Underwater Excavation
Mulberry’s knock woke me up the next morning. “I think I know where the treasure is,” he said, pushing his way into my room.
“Good morning,” I said, my eyes only half open.
“When we did a search of the basement of Eighty-Eight East End, we found a lot of really strange stuff.” I looked in the mini fridge for a beer, but they were all gone. “I’ve been going over it in my mind, and I think that some of it is stuff used for underwater excavation.” I was trying to wrap my mind around my lack of beer. “It wasn’t all in one room, mind you. It was spread out so that no one would think ʽhey, here’s a room full of underwater excavation equipment.ʼ I mean you wouldn’t have even noticed it unless you knew you were looking for underwater excavation equipment.” I held up a hand to stop him.
“Stop saying underwater excavation equipment or I’m going to throw up.” I walked into the bathroom and closed the door.
“Don’t you understand what I’m saying?” Mulberry called through the door. I turned on the tap and started brushing my teeth, ignoring him. I washed my face and looked at myself as the water dripped off my chin. I looked like I hadn’t slept, that I had drunk instead. My head was large, fuzzy, and in need of a beer.
When I came out of the bathroom, Mulberry was waiting for me. “The point is that if they left the equipment down there, then they might have been launching it from there.” I walked right past him into the bedroom and closed the door. “I bet there is a passage to the river. They could launch the equipment from the old marina and then bring the treasure back to the basement. They could have false rooms, or they could be bringing it out slowly. I don’t know.” He was breathing hard when I came back out, dressed and ready for a drink. I picked up my keys, clipped Blue to a leash and walked out the door. Mulberry followed me into the hall.
“See, what I’m thinking is we should explore that basement. You said we could get in through the drainage. I think we should wait till it’s dark. There’s no reason to risk anyone seeing us.” The elevator opened, and we all stepped in. “Once inside we can search the rooms. I mean, we’re not in a rush, right? We can take our time. Find all the treasure. We might even be able to remove it without killing anyone.” The doors opened on the ground floor. I pushed the door-close button. Mulberry turned to look at me. “What are you doing?”
“Mulberry.”
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.” I pushed the door-open button and walked out, waving at the guy behind the desk. He didn’t wave back. Mulberry followed me silently. I walked to the bodega, directly to the cooler holding the beer and picked up a six-pack.
“What are you doing?” Mulberry asked.
“Breakfast.” He blocked my path.
“No way.” Blue growled at Mulberry. “This is bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“What you need is coffee and eggs and sausage. Not beer.”
“I’ll take beer, thank you very much.” I tried to push past him but the aisle was too narrow. “Come on.”
“You don’t even want that.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No. You’re faking it.”
“What?”
“Cut the crap.” Mulberry leaned toward my face. “You’re not an alcoholic. You don’t need that, you don’t want it, and I’m not gonna let you drink it.” I pushed up against him. He was made of stone.
“Fine,” I exhaled loudly, too tired to argue. Hell, maybe he was right.
“Coffee?” I agreed. “I’m buying.”
“Good.” We walked to a diner nearby that had outdoor seating. Blue climbed under the table, his nose and tail sticking out from either end.
“Coffee for two and two hungry-man breakfasts.”
“That’s disgusting.”
“You need it. You look like all you’ve been doing is drinking.”
“And plotting my revenge.” I smiled at him.
“This isn’t a joke.”
“Hey, you’re the one who showed up at my doorstep acting like a kid on Christmas, talking all loud about treasure and,” I lowered my voice, “killing people.” Mulberry waved his hand at me to shut up. “That’s all I’m saying.”
“What do you think about my idea?”
“I think you’re right. I saw wet suits down there and a really powerful flashlight. The Expedition something.” Our coffee arrived and I slurped at mine hungrily.
“Exactly,” Mulberry said. Our hungry-men arrived: sausage, bacon, ham, pancakes, French toast, and two eggs. After the first bite I realized how hungry I was. Neither of us spoke again until the plates were cleared away. “Mulberry, I want us to be clear on one thing before we go any further with this.” He nodded. “I’m going to kill him.” Mulberry nodded again. “For me, the treasure is secondary. Do you understand?”
