Chapter Twelve
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I exclaimed, taking in West’s Roadside Diner.
Maddox killed the engine and then glanced over at me. “What’s the problem?”
I couldn’t even speak—I was that shocked. I mean, when I heard the words, ‘roadside grill’, I expected some kind of restaurant. Instead, I got a stop on the Highway to Hell. All I could do was stare at the gleaming chrome of twenty-something motorcycles littering the front, not to mention the three eighteen wheelers parked in the side lot. “You can’t honestly expect me to go in there!”
Maddox frowned. “And why not?”
“I-It’s like a biker bar from hell or something.”
He chuckled. “Are you seriously afraid?”
Even though I hated to admit it, I bobbed my head.
“Don’t worry. Stick close to me, and you’ll be fine.”
Maddox started to open his door, but I grabbed his arm. “But I’m underage.”
He shrugged. “West’ll smooth it over.” My continued apprehension caused him to make a frustrated noise in the back of his throat. “Look, princess, I’m sorry it’s not the Four Seasons, but with Jensen’s men snooping around, hotels are kinda out of the question.”
His sudden attitude caused me to snap, “And just where are we supposed to sleep? On the pool table or behind the bar?”
Maddox gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles turned white. “West said there’s a room upstairs with a bed and a bathroom that we could crash in. Free of charge.”
I didn’t want to contemplate what the so-called accommodations might look like. I released a sigh, realizing with armed men tracking us and a treasure to find beggars couldn’t be choosers. “Fine, let’s go.”
“Jeez, don’t hurt yourself saying thanks for finding us a place to unwind and sleep,” he grumbled as he slammed the door.
Rolling my eyes, I slung my purse over my shoulder and then hoisted the Cherokee Lore book into the crook of my arm. He came around the front of the truck with a sour look on his face. “I’m sorry, okay? I really appreciate you hooking this up for us.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really. In the vast scheme of things, I don’t think Jensen and his men would even think twice about us being holed up in a biker bar.”
Maddox laughed. “No, I don’t suppose they would.”
We started across the parking lot. “So this West guy—you were in the Army together?”
“Nah, we ended up in the same VA hospital. He actually did a tour in Afghanistan—roadside bomb took him out of commission for a while. He’s doing much better now that he’s home and working for his old man.”
“And does this West have a first name?”
Maddox shrugged. “He’s always been West to me.” With a short laugh, he said, “He’s probably got some fruity first name he’s ashamed of like Terry or Sebastian.”
He held the door open for me, resting a hand on the small of my back. The tiny gesture was comforting, but I would have preferred his entire arm around me. Hazy rings of smoke filled the air, stinging my eyes and making me cough. Through my clouded vision, I saw several of the booths and tables were filled. Even though it wasn’t yet Happy Hour, some men in trucker hats lounged at the bar, nursing foamy beers.
A tall, lanky guy with shaggy dark hair stood under a neon Budweiser sign, cleaning glasses with a rag. Even from where I stood, I could see the shrapnel scars on his neck. The sight of us caused his face to stretch into a wide grin. “I’ll be damned! Look what the cat dragged in.”
Maddox’s hand dropped from around me as he reached out to pump West’s hand. “It’s good to see you again, man. Especially outside that shithole of a VA hospital.” He then turned to me. “Lane, this is my buddy West I was telling you about.”
West eyed me from head to toe before grinning slyly at Maddox. “Pickin’ ‘em kinda young now, aren’t you?”
Maddox grimaced as I blurted, “Oh no, we’re not together like that.”
West snorted. “Yeah, like I haven’t heard that one before.”
Rolling his eyes, Maddox argued, “She’s nineteen, a*shole, and we grew up together. Her dad spent some time with Maudie.”
West didn’t seem to buy Maddox’s explanation. With a wink, he leaned in over the bar. “Can I get you something to drink, sweetheart? Maybe some milk?”
Maddox gave a frustrated grunt. “Listen, man, just give us a break. The last twenty-four hours have been pure hell.”
