An Ordinary Fairy (28 page)

“We forgot,” she said, pulled close and kissed him. “See ya later,” she said and zoomed away toward the cottage, cackling with laughter.

Noah laughed, too.

Things are beginning to get interesting.

Fourteen

A
fter a successful day of photography, Noah returned to the woods at five fifteen. Darkness gathered under the trees as he walked from the truck, but the windows of the cottage glowed with welcome. The iron gate stood open. He rapped on the door and opened it a crack.

“Willow, it’s me. Are you decent?”

“Yep.”

“Darn it,” he said as he swung the door open.

Willow scowled from behind the kitchen counter.

Noah laid down the two flashlights he had brought from the truck for their expedition to the Big House basement, stripped off his coat and hat and hung them on a peg. He sat down to pull off his boots as Willow came in from the kitchen. She wore black jeans over her flight suit. A black zippered sweatshirt and her blue stocking cap sat on the arm of the sofa.

“Where’s your dark clothes?” she asked.

“I was running late so I came straight here. I figure we’ll park the truck at the motel and walk to Jones’s place. Better if my truck stays there all evening. I’ll grab my clothes when we drive over.”

“Good thinking.”

“Wait, there’s more. We’ll make sure someone sees us both go in. You can disappear before we come out and we’ll leave the lights on.”

“Wow, you’ve been thinking hard.”

“I’m just trying to stay out of jail.”

Willow rolled her eyes. “I’ve been busy all day, too.” She walked over to the desk and held up a small metal object on a strap. “Making this.”

“What is it?” Noah asked.

“It’s a flash drive loaded with a snooper program to install onto Chester’s computer. After we talked this morning, I decided you’re right about spying from here. I can install this in ten minutes so we can work at our leisure from the comfort of our own … my own home. We can spend more time checking out the Big House basement, too.”

“Safer, too,” Noah said. “The shorter the time in Jones’s house the better.”

“Right. Are you hungry?”

“Starving. Whatever you’re cooking smells delicious.”

Forty-five minutes later Willow unbarred the front door of the Big House and Noah walked in, flashlight in hand. Willow put the bar back in place and Noah handed her a flashlight and her jacket. She pocketed the flashlight and hung her jacket on the doorknob.

“I know you don’t need a flashlight,” he said, “but it will help me know where you are in the dark.”

“Okay. Follow me.”

Their footsteps echoed as Willow led the way through the darkness. The old place was uncharacteristically eerie. Willow flipped a wall switch and the atrium flooded with soft light. Across the floor in front of them was the service hallway leading to the back door. Willow led Noah to its dark opening and flipped a second switch to illuminate the passage.

On the left near the back was a closed door, one of the few Noah had seen in this house of open doors. Willow opened it and flipped on a third switch. Light illuminated a wooden stairway leading down to the basement. Creaks and groans filled the air as they climbed down to a smooth concrete floor. Mustiness met them as they descended.

The cellar was one large, empty room with heavy wood posts placed at eight-foot intervals in all directions. Huge oak beams rested on the posts and formed the support for the upper levels. The smell of damp rock rose from the limestone foundation. Four brick chimneys marked out the corners of the atrium above. A network of bare incandescent bulbs lit the space.

“It’s spooky down here,” Willow said. “I don’t like it.” Gooseflesh dotted her bare shoulders. She held her wings high in flight position, which Noah had learned indicated stress or excitement.

What a wonderful opportunity to sneak up behind you and say ‘boo’.

Willow’s eyes flamed and her wings twitched. “I don’t know what you were just thinking, but you better stifle it.” Noah snickered while he turned in a circle and surveyed.

The area of interest was the south wall, the closest to the presumed cave. Along this wall were broad stairs to an outside entrance, an abandoned coal bin, the water softening system and the steam heating system. Willow walked toward the boiler.

“I’m going to turn the heat on while we’re down here. It’s time for a monthly warm-up.” While Willow fiddled with the boiler controls Noah walked along the south wall, probing the dark nooks and crannies with his flashlight.

The outside entrance doors were heavy steel plate, with an inner bar across them for extra strength. The unused coal delivery door in the east wall was welded shut. Nothing remarkable stood out around the water system or the boiler, nor was anything unusual about the south wall itself, which like the other walls displayed no visible cracks or openings. Everything in the basement appeared normal.

Shoot. I thought sure we would find something.

The boiler roared to life as Noah finished perusing the wall. Willow walked over to where he stood near the southwest corner.

“See anything interesting?” she asked.

“No,” Noah said, sighing in disappointment. “Maybe I was wrong about the cave.” He glanced around the basement again, pondering, his mind searching for data. He fell into his old habit and counted the posts in each row. Seven posts east to west meant eight spaces or sixty-four feet between the walls. Turning, he counted the nearest row of north to south posts. Seven posts north to south…

That’s odd.

The spacing next to the south wall was six feet, not eight.

“Willow, is the house square?” Noah asked.

“I think so. Why?”

“The basement isn’t. Let’s go outside. Leave the lights on.”

They walked up the creaking stairs and outside to the base of the front porch steps. Noah flipped on his flashlight and walked to the northeast corner of the house, carefully aligned himself and paced off the width of the house.

“Sixty-seven feet, give or take,” he announced when finished. “Sixty-four feet plus two walls eighteen inches thick.”

“That sounds right,” Willow said, looking a little lost.

Noah repeated the process on the west wall with the same result. “Just what I thought,” he said. “The house is square, but the basement is two feet smaller north to south. Let’s go back downstairs.”

