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The next morning, Paige got up early and went through the back door into Just Baked. Lucy, a smear of flour on her cheek, smiled broadly.
“Come in!” She wiped wet hands on her apron and grabbed two travel mugs out of the cupboard above the sink. “These are my personal cups. I was looking at them the other day and thought of you when I saw this one.” She filled the mug with hot coffee out of the commercial-size pot. She handed it to Paige and then crossed back to fill her own.
Paige held the mug up to see it. There were two women in witch hats smiling, each with an arm around the other. It read, “Find your coven, and you’ll never be alone.” She glanced at Lucy. The baker was smiling. Paige took a sip of the coffee before she said softly, “I’m glad my aunt had you as a friend.”
Lucy nodded, her eyes welling up. “You handled yourself very well during this whole thing, you know. Dear Nora would have been proud. I hope you’ll feel comfortable with me too.”
“I’d like that.” She paused and took another sip of coffee. “I’m heading out to Aunt Nora’s place before the closing. I want to say goodbye to it and make sure there isn’t anything I want to keep.”
“That will be good closure for you. You keep the mug. It’s a gift.”
Paige drove the Oldsmobile out to Nora’s old place. Memories flooded her just like they had the last time she’d stepped on the property. The front door wasn’t locked, and Paige let herself in.
Even though she knew her cousins must have gone through every nook and cranny of the place looking for Captain McDougall’s gold, things were pretty tidy. The real estate agent must have made sure of it. She knew her twin cousins would never clean up so thoroughly.
Paige could tell her cousins had pilfered the place pretty well, though. Not much was left except a few pieces of furniture. She found an old tea kettle on the stove that reminded her of many Sunday afternoons of her childhood spent drinking tea and playing Scrabble at Aunt Nora’s house. Grabbing the kettle, she held it in the crook of her arm while wandering through the living room. A wooden donkey sat on an end table, and she picked that up too before heading toward the stairway that led to the bedrooms.
She took a deep breath before entering Aunt Nora’s bedroom, thinking about how this would be the last time she’d see it. Her cousins had stripped the comforter and sheets off the bed and had even taken the curtains and rods down. There really wasn’t anything left that held any memories for Paige. Sighing, she turned to leave, but a glint of light caught her attention the same way it had last time she’d stood in the room. She crossed to the window and opened it. Nora’s lovely flowers had dried up from the searing heat and lack of attention. A knot caught in her throat as she remembered her aunt’s dying words: Take care of Captain McDougall and my flowers. As she reached through into the window box, her hand zeroed in on the spot that sparkled and came back with a round golden coin. Paige studied it, squealed, and almost dropped it.
Her eyes widened as she gazed at the doubloon in her hand. This couldn’t be an actual gold coin, could it? One from the legend of the pirate’s gold? She transferred the coin to her other hand and reached back through the window into the flower box, digging around a little. Nothing. She took a deep breath and plunged her entire hand and forearm into the potting soil. She had to push aside some roots to dig and claw her way to the bottom of the box. Then she felt it. Smooth metal met her fingertips. She pulled out two more coins and stared at them for a minute. Then she spun on her heel and ran to the other bedroom, throwing the window open and digging into that flower box too. Bingo. More gold coins.
This was what Aunt Nora meant when she asked Paige to take care of her flowers. She wanted Paige to find the gold!
Paige left the house and dumped the tea kettle and donkey onto the passenger seat of the Oldsmobile. She hurried into the garage. A large oil stain on the floor was all that was left from where the Mustang had sat for so many years. Stepping past it, she opened the tool closet and retrieved a handheld rake and a metal watering pail.
She went back inside the house and up to the bedroom to access the first window box and used the rake to dig out all the flowers. Then she meticulously scraped the tool through the box, pulling out coins and dropping them into the bucket, where each one landed with a satisfying plink. Once she was sure all the coins were out of the box, Paige went to the other window box and did the same thing there.
She stood still for a moment, the rake resting in her hand, staring at the almost overflowing bucket of gold doubloons. What in the world should she do with them? Who did they even belong to? She glanced at her watch. It was ten thirty. The closing on the house was underway—possibly even finished by now. Did that mean the coins belonged to Frank, since he now owned the house and property? Or did the gold cache belong to Paige’s cousins? Or maybe they were Paige’s. Finders keepers and all that.
Biting her lower lip, she grabbed the bucket and headed outside toward the car. She’d take the coins to the bookshop and call Scott. Maybe he could help her figure out who the proper owner was.
As Paige lugged the bucket toward the Oldsmobile, a chill crossed through her. She stopped for a moment to take in the strange sensation. This wasn’t the first time she’d felt it. The same feeling had occurred when Captain McDougall slipped past her on the stairs in the bookshop.
Her breath caught in her throat. Had a ghost just passed through her? “Aunt Nora?” She looked around. Someone was watching her. Was Nora’s house haunted too?
From behind the house next door, a huge figure moved awkwardly toward her. As the person approached, she only had a few seconds to wonder why Horace Bellevue was standing in Nora’s driveway aiming a pistol at her. Instinctively, she moved the bucket behind her back, knowing he’d already seen it.
Suddenly, everything was clear. Horace had wanted the logbook so badly because he thought it could somehow lead him to the gold. When he couldn’t get her to sell it, he must have started watching her to see if she knew where the gold was.
And she’d led him right to it.
“Give me that bucket,” Horace said, his voice trembling. He licked his lips almost hungrily as he stared at the gold. He inched closer and held a hand out toward her.
Paige backed away. “You don’t want to do this, do you?” Paige was no negotiator, but she thought if she could just keep Horace talking, maybe she could figure something out.
