"Shovels?"
"Yeah, which we can dig with." Joseph said, and Pablo just got more confused, because in his mind, there weren't any bodies that needed to be buried, and besides, it wasn't Joseph's job to do it anyway.
"I mean, yeah, we have some, but what do you want to dig?" He asked and now just started realizing that maybe there are no bodies to be buried away, but maybe, just maybe, he asked the question because there will be bodies shortly to get rid of.
But Joseph's next sentence shocked him quite a bit.
"My father had so much cash that he buried some of it in a forest. So, we're going for a treasure hunt."
As Pablo heard it, his eyes lit up and, in the same way, he got even more confused.
First, if it's really true and there is money buried, then it's going to be the easiest way to get the operation going. Second, he was also disappointed in himself, because they looked everywhere, asked around, searched for connections, and they couldn't find anything about buried cash of the Cassian family, nor anything they could have done something with.
"Are you sure about it?" He asked back. "I mean, we looked everywhere, even 'talked' with people who were close to your father, but they said nothing. They didn't even mention buried money."
"I was there when I was 12. There was so much cash that he could do nothing with it, so he decided to bury it away in the Halsim forest, in plastic bags and briefcases, so if the same bills are still out, nothing wrong with it."
"Yeah, we use the same ones." Pablo confirmed, but at the same time, Joseph started worrying about some things.
Mainly that he remembered his father was arguing with the workers who were digging it, and remembered that they couldn't dig more than 1 meter deep because the soil was too hard, and because of the location his father chose, at tree trunk and the roots were just fucked up everything.
So 16 years in 1 meter deep at tree trunks was not the best idea. The water could wash it out, animals could eat some of the bills, at least those that were in plastic bags and who knows, maybe some lucky fucker accidentally found the bags.
And there was another thing.
"It's a national park now." The housekeeper said.
"National park?" Joseph asked back.
"Yeah, the new government declared it as a national park if you're talking about the Halsim forest outside of the city." She said, and spoke completely the opposite way she was yesterday… she was looking at him and speaking without hesitation or stuttering in her voice.
"It was a forestry back then, how the fuck does it become a national park?"
"Because of the protected species." The chef spoke as he was chopping up some vegetables. "I was there with my family and what they said is that while it was a forestry lot of migrating birds and other animals took shelter there. So when the new government took power they stopped all production and it became a national park. Since then, a lot of protected trees were brought there, and they found caves, like limestone caves."
Limestone caves… what the fuck, and the money in that park...
"How popular is it?"
"I'm sorry to say this but it's very popular." The chef said again. "It's not just about the animals and the forest, but as I said, the limestone caves and they even built zip lines and other things to make it a tourist attraction."
Tourist attraction… it was a fucking artificial forest…
Yes, it was indeed. He remembered the trees were all in rows, built to be cut down and sold, but of course, it was all for a shell company. There was no cutting trees, and the forest wasn't even in his father's hands but some other fucker… That's exactly why he remembered where the money was, because among the row of trees, there were different ones that just stuck in his mind.
"Willow trees, at least 8 of them if I remember correctly, at a small creek." He looked at the chef.
"I don't know about it." He said. "They bought lot of forest and land around it and even made artificial things, even creeks, waterfalls, to make it more appealing, and to help the animals, but the thing is, it's enormous, some of it not even open to the public, so maybe it is there somewhere deeper in."
That's really going to be a fucking treasure hunt… he thought, because now he was hundred percent sure that he didn't know where the exact spot is… who knows, maybe that willow tree was already cut off.
But someone's energy was up.
"Well, even if it's a national park, the money is still Joseph's money, so we just go and claim it." Pablo said as he stood up. He was full of energy, and of course he was.
He did jungle training and it was one of the best experiences in his life, and even if it's not a jungle but a forest, it's still something that he loves and not even talking about the treasure hunt.
"One thing's for sure, we can't go like this." He said, and it was true. In black formal suits, they would look exactly like someone who went for some business or more like exactly gangsters and that's what they needed to avoid, especially when it's a national park with lots of people there. "So we make a stop at an outdoor shop, we can buy clothes as well as those military shovels that fold, which we can then put into bags so nobody will notice."
Well, Pablo was already ahead with a whole ass plan in his mind, but as every plan has some setbacks, and it was what Joseph didn't say, because there was a man in the calculation who might have put his hands on the money.
And if that's what had happened… then the Cassian family will introduce themselves sooner than he thought.