“Mister Bonebrake, we need you to tell us everything you can remember about this treasure.” Maddock sat at the kitchen table with Bones, his grandfather, Angel, and Bones’ mother, Miriam. Behind Miriam, Bones’ uncle, “Crazy Charlie” Bonebrake, paced back and forth, one hand resting on the grip of the 357 Magnum he wore on his hip, and a dark look in his eyes.
They sat in the small kitchen of Miriam’s home where the attack had occurred the night before. It was a quaint, cozy place with dark wood cabinets and yellowing linoleum. The room smelled of coffee, bacon grease, and Lysol. It reminded Maddock of visits to his own grandparents’ house when he was younger.
“It’s all right,” Miriam said to her father-in-law. “You can tell us.” Miriam Bonebrake was a handsome woman, tall with delicate features and big brown eyes. It was plain to see where Angel had gotten her good looks.
Samuel shook his head. “There is no need to discuss it any further. Those men are gone and I don’t want to cause trouble for the boys.” He twitched a crooked, liver-spotted finger at Maddock and Bones.
Angel smirked. “Grandfather, these two are perfectly capable of finding trouble on their own. Believe me.” She reached over and took Maddock’s hand. Her diamond engagement ring twinkled in the morning sunlight that shone through the window. Maddock still couldn’t believe his good fortune. Thank God for beautiful women with bad taste in men.
“We have a lot of experience in treasure hunting,” Maddock said, turning his thoughts from the lovely lady at his side. “It’s our profession.”
“And we know how to take care of ourselves.” Bones bared his teeth in something just short of a grin. “Besides, these men want the so-called family treasure, whatever it is, and they clearly think you’re the key to finding it. They’ll keep coming back until they get what they want.”
“Unless we find it first,” Maddock finished.
“You don’t know that.”
“With respect, Grandfather,” Bones said, “yes we do. We’ve dealt with situations and men like this before.”
Samuel let out a sigh of resignation. “All right, but I want a cup of coffee first.”
“I got it.” Angel rose, gave Maddock’s shoulder a squeeze, and went to refill her grandfather’s mug. Maddock couldn’t help but stare at her. He loved her big eyes, her fine cheekbones, her long brown hair, her trim, athletic figure…
“Dude.” Bones elbowed him in the ribs. “Can we focus here? We’ve got a situation.”
“Sorry about that.” Grinning, Maddock took out his phone, turned on the voice recording feature, and slid it across the table. Meanwhile, Bones borrowed a pad and paper from his mother and prepared to take notes.
When Samuel finally had his steaming mug of coffee, he took a sip, savored it for a few seconds, and finally began the story.
“Esau Bonebrake was the brother of my great-grandfather,” the old man said.
“So I’m not the only one who got stuck with the weird Bible name?” Bones asked.
Samuel carefully placed his mug on the table, folded his hands, and fixed Bones with a stern look. “Uriah, if you insist on interrupting me with your juvenile comments, the story is going to take a long time to tell, and at my age, time is not on my side.”
“Ass,” Angel whispered to her brother.
Samuel turned his eyes on her and she quickly adopted a look of contrition. “Sorry.”
“Esau was an unusual man,” Samuel said, resuming the narrative. “He kept mostly to himself, never married, and spent most of his time in the mountains.” Samuel seemed to anticipate Maddock’s thoughts. “That in itself was not out of the ordinary for the mid-1800’s, but there is no doubt he was an eccentric. He was a treasure hunter.”
Bones grunted and mimed stabbing himself in the heart, but everyone ignored him.
“He also collected stories and legends the way Angel collects dolls.”
“Dolls?” Maddock arched an eyebrow at Angel.
“They’re vintage,” she said, as if that explained everything. “Now stop interrupting Grandfather’s story.”
Samuel smiled. “One of the stories that was passed down through our family spoke of an ancestor who had discovered an item of power. The details have been lost, but Esau took it for the truth and spent years searching for it until he finally found it. At least, he claimed to have found it. If anyone else saw it or knew what it was, I cannot say. He called it the ‘family’ treasure but, by all accounts, he kept it to himself. But, shortly after he found the treasure, Esau developed the ability to talk to animals.”
“I talk to animals all the time,” Bones said, “but they never answer back.”
“I think he means like a horse whisperer.” Angel rolled her eyes.
Samuel nodded. “He could break a horse with the sound of his voice. He could catch a fish by whispering a few words and simply wait for it to swim into his hands.”
“Forgive me, but it sounds like a fairly common legend,” Angel said. “I’m sure I’ve heard a hundred similar tales from other families and certainly from other nations.”
