“Were there any more boys after that?” Instead of answering him, Garth looked to his left at the three kids sitting in the corner. They were beaten, not only physically but also in what was left of their minds. “I can help them if they want.”
“They killed themselves like I did.” Steele asked him what he meant. “You know. We are damned. Not going anywhere but to hell, and if it’s all the same to you, I’d just as soon stay here and help out. But those over there...well, I don’t know that anybody could help them out any more. They’re done. And you know what I mean by that.”
He did. Steele had seen it plenty in his life. They were the lost, people who knew they were dead and just simply had given up. They would use up their time in this place by doing nothing but being dead. It would be a long and very painful existence for them. And Steele also knew if they didn’t want help, no one would be able to give it to them. But he thought he could help Garth.
Gathering all the files he thought he’d need, Garth and Conner led him to the opening deep within the hospital he was sure hadn’t seen a broom or mop in more decades than he’d been living. Turning to the two men, he told them thanks.
“You need me, you know how to reach me. I’m here for you.” They both nodded, but he wasn’t sure they were believing him. Losing hope was terrible when you were alive, and he’d bet it was horrific if you were dead without it. “I’d like to be able to call on you should I need you. Connie said you were helpful to her, and I’d like to see if you’d be willing to help me as well.”
“You can count on it. Steele Bennett and his men of justice, they’re ones to have in your corner. You just call on either of us and we’ll be more than glad to pull a rabbit out of our hats for you.”
As Steele made his way to his car, he called Mitch and let him know what he’d found and who he’d spoken to. He could tell he was distracted about something and started to ask him about it when he finally told him. Steele picked up a little speed in his walk then.
“We found the treasure. Steele, it’s...holy shit, Steele, it’s really a treasure.” He could hear Vinnie talking to someone in the background. “You have to come here. I think. Christ, we’ve hit the mother lode.”
~~~
Vinnie watched as the men took more and more boxes out of the vault to be inventoried. She looked over at Luther as he laughed with Connie and Billy. She was sort of a little creeped out about them. Not that they were ghosts, but that she could see them. When Mitch came over and kissed her again, she wanted to hit him as well.
“You’re not having fun.” She told him she was. “No, you’re not. You’re about to jump out of your skin. What is it? All the people here?”
“No. They don’t bother me. I just...why did he say he had this put in if all he was going to do was put stuff in it? I mean, I know that’s what a vault is for, but this is as big if not bigger than any bank vault I’ve seen.” They both looked in the cavernous rooms. “What are we going to do with all of this?”
There were at least four rooms in the large opening. One entire wall was made of drawers from top to bottom, each of them labeled and all of them filled. Diamonds and other stones were in most of the drawers, but there were also watches and cufflinks. Tiaras and earrings. There were more things in just the drawers than there were in the completed stock of any jewelry company. Then there was the furniture.
Roll top desks…three of them. Secretaries that were covered in silk sheets with not a speck of dust on them. Luther told them he’d had the climate control put in even back then, knowing he’d want to keep things nice. Books lined glassed fronted shelves, first editions, most of them signed. Pottery that she knew was as old as her. There were spears and guns, knives and swords. And the most beautiful collection of tea cups she’d ever seen. Hundreds of them.
“I would like to suggest you open yourself an antique store. It’s what the missus and I had planned to do. But when she died...it broke my heart and I just never thought of this room again.” Luther looked in the rooms and smiled at her. “She so loved the little tea cups, you know? Collected them all over the world. At one time we were going to put them on the market, and they alone were worth millions. Imagine that. Tea cups that are worth more than most people make in several lifetimes. But you should do it. You’d be very good at it.”
Connie had told her the same thing. And Vinnie had considered it even then. She had warehouses full of things she’d collected too. Things that she’d used when she was younger. Items that had caught her fancy, books that she’d read. Her collection wasn’t nearly this large, but hers with this would fill several stores and then some. When Mitch came back out with another load of things he wanted her to see, she looked deep into the box and saw a key. Picking it up, she asked Luther about it.