by B A Trimmer
“So, what is the problem?”
“The problem is before he died, Granddad hid the chest somewhere.”
“Why’d he hide it?”
“I guess that’s just his sense of humor. One last practical joke to play on my sister and me. The Will says we will split the house and the real estate no matter what. But whoever finds the jewelry first gets to keep it, all of it. If neither of us can find the jewelry, then we’ll split the house and the properties.”
He stopped to look around the library.
“I will admit,” Les said, “it’s a nice house. Although I don’t know how someone shares a house with his sister. Even one this big. But at least that part of the Will made sense. Granddad said he put the chest somewhere safe, but somewhere we could get to it. He also said we could probably find it on our own, but he left us some clues as to where it was hidden, just in case. Granddad’s Will also said if neither of us could find the jewelry within a year, his lawyer was instructed to sell it all at auction and donate the money to charity. Bottom line is whoever gets the chest first gets to keep all the jewelry.”
“Wow,” I said. “A treasure hunt to find a chest full of jewelry? It sounds like it’s worth millions of dollars.”
“Tens of millions. Twenty, thirty, maybe more. And you’re right; we’re here like pirates with a treasure map. To be honest, I think Granddad was starting to lose it before the end.”
“How did your sister react to the idea of a treasure hunt? I imagine she’s interested in finding the jewelry too.”
“Yesterday, at the reading, I suggested to the lawyers neither my sister nor I had time for a treasure hunt. We should just stipulate whoever finds the chest first would agree to split everything. I know we’d both be glad to have the jewelry, but it’s not as if we actually need the money. Unfortunately, we’ve always been competitive with each other and this won’t be any different. I saw the light in her eyes as they read the Will. I’m sure she’ll also be in town today to look for the chest. She’ll look at this as a way to stick it to me.”
“You two don’t get along?”
“That’s an understatement. I’ve made a few attempts over the years but we really haven’t spoken since Dad died.”
“OK,” I said. “What do we have to go on?”
“Not a lot.”
“Well, we have to start somewhere. Did you say there was a safe in your grandfather’s bedroom where he usually kept the chest? Maybe we should start there?”
We walked back through the house, down a couple of long hallways, down a wide staircase, down another long hallway, and finally to a wide foyer. We stopped at a huge wooden door.
“Your granddad sure did like big doors,” I said.
“It was more impressive when I was a kid. I could barely reach the handles and it always felt like I was opening up part of a wall, rather than a door.”
Similar to the front doors of the house, this one had an intricate scene of a Greek orgy carved into the gilded wooden paneling. There was the same nude goddess along with the same horny satyrs, but this door also had two half-naked men pawing at the goddess. The men and satyrs were gazing at the goddess with obvious lust but it looked to me she seemed to be rather bored with the orgy. Maybe the goddess was tired of being the center of their lustful attentions and it didn’t really interest her anymore?
My mind drifted to how it would be if I were the goddess and Reno and Max were both pawing at me at the same time. I’d never thought about having both of them touching me at once. I allowed myself a pleasant few seconds thinking about what would happen next.
Stop that.
“What?” Les asked. “You had the most mischievous smile.”
“Oh, just daydreaming.”
“I take it you like the carving on the door. As a teenager, I used to pretend I was one of the horny guys who were fondling the woman.”
“It’s an interesting carving,” I said.
We walked into the bedroom and the room became illuminated by motion-activated lights. The bedroom must have been thirty by forty feet with a domed ceiling extending up at least fifteen feet high. As I looked up, I noticed the ceiling was painted to look like the blue sky with fluffy white clouds. It was a beautiful effect.
“You like the clouds on the ceiling?” Les asked. “Granddad installed a lighting system years ago. Here, let me show you.”
Les walked to a control panel on the wall and pressed a button. As he did, the main lights slowly dimmed and hidden lights around the edge of the ceiling lit up the clouds a bright sunshine yellow with a trace of orange above the bed.
“This is the sunset program,” he said. “It will take about fifteen or twenty minutes for the program to simulate the sun going down. In the meantime, let me show you the vault.”
We walked to a full-length mirror mounted on a wall next to a built-in wooden bookshelf. The mirror was about eight feet high and five feet wide. Les selected a green book high on the bookshelf and pulled it toward him. There was a slight click and one side of the mirror popped out an inch. He pulled on the corner and it smoothly opened to reveal an interior room, maybe ten by twelve feet. This room also had a domed ceiling with a stunning crystal chandelier hanging down, just over our heads. There were two red velvet chairs in the corners with a small white table between them. On the table was a small statue of what looked like a half-clothed Greek goddesses.
What is it with Lester’s granddad and naked Greek women?
We walked into the room and saw the door of a giant safe against the far wall. It was the same size as the vault at my bank. The door was made of shining stainless steel, probably seven feet high, and five feet wide. There was a combination dial and a big handle to turn and open the door of the vault. On the wall on either side of the vault door were two beautiful oil paintings, both of Greek orgies.
“Wow,” I said. That’s impressive. I’ve never seen a safe this big in a house. It’s bigger than the safes at some of the banks I’ve been to.”
