definitely worth a lot,” I murmured.
“But what’s a fancy dresser doing in a cave?” Robin wondered aloud. “And a curio cabinet?
And silver candlesticks?”
“And books,” I added.
“Good question,” Austin said, his tone turning suspicious. “The sooner this wall comes
down, the better.”
I continued to scrutinize the dresser, too fascinated by our discovery to care how
utterly bizarre it was that these amazing treasures were hidden behind a solid wall
of concrete inside the winery storage cave. “That’s definitley a jewelry chest on
top of the dresser. It’s the same inlaid pattern as the dresser. I wonder if there’s
anything inside.”
“Jewels, of course,” Robin said, grinning.
Something caught my eye on the dresser. “Oh, there’s a silver tray with one of those
old-fashioned silver combs and a hairbrush on it. It’s pretty.”
“I’m sure it’s pretty,” Robin said, “but it’s still kind of weird.”
“You’re right,” I said, and shivered a little. “It’s like somebody lives in there.”
I moved out of the way, leaving Derek alone to continue examining the odd crevice.
He angled the flashlight in different directions, casting light onto every inch of
the space. He scanned the low ceiling and ran the beam along the rest of the walls.
I was curious to see what other bounty we would find in there, so I peeked around
Derek to take another look. Seconds later, I let out a piercing shriek.
“What is it?” Austin demanded, crowding me as I tried to push away from the wall.
Robin patted my shoulder. “Knowing Brooklyn, she probably found a dead body.”
Her words barely registered as I pointed a shaky finger at what I saw on the floor
close to the wall.
Derek aimed the beam where I’d indicated and muttered an expletive. He stepped back
from the hole in the wall, turned off the flashlight, and wrapped his arm around my
shoulders.
Robin’s smile faltered. “Derek?”
“You were right, Robin,” Derek said, giving me a soft squeeze of sympathy. “This cave
has just turned into a crime scene.”
Chapter Two
In seconds, Derek and Dad had the men rounding up pickaxes and sledgehammers in order
to take down the rest of the wall.
I was shuffled out of the cave and barely had time to deal with another dead-body
encounter.
Stan and his men backed the huge roadheader out of the enclosed space to give everyone
more room. Stan ran and grabbed his own sledgehammer and joined the workers. Concrete
dust was soon billowing out of the large storage cave. I was concerned for the men,
of course, since it was getting hard to breathe, but I knew Derek wouldn’t stop until
he could step right into that inner room. I would’ve grabbed a pickax and gone to
work on the wall myself, but I was certain I would just be in the way. As soon as
the air cleared, though, I was going to jump in and find out who that dead person
was. I had other questions, too. Where had all those beautiful treasures come from?
And at what price?
One of Stan’s men jogged over with a handful of cheap filter masks.
“Will those help?” Robin asked.
“It’ll keep some of the larger particles from getting into their lungs,” he said.
Larger particles?
So the smaller ones would get through? That was not a good answer. Robin and I exchanged
worried looks as the man ran into the cave to hand out the masks.
Less than two minutes later, Derek and Austin stumbled out, covered in dust. Jackson,
Stan, Dad, and one other man followed a few seconds later.
I rushed over to Derek, who was ripping the mask away from his mouth. “Are you all
right?”
“I’m fine,” he said, slapping the dust off his shirt. “But Stan was starting to wheeze,
so I thought we’d better take a break. We’ll wait for the dust to settle before we
go back in.”
“Okay. I don’t want anyone to get sick from breathing that stuff.”
“Nor do I,” he muttered as he bent