Valley of the Scarecrow (20 page)

“It’s now or never, guys,” Dan said. “What do you think?”

“I say we go,” Kelly said. “We can’t stay here all night.”

“But we’re going to get soaked,” Lizzy said. “Maybe it’ll stop if we wait a bit.”

“I doubt it,” her boyfriend said. “Looks like it’s gonna rain all day. If we run, we should be okay. We’ll be under the trees for most of the way.”

That sounded good, but it wasn’t true. By the time they’d taken twenty steps, they were already drenched, and by the time they made it back to the tents, they were cold and completely soaked to the bone. Adding to their misery was the bitter disappointment of not locating the treasure they’d come all this way to find. Of course, by the time this stormy night was over they’d all learn there were worse things in store for them than having to go home empty-handed. Far worse.

In fact, it would be a miracle if any of them ever got to go home at all.

The storm raged on throughout the day, with no end in sight. The wind and rain would let up a little for five or ten minutes but then roar back stronger than ever. Kelly and her friends abandoned their waterlogged campsite and moved everything the four of them could carry into the large reception area of the church, where it was blessedly warm and dry. None of them were overly enthused with the idea of having to sleep inside this creepy place tonight, but what other choice did they have? Even with Reverend Miller’s body bizarrely missing and three mummified corpses locked downstairs in the basement, this was by far their best option. It just didn’t make any sense to spend the night outside in the tents.

With nothing much to do other than sit around and mope about not finding Joshua’s supposed stash of gold and silver, it didn’t take long for the alcohol to make another appearance. The bottle of peach schnapps was long gone, drained dry at their campfire party on Wednesday night, but there was still half a bottle of Jack Daniel’s left to share. They didn’t bother using cups; they simply passed the bottle among themselves while they sat on the floor chatting, the famous whiskey lighting a fire in their bellies that helped keep the chill of the rain away.

“I hate to even bring this up,” Kelly said, “but I’m actually really worried about Pat and Kim.” The guys rolled
their eyes and groaned. “I’m serious. There’s no way they’d still be playing games with us. I don’t know about Kim, but for sure Pat would’ve come in out of the rain by now.”

“Screw ’em!” Rich said, already feeling a little drunk from the shots of straight alcohol. “Wherever they are, I hope they’re soaked to the bone.”

“That’s not very nice,” Lizzy said. “What if they’re lost somewhere or I don’t know…one of them is hurt?”

“They can’t be all that hurt if they had the strength to move the reverend’s body somewhere. Am I right or am I right?”

Lizzy and Kelly both had to admit what Rich said had a certain irrefutable logic to it, and the more they drank the better it sounded. But if not in any trouble, where were they then? More importantly, why were they acting so bloody weird, hiding in the first place? None of it made any sense. Kelly was still worried about them but decided to drop it for now. She didn’t know where to look so there was nothing she could do to help them anyway, even if they were in some kind of self-induced danger.

The conversation drifted onto many other things as nighttime approached, from job prospects back home, to wedding plans a few years down the road, to how much the silver and gold amulet might be worth and what kind of a person would ever want to buy the damn thing. By the time it was fully dark outside, the bottle of Jack was gone and none of them noticed the rain had nearly stopped falling. It had been another long, tiring day and everyone seemed to just want to go to sleep. Weather permitting, they’d be able to get up in the morning and start heading home.

Dan and Kelly fell asleep first, huddled together in two sleeping bags that they’d zipped together to form one big pouch. Rich and Lizzy talked quietly for another ten minutes but then lay down on their backs holding hands, content to simply be together and hearing the soft patter of the rain drumming them to sleep on the roof above. Rich was nearly asleep when he felt Lizzy poke him in the ribs. He opened his eyes and looked at her in the gloom.

“What’s the matter?” he asked her, fighting to stay awake.

“Nothing. I was just listening to the rain on the roof and thinking about you. The sound of rain always makes me hot, remember.”

Rich yawned. “Well get out of the covers for a minute.”

“Not that kind of hot, dopey. The
other
kind!”

“Oh. OH! Now I get you,” Rich said, instantly fully awake. “Thought you said I was cut off.”

“You were,” Lizzy said, moving over to purr in her boyfriend’s ear. “But not anymore. Get over here and kiss me.”

Rich did as he was told, their lips meeting in the dark as he slid his hand up her shirt, searching for her breast. Lizzy quietly moaned as he gently squeezed her left nipple, his hands strong and familiar with the way she liked being touched. She let him fondle her breasts but stopped him when he went to unbutton her pants.