“Granddad said he built the house around the vault. It’s a real bank safe. They built it against the mountain. The vault itself goes about thirty feet into the bedrock of Camelback Mountain. He said there is no way someone could tunnel into it or come up through the floor.”
“Do you think the chest with the jewelry in the vault?”
“I’m not sure, but I don’t think so. The Will implied the box was somewhere we could get to and the vault seems kind of secure. But you’re right. Since we don’t know where else to look, this seems like the place to start. Who knows, maybe it’s been sitting in the vault the entire time and the Will was only another one of Granddad’s jokes.”
“OK, let’s open it up. Do you have the combination?”
“Ummm, well, that’s a problem.”
“You don’t have the combination? I don’t think we’ll be able to pick the lock.”
“Well, I know it’s a three number combination. I watched Granddad open it up half a dozen times. He once told me the numbers were an important date in his life.”
“OK, what important date? His birthday? Day he joined the Army? Day he made his first million?”
“I don’t know.”
I just looked at him. I could see this was going nowhere fast.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t give me that look. That’s the same look my ex-wife always gave me. I don’t know what the date is yet, but I can probably find out.”
“OK,” I said, “let’s go back to the bedroom and work this out.”
As we walked back into the bedroom, I saw the sunset program had turned the sky and clouds bright orange. The effect was really beautiful. I could see myself laying in the bed and getting sleepy while the sky slowly changed colors and grew dark.
“Let’s think,” I said. “We’ll need to write down every important date in your granddad’s life. There probably aren’t more than fifteen or twenty. Then we’ll come back here and try them all out. If that doesn’t work, I guess we’ll hire a
safe cracker. There must be someone who can open the door to the vault.”
“I was thinking the same thing. In fact, I already started a list on the flight out here. I’ll need to call the relatives to get the rest of the dates. Hopefully it won’t take too long to get the vault open.”
The bedroom sky had gradually started to shift from bright orange to bright red. The red was deepest directly above the bed and still more orange against the side furthest from the bed, above the door from the hallway.
“That is amazing,” I said.
“What comes next is even better. Sit on the bed and look up.”
We both went to the bed and sat on the edge. I looked directly overhead at the bright red sky. As I looked up, I leaned back until I was laying back on the bed. Les also leaned back until he lay next to me, looking straight up. The clouds overhead had started to fade into the darkening sky. As the red dimmed, small stars started to light up. Within a minute, there were hundreds, if not thousands, of stars becoming visible in the sky.
“Amazing, isn’t it?” he asked.
“I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like being in a planetarium.”
As I lay next to Les watching the stars come out, I gradually became aware of his cologne and that our arms were lightly touching. I got a flashback of him in a towel and my heart kicked it up a notch. I began to wonder if he had planned this. How I would feel about it if he did? Normally, I would get angry if a guy I didn’t know very well tried to seduce me. But in this case, I wasn’t upset or even annoyed. Actually, I was kind of hoping he had. Not that it would go anywhere, of course, but it was sort of nice to know a handsome man thought I was still worth the effort. I lightly pressed my arm against his and felt his leg start to rub against mine. I let it go on for about thirty seconds. Then, I opened my mouth to ask him about his intentions.
“What the hell is going on here?”
It was a woman’s voice coming from the door of the bedroom. She sounded pissed. We both sat up and I saw a woman standing in the doorway. She looked to be a few years older than Les. She was a little taller than I was, thin, and had longer blonde hair, parted in the middle. She was wearing a navy blue skirt, a cream-colored sleeveless blouse, and a pair of big red sunglasses sitting on the top of her head. She had a black shoulder bag and black medium-heeled shoes. I would have said she was pretty if it wasn’t for the fact she was furious. The lights from the sunset program had turned her face a bright red.
“Oh, I should have known,” she hissed out. “On Granddad’s bed with a woman. That’s just great. Don’t tell me. You were you doing the ‘let’s watch the sunset’ thing? You haven’t tried that since you were a teenager. You’re pathetic. Do you know that? You really are pathetic.”
Les let out a deep sigh.
“Elizabeth,” he said, “this is Laura Black. Laura, this is Elizabeth Bright-Murdock, my sister.”
I felt my face blushing a deep red and I was glad the lights of the sunset helped hide my embarrassment.
“So,” Elizabeth said, “I take it after you’re through having sex on Granddad’s bed, you’ll be looking around for the jewelry? I’m assuming it’s not in the vault since that seems too obvious. And since I don’t see it in here, I’m guessing you don’t have it yet.”
Elizabeth hit a switch on the control panel and the bright overhead lights popped back on.
“We haven’t been in the vault yet,” Les said. “And no, we haven’t even started looking around the house.”
“What? You needed a quickie first to get motivated to look for the jewelry?”
“It’s not like that,” Les said. “Laura’s from a law office here in Scottsdale and she’s driving me around and helping me look for the jewelry.”
“Right, it’s pretty obvious what she’s here for. So, why haven’t you been in the vault?”
“The door’s locked.”
“Really? You don’t have the combination?”
“No, do you?”
