by Olivia Swift
He reached over and held the turquoise in his fingers. “I wonder why?” he asked and propelled her away. The stone cooled. She walked back. The stone heated again.
“It must mean something,” she said and on an impulse called Marla. “Did Uncle Bill have a round mahogany coffee table?” Marla described the table in front of Corby in detail, then Corby told her about the pendant.
“His furniture was all sent away except for one or two little personal pieces that I kept myself,” Marla told her. “You can see those and test the pendant out.”
Thanks, Marla,” she answered and found that Carlo had marked the number in the catalog.
“Back tomorrow for the sale,” he said, “and I’ll try and buy it.” She smiled and slipped an arm through his as they walked down the street to find a coffee shop. Suddenly he felt her stiffen and stopped to look at her. “What’s wrong?” Corby shook her head.
“I’m sorry. Just being silly.” She hesitated. “I sometimes think I see Deills and panic. I saw a man walking away there, and it looked so much like him that I just froze.” She smiled. “I know he’s in jail. Let’s have that coffee.” He took her hand, and they relaxed in the warm atmosphere of a bustling diner. By the time she waved him away later in the evening, she was feeling confident again and sat to finish the quilt for Kim. The next day it was in place of pride in the garden store and much admired.
“I love those colors,” Kim said, repeating what Carlo had remarked.
“I’ll repeat those shades,” Corby told her. Everyone seems to like them.” She told her about the coffee table and said they were going later to bid for it.
The end of her shift saw her racing home to change and be ready for Carlo to pick her up to rush to the auction.
“I hope they haven’t auctioned the table already,” she worried as they hurried inside, but it was still waiting, and after a few more lots, the table was the next piece to be auctioned. Corby smiled at Carlo’s excitement, as it was his first ever auction and he was nervous. He was lucky. Nobody really wanted it as much as he did, and he bought it for eighty dollars. He hugged her as if it was the greatest triumph in the world, and she held the number up for the auctioneer because he was too excited to remember. They went to pay the money, and then she returned to bid for the two boxes of trinkets that she had marked down. She lost one and gained one and went to pay and collect. Then they loaded the table into the back of the car and drove back to her house feeling jubilant.
“It is a lovely table,” Corby said and went to find some furniture polish. It reacted beautifully. She moved her old coffee table and gave it the center spot. She put the flowers in their vase onto the polished surface and stood back to admire it.
“I do hope Uncle Bill can see that we found it,” she said and felt a warmth in the necklace. She reached for it and smiled. “I think that was a yes,” she finished. She dug into the box of trinkets that she had bought and brought out a small glass piece. It was green and sturdy and typical of those produced about forty years ago. “Worth more than I paid for the box,” she told him, and they ended the evening held in each other’s arms and feeling that they had made some good buys.
The weekend was busy at the garden center, and Carlo whisked her away for an evening meal after two days of hard work.
“Thanks for this. It has been a heavy two days.” She smiled. “I sold the quilt. I should really start another one.”
“Relax,” he told her. “Tomorrow we dig up the cellar.”
“I can hardly wait,” she said and the next day saw them driving off to the house to meet up with the others. As they passed the house of the neighbor who had flirted with Carlo, Corby remarked that the lady had a visitor.
“Maybe she found a man,” she joked.
“Poor guy,” Carlo answered with a grin.
It was an excited band that helped Rob carry the equipment into the cellar, and he handed everybody earplugs.
“The breaking through has to be done first,” he said and swung a gigantic sledgehammer. “There is something so satisfying about demolition.” Dex, Evan, Jules, Carlo, and Jez who was there to see what they discovered, and all took turns, and even Miller asked if she could have at least one swing at the wall. It was well on the way to being knocked down when Miller let fly and the hammer took her headfirst through the gap. She picked herself up laughing and gave the job back to Rob. Once through the wall, they eagerly and with willing hands soon cleared enough space for wheelbarrows, and Rob asked where she wanted him to start.
“I think by the spot at the wall where the pendant heats up,” she answered, and Jez agreed as he thought that was a very active part of the cellar. The noise of the drilling was earsplitting in an enclosed space, and most of them went outside until there was a quiet spell. As the wheelbarrows were filled, the workers trundled the concrete away. When about two square yards were cleared, Corby and Miller knelt down and scraped away like archaeologists in the soft earth underneath. Nothing appeared to be buried there, and Jez said he thought that they should go as near as possible to the wall. He knelt down himself and scraped at the spot where he had been drawn.
“There has to be something here,” he muttered and lifted a piece of metal from the dust. He rubbed at the side of it and then called out loud, “Corby, look.” He handed it over to her, and she gasped because it was another piece of turquoise and silver. It was not another pendant but made of the same materials. She felt the warmth immediately as it came into her hand, and they moved outside into daylight to see properly. When it was washed with a little water, they could see it.
“Let’s see it beside the pendant,” Carlo suggested, and she lifted the pendant over her head and put the two pieces side by side.
“Definitely made at the same time and by the same person,” Miller added, and Jez turned both items over. Then he turned one piece back.
