The Treasure Seeker Read online

  Ry felt her face turn several shades of red as Kate giggled and left.

  Nicole continued to look at the door for a moment after it closed. “How long were you two together?”

  Ry scooted back against the bed trying to find a more comfortable spot. “We were lovers for six years. We’ve been friends for about six and half years.”

  Nicole nodded slowly.

  “She’s involved with someone else. I’m honestly not sure what we are now.” She stopped. “I guess I should be angry she cheated on me, but I don’t seem to feel anything.”

  Nicole looked at the flowers and rubbed her hand over her cheek. “I’m sorry if I came on so strong the other day. It was just—” She picked up her hat and began to spin it. “When I first saw you at the fundraiser, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I couldn’t quit thinking of you. Then when I found you at the cabin,” she swallowed. “I thought you were dead and all I could think of was I never got to know you. I had blown my chance and it was too late.” She glanced at Ry and smiled. “I don’t want to make that mistake again.”

  Maybe it was the two recent brushes with death, but for whatever reason Ry felt compelled not to waste a single moment. “Well, it’s not too late,” Ry said. “I have to admit I’m sort of looking forward to seeing how far this would go.”

  Nicole stepped closer to the bed. “How far do you want it to go?”

  Ry smiled. “How far are you willing to go?” Her heart was racing. She couldn’t remember the last time she had wanted anyone so badly.

  Nicole continued slowly to make her way toward Ry. “I’m willing to take you all the way there and back.” As she came alongside the bed, she trailed her hand along Ry’s leg.

  A sharp pain shot through Ry’s head. She grabbed her head and winced.

  Nicole suddenly paled. “Oh, I’m sorry. Are you okay? Should I call for a nurse?”

  The pain slowly subsided enough that Ry could grin. “I always hated it when Kate was right,” she said.

  “Maybe I should go so you can rest,” Nicole offered.

  “If you don’t mind, I’d like for you to stay and just talk to me.”

  Nicole nodded. “I can do that.” She looked at Ry and winked, “but I have to warn you that all the time I’m talking to you, I’m probably going to be thinking about all the other things I could be doing with you.”

  Ry smiled back. “You should be careful telling me things like that. I’m liable to be thinking the same thing.”

  Nicole clutched her chest. “You’re a cruel woman, Rylene Shelton.”

  She had called her Rylene. “Dear God, you’ve been talking to my mother.” Ry closed her eyes and covered her face with her hands. “I’m terrified to even think of what she’s probably told you.”

  “Hey, your mom and I are tight. I’ve been officially invited to dinner on the first Sunday after you’re released. She’s going to bake me a carrot cake.”

  Ry dropped her hands and stared at Nicole. “She won’t even bake me a carrot cake. How do you rate so highly?”

  Nicole studied her nails before slowly polishing them on the front of her shirt. “All I had to do was save her little girl. She’s already taught me to crochet a basic stitch. And, your dad is going to show me how to use my new router as soon as you get home.”

  “Well, I’m certainly glad I could be of such service to you.”

  Nicole sat in the chair beside the bed. “That’s just the beginning.” She tapped her finger on her chin. “Let me see if I can even remember it all. Michelle is going to make enchiladas verdes.”

  “No, she’s not. She only makes those for special occasions.”

  Nicole ignored her and continued. “Annie has already sent me a batch of her fudge pecan brownies.”

  “Oh my gosh, they are so good,” Ry said and practically drooled.

  “Elise is going to make fried chicken.”

  “Stop. Please. Stop. I’ve had nothing but an IV drip and hospital food for days.” She looked at Nicole and rolled her eyes. “And trust me the IV drip was the better of the two.”

  Nicole started laughing as she stood and stepped closer to the bed. She leaned over and kissed Ry softly. “I promise to take you to all of your favorite places as soon as you’re able.”

  Ry kissed her and slowly traced a finger along Nicole’s cheek. “You should be careful. I have an extremely healthy appetite.”

  “I’m counting on it,” Nicole whispered as she kissed Ry deeply.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Two days later Ry finally received word that she was being released. She was told she would have to wait until the doctor signed the release papers. By six in the morning, she had showered, dressed and packed her meager belongings into the small bag her mother had brought earlier in the week. She was more than ready to leave.

  By the time her parents arrived at nine she was so anxious she could hardly sit still. When the doctor hadn’t arrived by noon, Ry was ready to leave without his signature. She had to force herself to remain calm. When he finally did arrive at three, Ry was sleeping in the chair. Her father woke her.

  “Dr. Price is here,” he said quietly.

  Ry sat up. “I didn’t realize you were actually coming in,” she said. “I thought you were just going to sign the paperwork.”

  He nodded. “I just wanted to chat with you a minute before you leave.” He glanced at her parents. “I’d like to speak to her privately, if you don’t mind.”

  Her parents left, but not without a worried backward glance.

  “What’s wrong?” Ry asked before the door was even closed.

  “Nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to tell you something.” He sat on the side of the bed across from her chair. “I wanted to let you know I found my dog.” His salon-perfect tan looked out of place in the nearly colorless room.

  “That’s great.” She noticed that he kept gazing around the room rather than looking at her.