“Lemme guess. You knocked her up, her parents hate your guts, and now you’re on your way to Ringgold, the elopement capitol of the world this side of the Mississippi?”
Blood rushed to my face. “Excuse me?”
“Lane, he’s—” Maddox began.
“Do I actually look pregnant…you…you a*shole?”
West shrugged. “Takes a while to show.”
I jabbed my finger at Maddox. “I haven’t had sex with him in three years!” I shouted over the music. Just as I finished, I realized the jukebox had shut off. My statement echoed around the room, causing the truckers to turn around and stare at me. “Oh God,” I moaned, burying my head in my hands.
“She’s serious, man. We…” Maddox scratched the back of his neck and grimaced. “We hooked up before I left for Basic, but nothing else now and we’re sure as hell not heading to elope,” Maddox said.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”
I jerked my head up. “I would hope so.”
“You can’t fault me for thinking it though. I mean, old Mad Dog Diaz here was known for being quite a ladies’ man.”
I glanced over at Maddox to find his eyes wide as saucers. He frantically shook his head at West while giving him a pleading look. “Did you just call him Mad Dog?” I asked, enjoying watching Maddox squirm.
West grinned. “Oh yeah. He practically charmed the scrubs off of every nurse in the hospital.”
“Dude, do us both a favor and shut the f*ck up!” Maddox growled.
“Okay, okay, point taken.” West held his hands up in defeat for good measure. “Why don’t you let me make it up to you with a free lunch?”
My stomach rumbled at the mention of food. “That would be great, but we can’t let you treat. I mean, you’re already being nice enough to let us crash here for the night.”
“Lane’s right,” Maddox replied.
West nodded. “All right then. Lunch it is, just not on the house. Why don’t you two head over to that last booth in the corner?” He motioned to a secluded area away from most of the noise and smoke. “I’ll send Tina over to take your order.”
“Thanks, man.” Maddox grabbed his bag and then motioned for me to go on ahead of him. I think it was less about ladies first and more that he wanted to keep an eye on my butt in case one of the patrons got fresh. I slid into the booth and pushed the History of the Cherokee book over to the side of the table. Maddox grabbed two menus out from behind the napkin canister and passed one to me.
They didn’t have a whole lot to choose from, but it didn’t take me and my hunger too long to decide. Tina appeared to take our order decked out in a skin-tight shirt and Daisy Duke shorts. “What can I get you two?”
“I’ll have a double bacon cheeseburger, an order of fries, a side of baked beans, and a Diet Coke.” I glanced up from the menu to see Maddox staring at me, open-mouthed. “What?”
“Call me crazy, but I thought ballerinas existed on celery and tofu.”
“Yeah, well, this ballerina is extremely stressed out and wants a heaping helping of grease.”
He grinned and shook his head. “Give me the same. Except I’ll take a Budweiser.”
“Comin’ right up,” Tina said.
As soon as she left the table, Maddox got down to business. He took out a notepad and a couple of pens from his bag. He unfolded the paper with Paul’s map decoding and slid it to the middle of the table where we both could read it. After we were organized and ready to go, we just kept staring at the words long after Tina returned with our drinks.
Maddox took a giant gulp of his beer and then rubbed his hands together. “Okay, here’s what I’m thinking. The yellow gift has to be gold, right?”
“Yeah, I think so, too. And if the yellow gift is gold, then the place where it was first found has to be Dahlonega—the former gold mining capitol of Georgia.”
Maddox scribbled down Dahlonega = yellow gift on the legal pad. He glanced back up at me and grinned. “Hey, we actually figured something out!”
I laughed. “I think it’s a little early to be celebrating.”
He tapped his finger against his temple. “Gotta think positive now.”
“And on the positive note, I think I’ll make a quick bathroom stop.”
“Go right ahead.” Maddox craned his neck over to the bar. “Hey West, where’s your little girl’s room?”
“That way,” West replied, pointing over his shoulder.
“I could’ve found it myself,” I muttered, rising up out of the booth.
