The closer they got to the house, the more nervous Gloria got. She stuck a sweaty hand on the front knob and gently twisted. It was locked tight. “We’ll need to go around back,” she whispered breathlessly.
The double sliders on the back side of the house were locked, too. There was one more door left to try - the one leading into the kitchen. Gloria held her breath as she slowly turned the knob. It easily turned in her hand. She silently pushed the door open and the girls crept inside.
Lucy swallowed nervously. They were definitely breaking the law. Visions of a musty old jail cell and a cellmate named Roxanne came to mind. “Now what?”
Gloria hadn’t thought that far ahead. The moon cast a sliver of light inside the kitchen. Just enough to reveal that the room was empty. What if Blackstone hid the money somewhere inside the house before he was murdered?
She and Lucy had already thoroughly searched the kitchen the last time they were in the house so no reason to waste any time looking around there.
Gloria made her way through the butler’s pantry and into the dining room. She pulled a small flashlight from her pocket and switched it on. A beam of light bounced around the room, casting eerie shadows across the walls.
Lucy clutched her arm. “Someone’s going to see the light!” She could almost hear police sirens in the distance.
Gloria shook her head. “No chance. The windows out front are boarded shut. No one can see the light.” Unless, of course, it was someone inside the house but no way was she going to point that out to Lucy.
“If you were going to hide money in a big old house like this, where would you put it?” Gloria took a step towards the grand entrance. She stopped in front of the stairway, beaming the flashlight up at the second level.
“Maybe it’s in the attic?” Lucy guessed out loud and then wished she hadn’t as she shuddered uncontrollably. The last place she wanted to go in the middle of the night in a house that was rumored to be haunted would be the attic. Or the basement. No way was she going to mention it might be in the basement.
Gloria shook her head. “No, that would seem too obvious.” She fiddled with the flashlight thoughtfully. “I would hide it in a strategic location. As far away from the exits as possible. Or maybe even somewhere in plain sight.” She pointed the flashlight towards the massive living room but quickly dismissed it. “That would be too easy. I think I would hide it upstairs.”
Gloria paused when she reached the landing. Should they go right or left? Left would take them to the master bedroom. That was as good a place as any to look. When they got to the double doors, she handed the flashlight to Lucy and began tugging on the handle. “It’s locked. Maybe the contractor accidentally locked it on the way out – or had someone else been in the house since then?
In Lucy’s mind, this was a sign from above that they should leave. “Guess we better go since we can’t get in…”
Gloria wasn’t going to give up that easy. There had to be a way in. She glanced around. Her eyes shifted to the top of the wooden door frame before looking back down the hall. “Grab that chair and bring it over here.”
Lucy reluctantly obeyed as she picked up the chair and carried it over to where Gloria was waiting. Gloria dragged the chair to the center of the double door and climbed on top of the padded seat. She grabbed hold of the door frame with one hand to steady herself as she felt the top of the frame with the other. “Bingo!”
She pulled her hand back down. In it was a long, brass key. She hopped off the chair, shoved it to the side and inserted the key in the door. The key was a perfect fit. The door creaked loudly as it swung open. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way!”
The girls stepped just inside the doorway as Lucy shined the light around the dark room. “Now what?”
Gloria made a beeline for the secret door leading to the bathroom. “Follow me.” She lightly pressed on the wall. The door swung open effortlessly.
Lucy flashed a beam of light around the large room. “Wow. This is right out of the movies.”
Gloria flipped the switch on the wall. Bright light illuminated the entire room.
Lucy shoved the flashlight in her back pocket and began yanking cabinet drawers open. She wanted to get this over with as quickly as possible.
Meanwhile, Gloria focused her search on the shower and toilet. She lifted the lid on the back of the toilet. A musty smell filled the air. She wrinkled her nose and shook her head in disappointment. There was nothing.
Lucy quickly finished her search. “This place is clean.” Gloria turned off the bathroom light and slowly pulled the door shut behind them. It would take forever to search every inch of this house and they didn’t have forever.