  He nodded again. “How did you know where he was?”

  Ry wondered how much she should tell him. The last thing she wanted was to spend another week here.

  He seemed to sense her hesitation and finally looked at her. “I’ve already signed your release papers and you must know that I can’t repeat anything you tell me.”

  Ry tapped her finger on the chair arm. “I believe you’re limited to what you can tell someone about my health records. I’m not so sure about anything else,” she countered.

  “Would it make any difference if I give you my word that anything you tell me will never go beyond these walls?”

  Ry shrugged. At the moment, she really didn’t care who he told as long as it didn’t delay her release from the hospital. “All I can tell you is when I shook your hand that day, I saw something. I suppose the best way to describe it would be an image. I saw a German shepherd sitting next to a tree with that swing beside him.”

  “That’s all?” he asked.

  She tried to recall exactly what she had seen. “I saw the dog tied to a tree.”

  He clicked the pen he was holding several times. “Has this happened before? I mean, have you had other visions, either before or after you were shot?”

  “Nope. It was just that one time,” she lied. She didn’t see any point to telling him about the other times.

  He looked at her as if he doubted her, but finally stood. “If it happens again, let me know. It might be an indication there’s something deeper that we missed.”

  “The CAT scan didn’t show anything else, did it?” she asked slightly worried.

  “No. It looked normal. But, if you continue to have these hallucinations we need to be concerned.”

  She promised to call him if anything else happened.

  He suddenly held out his hand. There was something about the deliberate way in which he offered his hand that made Ry wonder if he was testing her.

  She took his hand and smiled. “See, no hallucinations.”

  Before she could dwell any deeper on why she had
lied, he started talking. “I wouldn’t worry about it. People respond differently to medications. You were on a fairly strong sedative.” He nodded, as if he were satisfied with his conclusion.

  “It’s time to get you home,” he said cheerfully. “I believe they’ve already set you up with an appointment to be in my office in two weeks to have the stitches removed.”

  “Yes,” Ry said.

  “Good. You probably won’t have much of an appetite for a while, so it’s important that you eat good, healthy food. Drink plenty of water. For the next six weeks, I don’t want you to do anything more strenuous than walking. You can walk, eat, sleep or sit quietly. You shouldn’t try to read too much or watch much television. It could cause you to experience headaches.” He glanced at her chart. “Did they go over the prescriptions I ordered?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good. Take them as directed.” He motioned to the bruising on her face. “That will disappear in a few days.”

  An orderly came in with a wheelchair. “Are you ready?” he asked.

  “Call my office if you have any problems or you have questions,” Dr. Price said as stood and left the room.

  Ry had to force herself to get sedately into the wheelchair rather than run past it. She was so happy to be leaving she felt as if she could have easily floated down the three flights of stairs and right on out into the parking lot.

  As she allowed herself to be wheeled out, she ran a hand over her face. She had lied to Dr. Price. When she shook his hand, she had seen the dog again, still tied to the tree. Why had he lied about finding the dog? She was too tired to give the matter any serious thought, but felt certain he had been testing her.

  * * *

  As soon as her mom’s car turned off the main highway onto the road that led back to her parents’ house, Ry felt a sense of peace settle over her. “I’m so glad to be out of that place,” she said more to herself than her parents.

  “Amen to that,” her father said as he leaned forward in the driver’s seat and stretched his arms over the steering wheel. “You’d think a place as big and expensive as that hospital could offer a decent cup of coffee.”

  Her mom swatted his arm. “Seth, enough with the coffee already. I’ll make you a pot when we get home. I swear. I’ve heard nothing but complaining about how bad the coffee was for a solid week.” She dug through her purse. “I swear I can’t find anything in this purse,” she grumbled.

  “What are you looking for?” Seth asked.

  “I can’t find my keys. I don’t know what I’ve done with them.”

  Seth glanced at her and shook his head. “See what happens when you can’t get a decent cup of coffee,” he said and grinned.

  “Horse hockey. What does coffee have to do with me finding my keys?”

  “Doreen, sweetie, your keys are here in the ignition. We’re in your car.”

  She looked at the ignition as if she had never seen it before and shook her head. “I swear I’m getting senile.”

  Seth swung the car into the driveway and stopped in front of the house. “Nope, you just need a good cup of coffee and some rest.” He opened his door. “Let’s get you two inside. I think we could all use a long lazy day.”

  “Ry, if you’d like to take a nap, we have Granny’s room made up for you,” her mom said as they entered the house.

  “I think I’ll sit in the living room for a while,” Ry said. “I’m sick of being in bed.”

  “That sounds like a great idea for both of you,” her dad said. “I’m going to go put the car in the garage and then I need to tend to a couple of things. You two should sit down and rest.”

  Ry sat on the couch. From there she had a great view of the front field.

  “All I’ve done is sit,” Doreen protested, but she looked relieved when she settled into the recliner and kicked the footrest up.

  Ry’s father returned with a pillow and a couple of light blankets. “I thought you might need these if you decide to take a nap.” He handed one of the blankets to his wife before he placed the remaining items beside Ry. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.” He went outside.