“Perhaps, but despite his reputation, everyone at the time seemed to take his power as a matter of fact. Many claim to have witnessed his abilities firsthand. According to my great-grandfather, the two of them once stumbled upon a mountain lion’s den. Wanting to protect her cubs, the mother charged at them. Esau took one look at her, waved his hand, and said ‘Shoo!’”
“And it worked?” Maddock asked.
“Yes.” Samuel took another sip of coffee, closed his eyes, and smiled. “Excellent.” He sat up a little straighter, as if the drink had fortified him, and went on. “When the War Between the States broke out, Esau left to join the Union army. He took his treasure with him for good luck. During the Chickamauga campaign, he and his unit found themselves separated from their main force. Trapped by the Confederates, they were slaughtered. Only Esau managed to stay alive by hiding in a cave behind a waterfall. He remained there, living off the raw fish he summoned, waiting for the enemy troops to leave the area. Finally, realizing he stood little chance of making his way through enemy lines and back to the Union forces, and not wanting to lose his treasure, he hid it in a crack in the cave wall, intending to come back for it someday.”
“I’m guessing he never went back for it?” Bones asked.
Samuel shook his head. “He was captured and spent the rest of the war wasting away in Andersonville.”
Maddock let out a tiny whistle. Now a national historical site, Andersonville was a notorious Confederate prison camp. Captured Union soldiers were penned in an open stockade with no protection from the elements, and kept away from the shelter of the prison walls by the threat of the death line — an invisible line that marked out a buffer zone between the prisoners and the guards. A prisoner who stepped over it was shot immediately. Disease-ridden and malnourished, the prisoners who survived came out looking like the victims of the Nazi concentration camps in World War II. It was easily one of the most shameful chapters in the history of the so-called Civil War.
“He was never the same after that,” Samuel said. “He was a broken man, half crippled and nearly mad. He lived out the remainder of his days in my great-grandfather’s home. He eventually told the story to my grandfather, who passed it down to my father, who in turn told the story to me.”
“Didn’t anyone ever search for the treasure?” Angel asked.
“Not as far as I know. Everyone believed Samuel owned something that he loved enough to call it a treasure, but they doubted it was anything of value. Besides, he had only a vague idea of where he had hidden it.”
“The proverbial needle in a haystack,” Bones said.
“But maybe not so impossible to find nowadays. We’ve got historical records to search through, topographical maps, and satellite imagery. It’s possible.” Maddock turned to Samuel. “Do you know any specifics about the place he hid the treasure? Landmarks? Nearby towns?”
“A few,” Samuel said. “My grandfather wrote the story down.” He turned to Miriam. “Would you please fetch me my Bible?”
Bones’ mother hurried away and returned moments later with a battered old Bible. Its worn cover, cracked spine, and dog-eared pages said it had seen its share of use. Samuel took it from her with care, opened it, and thumbed through its yellowing pages until he found a single sheet of paper. He turned the Bible around so Bones and Maddock could see.
Maddock leaned in for a better look. Faded writing in a tight, neat hand filled the page. It recounted the story of the skirmish, Esau’s escape, and his discovery of the cave. The details of the cave’s location were few, but there were enough to give Maddock hope that, with help, they could find it. The final line caught his attention.
Blood is the key.
“Blood is the key. Any idea what that means?”
Samuel shook his head. “I can’t say for certain, but since it is the story of a family treasure, I assume Esau was speaking of the importance of the family bloodline.”
“We’ll just have to figure it out. So,” he said to Bones, “are we going to go for it?”
“That’s sort of what we do, isn’t it? But I don’t want to leave Grandfather alone, not with those men still out there.”
“He won’t be alone.” Crazy Charlie spoke for the first time. “I’ll take him to my house and have my security men on guard twenty-four/seven.” As the wealthiest man in the community, and a person who didn’t mind skating around the gray areas of the law, he had a myriad of resources at his disposal.
“And he’ll have me.” Angel reached out and took her grandfather’s hand. “I hope they come back. I’d love a shot at those assclowns.” Her lovely face was suddenly filled with the dark ferocity usually reserved for her opponents in the cage.
“Easy there,” Maddock said. “We’ll just have to hope it doesn’t come to that.” He sat up straight. “It’s settled, then. I say we send a copy of this to Jimmy and see what he can come up with.” Jimmy Letson was an old friend and an accomplished hacker who had helped them on many treasure hunts in the past. If anyone could piece these clues together and come up with something useful, it was him.
Bones stood, cracked his knuckles, and smiled.
“Let’s do it.”