AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That’s when Kayla saw something shimmering in the mud near a boulder, and she headed off the trail to check it out. With all the rain they’d been having, it appeared something had been half-buried or lost or tossed there and the rain had unburied it. Could be a pop-top from an old soda can. Or some other piece of shiny metal trash. The wolves never left trash behind in the woods, but human trespassers would.
When she and Nate got close to it, she dug it out of the mud and wiped it off with her free hand. “Ohmigod, it’s a diamond necklace. Or one of those fake silicon-carbide diamonds that look so much like the real thing. I suspect it’s from one of the robbery heists.”
“Yeah, I agree.” Nate crouched down where she had pulled up the necklace and eyed the mud.
“Do you think there’s anything else there?” Her heart already beating faster at the prospect they might have found some of the stolen jewelry, Kayla pocketed the necklace and started poking around at the mud.
“We were just talking about the jewelry heist, and you found what appears to be a high-dollar necklace. We should make sure there isn’t anythingelse here in the event the jewelry was actually buried here, unlike the necklace that had been found in the stream above the falls.” That’s when Nate found something else shining in the mud. “Whoa, I think we might have hit the jackpot.”
He handed it to her, and she rubbed off some mud. “Amethyst-and-diamond ring. Beautiful cocktail ring. Real gems or not, it’s gorgeous.” She frowned. “Did anyone notify Manning’s parents about his death? They must have been devastated.”
“Unfortunately, his dad and brother are in prison for their own cases of armed robbery, which might have been the reason Manning was also committing them. His mother had taken off with another man after Manning’s father was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to sixty years in prison.”
“Oh, okay, so I guess no one really missed him. That’s sad,” she said.
“I agree. So Durham Manning could have buried the jewelry here, traveled upriver to get some distance between him and the jewelry, and then run into one of his cohorts, who tried to learn where he put it. If Manning was involved in the armed robberies, he wouldn’t talk, and whoever was trying to get him to reveal the location shot him. Possibly Manning was trying to get away from him in the river. In any event, he ended up in the river, swam to the other side, and died,” Nate said.
Thunder rumbled off in the distance.
“Okay, well, if there is more jewelry, we’ve got to find it, take it to the cabin, secure it in the safe, and call Peter,” she said.
They were both digging through the mud as quickly as they could to see what else they could uncover. She felt plastic and realized it was a black garbage bag, partially shredded. Nate and she began slowly drawing the bag out of the slick mud so as not to tear it any further or lose any jewelry. She found some pairs of earrings. They were on display cards, or they could have been lost forever—pearl earrings, diamond earrings, ruby-and-sapphire ones.
“Rings, watches, necklaces, bracelets. Several pieces of the jewelry had fallen out of the bag.” Kayla couldn’t believe they’d uncovered jewelry from one of the jewelry store robberies. Unless it wasn’t from that, but then why else would a sack of jewelry be buried out here?
“I can’t think of another reason why it would be here. Manning’s body was so far away from here that if the shooter had been looking for the jewelry in his direction, he would never have found it,” Nate said. “Which is a good thing for us. We’ve got to make sure we get every last piece of jewelry. If we didn’t have issues with your shifting and the storm coming, we could stay here until Peter arrived with his men, but we need to head back.”
“Yeah. It’s a good thing this is in our pack territory or someone might think we stole some of thejewelry from the find if any pieces are missing in the mud. As if wolves even wear jewelry.”
“It’s also good that we can move the jewelry from the crime scene without getting into trouble with the sheriff’s department since we’re all wolves and handle things differently in Silver Town,” Nate said.
Nate stopped digging in the mud, pulled out his phone, and called the sheriff while Kayla continued to find more of the jewelry that had slipped out of the flimsy plastic bag the robber had used. “Hey, Peter, it looks like we might have found a cache of stolen jewelry in the woods.” He gave him their coordinates. “Don’t let anyone other than our own people know about it for now. We don’t want this to get on the news for the bad guys to learn of it and come after it while we’re armed with only water bottles and first aid kits. Or someone else who just wants to get their hands on the jewelry who had nothing to do with a jewelry heist—even to get the reward money.”
“Yeah, you know it. You’re sure it’s from one of the robberies?” Peter asked.
“As many pieces of expensive-looking jewelry as we found, I’d say so.”
“We’re on our way. We’ll have to touch base with the police handling the jewelry store theft inGreen Valley and at the other locations to see who can identify the stolen jewelry if it’s theirs, but only after we have the jewelry secured.” Nate heard vehicle doors slam and vehicles roar off over the phone. “Then we’ll let everyone know it has been found and secured so no one will be looking for it out there—or anyplace else.”
“As long as we’re not missing any pieces and more sacks of jewelry aren’t hidden out here from some of the other heists. We’d stay here, but the storm is coming, and Kayla could shift at any time.”
“Uh, okay. How did you find it, by the way?” Peter asked.
“The rains washed some of the leaves and earth away, and Kayla actually saw a diamond sparkling in the sun. The robber had put it all in a black trash bag, but he must have gotten one of the cheaper brands, and some of it was ripped away.”
“Bear claw marks are all over the sack over here.” Kayla showed him the claw marks.
“Scratch that. Kayla found evidence that a bear”—Nate took a deep breath and smelled the scent of the bear they’d encountered here before—“uh, the one we chased off earlier, must have been rooting around for something to eat and tore up the bag a bit.”
“A bear? Did you tell Darien about it?” Peter sounded concerned for them.
“No, we chased him off.”
Kayla stopped what she was doing and quickly joined Nate, whispering, “Someone’s coming.”
“Someone’s coming,” Nate said to Peter.
“None of us are there yet. Don’t worry about the jewelry. Get yourself to safety.”