“Hold on a sec, tiger,” she whispered. “This probably isn’t the best place to do this. Not with Dan and Kelly lying right beside us, you know?”

“We can try the tents but everything’s probably soaked.”

“No way. I was actually thinking about the bell tower. It’s warm and dry and nice and private. A guy could
probably get away with doing anything he wanted to a gal up there. What do you think?”

“Good idea. I like it.”

Lizzy giggled. “Thought you might. Grab a blanket and that flashlight, but be quiet. Wouldn’t want to wake anyone up and ruin the moment, right?”

“Right. Let’s go!”

It was considerably darker upstairs than it had been on the main level, probably because no one in the group had bothered to pry off any of the oak planks sealing the windows of the tower room from the outside. They didn’t have a ladder and seeing as there was nothing on this second level, it had hardly seemed worth the bother. Rich solved the problem by turning on his flashlight and setting it down on the ground with the light beam pointed toward the roof. To tone down the brightness a little, he removed his white T-shirt and draped it over the plastic top.

“Better?” Rich asked.

“Perfect!” Lizzy said, smiling seductively as she stepped out of her jeans and panties, and fell into her lover’s arms. “Now where were we?”

It didn’t take long for Rich to remind her, taking Lizzy into his arms and lying down with her side by side on top of the blanket. Lizzy pulled off her sweatshirt and tossed away her bra as Rich hurriedly yanked off his jeans and boxer shorts. Naked, they kissed passionately, their tongues exploring each other’s mouths for the thousandth time perhaps, but it still felt fresh and delicious as if they were making love for the very first time. Rich rolled on top of her, kissing his way down her neck and stopping for a while at her perfect full breasts to lick and nibble gently on her hard, engorged nipples. Lizzy
moaned and caressed the back of Rich’s head, loving every moment they could spend together like this. They let on to the world that it was Rich who was the oversexed horny partner of the two, but in reality there were times, like this, when she was far worse than he was.

“Will you go down on me, baby?”

Rich mumbled something she couldn’t hear, his mouth still smashed on her breast, but it didn’t matter; he was already heading south, his warm lips kissing her firm belly and continuing down to the sweet spot between her legs. “Oh God, yes!” she gasped.

Lizzy arched her back, looking straight up toward the roof high above and something shiny caught her eye three-quarters of the way up the wall, something sitting on the top rung of the wall ladder about the height of the bottom of the bell. Maybe her eyes were playing tricks but she thought something had moved up there as well. Was that a shadow on the wall beside it, or something else? Whatever it was, she closed her eyes and ignored it, trying to concentrate on the inner fireworks Rich’s tongue was setting off, but she kept opening her eyes and seeing it glint in the light of the flashlight and no matter how much she tried, her eyes kept going back to that spot. The shadow beside it was now gone.

“Rich? Hold on a sec…okay?”

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Sorry to ruin the moment but what the heck is that thing shining up there?”

“Shining? Where? What are you blabbing about?”

“Up there at the top of the ladder. You can only see it from on your back. See?”

Rich rolled over and looked up. His eyes followed her outstretched finger and he too saw the light catch something hanging over the edge of the top rung. He removed
his shirt from on top of the flashlight and was rewarded with another bright flash of color from above. “That’s strange. It almost looks metallic, the way the light dances off it.”

“That’s exactly what I was thinking too. To be honest, with how shiny it is, it looks like something made out of gold. Maybe a ring or something?”

“Yeah…or a coin.”

Rich and Lizzy looked into each other’s eyes, an unspoken excitement building in both their minds but neither wanting to say it out loud. Eventually, Rich had to ask, “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Part of Joshua’s treasure,” Lizzy said, a statement rather than a question.

“Maybe more than just part, sweets. Nobody ever did climb up there to have a good look around. We were worried the ladder wasn’t safe and just presumed the reverend would never risk stashing his gold in the church because it was too public of a place.”

“Not up there it’s not. Nobody would bother going up there.”

“Exactly. Which is why we should have checked it.”

“It’s not too late. Get your skinny little ass up there.”

“You always did know how to sweet-talk me,” Rich said, leaning over to kiss Lizzy on the lips before getting to his feet. “Okay…you hold the flashlight from down here. I just hope these old ladder rungs hold me.”

“Me too. Go slow and be careful.”

Rich took a moment to pull on his T-shirt and boxers, not wanting to climb the rickety ladder in the nude. Semi-dressed, he rubbed his hands together for luck and started up the handholds attached on the wall. The old wooden rungs creaked and groaned under his weight but felt
secure enough that they weren’t going to break. Nearing the top, he could have reached over and felt the cast-iron bell but it held little interest to him tonight, his attention narrowed down to the small metal circle sitting half on and half off the top rung. He gently picked it up and rubbed it between his thumb and forefinger, surprised by how heavy it felt.

