Dulcie was the only daughter, in fact the only child. When her parents died, she inherited the family home.
It wasn’t a huge house. Fairly smallish really. It had two bedrooms, no basement and no attic. She had lived there now for several years, on her own.
One day Dulcie remembered something: in the laundry there was a manhole in the ceiling. It went into the space between the ceiling and the roof. Dulcie had never been up there, but she remembered her father storing the occasion piece of luggage. She wondered if anything was still there. Maybe a suitcase stuffed with money!
She got a step ladder, and could just slide the manhole cover off and haul herself into the area above the ceiling. It was a tight squeeze through the manhole. Of course, it was pretty dark, and she’d forgotten to bring a light, but she discovered two items of luggage. One was a…
It was then the earthquake struck. The big one.