“Something in my mind says that these two pieces belong together,” he remarked and Corby took them back. She turned them one way and another and then saw the link.
“Look at the bottom,” she cried out excitedly. “The smaller one will click into the larger one and make a bigger necklace.” It took a little time, but the two pieces clicked together.
“Corby, you realize what you have done, don’t you?” Jez asked, and she shook her head. “You’ve solved the mystery of the stones.” Corby put her hand to her mouth.
“And completed it, maybe,” Carlo added.
“Oh my goodness,” she gasped. “Maybe I have done what I was supposed to do.”
11
“Take the pendant inside,” Rob said, “and we’ll take up the rest of the concrete. Then we’ll know for certain that there is no buried treasure.”
The noise of the drilling continued for some time, and the rest of the men took away the loose concrete. They moved through the newly made hole in the wall and drilled the floor in the room with the outside door. Other people digging had not disturbed that floor, and Rob started at one end prepared to work his way to the door. He only had a few feet to go when the drill stopped abruptly, and he removed his safety gear to bend down and poke at the soil.
“What is it?” Carlo asked, and Rob straightened.
“No treasures, but I think that we have discovered a human skull.”
“What?” Jules and Dex had caught the end of the sentence as well, and they all spoke together.
“I am used to keeping my eye open as I disturb ground with the digger. If you discover human remains, you have to call the police department.” The girls came to see if the drilling was finished and heard the news as well. Jez knelt down and used a pencil to move the loose soil around the top of the skull.
“I guess we call the law,” he said, and then added that there was definitely no treasure as they all trooped back inside the house. Carlo made the call and said he was calling for his friend who owned the house. He was told to stay where he was and touch nothing more. They all looked at each other, and Evan decided they all neede
d coffee.
“I need something a bit stronger,” Dex added but agreed that he would have to make do with caffeine. Jez came to sit beside Corby.
“Would you come back down there before the police arrive?” he asked. “I would like to see if we could contact any spirit.” She nodded agreement but clutched at Carlo to come with her. The three of them went back to the cellar and stopped around the newly disturbed ground.
Jez called out to ask if there was any spirit nearby, and at first there was no response. He tried again and asked for a sign.
“Make a noise for us to let us know you are here, please,” he called and smiled as he felt a presence drawing near. “I think there is a woman here,” he told the others, and Corby clutched at the pendant that was warming against her skin. They all heard a loud tap, and Jez closed his eyes. “I can see her in my head,” he told them quietly. “She is showing herself in clothes from a long time ago but . . .” He hesitated. “She looks like you,” he told Corby. “Speak to her.”
“I don’t know what to say,” she replied. Carlo held her hand and told her to ask for a tap if she was her relation. She gripped Carlo’s hand so tightly he winced then spoke out in a steady voice.
“Please tap if you are my great-great-great-great-grandmother,” she asked, and without any delay or hesitation, the tap was loud and right under their feet. The necklace warmed at her throat, and she felt a presence very close by. Carlo felt it as well and told Jez.
“Tell me your name please,” Jez asked out loud and waited with his eyes closed. He asked again and mouthed a word silently. Then he said out loud, “Corina. Are you telling me Corina?” There was another loud tap, and it was again right under their feet.
“Thank you, Corina,” Corby said.
“Will you be free now?” Carlo asked, and there was another tap beneath their feet.
“Has Corby solved the story about the stones?” Jez asked and was rewarded with another tap but fainter. “She is fading,” he added but asked if the stones were the ones in the necklace, and there was one last and barely audible knock before it disappeared completely. “She’s gone,” he finished and looked at Corby. “You did it. You answered the questions and solved the mystery, and now she’s gone to find peace.” Corby made a brave attempt to smile but sagged into Carlo’s arms, and he carried her out of the cellar and into the living room.
Miller rushed for a glass of water while Carlo held Corby’s hand and talked to her. The water on her lips roused her, and gradually she came back to the real world.
“Stay where you are,” Miller ordered and found two of the throws that Corby had brought to brighten the room. She covered her up, and Carlo wrapped his arms around her to help keep her warm and stop the shaking that was now affecting her body. By the time the police arrived, Jez and Carlo had brought the others up to date about the cellar, and Corby was looking more like her normal self.
The detective in charge asked to be shown the remains, and Carlo took him down into the cellar. The forensic team that had arrived dressed in their white suits waited until the boss had surveyed the scene, and he came back and gave them the go ahead.
“I’ll secure it as a crime scene for now, but even I can see that the bones are really old and have been there a very long time. Whose house is it?” Corby spoke up and said it was hers, and he asked why they were digging up the cellar. She told him that she had just inherited the house, and it seemed that there had been various holes dug in the cellar floor.
“We thought we would dig the whole floor up and then relay it properly and make the cellar into a game room.” She never mentioned the turquoise pendant, and everyone else stayed quiet as well.
“Who do you think dug the holes?” the detective, Spencer James, asked.