She was halfway to the bedroom door when another thought occurred to her. What if the money was under the mattress? Such an obvious place would make it a not-so-obvious place to hide a stash of cash. She grabbed the flashlight from Lucy and headed over to the bed. She yanked the covers back and lifted the mattress.
Lucy had had enough as she impatiently waited by the door. They were running on borrowed time, of that she was certain.
A dejected Gloria slowly crossed the bedroom floor as she started to make her way over to Lucy. It was then she heard a loud creak.
Gloria shined the light down at the faded blue Oriental rug beneath her feet. She took another step. Creak. “The floorboards are loose.” She rocked back and forth on the bottom of her foot. “I saw an old detective show once where the thief hid a bag of jewels under the floor boards.”
She grabbed the corner of the rug and pulled it back. One of the boards had a gap. Gloria wiggled her finger between the gaps and pulled. The loose board easily popped out.
She tossed it to the side before grabbing a second board and giving it a little yank. She set that one to the side as she worked her way across the wood floor. By the time she was done, five good-sized floor boards were sitting in a small pile on the floor.
She swallowed nervously as she handed the light to Lucy. They both leaned over and peered down into the gaping hole. A large, brown paper bag was tucked neatly in the opening. Gloria plucked the bag from its hiding place and set it on the floor beside them. “Should we open it?”
“Are you crazy? Of course we have to open it!”
Gloria slowly unfolded the top of the bag. She leaned forward as she shined the light inside. Lucy’s hand flew to her mouth as she drew in a sharp breath. The bag was filled with cash.
Gloria shut the bag and jumped up. “We found the money.” Her heart was thumping loudly in her chest. She glanced around frantically. “We need to get out of here.”
Lucy scrambled to her feet and practically ran to the bedroom door.
“Wait! We have to put the boards back where we found them in case the killer comes back.” Gloria whispered in a loud voice.
Lucy stopped in her tracks. She turned and retraced her steps. The girls carefully set each board back in its original spot and rolled the rug over the top.
They moved soundlessly through the bedroom, slowly closing the bedroom door behind them and locking it. Gloria replaced the key on top of the trim and then carried the hallway chair back to its original spot.
The girls retraced their steps through the house and back out the kitchen door. Gloria shoved the flashlight in her pocket and headed down the steps. With only a trace of moonlight to light their way back to the alley, the trip seemed to take forever. In the distance they could make out the faint outline of the shrubs.
Out of nowhere, a small yapping dog jumped through the bushes. His barks ripped through the quiet night like a cannon going off.
Lucy put a finger to her lips, trying to quiet the mangy mutt. “Shhhhhh!!!!”
Gloria crept to the overgrown hedge. She flung the thorny bushes aside and forced her way through the narrow opening as the yapping intruder nipped at her heels.
“Come on!” She held the prickly bush open while Lucy squeezed through, snapping them shut just before the half-crazed dog attempted
to follow them. His barks echoed down the alley as they made a run for the car.
Gloria tossed the paper bag at Lucy as she gunned the engine and threw it into drive. Gravel flew from the tires as Gloria peeled out of the alley and onto the main road.
Lucy snapped her seatbelt in place as she nervously glanced in the side mirror, certain at any moment police lights would be roaring up behind them. “Now what?”
That was a good question. Gloria shook her head. “Let’s go back to my house.” She made a quick left and stomped on the gas as they raced back to the house.
Gloria careened into the drive. The car came to an abrupt halt beside the house. In one quick move, she had her seatbelt unhooked and grabbed the door handle. “Ready?”
Lucy took a deep breath and nodded. “Yeah.” As if someone were hot on their heels, the girls sprang from the car and bolted up the steps two at a time. Once inside, Gloria locked the door and leaned against it.
She glanced at the clock. It was 9:30. She grabbed the cell phone from her purse and dialed Paul Kennedy’s number.
