Jamison looked torn.
“Okay, but can you at least tell me where you’re going?”
Decker, his gaze on Baron, said, “Maybe into the past.”
As Baron and Decker headed down the path, Baron looked at him. “You know where this leads, right?”
“I do.”
“And do you hear what I’m hearing?”
“I do,” Decker said again.
“But he would have no way of knowing about this. He would never have been here.”
“He would have one way of knowing about it,” replied Decker.
They cleared the trees and in front of them the large pond appeared.
They stopped walking as they both saw it at the same time.
Fred Ross was in his wheelchair at the edge of the water.
“Mr. Ross?” said Decker. “Going somewhere?”
Ross swiveled around in his chair and saw them. His mouth freed from the duct tape, he hurled one curse after another at them.
Baron started marching down toward the old man and Decker followed.
Before they reached him, Ross lurched sideways and turned over his wheelchair. He started clawing his way to the water, his useless legs dragging in the mud.
Baron stepped in front of him and looked down.
Ross looked up at him. “If I had my damn shotgun,” he snarled.
“Only you don’t,” said Decker. “How’d you manage to get loose?”
“You didn’t tape my arms that tight. Had some wiggle room. All I needed. Probably thought because I’m old I’m weak. Well, I’m stronger than I look, fat boy, from working hard all my life and pushing myself around in that metal cage all this time.”
Baron said, “How did you know this pond was even here?”
Ross laughed. “How do you think I know?”
Decker knelt down next to Ross. “Why did you kill his parents?”
Baron shot Decker a stunned look and then stared back at Ross.
“They were Barons. Ain’t that reason enough?”
“Why in the pond?”
“Because I didn’t want to get caught, that’s why, you dumb son of a bitch.”
“Why were you up here in the first place?” asked Decker.
“Looking for it, wasn’t I?”
“The treasure?”
Ross eyed him shrewdly and nodded.
“How’d you even hear about it?” asked Baron.
“When she was younger, my grandmother worked up at your damn mansion as a maid. That fancy-ass butler was an old man then, and he would get drunk and run his mouth in the kitchen. Right before he died, he bragged to my grandmother that he was going to be buried with Baron. He was so giddy about it. Like that made him somebody. And he said that Baron wasn’t going to leave much of anything to his kids. He was just going to hide his money from those spoiled brats because they were nothing to him. Somewhere up on the estate, he said. Well, she told my mom and my mom told me. One night years later, I went up there to look for it, but couldn’t find it. Figured I’d get the damn Barons to tell me.”
“They didn’t know either, you idiot!” roared Baron. “Do you think if they did they wouldn’t have already gotten it?”
Ross ignored him and kept his gaze on Decker. “Only they wouldn’t tell me. I got even more pissed and knocked ’em in the head, put ’em in their fancy car, and drove it over here and rolled it right into the water.”
“But how did you know about the path or the pond?” asked Decker.
“My grandma told my mom.” He looked at Baron. “She said the high-and-mighty Barons used to come here for picnics and shit. I figured I’d give ’em a picnic, all right. Twenty feet under.” Ross eyed the water. “And then I went back to work at the damn textile mill and got paralyzed.” He glared at the wheelchair. “Been trapped in that piece of shit ever since.”
“Well, they say God works in mysterious ways,” said Decker disdainfully. “But what are you doing here now?”
“Hell, I ain’t going to prison. Rather drown my ass.”
Baron pulled his gun and pointed it at Ross. “How about I do the honors?”
The old man grinned maliciously up at him. “Yeah, you go ahead, prick. Pull that trigger.”
Baron cocked the hammer.
“Do it, rich boy, do it. I dare you,” squealed Ross.
Decker said, “He wants you to do it, John, because then he knows I’ll have to arrest you. It would be like he’d be killing you too, just like he did your parents. You gonna let him sucker you like that?”
Baron pressed the barrel against Ross’s forehead and held it there until the old man started to shake with fear and tears spilled out of his eyes.
Then he uncocked the hammer and handed it to Decker with a smile. “You can’t be serious. I’m far too high-and-mighty to fall for that.”
Ross cursed and spit at him, even as Baron righted the wheelchair, lifted the old man up, and placed him back in it.
“Come on, Mr. Ross, I’ll even push you right up to the paddy wagon. You can ride to jail with your son. Two peas in a thoroughly rotten pod.”
Decker leaned down to stare at Ross.
“You were wrong.”
“About what?” snapped Ross.
“There are some things illegal in Baronville.”
As they headed back up through the woods Baron looked over at Decker.
“The only friend I have is Cindi Riley.”
“I know.”
“Until now, that is.” He paused and stopped pushing the wheelchair. “I count you and Alex as friends. It’s very clear where I would be without both of you caring enough to figure out the truth to all this.”
Decker glanced over at him. “I believe in second chances, John, because I got one, right when I really needed it. How about you? Do you believe in them?”
Baron looked around at the grounds that were once part of his family’s elegant estate.
“I didn’t, until a few minutes ago.”
“Well, that’s all that really counts.”
Chapter 75
“It came to well over six hundred million dollars in gold. Even after various taxes are paid, it’ll be a huge sum.”
Baron was sitting in his study with Riley, Jamison, and Decker.
Decker and Jamison had returned to Washington for a few weeks, but had traveled back to Baronville for a visit.
“I’d call that quite the turnaround in prospects,” said Decker.
“What are you going to do with all the money?” asked Jamison.
“Well, knock this place down for starters, and put up something a little more minimalist and a lot more tasteful. And then I thought I’d invest in Baronville.”
“How so?” asked Jamison.
“Put money into local education, retraining centers, and a new opioid addiction facility. Try to get new businesses to come here and employ people. Have an incubation place for start-ups. Whatever I can do to help turn this place around.”
“Pretty nice of you to help a town that’s been spitting in your face all your life,” said Riley.
Baron’s features changed from light to somber. “I really wanted people to believe that none of their vitriol affected me, and so I returned their anger with witticisms and quips.” He paused as they all stared at him. “But behind the façade was a man filled with nothing but anger.” He let out a sigh. “That’s no way to live.” He smiled. “Especially after life drops that much money in my lap. It’s funny, I’ve never been rich, though everyone seemed to think I was. Now that I am actually rich, I certainly know first-hand that it’s a short path from being rich to being poor. And I should use it to help others. Hell, it’s not like I did anything to earn it. It’s only because I happened to be born into a certain family. But the truth is, the first John Baron was an awful man, and both the town and I have suffered at his hands through no fault of our own. And it really is the sweetest sort of irony that I can use his money to try to fix both injustices.” He glanced at Jamison. “Beginning with your family. Even though I know your sister’s going to sue Maxus, her case is complicated by the fact that Ross was really behind what happened, and Maxus may use that as a defense. So I’m setting up a trust for your sister and niece. They won’t have to worry about money again.”