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Chapter 72
DECKER STOPPED THEtruck before they got to the front drive leading to the mansion. He cut the engine and looked around.
“What are we going to do now?” Jamison said.
His phone dinged and Decker took a few moments to read it. It was the answer to the text he had sent previously.
“Finish this, I hope,”he said to Jamison.
“But what about the exchange for Amber and Zoe?” she exclaimed. “We’ve got to get them back.”
“We will, because they’rehere, Alex.”
“Here! But the exchange spot is over four hours away.”
“Which is what they wanted us to think.” He looked at Fred Ross. “Right?”
Ross eyed Decker darkly. “You got no idea who you’re dealing with,fatso.”
“Yeah, so everybody keeps telling me.”
They climbed out of the truck. Decker went to the rear cargo area and took out the collapsible wheelchair and set it up.
Baron said, “Decker, we can just leave this creep here. He can’t go anywhere.”
“No, we need him. But we have to take an obvious precaution.” He took out a roll of duct tape from a toolkitin the back and, despite the old man trying to stop him, taped Ross’s mouth shut. Next, he put the struggling Ross in the wheelchair, and then bound his forearms to the arms of the wheelchair.
He took out the shotgun and shells from the front seat and handed them to Baron. “I assume you know how to use it?” he said.
Baron expertly loaded in five shells and looked up. “Lord-of-the-Manor101 stuff.”
Decker took control of the wheelchair. As they reached the asphalt in the front court of the house he picked up his speed but then stopped.
They had reached the potting shed. On one side of it was a huge mound of dirt and the door to the shed was open.
“What the hell is going on?” exclaimed Baron. “Who dug that up? And why is the door open?”
“They were obviously looking for the treasure here,” said Decker. “Hold on.” He left them and crossed over to the potting shed. Using his cell phone flashlight, he climbed down into the hole. They saw his light flashing around for about a minute before he emerged. Next, he went into the shed. Less than a minute later he came back out and rejoined them.
“What did you find?” asked Jamison.
“Exactly what I thought I would: nothing.”
“And inside?”
“They broke through the floor, but it was just set on a thin concrete slab with dirt under it.”
“So what does that mean?” said Riley.
“That means we keep going to where the treasure really is.”
They took the paved road that led off to the right. As they approached the end of theroad, Decker stopped and wheeled Ross off to the side.
He took out his gun and Jamison did the same, while Baron brandished the shotgun. They all followed Decker down the road. They cleared the curve and looked up ahead.
There was a lot of activity going on.
They noted a large dump truck parked in front of the gates of the family cemetery. Attached to it was an emptyflatbed trailer. They watched as a Bobcat sped past the truck and entered the burial ground. Two SUVs were parked next to the dump truck, and through the open gate they could see people moving around inside the burial ground.
