Just Lucky that Way Read online

  "Great, you had to pick the one with the most junk in it." Zed, of course, was right there, too. Planks of dank wood leaned against rusty machinery parts. The scent of mildew was strong. "Will you be okay?"

  "Probably not." Alex lifted the collar of his shirt to cover his nose and mouth. "I'll see how it goes."

  "We could always take one of the front stalls. They're not as damp."

  "I picked this one because it's smaller than the others." Alex grinned. "Must have kept ponies or calves in here."

  "May be smaller, but it's probably the most cluttered."

  "Well, I didn't notice that when I picked it."

  Zed pulled his leather work gloves on. "Come on then, stud. Let's be all manly, and clean this shit up."

  "Okay, let's start hauling this stuff out." Alex pulled on his gloves. "Not sure what most of it is."

  "Phil can figure that out." Zed grabbed a pile of the planks -- checking them closely for spiders -- and dragged them from the stall. Once he got them outside, he dropped them on the grass in the sun to see if they were worth saving or whether they'd be good for the July Fourth bonfire. He was sure that Alex, with his asthma, wouldn't last five minutes cleaning this up.

  "This is going to take forever, all these individual trips." Alex dropped a large board onto the ground.

  "Pfft. I'm going to steal the wheelbarrow. Stay here, I'll be back in a flash."

  Zed wandered over to where the girls were busy weeding and chatting -- gossiping, and he thought he heard Alex's name mentioned. They had the wheelbarrow, full of weeds and left totally unattended. Imagine leaving a wheelbarrow unattended around here, where anybody could walk up and...

  "Zed! Don't you dare!" one of the girls yelled.

  Zed didn't hang around to see who had yelled at him. "Damn it," he muttered and ran with the wheelbarrow rather than keep up the nonchalant, and hopefully unnoticeable, walk he'd started. He didn't need those girls to catch him. They had shovels and pointy things.

  He emptied the weeds on a compost pile and hid behind Alex, wheelbarrow still firmly in his grasp. "You deal with them; you know how their evil minds work."

  "Not the best hiding spot." Alex laughed. "But I'll do what I can to protect you from the girls."

  Zed peered over his shoulder at Tania and Becca. "Possession is nine tenths of the law," he shouted.

  "C'mon, we need it more than you do." Hands on her hips, scowl in place, Becca looked anything but demure.

  "Is there another one?" Alex asked. "It would speed up the cleaning -- less trips."

  "If there was another, we wouldn't be chasing you for that one." Becca looked accusingly at Zed and he took a step back.

  "You're just clearing weeds and branches and stuff right?" Alex smiled.

  Zed knew that particular smile well -- it was the one Alex used to charm and get his way.

  "Yes." Tania mimicked Becca's stance and scowl. "And what? You think because we're only doing yard work we can make several trips?"

  "That's not what I was thinking." Alex entered the barn.

  Without Alex for cover -- and moderation -- Zed was certain the girls would make a play for the wheelbarrow. He could see them eying it. He backed up a couple of steps.

  "You stay right there, Zdenek Roxbury." Becca had used his full name and sounded so much like Alex's mom right then that Zed did exactly as she said. Just as he always had when Alex's mom had used that tone on them when they were ten.

  Alex returned holding an old blue folded tarp. "You can lay this out and fill it. Then all you -- or Zed and I -- have to do is drag it. There might even be another one that you could fill with branches for the bonfire."

  "Why don't you use it then?"

  "With the stuff we have to haul, the tarp will be shredded in no time."

  "That's not new, is it?" Becca asked, backing away from Alex and the tarp.

  Alex shook his head. "At least it won't matter if you do wreck it."

  Mel and Kitty had ambled up while Alex had been talking. "Right, but what's nesting in it?" Mel asked.

  Alex rolled his eyes. "Nothing nests in plastic; it's cold, hard and inedible." He unfolded the tarp, his hand just missing a huge, black sleepy spider.

  The girls and Zed, who'd actually moved closer again, all took one step back.

  "Zed, take the opposite corners of this and give it a shake, will ya?" Alex asked, letting go of all but two corners and unfurling the tarp in Zed's direction.

