Letters in Time, Reiss Susan [read me a book TXT] 📗

of the land. Stephani pulled hard on the steering wheel and sent us careening into the field surrounding the Lone Oak. It took what little strength I had to keep myself from being jostled right out of the vehicle.

In black silhouette against the star-filled sky, the Lone Oak loomed large. For more than a century, it had guarded a treasure that had cost two lives and ruined more. Would I be next? I glanced over at Stephani and could see the lust for riches that consumed her. No amount of logic could reach her.

Chapter Forty-One

“Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.”

—Henry David Thoreau

Stephani slammed the brakes and we stopped in a cloud of dirt. “Get out!”

I fumbled around, trying to move my leg, hoping for a miracle.

"Stop stalling!" She came around to my side, seized my arm, and yanked me out of the Jeep. Her iron grip was the only thing that kept me from falling to the ground. When I regained my balance, she let me go. Teetering, I groped for the Jeep's fender for support.

She scanned the area. “Okay, where is it?"

I rolled my eyes. “Look, I keep telling you. I don’t know.”

"Liar!" she roared. She reached into the back of the Jeep then held a bunch of manila folders from my desk triumphantly in the air. Folders, that included the yellow one.

No! It was the yellow folder where I kept Daniel's letters or what was left of them. She must have grabbed it when I wasn’t looking. I had to get it away from her before she could paw through the pages. I didn't know if the letter with the coordinates for the treasure chest had faded away yet.

“Those are mine,” I declared with a false sense of bravado. “Give them back.”

She held the folders high over her head and sang out to the universe. “She wants her papers back!” Then she whined. “Poor baby, I took her things.” She lowered her head and drilled her eyes into mine. “But the information in them isn’t yours. It belongs to me. You know where the treasure is buried.” She shook the folders in the air again. “It’s all right in here.”

She took a couple of steps toward me and held the folders under my nose. “Go on. Deny it. I dare you,” she sneered.

I wanted to move away, but I didn't. I fought down the fearful trembling that was welling up in my body. If this person saw proof of my fear, I had no idea what she'd do. She had shed the persona of a studious young woman as easily as she'd tossed away her fake eyeglasses. Now, she was a frantic madwoman. Her cobalt blue eyes flashed with rage. I couldn't reason with this monster she'd become. But if reason didn't work, maybe attitude would.

“You’re a thief,” I snarled right back at her. “I trusted you. You stole those files and you have the nerve to threaten me.” I felt like a fool, but the tactic worked. She was thrown off when my bullying attitude met hers.

“Y-yes, and it’s all your fault,” she sputtered. “You shouldn’t have cut me out.”

“Cut you out?” I let out a crazed laugh to the sky. “You’re an idiot. Everything in those folders came from your precious Maryland Room.” That wasn’t exactly true. I held on to the slim hope that she hadn’t seen the transcriptions of Daniel’s letters.

“It was all right there, under your nose, and you didn’t even know it. Stupid girl.”

“I knew it!” She held up the folders again. “It’s all right here.” She laid them on the hood of the Jeep and started rifling through the papers. Her forehead wrinkled. “You know, this is inefficient. You’re supposed to use the tabs on the folders to label what’s in each file.”

“Ha! Still the mousy librarian,” I was feeling the role and sneered. “You have to cut me in on the treasure or find it yourself. And we both know how well that’s worked for you.”

I must have touched a nerve. She put both hands flat on the hood and slowly pushed herself up straight. Then she cocked her head and twisted her lip.

“I’m not going to read through everything. You’re going to tell me where the treasure is.”

Fear rippled through me. Her swagger was back. She gave me only a second to respond, which wasn't fast enough. She held up the yellow folder and swept the others on the ground.

“Is it in this one?” She raised one eyebrow. Her eyes bore into me, watching for my reaction.

The wind caught one of the papers and pulled it out of the file. It danced it up into the branches of the Lone Oak high above our heads.

“Is that the one that tells where the treasure is?” She demanded, her eyes never leaving the paper.

I looked at the paper floating above, tantalizingly close but out of reach. Was Daniel keeping the secret safe? I dropped my eyes and fired back. "Are you crazy? How should I know? I—"

She thrust a pointed finger in my face and squealed in triumph. “You know where it is.” She yanked me over to the tree’s wide trunk.

“What? No. I… Get it! Get the paper,” I ordered. Playing a bully was better than being the simpering, pleading little person I felt I was inside.

But Stephani stood as if she was made of stone, watching the page dance on the wind in the glare of her Jeep’s headlights.

“GET IT!” I ordered again.