Chapter 3
Treasure Without a Trace

**A month later**
Will Gates settled into his oversized, stuffed armchair and sat back into the cushions with a one liter bottle of Mountain Dew and the remote control.  The home he shared with Emily Anne and their new baby wasn’t as grand as the one his parents shared, but it was enough for them and the family they were planning to raise.  He turned on the television to the channel that it seemed it almost never left—the history channel—and watched without really paying attention.  He heard rather than saw his young bride, Emily Anne, approaching and entering the room murmuring to the bundle she held against her shoulder.  Baby Danielle Marie Gates was wrapped in her soft pink blanket and grunted softly as she gummed her bitty fist in response.  Will looked up at them as they entered and smiled.  Emily Anne returned the grin, but she knew from that look that her husband’s mind was miles away.

“What’s wrong, Will?” she asked gently as she patted the baby’s back.  

“Dad’s been calling every Friday as long as I’ve been living away from home.  Today he didn’t call,” Will replied softly.  Emily Anne shifted the baby to cradle her in her arms and then said, “Maybe you should call him.  Just this once.”  Will nodded, still staring off at the T.V.  Emily Anne’s grin widened.  

“Here,” she said playfully.  “Hold your daughter for a while so that I can go and get some piano and violin time in tonight before bed.”  

“Sure,” Will said, opening his arms so that Emily Anne could lower the baby into them.  He looked up to tenderly kiss Emily Anne before she left the room and then lightly kissed the top of his daughter’s head as she snuggled down into his arms.  

As soon as Emily Anne was out of earshot, Will dug his cell phone out of his sweatshirt pocket and spoke quietly as he dialed.  

“Should we call Grandpa Ben tonight, huh, shiny eyes?” Will said, grinning as Danielle stared up at him and the phone in his hand.  They both listened as the phone rang and then went to voicemail.  Will left a brief message and then hung up, setting the phone on the arm of the chair and shifting his weight to get more comfortable.  A second later, Danielle sneezed, making a mess of her little nose and mouth and making her father laugh as he reached for the spit up cloth to clean her up as she fussed.  As soon as the disaster was averted, her fussing ceased and she latched onto one of Will’s fingers after he turned off the T.V. so that they could listen to Emily Anne playing her violin in the other room.  He loved it when she played Celtic music…he could almost see her dancing as she played…

* * *

Will’s cell phone played a tune what felt like minutes later, jolting him out of a sound sleep.  The spasm of motion woke the baby and she cried as Will grimaced and answered the phone.  

“This is Will,” he said, hoping that it wasn’t something official.  

“Everything okay?” Abe asked on the other end, holding the phone an inch or two from his ear as his niece screamed.  

“She was asleep and so was I,” Will retorted, awkwardly getting out of the chair to walk with the baby and still keep the phone between his head and shoulder.  “What’s up, Abe?”

“Did Dad call you tonight?” Abe asked, concern evident in his tone.

“He didn’t call you either?  Did you talk to Charlie?” Will asked, taking a breath as he noted that Danielle was calming herself.  

“Yeah, and she hasn’t heard from either of them for a week,” Abe said.  

“This isn’t good,” Will said, returning to his chair with the baby.  

“You’re telling me,” Abe said, running a hand through his curly blonde hair.  

“What are we going to do?” Will said.  “We’ve all got babies at home and spouses that would kill us if we did anything without them.”

“Aren’t you jumping to conclusions a little?” Abe said.  “I don’t know about you, but my first reaction was that something could have happened and one of them is in the hospital or something.”

“I guess with our family history, I didn’t even think of that,” Will said.  

“If it makes you feel any better, Charlie said the same thing,” Abe laughed.  

“Any number of things could have happened…what are we going to do?” Will asked.  

“Janie and I are going to go over there right now to see if they’re all right or if they’re even home.  We’ll keep you posted,” Abe said.  

“Sounds good,” Will said, hanging up the phone again.  He looked down at Danielle and her little eyelids drooped heavily.  She was falling asleep again—thank goodness.  Emily Anne emerged into the room, setting her violin on the table behind the sofa before coming to them and lightly stroking the baby’s head.

“Everything all right out here?” she asked.  

“Abe called.  My folks aren’t answering their phones and neither of them has called him or Charlie either,” Will explained.  

