Blackberry Crumble (26 page)

“Really?” May said. Sadie could see her mentally picking apart the comment as though searching for some kind of validation in it.

“Just a gut reaction on my part, of course,” Sadie said. She reached for the cutting board propped up against the wall behind the sink and put it on the counter before transferring the bacon to it and extracting a chef’s knife from the butcher block.

“I wish I’d paid more attention,” May said. “I didn’t until things fell apart, and, of course, everything seemed suspect after that.”

She asked for details from the files, and Sadie relayed what she could remember while she finished mixing the ice cream, then put the base in the freezer to chill.

May’s Blackberry rang with those chirping birds again, and she stepped outside to talk to whoever was on the other end. After the side door closed, Sadie wondered if Lois might be a good resource for family information. She’d known the Sanderson family for a long time, after all. Maybe Sadie could find a way to talk to her at the picnic tonight. And then Sadie remembered the personal filing cabinet. There might be information about Hugh in one of the files.

The ice cream was chilling, May was distracted, and there were drawers full of information only a few yards away. It couldn’t hurt to read up on what parts of Hugh’s life Jim had held on to. Maybe she could get more of a feel for him that way.

She walked quietly to the side door and leaned close enough to hear May talking, though the words didn’t come through. Whoever she was talking to was getting an earful, though. Sadie had the perfect opportunity. She hurried toward the study and closed the door quietly; she’d only need a minute to swap Hugh’s file with a business one that she could then take to the hotel with her. May wouldn’t miss it until tomorrow—if at all.

She headed directly for the family filing cabinet. She wrapped her fingers around the slender silver handle and pulled. Nothing happened. She pulled again and only then did her eyes drift to the lock at the top of the cabinet. Between now and the time she’d first looked at the contents of this cabinet, someone had locked her out.

Chapter 30

Sadie immediately thought of her lock pick set. She knew from her research that filing cabinet locks were pretty easy to pick because they used a wafer system to raise and lower the single pin. Sadie hurried to the kitchen and retrieved her purse. May was just coming inside, so Sadie pretended she was looking for gum.

“I better get a shower before the picnic,” May said, still holding her phone. “I’ve been packing up stuff all day. Are you okay for a minute?”

“Absolutely,” Sadie said, finding a lone piece of Trident in the bottom of her purse. She unwrapped it and popped it in her mouth. It was rock hard. “I’ll jus be in du stuhy,” she said, trying to bite through the gum. Rather than attempt talking again, she smiled instead.

“Okay,” May said. “I’ll only be a few minutes.”

Sadie tucked the petrified gum into her cheek. “No rush,” she said innocently. “Take your time.” She headed back to the study while May headed down the other hall, but slowed her steps as she neared the door. As soon as she heard a door shut in the other hall, she turned and tiptoed quickly back to the kitchen and grabbed her whole purse.

Once back in the study, with the door shut, she spit out the gum, removed her lock pick set, and went to work. She pulled open one of the business cabinet drawers so that it would look like she was working on those files, then went to the other cabinet and took a breath. This was the first lock she’d picked for real rather than for practice. It was a little intense. She hoped filing cabinet locks were as easy as the website promised.

After two minutes, she was sweating bullets and getting more and more anxious. How on earth would Sadie explain why she was digging metal sticks into the filing cabinet lock? She could feel the pressure she needed to lift, but felt as though she was already pushing too hard. She knew from experience that pin locks jammed rather easily, but the only thing she could think of to do was apply more pressure. She wondered why she’d never practiced on her own filing cabinets at home.

She pushed a little harder, then harder still, and was about to give up for the sake of her blood pressure when she finally felt the snap. For an instant, she thought she’d broken the pick, but when she pulled the handle, the drawer slid open. She smiled to herself and then looked quickly at the door.

No way could she risk May coming in now. She closed the drawer and opened the study door a crack.

“May?” she called.

There was no answer, so she closed the door and ran for the cabinet. Bingo. A file marked “Hugh” was right between “Homestead Insurance” and “Internet Info.” Sadie shut the drawer and swapped the contents of Hugh’s file with the contents of one of the business files she’d already put in a storage box. She quickly grabbed a couple more business files and stacked them on top of Hugh’s. Then she took a deep breath, checked the hallway again by calling for May, and returned to the filing cabinet to relock it.

She came up short. She knew how to pick a lock, but unpicking it? How did that work? Her heart immediately started racing. If the filing cabinet wasn’t locked, May would be suspicious. Why hadn’t Sadie thought of that earlier?

Desperate for her own self-preservation, she put Hugh’s file folder—now holding commercial tax rate information—back in its place in the personal file and shut the drawer. Maybe May wouldn’t remember locking it, but it was pretty obvious she’d locked it to specifically keep Sadie out.

Maybe she wouldn’t check for a couple of days, but that seemed too much to hope for. Where did they keep the key? Sadie went to the desk drawer and fumbled through the contents. It wasn’t there. Next she looked through a pottery dish that held an assortment of odds and ends—nothing there either. She could sense she was running out of time. May had been in the shower for at least ten full minutes.

She’d have to jam the drawer shut for now—but how? There were several binders in the bookcase, and Sadie grabbed one. She was about to wedge it on top of the files in such a way that when she pushed the drawer closed, the binder would raise up and prevent the drawer from opening, when she noticed another file in the drawer, not far from Hugh’s fake one. “Key duplicates.”

Could it be that easy? She grabbed the file and opened it to find a piece of cardstock with five keys taped to the page. Scrawling handwriting identified them as house, garage, car door, and car ignition. At the very bottom, looking rather pathetic next to all the real keys, was a small, silver key about two inches long with the words “filing cabinet” written beneath it.

Bless your heart, Jim Sanderson.

