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At that point, his father unloaded. “Shut up, Anthony. Your tears are selfish tears. I have watched your mother grieve in ways you will never understand. You and Alexander reaped your own bitter harvest. We’re through here.”
Tony laid his head down on the table, weeping copiously as they left him sitting. The guard rolled him back to his cell, and when the lock clicked behind him, it was an audible endnote to life as he’d known it.
The same morning that Tony Bing got the news about his brother’s death, Cameron Pope reached the end of the journal, and as he was reading the last posts, what happened to Charlie Raines began to make sense. He jumped up from his chair and headed for Sonny Warren’s office.
The door was open. Cameron walked in talking.
“The man who shot Charlie! He was looking for gold!”
Sonny looked up. “What? What the hell would—?”
“It’s in the last part of the journal. Two thingshappened on the same day. Brendan Pope’s wife, Meg, went up the mountain to pick berries on the same day that a troop of Confederate soldiers came through Jubilee with a wagon reported to be carrying rebel gold to fund their war. When Meg didn’t come back, they organized a search party and followed her trail up the mountain, following the creek. They found dozens of boot prints, a lot of blood, and an overturned basket of berries at Big Falls. Brendan thought of the soldiers and followed their trail back out to the road.”
“Holy shit, Cameron! Did they take her?” Sonny asked.
“They never saw any of her footprints after they began tracking the soldiers, but they found the wagon abandoned on the side of the trail with a broken wheel. Their theory was that after the wagon broke down, the soldiers carried the gold into the woods, got as far as the falls to hide it, and walked up on Meg. Now she was a witness to where they were going to hide the gold. They followed the soldiers’ trail up the mountain for miles until they came upon what was left of the troop. There’d been some kind of gunfight. They were all dead, and no sign of Meg. Brendan and the searchers went back to Jubilee, believing the soldiers had likely killed Meg and hid her body wherever they hid the gold. I think the man who shot Charlie came upon this journal somewhere and came looking for gold, and Charlie surprised him.”
“That could very well be,” Sonny said. He couldn’t tell Cameron they already had an eyewitness who’d seen theirman with a gun, a metal detector, and a shovel, but knowing this, it fit what they already knew about the shooter.
“Good work! I’ll let Sheriff Woodley know. On another note, did they ever find Meg’s body?”
“No, and my family is going to be devastated when they hear this. This has to be what Aunt Ella was referring to. Why her mother would never read her the end of the journal. Because Brendan’s wife went up the mountain to pick berries and never came home.”
“That’s a tragedy you don’t get over,” Sonny said. “I can’t imagine how Brendan Pope felt.”
“I know how I’d feel if I lost Rusty,” Cameron said. “Oh…I left the journal in the interview room. Should I bring it to you?”
“No need. I’ll get it and return it to the evidence room,” Sonny said.
“Thank you for giving me access. I want permission to scan the entire journal. I’m going to make copies and have them bound for our families. I suppose it will go back to the Library of Congress when this is over. It’s probably safer there than risking another house fire like Aunt Ella mentioned. I can’t imagine how it wound up being donated, but I’m happy to know it still exists,” Cameron said.
“Absolutely,” Sonny said. “Give Rusty my best, and I hear congratulations are in order with a baby on the way.”
“Thanks. We’re pretty excited,” Cameron said. “If we can be of further help, all you have to do is ask.”
Cameron left the station, conflicted by what he’dlearned. Nearly two hundred years had passed since Brendan Pope came to Kentucky, and then some thirty years afterward, his wife goes missing on Pope Mountain. The chances were, she was still up there somewhere, waiting to be found. This was something they all needed to know.
The next morning, the chief caught Aaron in the hall after roll call and told him about what Cameron had discovered in the journal.
Aaron was in shock, first about the reason for Charlie being shot, and then learning about their missing ancestor.
“He was hunting for treasure?” Aaron said.
Sonny nodded. “From what Cameron read, the soldiers who were hiding the gold got Meg killed, and it nearly got Charlie killed when someone went looking for it.”
Aaron thought back to Dani’s first statement. “Dani did mention a metal detector and a shovel in her initial witness statement, which fits in with what we’ve just learned, and explains why the man was willing to risk trespassing.”
“Speaking of Miss Owens, how’s she doing this morning?” Sonny asked.
“Don’t know. I went home yesterday, but I’m seeing her later.”
“So, it’s not all just business between you two anymore?”
Aaron didn’t answer.
Sonny grinned.
“As you were, Officer Pope. Go find some lawbreakers.”
