“But you’ve looked over that area when he wasn’t there, haven’t you?”
“Many, many times,” Gideon said seriously. “I used to fantasize about finding the money and running away with it. But then, I think that’s the dream of every man, woman, and child on this island. ‘Fenny’s gold,’ we call it.”
“The man was an alcoholic,” Sara said. “So was my father, and he couldn’t keep a secret.” Even as she said it, she knew it wasn’t true. No matter how drunk her father got or how often, he’d never told her the truth about the night her mother died.
“You name it and it’s been tried,” Gideon said, “but no one could pry a word from Fenny. His wife used to tell him that if he died, the money would be lost. Fenny said, ‘Then you’ll miss me, won’t you?’ He didn’t tell anyone anything. He enjoyed the people following him, and he liked to lead them on wild-goose chases. He grew up on this island and knew every inch of it well. His father drank and Fenny used to stay in the hills for weeks at a time. He knew all about living off the land.”
“Like you do,” R.J. said, looking around the cabin.
“Like I’ve had to learn,” Gideon said, his eyes defensive. “As soon as I was taller than Nezbit, I moved out of that house and into here. I think that whoever built that house lived in this cabin while it was being built—and I think I’m connected to him.”
“Couldn’t you check the deeds to find out who built it?” Sara asked.
“For all that Nezbit looks stupid, he isn’t,” Gideon said. “His name is on the deed as the original owner. There’s no record that I can find of who built the house. The old-timers say, ‘Some man from the mainland.’ He stayed to himself and met no one here.”
“Smart man,” R.J. said.
“Where were the hot springs?” Sara asked.
“You can’t go up there,” Gideon said quickly. “The ground is loose and there are cave-ins.”
“From the explosion?” R.J. asked.
“From the dynamite,” Gideon answered. “The hot springs that made this town rich weren’t real. Way up on top is a natural stone reservoir. Back in the 1890s some men put big iron cauldrons in the middle of it and heated the water, then piped it down the hillside into little tubs that were also heated. For some unknown reason, somebody dynamited the reservoir and put a hole in it. That was the end of the phony hot springs.”
“Maybe we could package this island as the most notorious—” R.J. began.
“Most wicked,” Sara said.
“Yes, most wicked island in the U.S. ‘Come see where the Victorians duped the unsuspecting rich.’”
“And where the islanders made the boats wreck on the rocks so they could steal their riches,” said Sara.
“And babies,” Gideon said.
Sobering, R.J. and Sara looked at him.
“I had to have come from somewhere and those twins don’t belong to anybody on this island,” Gideon said.
R.J. and Sara looked at each other, then got up from the table. “You ready?” he asked.
She knew what he was talking about without his having to say it, and she was glad that they weren’t going to have an argument about her going. “I need some hiking boots.”
“You can’t go up there,” Gideon said. “It really is dangerous, and besides, the whole place has been combed by every resident on this island. You’ll never find Fenny’s gold—if it exists. He hadn’t been off the island in six months. Maybe he took all there was.”
“Can you get her some shoes?” R.J. asked Gideon.
The young man shook his head in disbelief, then smiled. “Been nice knowing the both of you,” he said. “For a minute there, I had some hope of getting off this island.”
“If I do, you will,” R.J. said. “And that’s a promise.”
“With the twins,” Sara said. “We’ll even try to find out who their parents are.”
For a moment, the emotion in Gideon’s eyes was almost more than Sara could bear.
“What size shoe do you wear?” he asked.
“Six,” Sara said.