The Buried Treasure on Route 66: A Nancy Keene Mystery (4 page)

“Of course you may. That’s
why I’m showing you them, dear.”

Nancy arranges the postcards
chronologically and begins with the first postcard he had sent Mrs.
Wood. Nancy reads each postcard aloud, so Mrs. Wood can also hear
the words he had written to her. The first one Nancy reads is from
the U-Drop Inn:

“I wanted to tell you,
‘Howdy,’ from Shamrock, Texas. The U-Drop has never looked better
now that the city’s finally spent some money to restore it.
Everybody’s saying that the building was an inspiration for some
scenes in the movie “Cars”. Guess I’ll have to rent it when I get
back home. Maybe we could watch it together?”

His next postcard is from
the Big Texan Steakhouse in Texas:

“I still haven’t been able
to win a free 72 ounce steak by eating it in one hour, but that
doesn’t stop me from trying, once again, before I die. Miss
you.”

The card from the Cadillac
Ranch in Texas says:

“Here I am looking at those
partially-buried Cadillacs again. The cars have a lot more graffiti
on them than they did the last time we saw them together. Lots of
couples here posing for pictures. I wish you were here.”

The next one is of Meteor
Crater:

“I watched the sunset
tonight from the Meteor Crater, outside of Flagstaff. It sure made
me feel small and insignificant compared to the vastness of the
solar system.”

The last postcard he sent
was from Wigwam Village in Holbrook, Arizona:

“I’m “sleeping in a wigwam”
tonight and thinking of you. I guess I shouldn’t have tried eating
that 72 ounce steak the other night at the Big Texan because I’ve
been having a real bad stomach ache ever since. I wanted to tell
you before I go to sleep tonight, “Always remember our time in Eden
and return to the Swallow.”

Mrs. Wood cries when she
hears his words again. She tells Nancy, “On our trips together, we
used to like to bury little mementos at every one of the places
where we were happy. We’d always said that one day we would return,
dig them up, and remember all of the good times we had.”

Nancy says, “That’s the
sweetest, most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Sounds like he
really cherished the times you both had spent together. It just
doesn’t make any sense that he would leave you out of his
will.”

“I know, honey. It doesn’t
make any sense to me either.”

“What did he mean in his
last postcard--the one from the Wigwam Village? What did he mean
by, ‘Always remember our time in Eden and return to the
Swallow’?”

“I think he’s talking about
the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. That’s where we
went on our honeymoon.”

“
That’s it! He’s left a clue
for you there. We’ve got to go find it!”

****

Nancy has spent most of her
day at Mrs. Wood’s and is starting to get hungry. She says, “Mrs.
Wood, since you’re dressed up so nice and pretty, how’d you like to
go out to dinner with me?”

“Oh, no; my dear. I couldn’t
possibly impose on you that much. Don’t you want to be spending
some time with your boyfriend?”

“He has to work
tonight.”

“Well, Nancy. At least let
it be my treat.”

“How about coming over to my
house for dinner instead?”

“Oh, no. I couldn’t let you
go through all that fuss.”

“Oh, you won’t be. I’ll ask
my dad to cook. He loves to barbeque. In fact, I’ll call him right
now.”

****

She and Mrs. Wood arrive at
the house for the barbeque a half hour later. Mr. Keene is wearing
a chef’s apron and barbequing steaks out by the pool. Mrs. Wood
suddenly feels out of place, “Oh, Nancy. I’m overdressed. I look
ridiculous.”

“You look lovely. Come, I
want you to meet my father.”

Mrs. Wood greets a very
handsome man who looks like he’s in his mid-forties. She says to
him, “It smells delicious out here. You have a lovely garden. It’s
so hard growing anything at all this time of year, isn’t
it?”

“It certainly is, Mrs. Wood.
Can I get you anything to drink? I have vintage Caymus Cabernet
Sauvignon that’s breathing in the decanter.”

“Oh, my goodness. That
sounds wonderful. Well, I guess I’ll have a small glass of
it.”

