“Of course Olden would have a suite,” I muttered. “Is the door locked?”
While lock-picking is in my repertoire of skills, I didn’t have a kit on hand. Lucy leaned forward and twisted the knob; it rattled but was definitely locked up tight. Reaching up, she brushed her hands along the doorframe. There was a tinkle and a small key fell into her palm. Smiling in triumph, she held it up.
“Olden’s laziness finally came in handy. She didn’t bother changing her hiding spot.”
She clicked the lock, pushed open the door and bravely stepped into the unknown.
“Taking one for the team, Luce?” I followed her in.
“I got this one but you can have the next.” She smiled. “Which is sure to be much worse,” she finished under her breath.
Over her head, I was visually exploring Olden’s suite.
“One thought has immediately sprung to mind.” My voice echoed around the room.
“Is it ‘What a thieving bitch’?” Lucy snarled.
It was a big room, huge actually, and it was full of very valuable food ration boxes.
“What is she doing with these ration boxes?” Lucy’s outrage was clear.
I shook my head. “I don’t know, but if we find donuts or coffee in any of them, Luce, Olden’s a dead woman.”
At least thirty boxes were scattered haphazardly around a humongous four-poster bed. There was also one other door.
Threading my way through the boxes, I yanked it open. Dull white tiles reflected back at me from the empty bathroom. There was a sheen of soap scum and dust layering the entire room. I opened the few drawers on the washstand, but they were all empty. Poking my head out, I saw Lucy was checking out the bed.
“I don’t think Olden stays here much. The bathroom’s empty.”
“And there aren’t any sheets on this bed. So where does she sleep?” Her voice was strained as she lifted the heavy mattress off the frame.
“My ‘bat in the rafters’ idea’s not so crazy now, is it?”
Moving toward the closest rations box, labelled in large black letters as ‘noodles’, I ripped off the tape. I stared at the contents. Shaking my head, I moved back to see the side again and then the contents again. There was something very wrong going on here.
“Uh, Luce, you better get over here and see this.”
Finished her inspection, she moved across the room to stand next to me and we both stared down. “There appears to be some labelling mistake here,” she drawled.
“Yep, I’ve never seen noodles quite like these.”
The box was full of hundred-dollar bills. Neatly bundled into huge chunks. Money still ran the rebels and gangs, so it was an incredibly valuable commodity.
She gripped my arm tightly. “Holy shit! We have to get out of here, Abbs. This is bad, very, very bad. People kill for much less money than this.” Panic threaded through her voice.
I shook my head at her. “We need to check the rest of them. I have to make sure the stone is not here.”
“Well, only one way to find out.” Lucy let go of me and without pause upended the box onto the floor.
The bundles tumbled out in an avalanche.
“Nothing else in this one,” she said. “Let’s move on.”
Okay, well that was one way to do it.
We continued throughout the room.
“Why would she keep all of this money here? Not exactly a safe spot.” I wiped back a strand of hair that had fallen in my eyes.
Lucy snorted out a harsh laugh. “Where could be safer than in her bedroom that has a spare key sitting above the door frame? Hey!” She gave a shout. “I found something.”
Looking up from my box, I saw Lucy had a chain dangling from her hand.
“It’s an engraved pendant. To our darling Lucinda. We will be back for you.”
“Lucinda, as in the blonde with the smart mouth?” I remembered her from martial arts class but I’d never really spoken to her.
Lucy lifted her shoulders in a massive shrug. “I would assume so. Didn’t she leave last year?” It sounded like a rhetorical question, so I didn’t bother to answer.
With a heavy exhalation of breath, I continued to the next box. “Of course Olden would steal from us. The woman has no soul.”
“So, if you’re lucky she has the stone because she’s a dirty rotten thief. Not because she’s connected to dreamland.” Lucy winked at me. She might just have found the silver lining.
With renewed determination, we finished checking the boxes. The floor was covered in wads of cash. Slipping along a large pile, I stumbled onto the last box. Ripping off the tape, I opened it.
For the first time there was no cash. Instead she’d been storing stones: precious and semi-precious.
“Yo, Luce. Olden’s been stealing stones from more than me.”
Finished with her boxes, Lucy made her way to me.
“Do you see any blue ones?”
I sifted through them, letting the multitude of silky smoothness run through my hands. They looked like a combination of valuable rubies and less precious diamonds. The market had been flooded with simulated diamonds through the years, lowering the value.