H.J. Gaudreau - Jim Crenshaw 02 - The Collingwood Legacy by H.J. Gaudreau Page A

finger.
    That night Dolly lay in her bed deep in thought. She could find the boathouse. She was sure the money was in the boat, Sol must have put it on board before he came to get her. She had been in the boat and hadn’t seen any bundles just sitting out; he must have hidden it. It wouldn’t make any sense to just leave it laying out. Lots of boats were stopped by the Customs police; Solly must have anticipated that. He hid it. The only real question was how well had he hidden it?
    It had been months; the Purples must have used the boat since. Surely they’d found the money by now. But, maybe not. Could she really afford to not look? She could spend the rest of her life feeding slop to pigs and waiting tables, the same things when she thought about it. Or, she could take a chance on being rich.
     

 
    Chapter 14
     
    The first morning of any visit to Sherrie and Gerry’s farm was, by tradition and function, an exercise in choreographed confusion. The first person awake made coffee then, inevitably took a seat on the covered porch.
    As each member of the foursome made their way to the porch the topic of breakfast gradually took over. It always ended with Jim and Gerry frying eggs, pancakes and bacon, while Sherry retrieved a selection of homemade cherry, apple and berry jams from her pantry. Eve produced a maple syrup from a friend’s farm, and then she and Sherrie selected a tablecloth for the antique round eagle claw table, which sat in an equally rounded portion of the covered porch.
    When all was ready the four descended on the food. The next hour was spent in a near continuous dull roar as each talked over the other and all laughed at the same stories which had been told countless times before. Jim enjoyed this noise more than anything he could think of. This was his definition of wealth. Finally, he asked Gerry why they had to cut a hole in a barn door. It seemed rather odd.
    “Odd? That doesn’t begin to describe this place,” replied Gerry. “The building is made of brick, not terribly unusual, but still a little different. The windows are all eyebrow windows. They’re all at the top of the walls.”
    “Are you sure this thing is a barn?” Jim interrupted.
    “I mean, that sounds like a mechanics shop or something like that.”
    “You’re probably right.” Gerry took a sip of his coffee and continued, “There’s a pair of steel garage type doors on the south end and both sides have normal entry doors. Which is also a little odd, normally the long doors go on the long side of a building. The thing is that all those doors are made of heavy gauge steel. No door windows and the hinges are all on the inside. I’m assuming the doors open to the inside, but I can’t be certain of anything with this place. I’m telling ya Jim, it’s a weird deal.”
    “Are the windows big enough to get through if we can get that high?” Jim asked.
    “Sure, but I think they’re lined with a steel mesh on the back side. And, they’re all twelve feet off the ground. We can’t get a torch up that high and cut the mesh.”
    “We thought about our picking equipment. That could get us high enough, but we don’t think they will hold the weight of your torch,” Sherry added.
    “You’ve got a front loader on your tractor don’t you?” Eve asked.
    “Sure, but that’s not…” Gerry stopped for a moment.
    “We use the bucket to put up Christmas lights,” Jim said with a smile.
    “That’s a great idea! Let’s get going,” Gerry stood.
    “No, lets not,” Sherrie cried.
    “You guys get the towels, we’ll clear the table,” Eve confirmed.
    In moments the dishwasher was humming, the fry pans were being scrubbed and put away and the counters cleaned.
    Gerry’s tractor was equipped with a hydraulically operated front loader; an arm on each side of the tractor held a V shaped bucket approximately six feet long and three feet wide. Two levers mounted next to the driver operated the loader. One moved the two arms