Tink.
She spun around, shining her light into the tunnel. The tunnel was empty.
“Hmm.” Carlita shifted the flashlight to her other hand.
Tink.
“I know I’m not losing my mind.”
Tink.
Carlita backtracked, returning to the wall. Small bits of concrete fell to the floor, adding to the small pile. Tink.
“Dernice Cobb.” Carlita scrambled up the ladder. She slammed the trapdoor shut and marched out of the pawn shop, not stopping until she reached her neighbor’s back door. She pounded loudly. No one answered, and she guessed it was because Dernice was in the basement and couldn’t hear.
Carlita hustled around the block and into EC Security Services’ office. A petite, brown-haired woman sat behind the desk. “Can I help you?”
“I need to talk to Dernice.” Carlita strode through the office area and into the back. The trapdoor Luigi and she had helped uncover was wide open.
“Dernice?” Carlita hollered as she descended the ladder. She found her neighbor standing next to the wall, holding a sledgehammer.
Whack. Dernice lifted the sledgehammer and swung at the wall, causing chunks of brick to fall to the floor.
“Dernice.”
“Huh?” Dernice removed her earplugs and stumbled back. “Carlita. What’re you doing here?”
“Stopping you from knocking a hole in my basement wall.”
“Your wall?” Dernice shoved her safety goggles to her forehead.
“You’re busting your way into my basement. I can hear you on the other side.”
“Your basement is on the other side of this wall?”
“It is, and I would appreciate it if you would leave the wall up.”
“I…” Dernice blinked rapidly. “I figured this led to another tunnel.”
“It does, in a roundabout way, via my basement.”
“I’m sorry, Carlita.”
“It’s okay. I…just think it’s best if we keep a wall between us.” Carlita studied the basement. It was similar to hers in both size and layout. On the opposite wall was a narrow tunnel. “There’s a tunnel over there. Have you checked it out yet?”
“I went a few feet in. I wasn’t armed, so I didn’t go far. I’m trying to figure out if I should board it up or leave it open. Either way, Elvira won’t be happy if I do too much messing around down here.”
“You’re probably right.”
“I was gonna go explore after I finished busting through.” Dernice propped the sledgehammer against the ladder. “You want to check it out?”
“Sure.” Carlita waited in the basement while Dernice ran back upstairs to grab a taser and another flashlight.
When she returned, she handed Carlita the extra flashlight. “I’ve been doing some research on the tunnels. If these walls could talk, they would have a lot to say. From what I learned, everything from bodies during the yellow fever epidemic to whiskey during prohibition was transported through here.”
“Pete Taylor told me the pirates used them too. The Parrot House has been in Pete’s family for hundreds of years. The bar’s owner, Pete’s great-great-great something, would offer free rounds of rum to the local men. After they got drunk and passed out, the ship’s crew would carry them through the tunnels to the waiting pirate ships. By the time the men woke up, they were at sea and used as free labor until the return trip.”
“It’s called shanghaiing. I read about it,” Dernice said. “I wonder if there’s any buried treasure down here.”
Carlita thought about the gems and Mrs. Alder’s body she and her children found hidden in the tunnel wall just outside her basement. “Buried treasure? Maybe. Buried bodies? Definitely.”
“Daylight is burning.” Dernice checked her flashlight and then beamed it in the direction of the tunnel’s entrance. “Time to check it out.”
Chapter 17
The tunnel was narrower, and the ceiling lower than Carlita’s. “This must be a secondary tunnel. The one connecting to mine is larger than this.”
The tunnel narrowed even more, forcing the women to hunch over as they inched forward. It abruptly ended and “t’d” off in opposite directions.
Dernice shined her flashlight to the left and then the right. “Which way should we go?”
“I’m not sure. You can’t go wrong with right.”
“To the right, it is.”
They continued creeping along, mindful of the uneven ground. Every few feet, Carlita batted at a cobweb. The musty smell she’d noticed near the entrance to the tunnel grew stronger with every step they took. The damp air hung heavy, and an occasional tink made her skin crawl.
Dernice must’ve thought the same. “That noise is freaking me out. I wonder if there are tunnel rats down here.”
“I’m sure, but hopefully not the size of the rats in New York.” While they crept along, Carlita thought about Savannah’s history and tried to envision what it would have been like to live in the vibrant city in the eighteen hundreds.
She hadn’t spent much time researching Savannah’s history and, in fact, vowed to take one of Sam’s Savannah tours one day.
The tunnel ended at another brick wall. The women retraced their steps, passing by the entrance leading to Elvira’s basement. The left tunnel went even farther. There was a metal gate at the end.
“It’s the end of the road.” Dernice tapped the rusted padlock securing the entrance.
“Or at least the end of our tunnel exploring.” Carlita had turned to go when she spied a brick jutting out of the wall. Her eyes traveled up the side. A foot above the first brick was another and then another. “Check it out.”
Dernice shined her flashlight along the bricks. There was a trapdoor at the top. “It looks old.”
“Like it’s been here for a very long time,” Carlita agreed.
Dernice stepped onto the bottom brick.
“What are you doing?”
“Finding out what’s up there.”
“Someone else’s property. That’s what’s up there.”
Dernice ignored the comment and handed Carlita
