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“Then, why are we going there?”
“You’ll see,” she sings before increasing the volume on the radio and effectively cutting off any further conversation.
I sit back and wait. Ashlyn always brings the entertainment. She might drive me to the brink of sanity, but she’s always entertaining.
She pulls to the side of the road fifteen minutes later. When she climbs out of the car, I follow her.
“What am I supposed to be looking at?”
“Hold on,” she says as she opens the trunk to reveal a shovel and trowel. Someone came prepared. “Can you carry those?”
“Did you bring me as the muscle?” I ask as I remove the two tools.
She slams the trunk. What she doesn’t do is answer me, which means the answer is yes.
“Follow me.”
She trudges through the overgrown grass until she reaches a copse of trees. “This is it.”
“I’m confused as to what ‘it’ is. I don’t see any railroad tracks and I certainly don’t see a railroad station.”
She points to a line of trees. “Those trees are much younger than the other ones.”
I squint as I study them. “You’re right.”
“I’m fairly certain the railroad was here. Plus, I found some old railroad ties over there.”
“Just how much time have you spent out here searching for the next clue?”
“Enough.”
“Does Rowan know what you’re up to?”
“No. And you’re not telling him either. He’s turned into an overprotective maniac. He’s not the owner of me.”
“Maybe not, but he is the father of your baby.”
“I know. Which is why you’ll be doing the digging.”
Great. I am the hired help.
“I’m not digging up the entire state of Colorado. For all we know, the bandit hid the money in a locker in the train station. A train station that no longer exists.”
“I don’t think he did.”
This is going to be good. “Why not?”
“I can’t tell you. I have to show you.” She marches off and I follow her. She indicates an area free of trees. “As far as I can tell, this is where the station was. I searched the area but whoever removed the station must have gotten rid of the foundation as well. The only indication there is of a station ever being here is the lack of trees.”
“The townspeople of Winter Falls would not have let a building go to rot. They would have recycled the materials.” Winter Falls gives more than lip service to the idea of saving the environment.
“I thought the same. I also thought about the previous clue. It was buried in the ground. Maybe the bandit buried this clue in the ground, too.”
I open my arms wide to indicate the amount of ground there is to cover. “But where?”
“Since the bandit carved into the foundation of the old mansion, I thought maybe he’d carve into a tree.”
“There are an awful lot of trees here.”