Sadie took the filing cabinet key off the paper and promptly returned the rest of the keys to the folder before snapping the drawer shut, locking it up, and stashing the key in the desk drawer. May wouldn’t think to check the file to look for the key, would she? Sadie wiped sweat from her forehead; this was a little too much anxiety. She needed to take a break, and maybe have another muffin. Hoping she looked calm, and would
feel
calm in a few minutes, she picked up the stack of files from the desk. She was halfway across the room when the door opened, causing her to startle.

“Sorry about that,” May said as she entered. She’d changed into jeans and a black, V-neck T-shirt that was quite flattering. Her hair was wrapped in a pink towel. “Everything okay?” She scanned the office and seemed to let her gaze linger on the personal filing cabinet a little longer than anything else.

“Everything’s fine,” Sadie said, hoping her breathing appeared normal. She held up the stack of files. “I found a few more papers I needed to make copies of.”

“Right now?” May asked. She glanced at her watch. “Isn’t it about time to finish up the ice cream?”

Sadie looked at the clock on Jim’s desk. It was almost six o’clock. Time flew when you were afraid of being caught. “I guess it is,” she said, not sure what to do.

“You can take the files with you after the dinner and make copies before you come back tomorrow,” May suggested.

Sadie wondered if the offer was evidence of May feeling a little guilty for locking the personal filing cabinet in the first place. May seemed to make spontaneous decisions she thought better of later.

“That would be great,” Sadie said. “In that case, let me just finish this one file drawer, and I’ll be right there.”

“Okay,” May said. “I’m going to look in on Jolene—Gary should be here any minute—and finish getting myself ready.”

Sadie smiled and nodded like the good girl she was pretending to be, but it was hard for her to meet May’s eyes as the guilt set in. May left, and Sadie reflected on the fact that she was going against May’s wishes. But it felt equally wrong to ignore her concerns about Hugh. She prayed it wouldn’t explode in her face.

She left the files on the desk and went into the kitchen to work on the ice cream. May returned ten minutes later, her hair still damp but drying into soft waves. She had her makeup on and black flip-flops on her feet. She smiled hello at Sadie before heading back to work on another cupboard.

Sadie’s phone rang as she was pouring ice and salt into the ice cream freezer. May looked at Sadie’s purse.

“I’ll call them back,” Sadie said. “I’m not in a good stopping place.” She added a layer of ice, a layer of salt, and than another layer of ice before the bucket was full. Her phone chirped to indicate she had a message. Sadie plugged in the freezer. The sound of the motor was horrible, and she turned it off immediately. “That’s loud,” she said.

“My dad always ran it in the garage,” May said.

“Oh, good idea,” Sadie said, though the ice would definitely melt faster out there. “I’ll take it out and check my messages.”

May nodded, and Sadie slipped her phone in her pocket before picking up the now very heavy ice cream freezer. She took slow and careful steps down the back stairs and into the garage; her arms were shaking by the time she put it down. She plugged in the freezer and then stepped out of the garage, pulling the door closed and effectively muting the horrible grating of the motor.

She retrieved her phone to see who’d called, but as soon as she saw the number, her eyes narrowed. Jane Seeley again. This time, however, she’d left a voice mail. For a moment, Sadie considered deleting the message without listening to it, but, no, there was no way she could
not
listen to what Jane had to say.

She quickly called her voice mail, bracing herself for the worst.

“Sadie? It’s Jane. You’ll be pleased to know that I got written up for the article I wrote, and as part of the deal, I’ve been asked to write a retraction. It will be going into tomorrow’s paper.” A long pause atypical for messages ensued. When she spoke again, her voice sounded different. “On a personal note, I would also like to offer you an apology. It really wasn’t my intent to make things difficult for you; in fact, I thought you would be flattered by the attention. If there’s something I can do beyond the retraction to make up for whatever harm I’ve caused, I hope you’ll let me do so.”

Sadie nearly snorted at the idea of going to Jane for help. The retraction was nice, and she was grateful she’d taken the time to lodge the complaint about it, but she didn’t trust Jane’s assertion that she wanted to make it right. She couldn’t help but reflect on Pete’s comment about a retraction being buried in some obscure section of the paper. How many people would read it? And of those who did read it, how many would be able to pretend they’d never read the original article?

She hoped she’d never hear from Jane again, though the apology did make her a little more sympathetic. The retraction would hurt Jane professionally even if she didn’t understand the moral damage she’d done to Sadie’s reputation. It would be nice if there was some solution, but life didn’t work that way. Choice meant consequence—you couldn’t control the latter unless you controlled the former. Sadie deleted the message, glad to feel a sense of finality about the whole situation.

“Sadie?”

She looked up from where she was standing in the shade of the garage. May was at the back door. “I need to get down some platters that have probably been up here for more than ten years. They’re kind of heavy, and I’m afraid I might lose my balance. Could you help me?”

“Of course,” Sadie said, slipping her phone into her pocket. “I’d love to.” May asking her for help was a good sign.

Chapter 31

Hi, Lois,” Sadie said, coming up while Lois made a fan of multicolored napkins on the table that ran along the far side of Lois’s fenced yard. She’d helped May with the platters, and then assisted her with a couple more cupboards before it was time to go to the picnic. May had been grateful for the help, and Sadie was glad to have the earlier tension softened between them.

“What a party!” Sadie added, scanning the beautifully landscaped backyard. There were trees around almost the entire perimeter, offering plenty of shade, and rose trellises here and there, interspersed with what Sadie thought were tomato plants, though you wouldn’t guess it right away because they blended with the flowers so well. There were two barbeque grills sending up smoke signals on the other side of the patio and clusters of people sipping drinks and chatting with one another while they waited for the meat to finish cooking.