“It was fall, so there would have been leaves on the ground,” Matt mused.
Gran nodded. “That made it easier to turn a blind eye.”
Matt shuffled through the photos. He held up one of Mom and Uncle Eddie hunting Easter eggs in the backyard. “You had a vegetable garden in the back?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a likely place, because the ground would have been softer,” Matt mused.
Gran nodded. “Charlie tilled it every spring.”
“Did he till it the following spring?”
“Yes.”
“So if he buried it there, it’s probably at least three feet down. We’ll set the detector for that depth, then.”
We went outside, and Matt fiddled with the metal detector. Holding the handle, he waved the round coils of the machine parallel to the ground over the dirt beside the patio. The detector pinged.
“There’s something here!” I said.
Matt looked at the dial. “It says it’s brass or steel. That’s positive; that’s what the hinges and locks were most likely made of.”
Excited, we both manned shovels. To our disappointment, we uncovered a pair of pliers.
•••
Each ding led to an equally lackluster find. After two hours, our collection included nine bottle caps, eight nails, two garden trowels and thirty-eight cents.
Sophie’s and Zoey’s heads appeared over the fence.
“Whatcha doin’?” asked Sophie.
Matt glanced up. “Looking for something.”
“Is it buried treasure?” Zoey came through the shrubbery.
“Sort of,” I replied.
“Wow! Can we help?” Sophie followed her sister into Gran’s lawn.
“No,” Matt said.
“Why not?” Zoey asked.
“Because this is grown-up work.”
I hated that Matt was giving up valuable time with his daughters to help me. I moved closer and whispered, “There’s no reason they can’t join us. If we find something, we can take a break and pull it out later.”
We were interrupted by Jillian emerging through the shrubbery opening. She was wearing a top cut low enough to show cleavage and fitted jeans, and her hair had been straightened. She looked lovely. My chest tensed.
“Hello,” she said.
I smiled. “Hi.”
Matt lowered the metal detector. “I thought Peggy and Griff were watching the girls at their house.”
“They were. But Sophie wanted to get her paints, and since I was visiting Mom and Dad, I offered to bring them over.”