“I think maybe tenants. The place had been rented out for a long time, and my great uncle was too frail to come and see to things,” Corby answered, and Carlo added that the man at the house across the backyard had been a sort of caretaker, but he seemed to have disappeared. Spencer James frowned.
“Any reason why he would disappear?” he asked. Corby looked at Carlo and then told him about the man being in the house when they arrived and what Becks had told them about the house being entered even when she was there. “That sounds very serious,” the detective replied.
“The lawyer, Joe Garcia, sent him a letter of warning, but the courier found the place deserted,” Carlo added. Spencer James smiled.
“If Joe Garcia is after him, he would be sensible to disappear.” Carlo agreed, and they told him that there had been rumors about her uncle having buried treasure.
“There is no truth in the stories, but people think there is. I think that is why people tried digging up the floor,” Corby added, and Rob put in that he thought they could dig the whole thing up to prove there was nothing there.
“But you found a body,” Spencer James said.
The forensic team leader came and told him that he was pretty sure that the bones were at least one hundred and fifty years old. “Maybe more, but we have them lifted and bagged and can do some detailed work in the lab.”
James turned to the others. “I guess we have no crime here, at least not one that we are going to solve. I’ll let you know what the lab finds out, but apart from that, we will leave you in peace.” He turned back at the door.
“If you have any other peculiar visitors or the neighbor reappears, let me know.” The detective, his colleague who had been taking notes, and the last of the forensic team disappeared, and the group was left standing in the living room.
“I’ll finish the last bit of floor,” Rob told them, “and then we can lock up and leave it until you decide what to do, Corby.”
“Thanks,” Corby replied and heaved a sigh. “At least we know that we found the poor woman, and we found the turquoise.”
Miller came and gave her a hug. “You have done everything that your uncle wanted you to do.”
“The spirit of Corina is free after all of these years. Thanks for letting me be part of it,” Jez told her, and she answered that without him, they would never have solved the mystery. The sound of Rob’s drilling stopped, and the men went to move the loose rubble away. Miller sat and asked Corby what she would do next.
“I think there is no way I would live here, but it is a nice house. I’ll make it pleasant and then sell it,” Corby said. “I can go back to enjoying my job at the garden store.”
12
It didn’t take long for the rubble to be moved. Rob said that it would only take half a day to run new cement.
“Tell me when and I’ll book it,” he finished and set off home with his load of equipment. They all locked up and piled into their different vehicles.
“I see Caroline Macvay still has her visitor,” Corby said as they passed the next bungalow. It was only about twenty minutes later that Corby’s cell phone rang, and Jazz asked if they would all like to come up to the hall for a burger and tell her what had happened.
“I’ll go home and change first,” Corby said and thanked her for the invite. “I am a bit dusty and dirty from being in the cellar.” She relayed the invite to Carlo, and he said he would clean up at her place if that was all right. He would stop off and pick up some clean clothes at his own apartment on the way.
“Anytime,” she told him with a smile. “I’ve not seen your place,” she added. The place turned out to be quite a large first-floor apartment with a large living area and kitchen. He had one side of the room covered by an enormous desk and bookshelves. There was an equally massive sofa and an even larger oversized television. She laughed.
“Why does every man need a TV that is bigger than a bed?”
“So that you can play games in full size,” he answered with a grin and pointed to his up-to-date gaming console and handsets. She shook her head and wondered why anyone would want to spend time playing games when you could be doing something useful, but she kept it to herself.
“You’ve never played a com
puter game, have you?” he asked, and she confessed that he was right.
“We’ll try it another night and see how good you are. I bet I can get you hooked.”
“Mmm,” she said but agreed she should give it a try. He picked up some clean jeans and a shirt, changed his dusty shoes for clean ones, and grabbed his electric razor.
“I like your place,” Corby told him as they set off for her own house.
“It passed the test, then?” He grinned and glanced across as he drove. As she approached the door, the pendant at her throat heated up, and she knew in her heart it was not the sort of heat that she had felt near the coffee table or the remains. It felt like a warning. She laid her hand on the turquoise and stopped Carlo with a hand on his arm.
“What?” he asked and glanced around.
“I don’t know, but the necklace seems to be warning me about something.” He looked all around but everything was quiet. When he stepped to the door and touched it, the door swung open. Corby gasped.
“I always lock it,” she said. He nodded and stepped inside to switch on the lights. Corby stayed close behind him, and he could feel her shaking as they moved inside. They went through the whole place together and found nobody and nothing really out of place.
“Is anything missing?” he asked her and she shook her head.
“I haven’t noticed anything. A few things are out of place, and this drawer was not open at all. Oh, Carlo.” She turned to face him, and he held her as close as he possibly could. When the tears had run their course, he found her a box of tissues and told her what he thought they should do.
“First we will drive down to the hardware store and get a chain and padlock. I’ll put them inside and outside of the door. Then we’ll lock up and go to Chestnut Hall, tell them about it, and afterward, you can come and stay with me. Does that sound okay?” He grinned. “I’ll take the sofa, and you can have the enormous king-size bed.” She managed a watery smile and said it sounded perfect.