There was a pause that seemed a bit too long. “Why would I have the combination? I suppose we’re going to need to hire a professional safe-cracker to open the door?”
“Quite possibly.”
Elizabeth walked into the room with the vault and thirty seconds later came back out.
“You’re right. It’s locked up tight. Well, while you two finish up what you were doing, I’m going to poke around the house. Who knows, maybe I’ll get lucky too.”
“Elizabeth,” Les said, “my offer’s still good. Why don’t we agree whoever finds the chest first agrees to split the jewelry?”
“Sure, like the way you were going to be helpful when Dad died? When you so kindly offered to handle the settling of his estate so we’d both get an equal share? How’d that work out for me?”
“You know that wasn’t my fault.”
“Right. Well, you look for the jewelry your way and I’ll look for it mine. We’ll see who finds it first.”
She turned and walked out of the room, only pausing to hit the light switch to start the sunset program again.
“I’m sorry about that,” Les said, his face again lit with the yellow-orange glow of the sunset.
“Is she always that angry?”
“Well, as you heard, we haven’t always gotten along. I don’t think this is going to be any different. OK, how do we start?”
“I agree with your sister,” I said. “Let’s walk through the house. We’ll feel pretty foolish if the jewelry is sitting in a bedroom down the hall and your sister goes in with a pillow case and picks it all up.”
Three
We spent the next three hours going from room to room throughout the entire mansion. We looked in a dozen bedrooms and in at least twenty closets and wardrobes. We looked in the kitchen, the pantries, the parlors, the formal dining hall, the informal breakfast nooks, the game room, the offices, the library, the garages, the pool, and the gardener’s shack. We searched hallways, stairs, an elevator, even the attic. We went down to the basement where there was a huge wine cellar, a laundry room, and even started poking through a stack of old boxes we found.
Finally, we had to admit neither the chest nor the jewelry were anywhere obvious. We passed Elizabeth several times as we searched but she apparently wasn’t having any better luck than we were.
We eventually ended up back at the library. Feelings of annoyance and frustration were washing over me.
“It’s pretty obvious the jewelry isn’t anywhere in the open,” I said. “Since it’s hidden, we’ll need to sit and logically think about where it could be.”
“That seems reasonable. How do you want to go about it?”
I looked at my watch. “It’s already after three. Are you hungry?”
“I was thinking the same thing,” he said. “Is there anywhere nearby?”
“I know the perfect place. We’re about ten minutes from the Oasis at the Phoenician. It’s gorgeous and I know you’ll love it. It’s also a good place to talk and think.”
We made our way out through the house and out to the courtyard. A red Chevrolet was parked next to my Accord and I assumed it was Elizabeth’s rental. As we stepped out into the sunlight, I felt the desert heat wrap around my body like an old friend.
We drove back down the winding mountain road and turned east on Camelback. After a mile, we came to the beautiful tropical display marking the entrance to the Phoenician Resort.
Built back in the mid-eighties at the southeastern base of Camelback Mountain, the two-hundred and fifty acre golf resort is one of the nicest in Arizona. It’s close to the office and I come here often, especially when I’ve had a bad day and need to relax and get my equilibrium back. The grounds of the resort are landscaped in a tropical theme that are somehow unique to the hotels of Scottsdale and Phoenix. I’ve found flowers and trees at the Phoenician I’ve never seen anywhere else in Arizona.
We pulled into the resort and drove to the guard shack. The guard spent a few seconds eyeing my beat up car. I felt
a little annoyed when his eyes lingered over the bullet hole in the side of my trunk.
Haven’t you ever seen a bullet hole before?
The guard directed us to the visitor’s parking garage. We took our time as we walked past the fountains and through the lush grounds to the main pool complex.
The swimming pools at the Phoenician are truly beautiful. They sit in groups on three levels, each level being special in its own way. My favorite is the Mother-of-Pearl Serenity pool. I’ve heard the Mother-of-Pearl tiles used to make the pool were imported from Italy at a cost of more than a million dollars. Being in the pool is sort of like being a pearl, sitting inside a big oyster.
We walked through the gate to the upper level of pools. Like most of the hotel pools in Scottsdale, these were landscaped as a lush tropical oasis. Flowering oleander, sago palms, and bougainvillea bushes provided some splashes of color to contrast with the deep blue of the pools. Date palms, royal palms, and queen palms were used to provide bits of shade.
Even though it was now over a hundred and ten degrees in the shade, there were at least fifty woman, and almost as many men, laying out and getting in some sun. I saw not all of them had used enough sunblock and several of the tourists were turning red. Surrounding the pool were dozens of cabanas, most of which were being used by people who didn’t want the full effects of the sun.
We wound our way past the sunbathers and through the pools to The Oasis, a Bar and Grille set in the middle of the three levels of the resort’s pools. It is a lovely and relaxing spot. I’d been here several times before, most recently with Reno. It made me smile to think of being here with him.
We were seated at a table near a splashing waterfall. I ordered a Diet Pepsi and the Black Angus burger. Les had a beer and the blackened Mahi-Mahi. The waitress brought our drinks and we had a chance to talk while we waited for the food.