Chloe Babineaux Private Investigator

by Lisa Clancey

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  “I need a shovel,” I said, walking toward the barn door. “I think I know where whatever is hidden—is hidden.”

  “You can’t use the shovel you were hit with because it’s evidence,” Lt. Anders said.

  I turned around to look at Rick and Cody and asked, “Did either of you bring a shovel like I asked? Or did you blow me off.” I wouldn’t have been surprised if neither one of them brought a shovel. They were probably humoring me by agreeing with me about something being hidden here.

  “Yeah, I brought a shovel,” Cody smiled. “That’s where we were when Rick called you. My house.”

  “Oh…well…okay then, let’s get started.” That surprised me. I really didn’t think he would have brought a shovel. I thought he would have laughed at me and told me he would watch while I dug. And Rick, not wanting to look like a wuss in front of his partner would have literally sat back and watched as well.

  “Alright,” Cody said, walking toward the door with his arm through my arm, so I was leaning against him. “But first show me where we’re digging.”

  I looked at him, smiled and walked with him out of the barn. The sun was still bright so it must have been early yet. In fact, it was only one. We had plenty of time for digging.

  “What are you digging for?” Sgt. LaCour from the Shloe Sheriff’s department. asked.

  “Buried treasure,” I answered.

  “Oh…yeah of course, I should have thought of that.” He rolled his eyes and then turned toward another deputy and told him to get the camera from his car.

  We all walked to the small graveyard and stood looking around. I had Cody on one side of me and Rick on the other side of me like they were guarding me. They were actually ready to grab me in case I fell flat on my face. I was hoping I wouldn’t metaphorically fall on my face if I was wrong. I was pretty sure I wasn’t. But I have been wrong before.

  I pointed to the grave marker that had the name N. LaName. Everyone stared and shook their head. A couple of the deputies looked at me and smiled like I was a lunatic. You know, like maybe I was hit one time too many.

  “You’re kidding. You think it’s hidden in a grave under the name N. LaName?” Rosy asked. “You know I love you Chloe, but…really?”

  “You haven’t seen my picture of the painting have you Rosy?” I pulled out my phone in my pocket and showed the photo around. “What do you think?”

  “Well…f…uh, sorry, Chloe,” Rosy laughed. “You could be right. Look at the way the sun beam is shining on the barn. But it’s on the barn and not the trees.”

  “I’ve heard the word before Rosy and the sun’s sort of shining on the side of the barn.” I shrugged. “It’s close enough, I’d say.”

  “Yeah, she could be right,” Lt. Anders said with a laugh.

  “I’ll go get the shovel,” Cody said turning toward the cars. “Ya’ll hang tight.”

  I was tired and dizzy and was sort of weaving when Rick put his arms around my waist from behind so I could lean back on him. Closing my eyes made me dizzier, so I left them open but doing so I noticed a few looks from the men around me. Not just glances but stares from Lt. Anders, Dick Weed, and Rosy. Neither Rick nor I said anything but stood there waiting for Cody to come back with the shovel. I felt Rick’s shoulders shrug and the others turned their heads.

  I heard Cody coming up from behind, so I pushed away from Rick. I looked at Cody, who was looking from me to Rick, I smiled and said, “Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down.”

  “But you always fell anyway,” he said, looking at Rick.

  “Because you threw me on the ground,” I said, raising my voice. “You would say, ‘Weebles wobble but they don’t fall down. But you do.’ And then you would proceed to throw me on the ground.”

  “Yeah, it’s a wonder I have children, the number of times you kneed me,” he laughed.

  “I might have been taller than you until we were ten but you were always bigger around than me.” I grinned. “It was the only way I could beat you.”

  “Until I learned how to avoid those knees.” He grinned back.

  “Talking about old times is fun. But don’t we have something else we could be doing?” Asked Sgt. LaCour with his arms crossed.

  “Yeah. We do,” Lt. Anders answered.

  Cody put on his gloves and started digging. The temperature was only in the fifties, so it didn’t take long for him to work up a good sweat. He dug a few feet all along the grave and then Rick took over. He was sweating, and then the other men including the sheriff deputies took turns digging.

  I sat under a tree watching. Did I feel bad watching them work? Nope. Not in the least. I was the one that got the crap beat out of. Patience is not my strong suit, so I really wanted them to find something soon. But while I was waiting, I leaned back and enjoyed the view of men sweating and working hard. Not that it was a shoddy view. I liked watching men work while I watched. The men made a few jokes about me watching and not helping, but I ignored it and gave them a grin and flipped them off.

  An ambulance arrived while I was watching and insisted I go with them to the hospital. But there was no way I was leaving until I was satisfied that either something was there or this was a waste of time. Either way, the EMTs were waiting with me.

  Eventually one of the sheriff deputies found something. “Hey, there’s something here.”

  I ran over to where they were digging, and all of us looked down. The deputy removed the dirt from the top of what looked like a casket. He jumped out of the grave and stood on the side.

  “We aren’t gonna open it, are we?” Dick Weed asked.

  “Yes, we are,” I said looking down at the casket.

  “But what if there’s a body in there?” Sgt. LaCour asked.

  Everyone looked at everyone else. No one really wanted to open the casket. I couldn’t believe it.

  “Even if there is a body,” I said, “it’s been in there so long it won’t be anything left but bones. It won’t be gross.” Man, I hoped it wasn’t gross.

  “But Chloe, it’s a grave,” Cody started to say.

  “Oh please! Give me that.” I grabbed the shovel from the grave digger and jumped inside. It was a longer jump than I anticipated. My knees gave out, and I landed on my rear end with a thud. I’d done worse, at least my jacket stayed snapped.

  There were a bunch of “Are you okays,” so I gave a generic, “Yeah fine,” without looking up. I dug around the lid of the casket to make a groove so I could get the shovel’s blade beneath the lid. But I realized I couldn’t lift the lid while standing on it. I swept more dirt away and noticed the head of the casket opened separately from the rest.

   I stuck the edge of the shovel’s blade underneath the lid, and it moved. I looked at the photographer and said, “Got your camera ready?”

  The wood was old and dry, so it groaned and creaked, but it finally lifted. Nothing. Nothing was there. “What the hell?” I yelled.

  I jumped inside and pulled on the other half of the lid. It wouldn’t move. I started hitting it and yelling at it to open. I heard my name being called and Cody said, “Chloe, let me open it. Get out.”

  I climbed on top of the casket and Rick helped me out of the grave. Cody jumped in and used the shovel to lift the lid. It came open all at once and knocked him back.