Page 65 of Family Ties and Alibis

“So…when are you coming back?”

“Monday.”

“Morning or afternoon?”

“In the afternoon.”

Elvira began humming on the other end. “This’ll work out perfectly.”

“What will work out perfectly?”

“I’ve been working on a small project.”

“Pete here. What sort of project?”

“Remember our agreement, when you only allowed me a teeny tiny square of dirt over at your restaurant to look for the lost pirate treasure?”

“Yes, and I haven’t expanded the dig site.”

“I…uh…have some good news and some bad news,” Elvira hem hawed.

“Don’t tell me you hit a water main and flooded the place.”

“No, but now that you mention it, I’ll make a point to watch out for pipes. I found something. I want to send you a picture.”

A photo popped up on the screen. Although the image was blurry, Carlita realized it had been taken outside the designated dig site. Close, but not within the originally agreed-upon parameters. She wasn’t the only one.

“You dug beyond the spot I gave you,” Pete roared.

“Because I noticed something while I was excavating inside the itsy bitsy spot you did give me. Before you start lecturing, do me a favor and zoom in on the lower right-hand side of the screen.”

Carlita zoomed in, noticing a small pile of glimmering gold. “You found coins?”

“I sure as sugar did. They were poking out of the dirt. I didn’t want to leave them there for someone else to find, so I said to myself, ‘Elvira, if Pete and Carlita were here, would they give you a little leeway and let you expand your search area ever so slightly?’ The answer was a definite yes.”

“You can’t…”

Elvira cut Pete off. “I already gave one to Janet Gigowski, my archaeological expert, for testing. She was pretty geeked about it. I think we might finally be onto something. You know what this means.”

He rolled his eyes. “You want my approval to expand your search.”

“It’s the only logical next step.”

“Let’s wait for Janet’s test results first,” Carlita said.

“I’m ready,” Elvira said.

“For what?”

“The lecture.”

“There’s no lecture.”

“Cool. I figured once I explained the situation, you would understand.”

“The coins belong to me,” Pete said.

“To us,” Elvira corrected.