“Yeah. But don’t you think that taking the treasure is punishment enough? I mean, don’t you think leaving him alive to realize that his treasure is gone is better than killing him? Also, then we don’t face any legal repercussions. He’s not going to call the police and report it missing.”
“Mulberry I’m going to kill him. That’s it. There’s nothing else to talk about here.”
“Fine.” Mulberry frowned and looked away. I smiled. ”You don’t have to be there,” I said gently. “We’ll get the treasure out, and then I’ll go and take care of him myself. You’ll be long gone by the time he’s dead.”
“OK.”
“So, back to this theory of yours. If Tate and Kurt were accessing the river via the basement, then so could we.” Mulberry nodded. “Theoretically we could carry it out the same way they carried it in.”
“Right.”
“The question is, how do we turn the treasure into money?”
“I think I know a guy who can help with that.”
“Yeah?”
“I’ve got a meeting with him tonight.”
“Can I come?” The waitress came over and refilled our coffees. After she left Mulberry said, “No.”
“Why not?”
“He’s a very private man.”
“It’s a man, then.”
“Shut up.”
“Fine, talk to your man.” I stood up. Blue hurried out from under the table and stood next to me. Mulberry stood up, too.
“Where you going?” he asked.
“I’ll call you.” I started to walk away from the table. Mulberry tried to follow but a manager—a big, hairy man—asked him how he would like to pay for his check. Blue and I kept walking while Mulberry struggled to pull his wallet out.
I led Blue around the corner and out of Mulberry’s sight. I turned into a building. The lobby was empty except for a security guard standing next to a bank of elevators. He watched as Blue and I stood up against the wall.
“Can I help you?”
“No. I’m fine.” I saw Mulberry come rushing around the corner. He looked up and down the street. I watched the frustration set itself in lines on his face.
“Ma’am, is everything OK?” the security guard asked, eyeing the lingering bruising on my face. The bandages were gone, but the scars looked fresh, pink, and scary.
“Yes. Thank you. I’ll leave in just a second.”
“Are you hiding from someone?”
I smiled at him. “Of course not.” Mulberry turned back toward the restaurant. I waited a few more minutes, watching people walk by.
“Is that the guy you’re hiding from?” the security officer asked, pointing across the street at the bus stop. Bob stood large and conspicuous, surrounded by tired women holding plastic bags. “I think he knows you’re in here.”
“Yeah.” Bob was looking right at us. “Looks that way.”
I stepped outside and waved to Bob. He nodded. Then I headed over to Jackie Saperstein’s house. I wanted to talk to her. I had a feeling she knew something she hadn’t told anyone that she was just dying to tell me.
Soon, Very Soon
Cecelia opened the door for me. “Joy, this is a surprise. Elaine told us you no longer wanted the route.”
“That’s true, but I want to talk to Jackie.”
“Come in.” She closed the door behind me. “I heard about what happened to your brother, and I wanted to tell you how sorry I am.”
“Thanks.” I didn’t want to talk about it, and she dropped it. Jackie and Mildred sat across from each other at the small kitchen table. Snaffles waited for me at the gate, his tail wagging.
“Joy,” Jackie said. “This is a surprise.”
“Hi, how are you?”
“I’m alright. How are you?”
“I’ve been better, but I’ll be OK. Mildred.” I nodded at Mildred. She nodded back. “Could I speak to you alone?” I asked Jackie.
Cecelia took Jackie’s place across from Mildred, and we went into the living room. Almost blinding sunlight filled the room. Jackie closed the curtains. “It gets really hot in here if I let the sun come in all day,” she explained. The sun struggled through the dark-blue drapes, and the room took on a somber tone.
“I wanted to talk to you about something your husband was involved in.” She sat down on the couch and motioned for me to sit next to her.
“What kind of involvement?”
