CHAPTER FORTY SIX – The Hunt
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"...AND HE WON'T BE FORGOTTEN. At least not anytime soon. According to his final video. Hollis buried that five million dollar treasure somewhere in the city that was the setting for most of his work. A poem he recited in the video is said to provide all the clues needed to locate it" Taylor Kelly's voice said through the radio. Vienna rolled her eyes putting the final dish away.
"Hate her so much" Vienna mumbled to herself drying her hands in the towel.
"Hate who?" Elena's voice said from behind her making her jump slightly.
"Where'd you come from?" Vienna asked with a slight chuckle.
"The living room, duh" She shrugged.
"I think I've been spending a little too much time with your aunt" Vienna told her with a smile, "Everything okay?"
"Yeah, me and Chris finished our homework. Can you check our answers?" Elena asked her putting the pieces of paper on the counter. Vienna nodded.
"Of course. Do you two wanna go play in the backyard with Nova?" She nodded and walked out of the kitchen. The brunette glanced down at the paper pulled out her phone and opened the calculator. "How do they expect 5th grades to know this when I don't even though"
...
Eddie sighed, sitting down on the couch. "I had a crazy day" He said to her putting his arm over her shoulder.
"Why? What happened?" Vienna asked him glancing up from her phone.
"This stupid treasure hunt, have you seen it?" He asked her. She nodded.
"Oh, your first treasure hunt?" She asked with a smirk. He nodded furrowing his brows confused.
"W-Wait, is this a normal thing in LA?" He asked her.
"I mean. Sometimes some idiot posts a stupid riddle and it gets out of control...all the ones I've had to deal with were fake" She shrugged her shoulders.
"And how many are that?"
"3"
"But, what if this one's real" Eddie said to her. Vienna chuckled slightly.
"Oh, you're being serious?" She asked, Eddie nodded keeping a serious face. "Okay, what happens if this is real?"
"We could win 5 million dollars"
"Even if this is real. There are over 3 million people in LA and that's not counting the people coming from out of state. What makes you think we're gonna find it?"
"Uh... teamwork?" He suggested. The brunette chuckled and shook her head.
"Fine, we'll try find it...but we can't do it on our own"
"I know the perfect person" Eddie told her with a smirk
...
"You need to give him 50% of your cut. We're not splitting it four ways" Taylor Kelly said to Buck, Eddie, and Vienna. Vienna rolled her eyes.
"Do you really need the extra 400K that bad?" She asked with a scoff.
"I already promised my cameraman I'd spit my half with him" Taylor shot back.
"So we split it five ways. Okay? It's still a million each" Buck said to the group as Taylor turned around to the map laid out on the map.
"And 25% of nothing is still nothing" She mumbled to herself.
"Bitch" Vienna muttered under her breath taking a sip of her beer. Buck shot the brunette a quick glare as he got off the counter and walked over to Taylor. "I know worst words"
"I did some research on the whole willow tree thing. Do you guys know there's something called an arroyo willow?" Eddie asked them changing the subject.
"It's not a tree" Buck answered.
"More like a shrub" Taylor added.
"Hard to stop beneath it" They replied, looking at the map. Vienna rolled her eyes again.
"Okay. we'll be over here, then. Thinking. Go team" Eddie mumbled opening his bottle of beer.
"We still have too many options. We need more data to rule some of these out"
"Well, I think we know a guy" Buck said sharing a glance with Taylor
"Ew" Vienna mumbled making Eddie chuckle "You know, normally when one of these dumb treasure hunts starts some officers are assigned to figure out where it is to stop all the chaos. I could check with Bradford and Harper, see if they've got anything" She suggested with a shrug. Taylor and Buck didn't say anything. "Alright. We'll keep the money for ourselves" as she pulled out her phone.
...
"I told you this whole thing was fake" Vienna told Eddie with a smirk after news broke that Hollis had faked the whole thing including his death.
"Okay, okay. I admit it, you were right" Eddie sighed hiding his smile. "But, why do it? Do all this just for the ending of his book?"
"I've been a police officer long enough and I still don't understand why half the people I arrest do this shit" She shrugged. Eddie nodded his head. "What was his book called?"
"Uh, I don't know. Athena didn't say"
"I walked along the river's edge to hide my secret treasure..." She trailed off as Eddie looked at her confused.
"What?"
"Glendale Narrows...Hollis used to jog there" She answered.
"Yeah, but that's not a river"
"That's why no one would I think of it" She pointed out.
Eddie thought about it for a second before nodding. "You're right. How are you always right?"
She shrugged, "I just am"
...
"Uh, seriously?" Buck questioned at the site of the other 118 firefighters and Athena.
