Maple Hills Mystery Box Set Read online

  “Almost,” Lionel told Hawk. “You forgot one very important detail.”

  “What?”

  “The gold shipment itself,” Lionel told Hawk. “Mate, you're as blind as a bat trying to fly around in a soundproof room. The prison break was made public to delay the gold shipment. The gold was supposed to arrive directly tomorrow morning. Now the shipment has been delayed until further notice. And that's exactly what Ringston wants.”

  “Why?” Hawk demanded.

  “Because he is positioning the thieves to take the gold, you idiot,” Lionel snapped. “He didn't free a bunch of thieves just to use them to scare a bunch of backwoods syrup-drinkers and steal some gold. Ringston is going to use the gold to propel himself into power. But mind you, mate, Ringston isn't stupid. Once the gold is stolen, your government will be scouring the land for it. So where will Ringston hide the gold?”

  “In Fall Cliff,” Tori answered in a shocked voice.

  “Give the lady a cookie,” Lionel told Tori. “Ringston has every detail planned down to the last penny. Of course, so do we.”

  Nikki studied each word Lionel spoke. “Ringston isn't willingly releasing this vital information to you, Mr. Perkins. You have an insider.”

  “Yes, I do,” Lionel smiled. “A trap has been set, and Ringston must go down, and you, Nikki Bates, must play your part. Take down Ringston for us, and we'll leave like smoke in the wind. Fight us, and every thief will dedicate his miserable life to ensuring you will lose everyone and everything you love. Remember, it's because of you that Ringston is still alive. If that rat hadn’t chased out of here after you, he would be sleeping in the dirt by now.”

  “You're in no position to threaten anyone, you stinking punk!” Hawk roared. He ran up to Lionel, but Nikki stopped him.

  “Don't, Hawk,” she pleaded. Staring into Lionel's eyes, she knew the man was as devious as he was deadly. “What do you want me to do?”

  “Go back to Fall Cliff and get under Ringston's skin. Ask some questions about the prison break. Don't worry, someone will be there to assist you,” Lionel informed Nikki. “I want you to keep Ringston occupied. In five days, you will come back to Maple Hills and run a story about Ringston—with evidence, of course—proving he orchestrated the prison break.”

  Hawk watched Lionel stand up. “Sit down,” he ordered.

  Lionel shook his head. “If you arrest me, your girlfriend will suffer the consequences...or should I say, her son will suffer.”

  “My son...how do you—?” Nikki gasped. “Hawk, let him go,” she demanded as fear gripped her heart. “Go, Mr. Perkins. I'll do what you have asked of me. You have my word.”

  “Very good,” Lionel grinned and then winced in pain. “I should kill you, cop, but if I do, I'm afraid Ms. Bates will refuse to offer her services. But someday, we'll play poker, eh, mate?”

  “Any day you think you're man enough,” Hawk promised.

  Lionel stared into Hawk's eyes. He saw a man who stood strong and brave—a man who would face him in a fair fight, fist to fist, a man who possessed true honor instead of fake honor. “I'll be leaving now.”

  “So much for having a conscience, you liar,” Tori told Lionel. “You didn't come here because you cared about the little man. You lied to me.”

  “Half-lies, half-truths...isn't that the way of us all?” Lionel said, easing toward the back door.

  “No, not all of us,” Tori scolded him.

  “See you soon,” Lionel winked at Tori and opened the back door. “Leave for Fall Cliff tonight,” he ordered Nikki.

  “I'm not going alone.”

  “Who said you had to?” Lionel answered and vanished out into the rain, like a poisonous shadow slithering away into the gray afternoon.

  9

  Tori walked to the back door and slammed it shut. “I'm very confused,” she admitted in her anger. “What's going on here?”

  Lidia put her hand on Nikki's trembling shoulder. “I'm going with you, honey. We'll get through this.”

  “I'm going, too,” Hawk told Nikki.

  “Me, too,” Tori chimed in.

  “No...no,” Nikki said, lifting her shaking hands up to her mouth. Closing her eyes, she thought as images of her innocent son whispered into her scared mind. “Hawk, you stay here. Lidia and Tori will come with me.”