As they crossed the atrium, Willow spoke. “Oh, I get it now. The back wall of the basement is set in two feet from the back wall of the house.”

“Right. Space enough for a double wall with a hollow space in between.”

Back in the basement, Noah walked to the outside entrance and trained his flashlight on the doorway. “Look at this. The doorway is extra tall, and the stairs start in the opening, which helps conceal how thick the wall is. You don’t realize it unless you look overhead.” Noah’s light revealed a five-foot long stone block ceiling slanting up parallel to the stairs.

“You’re good at this stuff,” Willow said.

“Well, maybe. It’s still a theory until we find an entrance to the hollow wall. We know it’s not down here. The entrance is upstairs someplace, a concealed stairway maybe, or a hatch in the floor.”

“I have no idea where,” Willow said.

“We’ll need to search all the rooms along the south wall on the first floor.” Noah looked at his watch. “We might as well not start tonight, since we have our secret mission.”

“Right. It’s nearly time for the council meeting to start.”

On the way to the motel, Noah detoured to the liquor store and bought a bottle of wine.

“What’s that for?” Willow asked as he climbed into the truck.

“You never know when you might run into a pretty girl you want to entertain.” She arched her eyebrows.

Noah parked outside his room and told Willow to wait for him to open her door. When he opened it, she smiled at his chivalry. He took her hand and led her across the parking lot toward the office.

“Where are we going?” she asked.

“To rent a movie. It’s part of our cover. When we go in here, try to look sexy.”

“What?”

“Even better, try to look horny.”

“Noah!”

He grinned. “We need the guy in the office to remember us, and we want him to think we’ve spent the evening in my room. So smile and enjoy.”

Willow gave him an exasperated look. She took her stocking cap off, stuck it in Noah’s jacket pocket, and shook her head to fluff out her hair.

“Do that looking at me through your eyelashes thing you did in your parents’ room.”

“Like this?” she said and demonstrated.

“Perfect.”

Willow giggled as they walked into the office.

“Evening, Noah,” said the young man behind the desk. His eyes slid off Noah and were all over the hot little babe dressed in black.

No need to undress her.

“Hi, Tommy. Got any good movies?” Noah set the wine on the counter. Willow sidled up beside him and snuggled close, pressing her chest against his arm. Tommy seemed reluctant to turn around and pull Noah’s selected movie off the shelf. When he turned back, Noah was massaging Willow’s neck. She looked dreamily up at him.

Noah paid for the movie, which was loaded with sex, and thanked Tommy. When they reached the door, he turned and spoke. “Tommy, would you put a note on the switchboard to hold my calls.” He made sure Willow was outside and whispered, “Until morning.”

Tommy grinned and nodded.

Once outside, Noah put his arm around Willow and guided her across the parking lot. “You did great. I guarantee Tommy’s watching every move. I should maybe feel your butt to make it look good.”

“Touch my cute little butt and I’ll break your arm.”

They laughed and continued walking.

“I should at least give you a passionate kiss,” Noah said. “You know, to get Tommy’s hormones pumping.”

Please let me kiss you.

“Noah, you’re awful!” Willow said and gave him a playful shove, which he returned. He grabbed her by the hand and jerked her in close, tight against him. He put his hand on the back of her neck, pulled her face close, and kissed her willing lips. Though not as magical as their first kiss and just for show, Noah still enjoyed the experience thoroughly, and was perhaps more passionate than intended. When they broke apart, Willow wore her sexy smile.

“My goodness,” she said, “that got
my
hormones pumping.”

When they reached Number 13, Noah put out the “Do Not Disturb” sign and locked the door. A glance at the office proved Tommy had taken it all in.

Noah set the wine down and checked his watch. “We need to get moving,” he said, all business again. Willow wandered to the desk and perused the mess of papers and photos covering it, while Noah rummaged through drawers and pulled out dark clothes. From the closet, he pulled dark blue tennis shoes.

“What happened here?” Willow asked. She was pointing at her wrinkled picture on the wall, her eyebrows arched with suspicion.

Well, it fell off the wall and I accidentally stepped on it.

“Uh, that happened yesterday. After we had our … disagreement.”

Willow smiled. “That’s okay. My image of you got crumpled for a while, too.”

Once changed, Noah started the movie, turned up the volume and shut off all the lights so the television glow illuminated the room. He retrieved his coat and put on his gloves. Willow pulled rubber gloves from her pocket, put them on and covered them with regular gloves. Last, they pulled on stocking caps.

A small window in the bathroom opened to the dark, backside of the motel. Noah opened it and popped the screen, then climbed out and dropped to the ground. Willow followed suit, except she winked out of sight before coming out the window.

Clear sky and a late-rising moon promised concealment. They walked along the edge of the fields and passed behind an abandoned factory building, and then turned east toward downtown. They waited for a break in the traffic on Route 1, ran across to McFerren Park and jumped the fence. Noah set a good pace across the park, angling north toward downtown, and they soon passed through the stone arch over the park entrance.

“Willow, where are you?” Noah whispered in no particular direction.

“Right here,” she whispered back. “I mean beside you on your right.”

Don’t look that direction, Noah.

He could just make out the patter of Willow’s little feet on the pavement.

“This blinking thing you do is weird,” Noah said.

“It’s winking, not blinking.”

“Right. How long can you stay … winked?”

“About half an hour. It takes a lot of energy, but I’ll be okay. We should be to Chester’s in ten minutes or so. Cut north one block and take the next alley east. We’ll go past the village hall and make sure his car is there.”