It was a pity party and he knew it. They should never have gone out to dinner. Yet, there was this connection between them. He wanted to prolong his time with her. With a shake of his head he ran the last cable to the box. Maybe he was just imagining it. Why did he think he could just waltz into her life and turn it upside down? He had no right to interfere. She was leaving Sunday, and that was that.
Suddenly the day looked bleak in spite of the sunshine. He finished the box and gathered his supplies. Looking at his schedule, he realized it would be a full day, maybe a late day. Jake had more jobs than he had crew to cover lately and there were times it bothered Sam, but not today. Today he welcomed the work.
It was Thursday, and the thought of the mid-week Bible study came to his mind.
“That’s what I need, isn’t it Lord? I need to get into the Word and get my life in order.”
He glanced down at the Bible on the seat of his truck. “Okay, Lord, You show me what You’d have me do. I’ve run to the end of my own tether.” He parked under a stand of pine trees and bowed his head, giving his heart back over to the One who knew him best.
Just as Laura turned to go back in the house, the truck from the flooring company pulled in. The timing couldn’t have been better.
Two men got out of the truck. The passenger, a beanpole of a man with a beard and heavy black eyebrows, unfolded himself out of the truck. He contemplated Laura with a soulful expression. The driver, a man in his mid-forties with a pleasant ruddy face hopped out. The crinkles in the corners of his eyes told her he smiled a lot.
“Ms. Kingsley? I’m Marty and this is Aaron. Are you ready to get those floors done?”
She waved a hand towards the front door. “Sure am. Do you mind if I watch?”
Marty grinned. “Well now, I may charge extra for that, or put you to work.”
She pretended to think about it. “Then I guess I just better stay out of your way. Which room do you want to do first?”
“Let’s tackle the laundry room.”
She opened the back door to the patio and in no time Martin and Aaron had the washer and dryer out on the patio. Marty sent Aaron over to the far bathroom to remove the toilet and pull up the old carpeting and padding. The linoleum in the laundry room evidently had never been tacked down and Martin began to cut it in strips for rolling and easy disposal, tossing the pieces out the doorway.
“Ma’am?” Laura had gone to check the pantry and make a list for the grocery store. “Ma’am?’ Marty said again, “Do you want to cover this or make a cut out for it?”
Puzzled, she came back to the laundry room door.
“Excuse me?”
He pointed to the top of a safe imbedded in the concrete floor. Do you want a separate cut out for this?”
Thinking quickly, she forced herself to remain calm. She waved a nonchalant hand, “Oh, I forgot about that. Yes, just make a cut out.”
She turned away quickly so he wouldn’t see the shock on her face. Oh Lord, there is a safe and it was there all the time. Why didn’t they think of looking at the floors? Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her pounding heart. Lord, what should I do now? She went into the bedroom and got her cell phone out of her purse and stepping down into the mud room farthest from both workmen, she called John Howard.
“Mr. Howard? This is Laura. There’s a floor safe in the laundry room. I’m having the linoleum replaced and there it is. What should I do?”
He made an exuberant sound and evidently put his hand over the phone for the words were muffled, but he spoke to someone else in the room. There was a different note in his voice when he came back on the phone and for some reason it bothered her. “That’s good news.” He paused, “Did you open it?”
“The man is still laying the new linoleum. He’s going to make a cut out around the safe.”
“Then it can wait until he’s done with the floor and has gone. Do you have the combination?”
“I have no idea what that is, Mr. Howard.”
“Look around, would you? It’s important we open that safe as soon as possible. If you can’t find the combination, look on the front of the safe and get the number for the company that made the safe. They’d have it on record.”
“Would they give it to me over the phone?”
He sounded irritated. “No, they’ll have to come to the house. Just get them there right away, today maybe.”
She glowered at the receiver. “I doubt if they’ll come today, Mr. Howard but I’ll ask.” They’d waited 20 years for this moment, they could wait a day or so more as far as she was concerned.
“All right, all right, but as soon as the laundry room is done check the top of the safe.”
“I will, I just didn’t want the man to realize I didn’t know about it.”
“Okay, that’s ah, fine. By the way, is your mother home? Did she see the safe?”
“No, she’s having a manicure and pedicure this morning. She took my car.”
He sounded relieved. “Good. Would you do me a great favor, Laura, and keep the discovery of the safe to yourself until we can have someone there when you open it? This is important.”
“What if I just cover it with a rug and put the ironing board back on top of it?”
“You’re a smart girl, Laura. I appreciate that. Let me know if you find the combination, okay?”
“I will.” She hesitated but realized she might as well tell him. “Mr. Howard, I think my cousin, Deke, has the combination.”
“What?” He swore loudly and she cringed.
“He told my mother that he found a piece of paper with a combination on it in his father’s papers.”
There was a pause. “In his papers? We turned the place upside down after DuPont er, died, and didn’t find any papers.”
“He said the landlady gave him what she thought were just some mementos from his father. She didn’t think they were important“
“I see.” It was the way he said it. Laura wondered if she’d gotten the landlady into trouble for withholding evidence or something like that.