  “He looks happy to be home,” Ry said.

  “You know how he is,” her mother said. “Never still for more than a few minutes. I swear if I hadn’t made him sit down, he’d have started doing repairs to the drywall in the waiting room.”

  Ry smiled. “I’m sorry you two had to go through this, and I want you to know I appreciate everything you have done for me.”

  Her mom closed her eyes and gave a slight wave of her hand. “Rylene, we’re your parents. That doesn’t stop simply because you’re grown.”

  Ry studied her mother for a long moment. She hadn’t mentioned the dream about Granny Jeter to her mother. “Mom, do you or did you ever have a pair of sapphire earrings? There was something about a little gold heart.”

  Her mom blinked in surprise. “My goodness, what made you ask about those earrings?”

  “You don’t have earrings like that, do you? I don’t remember ever seeing you wear anything even similar.”

  Her mom sat staring at her. “I had a pair years ago. My grandmother gave them to me. They had belonged to my mother.” She frowned slightly.

  “What happened to the earrings?” Ry persisted.

  “I don’t know. I lost one of them just after you were born.” A shadow of sadness darted across her face. “Why are you asking me about those earrings? You never saw them. How did you even know about them?”

  Ry licked her lips. “This is going to sound a little weird, but when I was at the cabin, I had a dream. Granny Jeter was in the dream. She told me to tell you that the earring you lost fell behind the baseboard at the back of your dresser. She described it as a little gold heart with a sapphire in the center.”

  “Was this before or after you were hurt?” her mom asked with a worried look.

  “It was the night before.” Ry hesitated. “Mom, I know this sounds a little crazy, but I think Granny Jeter tried to warn me about what was going to happen.”

  “In what way?”

  Ry told her mom everything she could remember about the dream.

  Her mom nodded after Ry finished telling her story. “Granny believed in the old ways. On rare occasions, she would start talking about how things were when she was a child. She always told us her mother had what she called ‘the second sight.’”

  “What was that?”

  “According to Granny, her mother could see things before they happened. I guess we would consider her a psychic now.”

  “Do you believe that’s possible?” Ry asked.

  Her mom tilted her head. “I believe the vast majority of those places where they claim to read your palm or see your future in tarot cards are a fraud.” She stopped and slowly nodded. “But, I have to admit that I’ve seen and heard, from people I trust, of things happening that are beyond explanation.” She took the blanket off the chair arm and spread it over her legs. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone. Not even your father.” She looked at Ry. “I was afraid if I told, everyone would think I was being silly, or worse.” Her eyebrows shot up to emphasize her concern.

  Ry pounded the pillow into a comfortable wad beneath her head and stretched out on the couch.

  “When I was about eleven or twelve, Ray Grayson, the man who usually delivered eggs and milk to Granny, disappeared. He left one morning with a load of eggs and milk and seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. The police organized search parties of the local men and they searched for days but never found anything. Then one night long after we had gone to bed, I heard a knock at the door.” Her eyes took on a faraway look as her memory went back to that night. “I slept in that same little cubby you did in the cabin. There was a knothole in one of the boards separating the cubby and the living room.”

  Ry smiled and said, “I know what you’re talking about. It’s still there. The board would be hidden when clothes were hanging on that rod.”

/>   “That’s the one,” her mother said and nodded. “So, on that night when I heard someone knocking, I peeked through the hole and saw it was Mrs. Grayson. She and Granny were talking low, but I could hear them. Mrs. Grayson had come to ask for Granny’s help. They sat down on the couch. I could tell Granny was sad, and then, she tells Mrs. Grayson that her husband was dead. He had been shot and robbed by a man in a green truck with a tent.”

  “A tent?”

  Her mother nodded. “That’s what Granny said. And of course, it didn’t make any sense to Mrs. Grayson or me at the time, but a week later, a circus arrived in town and there was the green truck with a tent. The tent was a sign on the truck door advertising the circus. I never knew how or why, but the police investigated and they found the man. He still had Mr. Grayson’s pocket watch.”

  “Do you think it was just a coincidence that Granny was right?” Ry asked.

  Her mom seemed to consider the question a minute before answering. “Honestly, I’ve never known what to make of it. I just sort of put it out of my mind.”

  “Did you ever ask Granny how she knew?”

  Her mom shook her head vigorously. “No. I would never have wanted her to know I’d been spying on her.”

  They sat in silence for a while, each seemingly lost in her own thoughts.

  “Do you think she was right about the earring?” Ry asked cautiously.

  “There’s only one way to find out,” her mom said as she lowered the footrest on the recliner. “You stay here and rest.”

  “No way. If you’re going to look, I’m going with you.”

  “I’ll grab some tools,” her mom said as she scurried off.

  As soon as they stepped into the kitchen, they ran into Ry’s father.

  He stared at the tools in his wife’s hands. “Doreen, what in the dickens are you doing with those?” He glanced at Ry. Aren’t you supposed to be resting?” he asked.

  “I was walking. The doctor told me to walk.”

  Before he could say more Doreen thrust the tools into his hands. “Since you’re so handy, follow me and I’ll show you where you’re going to use them.” She turned and left without waiting for him to say anything further.