Three days after Avery and Joyce gave up their lead on the Mickey Tulare treasure, nothing related had made the local newspaper or televised news. But the local gossip mill was all buzz and chatter about why Heath Gunderson had confronted Joyce in the library parking lot and went to her home. At least one nosey and observant neighbor saw Heath leaving with the documents in his hand and looking like he was on top of the world.
Joyce was well-studied in much of the history of the lakeside towns, but she wouldn’t dub herself a local historian, even if most would argue otherwise. And the residents of Harbor City knew Heath Gunderson to only be interested in one part of the area’s history. Mickey and his jewels. It didn’t take long for people to put Joyce’s expertise and Heath’s interests together to understand the reason for his visit and jolly spirits afterwards.
The cat was out of the bag, so to speak.
Only Joyce, Avery, and the Wangs knew the rest. Only the five of them knew Heath was interested in much more than just Mickey’s jewels.
Before the town’s gossip mill really gained momentum, all of them had been very concerned for Avery and Joyce’s safety. But Heath’s plan had worked. With everyone talking about Joyce and Avery and what they may have uncovered, it would be extremely arrogant and foolish for the Albertson and Kinder men to target them any further than just leaving the threatening nails and note on her doorstep. If anything were to happen to them, the entire town would be in an uproar and there would be no doubt their demise was under nefarious circumstances.
At least, that was the hope. And that hope was carrying Avery and Joyce away from the house for the first time since Heath confronted them. Even though they were benched on one mystery, they had another they wanted to solve. And as Joyce parked in front of the antique store, Avery was emanating a glow she hadn’t expressed in just as many days as they’d been self-isolating. It warmed Joyce to her core, and fed the ember of hope in her chest that things would be okay.
While unbuckling her seatbelt, Joyce jokingly asked, “So, if that cigar cutter turns out to be a functioning antique, do you plan on taking up the habit?”
Placing her hands on her chest, Avery said, “Never. This body is a temple.”
“The most magnificent temple ever to be constructed of star dust and dreams.”
After giving her a kiss on the lips, Avery cooed, “Come, devout celebrant, whisper more sweet things like that in my ear while we travel back in time.”
While dramatically swooning, leaning in closer to Avery, Joyce crooned, “Oh, how your wish draws across my heartstrings like a bow across a violin. If I had only been gifted with the voice of an angel so I could sing you the songs your existence spawns within me.”
“Keep talking like that and I’m going to buy you wine, chocolates, and flowers on the way home. And I’m going to make Spaghetti Carbonara for dinner.”
Joyce hummed mm, “You really are stroking my heart today.”
Avery giggled as she grabbed the door handle, and teased, “I’ll stroke more than that when we get home,” making Joyce’s cheeks blush as they pushed up into her eyes with a huge smile.
“Let me not delay this trip through time any longer.”
Joyce swiftly hopped out of the car, and Avery skipped up onto the sidewalk to meet her, looping both of her arms with her and kissing her on the cheek.
“You’re radiant today, sweetie.”
“I had a really good session with my therapist this morning. I feel like… You know that feeling when you’re really sweaty and dirty and you just feel really gross, then you take a long, hot shower? That’s how I feel.”
While opening the door to the antique shop, Joyce answered, “I know exactly what you mean. And even though I didn’t have a stellar therapy session like you, your incredible energy is wearing off on me and giving me that same feeling.” Joyce lowered her voice as they stepped into the shop, and leaning in, she added, “Not that I mind getting dirty with you in life’s trenches. But I really like the clean days.”
Avery bit both of her lips, suppressing a giggle, then pressed her lips to Joyce’s ear, and whispered, “Are you purposefully baiting me, Joyce Peterson?”
Placing a hand on her chest, Joyce took on a Southern belle ancient, asking, “Whatever do you mean?”
Against Joyce’s ear again, Avery cooed, “You’re going to need a shower when I’m done with you later. Things are going to get very dirty.”
The word dirty sent a shiver through Joyce’s body that instigated a deep, throbbing pulse between her thighs. But they had made their way to the U-shaped glass display cases in the center of the store, where the owner and register were awaiting customers, so she couldn’t respond and had to plaster on a friendly smile to attempt to mask the thoughts running through her head.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t Joyce Peterson and Avery West. The town sure is talking an awful lot about you two these days.” The older gentleman set aside a brass horse he was polishing, then placed both hands on the glass counter, spread just a bit more than shoulder-width, and leaned forward with a twinkle in his gray eyes and a smile on his salt and pepper goatee framed lips. “Rumor has it you’re on the tail of the greatest find of the century. I’m afraid I don’t carry much in here that might help you on a treasure hunt. What can I do for you?”
