Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 97032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 97032 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 485(@200wpm)___ 388(@250wpm)___ 323(@300wpm)
“You’re crazy. I did no such thing,” Swatcher said angrily.
“Every place you went with Waters for a treasure hunt a major theft followed somewhere in the area. Were you and Waters working together? Was that how he was able to afford to collect those antiques and art pieces and allowed him to boast about retiring early?”
“What are you talking about?” Swatcher asked, confused. “Waters was as just as interested in the Willow treasure as I was. When he found the secret passageway, we thought we hit the jackpot. He died before we could finish looking for it and before I could get the key from him to get back in here.”
“So, you hired a thug to steal the key?” I asked, knowing my dad wouldn’t be happy hearing that.
“I had no choice. I worried that someone else was after the treasure and I was right,” Swatcher said.
I took a guess. “The vanishing guy in the hospital. You had Jones try to finish him off at Treetop.”
“No, he was just supposed to scare him off,” Swatcher insisted. “I wouldn’t be surprised if Anderson was responsible for that incident.”
“You’re not setting me up again to take the fall,” Anderson warned, waving the knife at him.
The tension in the mausoleum thickened, and I wasn’t sure who was going to lunge first. But then—
A sudden noise behind us made Amy and me spin around.
Bootsteps. Fast. Closing in.
I barely had time to react before Ian and Beau came bursting into the mausoleum, their faces creased with worry and looking ready to do whatever was needed to rescue Amy and me.
I opened my mouth to reassure Ian, not wanting to ignite the hostility already flaming the situation. Unfortunately, Anderson and Swatcher didn’t feel the same. They simultaneously lunged at each other.
And that’s when all hell broke loose.
Swatcher knocked Anderson back, the bloody knife clattering to the stone floor. Anderson went for a tackle, but Swatcher dodged, sending the professor stumbling straight into—
Me.
I was knocked backward, colliding with Amy, which sent both of us toppling into Beau, who let out a startled yelp as we all crashed to the floor in a heap.
Beau hurried to help us to our feet while asking anxiously if either Amy or I were hurt.
Meanwhile, Ian—bless his soul—was attempting to separate the scuffling men who obviously had little fighting experience. Ian looked more like a teacher breaking up a playground fight.
“Okay, enough!” Ian barked, grabbing Swatcher’s arm while trying to wedge himself between them.
It almost worked—until Swatcher shoved backward.
Ian, caught off balance, crashed straight into me, Amy, and Beau who had approached to help him calm the two men.
The four of us landed on the floor.
Amy wheezed. “How are you getting us out of this one, Pepper?”
I barely had time to respond before the mausoleum doors creaked open.
Light flooded in.
I slowly turned my head—only to see my dad standing in the doorway, arms crossed, looking very much like an annoyed sheriff.
“Hands up, everyone!” he ordered.
Beside him stood my mom, who took one look at the pile of bodies on the floor and sighed deeply. “My goodness, Pepper, what’s going on here?” She smiled suddenly. “And congratulations on finding the secret passageway.”
My dad exhaled, long and slow, as he shook his head. “Everybody outside. NOW! And don’t any of you touch that bloody knife on the floor.”
CHAPTER 27
Professors Anderson and Swatcher were talking over each other to my dad while Josh sealed the evidence bag with the bloody knife in it.
“Enough,” my dad snapped. Both men immediately fell silent. “You’ll have plenty of time to tell your side of the story at the police station.”
I rolled my eyes at their bickering and Ian moved closer beside me when a black SUV pulled up at the curb. The doors opened, and out stepped Stone—along with the man from the hospital stairwell and the garden incident.
“Agent Stone.” I greeted him with a grin, then glanced at his companion. “And this must be Agent—”
“Agent Sadler,” the man supplied, his expression unreadable.
“I win that bet, Agent Stone,” my dad said, his arms crossed. “My daughter figured you for an agent, and she found the secret passageway.”
“Technically, Anderson found it first and he works for us,” Stone corrected.
“But she found it on her own, not by following a suspect,” my dad clarified.
“He’s got you there,” Josh said, with a grin even wider than mine.
I turned to Stone. “The vanishing guy works for you too, doesn’t he?” I barely paused before continuing. “Let me guess—you offered him a deal to avoid jail. He didn’t live up to his end of the bargain and you came looking for him. He was last spotted in the surrounding area, so that’s what brought you here. What I can’t figure out is why you’re undercover as a biker.”
Then it hit me.
“Oh, wait, I got it. Everything went south fast, and the FBI needed someone embedded immediately. You were already undercover as a biker in the area, so you kept the pretense because it kept you more relatable to the vanishing guy.”