“I’m pretty sure I do. Now hand it over.” He waved the gun as though he knew how to use it.
Paige moved a few inches toward the hulking man, trying to show him she was doing his bidding without really rushing it. “Who are you really?”
His face reddened to match his hair. He shook his head, setting his jowls to jiggling madly back and forth. “What do ya mean who am I? I’m Horace Bellevue—rare book dealer.”
Paige felt a jolt of alarm. Horace wasn’t at all trying to hide who he was. Did that mean he didn’t intend to leave her alive to report him after she handed over the gold? She realized she needed to tread lightly here. It would really take using her head to get out of this alive. She wished Scott or Casper or Captain McDougall was there to help her. She glanced around. The street seemed desolate, with For Sale or Lease signs in front of most of the houses. Should she scream? Was anyone around to hear her? Where was Marco when she needed him or even her annoying cousins?
She took another tiny step forward. “Is Neal on your payroll?”
Horace narrowed his eyes. “That little twit? He’s not smart enough to work for me. Left a trail a mile wide when he was stealin’ books from old Ms. Murphy and sellin’ them online.”
So that’s where the first editions and rare books had gone. Paige couldn’t help but feel a burst of anger at the college student for fleecing Aunt Nora. Had he also told Horace where she would be today? No. Impossible. Scott had said he was going to question Neal today.
“Not only that, but he botched up the robbery.”
“What robbery?”
“He was supposed to make it look like someone broke in and stole the logbook. I was even goin’ to pay him a little too. The wimp somehow ended up faintin’ and ruined the whole scam.”
The heat and adrenaline caused a ringing in Paige’s ears. Oh yeah. That kid is so fired.
Horace was talking again. “Once those books started tricklin’ onto the market and I figured out they were comin’ from Comfort Cove, it didn’t take me long to nail down that little weasel was the culprit. It was easy to blackmail him into stealin’ the haunted logbook for me.”
“Haunted?” Paige did the best she could to plaster a quizzical look on her face. She forced out a tiny laugh. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t take me for a fool, girl.” His face was even redder now, and Paige felt her pulse pound into her throat. She might have gone too far with the fake laugh.
“That logbook your aunt took such good care of has the ghost of Captain McDougall residin’ in it. And that means it’s worth a fortune. More money than you or me have ever seen.”
She could almost see the green light of greed emanating from the man’s eyes, and a tiny shudder ran down her spine. “That’s crazy. No one is going to believe you.”
“They will when I show them.” Horace jerked his gun hand toward Paige again. “Now give me that gold and get in the car. We’re goin’ to drive to the bookstore and you’re goin’ to get me that logbook. Then I’ll be gone and leave ya be.”
Paige didn’t have to have special powers to sense the man was lying. She’d been right before—he was going to kill her once he had the coins and the book. Would he really give her a chance to give him the things in exchange for her life? For a moment, she stood frozen. This was a worse situation than the one she was in with Jay. Then she took two more steps toward him as she made her decision.
Just as she was almost to Horace’s outstretched hand, a noise made them both jump. Taffy and Patty came tearing around the corner of the garage. They squealed and screeched as they ran toward Horace. A confused and terrified look appeared on his face. As the two wild-eyed women brandishing garden tools bore down on him, Horace took his eyes off Paige for a split second. That was all the time she needed. She swung the heavy metal pail at his wrist, and the gun went flying out of the book dealer’s hand and skittered across the gravel, along with several gold coins from the pail. Horace covered his head and grunted as the two cousins landed blow after blow over his head and shoulders with their shovel, rake, and spade.
Paige ran over and kicked the gun away from the giant man. Then she raced to the Oldsmobile, pulled her phone out of her purse, and dialed 9-1-1. . . again.
“Okay, okay. I think he’s subdued now!” Paige held her hands up and moved cautiously between the enraged, tool-wielding women and Horace. By this time, he lay prone in the dust of the driveway, still covering his head and moaning.
The cousins both breathed heavily.
“Thank you,” Paige said. “Where did you all come from?”
The women exchanged sidelong glances with one another and then Patty answered, “We wanted to check one more spot on the property for the gold, but Frank Maretti owns the place now, so we knew we’d be trespassing. We parked on the road along the east side of the house and snuck in the back door of the garage. We heard the commotion out here and peeked out.”
Paige grinned. “Well, thanks for trespassing, then,” she said, “and for helping me.”
“Look!” Taffy was pointing at the gold coins on the ground. “She found it!”
Patty shrieked and pointed the other direction, toward the full bucket of gold Paige had dropped next to the Oldsmobile. Before Paige could speak, both women dove to the ground and scrambled around in the dirt, grabbing coins and stuffing them down the fronts of their blouses.
Sirens blared and two police cars skidded into the driveway. Four officers emerged from the cars, guns drawn, and ordered everyone to put their hands in the air. The women complied as Horace whimpered and cowered on the ground.
It took some time for the police to sort out what had happened, arrest Horace, and get him into the back seat of one of the cruisers. Two officers got in the car with the book dealer and drove away with him. The other two cops told Paige they would come by the bookstore later if they had more questions. Then one of them glanced at Taffy, who was kneeling next to the pail of gold coins and surreptitiously shoving them into her shirt. “Excuse me, ma’am. We’re going to need to confiscate those. They’re part of the official investigation into this matter. Once it’s settled, if they’re deemed to be yours, they’ll be returned.”
Taffy stood up, her back ramrod straight, and glared at the officer as she stuffed another handful of coins into her sizable bra. “You want them,” she said clearly, “you’ll have to come and get them!”