Simply Lies

Chapter 79

The doorbell rang around nine thirty that night at Gibson’s home.

When she answered the door, there stood Earl Beckett.

“Marshal, what can I do for you?” she said, looking surprised.

“Got your address from Sullivan. Mind if I come in?”

She stepped back and he walked past her, taking off his hat as he did so.

They sat in the small living room.

“Guess your kids are asleep?”

“Oh, yeah. They go down around eight thirty and explode again at around six.”

“Never had any kids,” said Beckett. “Guess my career was my family.”

“It is for a lot of people.”

“Look, Sullivan came by to see me today.”

“Right, he said he was going to do that.”

“I saw the pictures. Sure looked like the Langhornes to me. He said you used a software program to find them?”

“That’s right, proprietary software that ProEye uses.”

“Damn, I wish we’d known about it. We could have found them a long time ago.”

“Well, the software has only been available for a couple of years.”

“Thing is, I’d like to see them if I could. I wanted to let the kids, well, they’re not kids anymore, know that I was thinking about them. And—”

“—and you’re wondering if they killed their father?”

He looked uneasy with the query. “Look, I don’t want to think they did that. And it’s not my case to go after them. It’s Sullivan’s.”

“But still?”

“Of course they would have a motive to do it. He treated them bad, real bad. I told you about the play and how he wouldn’t let Doug do any sports.”

“Yeah, sounded really awful.”

“I told Sullivan to keep eyes on them.”

“Unfortunately, they disappeared before he could do that. But we’ll get on their trail again,” she said when Beckett looked stunned.

“Sullivan also mentioned that you know where the treasure is?”

“It’s what I do for a living. In fact, I was thinking that if I found it, I might get a finder’s fee. I’m a single mom with kids and, as you can see, I’m not rich. So the money would be very welcome.”

“But with Francine and Doug in the area, what if they’re after it, too? What if they get there first now that you lost them?”

Gibson looked alarmed. “Shit, I didn’t think of that. You believe they might?”

Beckett started talking fast. “If they killed him, they were probably after the treasure, too. You said they left the place where you saw them. Well, they might be at Stormfield right now. Sullivan said we would go there tomorrow, but what if that’s too late?”

“Damn, if they get there before we do?”

“So you really think you know where it is?”

“I do.”

“Look, I’m going to call Sullivan and tell him to meet us out there as soon as he can. Let’s go right now.” He snapped his fingers. “Oh, but you can’t leave your kids.”

“That’s not a problem. My mom’s here. She can look after them. You call Sullivan and I’ll let her know that I’m leaving and that I’ll be back later.”

“Sounds good,” said Beckett.

While they were traveling to Stormfield in Beckett’s truck a storm system blew in and it started to lightning and thunder, the wind picked up, and the rain started to fall. It was nearly eleven when they arrived. With the cloud cover the place was totally dark.

Beckett and Gibson pulled out their flashlights.

“I don’t see Sullivan’s car,” noted Gibson.

“The weather might have slowed him down.”

“Okay, let’s go. He can catch up when he gets here.”

They ran through the storm to the entrance.

The front door was unlocked.

They went in and shook the water off their clothes; Gibson pulled her wet hair out of her face.

“So where is the hiding place?” said Beckett as their twin beams cut through the gloom.

Gibson shone the light on her face, looking triumphant. “The room where Langhorne was found is not the only secret room in this place.”

“What!”

“Yeah, I did a rundown on Stormfield’s history, and it seems that the man who originally built it was of Scottish ancestry. Well, the Scots are famous for putting hidden rooms in their castles. I spoke with John Turner, who sold the place to Langhorne. He said there’s a second secret room down in the wine cellar, and he told me how to access it.”

“Damn. Good work, Gibson.”

“Thanks. I actually patted myself on the back with that one.”

They headed down the stairs.

On reaching the wine cellar, Gibson hurried over to a far corner where a wooden wall with wine bottle shelving attached was situated.

“Shine your light right there,” she instructed Beckett as she pointed at the lower right-hand corner of the wall.

He did so and she set her light down, and gripped at a corner of the wood. First she pushed inward and there was an audible click. Then she pulled and the entire section of wall rotated out on hinges.

“Voilà.” She picked up her light and shone it inside the small, dank room.

At the rear, under some old blankets, was a box. She opened it while Beckett kept his light pointed at it. Inside was a key.

Gibson held it in her hand and looked around. “Okay. What do you open?” Then Gibson started probing and prying in the middle of the rear wall of the room. “Shine your light,” she said urgently.

He did so and she pulled away a bulge of bubbled paint, revealing a keyhole.

“Damn, how’d you see that?” asked Beckett.

“Easy, the rest of the wall is a slightly different shade of blue, and they couldn’t completely cover the bulge of the lock underneath.”

She inserted the key and turned it. The wall that had now become a door swung open. Revealed was an inner room that contained five large trunks. She tried the same key in each trunk’s lock, until, with the fourth one, the lock turned.

She slowly opened the trunk, and Beckett illuminated the contents with his light.

“Holy shit!” he said.

It was full of cash.

She knelt down and examined the money. “These are all hundred-dollar bills,” she said.

She did a quick calculation. “If all of these trunks have this same amount of cash in them, we’re looking at probably a couple hundred million bucks.”

She dusted off her hands and pulled out her phone. “I’ll take pictures, and then I’m going to try Sullivan again and tell him what we found. This is going to hit the national press for sure.”

“No, it won’t,” said Beckett.

When Gibson glanced up, his gun was pointed at her.