In Harm’s Way - Ch. 31

Excerpt from rough draft of In Harm’s Way by Pat Otterness

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

?????????“Where did you get this?” Betty held the locket out to me. “Who gave it to you?”

“Who is Diego?” I asked in return. I wasn’t eager to tell her how I picked it out of a corpse’s hand.

“Diego was my son,” Betty said. “Roderigo Diego Diez. His friends called him RD.”

“Was?” I asked.

“ He has been gone a long time,” Betty said. “ This locket is like a gift from the grave.”

“In a way, it was,” I told her. I described the finding of the locket while she listened in horror.

“Who was this woman? How did she come to have the locket?” Betty asked questions I couldn’t answer.

“ She claimed to be Carmen Diez-Gonzales,” I said, “but??I have my doubts.”

“ But that is my Carmen’s name,” Betty said.

“ Not really,” Carmen said. “I am just Carmen Diez. I added the surname of the people who raised me, but it is not my legal name.”

“You said this man, this Vaughn is dead?” said Betty.

“He is,” I said. “ He was shot … killed … in his car, near my house. The Sheriff is baffled. No one seems to know why he was there, or what he was investigating.”

“He was up to something,” said Hiram,” but nobody knows what.”

“He told me he was working with ICE,” Betty said. “He was looking for illegals, and he was working undercover. He said he was looking for Carmen Diez-Garcia.”

We all looked at Carmen. She looked as bewildered as we were. “I don’t know why,“ she said. “I found a note saying to look for Crazy Betty, and I went looking. But she found me first and brought me here. She is my?abuela. I didn’t know she was still alive.”

“Where did the note come from?” I asked.

“From me,” said Betty. “I slid it under her door late at night.”

“Why am I just hearing about all of this now?” said Fletch. He was speaking to Carmen. “ Why didn’t you tell me about the note?”

Carmen blushed. “ Tell you that my?abuela?was known as Crazy Betty?” she said. “I didn’t even know she was still alive, Fletch. I hoped, but I was afraid I was being tricked.”

“You could have trusted me,” said Fletch.

“ I did trust you,” said Carmen, tears in her eyes. “I trusted you with my child, my Dorita! But you are here, instead of watching her.”

“My sister is watching her, Carmen,” I said. “My sister Hope is the safest person he could ever leave her with. “Fletch needed to be sure you were safe. He was so worried about you.”

“ I miss her so much,” cried Carmen, tears coursing down her cheeks. “ I miss my baby.”

“She misses you, too,” said Fletch, wrapping his arms around her. Turning to me, he asked, “Is it safe to take her home yet?”

“I don’t think so. Until we know who killed Vaughn … who killed that woman … I don’t think we can guarantee she’ll be safe. Vaughn may not be the only person who was looking for Carmen.”

Hiram was acting fidgety. “Do you know what the key opens?” he asked at last.

“Hiram is a locksmith,“ I explained.

“I thought he was a manicurist,” said Fletch.

“That, too. There is more to Hiram than meets the eye,” I said, grinning, suddenly seeing that it was true. There?was?a lot more to Hiram than anyone guessed.

“My son Diego was also a locksmith,” said Betty. “A hobby only, but he was very good at it. He made many boxes, fashioned with locks he had made himself.”

“I was just wondering why he wrote those words.?For safekeeping.?What do you suppose he meant?” Hiram said.

Betty looked startled. “I don’t know,” she said. “I can’t imagine.”

“I wonder if he left something with you, hidden, to keep it safe,” suggested Hiram. “In some place opened only with this key.”

“Are you suggesting treasure?” I asked him, laughing.

Hiram blushed. “Some people hide their valuables,” he said.

“Diego never had any valuables,” said Betty. “He made a few dollars selling his locked boxes, but he barely made a living.”

“Do you still have any of his boxes,” Hiram asked. “Or anything else he made that had a lock on it?”

“Everything he made had a lock on it,” Betty said. “His locked things are all over my cabin. “Maybe this key opens one of them.”

“Can we see your cabin, Betty?” I asked. “ I think we should see if the key holds any secrets. Finding it in the hand of a murdered woman makes me think that maybe the key, and the woman, are involved in this somehow.”

As if on cue, thunder sounded overhead and the sky suddenly darkened. Rain was coming. The breeze stirred up and lightning flashed nearby.

“Follow me,” said Betty, “but enter the woods in different places to avoid leaving a clear path. And tread as lightly as you can. I don’t want our location to be spotted.”