  The speed with which Zed -- finally relinquishing his death grip on the wheelbarrow -- jumped backwards that time surprised even him. He bumped into Travis, who fell against Jon. Alex was clearly insane.

  "Sorry, guys." Zed pulled Jon to his feet. He now hid behind Jon and Travis, the spider more of a threat than the girls. They could have the wheelbarrow, but there was no way he was touching that tarp. "Alex has lost his mind."

  "What?" Alex looked at the tarp and noticed the spider. "Fuck's sake, Zed. Get over it. They're more scared of you than you are of them."

  "You think? That one's not screaming hysterically and hiding behind Travis. Besides, you have your phobias... I have mine."

  "Touche." Alex winked at Zed and took off across the lawn. Once he was far enough away he shook the tarp out next to an untamed bush and then ran back. "There, the tarp is spider -- and bug -- free."

  "Still not touching it," Zed mumbled and, taking a wide detour around Alex and the tarp, reclaimed the wheelbarrow and marched off into the barn.

  "Princess!" Becca shouted behind him, to which he just flipped her off and laughed.

  By the time Alex made it back, Zed had loaded a lot of the rusty metal into the wheelbarrow. Most of it looked like bits of machinery, parts of tractor engines and the like.

  "Phil!" Zed called. "Is this stuff any use to you? What do you want done with it?"

  Phil wandered over and looked at a few of the parts. "Just put them outside, thanks. Might be useful, won't know 'til I have a chance to look at them properly."

  "No probs." Zed pushed the wheelbarrow forward and felt the floor give under the wheel. He was just about to pull it back when a crack split the air and the wheelbarrow crashed through to a basement, Zed releasing his hold on it just in time.

  His yell made Phil return and Alex look over from more interesting junk.

  "Odd," Phil remarked. "Last I knew, barns didn't have basements."

  "You broke the barn -- Tania's gonna be pissed." Alex walked over and draped his arm around Zed's shoulders. "You okay?"

  Zed became aware that he was shaking. He nodded and peered down the hole to the destroyed wheelbarrow and metal parts. He'd very nearly landed down there with it all. It had to be a ten foot drop. "Um... what's down there?"

  "Let's find out." Phil grabbed a flashlight and tested the surrounding boards. "Maybe Lucky hid some of his loot. Get the ladder, Blake."

  Blake was gone and back in record time. Of course, everyone else had gathered by the time he returned, all clamoring to know what was under the barn, especially if it was ill-gotten gains. Phil lowered the ladder and tested it for stability.

  "Maybe Opal's down there."

  "Don't go down there!" Becca cautioned.

  "Why?" Phil asked. "My barn, my floor, my new hole in my floor. Thanks, Zed." He shot Zed a wry smile.

  Zed shrugged and grinned back.

  "What if it's dangerous?" Tania asked.

  "I think if it was dangerous, something would have happened by now. It's been there for some eighty years or so, I'd imagine."

  "But..."

  Phil kissed Tania. "Relax, love, it's only a hole in the floor. Probably underground storage for the bootleggers. There's no such thing as ghosts." He looked at the group of boys, all looking like they'd love to be the ones going down there. "Do me a favor and don't come down, huh?"

  "Thought you said it couldn't be dangerous," Rhys challenged his brother.

  Phil sighed. "There's a whole pile of sharp, rusty, tetanus-inducing bits of tractor down he
re now just ready to be tripped over. It's not dangerous, you are." He swung his leg over and descended into the semi darkness.

  A flashlight beam shone into all corners of the barn basement. "Wow, it's huge. No wonder that bit of floor gave, it's not well supported," Phil shouted up to them.

  Zed looked at Alex who grinned. "Me first."

  "Ha!" Zed was on the ladder in a flash, almost sliding down it in his haste. Damp mud and musty air didn't make for good breathing, and he was just about to yell back up for Alex to not come down when his boyfriend landed next to him followed quickly by Travis and Kitty -- complete with her camera.

  They were silent as they watched Phil scope out the area. Phil was looking at a tall, cylindrical structure made from metal. Probably copper, judging by its brown-green color.

  Alex whistled softly. "The still."

  Phil turned around. "Didn't I--?" He sighed. "Of course you were never going to stay. Yeah, looks like the still. Or another one. Seems old Lucky was a smart boy."

