The Hidden

“I don’t know. I never knew, I only knew that I was going to die. All I saw was the burlap bag he wore over his head,” he said, and winced. “A mask like the ones we wore when we were robbing banks and stagecoaches. I did bad things, things that hurt people. Perhaps I deserved what happened to me, but...”


“Did you recognize his voice?” Scarlet asked.

“I felt as if I should have, but...I didn’t. He might have disguised it. I don’t know.”

“Do you know what he wanted from you? Was he looking for the gold?”

He nodded. “Yes. He kept demanding to know where it was. I tried to play for time, but the pain...” A shadow crossed his face as he remembered. “I prayed that someone would come, that Jillian and the baby would escape.” His voice grew stronger as he spoke. “But she must have heard, and she rushed out and surprised him, so he turned and shot her, and for the love of God, all I could do was scream her name until... Until I realized I wasn’t making a sound. That was when I realized I was dead.”

“Why didn’t you just give him the gold?” Scarlet asked.

“Because I never knew where Jillian had hidden it,” he said softly. “I found it by accident, after a hard rain that revealed a vein of pure riches—what Rollo was looking for, I imagine. So I dug it out and gave it to her, told her to put it where I wouldn’t know and couldn’t be tempted. Maybe she left it with her father, I don’t know. It was for a rainy day, for our son.”

“It was Rollo—it must have been Rollo,” Scarlet said. “I can’t believe it was your father-in-law.” She’d meant the words as a statement, but they came out sounding more like a question.

The ghost of Nathan Kendall shook his head sadly. “Never Tom Vickers. He may not have liked me, but never would the man have killed his own daughter.”

“Do you know if the gold is connected to what’s happening now?” she asked. “Could someone know you found gold and that it’s somewhere here, on the ranch?”

“I wish I’d never found it,” Nathan said. He looked at Daniel and shook his head sadly. “So much tragedy because of man’s greed.”

“Well, I didn’t have any gold. I wasn’t worth more than what I had in my pockets,” Daniel said.

“I think every bit of this has been planned— starting with your death, Daniel,” Scarlet said. “The killer is looking for the gold, pure and simple, but he wants it to look like someone has gone crazy and started killing descendants of Nathan Kendall. I think his original plan was for Ben to be arrested for the murders, but when it became clear that wasn’t going to work he switched tactics and started finding ways to ruin Ben’s business, like that trick with the moose head. Either way, the business would end up closed down and the place would be abandoned, maybe forever. But even if it was only temporary, while Trisha tried to sell the property, the killer would be free to rip it apart from stem to stern until he found the gold.”

Nathan Kendall nodded and looked at Daniel, but he was fading. “I’m so sorry,” he said. He was almost gone, but before he faded entirely he approached Scarlet, who felt a gentle touch on her cheek.

Then he was gone.

Daniel met her eyes and asked, “Did you hear him?”

“Just now?”

“Yes.”

“I heard him tell you he was sorry.”

“Perhaps the dead hear the dead speak more clearly than the living. Because he told you to be careful. He’s afraid for you, Scarlet. So am I.”

“You don’t need to be, either of you. I am careful,” she promised, then thought about the past—and the present.

“And I have Diego,” she said.

But did she?

Maybe not forever. Maybe he was only here because he was an honorable man who had sworn to serve and protect.

“Daniel,” she said.

But he was gone, too.

She looked around the quiet museum and a chill settled into her bones.

She prayed there were no more horrors to come.

But as she ran upstairs to join the others, she knew in her gut that her prayers would go unanswered.