Chapter 62

Now that we’ve learned more about how this place is built, we stepped back onto the lift and Rondo took us up to the bottom floor.

“Rondo, when you came down the stairs with your light, did you notice the second floor landing where the stairs turned back the opposite way?”

“I never even looked at the floor behind me, I just turned to follow the stairs when I saw the landing. I was shining my light down the stairs until I came to this level where the lights are...

“Let’s check these suitcases stacked under the tables. If they’re full, we need to take them out as soon as we can, don’t you think?”

“I agree. I’ll pull one out of the middle and put it on the table ... Damn, I would bet a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills, this suitcase weighs just over forty pounds.”

“Why do you say that?”

“A million dollars in hundred dollar bills, weighs twenty-two pounds.”

“How in the hell did you ever learn that? I suppose you’ll tell me now, that you know someone at a bank other than Stewart Bank?”

“I do for a fact and we need to pay her a visit so you can deposit some money in her bank.”

“How do you meet all these women, Josey?”

“I met this one at the Amoco Station, which Granny and I later bought, along with the bulk-fuel plant.”

“You met a banker at a service station? I suppose you took her for a ride in that race-car with the convertible top down?”

“You guessed right all way around ... Now, let’s check a few more of these suitcases. We don’t have any room for them in the vault at home, or Granny’s house. Even though there are millions of dollars here, we may have to just leave it...”

“As bad as I hate to say this - we may need to discover all this money as Deputy Sheriffs.”

“We think alike, Brother. Before we commit to that, we will have a hard-count on what we turn over to the law. Not that I don’t trust Mona, but we don’t know who else will get their grubby hands on a pile of money this big.”

We checked enough of them to decide all of these stacked under the tables were full of money.

We checked a few more of the crates and some of those were heavy, just like the crates we found on that quarter-section of land I bought from Judge Skelley.

“Okay, now that we have a close-count on crates and suitcases, how much?”

“There are twenty-two suitcases - so that’s forty-four million. There are nineteen crates with four hundred thousand each - if they packed them the same as the others. That’s another seven million, six hundred thousand – for a total of fifty-one million, six hundred thousand.”

“That’s a lot of money to walk away from, but I can just see us becoming heroes again, if all that money makes to the right hands.”

“We’ll tell them we did a fast count - twice, and give them our total ... Like I said, I trust Mona, but I don’t know any of her deputies.”

“Let’s get her to come over here with us, and give her our total at that time.”

“You get a raise, Rondo. How about a million dollars per year?“

We were still laughing when we went up to the next level.

“Shine your light around. There has to be a light switch here somewhere.”

“Here it is.”

When the lights came on, we were standing near the back row of a movie theater.

“DAMN! Who would think of putting a movie theater in a hunting lodge - on an island - in the middle of the Mississippi River?”

“Jason Skelley, Maybe?

...”I’ll bet you a suitcase full of hundred dollar bills, they show some of those nudist movies and probably those foreign, fuck movies.”

“Have you ever seen any of those?”

“No, but I read about them in a ledger that belonged to my Uncle Ralph, who was killed in the same plane crash with Mona’s husband - The Collins County Sheriff - and a few other higher-ups.”

“Fuck Man. You’ve been through it all, and you’ve seen it all too, haven’t you?”

“Most - but not all. Let’s check this movie projector out. I know a girl who used to work at the theater in town. I bet she could run this whole outfit - with her eyes closed...

...”You figured out that remote switch on the lift, tell me what switch you think turns this thing on.”

He bent forward and shined his light on the row of switches, then looked up at me. “Flip the top switch up. I think that’s it.”

The big movie screen lit up and music started playing.

“I’ll get the lights. We may want to see this,” he told me and by the time he was standing beside me again, there were two women rolling around on a bed naked, eating each the other’s pussy.

“Would you look at that shit? I never knew they made movies like this.”

“Shine your light under this table. If all those round cans under there have movie film in them, there must be fifty or more.”

“What will we do with these?”

“They belong to us now. We’ll figure something out. Hell, we may meet some women who would like to see these.”

“Yeah - I just bet we do.”

“From what I’ve seen and heard about Edie and Ellis, those two may even want to make a movie like this.”

“DAMN - And we’re going to see them tomorrow!”

“Let’s shut this projector off, and shut the generator off too. We’ll find a way to set a trap for anyone else, who may stop by for a visit.”

When we went down the main stairway, I motioned for him to follow me.

“You’ve got to see what I found earlier.” We were walking toward the huge hot-tub when it dawned on him what it was.

“Damn, I saw one in a hotel once where I worked, but that one was about ten foot by ten foot. We could swim in this hot-tub.”

“Wouldn’t it be fun to bring all the women over here for a weekend?”

“Hell Yeah. Just think if we brought Edie and Ellis over here for a night.”

“I thought of that too. Let’s get back to the truck and decide what we’re going to do.”

