“Oh. Well, thank you, Miss Jones, but I do need to get going. I wasted too much of your time already,” he said, rising from his chair. “There is one thing I do need to ask before I leave, the reason I came here in the first place.”
This, I thought to myself, is where the salesman does the bait and switch. “Sure, Paul. Shoot.”
He paused long enough to choose his next words carefully while stroking his goatee. “Evidently, those kids who fell to their death thought they’d solved the riddle.”
“Then there is a treasure?” Bonnie cut in. She was pretty sharp for being sixty-nine. I hadn’t caught the contradiction, but Wilson did.
“In the original news article. All I did was copy it to make my book more interesting. I really didn’t believe it.”
He cleared his throat before continuing. “Have you heard if the Park County Sheriff found anything in their backpack that might indicate the kids were searching for the treasure? I heard from a friend of mine who works for the county that you guys are some kind of key witnesses.”
Wilson caught me off guard. I wondered if he suspected we were up there because of the code we found in Appleton’s cabin. “No, they haven’t told us anything,” I said, hoping he didn’t perceive my fear.
If he did, he didn’t let on while looking at his watch. “Well, Jake, I guess I’m wasting your time and mine. I’m sorry about your copy of Tom Sawyer. I didn’t know about your burglary.”
He turned to Bonnie, and offered his hand. “Thank you for your hospitality, Miss Jones. I do need to get to my appointment at the bookstore, then back to Parker before the traffic on C470 gets too bad.”
“You better let me walk you out,” I said, looking at his boots. “My guard dog might think those crocodiles are out to get him.”
Fred was waiting by the door. He started to growl until I told him to hush. He let Wilson pass then followed us to the car.
Wilson handed me a business card before getting into his SUV. “I’d appreciate any information you get on those kids. It might help if the parents do decide to sue me.” He quickly powered up his window when Fred gave one last bark.
“You don’t like him much, do you, fella?” I asked, still holding his collar as Wilson drove away.
CHAPTER TEN
I wanted time to think after Wilson left, so I took Fred for a late walk around the lake. To be polite, I asked Bonnie to join us, hoping she would refuse. Hope is for the hopeless.
We were halfway through our walk when I made the impetuous decision to hike the Dedissee Trail to Three Sisters Park. The hike was over a mile long, and I began having second thoughts when Bonnie needed to catch her breath by taking a cigarette break.
“We can turn back, Bon, but we passed the halfway point, so you might be better off if I go back for my Jeep by myself after we get to the park.”
“You can’t drive a Jeep on this trail, silly. You’ll get arrested.”
“Now who’s being silly? I’ll take the highway to Buffalo Park Road. It’s a paved highway all the way.”
She seemed to consider it for a minute before crushing her cigarette in the dirt. “No, I’ll be fine. But I fail to see why you want to go there in the first place. Appleton’s truck and body are long gone by now.”
A mountain bike came whizzing by before I could answer. “Hey, watch it you creep!” Bonnie yelled after the reckless rider.
I’d forgotten how dangerous our hiking trails could be with all the spandex clad mountain bikers from Denver. Luckily, Fred had left the trail when we’d stopped to rest, or he might take off after the idiot.
Two cigarette breaks later, and a half dozen near collisions with jerks who had no regard for hikers, we made it to the parking lot where I found the oil leak I had hoped for. The problem was, I found several oil spots. Any one of them could have been left by the Datsun, but more likely, they were from any of a thousand vehicles that visited the park on a daily basis. Unless I knew exactly where Appleton’s truck had been parked, I might as well be looking for the shortest straw in a haystack. I was explaining this to Bonnie as we sat on a bench watching all the people go by.
Several of them gave her a nasty look when they walked past us. There must have been a no smoking sign at the entrance that we never saw. I think I had read something about the ban because of a high fire danger. Not that it would have made a difference with her, anyway.
“I don’t know what I thought, Bon. I had one of my epiphanies that made me sure the kids were somehow involved. Not in Appleton’s murder, but working with him to find the treasure.”
She stomped on her cigarette butt after another hiker gave her a dirty look. “We don’t know he was murdered, Jake. The news said it was a suicide. I wish you could accept that.”
Then I realized the hiker’s dirty look wasn’t intended for Bonnie. “Oh, he was murdered all right,” I said, walking over to a doggie poop-bag dispenser on the post next to our bench. “And once the medical examiner says so, the cops will be all over his cabin looking for prints.”
I decided to attach Fred’s leash after cleaning up his mess. I didn’t need any more trouble with the law at the moment, but I may have been too late. No sooner had I put the poop-bag in the trash next to the post, than a park ranger pulled up in her truck. I couldn’t help but stare. She had the same red pony-tail sticking out the back of her ranger cap that Julie had the first time I saw her. But that’s where the similarity ended. This gal was a good six inches shorter, and twenty pounds heavier.
She looked at me and Fred then went over to Bonnie. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but there is a no smoking ban in effect for all the county and state parks. I’ll have to ask you not to light up again.”
Bonnie slowly moved her foot to hide her last cigarette butt. “Where did you ever get that idea, Honey? I gave up smoking years ago.”
The cute ranger smiled showing perfect, pearl-white teeth that only came from years at the orthodontist. “Then that’s not your cigarette you’re hiding under your foot?”
Bonnie turned red from being caught in a lie, but continued with the charade anyway and moved her foot. “My goodness! Where did that come from?”
The ranger turned to me, no longer smiling. “Please have your mother go to your car if she wants to smoke, sir. I’d hate to have to arrest a grandmother for starting a forest fire.”
I didn’t bother to correct her on my lineage. “Yes, ma’am. I wonder if I could ask you a question before you leave.”
“Sure. That’s what I do best. I really hate playing cop.” Her attitude seemed to change immediately.
“There was a suicide here a couple days ago. Do you know where the guy’s truck was parked?”
She studied me with the prettiest light-blue eyes I’d seen in a long time. I began to feel embarrassed. I could feel myself being attracted to this ranger who reminded me so much of my dead wife. “Did you know the deceased?”
“It was his cousin.” Bonnie had read my hesitation and jumped in. I was relieved, for I could never think of white lies so quickly.
The ranger’s face softened. “I’m sorry, sir. I’d be happy to show you.”
The three of us followed her to a parking place at the end of the lot. It was the perfect place to commit a murder. The spot was nowhere near a hiking trail, nor was it close to any of the picnic areas. No one else was parked anywhere near it, much like it must have been when Appleton supposedly killed himself.
“This is where I found your cousin last week. I really am sorry, mister…?” she let the mister hang as a question, like she expected an answer.
“Martin. Jake Martin. And this is Bonnie, my good friend and neighbor.”