Chapter 3

Carlita's eyes squinted. "Our first clue is a pebble?"

"This isn't a pebble." Pete pinched it between his fingers and rubbed it against his shirt.

A faint glimmer caught the light. "It appears to be a gem." He stepped in front of Elvira's spotlight. "A ruby, no less."

Carlita's heart skipped a beat. "A ruby in the dirt. I wonder if there are more." She turned her cell phone's light on and began searching the area near the wall.

Pete tucked the nugget in his pocket and joined her. Within minutes and only scratching the surface, the couple found two more gems. "I think we may be onto something."

"It's a good thing Elvira isn't here. She would be hauling equipment down here faster than you can say treasure."

"Mum's the word, at least until we can figure out what the markings in the dirt mean."

"Maybe there really was a boat here at one time," Carlita said.

"If I had to guess, it was a jolly boat."

"A jolly boat?"

"A boat used to carry crew ashore."

"Ah." Carlita snapped her fingers. "Because they couldn't bring the big pirate ships close to shore, they used jolly boats."

"To transport crew, supplies."

"Treasure chests and gems," she added.

Pete pulled up the photo of the ruts he'd taken with his cell phone. "Based on the shape, it would be about the right size. If it was a jolly boat, I'm guessing there might be more clues when we start digging around."

"I think we should give it a rest," Carlita said. "Disturbing much more of the ground might hinder whoever shows up to figure this out."

"Agreed." Pete helped his wife scoot back over the wall and exited after her, turning the spotlight off on his way out.

The couple reached the solid metal door and paused long enough for him to secure it with the new array of locks. Back upstairs, they trekked to his office.

Pete's parrot, Gunner, greeted them. "Ahoy matey."

"Ahoy Gunner." Carlita grabbed a grape from the small fridge in the corner and fed it to him. "How's the pirate's life?"

The parrot puffed up his chest. "Yo ho, yo ho…a pirate's life for me. I strut on my perch, watchin' the pretty girls…the pirate's life for me," he sang.

Pete emptied his pocket, placing the gems on top of his desk. Carlita made her way over and picked one of them up. She ran her thumb over the top. Small bits of dirt fell off. The more she rubbed, the shinier the gem became.

"This could be an incredible find," she said. "Imagine if hundreds, maybe even thousands, of these nuggets are sprinkled around waiting to be found."

"After all these years."

They finished cleaning them off, and Pete placed them inside his safe. "I need to head over to The Flying Gunner. A large group of developers booked the ship for an event today."

"Flying Gunner," the bird squawked.

"I'll take Gunner with me," Pete said. "What does your schedule look like?"

"Mercedes and I are gonna finish sorting through the last few boxes I have stored up in the apartment attic." Carlita patted her purse. "After we're done, I'll grab some dinner on the way home."

Pete smacked his lips. "From the restaurant? Lasagna, or fettuccine, sounds delicious," he hinted.

"I'll surprise you." She bounced on the tips of her toes and kissed his lips. "I'm proud of you. You showed the patience of a saint with Elvira earlier."

"She certainly knows how to push my buttons. Believe it or not, I understand what makes her tick, which helps put her antics and actions into perspective."

"Money. Treasure. Something tells me she won't waste a second trying to get someone over here to figure out what we have," Carlita predicted.

"Without a doubt. I must admit I'm pleasantly surprised you and I found something."

"Me too. Only time will tell if there is more." Carlita parted ways with her husband in the parking lot, taking the shortcut to her old apartment, now occupied by Mercedes. She let herself into the lower-level hall and climbed the stairs.

The faint strains of classical music echoed. Carlita rapped loudly. The door flew open, and her daughter appeared. "Hey, Ma. I was getting ready to send you a text. I thought maybe you forgot about cleaning out the attic."

"Nah. Pete and I got sidetracked." Carlita started to tell her daughter what they'd found but caught herself. Although she trusted Mercedes implicitly to keep quiet, the find wasn't hers to share. It was Pete's. Instead, she told her they'd installed triple locks on the tunnel door.

"I wouldn't put it past Elvira to sneak down there again."

"All it would be is a hop, skip and a jump, seeing how our tunnels are all connected," Carlita said. "Hopefully, three sets of locks will deter her."

"We'll see." Mercedes rubbed her hands together. "Are you ready to get to work?"

Mother and daughter exited the apartment, climbing the stairs to the attic. Having already tackled most of the cleaning, the only things left were a few odds and ends, pieces they'd inherited along with the property.

