I want to laugh but I’m on shaky ground. I need to play this right.
“None of this makes any sense, Chase.” She glares at me. “I mean, Ryder.”
“Call me Chase. It’s what I prefer.”
“Whatever,” she snarls, “That doesn’t make up for all the lies.” She stomps past me, picking up a hammer from the floor as she goes. Deciding to let her get her frustrations out on that piece of wood in the closet, I watch rather than get in her way, remembering I’ve already gotten one head wound today.
Inside the pantry, Lou raises the hammer above her head and swings it at the wall above the cleat. She repeats this move until there are holes running around the entire strip of wood, about four feet long. It’s hanging on by sheer will at this point, thanks to several sections still attached to the wall. “That should do it.”
Lou’s head slowly rotates until her glare is directed right at me. “I don’t need to hear anything from the peanut gallery.”
“Right. Gotcha.”
She takes hold of the wood and yanks it free from the wall. The plaster behind it cracks and disintegrates below her hand leaving a hole about two feet by five feet. “Great,” she snaps angrily. “Just fucking great.”
I’m a bit stunned when she picks up the hammer again and starts whacking away at the wall. “What are you doing?”
“I’m getting rid of this fucking plaster, Ryder.”
“Chase.”
Another glare lands my way.
She hits the wall with the hammer again, each time answering me: “I’ve. Got. To. Rip. This. Out. And. Replace. It. With. Drywall.”
By the time she’s finished with that sentence, most of the wall has been broken up. Stepping into the room with her, I reach up and tug on a piece. It falls into my hand easily. Lou does the same from her spot, and in no time, we’ve got the top third of the wall gone. It’s quite a satisfying feeling, but I’m not about to say that to Lou. None of this is satisfying to her, I’m sure. “Keep going?” I want to be sure before I pull off another piece.
“Yeah. Let’s get this wall out.”
Taking hold of a large section, I yank it free as Lou does the same with her side. Tossing the debris out of the room, I stop moving the moment I see it. “What’s that?” I point down to a shiny piece of something that just tinged when it hit the floor. Lou bends, picking up what I think is another coin. “Is that another one?”
Holding it up in front of me, she smiles. “Yeah.” Laying it flat on her palm, she smiles. “If you’re right, that’s another two grand.”
Actually, my friend thought it was worth closer to four, but I didn’t want to get her hopes up if she planned to sell it. “I wonder where they came from?”
Just then, the tinging sound of something else falling draws our attention to the floor near my foot. Bending, I pick up yet another coin. “What the hell?”
A creak above our heads draws both our eyes up. She sees it first. “Look.” Between two of the ceiling joists that are attached to this wall is what looks like a piece of burlap or rough fabric. Reaching up, I pinch some of the fabric between my fingers and attempt to tug it free, tearing it in the process. It’s jammed in there. More coins begin to fall from the rip in the bag. The two of us stare as a steady stream of shiny gold begins to fall to the ground at our feet.
“Holy shit,” Lou says with awe in her voice. “Look!” she shouts, then bends to retrieve something not gold. Holding it up between us, we stare at a round, red stone. A ruby?
“What the actual fuck, Lou?”
Her mouth opens and closes like she’s not sure what to say. When the coins stop falling, we both lean up and in to see if there’s more to come. From the looks of the bag still up in the rafters, I’d say, yes, there’s more. “Where’s your ladder?”
She points behind us. “Dining room.” I race out of the pantry, through the kitchen, and into the dining room.
With the ladder in hand, I jog back and set it on the ground. “Do you want the honors?”
“No,” she finally speaks. “You do it.”
Stepping up so I’m eye level with the bag, I place my hands on either side of it and gingerly work it free. If I had to estimate, I’d say the bag was about eight by ten inches with a drawstring along one side. Not huge, but big enough to hold a shit ton of coins and what appears to be gems. I sweep the area in the ceiling to make sure there’s nothing else up there, then I step down, cradling the bag in my arms. “Here.” I hand it to Lou. That’s when it hits me. Pointing at the bag in her arms, I say, “I think I know why this place was vandalized.”
“Huh?” She glances down then back up at me. “But how? Why? Nobody would have known this was here.”
“I think someone did. Or they suspected as much.” Moving the ladder out of the way, I bend down, then place my knees on the ground and begin picking up the coins and several gemstones. “I absolutely think someone knew about this. The question is, who?”
Once everything is picked up, Lou and I move the treasure into the dining room where she’s got a makeshift table made with a piece of plywood and two sawhorses set up. We spend twenty minutes laying everything out into small piles. There are ten green gems that I assume are emeralds, twenty rubies, and some small brownish pieces as well. Lou thinks they’re garnets. But the largest stone is a deep-blue sapphire. “This one is huge,” I say, holding it in the palm of my hand.