  “No way,” Hawk disagreed in a firm voice. “Ringston is a deadly man.”

  “Both sides are playing a game, Hawk. Can't you see that? Ringston is very clever. I think I know why he's disguising the thieves as FBI Agents, too. But there's a traitor in his ranks. I think that traitor is Mayor Brown. Perkins said Ringston had men set up to steal the gold at another location. How did he know that?”

  “You’re right, there has to be an insider,” Hawk admitted.

  Nikki drew in a deep breath as her mind created a clumsy theory. “Ringston is going to send his thieves to steal the gold. They'll deliver it to Cliff Falls dressed like government men, but the gold will be placed in a secret location and not the designated bunker. Ringston will then blame the thieves for the stolen gold and attempt to eliminate them.” Nikki paused and paced around her kitchen. “The thieves have a plan of their own. They want Ringston occupied. And Ringston must be taken out of the picture in the end, too... Perkins said he would give me evidence to go with my story, right?”

  “They want Ringston looking right instead of left for a few days,” Hawk said. “My guess is the thieves are going to replace the real gold with fake gold and deliver the fake gold right to Ringston's front door.”

  “And when the fake gold arrives, the authorities will be arriving with it,” Nikki finished Hawk's thought for him.

  Hawk nodded. “But,” he added, “Ringston was supposed to be taken out of the photo, so the fake gold, if we're right, is meant to take down someone else. So, let's see who we have here, okay? We have Ringston, Warden Wayberry, and Mayor Brown. We know Ringston isn't leaking information to the thieves. The thieves have been in prison, which means it's not likely Mayor Brown has been making secret visits.”

  “Warden Wayberry is the insider,” Nikki mumbled. “The thieves will use the fake gold to capture him in their trap and Warden Wayberry will be sent off to prison. It's the perfect punishment for a man like him.”

  “Which leaves Mayor Brown,” Hawk said suspiciously. “We have Ringston, and we found our insider, but what about the mayor? He has to be involved.”

  “I guess it'll be my job to find out how,” Nikki told Hawk. “Lidia, Tori, let's go pack. We're going back to Fall Cliff.”

  Lidia drew in a scared breath. “And I was hoping to spend the day sipping coffee and making delicious chocolates with you,” she told Nikki.

  Nikki studied Lidia's scared eyes. Her dear friend was thinking about her husband, yet, regardless of her fear, Lidia would place herself in danger to stand by Nikki's side. “Stay here,” Nikki told Lidia in a loving voice. “Tori and I will handle this. Herbert needs you, and you need him. You mind the cabin for me while we're gone, okay?”

  Lidia felt tears fall from her eyes. “Please don't hate me.”

  Nikki ran to Lidia and hugged her. “I could never hate you. I love you. I love all of you.”

  Tori rushed over and hugged Nikki and Lidia. “We're a family,” she told Lidia and nearly cried herself.

  “Before we leave,” Nikki told Lidia and Tori, “I have to meet Eric.” Turning to Hawk, Nikki wiped a tear out of her eye. “Hawk, let me tell you about Eric...”

  Hawk stood still and listened to Nikki explain about the man named Eric. As Nikki talked, he formed a plan of his own. Outside, the heavy rain continued to fall.

  10

  Nikki sat in the front seat of Eric's brown truck. Facing the Maple Hills Diner, she sat in silence and listened to the rain falling, waiting for Eric to speak. “I helped design the bunker,” Eric finally said. Holding a diet soda in his hand, he took a drink and then hesitated. “The bunker under the courthouse is a decoy, but the thieves believ
e it is the real thing.”

  “How do you know this?” Nikki asked, confused. “Eric, who are you?”

  “I worked for the CIA,” Eric told Nikki in a calm voice. Staring into the rain, he studied the front of the diner. Inside, he imagined his granddaughter had already placed her order. “I was sent to Fall Cliff to oversee the building of the specialized CA-16 Bunker.”

  “Was Mayor Brown in office at the time?” Nikki asked.

  Eric nodded. “Yes.” He took another drink of his diet soda. “Brown was stationed in an old courthouse. We maneuvered it this way to convince the local citizens that a new courthouse was being built. We wanted the locals to get used to seeing construction machinery around. We built the decoy bunker under the new courthouse and built the real bunker four miles north of town under a deserted concrete company. We started a forest fire in that area to keep the locals out.”

