Christine forced herself to wait a few weeks. Then early one morning at 3:30, she trudged up the road carrying two suitcases with Dougie and Tawny in tow.
“Oooohhh, look-it, look-it, look-it,” Christine said. She chuckled at the charred spot where the limo had exploded in a ball of flames. “That’s not all that remains, you know. There’s more where that came from, heh-heh.”
They continued to walk up the road.
“Why is it that the geriatric biddy gets to come and go as she pleases?” Christine said as the foursome approached the Hutchins’s residence. “I used to come and go as I pleased when I was modeling, auditioning for TV commercials, doing walk-on parts in films, and all that blah-blah jazz.”
“You talking to yourself?” Jimmy asked with a teasing smile.
“Oh, hush. Let’s just get inside and get it over with.”
They went around to one side of the house and stepped quietly and with care so as not to trip over unseen rocks or sprinklers. They approached a pair of sliding glass doors to the sunroom near the back of the house and viewed the backyard with the swimming pool, grassy terrain, and gazebo. Tawny let out a low, discreet whistle.
“Must be nice,” she said.
Christine shrugged with indifference, then beckoned to Dougie with her head. “Get to work,” she said. “Oh, before I forget, when we’re all through and it’s time to leave, please remind me to check on something.”
Dougie withdrew an apparatus from his beige jacket and affixed it to the glass near the brass door handle. He etched a hole the diameter of a grapefruit, and, with a suction cup, carefully withdrew the circular piece of glass. He tossed it into the flower garden off to one side, where it landed without a sound. Dougie put his hand through the hole and unlocked the sliding glass door. Christine gave him a thumbs-up and entered the dark premises.
“Don’t go crazy with the flashlights,” Christine said. “Please try to be discreet. We don’t want to call attention to ourselves. You get the idea.”
The trio nodded.
“Jimmy,” Christine said, “do with what you will with these.” She handed him the suitcase with C-4. “Put ’em anywhere, everywhere you see fit. I don’t care.”
“Wow, man,” Jimmy said. “I don’t want to make a clean sweep of the whole damn neighborhood.”
“Screw it,” Christine said. “Use ’em all, every last one of ’em. Just do it!”
Jimmy set the suitcase on the floor and unlocked the latches.
“When you’re done with the suitcase,” Christine said, “give it to me. I’m gonna need it.” She turned to Dougie and Tawny. “Come with me. There’s something I want to show you.”
Christine led them upstairs to the sealed room. The door had been replaced with a new one as well as a different set of locks.
“Last time I was here,” Christine said, “there was this big, ol’ brown trunk that fell from the mezzanine during the earthquake. Within the trunk is the stuff that dreams are made of, and they all belong to me. I doubt it’s still there.”
“Then, what are we doing here?” Dougie asked.
“Just checking, snooping around,” Christine said. “I want to see the room again, see what’s not there.”
“Well, that’s an interesting way of putting it,” Tawny said.
“Unhinge the door,” Christine said to Dougie. “There’s no sense kicking it in.”
Tawny withdrew a large screwdriver from her small bag and handed it to Dougie. He went to work while Christine and Tawny stood by and watched. They spoke in conspiratorial tones.
Jimmy planted the plastiques throughout the house. He made sure they were in the most inconspicuous places like underneath the sofa, behind a desk, in the ventilation system, and in the back of the meat freezer in the cellar.
The door to the sealed room came away unhinged at last, and Dougie carefully placed it against the wall nearby.
“There’s the spot where the trunk landed,” Christine said. She highlighted the space with the flashlight. She could see the new floorboards had replaced the ones that had been punctured by the trunk. Christine trained the beam of light on the ceiling and saw that it had been resurfaced with new drywall and paint.
“That’s the mezzanine from whence the trunk came tumbling down,” Christine said.
“Rad,” Tawny said with awe.
Christine walked over to the closet, opened the door, and scanned the dark confines with the flashlight.
“I knew they wouldn’t be here,” she said.
“You still haven’t told us what we’re looking for,” Dougie said.
“You’re right,” Christine said. “But I warn you, they’re mine, although I’ll gladly share some of them with all of you as I intend to. Eventually, when it comes time to say farewell, I’ll give you your share as parting gifts. The things which I speak thereof are gold and silver jewelry of every conceivable kind, gems ranging from diamonds and pearls to rubies and sapphires, bundles and bundles of cash, and several gold bars. But, the diaries and the photo albums are mine and mine alone. Those are what I’m looking for in the closet.”
“Wow!” Tawny said.
“We’ll have to search the entire house from the top down,” Christine said. “Be sure to check behind every wall picture for a safe, should there be one. Now, let’s go.”
Dougie went to the attic. Christine worked the second floor. Tawny worked the ground floor. Jimmy meandered about the cellar. After a while, they all converged in the living room and came up empty-handed.
“Oh, for goodness’ sake,” Christine said. “What the hell could she have done with them? Where could she have put them?”
Christine stood and thought for a moment. She tapped her foot, then turned to look outside. She felt blood drain from her face.
“Oh, no,” Christine said with a groan.
“What?” Tawny asked. “You see someone out there?”
“No. There’s no one out there. I just hope she didn’t hide them in the walls or under the floorboards. What if she hid them in the flower garden or buried them somewhere out there or hid them in the porticoes of the gazebo? Oh, no. This is too much.”
“That gazebo over there,” Dougie said as he pointed a finger at it, “was it as you last saw it?”