Sounding more carefree than she actually felt from the Mickey affair being brought back into the forefront of their present, Joyce answered, “Come now, David, can you really see me diving in the lake or traipsing in the woods looking for buried treasure? I’m a writer.”
He gave her a hearty laugh and nodded, then tilted his head side to side, and argued, “Maybe so, maybe so. But you ladies wouldn’t be the first to fall victim to the fever. We call it the Mickey Tick – that little bug latches on, burrows into you, then you’ve got the fever. And once you’ve got it, you never lose it.”
“I assure you our interests are strictly of a literary nature.”
Extending an, “Oh,” he lifted his brows as his smile grew. “Now that is fine news indeed. I loved what you did with Clifton Macintyre’s story.” While looking at Avery, and jerking his thumb towards Joyce, he added, “She’s the nicest lady, but she sure can write the meanest brutes there ever were.”
“She is pretty brilliant.”
He hummed in agreement and nodded a couple of times, then asked, “What can I do for you today? Looking for something particular?”
“Actually,” Avery pulled the cigar cutter from her purse, “I was wondering if you could tell me more about this. We found it on the lakeshore.”
While pulling his glasses from his breast pocket, he leaned forward, and after putting the frames on his face, he gingerly took the cutter from Avery to get a closer look at it.
“Very nice, very nice.”
He bent at the hips towards the side and pulled a few items up from under the counter – a velvet pad, a lint-free blue cloth, and a small bottle of polish. They watched while he buffed away the tarnish, revealing gorgeous floral scrollwork on the body that they hadn’t been able to see before.
Holding the cleaned cigar cutter closer to his face, he studied the piece, his smile growing with each passing second. Then, as he looked up at them, he took his glasses off, and asked, “You found this on the shore?”
Nodding, Avery answered, “About four inches down.” He quirked a questioning brow, so Avery explained, “When I was twelve, there was a club in school called the Metal Hounds. One boy had a metal detector and about a dozen of them would go out looking for stuff. My foster parents wouldn’t let me join the club.” She smiled as she glanced at Joyce for a moment. “After I told Joyce the story, she got me a metal detector and had cool club shirts made for us.”
Looking and sounding tickled, David asked, “Really? Well, isn’t that something.” He turned side to side, then walked to the other end of the counter and pulled out a single sheet leaflet and set it on the counter in front of Avery. The top had a small logo and read Harbor City’s Metal Detecting Club. “The Metal Hounds sounds cooler, but we have our own club too. If you don’t mind hanging out with mostly old farts like me.” He chuckled at his own joke. “We have an outing coming up – not this Saturday but the next. There’s an old farm just outside of Harbor City we’ve been able to arrange a trip to.”
“I’m a total amateur, but that sounds like a lot of fun.” Glowing, she glanced at Joyce, so she nodded, and Avery told him, “Count us both in.”
“Splendid.” David pointed down at the leaflet. “If you go to our website, you’ll find the details for the outing on the calendar of events. And,” he pulled a business card out from his breast pocket and set it down on the leaflet, “if you have any questions before then, give me a ring.”
“Thank you, I’ll definitely check it out.”
After Avery put the leaflet and business card in her purse, David held the cigar cutter out on his palm and pointed with his pinky to the design. “You see this ram’s head hiding in the vines?”
“Yeah. It’s amazing. We couldn’t see any of those details before. We thought there was a design under the tarnish, but it was hard to see. What does it mean?”
“Have you ever heard of the Gentlemen of the Covenant?”
Avery shook her head, and as she looked at Joyce, her brow flattened and she smiled. She nudged her with an elbow, and asked, “You know what he’s talking about, don’t you?”
“I do. They were a secret society with origins as early as the 1600s in Western Europe.”
Eyes widening, Avery asked, “Are you serious?”
She looked between David and Joyce and both nodded, before David verbally confirmed, “As serious as a heart attack, as they say. The Gentlemen of the Covenant, like all secret societies, aimed to manipulate the powers that be from the shadows to create the world they wanted to see manifest. They influenced laws, wars, financial dealings, land sales, and so forth.” He pointed to the ram on the cigar cutter. “The Gentlemen were a large organization, and likely still are. But with technology as it is today, it’s harder to know if they still exist. This symbol is how they recognized their own when traveling.”
He turned the piece over in his hands, admiring it for at least a minute before looking at Avery, and asking her, “Any interest in parting with it? To a serious collector, I could probably get you at least five, maybe thirty thousand for it.”
Avery’s jaw dropped, and she stuttered, “Are… You… Serious?”
He nodded and started looking closer at the cigar cutter. “If I could confirm the internal spring for the cutting mechanism still works, you could get top-dollar for it. I know a guy in New York who collects things like this. I think he’d be very interested. And he’s loaded, so…” He chuckled. “I bet I could squeeze close to top-dollar from him, even if the spring doesn’t work. What do you think?”
