“Paul Pritchard—an only child then?”
“How did you guess?”
The timber decking on the veranda creaked under our weight, making me jumpy.
“Remind me who’s idea this was,” I asked, my fingers tingling from the tight grip I had on Matt’s hand.
“Yours,” he stated, his tone definite.
“Why didn’t you talk me out of it?”
“Are you serious?” he asked, spinning to face me. The bullnose covering of the veranda shielded us from the light of the full moon, and I couldn’t make out his expression. Which was probably a good thing.
“How do we get in?” I asked, choosing not to respond to his question.
“We’ll try the doors and windows. If they’re not open, then we’ll look for a key hidden in the garden somewhere.”
My gaze fell to the grounds behind us and I really hoped Paul didn’t lock his windows as I had no idea where we would even start looking in that garden.
The rattle of the door handle brought my attention back to Matt. His sigh told me getting inside wasn’t going to be that easy.
Still there were a lot of windows left to try. As Matt moved to the nearest one, I stepped around him and tried a few others.
My gloved hands made it a bit trickier to jiggle the casement window as my fingers kept wanting to slip on the painted surface, but after the third window I felt one give.
“Matt. Matt,” I loud whispered. “I think this one will open.” The thing with old wooden windows is that they stick, due to the frame changing size depending on the weather, but with a bit of man handling you can get them open.
Matt moved in behind me and took over jiggling the frame. With a bit of strength, it lifted.
I sucked in a breath both jubilant and scared at the same time. This was a good idea when we were safely sitting at the beach, but the reality of actually doing it was a whole different ball game.
“Ready?” Matt asked, the slight shake of his voice revealing his thoughts were close to mine.
“Sure.”
“You can wait in the car if you want to.”
I liked that idea, but knew it wasn’t something I could do. “We’re in this together. Good and bad.”
Matt leaned close and whispered a kiss over my lips, his breath warm against my skin. “In case we get caught, know that I love you.”
I smiled in the darkness and held onto him just a little bit tighter. “I love you too.”
For a moment we did nothing but stand with our heads close together as I breathed in his scent. As much as I liked to have stayed there forever, I knew we had a job to do and the quicker we did it, the quicker we could be home in bed.
“Molly, you need to be careful. It’s not just you that you need to keep safe.”
“Yeah, you need to stay safe too.”
“I was talking about the babies.”
“I know.”
He sighed, and the scent of mint mixed with coffee wafted towards me. He then turned and lifted his leg over the windowsill and disappeared into the darkness. A second later his hand reappeared and took mine, guiding my way to him.
Once inside we felt it was safe to use a light so swiping our phones unlocked, we hit the flashlight app and the room in front of us was illuminated.
Floral wallpaper clashed with the bedspread that in turn clashed with the busy rug under our feet. The air smelt stuffy and I twitched my nose hoping I wouldn’t start sneezing.
Timber wardrobes lined the far wall and Matt stepped towards them, turning the key that kept them locked, and revealing the contents to us.
“Looks like a guest room,” he said, closing the door and stepping off the rug.
Staying close to his back we moved into the hall our shoes noisy against the timber flooring.
“This is a big house to look for a small book,” I whispered, as the framed family member hanging on the wall sneered down at me. “Where do we even start?”
“As much as I hate the idea, I think we should split up. You look for his bedroom, and I’ll look for an office.”
I gulped. When I’d broken into Matt’s house with Danny, it had been kind of scary but kind of exhilarating because ultimately, I knew we were safe. This was just plain scary. I hated dark houses at the best of times. Add that there’d been a murder here recently and we were breaking the law, and I was having a hard time controlling my bodily functions.
“Okay,” I squeaked. “But promise you won’t sneak up on me.”
“I promise. Let me know as soon as you find something.”
Reluctantly I let him go, his footsteps fading as he moved along the hall. Once his light disappeared around a corner, I took a deep breath and checked the adjacent rooms. I found a laundry, a bathroom and a linen cupboard, all of which didn’t seem obvious places to hide a book. Door four opened to what I thought was his bedroom.
A large timber framed bed dominated the room, the dark sheets very masculine, and the aroma of Old Spice aftershave drifted from the attached bathroom. The walls were painted a deep green which matched the rug placed under the bed, and I was grateful for the quality of it as it muffled my footsteps when I walked across the room to the bedside tables. The drawer silently slid open as I pulled it.
Paul Pritchard seemed to like his medications. Between pain relief, antacids, anxiety medication and vapor rub, there wasn’t room for any reading material.
The oak dresser caught my attention but turned out to be a dead end too. Unless I counted a drawer full of white Y front jocks all ironed and set in neat rows useful. The other drawers held his pajamas and socks.
Stepping towards the wardrobe my heart pounded extra hard. The unreasonable fear that someone could be hiding inside it felt super creepy, but I pulled my big girl pants up and handled the job that needed to be done. Thankfully all it held was twenty-three starched shirts, fourteen pairs of black trousers, and a dozen pair of leather shoes that all looked the same to me.
I was thorough in my search, even checking under the bed, but when I came up empty handed, I decided it was time to see if Matt had any more luck than I had.
The family portraits continued to judge me as I made my way back towards him, but I kept my light focused on the floor and chose to ignore them. The hallway led me to a large entry, the moonlight filtering in through the side windows, casting shadows over everything.
I shivered and pulled my sweater closer around me, hoping Matt had the book and we could get out of here. My stomach gave a little flip when a light flashed ahead of me. The sooner I got to Matt the sooner I would feel a whole lot calmer.
Stepping out of the entrance and into the lounge room, I scanned for the light, but he wasn’t there. Continuing through the house, I bypassed the kitchen and dining room only stopping when I found a library. And Matt was sitting in one of the large winged-back chairs, a book open in his lap.
“Did you find it?” I asked, making him jump.
“Sorry. I was so engrossed in this I didn’t even see your light.”
“Well I saw yours. You must have found that book pretty quickly because you were only just ahead of me.”
“I’ve been here the entire time.”
I shook my head and moved closer to him. Matt had a terrible sense of time progression.
“Is that the book you were looking for?” I asked, hopeful.