  “When were the two bunkers built?” Nikki asked.

  “Five years ago,” Eric explained. “And before you ask, yes, the Pentagon was already in the early stages of operational planning against Libya. America was going broke quickly. In the span of ten years, if America didn't back up the petrodollar with gold instead of paper currency, the Middle Eastern countries would have begun selling their oil against the petrodollar, which would have meant economic ruin for America.”

  “I think I understand.”

  Eric put his diet soda into a cup holder. “You can't ship four trillion dollars’ worth of gold overnight. Careful planning has to take place.”

  “Four trillion—are you—how is that possible?” Nikki gasped.

  Eric sighed. “Libya had its own gold reserve, into the billions. But, to play cat-and-mouse with the U.S. government, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Egypt were all hiding their gold in Libya. You see, Libya was playing nice with America, as well as Russia and China. Libya became a kind of meeting ground for all three countries to agree on.”

  “Iraq fell; Egypt nearly fell. They're trying to make Syria fall right now...and Iran is protected by Russia,” Nikki replied as her memory recalled current and old foreign news events.

  Eric nodded. “Last year, the American government took down Libya. This upset Russia and China, which is why those two countries have become hostile. You see, somehow America found out about all the gold Libya was hoarding and devised a plan to steal it. But how? How could America be justified in bombing Libya?” Eric made a sick sound in his throat. “You create a false terror group, that's how, and make the world believe you're playing hero when you're actually playing thief and murderer.”

  Nikki sat, stunned. Finally, she spoke. “Where does Agent Ringston come into play?” she asked.

  “Mayor Brown,” Eric said in a simple voice. “Mayor Brown must have contacted Ringston, who is his cousin. We have no proof that he contacted Agent Ringston during the construction process, though.”

  “Why are you still in Fall Cliff?” Nikki asked Eric.

  Eric pulled a wooden pipe out of the front pocket of the heavy blue button-up shirt he was wearing and placed it in his mouth, more out of habit rather than want. “After the construction of the two bunkers, a hit was put out on me. I was nearly killed. That's the way of the CIA. I was prepared, though. Halfway through the construction process I became suspicious that something was awry. Long story short, I faked my death and began a new life in Fall Cliff, waiting for the day the gold would arrive.”

  “Will you help me stop Ringston and the thieves? Ringston has his plan, and the thieves have theirs. Warden Wayberry is obviously stabbing his half-brother in the back, and I'm not certain which side Mayor Brown is on. What I do know is that Lionel Perkins threatened my life and the life of everyone I love earlier this afternoon. I have to play his game, Eric. I guess I should be used to the threats by now, but I'm not.”

  Eric didn't look at Nikki. Instead, he continued to stare at the front of the diner. “Ms. Bates, I'm an old man. I will be seventy soon. I have been hiding in Fall Cliff these last years because I have my own hidden agenda.”

  “Oh no—you don't want the gold for yourself, do you?” Nikki begged in a miserable voice.

  Eric laughed. “No, no. The gold is going to be delivered by the same man who tried to kill me. I want justice. But I never expected to take full custody of my granddaughter. Now, I am between a rock and a hard place. I am ashamed to admit this, but I must ask for your help instead.”

  “My help?” Nikki asked, confused.

  “Leave Agent Ringston alone. Let him bring the gold into Fall Cliff. Agent Ringston knows the bunker at the courthouse is a decoy. He's going to use the thieves to get the gold to the courthouse. When this happens, Agent Malloy Trally will be waiting with an army of men. They will arrest the thieves and pretend to relocate the gold to the real bunker. Fake gold will be stored in the real bunker, though. The real gold will be carried off, by train, to an unknown location, and eventually shipped overseas somewhere.”

  “How do you know this? Perkins’ information came from an inside source. Do you have an inside source?”

  Eric nodded. “I can't say who, though. I'm very sorry.”

  “Why do you want me to help Agent Ringston?” Nikki asked Eric, allowing him to avoid naming his contact. “He'll get away with the gold.”