“It has to do with treasure.” Surprise was all that registered on her face. “The basement of Eighty-Eight East End.” Her surprise was tainted by guilt. “What do you know about the basement?”
“Nothing.”
“I think it was you.”
“What?”
“I think it was you seen leaving the emergency exit.”
“But—”
“I don’t think you killed your husband. In fact, I know you didn’t. I think you were there, though.” Her eyes, large and frightened, stared at me.
“How?” she asked in barely a whisper.
“I want you to tell me what happened. I won’t tell the police or anyone else, ever. I give you my word of honor.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Will you tell me?” I could see that she wanted to. Her story pulsed inside her.
“I followed him,” she started.
“From here?”
“Yes. I was here when he came back from his jog.”
“He came back here? Why didn’t Michael see him?”
“I don’t know. He was probably looking at himself in the mirror. Or maybe he went out for coffee. I don’t know why.”
“OK. So, he came back here.”
“He was here when I came in. I sneaked in the delivery entrance after leaving Julen. Joseph was packing a bag. He was wearing his jogging outfit and his stupid toupee, and he was packing a bag.” Her words spilled out of her, angry and desperate. “When he saw me standing in the doorway, he jumped. He was obviously scared. I asked him what was wrong, but he wouldn’t tell me anything. He brushed past me like I was the maid. But I was his wife. I followed him into the hall, and I grabbed his toupee off his head. He tried to take it back, but I didn’t let him.” I had an image of Mrs. Saperstein standing on the couch, the toupee held high above her head as the late Mr. Saperstein tried to claw up her body to get it back.
“It was so stupid, so childish of me. I told him he couldn’t leave me, that I loved him, that I wanted to save our marriage.” She watched her hands resting in her lap. “He looked at me with such disgust—like I was nothing. I don’t know how it got to that.” She paused. “We were really in love once, you know. We,” she smiled sadly, “thought we would be happy together forever.” I nodded. “So, um, he gave up trying to take the toupee. He told me I would hear from his lawyer and stormed out.” She stopped talking.
“Then what happened?” I asked.
“That’s it.”
“Come on, finish it.” She looked at me, her eyes glistening. She appeared to be drowning on the inside.
“I took his toupee and I followed him,” she whispered, “I took the stairs, and I followed him out of the building. He didn’t turn around even once. He walked straight to this hatch in the ground in the park, near the cherry trees.” She looked to see if I knew the hatch she was talking about. I nodded that I did. “Joseph opened it and then looked around to see if anyone was watching, but he didn’t see me and he went down. I followed him. He had started wearing this awful cologne. A gift from his girlfriend, I guess. I could smell it. Isn’t that crazy? I tracked him through the halls by his smell, like a dog.” She was waiting for me to say something.
“I think it’s impressive you were able to track him so cleverly.”
“Sure,” she laughed, “clever, not psychotic. Whichever it was, I followed him. I saw him go into a room, and then I heard him inside the room. He was apologizing, and I heard a man tell him it was too late. I ran around the corner and hid. They came out of the room and walked in the opposite direction. I went after them. They went through the emergency exit. I was about to follow when I heard a bang.” She paused. “I thought it was a truck backfiring. How silly.” A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek, leaving a track in her makeup. “I opened the door and saw Joseph on the ground.” I put a hand on her shoulder. “I don’t remember doing it, but I must have dropped the toupee.” She choked on a sob.
“It’s OK. You can stop now.”
“No. I want to finish. I saw him lying there. He had no face.”
“I know.”
“And he was in his own blood. I was standing in the doorway looking at him when I heard Chamers yell to me. I ran. I ran blindly through the halls. Somehow I found myself back at the room that Joseph came out of, and I went into it.”
“What was in it?”
“It was so strange. It was just a bunch of wooden crates marked fragile.” Her eyes were unfocused, staring into the gloomy light coming through the curtains. “I keep going back there, but I still don’t understand.”
“That’s how Snaffles ate the rat poison?” She turned her head and focused on my face.