  "Wouldn't have thought having a still this close to the house was smart," Travis observed.

  "I don't think anyone lived in the house much," Phil replied. "Besides, the main risk was fire."

  "Wooden barn, wooden house, lotsa trees. I would have said risk."

  "They weren't so safety conscious back then, I'm thinking."

  Kitty stepped forward and aimed her camera, fiddling with bits. After a couple of shots, she backed off and took a few more from different angles, even coercing Phil to get in one of them. "You never know, might be a local magazine interested in historical shots."

  "There's steps against this wall." Phil shone his flashlight on the left wall. "Looks like they go into the barn, but I can't figure out where." He looked at Alex. "You didn't see a door in that stall, did you?"

  Alex shook his head. He'd lifted his shirt to cover his nose and mouth.

  "Hey, Jon," Phil shouted up the hole. "Have a look around that stall, see if you can find a door or something odd. There's steps coming down here from a door up there somewhere."

  "Will do."

  Phil climbed the narrow steps and knocked on the door. "Can you hear me?"

  "You doing okay?" Zed asked Alex. Asthma attacks were often forefront in Zed's mind when they were somewhere damp. He was aware that he probably sounded like a worried mother, but he couldn't help it.

  "Yeah, but I'll head up soon."

  Zed could hear the disappointment in his boyfriend's voice. Having to leave the unusual find was not something Alex would want to do, but he knew better than to have a full blown attack in an old dusty and damp basement. Zed reached out and tickled Alex's exposed stomach. "Tease."

  Alex rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm walking around looking like an idiot just so I could expose my stomach and tease you."

  "I knew it." Zed shone his flashlight around the hole under the still, which was filled with ashes and small lumps of coal. "So, how does this thing work, anyway?"

  Alex bent down to examine the antique still. "I'm not a bootlegger, so I'm not a hundred percent sure. I think the corn mash would go in here." Alex ran his hand over the main part of the still. "It'd cook here, and then the vapor would go up this pipe." He pointed to the thing that looked like a long handle and followed it to the end. "When the vapor cooled, it would go back to liquid and be collected."

  Zed screwed up his nose. "It must've been almost lethal." Corn mash didn't sound appetizing in any incarnation.

  "It's moonshine." Alex laughed. "It's a very fine line between safe and lethal. Besides possibly killing you it could make you blind."

  "Were they that desperate for alcohol?" Zed nodded, answering his own question. There had been a time in his late teens when he would have done almost anything for a drink. Luckily, his father's liquor supply was always stocked. "I guess that's what happens when you totally ban something, huh?" He lost interest in the still and wandered away to investigate some of the bottles on the shelves. He picked up one of the brown, dust-encrusted bottles. "It's awesome to think that this has been down here, totally undisturbed, since before we were born... before our parents were born."

  "To think what must have gone down in this room," Alex said, still engrossed with the still.

  "They weren't called The Roarin' Twenties for nothin'." Travis joined Zed and examined the upper shelf, picking up every jar.

  "Do you think they'll be able to keep it?" Kitty asked.

  The snap of her camera's shutter saved everything. Every speck of dust, every cobweb -- and there were too many for Zed's liking -- would be documented for posterity.

  "No idea." Travis turned and smiled for the camera. "They'll have to call someone about this. After the holiday, probably."

  "It might make the papers." Kitty kept snapping away. "Don't let any photographers in here."

  "Great. That'll set renos back a bit." Phil shoved the door at the top of the stairs, falling through when it finally gave, rending the stillness with a huge crack. "Ow!"

  "All right, buddy?" Alex shouted, making no move to race up the stairs and perform a heroic rescue.

  "Yeah."

  Keeping only half an ear on the conversations around him, Zed picked up a ceramic jug. Now this looked historical. The type of thing he thought of when moonshine was mentioned. He could almost picture prospectors and farmers, kicking back around a camp fire and drinking out of these. He laughed when he realized he had his eras totally confused. "Argh!" Something tickled his finger and Zed dropped the jug. A black spider scurried away. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, but even that didn't slow his heart.

  "You okay?" Alex walked over.

  Zed nodded. "Has it gone?"