It was a solid gold coin.

A 1929 five-dollar Indian head coin to be exact, with a headdress-wearing native on one side and an American eagle depicted on the opposite. Despite its obvious age, the coin was in mint condition and could have passed casual inspection as brand-new.

“Enough with the suspense,” Lizzy said from the ground. “What is it?”

“Have a look for yourself.” Rich tossed the coin down to his naked girlfriend and watched as her face lit up with excitement.

“Oh my God! It’s gorgeous! What do you think something like this is worth?”

“No idea…but it’s a shitload more than the five bucks it was worth back then.”

“Are there any more of them up there?”

Good question. When Rich turned his attention back to the wall, he finally saw the horizontal gap in the first wooden plank above the ladder and followed it with his eyes until it joined another gap heading vertically.
Holy shit!
he thought, realizing what he had found. “You’re not gonna believe this, but I think there’s a hidden doorway up here. It isn’t huge, but it’s big enough for someone to crawl inside.”

“Maybe it leads out onto the roof.”

“I don’t think so,” Rich said, pushing on the center of the cut-out area and watching in nervous anticipation as
the door swung out of the way on hidden hinges, revealing what appeared to be a secret room but it was too dark inside to tell. There was a crude unfinished wooden floor and he could just see the hint of roof rafters above, but unfortunately everything else was shrouded in darkness. “Can you throw me up the flashlight, hon?”

Lizzy did as she was asked, and as soon as Rich shone the beam of light into the newly revealed room his heart started to race, adrenaline pumping through his veins at the unbelievable sight he was staring at. There were gold coins everywhere. Four or five bags of them. Silver coins too. Even two large bowls filled to overflowing with diamond rings and pearl necklaces and many other pieces of expensive jewelry.

They’d done it. They’d found Joshua Miller’s treasure stash, all the money and valuables he’d hoarded away from the starving neighboring communities, charging outlandish fees for the privilege of eating their plentiful corn crops at a time when no one else was able to grow food of their own.

“Well?” Lizzy asked, the suspense driving her crazy. “What do you see?”

“Something beautiful,” Rich said, not trying to be vague, just being totally honest. The treasure was indeed beautiful, the answer to all of their hopes and dreams. With this kind of cash, their money troubles were over. He and Dan’s business could get back to being fun again, Kelly could open up her restaurant, and Lizzy would finally be able to start her own hair salon. Both couples could probably start to seriously discuss getting married soon too, and with thoughts of a grand double wedding ceremony in his head, Rich reached into the room to pull out one of the bags of gold coins.

A giant hand shot out of the darkness behind the door,
latching onto Rich’s wrist and pinning his arm to the floor. The hideous mummified leather face of Joshua Miller came into view, his foul breath whispering only inches away from Rich’s ear.

“The eighth commandment, boy?” the reverend said. “Thou shalt not steal!”

“What the fuck…” Rich said, terror gripping his body but having enough desire to get away that he pulled back his trapped arm as hard as he could. He managed to break free, but his momentum carried him backward, toppling him off the ladder and sending him pinwheeling toward the ground. In his panic, he let go of the light.

From below, and having no idea what had just happened, Lizzy managed to catch the dropped flashlight but not the body of the man she loved. Rich dropped to the hard wooden floor, landing heavily on his back. Lizzy was sure he’d be dead or paralyzed, but within seconds Rich was struggling to climb to his feet. It all happened so fast, she hadn’t even had a chance to scream, but that all changed when she looked up and saw the monstrous creature crawling out of the secret door at the top of the ladder. It was part man, part plant, and all nightmare, with sharp teeth and sharp claws, clinging to the wooden ceiling with its long, spindly arms and legs.

She watched in horror as the scarecrow-thing dropped to the ground beside her and only then did she recognize who it was that clamped one of his dirty hands over her mouth to stifle her cries. Rich had miraculously made it back onto his feet, however unsteadily, and charged at Reverend Miller’s exposed back, but he was too slow. Lizzy was forced to watch as Joshua let go of her long enough to grab Rich, reach into the air, and snag the bell rope as high up as he could, then loop it several times
around Rich’s throat in one smooth motion as he tried to save her. When the reverend let go of the cord, it hoisted Rich’s body into the air, dangling him several inches off the ground and cutting off his air supply. Rich immediately started to choke and gag, unable to draw a breath and the more he struggled to breathe, the tighter the rope knotted around his throat.