust it in front of the lantern beam. The image I saw sent my scream echoing off the cave walls. Immediately, I threw it to the ground.

The wide gaping jaw of a human skull grinned back at me.

“W-What the hell?” I questioned.

Maddox bent down and picked it up. He turned it sideways, examining it in the light. He held it out to me, but I scrambled away. “There’s a bullet hole in the back.”

I gasped. “So that’s…Avery Jensen?”

“It has to be. Who else could be buried here? Pretty Fawn jumped off the waterfall cliffs.” Maddox then shined the flashlight down in the hole.

“Is there more of him down there?” I asked, a shiver reverberating through me.

“I don’t know. It looks like there’s some kind of material—maybe clothes or something.”

I inched closer to Maddox and the skull. “You think she buried the gold with him?”

“Well, according to the legend, she buried part of it and then so did her brother, Notley.”

“Oh that’s right.”

“Okay then. Let’s see what we have.”

He wiggled his fingers toward the hole. I was glad it was him and not me. The last thing I wanted was my hand down some dark hole, grasping for more skeletal remains.

His fingers tried grabbing the fabric. After he was able to pinch enough into his hand, he started pulling it out of the hole. “Omph! Man, it’s heavy!”

“That’s a good thing, right? I mean, the heavier it is, the more likely it’s the gold and…well, not part of Avery.”

Maddox snickered. “I hope so.”

The closer it got to the surface the more I was able to see the intricate weaving of a blanket. It appeared more the size of a hand towel or baby’s blanket. The once vibrant red and black design had faded and was covered in a gray film of ashes and dust. Something else crisscrossed over the blanket in spattered splotches. “Um, is that what I think it is?”

“Yep. It’s blood,” Maddox replied.

I gulped. “Oh man. That’s intense.”

“Here,” he said, shoving it at me.

It was already weighing my hands down before I could protest. There could have been anything in the blanket from gold to Avery Jensen’s withered heart. With trembling fingers, I worked to untie the knot around the blanket. Once it was freed, I peeled back the first layer. My breath hitched in my chest when I did the next one. Then relief flooded me followed by excitement. “Oh wow!” I murmured, as the beam of light flickered across what seemed like hundreds of shiny gold nuggets.

Maddox collapsed back on his butt, overwhelmed with actually seeing the treasure. “For some reason, I thought it would be coins…I had no idea it would look like that.”

I dug deeper into the blanket. “Oh, there’s coins too.” I plucked a couple out to show him.

He took one and held it up against the lantern. “I’ll be damned! Pretty Fawn must’ve been some princess to have that big a dowry.”

“Well, her dad was the Chief. Guess he didn’t want to spare any expense when it came to showing how much he loved his daughter…” My voice choked off then—overcome with emotions of my own father.

Maddox tossed the coin back onto the blanket and rose to his feet. “Okay, we got what we came for. Let’s close up shop, call Jensen, and get your dad back.”

“Um, what about him?” I asked, glancing between Maddox and the skull staring up at me from the ground.

“I guess we put him back.” He eyed the hole again before plunging his hand inside. After feeling around a few seconds, he shook his head. “I think it must’ve just been his skull.”

I widened my eyes in horror at the thoughts of Pretty Fawn bringing Avery Jensen’s severed head to the cave. “What do you think happened to the rest of him?”

Maddox shrugged. “We’re talking about an Indian warrior and his buddies pissed at a white man for romancing one of their women. Sure they shot him, but who knows what else they did to him to torture him.”

A chill ran over me. “Okay, that’s just too creepy. Can we please get out of here? Now.”

“Hold your horses, scaredy-pants,” Maddox said.

“Scaredy-pants? I don’t think I’ve heard that since we were kids,” I replied, wrapping the gold back up in the blanket like I had found it. I then shoved it all into purse. There was no way I wanted to worry about dropping any of it or losing it on the way back out to the truck.

When I glanced up, Maddox was grinning at me. “What?” I questioned.

“I was just thinking that this is the only time I’ll ever be glad you carry a giant ass purse.”

I laughed. “You got that right.” The zipper strained against the contents, but somehow I managed to get it closed.

Just as I stood up, a gun went off, sending the bullet ricocheting around the cave walls. I screamed and covered my head while Maddox dove on top of me, knocking us to the ground. We stayed motionless until the bullet lodged in the rocks above us.

“Oomph,” I muttered as Maddox rolled off of me and sprang back to his feet.