Mr. Howard cleared his throat. “Well, we’ve found the safe, which is all the more reason to wait. Let’s see if you can find the combination, as unobtrusively as you can, if it’s in the house, and if not, let us know when the safe company can get there. Can you do that? We don’t want Brucker to know we’ve found the safe.”
“I understand perfectly.”
“Keep me posted.” He hung up abruptly.
She pushed the end call button and stood staring out the window at the street for a long moment. Lord, he’s a very irritating man, but I know what he’s thinking. Mother will contact Deke. I must find that combination before she gets home, and get the safe covered up. I need Your help.
Laura went back to the laundry room and stood in the doorway. It the other part of the house she could hear Aaron pulling up tack strip. With the floor cleaned up, Marty spread linoleum paste on the concrete. When he got to the outside door, he stepped out and unrolled the new linoleum. While he was occupied with cutting it, Laura quickly leaned down from the doorway and copied the name of the safe company, noting they were in Duarte, California. She got the model number off the top of the safe and then stepped back into the pantry.
Marty laid the roll of linoleum down in front of him, stepping carefully as he slowly unrolled it in front of him. It fit the floor like a glove.
“You’re really good, Marty. That looks great.”
He beamed. “Guess when you’ve done this as many times as I have, it gets easy. An extra piece was brought in and fitted over the safe.
He looked pleased with his work. “This will protect the safe. All you have to do it lift it up.”
“That’s great. Thanks.” She kept her voice casual. “I don’t think I’ll have much use for it. Now that my aunt’s passed away the house will probably be a rental.”
He nodded, busy finishing the rubber molding around the edges of the room. “Sorry about your aunt. You’re not s
taying up here?”
“No, I have a job in San Diego.”
He nodded again. She watched him finish the molding. “There, done. Better go see how Aaron is doing in the bathroom. Which way do I go?”
She led him through the front room and pointed down the short hallway. Following him, she peeked in the bathroom. Aaron had pulled up the carpet, removed the tack strip, taken out the toilet and was in the process of tacking a coving strip about 3 inches up from the floor. Marty helped him cut and fit the new linoleum, curving it up into the coving strip. If the toilet or shower leaked, the floor wouldn’t flood again, the water would just run out under the outside door.
Marty looked the job over carefully. “Looks good. One more thing to do.”
Aaron didn’t look up. “Toilet” he said. Aaron seemed a man of few words, someone who’d be more at home in a mountain cabin. She wondered what he was doing laying linoleum.
Marty went to get the toilet from the patio. While they were busy, Laura hurried over to the laundry room and laid one of the shag rugs down over the piece of linoleum covering the floor safe. She brought the ironing board back in and opened it up, setting it on top of the rug. As an afterthought, she grabbed the laundry basket and set it under the ironing board.
When the men were finished with the front bathroom and had seated the toilet, they came back and moved the washer and dryer back into the laundry room. With everything back in place and hooked up, Marty went to his truck to get the invoice. Aaron stood outside in the sun, contemplating one of the pine trees.
When she’d written the check and they’d driven away, Laura went back and put the other large shag rug in front of the washer and dryer. The room looked almost like it had before and no one would be the wiser.
She looked at the clock and frowned. Her mother should have been back by now, she’d had plenty of time. Then she smiled to herself. You kept her busy so they could finish didn’t you, Lord? Maybe you put the thought in her mind to go shopping. She laughed out loud.
Laura searched her aunt’s desk, and every place she could think of but found nothing that looked like a combination for the safe. Finally she dialed information and got the number of the safe company. They checked their records and told her they had indeed installed the safe. They could have a man up there tomorrow, but she’d have to pay travel time.
“Where is he coming from?”
“Long Beach. He should be there by around eleven o’clock depending on the morning traffic”
“That’ll be fine.”She hung up and called Mr. Howard. “This is Laura again. I couldn’t find the combination. I went ahead and called the safe company. They’ll be here around eleven in the morning tomorrow.”
He huffed into the phone and cleared his throat. “We’ll be there.”
“Mr. Howard?”
“Yes?”
“You know the money might not be there don’t you?”
“We don’t know it’s not there. At least it will eliminate that possibility and I can, ah, get back to my job in LA.”
“One more thing, Mr. Howard, I’m not very good at keeping secrets. My mother is going to know something is up, but I’ll do my best.”
“If you wait until morning to tell her you found the safe, there’s no time for Deke to get up there before we get it open.”
“Okay, I think I can do that.”
When she hung up the phone, she leaned back on the couch. Now what? Her mother was adept at reading faces. How would she keep from giving herself away? Then she remembered the grocery list. As soon as her mother got back, she’d take the car and go to the grocery store. That would give her time to calm down and be able to act naturally. Mentally she squirmed. She wasn’t good at deceiving people, especially her mother. Gloria would be furious to think her own daughter didn’t trust her. And why did she have this feeling that Mr. Howard knew something he wasn’t telling her?
She shook her head. Laura, you’re making too much out of this. You’ve read too many mystery novels.
Around two o’clock in the afternoon Laura heard the car pull into the driveway.
