by David Smith
Wolf finally turned his attention to Evelyn who was obviously stunned, perhaps in shock, from the ordeal. Taking her wrist, Wolf gently removed her flashlight that was limply held in her hand. She acquiesced without an argument; soft sobbing was her only retort.
“Be gentle guys,” Wolf said quietly, nodding towards Evelyn as one guard put his hand on the woman’s shoulder. Wolf leaned down and picked up Evelyn’s purse from the ground. After a quick search of the purse he handed it to one of the security guards. “Order a wheelchair from base when you get out of the cave, George,” Wolf told the guard. “I doubt Ms. Duncan will be able to walk very far on her own, under the circumstances.”
“No, no, no,” Evelyn kept repeating herself, tears now streaking down her face.
The security guards escorted Evelyn out of the cave, taking her by the wrist without handcuffs.
Wolf’s radio beeped and he took it off his clip. “Go ahead,” he said, holding the transmitter to his lips.
“We have the suspect in front of the restroom now in custody, Mr. Wolford,” a crackled sounding voice said through the speaker. “There was no incident. We ID’d her and she came without resistance.”
“Good. Please take her to the Security Office and hold her until I return. Oh, and keep her and the other woman that is being transported out there now in separate rooms.”
“Ten-four,” the voice said. Wolf clipped the radio back on his belt clip. He then looked at Blain.
Blain put his hand on the edge of the open chest. “I’m sorry, Mr. Wolford, but it appears I was wrong,” Blain said, nodding in the direction of the treasure chest before him. “I thought for sure the lost money was here, as I mentioned to you on the phone. The key even fit, the clues seemed to all point here…” Blain trailed off, pointing to the lock sitting next to the chest, the key still inside the keyhole.
Wolf stood silently, looking at the chest gloomily.
After a moment of silence, Blain asked, “Could there be another part of the cave, with anther chest like this one?”
Wolf shook his head. “No, this is—and has always been—the only ‘Injun Joe’s Cave,” Wolf said. “Beside, as you said, the key fit the lock on the chest here…in this cave.”
Blain nodded, deflated by the obvious. “Perhaps someone beat us here, or Duncan didn’t get the chance to hide the money in here,” Blain said quietly, not really believing his own words. The circumstances of finding the hidden notebook and the key inside, all pointed to the fact that no one else could have opened the lock before tonight.
Before Wolf could respond, there suddenly was a new voice heard as two people walked in through one of the cave openings…a voice Blain quickly recognized.
“Are you sure the box is empty?” It was Malaysia ducking through the low entrance into the cavern. A different security guard was following Malaysia into the cave.
Blain stared at her with a surprised grin. “Malaysia! What are you doing here?”
“I didn’t want you to have all the fun,” she said, smiling walking up to Blain. “I really couldn’t stay away, you know me.”
“Does Laura know you came here?”
Malaysia nodded. “She is over on the Raft Dock with another security guard waiting.”
Wolf watched and listened to Blain and the woman who he obviously knew, with a slight look of confusion.
The security guard accompanying Malaysia offered an explanation to Wolf. “She insisted that there was something of great importance on the Island, Mr. Wolford,” the guard said. “Then when the guards were coming over to the Island with you, I figured she was telling the truth. I talked to Jerry in dispatch and he told me you were here in Injun Joe’s Cave.”
As Malaysia came up to Blain, she reached out and took his hands. Everyone was silent inside the cave for a moment.
“Uh, Mr. Wolford,” Blain began, as he grinned for a moment at Wolf who still had a confused look on his face. “I would like to introduce you to Miss Malaysia Hosner, the famous singer from Switzerland,” Blain said, squeezing her hand. “Miss Hosner was instrumental in helping solve this mystery.” Blain paused and then corrected himself. “Well, she helped us get this far in the mystery,” Blain said, waving a hand over the empty steel chest.
Wolf slowly shook hands with Malaysia. He turned to Russell, the security guard who had escorted Malaysia onto the island and into the cave. “Russ. Thank you. Would you mind taking a couple security guards to the short term parking lot and see if you can find a Buick Park Avenue?”
“The keys should be in Lynette Forester’s purse,” Blain offered to Wolf.
“Yes, search the purse of the woman I just had taken into custody from Main Street. Don’t move the car, just identify it and then call the Anaheim Police Department. Have them meet me in the main Security Office when I get done here.”
“You got it, Mr. Wolford,” Russell said as he turned and ducked out through the cave opening.
Wolf looked at Blain and then Malaysia as the three now stood alone together in the dark cavern lit only by the flashlight still held by Wolf. He still had a perplexed look on his face as he faced Malaysia.
“Miss Hosner, you said something when you came in here, something about not being sure the chest was really empty? What did you mean by that?” Wolf asked flashing his light upon the chest and back towards her feet so as not to shine it in her eyes.
“Blain,” Malaysia said as she turned away from Wolf to look at Blain. Holding his hand and looking deeply into his green eyes that were mutedly illuminated by the flashlight still held by Wolf and pointing between them, Malaysia asked, “Is the box really empty?” She repeated herself but saying it slowly with intent …as if her tone alone would reveal the answer to her question.
