Free The Gatekeeper's Son by C.R. Fladmark

feeling great. Thank you for asking.”
    I moved closer. “I don’t want to worry you … but something’s going on.”
    His eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
    “When did Mr. Roacks get here?”
    “Not long before you did, no more than five minutes. Why?”
    I glanced toward the door. “Lin and I had dinner at that fancy Italian place you like. We’re both sure we saw Mr. Roacks having dinner with a man Ms. Lin thinks was Mr. Müller.”
    Grandpa’s eyes went wide. “He went begging? I’ll kill that bastard!” he yelled.
    The door burst open a second later. It was John.
    “No!” I grabbed Grandpa’s arm.
    He turned to look at me, surprised.
    “What have you always taught me?” I whispered.
    He stared at me a moment and then nodded. “Right.” He looked up at John. “We’re fine here, John.”
    John scanned the room one more time before backing out. Grandpa waited until the door shut again before letting out a sound like an unhappy grizzly bear would make.
    “You need to get out of here and find out what’s going on with my company.” I grinned.
    He nodded. “We’ll look into it, real close and real quiet.” A slow smile spread across his face, the first real smile I’d seen in a long time. “You see? That’s why I chose you.” He grabbed my hand. “We don’t talk about this with anyone, got it?”

    Lin came in a few minutes later and walked past me toward the bed.
    “I need to get out of here,” Grandpa told her.
    “Why, do you miss me?” She giggled. Grandpa smiled up at her.
    She leaned over the bed and whispered something into Grandpa’s ear. He laughed and put his hand on her bare thigh, well above her knee. Then I watched, eyes wide in astonishment, as Lin kicked off her high heels, climbed onto the hospital bed, and sat on her knees, facing Grandpa, her dress slipping to the tops of her thighs.
    Grandpa grinned at her. “Red or white?”
    “A nice dark cabernet sauvignon, from Chile.” She grinned at him, her hands on his. “But I think I had a bit too much.”
    I didn’t know whether to look away or stare. I felt like a boneheaded, oblivious kid. They were together .
    I sighed. The world kept getting more complicated.
    I sat in the chair by the window and gazed outside. I couldn’t help it—there was too much in my head and it spilled out.
    “Grandpa,” I said loud enough to interrupt them. “When you said the gold in my watch was special, what exactly does that mean?”
    His hand, moving up Lin’s back, froze. He looked past her at me.
    “What?”
    I took a deep breath. “You said Tomi gave you the gold, in the desert … or someplace.”
    He pushed Lin off his lap. “When did I tell you that?”
    “You’d be surprised what comes out of your mouth when you’re medicated,” Lin said, her arms crossed in front of her. “I’m so happy I have a better body than Tomi .”
    Grandpa ran a hand down his face. “Oh, God.”
    I tapped my watch. “There’s something strange about this gold.”
    He blinked a few times, avoiding Lin’s gaze. Finally he turned toward me.
    “Well,” he said slowly, “I guess I’d better finish what I started.” He gave Lin a quick look. “My dad had a map that he showed me a few times when I was a kid, usually when he was drunk. He said he got it from a buddy, a Navajo Indian that he’d fought beside in the South Pacific—my dad saved his life, I think. Anyway, Dad visited him on the reservation several times after the war. The last visit, it turns out the man was dying and he gave Dad a map, written on buckskin. Supposedly, it showed the way to an amazing treasure.” Grandpa shifted himself up a little higher. “My dad took the map—didn’t want to offend his friend—but he wasn’t the type to believe in fairy tales.”
    “But you said—”
    “Wait.” He held up a hand. “My dad died of lung cancer my last year at college. The map was among his personal papers, so the summer after I graduated I borrowed a