The Secret of the Stones (30 page)

“Yep.
 
That was him.”
 
There was no hesitation from the other
end.
 
“They in some sort of
trouble?”

“We
just want to ask them some questions, ma’am,” he said politely without giving
away what was going on.
 
The last
thing he wanted was a rumor going around Dahlonega that there were fugitives on
the loose.
 
If that news spread too
quickly, they might never find Wyatt.

“Did
you happen to catch any names of the people in this group?”
 
He was merely looking for absolute
confirmation at this point.

“Yeah.
 
They were calling the older one
“Mac”.
 
I think the younger guy’s
name was Sean.”
 
She thought for a
moment.
 
“Didn’t catch the girl’s
name.”

“Thank
you ma’am for the information.
 
You’ve been a big help.”
 

He
hung up the phone in the middle of her saying, “You’re welcome.”

Sliding
the phone back into his pocket, he said, “We’re going to a place called Red
Clay.”

“What’s
that?”
 
Will was lost as to what
had just transpired.

“We
got a witness up in Dahlonega that says Wyatt and McElroy are headed
there.
 
I don’t know where it is,
but apparently it used to be the site of the old Capital of the Cherokee
Nation.”

“How
far is it?”
 
Will asked, again
opening his door.

“Don’t
know.
 
But we’re about to find
out.”
 

Trent
hopped into the Charger and searched for Red Clay on the car’s navigational
system.
 
A minute later he said,
“We can be there in an hour.”

The
car tore out of the parking lot, spinning bullet casings in its wake.

Chapter
45

Blue
Ridge Mountains

“Very
good.
 
You may hang up the phone
now.”

Marla
Tinsley stood behind her desk, staring at the two strangers, a man and a woman.
      
The
librarian hung up the receiver carefully.
 
“What is this all about?”
 
She asked terrified.
 
“We
don’t have any money in here?
 
What
is it you want?”

“Nothing.”
 
The brunette’s cold reply was
punctuated by a puff of smoke from the barrel of a silencer.
 

Fear
turned to shock on Tinsley’s face as two more quiet clicks sent bullets ripping
into her chest.
 
Her legs buckled
beneath her, and she collapsed to the ground.

The
woman with the gun stepped quickly around behind the counter and stood over the
victim.
 
Tinsley’s shirt had
quickly become soaked in red as flowers of blood bloomed from the black
holes.
 
A thin matching line
streaked from her lips.

With
troubling ease, the woman in black raised her weapon once more and fired a
final shot into the librarians head.
 
Then, she turned to the man who’d accompanied her.
 
“Call The Prophet.
 
Give him the update.”

“Yes
ma’am.”
 
He had started to retrieve
his cell phone from his jacket when he stopped and turned back to her.
 
“Should I tell him about this one?”
 
A gloved finger pointed towards the
body.

She
gave him a look that he understood meant “no.”
 
“Just tell him we are still observing.
 
Nothing else.”

He
nodded and pressed the talk button.

Stepping
across the body, she made her way toward the front window of the library.
 
Outside the glass, the little town only
presented a few wayward pedestrians, none of them seeming aware of what was
transpiring within.
 

She
heard her assistant finishing up a short conversation with the man for whom
they worked.
 
He would certainly
not be pleased to know that they had killed the librarian, which was why he didn’t
need to know about it.
 
She was an
innocent stranger, but she was also a loose end.
 
And loose ends were never a good thing.

Her
assistant walked up and stood next to her, putting the phone back in his jacket
pocket.
 

She
continued looking out the large window.
 
“What did he say?” she asked even though she knew the answer.

“Just
to continue on observing.”
 
He
glanced over at her, not sure what she was thinking.

“We
know where they are going from here.
 
Let’s just try to make sure there are fewer contacts with random people
between here and the goal.
 
I’d
prefer not to leave a blood trail wherever we go.”
 
She gave a quick glance over her shoulder towards the area
where the body lay.
 

He
nodded in agreement.

“Okay,”
she said after another moment.
 
“Let’s
go.
 
We don’t want them to get too
far ahead of us.

The
two stepped across the threshold and onto the sidewalk outside.
 
A bright sun beat down on their black
outfits, warming their bodies against the chilly autumn air.
 

No
one around even noticed as they slipped into their black sedan and drove off.

Chapter
46

Southeastern
Tennessee/Northwest Georgia

Sean
and Allyson stood waiting at the information desk in the welcome center of Red
Clay State Park.
 
Since they’d
arrived, no park worker had been seen.
 
Joe had lingered in the entryway checking text messages, more than
likely, from an angry Mrs. McElroy.
 

Time
was of the utmost value and the absence of someone who could provide useful
information would certainly be a hindrance.
 

Allyson
breached the silence, “Should we just take a look around?
 
We’ve been standing here for five
minutes.”
 
Her patience was
obviously running thin.

“Sounds
like a plan,” Sean concurred.
 
“Hey, Joe, let’s see what we can find.”

McElroy
nodded and flipped his phone closed, sliding it into a front pants pocket.

Sean
pointed to a pair of large double doors close to them at an opposing wall.
 
A blue sign marked “exhibit” hung above
the museum entrance.
 
“Let’s try in
there first.”

Upon
entering the display room, they noticed an acrid odor that filled the
room.
 
It was distinctly different
than what a museum normally smelled like.

“Something
isn’t right here.”
 
Instinctively,
Sean reached for his weapon after making the statement.
 
He was thankful that Joe kept a secret
stash of ammunition in the tool box of the pickup truck.
 

Cautiously,
he held the weapon at his side as he crept past the display boxes and
pictures.
 
At the corner of the
false wall that divided the two rooms of the exhibit, he stopped and signaled
the others to do the same.