I hustled in and out of the bathroom that had not only graffiti-filled stalls, but the walls were covered as well. I arrived back to the booth just as Tina was setting down our plates. Momentarily the map was forgotten as the heavenly aroma of grease invaded my senses. I took a giant bite of my burger. It was so good and I was so hungry that I practically inhaled it in three bites.
With a little fortification, I pressed on. “Okay, Paul said that colors and numbers were symbolic, so we should probably start there.” I popped a fry into my mouth and flipped to the back index, found the page I wanted, and started reading aloud. “Color symbolism played an important part in the shamanistic system of the Cherokees. Each one of the cardinal directions had a corresponding color and meaning. Shamans used the colors to invoke the spirits.”
Maddox’s eyes widened. “So ‘power of the white’ and ‘ward off the Black Man’ are giving us actual physical directions somewhere?”
I nodded as my finger ran along the lines. “North is blue, south is white, west is black, and east is red.”
Once again, Maddox scribbled on the notepad. “Okay, so we’re looking at going first south and then west.”
“Sounds like it.” My brows furrowed in frustration as I read over the lines again. “But where in the hell do we start from?”
We sat lost in thought for a few moments before Maddox leaned forward. “Okay, the whole ‘leave the place where there are tracks’ has got to mean something. When you leave, you’re going in a direction, right?”
“Yeah, so?”
“Okay, so check and see if you can find anything in the book about a place with the word ‘track’ in it, and I’ll check on my phone.”
While Maddox used a modern Google search, I flipped through the book. Minutes ticked by, and I started getting a little antsy. I had just honed in on a list of places when Maddox said, “I think I found something.” He held out his phone, so I could read the screen. “See that weird word Datsu’nalasgunyi? It means ‘where there are tracks’.”
“Hang on. Lemme check the index.” After skimming the D’s, I sucked in a breath. “Datsunal’asgunyi or ‘where there are tracks’ refers to Track Rock Gap five miles outside of Blairsville in Union County.” I jerked my head up from the book and grinned. “Houston, I think we have a real live place to start.”
Maddox laughed. “Hell yeah.”
While he scribbled down Track Rock Gap, I took out the Georgia maps book from my bag. I opened it to one of all the Northern counties and circled Union. “All right, so we’re going south from Track Rock Gap and then somewhere west…”
“Past the talking rocks,” Maddox replied.
“No, ‘where the rocks talk’, not ‘talking rocks’.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Just like ‘where there are tracks’, I bet we have to find it as ‘where the rocks talk’.”
Maddox grunted. “Whatever. It all sounds like someone was toking on the peace pipe when they wrote this!”
I ignored his comment and started reading about the Cherokee place names that could potentially be southeast of Track Rock Gap. I had just dabbed a fry in some ketchup when my eyes landed on the words Talking Rock. “Oh my God. Here it is.” I cried, sliding the book over to Maddox.
He then started reading aloud. “While Talking Rock officially became a town in 1852, it was first a creek in upper Pickens County that flows into the Coosawatee River. There are two theories on how it received its Cherokee name—Nunyu-gunwani’ski, or where the rocks talk. One says that the echoes that played off the rocks made it seem as if someone was talking or the rocks themselves were talking. The other comes from a certain rock near the creek where Cherokee tribes often held council meetings.” He looked up. “Okay then. Talking Rock it is.”
Peering down at the map, I circled Pickens County. “Hey look. It matches the directions too.” I said, bringing my finger south from Track Rock Gap and west over to Talking Rock. “Now we just need to find out where there are caves in Talking Rock.”
“It’s supposed to be where the pretty fawn shed her tears…” Maddox rubbed his chin—his usual quirk when he was thinking pretty hard. “You know the Cherokee’s were like most Native Americans and named people after animals and all. What if this ‘pretty fawn shedding tears’ was a chick?”
“Hmm, let me see what’s in here under the name Pretty Fawn.” As I thumbed over the titles, I asked, “Want some dessert?”
“You’re still hungry?” Maddox asked.
I glanced up from the book long enough to shoot him a nasty look. “Yeah, I am. Do you have a problem with that?”
