Page 8 of Pay Dirt

Nathan

Chapter 4

He didn’t know what he expected, but Cassie Bennett wasn’t it. She wasn’t about the money. She could have demanded half of Herbert’s find or even lied and gone to find the money herself.

She wasn’t like that. She wasn’t like that at all.

Unusual, sure. Beautiful, absolutely. But a gold digger? He wasn’t buying it. But that was what his partner, Campbell, believed.

Something had always struck Nathan as odd about the theft and what happened to the robbers. He wasn’t inclined to believe that karma played out. Only three bodies were found in the plane’s wreckage, leaving one suspect unaccounted for. His superiors believed animals ravaged the other body, considering the plane had crashed into the side of a mountain. He was never even convinced the fourth one was on the plane to begin with.

He’d met many women who claimed to be a psychic and she’d offered him a reading. He’d put a few of her kind in jail. Cassie’s reading of the ring had proven she had some type of skills.

There was no insignia or inscription on the ring he wore on his pinky. Nobody knew whom it belonged to, including Campbell. But Nathan knew. He’d visited his mother’s grave once a month. And each time he was there, he promised the same thing. Not to find peace, love, and happiness but to find closure and bring all involved to justice.

Cassie jogged downstairs, pulling a suitcase behind her. “My sisters are going to be upset that I left town before waiting on our important package.”

“What package?” he asked.

“A family heirloom that my relatives need me to tap into to find the rest of us crazy Bennett nuts.”

“Sounds important,” he said, trying to inject sincerity into his tone.

She patted his shoulder. “It’s okay, Nathan. I’ll get one of my sisters to pick it up.”

“Keeping our destination a secret will help keep our location off the grid. The less the killer knows the better.”

Cassie crossed the room and pulled open a filing cabinet. “And you’re sure we need to go to New Orleans?”

“I’m not sure of anything,” he said as he slipped an evidence bag out of his pocket and dangled it from across the room. “Do you believe that’s where the money is?”

She crossed the room and took the evidence bag from Nathan’s hand and examined it front and back. The red dye splatter covered enough of the bill to make it unusable. “May I open it?”

“Sure. You’ve seen that one before. That’s Herbert’s bill. I was surprised that the killer didn’t find it on him.”

“Maybe to throw you off your game. Could be that he wanted you to think Herbert was one of the robbers.”

“Maybe.” He slid his hands into his pocket, hoping she could pinpoint the location just as she had the fact that his mother was in a grave.

The truth was they’d run out of leads years ago, until one of the bills with the stolen serial number resurfaced again. He needed this. He needed her for answers.

“How long is this going to take?” he asked, following her across the room to the dining table where a map was already opened and laid out.

“You’re nervous.” She said it as more of a statement than a question.

Damn right, he was nervous. He gave her a curt nod and folded his arms across his chest.

“Normally I like to do this more than once just to be sure,” she answered, slipping a necklace from around her neck. She held it over the map, closed her eyes, and forced out a sharp exhalation.

Nathan watched, trying to understand her ritual. Trying to make sense of how this might be possible. He drew a blank the longer he waited.

The crystal arced in circles as she moved it back and forth over the map of all fifty states. He had no idea what was going on in her mind, what she might be thinking, but she rubbed her thumb on the tainted money, and the crystal landed with a clank on the table.

She and Nathan both leaned in to read their next destination.

“Well, it looks like your money grew legs and moved, because it’s in Texas now.”

“You’re sure?” he asked.

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