“Yes, I took him with me for the company.” Her breath caught in her throat, and I could almost see the fear race through her veins. “You won’t tell anyone?” she begged and questioned in the same breath.
“Not a soul,” I promised. “Have you figured out what your husband went down there for?”
“No.” She smiled without her eyes. “I haven’t a clue. The boxes are all empty. I don’t understand it.”
“Thank you for telling me.” She looked at me but didn’t say anything. “I’ve got to go,” I said breaking eye contact. I stood up; she followed.
“Do you know why he went down there?”
“I think so.”
“Will you tell me?”
“Later.” She reached for my hand and held it lightly.
“Please, tell me. I can’t sleep.”
“The answer won’t help you.”
“Please.”
“I can’t tell you now. I promise you that I will explain it all soon.” I took my hand away from her. She reached toward me. “I promise, soon.”
Information
Bob was waiting for me outside. He followed me back to the Excelsior where I sat in my room until the sun set. Mulberry called. I told him to come over. He arrived with Chinese food.
“You trying to fatten me up?” I asked.
“Someone’s got to do it.” He pulled out General Tso’s, moo shoo pork and spring rolls. We ate directly out of the cartons. I didn’t have any plates or bowls.
“I did some research today after you ran off,” Mulberry said, a piece of shredded pork hanging from his chin. I motioned to it. He tried to get it with his tongue.
“Lower,” I told him. He stretched his tongue as far as it would go. I laughed.
“Did I get it?”
“No.” He took his hand and wiped just below it. I laughed harder.
“Shut up.” Mulberry reached into the bag, found a napkin, and vigorously wiped the wrong side of his face. “Hmm?” I shook my head, laughing. Mulberry got angry. “Just get it off me.” I took the napkin from him and was about to grab it when I burst out laughing and had to slap my knee. “Joy!” he yelled. “Come on.” He thrust his chin out toward me. I leaned over and wiped at the pork with the napkin.
We were just inches away from each other. Mulberry made eye contact, and it felt like electricity bolted between us. We both turned away quickly.
The detective grunted. “Like I said, I did some research today,” he started. I smiled at him. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“What?”
“I’m not cute.”
I laughed. “You are when you have pork on your chin.”
“Listen to me, OK?”
“OK.”
“There is a drainage system underneath Eighty-Eight that drains into the river. It goes under the highway straight to the river.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a large folded piece of paper. Mulberry unfolded a map onto the coffee table and showed me which one of the hundreds of lines was the tunnel we could take to the river.
“We just have to find how to get into it?” I asked.
“Exactly.”
“I found some stuff out today, too.”
“Yeah?”
“I know what room Joseph Saperstein walked into in Eighty-Eight right before he was murdered.” Mulberry’s jaw dropped. I savored his surprise for a second before I continued. “It was the room with all the empty fragile boxes.”
“I know what you’re talking about,” Mulberry said. I popped the last bite of spring roll into my mouth.
“I think we should check it out tonight,” I said, my mouth full. Mulberry looked at me. I swallowed. “What?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing, nothing. Let’s check it out tonight.”
“There’s one thing.”
“Yeah?”
“We’re going to have to evade Bob.”
“Who?”
“That’s what I call my tail.”
“Are you on something?” Mulberry asked.
“No, really. There’s a guy who’s been following me. I call him Bob.” Mulberry just stared. “He works for the mayor. He’s the same guy who threatened me on the subway.”
“And he’s been following you?”
“Yeah, but he doesn’t really seem to be that into it.”
“What?”
“I mean, I see him all the time. He nods at me when I wave.”
“You wave?”
“Yeah, I think he’s bored. But I don’t think we should let him follow us tonight.”
“OK.”
“We can go out the back.”
“OK.”
Bona Fide Treasure
Going out the back meant taking the elevator down to the basement and following exit signs till we were standing behind the hotel. Mulberry and I found our way onto 79th Street and headed for the park. Armed with police-issued flashlights, we made our way to the hatch in the bushes. Even though I’d told Mulberry that the drainage hatch led to a secret passage, he was still surprised when I pulled on the sprinkler and the door rose.