He shook his head while holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Easy now. Don’t freak out. We’ll get you some chocolate.” He called Tina over again. “Can we get two hot fudge sundaes please?”
“Coming right up.”
He grinned. “Happy now?”
“Yes, I am. Thank you.”
“Got anything yet?”
My eyes scanned over a couple of pages, desperately searching for anything that mentioned a fawn, period. After Tina returned with our sundaes, I finally found something. “There seems to be a legend about a Chief’s daughter named, Pretty Fawn, and the white man she loved.”
“Why do I have the sickening feeling this is going to end up like a soap opera plot?”
“Good call,” I replied.
He sighed. “Fine. Hit me with it.”
“It seems that Pretty Fawn was promised to a great Creek warrior named Grey Eagle as a way to mend the peace between the two tribes. But she didn’t love Grey Eagle —she instead had fallen in love with a farmer named—” I nearly choked on my sundae. “No way.”
“What? What’s the problem?”
“The farmer’s name was Avery Jensen.”
Maddox’s eyes widened. “Jensen? You mean as in the creep out to kill us Jensen?”
I nodded. “When he first came to Maudie’s, he mentioned something about the painting having ties to his family. I had no idea it was something like this.”
“Man, that’s intense.” He spooned in a glob of ice cream. “So what else does it say?”
“It seems that Pretty Fawn took part of the gold dowry that was supposed to be given to Grey Eagle and buried it in the secret cave where she and Avery used to meet up. It was supposed to be the money they could escape with. But then the night that Pretty Fawn and Avery were going to run away, Grey Eagle and some of his Creek warriors caught Avery Jensen and murdered him.”
“That blows,” Maddox replied through a mouthful of ice cream. “What happened to her?”
I shuddered. “When she found out what had happened to Jensen, she jumped off the highest cliff of the waterfalls at their meeting place and drowned.” My appetite was suddenly gone, so I pushed my half-eaten sundae away. “That’s so sad.”
Maddox frowned. “Okay, so if she took a flying leap, how did anyone find out about the gold or make the map?”
“Huh, I hadn’t thought about that one,” I replied, going back to my reading. “Ah, here we go. Pretty Fawn’s father, Onaconah, was so grief-stricken after her suicide that he viewed her dowry as blood money and wanted no part of it. He sent his son, Notley, to the cave to bury the rest of it in the same place Pretty Fawn had once hidden it.”
With a snap of his fingers, Maddox said, “And what do you bet Notley is the one who made the map?”
“And,” I paused, letting all the details fall into place, “He became the chief who was in Maudie’s portrait.”
“Damn…that’s some intense Sherlock Holmes stuff.”
I laughed. “I know, right?”
Maddox slid the book over where he could read it. “The location of the cave is a two mile hike off rural Talking Rock Springs trail. Historians note the irony of the location of Pretty Fawn’s cave. It was northeast of her tribe’s settlement. Since Cherokee’s believed that the direction of North meant defeat and trouble coupled with West’s meaning of death, it is thought that Pretty Fawn and Jensen were doomed to begin with.” He closed the book. “Great. Nothing like a little superstition or bad omens to go along with the cave location.”
“At least we know where to go. We could still be stuck at square one about where in the county the cave was.”
“True. Very true.”
We both sat in silence for a few moments, staring at the map with astonished looks on our faces. “I can’t believe we actually figured it all out,” I said.
Maddox grinned. “I guess we make a good team, huh? Maybe we can become crime fighters or some shit.”
I laughed. “Does that mean we’ll get to wear really cool outfits or have code names?”
“Maybe. Or we could become FBI agents and get to flash around our badges.”
“You’re a man with a plan, that’s for sure.”
Maddox eyed his watch. “Since the day is practically shot, whatcha think about staying put here, and then getting a start bright and early in the morning?”
“Makes sense to me.” I glanced around the bar that was starting to fill up with some of the early evening crowd. “Just what do you suggest we do while we’re here?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Anything and everything.”
Inwardly, I groaned. I had a feeling it was going to be a really, really long night.