Agatha had enjoyed watching the FBI’s special operations SWAT unit arrive and take possession of casket number three. She paid particular attention to the way they conducted themselves around reporters, other cops, and the public. They were swift, silent, and as she assumed, deadly.
“You think they’ll have time to get the other two up before it gets dark?” Agatha asked.
“Yes, they’ll have to,” Hank said. “We’re in too deep. We’ve got the lights that Coil brought over yesterday, and I don’t think it’s wise or safe to abandon the site until everything is done.”
“Yeah,” Agatha said. “I figured you’d say that.”
“Hey, at least Lawrence is out of your hair,” Hank said, hugging her around the waist.
“Maybe so, but I’m still cold. I already miss summer.”
“Bite your tongue, woman,” Hank said. “I’m still not used to that heat. But I can keep you warm if you’re cold.” He pulled her in tighter.
“I bet Dot would love to watch that,” Agatha said, nodding her head toward the barricade. “Doesn’t that haggard woman have a life?”
They were loading the next coffin onto the back of a flatbed truck, and she and Hank moved in that direction.
Agatha heard the commotion on the other side of the barricade. She looked and saw that the crane was gently setting the next casket on the back of a flatbed truck. She tugged Hank by the sleeve of his windbreaker, and they both headed over to join Coil and Jakes.
“Anyone want to make a guess?” Jakes asked.
“I’ll guess it’s the same thing as the last one,” Agatha replied.
“Wow, you really like to go out on a limb, don’t you?” Hank taunted her.
“Well,” Agatha said. “If you look at it logically, I can see the same amount of strain on this one that was caused by the last one. Gold is heavy.”
“Very observant,” Hank mused.
“I’m always watching, big boy.”
The FBI crime scene techs opened the lid and gave Jakes the affirmative, and Jakes radioed his second unit of SWAT operators who had been assigned to remain on site to escort the casket and contents back to their forensics lab.
The other SWAT team had radioed earlier that they’d safely delivered their package and were returning to Rusty Gun. It looked like they’d have the third casket up and open before midnight. It didn’t make Agatha any less cold, but it did mean she’d be in bed before dawn.
“Let’s get the last one going,” Jakes said to the crew.
Agatha could see Jakes was exhausted. Things hadn’t started smoothly with his arrival in Rusty Gun. But after he’d gotten back on equal footing with Hank, he’d really shown his skill at organizing the investigation.
Coil came over with boxes stacked two high. “Look what the Taco and Waffle sent over.”
Agatha grabbed the top container and helped Coil hand out Styrofoam cups of piping hot tortilla soup. They all moved into a mobile command post that had been requisitioned by Coil to support their operation. It was like a luxury mobile home. Agatha snuck her cell phone out to take pictures of the interior. It was definitely going into a book.
The excavation of the fifth and final coffin would take about an hour, so sitting in a very cozy command center watching cable television wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Agatha was into her second episode of Murder She Wrote when Jakes pulled the exterior door open.
“Let’s see if the third time is the charm,” Jakes said.
Agatha moaned as she unfolded her aching body out of a comfortable chair. Sure, it was exciting to see those amounts of treasure, but to be honest, she’d already witnessed it twice. How much more exciting could a third casket get?
“You want to do the honors?” Jakes asked Agatha as he held his hand out to help her up and onto the flatbed transport truck.
“Umm, yeah,” she said.
Agatha stood back as they jimmied open the lid and removed it. She slipped on her phone light and shined it into the coffin. It was empty.
“Well?” Jakes asked.
“It’s empty,” she said.
“I don’t know if that’s disappointing or our big break,” Hank said.
“What do you mean?” Agatha asked, hopping down from the flatbed.
“Maybe Lawrence’s outlier is actually the one who buried them here. When that much money is involved, there’s no honor among thieves.”
“I just got a text from Lawrence,” Jakes said. “He says it’s imperative that he speak with us about the third victim.”
“Does that mean we get to go back inside?” Agatha asked.
“Yes.”
“Then count me in.” she said.
Jakes dialed up Lawrence on the computer screen in the command post. “Dr. Lawrence,” Jakes said. “You don’t have to put your face so close to the screen. We can see you just fine.”
“Right,” Lawrence said. “It seems my deductions were correct about the other victims. Number three is identified as Emma Gurtz. History has her as something of a rabble-rouser in her day. Was something of a Tom-boy, spent her time fishing and hunting with her brothers. And drinking in the bars. She’d been known to throw a punch or two, but her family was quite prominent and was able to keep the law off her. Found she had quite a talent at pouring drinks and lending an ear to those drinking her supplies.
“How’d her family get their money?” Agatha asked.
“I believe you call it Texas Tea,” Lawrence said.
“Oil,” Hank and Agatha said together, and shared a look.
“What about the contents of the coffin?” Coil asked.
“Jakes’s boys have removed the contents and taken them into another area. They’re still cataloguing the contents and getting an assessment on the dates and value of the gold and someone is coming in to appraise the diamonds. They did confirm it was Confederate gold that had probably been stolen by the militia in an attempt to launch a fight for Texas to regain their independence.”
“Anything else?” Jakes asked.
“There was a cache of documents. They’ll have to be sorted, but it looks like an accounting journal and deeds.”
“Deeds?” Jakes asked.
“Yes, property and mineral rights mostly.”
“Interesting,” Jakes said. “Very interesting.”