Nancy starts pouring her a
glass and Mrs. Wood puts hand her over the rim of her glass saying,
“You can stop right there, honey.”

Nancy tells her, “Well, I’ll
leave you two to chat while I go upstairs and change my clothes for
dinner.” She goes up to her bedroom, opens her closet, and pulls
out a rust colored suit that she’d made in sewing class. She puts
on some nylons, steps into her Jimmy Choo strappy sandals, and
thinks: hopefully, this outfit should make Mrs. Wood feel less
self-conscious about the way she’s dressed up. Nancy walks out to
the patio and says to her father and Mrs. Wood, “Ta Da.”

Mrs. Wood says, “Wow! You
look like a million bucks!”

Nancy says, “Thanks,” and
pours herself a bottle of Perrier into a wine glass.

Her father says, “Any more
wine, Mrs. Wood?”

“Okay. Maybe just a little
more.”

Nancy tells her, “Isn’t it
nice to have a man waiting on us for a change?”

“It certainly
is.”

Mr. Keene brings out two
serving dishes. One has baked potatoes and leeks; the other,
roasted Brussels sprouts with bacon.

Mrs. Wood says, “Mr. Keene,
when did you find the time to make all of this for us with such
short notice?”

“Nancy made these last night
when she couldn’t sleep. I heard her downstairs in the kitchen
banging around pots and pans at 2:00 in the morning.”

“Oh, Dad. I’m so sorry I
woke you up. Why didn’t you say something last night?”

“Because I knew that you
were making something wonderful for me to eat later; so I kept my
mouth shut.”

Mrs. Wood insists on helping
Nancy do the dishes. When they’re finished, Nancy asks her if she’d
like to see the movie “Cars” that she’d told her about.

“Oh no, honey. Some other
time. I’ve had such a lovely evening. Thank you both so
much!”

“Okay,” Nancy says, “I’ll
get my purse and drive you home.”

****

The following morning, Nancy
wakes later than usual, catching up on her sleep. She puts on her
silk bathrobe and goes downstairs to the kitchen. When she goes to
the refrigerator to get some eggs to make an omelet, she finds a
note that her father has left her taped on the refrigerator door.
He wrote that he was called at 6:00 a.m. and told that he has to go
to the home office in Manhattan to take care of an emergency. He’ll
be gone a couple of days. He tells her to please call him if she
needs anything.

She calls Ned to see what
he’s doing today. “Do you want to go see a movie? The Great Gatsby
in 3D has just come out?”

“That’s right. It’s
premiering today,” Ned says. “Finally. I didn’t think it’d ever get
released: there were so many delays.”

“I know. Hey, I have the
show times in front of me on my Kindle. It’s playing at 12:30 at
‘Harkins Camelview 5’. How’s that sound?”

“Sounds great. See you in a
few.”

Ned arrives at her house
thirty minutes later and rings the doorbell. Nancy opens the door,
wearing a teal blue sundress that she’s sewn from a Vogue pattern a
few weeks ago. When he sees her new dress, he loves it. “That dress
is the same color as your beautiful eyes. You look
great!”

“Thanks! I hope you’re
hungry. I’ve just made some omelets.”

“Sure. What can I do to
help?”

“How about squeezing some
oranges for juice?”

“Okay. I know where
everything is.”

“Thanks. We’ve made some
wonderful meals together in this kitchen, haven’t we,
Ned?”

“You’ve made the meals. I’m
your sous-chef. I do the dirty work and you do the
pizzazz.”

Nancy laughs and says, “We
make a great team, though. Don’t we?”

“We certainly do,” he says,
wrapping his arms around her for a hug.

****

Ned and Nancy love the
movie. Nancy says, “Leonardo de Caprio did a good job playing
Gatsby and Carrie Mulligan was perfect as Daisy.”

“Want to go to Starbucks and
get some lattes?” Ned asks.

“Sure. Do you want to be in
the driver’s seat this time?”