“Ladies first,” Mulberry said, looking down into the darkness. I clicked on my flashlight and pointed it at the steps below.
“Scared?” I asked.
“Just cautious.” I led the way. Smelling the river, I wondered if I would really be using it to escape New York. The hatch closed, and I felt Mulberry stiffen.
“The lights will come on soon,” I said.
“I’m not worried,” he told me. The lights went on as promised.
“Ready?” I asked when we reached the door. Mulberry nodded. I opened the door and led him through the closet to the next door. He pushed past me and led the way to the room with the boxes marked fragile. Our flashlights cast white circles of light on the strange, empty wooden crates. I found a light switch and flicked it. The single bulb in the ceiling splashed light over the room.
Mulberry pulled a crowbar out of his bag and approached the first box. It was an inch or two taller than I, sealed with nails all the way around. Mulberry huffed and puffed, cracking wood to open the case.
“Nothing,” he said, peering into the hole he’d made. I shone my flashlight in and saw the inside of an empty box. The next one was the same and so was the one after that; the next three were just as treasureless. Mulberry was red-faced and panting by the time the last box was opened. “What the f*ck?”
“They sounded empty,” I reminded him.
“F*ck!”
“Not so loud!” He turned away from me. I let out a breath of air, letting it vibrate my lips so he would know that I was exasperated by him.
“F*ck!” he yelled again and punched the box. It tipped over and Mulberry cradled his fist.
“That’s what you get for—“ I smelled the river. Looking down, I saw water rushing below the floor. “What the—?” Mulberry looked over at the hole that the box had been concealing.
“It’s the drain.”
“The drain?” I asked.
“This is it. This is how they were getting in and out.”
“Where’s the treasure?” Mulberry walked over to another box. He put his weight against it, and the thing tipped over revealing another hole. This one had a net suspended over it in which rested a trunk. Water hummed below. Mulberry and I stared. He reached in and lifted the trunk’s lid. It was filled with gold coins. The gold glowed in a way that made it hard to swallow.
“Holy shit.” Mulberry finally said. He walked over and knocked down the next box— another chest. I knocked over the box closest to me. Inside a net was a velvet bag. I pulled it up and opened it. Diamond necklaces and pearl earrings lay tangled together inside the pouch. I looked over and saw Mulberry holding a matching bag, his face dotted with white facets of light.
“Diamonds?” He nodded. A smile spread across Mulberry’s face—the smile of a very rich man.
After putting the room back together the best we could, Mulberry and I headed back. “We’ve got to get a boat that can either handle a heavy load—” Mulberry pondered as we walked through the park.
“Or a couple of boats that we could tie together. Ones that we could inflate once we got down there.”
“Good idea.” We walked out of the park toward the Excelsior. “I think we have to get it out in one go or he’ll notice it’s disappearing—and we should do it soon.”
“I can get some boats in the next couple of days.” We walked to the back of the building.
“I’ll talk to my man about price. We might want to hold on to some of it and sell it slowly,” Mulberry said in the elevator.
“That sounds smart.” I opened the door to my room. Blue greeted us warmly. Mulberry sat down on the couch. I passed him a can of beer. I opened mine, he opened his, and we clinked them together.
“To treasure,” Mulberry said, his beer in the air.
“To treasure.” We took long sips, watching each other over the edge of our cans.
Boats
Two days later I went to the bank and withdrew my one hundred grand. It was in four envelopes. I put them in my purse next to my gun and walked down to 60th and 2nd to an army surplus store.
“Hi. I called a couple of days ago about some boats.” The woman behind the counter was sitting on a stool, and when I say sitting I mean swallowing with her ass.
“You didn’t talk to me.”
“I spoke to a man.”
“What was his name?” She rolled her eyes just to make sure I understood she hated not only her job but also me.
“Joe.”
“He’s not in today.”
“Do you think you could help me?”
