“Interesting,” Khizar murmured.
Jacqui looked over his shoulder at the GPS unit. “We’re here?”
“Looks like it. Actually, I think the bench is sitting right on it.”
They walked over to take a closer look at the bench. On one of the wooden slats backing the bench, Jacqui could see written words. She sat down on the bench and traced the letters, reading the words out loud:
“What matters most is always under the surface.”
“I wonder what it means,” Jacqui said thoughtfully.
Khizar tapped her on the shoulder and motioned for her to join him behind the bench. She stood and moved, then gasped as she read the metal plaque fixed on the back of the bench. Donated by William Bauer.
“Your great-uncle donated this bench,” Khizar said. “He must have had a reason for inscribing this quote here.”
Jacqui slowly walked around the bench again, thinking. She looked for other clues.
“Under the surface…maybe under the bench?” she mused.
Khizar knelt and ran his hand under the wooden seat, and then over the bench legs for good measure. He shook his head.
“I don’t feel anything unusual,” he said, standing again.
Jacqui crossed her arms, taking in the whole little area. They’d passed a few other spots on the trail where the path widened, or even made place for people to stop and rest. At each of them, the asphalt covered the whole area, widening out and then narrowing back into the trail.
But here, the trail stayed narrow. The bench was set on top of forest dirt, not paved path.
“What if it’s buried under the bench?”
Khizar looked at her, and then at the area around the bench. Jacqui raised her eyebrows at him and shrugged.
“We’re going to need a shovel,” she said.
They made their way back to the car and drove into the nearest town. Jacqui spotted a hardware store, so Khizar ran in to buy a shovel. He tossed it in the back of the SUV.
When he climbed back into the vehicle, Jacqui looked at her phone.
“Hey, let’s grab lunch while we’re in town. We don’t know how long it will take us to dig up whatever’s hidden back on the trail.”
“Excellent plan. See anything that looks good?”
Jacqui pointed out a small diner on a corner of the main downtown street. Khizar parked the SUV in front of the building.
The diner wasn’t large, just eight booths lining two of the walls and a few other tables scattered across the middle of the room. Red-and-white checkered tablecloths covered the tables, and the booths were covered in dark red leather.
Jacqui noted that the restaurant was spotless, and even though they were on the late side of the lunch rush, the place was still almost full. They were greeted with a smile and a wave to sit anywhere that was open.
They chose the only booth that was open. Barely thirty seconds after they sat down, a young woman in jeans and a white button-up shirt brought over two menus and two glasses of water.
“Would y’all like anything else to drink?” the waitress asked.
“I’d love some iced tea,” Jacqui said.
“Sweet tea okay?”
Jacqui smiled at the waitress. “Unsweet, please.”
“The same for me,” Khizar said.
“You got it. Everything’s good here, but the burgers are our best. A good deal, too. Let me get your teas, and I’ll be back in a sec.”
Jacqui liked the warm feel of the restaurant. It had obviously been around for a long time; the waitress greeted other customers by name and brought drinks to some of them without needing to ask first.
After they ordered—the hamburgers, which their waitress approved with a firm nod—Jacqui asked Khizar a question that had been rolling around in her mind since they landed that morning.
“Why here? Was William Bauer from Alabama?”
“That’s a good question. He never talked about where he was from.”
Jacqui tilted her head. “How well did you know him?”
Something passed across Khizar’s face, but it was gone before Jacqui had a chance to figure out what it was.
“We met a few times. He was a legend in the diamond business. I visited his mine a couple of times, and had dinner with him more than once.”
“He never talked about his family?”