“You don’t suppose they went out on some treasure hunt and didn’t tell anyone, do you?” Emily Anne asked, crossing her arms over her chest.  

“I’m glad someone else jumped to the same conclusion as me,” Will chuckled.  “He and Jane are going over there now to check on them and he said he’d keep us posted.”  

“All right.  Are you two doing okay out here?” Emily Anne asked.  “Dani was screaming for a little while there.”

“We were both startled when Abe called.  I must have nodded off,” Will said sheepishly.  Emily Anne laughed and kissed the top of Will’s head.

“Oh, honey,” she chuckled.  Will used his free hand to reach up and catch Emily Anne’s head to bring her back to him for another kiss.

“I’ll show you ‘oh honey’,” he grumbled good-naturedly, kissing her again.  

* * *

“Mom?  Dad?  Anyone home?” Abe called as he and Jane arrived at Ben and Abigail’s home.  “We brought your granddaughter!” he teased.  Jane was carrying a car seat baby carrier with tiny baby Mary snuggled inside it fast asleep.  She followed Abe carefully, minding all the steps and side-stepping decorative sculptures and thick glass cases containing well preserved artifacts from their myriad adventures.  

When they arrived in the study without having received a response to their greeting, Jane set the carrier down on the floor at the foot of the couch and joined her young husband on the other side of the desk as he examined the documents and objects scattered upon it.  

“Find anything?” Jane asked.

“I don’t know,” Abe muttered, squinting at a series of scans.  They depicted very old looking letters written in a language that neither of the youngsters understood.  

“Is that Japanese?” Jane asked. “What’s in Japan that your parents would run off after and not tell anyone?”

“It just doesn’t make sense,” Abe said, slouching in his dad’s desk chair and resting his chin on his hand.  Jane spent a couple of seconds looking through a book that had been left resting on the desk top before their daughter made her presence known by starting to cry for attention.  Abe automatically rose to go to the carrier and pick her up and Jane sank into the chair with the book still in her hands just as automatically.  Abe returned with Mary against his shoulder, patting her back gently.  

“Anything yet?” Abe asked, peering over his bride’s shoulder.  

“I’m not sure,” Jane said, wrinkling her brow in thought.  “What’s Yamashita mean?”  Abe suddenly offered his wife the baby commandeered the chair at the same time.  

“No…no, no, no, no,” Abe said, frantically searching the desktop for confirmation of his wife’s statement and of his own fears.  Jane’s eyes widened.   

“Abe, what’s wrong?” Jane asked, murmuring softly to Mary to sooth her fussing.  Baby though she was, she knew something was up.  Jane watched as Abe produced another book and showed her the illustration.  

“The sunken treasure of Yamashita…52 ships laden with thousands of tons of gold plundered by the Japanese armies that General Masahira Homa supposedly had buried in Bacuit Bay.  Grandpa Pat tried to go looking for it once when dad was a kid and nearly got himself killed.  Grandma Em had been so scared for him that when he came home she was crying and she actually slapped him…then caved in seconds later and kissed him senseless,” Abe recalled, he and Jane both sporting a grin.  Abe turned serious a second later and pulled out his cell phone.  He tried both of his parents’ numbers again without success before calling his siblings, beginning with his big brother Will.

“Will!” Abe cried, shuffling through more papers.

“What’s wrong?  Where are you?” Will demanded, shifting the phone to the other ear.  

“We’re at mom and dad’s.  Will…their after Yamashita,” Abe said gravely.  

“Aw, shit…” Will said, running his hand through his short dark hair. “Are you sure?”

“Positive.  The literature is all here.  Does Emily Anne read in Japanese?  There’s a lot of stuff here that I can’t read and it might give us some insight.”

“I don’t think so, but I’ll bet she knows someone who does,” Will said. “Have you talked to Charlie yet?”

“No, but she’s going to flip, so I’m not exactly looking forward to it,” Abe said.  

“Let me call her.  I spent nine months letting her kick the crap out of me in the womb and then another twenty-odd years letting her kick the crap out of me growing up.  Today’s no different,” Will replied.  Abe laughed.  

“Okay, captain courageous.  She’s all yours,” Abe teased.  

“Watch it, honest Abe, you’re next,” Will teased back.  

“Will, do you think they’re okay?” Abe said after a second, suddenly serious.  

“…I hope so,” Will said before he hung up the phone.  

* * *