“It doesn’t look like he quit.” Henry started the car and backed out of the trees.
“No, it doesn’t. That’s about the same time us girls were told we weren’t allowed to leave the yard. Father said it was because of the traffic, of people coming to look at land, but I think it was because we used to go exploring in the hills. He didn’t want us to see what he was doing. And tell Mother.”
To Henry, it appeared that the money William made selling land and houses was simply a way to fund his gold searching. “Did your father tell you that his grandfather bought up all this land because he was convinced there was gold in the hills?”
“No. We always believed Grandpa had bought it for farming, but that it was too hilly. Father never talks about his family.” She shook her head. “This explains why his clothes are so dirty some days. He must change his clothes up here, and brings them home only once a month or so to wash. Mother would tell us he must have been helping dig basements on those days.”
“Do you think she knows?” Henry asked.
“No. I’m sure she doesn’t. And I’m sure she’d be very angry if she did find out.”
“I guess that explains, in part, why he’s so strict.” Not only with his family, but within the elite houses he insisted on building. The fences he wanted people to build around their property were to keep people in their own yards, and out of his hills. Henry wasn’t sure if Dryer was just selfish, or that obsessed with gold.
“And so grumpy,” Betty said. “He’s afraid. Afraid someone will learn his secret.” Frowning, she asked, “Did you know? Is that why you followed him this morning?”
A mixture of shame, guilt, and what he’d come to assume was jealousy rolled around in his stomach at how he had been searching for a reason for her not to marry Bauer. Until he realized that this wasn’t about what he wanted, it was about what she wanted. Therefore, he’d give her the information she needed to make up her own mind, and a bit of power. How she used it would be up to her. “No, I didn’t know, but I thought you should know whatever I’d found.”
She frowned slightly, then nodded.
“There’s one more thing I want to show you.”
The house Bauer was building was about five miles away from where they’d seen Dryer sluicing for gold, and just like it had been yesterday, the site was void of any workers. A skeleton frame of the exterior had been built, and lumber was piled in stacks. Two-by-fours, just as Owens had said.
He pulled in and parked.
“This is the house James is building,” she said.
“Yes, it is.”
The basement was made of concrete blocks, and the tracks surrounding the remnants of what must have been the dirt dug out for the basement told Henry something else. William Dryer had hauled the dirt that had been dug up for the basement up the mountainside to his sluice box. That was why he had a dump truck. He must do that with every home built up here. That was commitment if nothing else.
More commitment than it appeared that Bauer had. There were no fresh footprints or tire tracks around the build site.
“It looks as if no one has been here for some time,” she said. “And those are two-by-fours, aren’t they? Like Blake Owens said.”
“Yes, they are.” He started the car and drove out of the building site.
“I’ll talk to my father about the building codes,” she said. “Rules are rules and they all should be followed.”
She was looking out the passenger window and the level of guilt inside him was high enough he should be drowning. He’d found every excuse he could to be with her since the beginning. He had to get over this deep-down draw he had toward her like some sort of lifeline that he was afraid to break. Why? Because for the first time in his life he’d wanted someone to care about him? No. He’d wanted that before, but had known it wasn’t possible. It wasn’t possible this time, either. That was why being an FBI agent fit him. Because when he stood, facing a criminal, guns drawn, he didn’t worry about getting shot, about his life ending, because there was no one waiting for him to return.
She, however, deserved a wonderful life, and he hoped she would find it. Even if it meant that was with James Bauer.
“I was fooled by someone once,” he said. “They used me to get what they needed.”
She frowned. “The woman you mentioned—the one who charmed information out of you?”
“Yes.” If this was what it took for her to understand why he’d taken her to the building site, so be it. “Her name was Scarlet, and she was warning rumrunners where blockades were being set up to catch them. I didn’t want to believe it at first, but the proof was there, so I had to.”
“What happened to her?”
“I arrested her,” he answered, emotionless. He didn’t feel anything toward Scarlet or what had happened. “She’s still in prison.”
“She got what she deserved.” She let out a long sigh. “James isn’t trying to fool me. I know what I’m getting.” She grinned slightly. “Because of you. I appreciate what you showed me today. Both my father and the building site. I have to think about all of that.”
He hoped she did.
As they pulled