  “If he doesn't, America will continue to attack the Middle East with a fully equipped financial arsenal. Ms. Bates, someone is going to end up with all that gold. In the end, America will get the gold back, but if we can keep playing hot potato, for now, at least, we can slow down future wars and save innocent lives.”

  “I never expected to become involved in this type of mystery,” Nikki confessed. “Eric, I can't let Agent Ringston escape with that much gold.”

  “What do you suggest?” Eric asked Nikki. “As I mentioned, someone is going to end up with the gold. At least if Agent Ringston runs off with it, it'll slow down the wheels of war.”

  “What about the thieves?” Nikki asked. “Why not give it to them? Men like the thieves will use the gold to live the good life.”

  “Which is the problem,” Eric explained. “Thieves betray each other. The gold would cause a war for absolute power between them. Outside players would become involved—rogue countries. No, it’s too risky.”

  “So, either the government gets the stolen gold to fund future wars or Agent Ringston gets the gold to do who knows what, or the thieves get the gold, which could end in disaster.”

  “This situation will end in disaster regardless,” Eric told Nikki in a tragic voice. “Right now, Agent Ringston is the man I would allow the gold to be stationed with, but my concern, Ms. Bates, is not the gold. I want justice. I want Malloy Trally to suffer for his betrayal.”

  “Killing a man will not bring justice,” Nikki told Eric.

  “He's the only man who knows I'm alive,” Eric disagreed. “Trally is working with Ringston. Ringston is planning to do away with Trally, anyway.”

  Nikki felt her head swim. Every man had his own agenda. And then there was the gold, which made her think of Warden Wayberry. “Warden Wayberry's license plate—”

  “I know,” Eric said quickly.

  “If we figured out the license plate, others must have,” Nikki said.

  Eric glanced over at Nikki. “Exactly.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “I've said enough. I need to know, where do you stand, Ms. Bates?” Eric asked.

  “I have my son to think about. If I make an enemy of the thieves, they will surely come after me and my son. If I make an enemy of Ringston, he will come after me. If I do nothing, then I'm in real trouble. Honestly, I don't know what to do. I'm being forced to take sides with one criminal or another.”

  “I'm sorry,” Eric told Nikki, “but sometimes that's the way of it.”

  “Eric?”

  “Yes?”

  “Maybe not,” Nikki said. “Let me play my game.”

  “Play it well,” Eric cautioned her, “but please, as a favor to me, do
n't take sides with the thieves. I have to take down Trally. My granddaughter's life depends on it.”

  “I promise that I will do what is necessary to save your granddaughter's life,” Nikki rested her hand on Eric’s shoulder. “Are you driving back to Fall Cliff?”

  “Yes,” Eric replied. “You'll be able to find me at the restaurant.”

  “Okay,” Nikki forced a smile to her tired face. “You're a good man, Eric.”

  “No, I'm not,” Eric told Nikki. “I've done things in my youth that shame me today. By the time I learned the truth, I had already committed multiple crimes against humanity. All I want now is to give my granddaughter a decent life and erase what this modern culture has infected her with...a modern culture I am partly responsible for.”

  11

  Nikki stood on a rainy sidewalk and kissed Hawk goodbye. “Be careful,” Hawk begged her. “I'm going to hide outside Fall Cliff. I won't be far away.”

  Nikki placed her head down onto Hawk's wet shoulder as the rain soaked her hair. “I know I can't keep you away.”

  “Never,” he said and pulled her tighter into his arms.

  “When this case is over, I'm going to devote myself to my chocolate shop and my book,” Nikki promised Hawk. “I don't think trouble will find me in my chocolate shop.”

  “I wouldn't count on it,” Hawk teased in a sad voice. Letting go of Nikki, he stared into her teary eyes. Nikki wasn't crying because she was scared. She was crying because it was hurting her to leave Hawk. Hawk gently wiped her tears away. “I won't be far. You have your hidden microphone on you. I'll be listening to every word you say.”

  “You big jerk,” Nikki smiled. “You made me fall in love with you.”

  Hawk smiled back. “Does this mean I get a discount on your chocolates?”

  “Maybe,” Nikki said and glanced toward her SUV. “Tori is waiting. We need to go.”