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AS CHET REACHED the bottom of the stairs, he found the kids leaning against each other and the wall beside the door, eyes closed. When they heard his footsteps, they opened their eyes, wondering what was going on. Donna-Lou stepped out from the kitchen area, "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. Everything is fine. Rory says to go on up and help him gather everything we need."
Donna-Lou nodded in return but still looked nervous and concerned, despite his assurance, "Okay."
Chet held his hand out, "While you do that, I'll need your house key and the car keys."
Pulling them from her pocket, Donna-Lou passed the keys over to Chet, "What are you going to do? You're not going out there again, are you?"
"Yeah. Rory wants me to bring in the oilskin. It's in the Jaguar's trunk." Chet turned and placed his hand on the front doorknob.
"Chet?"
He turned back, "Yes?"
Donna-Lou took a step forward, looking into Chet's brown eyes, "You be careful out there, okay?"
Chet gave her a sheepish smile and nodded. He turned back to the door and opened it, "Lock the door behind me."
"Chet?"
He turned back again, one foot out the door.
"You don't still have a thing for Josie McDaniel, do you? I mean...she's divorced and you're single and...."
Chet had a surprised look on his face, "Uh...no...."
A small smile played on Donna-Lou's lips, "Okay, so we just have more work to do." She gave him a gentle push with both hands to get going.
Emma looked at Corry, "That's what mama always says, we always gotta work on our men."
Corry rolled his eyes.
Chet had a confused look on his face as he slowly closed the door.
With the door locked again, Donna-Lou slipped the Glock 19 into the waistband of her jeans at the back. She walked over to the telephone by the stairs and quickly dialed a number.
"Who you calling?" Corry asked.
"Emma's mother. The police said they couldn't get hold of her from Mississippi. They were supposed to let her know and she would call us but –" She got a voice message and cursed under her breath as she listened. Then she left a message of her own, "Charlene, it's Donna-Lou Haney. We have Emma with us. She's fine. Call us as soon as you can." She hung up, "For some reason, your mother went to Mississippi to get you. I guess you'll have to stay with us–"
"All right!' Emma said as she gave a fist pump.
Donna-Lou had to smile and shake her head, "Okay. Let's go upstairs kids."
***
RORY WAS JUST COMING back down the attic ladder as Donna-Lou and the kids reached the second-floor hallway. "Corry," he said, "we need to through everything about finding the treasure before we leave here and head up to Cherokee Ridge. Can you to set up things in your room back there and fill us in?"
Corry nodded eagerly and ran to his treasure room, followed closely by Emma.
Rory handed the folded Confederate flag, the stag hat and the Confederate uniform to Donna-Lou, "I just have to get the gun and I'll join you."
Donna-Lou took the items and followed the kids into Corry's treasure room as Rory hustled back up into the attic.
Rory retrieved the gun, climbed back down to the hallway, then pushed the attic ladder back up into the ceiling. He listened for Chet but didn't hear anything. He moved to the top of the stairs and listened. It was quiet. He stepped to the left and walked down the short hallway to the second story window overlooking the front yard. He saw the trunk of the Jaguar up and someone bent over, looking inside. "C'mon Chet," he whispered to himself. Turning, he walked back to Corry's treasure room.
"The slicker thing is gone," Corry said excitedly as soon as Rory stepped into the room. He pointed at the whiteboard, "It was on there–"
"Somebody broke in to get it after you were taken but we got it back. Remember? We told you that in the car on the way back."
"Oh, yeah."
"Chet has gone out to the Jaguar to get it."
Corry looked at his mother, a concerned look on his face, "I'm sorry. I guess I shouldn't have brought it home."
"You didn't know what would happen. And I wasn't here when they came in," reassured his mother. Then she pointed to the items she had just set on a small table, the folded Confederate flag, the stag hat and the Confederate uniform, "And they didn't get all that stuff."
"Or this," Rory said as he handed her the gun case.
Corry looked relieved for a brief moment and then he turned quickly and went to the large whiteboard in the center of the room, "But they took the photocopies of the signs we need to–"
"Do you have other copies?" his mother asked as she set the gun case on the table.
"Uh, yeah...maybe...I...I think so," said Corry. He headed to the desk at the back of the room. Emma joined him to help look. Corry shuffled through some papers until he finally held two up, "Here they are." He handed them to Emma, "You hold those and I'll take the map." Corry reached down to a long, rolled up paper leaning against the side of the desk and put it under his arm. He took a couple of hand spring-clamps from a drawer and then led Emma back to the whiteboard. Unrolling one end of the long paper, Corry clamped it against the right side of the whiteboard with one of the spring-clamps.
Rory went over and helped Corry unroll the paper across the whiteboard.
Donna-Lou moved closer, "What is that?"
"It's a topographical map all around Cherokee Ridge," Corry said. "We learned about these in school last year and the teacher sent away for this for me." He clamped the other side of the map at the top and bottom so it wouldn't curl up. "Now we just need the slicker and we put it over top of this."
Rory nodded, "I'll go see what's keeping Chet. He should have been back up here by now."
Donna-Lou nodded, then listened as her son explained the topographical map to Emma. After a few moments, she began to worry about Chet herself. She left the kids behind and headed for the window overlooking the front yard.
***
RORY OPENED THE FRONT door and stepped out onto the porch. He could see the dark outline of Chet standing by the side of the Jaguar. He walked across the porch to the edge of the top step and called softly, "Chet? Everything okay?"
Chet stayed silent. Then his form seemed to grow taller.
Rory cocked his head. It looked like Chet had two heads. He looked down to the top step–
"Crack!
The bullet hit Rory square on the heart. His body slowly fell backward and bounced once on the old boards before coming to rest on the wrap-around porch.