  "What?" Alex looked down at the jug. "Geesh, Zed, you nearly broke a relic."

  Relic? Fuck the relic. There were more important things here. "Spider." Zed brushed at his fingers. He could still feel the horrible thing. "Has it gone?"

  Alex made a show of picking up the jug and examining it thoroughly before placing it on the lower shelf. "I don't see it."

  Zed looked down, just to make sure Alex wasn't lying. "Hey, what's that?" The flashlight beam revealed something that wasn't dirt, a glint of gold. Satisfied that the spider had really hightailed it, Zed crouched and used his fingers to scrap the hard-packed dirt in the dent where the jug had fallen. The flash of gold that had caught his eye was the pin on the back of a brooch. He managed to unearth it and pull it to safety, before rubbing the front of it on his cargo shorts to remove the dirt. "Looks like opal." Even dull and scratched, when Zed shone the flashlight on it, the iridescent blues and greens were highlighted. "Pretty."

  "If it's opal, be careful with it." Alex straightened and leaned in to have a look. "A brooch? Wonder how old it is."

  "Maybe it was Opal's." Zed had liked the story Phil told the previous evening and was now convinced that Lucky Palmer murdered the unsuspecting girl. "Wouldn't it be awesome if we could solve the crime?"

  "Who says there was a crime? Although... It is odd to find this here."

  "Of course there was a crime. He murdered her here. She's probably buried--" Zed looked around for a good place to bury a body. "Over there, under the still."

  "What've you found?" Kitty asked, planting her petite frame in front of Zed.

  He opened his hand to reveal the opal, and she snapped a few photos of it. "Odd place to find something like that."

  Zed nodded. "See. Foul play is... was afoot."

  Kitty's eyes widened. "You think--?" She looked around in awe. "Maybe the place is haunted."

  "Oh, for-- Don't you start, too." Alex rolled his eyes.

  "But it explains so much," Kitty started.

  "What?"

  "Her name was Opal and she disappeared and now Zed finds an opal down here. It must've been a crime of passion. Maybe she was killed by a jealous lover--"

  "Or maybe someone lost it in the stall, and it fell between the floorboards. You two read way too many Nancy Drew and Hardy Boy mysteries."
>
  Kitty slapped Alex's arm and stuck her tongue out. "Do not. I'm an artiste."

  "You're as bad as him; that's what you are." Alex was laughing. "Come on, you guys, be real."

  Travis wandered over. "Whew, Zed. Where'd you find that?"

  "Down there."

  "Think it's real?"

  Zed shrugged. "Why wouldn't it be?"

  Travis nodded. "Be worth a couple of grand."

  "I'll hand it over to Phil. It's up to him what he does with it."

  "It'd put a nice dent in the mortgage."

  "If it is from Lucky's era, the local... historical... society..." Alex turned and darted for the ladder. Anything else was left unsaid as he scrambled up and out of the hidden room.

  Clutching the opal, Zed raced up the ladder, his foot slipping off the bottom rung and jarring his ankle as it hit the ground. He'd known that Alex's asthma would be irritated by the conditions in the barn, but Alex was such a stubborn ass. Then again, Zed guessed he'd probably do much the same rather than be left out of all the good stuff.

  "They've taken him outside," Phil told Zed when he'd emerged from the hole in the floor. He, Blake, and Jon were in the stall, studying the walls.

  "Thanks."

  "What've you got there?"

  Zed lobbed the opal brooch to Phil. "Just found it down there." He ran outside to ensure Alex was okay.

  Yep, Alex looked like he was doing just fine. Becca and Mel were sitting on the grass next to him, cuddling him, and Rhys was behaving as any good medical student would -- guarding his patient.

  "Okay there, love?"

  "I'm fine." Alex tried to get up only to be detained by his impromptu medical team. "But these two." He gestured toward Becca and Rhys. "Seem to think I make a great test subject."

  "Yeah, so much better than working on cadavers." Rhys winked at Becca.

  "He shouldn't have even been in there," Becca said accusingly, glaring at Zed.

  "You've obviously never tried to stop him from doing something he wants to do," Zed said simply and held his hand out for Alex.

  Alex quickly grabbed hold of the offered hand. "Are we going to look for more buried treasure?"