Blain looked at Malaysia for a long time. “You don’t think that…” Blain stopped. He thought back to the Mystery Box on the beach and the locker at the school.
“Blain,” Malaysia said, seeing the wheels turning in Blain’s head. “Remember that one line in the notebook? The line that Nathan had written: ‘I’ve finished the base,’ the one line we couldn’t figure out?”
Blain nodded, realizing now what Malaysia was talking about. With some excitement in his voice, Blain quickly turned to Wolf. “May I borrow the flashlight?”
“By all means,” Wolf said handing the yellow, security-issued flashlight to Blain.
Taking the light, Blain pointed the beam along the bottom of the chest. There was a lot of dirt and dust that had accumulated in the corners; the fallout from forty-plus years of the surrounding earth being ground up by countless feet and then seeping in through the small openings of the chest. Blain thought about the tens of thousands of kids who had run through that cave over the past decades, he himself being one of them long ago. Blain leaned in over the front of the chest and brushed the dirt away from the corners. At first he didn’t see anything. He knocked on the bottom and it felt hard and very solid. As he knocked again, he saw something move in one of the corners. He pounded again. He then saw it clearly: There was a built-in hook that was sitting flush with the base at the right corner near the front of the chest. The hook bounced up a tiny bit when Blain knocked on the base. A small amount of dirt moved in under the hook each time he hit the floor with his fist, making the hook stick up a bit higher each time.
“Malaysia, can you hold this flashlight for a second,” Blain said, holding the flashlight out for her to take. Malaysia moved to the end of the chest, taking the flashlight and pointed the beam of light on the corner where Blain had been knocking on the floor of the chest.
Using both hands, Blain pushed around where he saw the metal hook pop up and when he pushed on one side of the hook, it flipped up all the way to where he could grasp it. He found another one in the other front corner.
“Mr. Wolford, can you stand on this side and help me with this? This might be pretty heavy.” Wolf moved beside Blain and leaned in. “Grasp that small hook you see there in the corner.” Wolf saw the smal
l, flat hook sticking up.
Malaysia stood at the end of the chest, shining the light inside, alternating between the two hooks Blain had revealed.
Standing next to Blain, Wolf leaned in and got his fingers under the left hook; Blain had his fingers under the hook on the right.
Blain glanced at Wolf. “Ready?” Blain asked. Wolf nodded.
“One, two, three, lift!”
Together, with some effort, the men pulled up on the hooks and the base of the chest tilted up towards the front sliding forward. Once they had it going up, they were able to slide it forward and stand it up almost flush with the inside front of the chest. Dust and dirt slid down the slanted metal base, most of it landing in darkness beyond the edge of the panel. It took some effort as the leverage of leaning in over the front of the chest made it difficult to move the base. They could see that the base, by looking at the edge of it now that they had it vertical, was about a quarter-inch thick piece of solid iron.
“Now, I think, officially, this mystery is solved,” Blain said, smiling broadly, wiping some sweat from his brow.
As Malaysia shown the light inside the chest, the three of them could now see beyond the settling dust and beyond where the floor of the chest had been. There, in a three-foot deep hole, were four large, very dusty, canvas bags.
CHAPTER 43
Rewards
Friday, July 2nd 2010
10:30am
Wolf instructed Jerry, the head of security, to bring a security cart to the Island where the bags of stolen money were removed under his close supervision. With added illumination from two quartz lamps that were also set up in the cave, Wolf, Blain, and Malaysia watched as each of the bags were removed from the hole below the former bottom of the chest and, one by one, loaded on to a small metal cart.
Blain outlined the trail of clues that had led them to the cave to Wolf. From first finding the wallet to figuring out what—and where—the small key they found in the wallet went to. They shared their discovery of Nathan’s sister Evelyn and half-sister Lynette and then finding the notebook.
Wolf told them about the pendant that belonged to Walt, the one Blain asked about that was drawn by Duncan in his notebook.
As the bags were removed, they all looked around the interior of the chest and the hole where the bags had been stored. As if looking for a lost contact lens, the three made sure they didn’t miss anything, especially the pendant. Unfortunately, after the bags were carefully removed, the three of them found nothing more within the hole.
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Wolf said as the three rested, leaning against the rock formations that made up the cavern walls of the relatively round room. They had been left alone after Jerry, one additional security guard, and two administration officials, all escorted the cart with the bags to the security office. Wolf continued. “When Nathan was seen leaving Walt Disney’s apartment, there was no way he could have made it here before he climbed the monorail track.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of options,” Blain said, looking absently inside the empty, bottomless chest. “I guess the pendant could be anywhere…and nowhere, by now,” Blain said lifting his eyes to look at Malaysia and then over at Wolf.
Wolf sighed in resignation. He had to agree. In reality, he had been thinking the same thing for years since the event. But, the discovery of the lost bags of money had injected hope and possibility. Now, Wolf had to accept the cards he had been dealt.
“Let’s at least close up the chest,” Wolf said, sounding as if the emotions of the evening had taken their toll. “We still have an Island to open to the public tomorrow,” Wolf added. He and Blain walked over to the front of the chest. They first had to slide the heavy metal base back into the floor of the chest.