“No,” Christine said. “One of the porticoes was cracked in the middle with a haphazard stance, you know, like it was ready to break apart and fall to the ground. The cupola was slanted a little. Now, it looks perfectly fine. See, it’s obvious she had something done about that, just like with the ceiling and the floorboard upstairs. It’s apparent she had the whole house completely redone. Damn!”
“Well, if it’s any consolation, I even looked in toilet tanks,” Tawny said. “Sometimes, people put their valuables in plastic bags and hide them there. I also looked in flour canisters, coffee cans, and the freezer, not to mention the drawers, cupboards, and cabinets.”
“I checked behind wall pictures,” Dougie said. “There was no wall safe anywhere.”
“Crap!” Christine said.
“I have a suggestion,” Tawny said. “Come to think of it, my mother and grandmother used to keep different stuff in the basement and in the garage.”
“I found my gun in the garage a short while back,” Christine said.
“Wait a minute. Let me finish. The attic most likely would never do. It’s too small and wouldn’t hold much. One can’t get around too well in cramped spaces, and they’re icky anyway with rats and rat droppings, spiders, dust, lack of habitation, and so forth.” Tawny shuddered. “Regardless, the gist of it is to look. It may sound coincidental.” Tawny shook her head. “Nonetheless, look. You might come across something, you might not. It never hurts to try.”
“That’s what I told myself last time,” Christine said. “What if we don’t find anything at all? Oh, man. I can’t tear the whole place apart.”
“You won’t have to,” Tawny said. “My mother and grandmother told me they used to hide their valuables in grimy old boxes, and they were always on the bottom of other boxes that had been stacked to the ceiling. Who would have thought such treasures existed at the bottom of the stack in the back of the basement?”
“Yeah, who would’ve thought?” Christine said. “All right, let’s start with the attic, though I doubt we’ll find anything. Then we’ll do the cellar and the garage.”
They sifted through boxes, lifted dusty sheets, looked beneath old chairs and tables, and inspected dark corners.
“Let’s check the freezer,” Tawny said.
“Be careful,” Jimmy said. “There’s a plastique in the back of it.”
“Jimmy, by any chance, did you look in there?” Christine asked.
“Yes. It’s just frozen meat wrapped in paper and plastic.”
“But, did you sift through them? Look underneath?”
“No! It’s too damn cold for my hands.”
“Well, we’re gonna have to lift these suckers whether we like it or not.”
Christine lifted the lid and a draft of cold air with a little mist brushed against her cheeks. She picked up one package of meat and laid it on the ground. Jimmy, Dougie, and Tawny did the same.
Near the bottom, Dougie lifted one package that was cold but not exactly solid. It had the feel of several small wooden blocks that moved about and rubbed against one another within the package. Dougie tore open the package and bundles of dollar bills tumbled out.
Christine and Tawny gasped at the sight of the money.
“Oh, Dougie!” Christine said. She hugged him. “You found it! My goodness, you found it!”
Christine dug into the freezer and withdrew other packages that contained frozen meat and more bundles of money.
“The suitcase, Jimmy,” Christine said. “Where is it?”
Jimmy ran upstairs to retrieve the suitcase while Christine, Dougie, and Tawny tore through other packages with bundles of money and put them on the ground.
When Jimmy returned, they put the money in the suitcase along with the wrappings so they wouldn’t leave evidence behind. They also rewrapped the meat and tossed them back into the freezer, then closed the lid.
“There may be something in the garage,” Christine said as she carried a second suitcase that was empty. “C’mon, let’s go.”
They went to the garage and looked through boxes.
“Let’s have the boys help us go through the boxes,” Christine said.
“Hallelujah,” she said an hour later.
She withdrew the gems from one of the stacked boxes and put them into the second suitcase.
“Okay, guys,” Christine said. “Just keep looking. You’ll get your chance for close-up scrutiny of the goodies after we’re all done here. Again, please don’t take anything. I promise you’ll get your share. Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?”
“You wanted to check on something before we left,” Dougie said.
“Oh, yeah, that’s right,” Christine said. “Duh me. That would be the kitchen and it’ll be the very last thing right before we leave. You’ll see what I mean.”
After they sifted through more boxes, they finally found one with Rose’s diaries and photo albums.
“We’ll take the entire box,” Christine said. “So what if she’s one box short. The old she-devil is already one brick short of a load anyway. We’ll be on the beach in Miami by the time she notices some things are missing.” Christine cackled.
They continued to forage through other boxes. They found jewelry in velvet-lined cases placed within cardboard packages.
“We’re getting warmer,” Christine said. “The gold bars must be somewhere. They have to be.”
Tawny rummaged through one box, lifted a small yet heavy parcel thickly wrapped with brown paper. She tore open one end and looked at it with a flashlight. The beam of light bounced off the shiny object and into her eyes.
“Ow!” Tawny said. “Whoa. Would this be it?”
She handed it to Christine, who took it and peeled off the rest of the paper. It revealed a gold bar.
“You did it,” Christine said. “Put ’em in the suitcase with the other stuff.”
When they were done, Jimmy, Dougie, and Tawny waited by the sliding glass door in the sunroom while Christine went into the kitchen and blew out the gas pilots. She turned all the knobs to the ON position. She then bent down close to the tiled floor, pulled open the door to the broiler, and blew out the little blue flame.
She met her friends by the door.
“Mission accomplished.”