“Not long,” he said. “One way or the other.”
“Do you think we’re far enough away?” Lula asked. “Hiroshima is big.”
Potts moved behind Lula, as if that would protect him from nuclear disaster. Morelli wasn’t saying anything. He was looking on with his cop face in place. Gabriela was silent. Grandma was leaning forward in anticipation, her eyes focused like lasers on the safe.
I was a half step behind Grandma. We’d been through a lot to reach this point, and now that the nightmare of worrying about everyone’s safety was over, I was getting excited about the treasure. My excitement had less to do with how I was going to spend it, as what exactly was this treasure? Bars of gold? A priceless relic? What had we been chasing?
The minutes ticked on. It seemed like a lifetime, but it was only four minutes on my watch when Ramone finally stepped away from the safe. The door was open, and there was a collective sigh of relief that we hadn’t all been blown to bits.
We rushed into the storage unit and stared at the inside of the safe. It was as if all of the air had been sucked out of the room and no one moved. Everyone was frozen in stunned silence.
“It’s empty,” Grandma finally said. “There’s nothing in it but some comic books. It looks to me like Jimmy used to come here to sit in his La-Z-Boy and read comics. How could this be? Where’s the treasure?”
“Superman and Uncle Scrooge,” Potts said. “Excellent choice of comics but not worth much in their present condition.”
“This here’s a bummer,” Lula said. “I almost got blown up for nothing.”
“There was no charge attached to it,” Ramone said. “There was no chance of Hiroshima.”
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Lula was hands on hips. “Well, what about those tunnels with the rats and the fire and the crazy-ass old assassin? What about that?”
“All in a day’s work,” I said.
Morelli was standing next to me. He looked over at me. Quizzical.
I shrugged. Truth is, it could have turned out a lot worse. My mother and my grandmother could have been horribly hurt or killed. I could have been horribly hurt or killed. Those possibilities had been laid to rest.
“The La-Z-Boys were sure there was a treasure in here. There were clues. There were keys,” Grandma said. “They were willing to kidnap and kill for it. What happened to it?”
“In this video game I play there’s a princess. And a dragon took her treasure. It was in a chest in the tower room and the dragon flew away with it,” Potts said.
“I like it,” Lula said. “Some hot-shot dragon flew away with the princess’s treasure.”
“I guess it could happen,” Grandma said. “Did the princess get her treasure back?”
“I’m working on it,” Potts said.
“I can’t think about this anymore,” my mom said. “I’m exhausted. Look at the time. I need to get dinner going.”
“I need some selfies for Facebook and Instagram,” Grandma said, standing in front of the safe. “I bet I could be a sensation. And if nobody minds, I’m going to take the comic books.”
“I’m gonna snap some selfies, too,” Lula said. “I might be able to add in a dragon to mine.”
Gabriela hadn’t moved forward with everyone else. She’d stood in place. Her expression throughout was thoughtful. Ranger was back on his heels with the same thoughtful expression.
I knew what they were thinking because I was thinking the same thing. This wasn’t done. There was more.
Morelli’s phone buzzed, and he checked the screen. “I have to go,” he said to me. “I don’t want to lose sight of Shine. And I have paperwork to do. I’ll call you later.”
I turned to Lula when Morelli walked away. “Can you take everyone home? I want to stay and talk to Ranger and Gabriela.”
“No problem,” Lula said. “I might even let Potts hum. He told me he stole a car so you could sneak up on the bad guys. He’s coming along.”
I waved them off, and I walked back to the safe. Ranger and Gabriela joined me.
“What was supposed to be in here?” I asked Gabriela.