Slow Hands (32 page)

Dear Reader,

While Freedom, Arkansas, is a fictional town, with a fictional buried treasure, the story of lost Confederate gold isn't new.

According to various accounts, in 1865 the last of the Confederate treasury disappeared, along with money from other southern banks. There's a story that it was buried on the grounds of the old Chennault Plantation in Georgia, and that after heavy rains, gold coins have been found in the dirt near the plantation. Other reports say the gold and silver were divided and sent off to England and Florida.

Willis O. Morgan, my fictional character, prefers to believe some of that gold is still buried in the Ozarks.

Best wishes,
Lauren Bach