“I don’t know. Can I hold it?”
“Of course.”
He passed it back to Avery and she ran her finger over the design for at least a minute before looking at Joyce, and asking, “What do you think? Should I keep it or sell it?”
“Oh, I don’t know, sweetie. That’s your decision.”
“But what would you do? If you found this all on your own, would you keep it or sell it?”
“I can’t answer that because I don’t want to sway your decision in one way and you later regret whatever you choose.”
Avery puckered her lips to the side and scrunched her brow. After a few moments of staring Joyce down, she released a small laugh and shook her head. “This is such a significant piece of history that you wouldn’t be able to sell it.”
“This gal knows you pretty well.” David chuckled, then told Avery, “Honestly, if I had found it, I wouldn’t sell it either. And if I was a slightly younger man without kids to leave an inheritance to, I’d be trying to buy it from you. But my four kids and seven grandkids would curse my corpse till they themselves were six-feet under if I spent thirty-grand on a cigar cutter. And I’m sure a frying pan would meet the back of my head after I told the missus.” He gently curled Avery’s fingers over the cigar cutter, and told her, “Take it home. History never goes out of style. If you change your mind, even if it’s ten years from now, there will still be a buyer out there somewhere.”
“Yeah, I think I’m going to hold on to it. I want to learn more about it and these mysterious Gentlemen of the Covenant. Thank you for looking at it. Do I owe you anything?”
He elongated his face, saying, “Nah, first appraisal is on the house. Besides, it was a treat for me to see another Gentlemen’s piece in person. Last one I saw was at an auction in New Brunswick, Canada. Pocket watch. Beautiful piece. Expensive too.” He whistled. “Sold for half a million dollars.”
“Wow. I can’t imagine having so much money I could afford to spend half a million dollars on a pocket watch.”
“You and me both.” He whistled again, shaking his head.
The bell above the door jingled as another customer walked in, so Avery said, “Well, thanks again, David. If nothing unexpected comes up, we’ll see you two Saturdays from now.”
“Looking forward to it. Have a great day.”
They returned the sentiment, then left the store, hand in hand. When they reached the sidewalk, Avery released a quiet little squeal and hopped once, making Joyce laugh hard.
“Congratulations.”
“I can’t believe we found something so unique on our first time playing with the metal detector.” She looped both arms with Joyce’s and kissed her firmly on the lips. “Thank you. Even if all I ever find from now on is beer caps and nails, that’s okay. We should celebrate. Want to get some ice cream?”
“Sure.” Joyce jerked her head to the right. “Let’s walk. There’s a nice shop two blocks this way.”
While they started down the sidewalk, Avery asked, “What do you know about the local metal detectors club?”
“Not much. I’ve seen them out and about before, but I don’t know the club rules or anything like that. I should have thought to research that for you when I decided to get the shirts made.”
“It crossed my mind after I told you the story, but I was too wrapped up in other things.”
Joyce laughed hard at the dramatic dreamy lovesick look Avery gave her. Avery giggled and kissed her lips again.
“I think it could be fun to go out as a group, compare finds and learn more about the different metals and how to determine what’s what. But I still want to go out as just the two of us sometimes.”
“Okay, sweetie.”
After a couple of minutes, Avery admitted, “When he told me that cigar cutter could possibly fetch thirty-grand, I immediately thought of Antarctica. That would pay for at least two people for a pretty great cruise package.”
“I suspected as much. But like David said, history never goes out of style. You don’t have to make that decision now, unless you just can’t hold out any longer.”
“I have to hold out a while longer because you won’t go anywhere so extravagant with a book in the pipeline and I’m not going there without you. But how do you feel about going somewhere stateside after you send your manuscript to your editor?”
“That I will do. And after I’ve approved the book for publication, we can go to Iceland. Where do you want to go here in the states?”
“Yellowstone. I’ve been saving it to go with someone special and I want to go with you.”
“I went once with my parents when I was fourteen. I’d love to go back with you.”
The idea of getting out of town soon sounded pretty damn great to Joyce, and it was great motivation to get back to editing tomorrow. She was half tempted to tell Avery to plan it now and postpone the editing. But Joyce hated not meeting deadlines and hated going back on her word. Not meeting a deadline because inspiration was playing hard to get was one thing. But choosing to miss a deadline – that was a surefire way to cause guilt to boil in her belly like acid. She wanted to see those geysers in Yellowstone with Avery. But she sure as hell didn’t want to become one. So, instead of using an escape hatch to avoid whatever may develop over the Mickey Tulare drama, she knew she had to stick it out, weather the storm, and get her work done. It was the only way to make sure she could fully enjoy Yellowstone.