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RORY TOOK A LOOK AROUND the room as his fingers caressed the material. There was a lot of information in here. The problem was, nothing made much sense to him or stood out. He was definitely going to have to rely on Chet to help him figure this out.
"Penny for your thoughts now," Donna-Lou said in amusement.
It was Rory's turn to feel sheepish. He just shook his head as he looked at the papers clustered around the walls of the room, "I'm just not sure where to start. Or how to use this information. Maybe I'm even on a wild goose chase...."
"Well, at least it's a chase. Which is more than anyone else has been doing," Donna-Lou said. "So thank you for that."
Rory nodded, appreciative of the support, but not sure whether he merited it. Rory wandered around the room, trying to make sense of the signs. He glanced through newspaper articles young Corry had photocopied or printed out and pinned onto the wall, trying to get an overall sense of the young boy's search for the treasure.
Donna-Lou stood by the whiteboard, looking at it thoughtfully, as Rory wandered around. She was silent for the longest time and then she said, "Rory, would you do something for me?"
Rory turned and nodded, "Sure. What is it?"
Donna-Lou gestured for Rory to follow her out the open doorway, into the hallway. She walked back to a spot between the two bedrooms, the boards squeaking softly under her footsteps. Stopping, she pointed up at the ceiling, "There are old pull-down stairs up there for the attic. Can you grab that short cord and pull it down?"
Rory looked up to see a rectangular section in the ceiling. A short discolored cord hung from one end. He had missed that when they first came through. He positioned himself right underneath and reached up.
"Careful. It's old and it's been a long time since anyone used it," Donna-Lou cautioned as she took a step back.
Rory nodded and did a little jump, grabbing hold of and tugging on the cord in one motion. He stepped back as the stairway began to drop.
"Ooo," Donna-Lou said with a giggle as Rory bumped into her.
"Sorry," Rory said as he watched the bottom of the stairway bump into the old floorboards.
Donna-Lou looked confused as she stepped around Rory, looking up into the opening. "That's strange. I thought there'd be a lot more dust coming down."
Rory hadn't thought about that aspect, but she was right. He wondered if someone had been up there not long ago. Maybe the same person who had broken into her house?
Donna-Lou shook the stairway vigorously to make sure it was safe. Satisfied it was fine, she began climbing.
As Rory watched her climb, his eyes settled on her shapely bottom in the blue jeans.
Placing one foot on the attic floor, Donna-Lou stepped up into the attic, turned and looked down at him.
Rory wondered if she had caught him looking at her bottom. They had only just met and–
"Are you coming up or not? Or you afraid of the dark?" She smiled.
Rory cleared his throat, shook his head and started climbing.
Donna-Lou disappeared from view.
As Rory's shoulders emerged through the opening in the ceiling, Donna-Lou turned on a large, bare light bulb attached to one of the rafters and he got his first look at what was up here. Piled across the attic floor, in no particular order, were old wooden chairs, small tables, bits of furniture, pictures and pictures frames wrapped in cloth, assorted lamps, and boxes. Dozens and dozens of boxes of various sizes, some cardboard and some wooden, were placed around the attic. Most of the boxes had labels scrawled across the side; books, dishes, cutlery, knick-backs. A number of labels were faded and unreadable in the dim light off to the edges of the attic. Rory stepped foot on the old attic boards and saw more items off in the dark corners of the attic.
Donna-Lou was working her way through items and boxes, heading to the far end of the attic, toward the back of the old house.
"What exactly are we doing up here?" Rory asked as he took a few tentative steps on the old boards, heading in her general direction.
Donna-Lou talked over her shoulder as she continued walking along the old boards, looking for something, "My grandfather had an old trunk that fascinated me when I was just a kid. I don't remember ever seeing inside it. But I do remember that was where he kept that oilskin I mentioned. My grandmother had some of the men put the trunk into the attic after his wake here in the house. I can remember them struggling to get it upstairs on and then into the attic."
"They held a wake here in the house! Really?"
Donna-Lou nodded as she moved a couple of boxes, "That's what they did in those days. I don't remember much about it, except for the crying and wailing. Stayed with me for a long time as a kid. Can you move those boxes over there, out of the way?"
Rory stepped forward and slid four boxes over to the right and away from where Donna-Lou was working, "Why are you looking for the trunk?"
"I just thought it might be helpful to see what an old oilskin looks like. Move this over there too, please," Donna-Lou said as she slid a larger box towards Rory.
Rory slid that box over with the others.
"Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't," Donna-Lou said. She slid another large cardboard box to the side with a grunt, "And here it is."
Rory slid the larger box further to the side and out of the way.
Donna-Lou was now bent over, hands on her knees, in front of another large box.
Rory couldn't see exactly what it was but he caught a glimpse of a large, fancy-looking steamer trunk with a heavy, brown patina.
"Can you pull this out for me?" Donna-Lou asked, "I'd like to get it more into the light."
"Sure." Rory stepped forward. As Donna-Lou moved to the side, he now had a better look at the trunk. It was four foot long, two feet across and nearly two feet high. The color was a deep, rich caramel with a gilded, gold framework, crisscrossed by half-inch, gold metal straps, gold latches, and gold carry handles on each end. Rory ran his hand over the surface between the metal bands, "Amazing. The material is actually leather. This thing looks really old."
"It is," Donna-Lou confirmed.
Rory grabbed one of the gold handles on the end. He grunted as he barely slid it a foot, "Wow. Is it ever heavy." He tapped the top, "There is thick wood underneath the leather. Someone really wanted to protect the contents."
"As I said, those men struggled and cursed all the way up. My grandmother had us kids leave so we wouldn't learn bad language. Little did she know we already knew the choice swear words," Donna-Lou said with a laugh. She took a step forward and grabbed the other gold handle, "I'll do my best...."
Rory grabbed the handle again and waited for Donna-Lou to get herself set. She gave him a nod and working together, they slowly slid each side back and forth until the old steamer trunk was free of the surrounding items.
Donna-Lou knelt in front of the trunk, breathing heavy from the exertion. She pulled down on the lock, "Crap, locked. And I don't remember where the key is." She waved at the items around them, "Find me something to hit it with."
"Are you sure?" Rory asked. "That trunk is probably worth a fortune as an antique."
Shrugging, Donna-Lou said, "Like I said, I don't know where the key is
Rory bent over, looked at the keyhole in the lock, estimating the size with a fingertip. He remembered seeing something he could possibly use. He turned on his heels and went over to an area of the attic floor where he saw some kitchen items and one other thing he felt he could use. A minute later he found the boxes marked 'kitchen' and a heavy cast piece for hanging pots on top of one. And wrapped around one of the prongs he found the small roll of black, stovepipe wire. Grabbing it, he uncoiled one end as he went back to the steamer trunk, "This should work."
Donna-Lou slid over on her knees and watched Rory kneel and insert one end of the wire in the keyhole.
Rory worked the wire inside the keyhole, feeling for the locking mechanism and was rewarded with a dull click. Pulling the wire out he slid over to allow Donna-Lou to move back. "You can do the honors," Rory said. He reached over and put the coil of wire on one of the cardboard boxes.
Donna-Lou slid over on her knees and undid the two gold latches first. Then she put her hand on the lock and looked at Rory, a twinkle in her eye, "Do you think we'll find KGC treasure?"
Rory pretended to grumble, "We'll never know if you don't open it."
Donna-Lou smirked, then turned her attention back to the trunk. She slowly opened the lid, leaned over a bit...and Donna-Lou Haney gasped.