"Well, so much for giving up"
"I cannot believe you guys. We agreed we'd all stop looking" Chimney said looking around at the team as they looked at him confused.
"I mean, you're here too, so" Vienna replied with a shrug
"Did you two really bring your gear?" Athena questioned looking at the bags in Eddie and Buck's hands.
"I told you two not to bring them" Vienna scoffed.
"Wasn't sure what the terrain would be like. Wanted to be ready" Eddie answered. Athan scoffed as well. "Hey! They brought their med kits" pointing at Chimney and Hen.
"This treasure hunt has been nothing but medical rescues and injuries. I was not about to be one of them" Hen told them defending her and Chim.
"So, what tipped it off you guys?" Chimney asked them.
"Hollie's yet-to-be-released novel, Gutted in Glendale. And then the part in the poem about a narrow place. Put it together..."
"Glendale Narrows"
"It was the river for us. Uh, Vienna said Hollis used to jog here" Buck said nodding to Vienna with a smirk on her face. The group looked over to Hen and Chimney waiting for their answer.
"My wife wrote an algorithm that detects changes in satellite images" Hen explained as Chimney nodded in agreement.
"Okay, well, what do we do now?" Buck asked breaking the silence. "Seven of us, one treasure"
"Technically, Bobby and I pulled up first" Athena said to them.
"Because you elected to keep the name of Hollis's unpublished novel to yourself" Hen shot back as the other nodded in agreement.
"I didn't know it was important" Chimney scoffed slightly. "Also pretty sure this is the first time any of us are hearing about an algorithm"
"Just saying me and Eddie would have been first if we didn't have to get Buck" Vienna spoke up. Buck quickly looked at the brunette confused.
"True" Eddie said agreeing with his girlfriend.
"Hey-" Buck started to say but was cut off.
"Okay, guys, look, it's 5 million dollars. So we split it six ways" Bobby cut in.
"Eight" Eddie chimed in as the other looked at him confused. "We have a preexisting deal with Taylor and her cameraman" He sighed.
"The cameraman with no name gets a cut?" Chim questioned glancing over at them.
"We should've left Buck at home" Vienna suggested. Buck scoffed slightly.
"I really don't think that anyone who isn't physically here should get a cut" Hen said. Athena and Bobby nodded in agreement. The team looked up at the sound of Taylor Kelly's helicopter flying above the river.
"Uh, sh-she already knew where we were going" Chim and Hen scoffed.
"Okay, fine, look. We-we split eight ways. I don't know the exact math, but that's enough"
"625 thousand" Buck read out from his phone.
"We found the treasure. So let's go enjoy it. Together. Come on" Bobby told the group. They nodded and opened the gate leading to the bridge.
"It's got to be buried on one of those little islands, the sandbars" Athena said as the team looked over the bridge at the islands.
"I see some willow trees. But how will we know which one it is?" Eddie questioned.
"There's supposed to be a marker. H marks the spot" Vienna answered.
"Or maybe we'll find someone else already there, beating us to it" The team looked down and saw a man digging a hole into the ground.
"Is that Probie?" Chim asked them.
"Guys!" Ravi shouted. "I found it!" The others sighed.
"What's five million divided by nine?" Eddie asked Buck.
"I'm not doing any more math" Buck told him. Vienna rolled her eyes.
"The calculator did the math, Buck" The brunette said to him.
...
"So, you all found an empty treasure chest, drove down here like an angry mob to confront him, now he's dead. But these facts are unrelated to each other?" Lopez questioned crossing her arms over her chest.
"Angela, he was dead when we got here" Vienna sighed.
"We didn't kill him" Eddie added.
"We just wanted to"
"Buck" Bobby chimed in, elbowing him in the arm. Vienna rolled her eyes at his antics.
"You're new" The detective said to Ravi.
"Yeah. I'm not really with them" The group turned their heads to look at him confused as he continued, "Uh, I barely know these people, so..."
"Detective" Chen said walking over to them.
"Yeah"
"We got the security footage. Wasn't them" Chen told her. Lopez nodded handing Athena and Vienna their guns back.
"I didn't actually think it was. I was just...I was just doing my job" Lopez explained "And maybe enjoying the moment a little" The brunette chuckled lightly as Chen handed the Detective the ipad with the footage. "Take a look at this. She's wearing a Zip Parcel uniform, but that is not one of their trucks"
"Delivery driver? This time of night?" Chimney questioned.
"Is she pregnant?" Vienna asked.
"She is. Where have I seen her before?"
Tysm for reading! Hope you enjoyed! Happy Holidays!
Written: 13/08/2023
Published:24/12/2023
Word Count: 1655