“Good evening, Gloria.” Gloria’s heart was pounding like a set of Tom Toms during an Indian war dance. She wasn’t sure if it was from sound of his voice or the fact that she had in her possession a pile of cash that someone wanted desperately enough to kill for.
“Okay, considering.” She skipped the pleasantries and got right to the point. “We have the money that Arthur Blackstone stole from the bank.”
Paul shook his head in astonishment. Somehow, that didn’t surprise him. “Where are you?”
“At my house with my friend Lucy. She helped me find it,” Gloria explained.
Kennedy grabbed his jacket and headed for the station door. “I’m on my way. Keep the doors locked!”
That wouldn’t be a problem. There was no way she was letting anyone in unless it was a handsome, gray-haired officer that just so happened to make her pulse race.
Lucy pulled out a kitchen chair as she nervously patted Mally’s head. “At least we have a guard dog.”
“Yeah, she’ll lick them to death!” Gloria peered out the window and then yanked the shade down. She flipped the brown paper bag over and dumped the contents out on the kitchen table.
There were stacks of banded cash. She plucked one from the pile and turned it over in her hand. “These are hundred dollar bills.”
Lucy picked up another pile of green from the table. “This one, too.”
They rummaged through the mound. “These are all hundred dollar bills.”
“I wonder how much money is here…” Gloria booted up her computer and started typing. “There are more than ten in a bundle?”
Lucy fanned the bundle in her hand. “Yeah, a lot more.”
After a couple quick clicks on the keyboard, she turned back to Lucy. “From what I can tell, there are 100 bills in each stack. That means each one is ten grand.”
Lucy quickly counted the piles. Her eyes grew wide. “That’s $450,000!!”
Lucy clutched her chest. She let out a shriek at the light tap on the door.
Gloria peeked out around the corner of the blind before swinging the kitchen door wide open. A tall, attractive officer with salt and pepper colored hair stepped inside.
Lucy’s studied the stranger out of the corner of her eye. Her sharp gaze didn’t miss a thing. So this was Gloria’s new beau. My, my. She sure knows how to pick them.
Gloria nervously wiped her brow. “Thanks for coming here on such short notice.” She turned to Lucy. “Paul, this is my best friend and partner-in-crime, Lucy.”
A dimpled smile greeted her as he offered his hand. “So you’re the infamous Lucy. The one that manages to get dragged into Gloria’s sleuthing,” he added.
Lucy jumped out of the chair. “Yep, that would be me.” She wasn’t sure if he meant that as a compliment or not. Judging by the smile on his face, she would take that as a positive.
He pointed at the necklace hanging around Gloria’s neck. “Is that what I think it is?”
Gloria completely forgot about the necklace. She reached up and started fiddling absentmindedly with the gadget. “Lucy thought the medical alert necklaces might come in handy if we got in a pinch.”
So distracted by the sight of Paul Kennedy, Gloria accidentally pushed the alert button.
“Dispatch. What is your emergency?”
Lucy stomped over and snatched the necklace from Gloria’s neck. She shouted into the mini-speaker. “Sorry! False alarm!”
Gloria’s face warmed like a burner on high. “Sorry Lucy.”
Kennedy’s gazed wandered over to the piles of cash on the table. He reached down and picked one up. “I can’t wait to hear how you found this.”
Lucy poured water in the coffee pot as Gloria told him the story. He shook his head as she wrapped up. “We’re not sure if anyone spotted us or not. The yapping dog was a dead giveaway.”
“Not only could you have gotten arrested for trespassing, you could’ve been killed!” He looked around the kitchen. “What if the killer was staking out the house and watched you traipse out of that place with a large paper bag?”
Gloria hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about that. In the heat of the moment it was hard to focus on those kinds of small details.
Lucy handed Paul a piping hot cup of coffee. He took a sip before pointing at the pile of money. “I’ll have to take this with me.”
Gloria nodded in a surreal Déjà vu sort-of-way. A repeat of when she helped solve the Malone mystery that freed Andrea and helped track down the real killer. “Yes, of course.”