Joe
and Allyson had detected the smell, too, but they weren’t sure what was going
on so they obeyed, halting short of where Sean stood.

Sean
warily peered around the edge of the wall down the other corridor of the small
museum.
 
That’s when he saw it.
          

The
body of the park’s keeper lay motionless on its side in the corner of the room
near the exit.
 
Thick puddles of
blood spread out underneath his form, the liquid seeping slowly into the thin
carpet.
 

After
seeing the man on the floor, Sean rushed over to the scene with Allyson and Joe
confusedly following behind.
 
As
they rounded the wall, the two beheld what had caused Wyatt’s change of
demeanor.
 

“Looks
like they’re still a step ahead of us,” Joe commented grimly as he arrived at
the exit.

“Yeah,”
Sean nodded with a sigh.
 
He
reached down and checked for the man’s pulse on the darkly tanned neck, but
felt nothing.
 
“He’s gone.”
 

Allyson
had seen bodies before.
 
It was
something you had to be able to cope with if you were going to work for the
agency.
 
Still, she had never truly
grown comfortable with it.
 
“Why
would they do this?” She wondered aloud.
   

Both
men shook their heads.
 
“Either
this Jurgenson felt like the ranger knew too much or the guy tried
something.”
 
Sean squatted down to
one knee, examining the multiple gunshot wounds.
 
“Or maybe he could ID them and that made him another loose
end that had to be tied.
 
At any
rate, the police haven’t been here yet.”

“Which
means we better get the heck out of dodge,” Joe finished.

“Right.”
 
Sean began to stand when he noticed one
of the ranger’s hands clutching something.
 
A cell phone.
 
Cautiously, he reached down and pried the device from the dead man’s
fingers, afraid that the police or perhaps a park visitor would burst through
the door at any moment.
 

Then,
something else caught his attention.
 
In the corner of the room was a small display pedestal with a glass case
surrounding a vase.
 
Taking a quick
step over to the pottery, he examined it with a look of distant recognition.
 

Joe,
too, became curious with the artifact.
 
“You know what that looks like?”

“It
seems like I have seen it somewhere before, but I can’t place it.”

“Looks
like Vessel Number One to me.”

“Weeden
Island stuff?”

“Yeah.
 
But I didn’t realize they had anything
like that in this museum.”
 
Joe
frowned while examining the piece.

“There’s
no information about where it came from or who found it either.”

“Guys,”
Allyson cut in, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but there is a dead boy in the room
so if you don’t mind hurrying up your discussion a little...”

Ignoring
her for a second, Sean went on, “I wonder if this vase is the next clue.”

“Would
make sense,” Joe agreed.
 
“It’s the
only thing in the room that doesn’t fit with any of the other artifacts.
 
Sure is curious.
 
I’ll say that.”

Even
after a few closer looks, though, Sean was unsure what clue the vase could
hold.
 
Unfortunately, they didn’t
have a lot of time to analyze the artifact.
 
“I wish there was some kind of information about this
thing.”

Sean
looked at Joe and shook his head, turning his attention back to the phone. They
wondered if the dead man had called for help before his demise.
 
Surely not.
 
If such a call had been placed, the authorities would
already be on the scene.
 

He
pressed a button that illuminated the small screen.
 
Instead of pulling up a menu, though, what appeared to be an
unsent text message flashed onto the display.
 
An odd message, Sean thought.
 
The message read, “beacon.”
 

Joe
came closer and peered at the electronic device to see what had grabbed his
friend’s attention.
 
“Beacon?” he
wondered out loud, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
 

Allyson
was baffled.
 
“Why would the ranger
leave a message like that on his phone if he was dying?
 
Seems like he would have called 911.”
 

“Not
sure, but we can’t stick around here to figure it out,” he answered with
growing concern, then motioned toward the door and placed the phone back in the
curled hand of the park ranger.
 

The
three made their way out of the exhibit room and into the main lobby, heading
to the front entrance.
 
Sean
reached the inner door to the building first and started to open it, when he
froze in his tracks.
 
Outside, in
the parking lot, two county police cars had pulled into a few empty spaces
thirty or so feet away from their own vehicle.

“What?”
Allyson asked.
 

“Police
are here,” he responded pseudo-calmly.
 

“But
how did they…?” Joe started to ask but Sean cut him off by motioning for the
group to move back into the building.
 
Fortunately, the glass doors to the Information Center were tinted, so
seeing people inside from the parking lot was nearly impossible.
 
Sean looked from right to left, trying
to find an alternate exit.
 
There
were a set of stairs to the right of the information desk, an option he didn’t
like because it immediately cornered them in whatever was on the second floor.

To
the left was a door underneath the word “Theater”.
 
Thinking that most theaters had exits, Sean quickly said,
“In there.”
 

The
door to the movie room closed behind them a split second before the two police
reached the top of the porch outside.
 

It
hardly seemed like much of a theater.
 
There were four rows of auditorium style seats with a medium-sized
screen on the wall in front.
 
Sean
stood near the doors for a moment, listening closely.
 
When he heard the inner of the two front doors to the
building open, he quietly ushered the other two toward the front row.
 
As he’d suspected, there was an exit
near the front of the room.
 

Moving
quickly, the three companions made their way beyond the seats over to the
single door with the red “exit” letters hanging over top of it.
 
Upon reaching the door, Sean hesitated
a moment.
 
Some doors had automatic
alarms on them so that in case of an emergency, warning would go throughout the
rest of the building.
 
As his hand
pressed down on the handle, he hoped that this wasn’t one of those.

The
device clicked and opened easily into the early afternoon daylight.
 
No alarm sounded as they slipped out of
the building undetected and back around the front of the building to the truck.