Working together, the women made two piles—the first for the trash bin and a second for items Carlita planned to donate to a local non-profit thrift store. It took several trips back and forth for them to empty what was left.

After finishing, they grabbed brooms and swept the space spic and span.

Mercedes dumped the last of the debris in the trash bag and propped the broom against the wall. "This is bigger than I thought now that it's empty. What are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know." Carlita slowly circled the room. "It's not big enough to add another apartment unit. It seems a shame to have it sit here doing nothing."

"We could add closets and assign a closet to each of the tenants—Luigi, Cool Bones, Sam, Autumn and me for additional storage."

Carlita warmed to the idea. Each of the apartments boasted ample storage, but who would say no to more? "I'll see if I can get Bob Lowman over here to give me a quote."

Checking one last time to make sure they hadn't missed any nooks and crannies, she started to shut the light off when a 2x4 nailed to the wall caught her attention. Carlita traipsed across the room and studied the board.

Mercedes, curious to find out what her mother was looking at, wandered over. "What is it?"

"A board nailed to the wall." On closer inspection, she could see papers tucked behind it. Carlita slid the papers out and unfolded them. "It looks like a set of blueprints."

"Cool." Her daughter peered over her shoulder. "I thought you already found prints for this place."

To say Carlita's property had an interesting history was somewhat of an understatement. Originally a casket company, the place was eventually purchased by a man named Smythe, who operated a supply store for sailors and sea faring companies.

Smythe had also added the apartment units. Although Carlita couldn't recall the details, somewhere along the way, George and Louise Delmario had purchased the buildings.

After Vinnie's death, Carlita stumbled upon a key to the property. She and Mercedes drove down from New York to check it out and the rest was history. He had inadvertently left his wife a wonderful gift—a way to support not only Carlita but also their children. The pawn shop. The restaurant. The rental units.

"I did. These appear to be the originals from when this place was first constructed." Carlita unfolded the paper and slipped her reading glasses on. "Wow. This is for our buildings and Elvira's property across the street. I wonder if she ever found blueprints for her place." She rolled the prints back up and sent a text to her former neighbor, telling her they'd found something of interest.

Elvira promptly replied. I have some good news. Where are you?

At Mercedes' place.

Come on over. I'm home , Elvira texted back.

With a quick stop by the apartment to wash up, Carlita and Mercedes crossed the alley to Elvira's back door.

They reached the stoop. The door opened and Elvira appeared. "Hey, Carlita. Let me guess…you and Pete found treasure."

Carlita waved the rolled prints in the air. "Mercedes and I found blueprints for our block tucked away in the upstairs attic."

"Prints for this place?" Elvira reached for them.

"Not so fast." Carlita snatched her hand back. "I'll let you see them, but they belong to me."

"Sheesh. It's not like I plan on stealing them."

"I know how you are. What's yours is yours and what's mine is yours." Carlita handed them to her. "I'm not sure if there's anything new to see or if you already have this set."

Elvira unrolled them and leaned in. "Good find. These are the originals."

"Yep."

She grew quiet, studying them. "Thanks for bringing them by." She pulled her phone from her pocket and snapped a picture before rolling them back up. "I have some good news."

"About the archaeologist?"

"Colbane is interested in what we found, and is trying to rearrange her schedule to get down here to check it out. I told her the sooner the better." Elvira lowered her voice. "I put the fear in her that we weren't going to wait too long before excavating."

"If it was left up to you, you would have already started digging." Carlita told her what Pete suspected, that the drag marks were from a jolly boat.

"It makes sense. What's more important is…what was inside the boat. Gold, coins, gems, treasure." Elvira promised to let her know as soon as she had a definite date. "If I don't hear from her by tomorrow morning, I'll follow up."

"I'm sure you will." Carlita grabbed the prints and she and Mercedes turned to go.

"Hang on. Before you head out, I thought I should mention Dernice noticed something on the surveillance cameras this morning."

"Noticed what?"

"I'll show you." Elvira motioned for them to follow her through the living area of the apartment, to EC Security Services which shared space with her investigative services office in the front. She settled in behind the desk, turned her computer on and pulled up a new search screen.

With a couple of clicks, she accessed surveillance footage of the back alley. Elvira's cameras covered every square inch of the alley, the sidewalk, the parking lot. In other words, the entire area was monitored twenty-four hours a day.

"Here it is." Elvira pushed the pause button and scooched out of the way.

Carlita leaned in and studied the image, her breath catching in her throat. "I knew it. I knew something was off."