In the kitchen, we found the flour bin.

Before we left, we looked inside the three chest-coolers. They were made like chest-freezers – but they were coolers, and on the lid of the first cooler, was a large printed sign which stated - AGED BEEF - I opened the lid and read some of the labels attached to each rack. There were ten racks, and all of them were loaded with what I recognized as whole beef loins, double wrapped in cheesecloth.

Each rack had a different date with the racks on top having the oldest dates. Some were a month old – some were two months old – some were three months old – and some were four months old.

Finally, it dawned on me that someone was using this as a process for aging the beef loins which will be cut into steaks. I had never eaten an aged beef steak and I was anxious to try one.

There was an upright freezer which was full of pork sausage, sliced bacon, and pork chops. Each of them were wrapped in Saran Wrap. The third chest-freezer was filled with frozen turkeys and chickens, all wrapped in Saran Wrap.

Above the freezers and coolers - shelves were mounted on the wall - and the bottom shelf was stacked full of Saran Wrap boxes that had never been opened.

Rondo said, “I’ll say one thing for them, they sure ate high on the hog, with all these millions to spend.”

We dusted the doorknobs, and the floor inside the doors with flour, and outside too - at each entrance - knowing the flour may wash away on the outside if it rains.

We were leaving much earlier than we’d planned, when we left the house, and when we came to the mouth of the canal, I headed east - full throttle - across the main channel of the Mississippi.

“I want to see what’s over here. Surely they must have a place to tie a boat up or even lift it out of the water - like back there at the lodge.”

We found what we were looking for, and there were two more boats, outfitted exactly the same as those at the lodge. They were pulled upon a wooden deck and chained to concrete posts.

Rondo walked through the willows along the bank, following a wide path. He shouted for me to come have a look.

I saw a chain link fence on each side of the gravel road leading to a levee ramp. There was a wide gate across the road. There was prison wire coiled along the top of the fence.

I told Rondo, “I can’t see the reasoning behind this. All a person has to do, is come in from the river, the way we did.”

“Yeah, you’re right. This will only stop an honest person, which probably wouldn’t steal anything anyway.”

“I say we come back tomorrow and open the gate, then bring one of those other boats over here with these. We can drive down here, get in a boat and be across the river to the island, by the time we put the boat in upriver and hide the truck.”

“I’m with you all the way...

...”Are you going to report that money to the Sheriff today? Or wait until tomorrow?”

“I think I’ll wait until early tomorrow morning and call her. She’ll need three or four deputies, other than us - to get all those suitcases and crates out of there...

“Besides, I could be delayed getting to my banker’s meeting tonight.”

“Naomi, I’m meeting a banker over in Stewart at five o’clock, and I’ll probably be late getting back. Just tell the others I have a business meeting to attend. I’ll try not to wake everyone when I return.”

“Everyone knows you’re buying land, and making plans to start farming as soon as the weather breaks. Thanks for telling me, though. When you’re not here at night, we miss you.”

“Rondo and I have another meeting set up for Saturday, and we’ll be late getting home from that one too. I don’t think we’ll have any more trouble from those gang members, but I’ve already asked Sheriff Glass to have deputies in the area ... From Granny’s - past the Montague Farm - around the levee - past Kendalls and on into town.”

Rondo came into the kitchen about then, “Rondo, I’ll see you at breakfast in the morning. I’ll call Mona early in the morning, so we can get that mess cleaned up on the island...

...”Have you called your daddy yet?”

“I just got off the telephone with him a few minutes ago. He’ll be here Sunday around dinner, and he’s excited about the new job. I told him that all he needs to bring is his clothes and anything personal he might need.”

“I’m looking forward to meeting him. I feel like I know him already, as much as you’ve told me about him.”

“I think you’ll like him, and I know he’ll like you.”

He walked out with me, and slapped my shoulder as I turned to walk down the steps.

I didn’t want to drive past Kendall’s Store, or cut off the levee past the Montague Farm, so I headed toward town and took the bypass over to the state highway out toward Granny’s.

As I passed the gravel road to Granny’s, I saw a road sign I’d never noticed before - ‘E. L. Ramsey Rd.’

‘Granny has her own road’

I knew I would get to Stewart early, but I wanted to see if Phoebe Wainwright is still working at her uncle’s office. First of all, I wanted to see her again - and find out if she’s still planning to move in with Kellie and Stella. Most of all, I wanted a chance to flirt with her some more and see if she’d be interested in going for a boat ride or even a horse ride, one day when it gets warmer.

I pulled my badge off and put it in my front pocket. I wasn’t ready for people to see me with it on and recognize me ... Though I am wearing my white shirt and hat.

I didn’t see her old car parked near the office, but I wanted to be sure. When I turned the doorknob, the door opened. She looked up as I stuck my head inside.

“JOSEY! You scared me when you opened the door. I thought I had it locked. Come on in, I’ve thought of you a lot since we talked last time.”