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I head over to the chair I had vacated to watch the video and sit back down, looking through the box I’d left there while Declan sits behind the desk rubbing his forehead. Searching in every box and filing cabinet for the proof that he is power of attorney is daunting, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.
“Doesn’t matter if I’m his son, when it comes to the doctors, I have no say. He could be placed anywhere in Ontario that has the first bed available. With that paper, it proves I legally have the say and can bring him home and hire a nurse to care for him.”
Done with the box, I set it down on the floor beside me and stand, “What about calling the lawyer, wouldn’t he have a copy?”
Declan pushes his chair back and disappears under the desk. “Thought of that. But he’s long dead.”
“What are you doing down there?” Wren asks, as she stacks the papers into a neat pile.
I move around the desk, thinking my friend has finally lost it, and see him looking at the underside of the desk. Wren joins me, and together we watch.
“When I was a kid, I would always hide under here. My dad would yell at me and tell me to get the fuck out”— he runs his fingers along the corners, feeling for something— “I never knew why until one day, I was hiding behind the curtains when he came in. There you are, you little bastard.”
We watch as he presses his finger into the wood as if it were melted butter and a tiny drawer popped open. He pulls a key from within, and we move back as he crawls out.
“What is that for?” Wren asks, as she looks at the key in the palm of his hand.
“A safe,” he said, looking around the room as he slipped the key into his back pocket. “I just don’t know where it is. Start searching behind everything.”
“If you saw that he had the key, wouldn’t you have seen where the safe was?” I ask as we spreadout, each heading to a picture on the wall.
He shakes his head as he looks behind a painting of his dad. “No. He saw the curtains move and kicked me out of the room.”
“Then what makes you think it’s for a safe?” Wren asked as she lifted a mirror off the wall, only to find nothing.
Declan shrugged. “I don’t, but what else could it be for?”
With that thought, we checked behind every obvious place. After a few minutes, I stand there with my hands on my hips, eyeing the room as Wren and Declan roll up a Persian rug.
I turn and look at him. “Declan, what has been in this room since you were a kid?”
He stands up and glances around. “That gold horse and that fake plant,” he points at each of them.
Wren takes the plant, and Declan and I go over to the horse, the size of a Shetland pony and knock on it. “This thing is solid! Is it real gold?”
“I don’t know,” Declan shrugged. “The story I was told growing up was that it was from some heist in England back in the 80’s. The bars were melted down and poured into casts shaped like animals. My dad was a liar too, so it’s hard to tell really.”
I take the head of the horse and lift it. It barely comes off the floor. “Fuck me, it has to weigh close to four hundred pounds. How the hell does he move it?”
Declan shrugged. “No clue. He never asked for my help.”
“If it is real this would be worth—”
“In the billions,” Declan nods. “And that’s why it’s still here.” He grabs the ass end and looks at me. “Ready?”
I take hold of the head and nod.
“How the hell did Tomas get this here?” I say through gritted teeth as we lift it.
Declan grunts. “Knowing him, he built the damn house around it.”
Winded, we set it aside. And right there under the golden horse is the door to an old safe.
Squatting, Declan pulls the key out of the pocket of his jeans and fits it into the keyhole. He turns it and pulls on the handle, and the door swings open.
He pulls out a bag of diamonds, and they twinkle in the day light as he sets them on the floor, and I have to wonder how many years it’s been since sunshine played along their surface. Next, he pulls out a manilla envelope, and Wren takes thatfrom him. She sits on the floor and starts going through each paper. “Aha! Here it is,” she grins as she hands it to Declan.
“Thank you!” he says, as he grabs her and pulls her into his arms.