“What do you want?”
“Boats. Joe said that he had some boats that could be inflated using a pump and that they would be able to hold the weight of three to four average-size people, approximately a thousand pounds total. He said they were good for whitewater rafting, something about them being easy to navigate in rough currents.”
“I don’t know.” I waited for her to continue, but she just looked down at her nails.
“Is there someone here who could help me?” I asked with a really nice smile on my face. She found a hangnail and pulled at it with her teeth.
“I’m the only person here,” she told me as the skin ripped. I couldn’t help but grimace.
“OK. When is Joe going to be in?”
“Not today.”
“That part I got. Look, I just want to get these boats. Are you sure you can’t help me?” She rolled her eyes again and then turned around to look at some papers on the desk behind her.
“Boats, right?” she asked without turning around.
“That’s right.”
“Joe left a note.” I waited. She didn’t turn around.
“And?”
“I’m reading it.” She swiveled back on her stool and tried to give me an evil look, but the fat around her beady little eyes made her just look constipated. I tried not to hate her. Anyone as miserable as her deserved my compassion. She looked back down at the note. “Says here he’s got it all set up to have them sent over to you if you just pay.” She looked back up at me. “It’s a lot of money.”
“I know how much it is.” I pulled one of the envelopes out of my bag and began to count.
“You paying cash?” she asked stupidly.
“Yes.” I answered looking up from the cash I was in the midst of counting.
“What do you need the boats for?” she asked right before popping a taffy into her mouth. I looked up at her. She was working her jaw hard, and I could just make out the muscles through the fat of her cheeks.
“Taking 20 girl scouts whitewater rafting in the Catskills.”
“That what happen to your face? Was it a rafting accident?” I didn’t answer her. “Seems suspicious to me you buying these boats with cash,” she said through the taffy. I ignored her. “I said it seems to me that you wouldn’t want to walk around with that much cash.” I ignored her again. She gave up, and I listened to her cheeks smacking together as I finished counting. I laid it on the counter but kept left my hand on it.
“I’d like a receipt, please.” She rolled her eyes again.
“Fine.” She reached for a receipt pad, but it was too far away. She was going to have to get off her stool. I realized it before she did. She kept reaching with her thick arm, her round fingers straining to extend.
“I don’t think you can reach it,” I said.
Her head whipped around to look at me. “I think I know how to do my own job.” She went back to reaching for the pad. I did a terrible job stifling a laugh and snorted. She looked back at me, her face red with effort.
“Did you just make a piggy noise at me?”
“Excuse me. I snorted because I had something in my nose.” She eased herself off her stool.
“People like you think you’re so great.” She muttered as she picked up the pad. It took her a minute, and both hands, to climb back up on the stool. She took her time writing out the receipt.
“Name?” she asked.
“Just write down the product I’m buying, the amount paid, and the date. You could put a note about the delivery if you wanted.” She glared at me.
“I know how to do it.”
“Then you know you don’t need my name.” She wrote out the rest of the receipt in silence. She ripped it off the pad, handed it to me, and gathered the money up.
“When can I expect the boats to be delivered?” I asked.
“Sometime today.”
“Can you be more specific?”
“No.” She smiled, pleased with how unhelpful she was.
On my walk home I decided it was time to talk to Bob. He was walking a block behind me. I stopped. He stopped. I walked toward him. He walked away. “Bob!” I called to him. “Bob, wait up!” He looked over his shoulder and stopped. He waited on the curb, out of the way of pedestrian traffic. “Bob, I’m glad you’re here. I need to talk to you.” He glanced around, probably looking for Bob. “I want this to be over. I’ve come into some money. I want to leave town. I want to make it out of this alive.” He didn’t say anything. “Look, tell Kurt,” Bob flinched at my use of the mayor’s first name, “that I’m going to get the gold from Charlene, and I will bring it to him on Tuesday night.” Bob nodded. “Tell him I’ll meet him in his office at eight, OK?”
“Ok,” Bob said. Bob sounded normal.