“Are there others around?”
“Oh, sure. Museums have them, some belong to private collectors.”
“Any in this area?”
The woman thought for a moment. “Hmm. I don’t know of any offhand.” She glanced at a family that had just entered the center. “You’ll have to excuse me now.”
Kendra gave one last look at the photo of the coin press, raised her phone and snapped a picture of it, then jerked her head toward the door. “Let’s go, Margaret.”
Margaret was frowning as they left the center. “Okay, I accept that Doane had a coin press in his trunk. Why? And where did he get it when he was under surveillance?”
“Pretty faulty surveillance, or he would never have been permitted to leave Goldfork. As to why, that’s what we’ve got to find out. He was either transporting it from one place to another or perhaps disposing of it. Either way it’s a damn odd object to be moving when he was focused on going after Eve.” Kendra was taking her phone out of her pocket. “I think we may need a little help.” She was quickly dialing a number.
“Who are you calling?” Margaret asked.
“Hello, Venable.” Kendra spoke into the phone. “Miss me? Didn’t I tell you I’d keep in touch?”
“I don’t miss you as much as that dead police officer’s buddies. You might find yourself on the receiving end of a statewide APB if you don’t talk to them soon.”
“Don’t you think I’d do that if I could? I just don’t have time.”
“Somehow I thought that might be your answer,” he said dryly. “So what’s keeping you so busy?”
“I need information. Quinn says you’re good at marshaling resources among all the government agencies and coming up with the right answer. Is that right?”
“Of course,” he said sarcastically. “Why else does the CIA exist but to provide you with what you need?”
“I’m transmitting you a picture I just snapped of an antique coin press. It was used to make gold coins during gold-rush days. I’m positive Doane had one of these, or a similar model, in his car recently.”
Now she had Venable’s full attention. “‘Positive’ is a strong word.”
“As positive as I can be without actually seeing the machine in the trunk. Pass this photo along to the forensic team going over Doane’s car in Atlanta right now. They’ll back me up if they compare it to the impressions and scratches on the trunk and backseat. This thing was disassembled into three major parts and moved. That’s why there was gold dust on the scene. It had probably been caught in the press’s inner workings for over a century.”
“Okay, good. I’ll see what we can find out about it. I’m not sure what it will do for us, though.”
“I’m not sure either, but we’re not exactly swimming in leads. I’m excited that we managed to find this one.”
“I’m a little excited myself.” He paused. “So are you coming in? We have a lot to talk about.”
Kendra eyed the tattered journal protruding from the oversized pocket of Margaret’s jacket. “Not quite yet.”
“Why not?” His voice held a trace of urgency. Or was she just imagining it?
“The amount of gold dust we saw in Doane’s car leads me to think maybe the press had never been moved before. It may have come from an old bank or mint around here. While your people are researching this, we’ll do some looking around ourselves.”
“Kendra, I’m really not sure that’s the best—”
“Will you call Jane and tell her what Margaret and I found out? How is she doing?”
“Very well. The doctors gave her a pass out of the hospital, and I imagine you might see her before I do.”
“That’s great. But a surprise. She was pretty sick.”
“They wouldn’t have released her if she wasn’t much better.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I’m transmitting the photo now. Thanks, Venable.”
She cut the connection and turned to Margaret. “Jane’s out of the hospital. Venable says she’s doing well and that we can probably expect her to show up.”
“I’ll be glad to see her,” Margaret said. “She needs to be here helping to find Eve. It was hurting her to feel that helpless.”
“If she’s back on her feet, then she’ll probably be trying to forge ahead like a bulldozer.”
Margaret smiled faintly. “Like you, Kendra?”
“Maybe. But we’d go at problems from different directions.”
“Will Venable cooperate?” Margaret asked. “He sounded a little surly.”
“He’ll cooperate.” She thought about it. She was becoming slightly uneasy about Venable. “He wants to find Eve. He just likes his own way.”
“Don’t we all.” She wrinkled her nose. “And my way is to get to a motel where I can take a shower. I desperately need it after what we’ve gone through since we landed in Colorado.”
“I’ll second the motion,” Kendra said. “We’ve had enough sleep in the car, but I feel filthy, too.” She headed for the car. “Then we’ll get on the move and see what we can find out about antique coin presses.”
CHAPTER
14
KENDRA’S PHONE RANGAS SHE was getting dressed after her shower.
Jane.
She picked up. “I heard that you were released from the hospital. How are you feeling?”
“Fine,” Jane said curtly. “I’d feel better if you and Margaret hadn’t decided to go incommunicado on me. You could have called me back.”
“You were ill. We didn’t want to upset you. If there had been anything definite that you should know, we’d have called you.”
“I’d say almost getting blown up in Doane’s house would qualify as something I should know.” She sighed wearily. “I’m sorry. I’m just so damn frustrated. Everyone was just trying to protect me, but I had no right to be protected when everyone else was in danger.”
“No one is in danger now. We haven’t seen Blick since Goldfork. And I did tell Venable to call you and tell you everything we’d found out. He said you were probably on your way out here by now. Where are you?”
“We’re at the Atlanta airport. We’ll get to Denver around midnight. So after we rent a car and drive down, it’ll probably be sunrise by the time we get to you.”
“We?”
“I’m with Seth Caleb and Mark Trevor. What about this coin press? You think Doane got it from somewhere around there?”
“I think it’s a decent possibility. It’s gold-rush country. They had coin presses. His radio was set on this listening area.”
“Why would he want a gold press?”
“The more I consider it, I’m leaning toward wondering why he might want to get rid of a coin press.” She paused. “And where he got rid of it from.”
Silence. “Eve,” Jane whispered. “He wanted to prepare a place for her. Maybe it was in his way.”
“That’s my guess. Margaret and I are going to be driving around the area and talking to locals and trying to find out about any known coin presses. I asked Venable to try to find out anything he could about them and let me know. Maybe you could help cover a couple of the mining tourist spots when you get here.”
“Fine. We’re going to stop before we leave Denver and talk to a friend of Trevor’s who works in the forestry department of the university. He says he’s more familiar with the forests in this area than anyone else in the world. What else can I do?”
“I have no idea. The same thing we’re doing? Playing it by ear. You’re on your own, Jane.”
“Did you access photos of that sketch of mountain country I sent you?”
“Yes, none of it looks familiar. I’ll keep it in mind if I run across anything like it.”
“I know it sounded bizarre, but don’t discard it because of that. We can’t afford to discard anything that might help.”
“Look, I’m traveling around with your friend, Margaret, who evidently communicates with sundry creatures from field and stream, and I hardly question it anymore. What’s more bizarre than that?”
“Where can we reach you?”
“We’ll be traveling, as I said, but we’ll answer the phone. I promise.” She added, “I have a feeling we’re close, Jane.”