He shoved the stacks of bills back into the bag and turned to go. “So we’re still on for tomorrow night?”
Gloria blushed and nodded shyly. It was a look that Lucy didn’t miss. Her friend was definitely gaga over this guy. Good for her. She’d been alone long enough and he seemed nice enough, especially considering he put up with Gloria’s nosy detective work without getting too mad at her.
Gloria watched him pull out of the driveway before turning to Lucy, her face still beaming brightly at the sight of the officer. “I guess I better get you home.”
Chapter 6
Jill made good on her threat, uh, promise to help her mom pick out an outfit for her date when she showed up unexpectedly on Gloria’s doorstep the next morning. She hung her jacket on the kitchen hook as she studied her mom’s neglected mop of hair critically. “Maybe we should have your hair done.”
“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary….” Gloria trailed off.
But Jill wouldn’t take no for an answer. Three hours later, Gloria was staring back at someone she barely recognized. Not only had the salon cut, colored and styled her hair, they’d done her make-up and nails at the same time.
Jill twirled her mom around in the chair. “You look like a million bucks!”
Gloria barely recognized herself as she peered in the mirror. “More like $450,000.”
“Huh?”
Gloria smiled innocently. No sense in getting Jill all worked up about the newest case.
She settled the bill and made her way out onto the street. Jill’s stomach was rumbling. “How ‘bout grabbing a bite to eat before heading home?”
There was a burger joint around the corner. Gloria picked at her food, barely touching any of it. Must be the date tonight, Jill thought to herself.
That wasn’t it at all. Gloria’s mind was preoccupied with the murder – and the money. She was also thinking about the Blackstone that checked out of the Green Springs Inn. “Do you mind if we make a quick stop over at Green Springs Inn?”
Now why on earth would her mom want to stop at the local motel? Jill shrugged her shoulders and nodded. She’d find out soon enough.
They pulled in an empty parking spot near the entrance. Gloria jumped out of the car and headed for the door. Curious as to what exactly her mother was up to her, Jill followed her inside.
The same desk clerk Gloria spoke with before suddenly appea
red behind the counter.
Gloria set her purse down on the gleaming glass top. “I was here the other day and showed you a room card.”
The woman groaned inwardly. “I remember.”
Gloria stuck her elbows on the counter and leaned forward. “Is there any way to check your phone records to see if any incoming or outgoing calls were made to that room during that time?”
Jane Jackson, the desk clerk, nodded. “Yes, I’m sure I could find that out…” She glanced over at Jill. The nosy woman was with a different person this time. What was up with this lady? Was she some kind of undercover cop? “I don’t think I’m allowed to share that information with you…”
Gloria unzipped her purse, plucked a $20 bill from her wallet and set it on the counter. “Now can you?” She’d seen someone do this once in a movie and it actually worked.
The woman picked up the bill and turned it over. It didn’t look counterfeit. “I’m not sure. Maybe…”
Gloria took another $20 from her wallet and set it on the counter in front of the woman. “What about now?”
The woman snatched the other $20 off the counter and quickly shoved both bills in her pants pocket. She nodded at Gloria. “Yeah, I think I can take a look at the records.” She eyed Jill suspiciously. “Just this once…”
It only took a couple clicks of her mouse before Jane nodded. “There was one call made from the room during that time.” She grabbed a sticky note from behind the counter and scribbled some numbers down.
She glanced nervously behind her before handing the piece of paper to Gloria. “It lasted around a minute and a half,” she whispered in a low voice.
Gloria studied the numbers before shoving the paper into her purse. “Thank you, uh, Jane. You’ve been very helpful.” Without saying another word, Gloria made her way out of the small lobby and towards the car.
Jill was right behind her. “What on earth was that all about?”
Gloria started the car before glancing over at her daughter. Judging by the expression on her daughter’s face, she was a tad bit irritated. Gloria sighed. “It’s too complicated to explain.”
Grandkids Gone Wild (The Garden Girls Book 2) Page 7