She busied herself with the grocery list and didn’t look up. “Hi, how did you like the manicure and pedicure? “
“Wonderful. Oh my, the leg massage I got with the pedicure was out of this world. You’ll have to go there sometime.” Her mother dropped her purse and a couple of packages on a chair. “How did the floors go? I’ll have to go in and look.”
Laura watched apprehensively as her mother surveyed the laundry room. “Very nice. It certainly didn’t take them long.” She frowned. “Those rugs need to be washed.
Laura had to think fast. “They’re pretty heavy. I’ll take them to the Laundromat tomorrow. I think they’d be too much for the regular washing machine.” She turned away from the laundry room, “Come see the bathroom. It really looks different. I’m going to need some bath rugs. Maybe you can help me figure out what would look best.”
Gloria loved to decorate and followed Laura across the house to admire the new bathroom floor.
“Lovely. You need to pick up the colors of your towels in the floor rugs. Do you have any place up here that might have towels and accessories?”
“There’s just K-mart, unless you use a decorator.”
Gloria wrinkled her nose. “Well, if that’s all there is, we can look there.”
“Or I can bring something the next time I come up.”
“True. What are you going to do now?”
Laura glanced casually at the paper in her hand. “Oh, I need some groceries. Do you want to come?”
Gloria yawned. “Grocery shopping is boring, darling. You run along. I think I’ll take a nap.”
“All right, I won’t be gone long.”
“Take your time.”
Laura picked up her car keys by her mother’s purse and dashed out the door. Once in the car and on her way, she heaved a sigh of relief. She’d almost panicked when her mother suggested washing the rugs, but thought she took care of that pretty smoothly. Now if she could just make it until tomorrow morning. Would the money be there or not? She sighed. It would be a long day and night.
Chapter Thirty
Deke drove down the mountain watching the curves, but his thoughts were racing. He’d been so sure the money was up there, yet even with Gloria helping him they couldn’t find anything. He slammed his hand on the steering wheel in frustration. Now he had to return to his crummy job at the warehouse and his cheap apartment. Like a bad dream where everything seemed great and then you woke up.
He’d charmed himself into Gloria’s good graces and sensed she wanted to find the money as much as he did, but that was a dead end street. She said she’d split it with him, but he wouldn’t count on it. Greed did something to people, himself included. He didn’t want to hurt anybody, but he could go a lot farther in Mexico with the whole amount. Nine hundred thousand dollars could last a lifetime down there if one were careful.
He shook himself from the thoughts. I’m stupid. Just another slap in the face from his old man. “He knew when he left me the packet.” His shoulders fell, “Who am I trying to kid. My old man didn’t even know where I lived. Why would he leave it to me? Just for some crummy mementos? His eyes narrowed as a thought formed in his brain. “He didn’t want those goons to get hold of it, so he left it with the landlady. Why?
He rounded a curve and thought about Gloria She could have read the newspaper accounts about the lost money. He sneered. She didn’t come up to pay her respects to her dear dead sister, that’s for sure. Then there was that guy, Howard. He wasn’t just a boyfriend, not the way he watched everyone. He was a cop, or…was he? If he wasn’t a cop, who was he? The landlady said his old man owed a lot of money from a private poker game. Big Wheels played those games. If his old man owed them money,--Deke shivered involuntarily. If Howard wasn’t a cop they were all in trouble. Hired guns didn’t like to leave loose ends. If they did find the money and Howard knew about it they might not leav
e witnesses.
He pulled over into a turnout and lit a cigarette. His hands were shaking. Did Gloria know who Howard was? The niece was feeding all the information to Howard, not knowing. Deke pounded the steering wheel. Stupid.
He reviewed his conversation with Gloria. Why hadn’t he seen it before? She knew his father before he went to prison. “I’m betting you knew him real well, didn’t you, lady?”
He drove a mile or two and stopped at a small bar and grill on his right. The grill was dark and unappealing, but he figured they couldn’t do too much to a cheeseburger and coke. He ordered them with fries and sat back in the booth to think things through.
Gloria seemed so sure the money was in the house. Deke was too, but they’d looked everywhere. He’d even crawled under the house, but no luck. Where else could it be? The only place they hadn’t searched was the floor. As soon as he thought the words he nearly choked on his cheeseburger. The carpet covered everything. Could there be a secret trapdoor, maybe? The house sat on concrete in some places and he’d already checked out the small crawl space under the original house. The safe could be planted in the concrete and covered with carpet. How would they look without tearing up the carpet? He shook his head. You need to think this out, Dekey boy. This is getting to you. Give it up. Just get back to work.
Later in the week, on Thursday he took a late lunch hour. He finished off a tuna sandwich from the Roach Coach, wondering how he could get in the house that weekend again. He’d have to talk to Gloria privately with his idea about looking under the flooring. Gloria and her daughter planned on leaving Sunday to return to San Diego. That would mean the house would be empty. Somehow he had to get in without turning on the alarm. That would be his biggest problem.
His cell phone rang. “Yeah, this is Deke.” He listened to the frantic woman on the other end of the line, then turned and covered the phone with his hand. “A floor safe?” He nearly shouted, “I knew it. I was right! ” He listened, thinking quickly.
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