Reaching inside the box Wolf nodded to Blain and together they slid the metal base back into place, the steel plate making a resonating bang within the confined area when they dropped it back into the bottom of the chest.
Blain looked at Malaysia before closing the lid to the chest. A strange feeling passed through him. He recognized the feeling similar to that of when he was just about to finish a difficult jigsaw puzzle as a kid, finding that very last piece and feeling a sense of achievement that the puzzle was now complete…but disappointed too, that it was indeed solved and the fun of finding the right pieces was now over. However, he also felt like his proverbial puzzle was missing one piece, leaving an unfinished puzzle picture. The undiscovered pendant represented that lost puzzle piece for Blain.
Finally, Blain walked over to the side of the chest. “I guess we can lock this up for another forty-five years,” Blain said as he bent down to pick up the lock that was on the ground. “I feel like we should put something in here for posterity,” he added looking at Wolf then to Malaysia again as he held the lock in his hand.
Wolf tilted his head a little. “You mean like a time capsule?” Wolf asked.
“Sure. Can you think of something that would be of interest a half a century from now?” Blain asked.
Wolf thought about it. It was an intriguing idea since it was just the three of them, Wolf, Blain and Malaysia, left inside the cavern. No one would know what they put inside the chest except them. Wolf looked about the cavern without seeing anything that would be pertinent or relevant.
Blain looked at Malaysia. In the light of the additional lamps that had been brought in, she looked absolutely radiant under the circumstances and within the peculiar surroundings.
“The meaning of what we put in the chest will be our little secret for the next fifty years, right?” Malaysia asked; she was looking at Blain.
“Sure,” Wolf said. “I can leave explicit instructions in the Security office that the chest is to remain locked and sealed until July 2nd, 2060. I suspect that is the only key known,” Wolf added looking at the key that was still in the keyhole of the lock that Blain was holding.
“In that case, I want to leave something in there that has meaning to Blain and me, something we will always know is there and hidden…and will be our personal secret,” Malaysia said looking at Blain.
Blain nodded, smiling. Malaysia used her fingers to slide the small pirate ring that Blain had bought her earlier in the week off her ring finger.
Blain handed the lock to Wolf and proceeded to pull the matching green emerald ring off his own finger. Neither had removed their ring since the day Blain had bought them. He then glanced around the cave, around the floor. Not finding what he was looking for, his eyes moved up to Malaysia’s head. “May I?” Blain asked Malaysia as he looked up at her hair. A thin ribbon that was tied in a bow was attached to her hair clip.
Malaysia turned her eyes upward, as if she could see the top of her head. “Of course,” she said. Blain reached over and carefully pulled out the hair clip. Malaysia let her blond hair fall around her head shaking it free. Blain pulled on the powder blue bow which had been glued to the hair clip. It came untied and then came free of the clip when he tugged on it a bit.
Handing the clip back to Malaysia, Blain threaded the thin ribbon into each of the rings. He tied a knot with the ends of the ribbon followed by a bow with the remaining length.
Wolf watched as Blain deliberately set the rings on the metal base of the chest, setting them in the very center of the chest and arranging them so the rings sat touching each other, one resting partially atop the other. The rings, obviously inexpensive toy jewelry, Wolf couldn’t figure what meaning such trivial items could possibly have between Blain and Malaysia. However, he kept his bewilderment to himself.
Blain started to close the lid, imagining what someone, other than them, would think if, in fifty years, someone really did open the chest and find only the two rings.
“But, no one will know what the rings are or who they are from,” Wolf commented, as if reading Blain’s thoughts. Blain let the lid close with a resonant thud that echoed within the cavern.
After a moment it was Malaysia who spoke.
“We will,”
she said, resolutely answering Wolf’s comment.
Wolf slowly nodded, understanding. He handed Blain the lock and then watched as Blain slipped its collar through the latch and then closed the shackle with a little effort. He turned the key and then tested the lock, finding it held secure.
Pulling the key out, he tossed it to Wolf.
“We will be back in fifty years,” Blain said. “Take care of that key.”
Friday, July 2nd 2010
10:30am
“I’m sorry the pendant was not with the stolen money,” Blain solemnly said to Wolf, shaking his head slowly. It was the morning after the discovery of the stolen bags of money under the chest inside Injun Joe’s Cave on Tom Sawyer Island. Sitting in Wolf’s office with Malaysia, Blain had brought in Nathan’s notebook, the note found in the wallet, the locker key as well as the key that he had opened the chest on Tom Sawyer Island with, and Nathan’s wallet to Wolf. The items were now sitting on Wolf’s desk among various manila folders and papers sitting on different areas of the desk surface.
Wolf sat behind his desk facing Blain and Malaysia.
“The two of you have answered a prayer,” Wolf said. “A prayer issued nearly forty-five years ago.”
“I would say it has not been completely answered,” Blain said matter-of-factly.
“It will show up someday,” Wolf said half-heartedly, knowing Blain was speaking of the pendant not being with the stolen money. He then opened a note pad in front of him on the desk.