“I thought you’d never
ask.”

Nancy gives him her car keys
and they head out, arriving at Starbucks 15 minutes later. When
they find a free table and sit down with their lattes, Nancy tells
him about seeing the stepsons here on her last visit. She explains
everything she overheard. Ned says, “What a couple of scumbags they
are.”

Nancy tells him all about
the postcards that she’d looked at yesterday at Mrs. Wood’s house.
“I’d sure like to go on a road trip with you on Route 66 to see, in
person, all of the sites on those postcards. And I have a hunch
that we will find the missing will at The Blue Swallow Motel in New
Mexico. Would you like to go on a road trip with me in my new
car?”

“That sounds really fun.
I’ll ask my boss when he can spare me and we’ll have a little
vacation together.”

Nancy says that she wants to
go as soon as possible. Mrs. Wood needs to get her hands on the
newer will, before the stepsons rob her of everything she has. Ned
calls his boss to ask him when he can take a few days off and is
told that his boss can spare him for a few days at the end of the
week.

“Yes!” Nancy says. “ROAD
TRIP!!” as she pumps her fists into the air.

“It’s going to be fun. Do
you think your Dad will let us go alone?”

“I’m going to have to work
on him a little to soften him up. Maybe he could come
along?”

“Grrrr…I want it to just be
the two of us.”

“We’ll see. Who knows? The
fact that he’s let me stay here a few nights alone is encouraging.
He trusts me enough to let me stay by myself the next two
nights.”

“You’re kidding right?
You’ll be here alone? By yourself? At night? Without your
dad?”

“I know what you’re
thinking, you nasty boy! First, you have to take me out to
dinner.”

Nancy and Ned go to the
Camelback Inn for dinner. They plan their Route 66 vacation with
excitement. “Half the fun is the planning, isn’t it?” Ned
says.

“That’s true, Ned. I can’t
wait! I wish we could go tomorrow!”

“Me, too.”

“Ned, I’ve been thinking. I
don’t know if you’re going to like this or not.”

“Uh-Oh,” Ned says. “Let’s
hear it.”

“Well, I think Mrs. Wood
should come with us.”

“You’re kidding,
right?”

“No, Ned. I’m serious. She’s
going to help us find the clues along the way.”

“What if there aren’t any
clues?”

“Half the fun of a trip is
getting there, right?”

“Oh, Nancy. We’ll see. Let’s
just concentrate on tonight.”

“Want to stop by your house
and get your swimming trunks?” Nancy asks.

“Sure! A moonlight swim
alone with you. Who wouldn’t want to?!”

****

Nancy and Ned are enjoying
themselves in the pool. They play a little game that Nancy likes.
She flings a quarter into the pool and lets it sink to the bottom,
then races with Ned to see who can grab it first. Ned wins the
first, second, and third times. Nancy says, “Let’s keep going. Drop
it back down to the bottom again.”

“Oh, Nancy,” Ned says, “when
are you ever going to stop being so competitive? Are we going to be
out here all night until you win?”

“Well, I guess I’m a sore
loser, aren’t I?”

“Come on; let’s go get into
the hot tub.”

As they’re sitting in it
together, Ned puts his arm around her and says, “You look really
good in your new bikini.”

“Thanks. I made it last
week.”

“You’ve been a busy little
seamstress lately, haven’t you?”

“It’s fun. I like being
creative.”

“I know. And you do such a
good job. That bikini fits you perfectly.”

They kiss each other and
Nancy says, “Would you like to spend the night?”

“I thought you’d never
ask.”

****

Part Two

The next morning, Nancy and
Ned are busy making Eggs Benedict for breakfast.

Ned had turned off his
iPhone last night because he didn’t want any interruptions during
his special night with Nancy. He notices that there are three
missed calls. He listens to his mother leaving frantic messages,
asking him where he is. She said she was about to call “missing
persons”. He tells Nancy that his mother is upset that he didn’t
tell her where he was last night. “What are you going to tell her?”
Nancy asks.