Haunting Danielle 27 The Ghost and the Mountain Man by Bobbi Holmes (great novels to read TXT) 📕

your family, and it ended up with Caitlin until her mother donated it to the local museum after she died. I believe the museum was rather excited to learn of a possible undiscovered gold mine in one of the local mountains,” Danielle explained.

Bud frowned at Danielle and then looked to Walt. “I don’t understand. I would assume everyone knew about the gold mine by now. Last night I realized that had to be the reason your father killed me. He was the only one other than my sister I told about the gold, and the only one who actually knew where the mine was and where I hid the gold I had already removed. I hadn’t filed the claim yet. I was planning to do it when I came back down from the mountains the last time I came up here. Your father knew that. Why would he kill me and not claim the mine?”

“And you saw Walt’s father shoot you?” Danielle asked.

“It had to have been Alex. The only ones who knew I had been prospecting up here were Walt and Teddy. Teddy had no reason to want me dead; I never told him I’d struck gold. Teddy would have been the last person I would tell. I saw Alex that day. He was standing over there, on that ridge.” Bud pointed off in the distance.

“That’s rather far off. How did you see his face?” Walt asked.

“I’d recognize that hat and coat Alex wore anywhere, and it was his horse.”

Walt frowned. “I remember Teddy’s horse; he looked almost identical to my father’s gelding. My father used to call them a matching set.”

“True, but that wasn’t Teddy I saw. Whoever it was, he was wearing Alex’s hat and jacket,” Bud insisted.

“What do you remember after he shot you?” Danielle asked.

Bud considered the question a minute and then said, “Everything went dark, and then I woke up, and I thought I’d gotten away from him. But I felt I couldn’t go home. I thought he was going to kill me.”

“You were dead already,” Danielle said. “And confused.”

“I realize that now.”

“Let me get this straight, you told my father about Teddy and the woman who worked for him, and that morning you came up here?” Walt asked.

“Yes. Anna was with Maddie that day, and Alex told me he was going to stop home and tell his mother that he might bring Maddie home with him and Anna that night. I left for the mountains. But he obviously had other plans and showed up here the next day.”

“Do you remember what day that was?” Danielle asked.

When Bud told them the date, Walt and Danielle looked at each other for a moment.

Danielle looked back to Bud and said, “I know without a doubt that Walt’s father was not responsible for your death.”

“How can you say that? You weren’t even born yet,” Bud said.

“Because,” Danielle let out a sigh before saying, “Walt’s parents were already dead. We’re fairly certain Teddy killed them, and then he probably came up here and murdered you.”

They sat on the boulders Walt had moved from the gravesite, waiting for the authorities to arrive for Bud’s remains. They told Bud all they knew about Alex’s and Anna’s deaths.

“All this time I thought Alex had shot me that day, and all this time he was already dead before it ever happened.”

“I’m just trying to understand why Teddy came up here and killed you,” Danielle said.

“It was all my fault,” Bud groaned. He buried his face in his palms, as if blocking out the world while trying to come to terms with what he had caused.

After a few minutes of silence, Walt asked Bud, “What do you think happened?”

Bud lifted his face from his palms and looked at Walt. “I walked in on Teddy and Josephine. Teddy had claimed she just worked for him, but she was obviously more than an employee. I didn’t realize Teddy had seen me. I went straight to Alex.”

“Why to my father?” Walt asked.

“Maddie’s illness had so disrupted your family because your mother spent so much time there, with Teddy gone so often, not willing to move Maddie to Astoria, saying it wasn’t fair for her. But it was that he didn’t want her there, I realized that day. Alex had told me he wished he could move Maddie to Marlow House to live. It would have made things so much easier on everyone. Alex even suggested it to Teddy, but he refused.”

“Why would he refuse?” Danielle asked. “I’d think that would have made his life easier. He could have spent more time with his girlfriend.”

“It’s because of his uncle August. August and Frederick Marlow did not get along. If Maddie moved under the Marlow roof, Teddy worried his uncle would change his will.”

“After you told Alex about Teddy’s girlfriend, what happened?” Danielle asked.

“Alex told me he planned to tell Maddie the truth and get her to move to Marlow House. After all, Alex knew Maddie was not in love with her husband, so he understood she would not be heartbroken. She had only stayed with Ted out of a sense of loyalty.”

“And Teddy knew Alex was going to talk to her?” Danielle asked.

“After I spoke to Alex that day, right before I left for here, Teddy showed up and tried to make excuses for what I saw—or, as he said, what I thought I saw. I told him I had no intention of telling anyone—other than Alex. He begged me not to tell Alex, and I said it was too late, I had already talked to him, but that he could probably catch him at Marlow House and tell his side of the story before he told Maddie.”

“I saw him that afternoon,” Walt muttered. “When he stopped by Marlow House.”

“I can’t imagine what happened that day between Teddy and your parents. I believe when Teddy left me, he only intended to talk to Alex. I’m sure he thought he could convince him not to tell