Khizar shook his head.
“No. I didn’t know he had any family. I knew he wasn’t married, but he didn’t talk about anything but diamond mining. Unless it was fine whiskey and cigars. He was a loner, and liked it that way.”
Jacqui took that information in. She knew her family history up to a point; she’d heard stories from both her parents about her grandparents, but she was so young when her parents had died that she didn’t really remember much from those stories. Hearing about her great-uncle made her feel more connected to her parents and their parents, too.
“Did he have an accent?” Jacqui asked.
Khizar gave her a look that said he didn’t understand the question.
“What kind of accent?”
Jacqui waved her hand around to indicate the restaurant.
“Listen. Everyone here has an accent, some stronger than others. But I’d bet a lot of the people in here are from this area. Did William have any kind of accent?”
Khizar said, almost absently, as he listened to the conversations around them, “Bill.”
“What?”
“He went by Bill. I don’t know that anyone called him William.”
“Oh.”
Jacqui thought about that, and the fact that Khizar had known that piece of information.
Khizar listened more and then nodded.
“He did actually have an accent. Not much of one, but it got stronger at the end of a long evening. I can’t tell for sure, but from what I remember, it did sound a little like the people here.”
That meant William—Bill—Bauer probably had Alabama connections. It explained why he’d left a bench in that spot. He didn’t randomly choose it; this place was special to him, somehow.
They sat in silence, each lost in their thoughts, until the waitress brought their plates. She made sure they had everything they needed, and when she walked away, Jacqui took a deep breath.
“Would you tell me about my uncle?”
Khizar looked up at her, startled.
“I know you didn’t know him well, but you’re all the connection to him I have. At least, until we learn more about why we’re here. I’d just…I wish I’d known him. All I remember from meeting him is a vague impression.”
She shrugged, not really able to explain why this was so important to her.
Khizar nodded and Jacqui almost cried at the kind, understanding look on his face.
“The first time I met Bill Bauer, I was just starting out. My father was running the company, and I was working as his assistant. Bauer walked into our offices one day without an appointment. He waved at the security guys at the front desk, yelled at one of our senior VPs about owing him a steak dinner, and put his feet up on my father’s desk. He was singularly unimpressed with royalty or CEOs.”
Jacqui ate while Khizar told her a few stories about Bill Bauer, most of them making her laugh. It was clear to her that Khizar had admired the old man, and that made her love her fiancé more. She wondered if her great-uncle would have approved of her marrying Khizar, and when she asked him that, Khizar stopped and thought.
“I think he would have told you that you could do whatever you wanted, and if you wanted to marry into a diamond family, well, he probably would have told you how to negotiate getting half the company from me as a wedding present.”
Jacqui laughed and Khizar smiled at her. They finished their meal and paid the check, then headed back into the forest to see what clue Bill Bauer had left them.
Chapter 15
Khizar
Driving back into the forest, Khizar thought more about Jacqui’s question. Would Bill have approved of him marrying his great-niece?
The old man had planned to sell his mine to Khizar, and he’d loved that mine. Bill wouldn’t have been willing to sell it to Khizar if he hadn’t respected him.
On the other hand, Bill had to have known that the mine was stripped, essentially worthless. What did that say about what Bill thought of him?
Khizar knew that Bill respected Khizar’s father, and Bauer had always treated him as an equal in the business. Maybe…maybe Bill had known that Khizar was looking for the Bauer Diamond? Maybe he’d maneuvered Khizar into making an offer for the mine knowing that one day it would mean he might meet Jacqui. Did he imagine that his great-niece would need the money, or that she would be looking for something else?