Secret Keepers and Skinny Shadows: Lee and Miranda (14 page)

He tapped Miranda’s leg and pointed. “There. Did you see that?” He was pointing toward the big house on the hill in front of them.

“What? I didn’t see anything.”

“You didn’t see the curtain move? Someone was at the window, when I looked up, whoever it was stepped back and the curtain closed.”

“We’re running out of time tonight, Lee. We won’t be able to fit a visit to Jane’s home place until tomorrow sometime.”

                                 
CHAPTER 25

Present Day

H
idden by the dark shadows of the tall trees in the moonlight, Randy picked his way to the patio doors. He slid the knife into the space between the doorjamb and the lock. In a flash he had the door open and was in the room. With the small flashlight between his teeth, he moved like an apparition, his steps were undetectable. With the skill of a magician he opened the black briefcase on the closet floor, they weren’t in there. In one smooth fluid movement he found the computer room, the drawers and books didn’t give up what he was looking for, fifteen minutes later he’d searched everywhere, but couldn’t find them.

The sound from the opening garage door told him it was time to leave, in a swift and silent rush he exited.

As the overhead door closed, Lee watched Miranda put the key into the door lock, push the heavy door open and hit the light switch. The first thing she saw were pots and pans scattered around on the floor.

“Oh no, what the heck happened here? Look at this mess.” Miranda lowered her voice to a whisper. “It seems we had a visitor.”

Randy bounded down the wooden patio steps running across the well-kept lawn. With the skill of an acrobat, he zigzagged his slim body around the cement seats and the pond behind the house, with his eyes on the dark forest in front of him.

“Or still have one,” Lee said in soft tones. “Now do you still think I’m imagining things?”

He put his index finger to his lips, tapped Miranda on the shoulder, and whispered, “Wait here, Miranda. Let me check the rest of the house to make sure there’s no one here. You go back into the garage, lock the door and call the police on your cell.”

“There’s no way I’m waiting in the garage. I’ll be right behind you.”

“This isn’t the time to argue with me. Just get into the garage and call the police.”

“Okay, okay.”

Lee watched Miranda grab the garage doorknob, before he turned, and pulled his gun out of the holster. He was about to start walking, following the papers littering the hall, when he thought he heard a noise and paused, “Oh,” Lee said, as Miranda ran into him almost knocking him down. “Miranda, what are you doing?” He whispered. “I told you to wait in the garage.”

“I was never good at taking orders. It caused me a lot of problems when I worked. Anyway two weapons are better than one.” Miranda crossed the kitchen and pulled open a bottom cabinet drawer, felt underneath, loosened some tape and turned to face Lee. He gave her a wide-eyed stare.

“Now this is a weapon,” she said, holding a .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol in her hand.

“What the devil? You keep that in your kitchen?”

“Yep, and I haven’t had to take it out until now.”

“Do you know how to use it?”

“I hope we don’t have to find out. Now we better get going because whoever is in here is probably falling asleep waiting for us to come after them.”

“Okay, okay,” Lee whispered. He put his hand down to his side, nudging Miranda to stay close to him. “We’re making so much noise I’m sure that whoever was here is certain to be gone by now.

They moved as one body, stepping over the books and papers scattered in the hall, glancing in every room on t way, they all looked the same—drawers emptied and the contents thrown onto the floor. In the library, the shelves were bare and the books filled the center of the room.

“It’s a good thing the bookshelves were attached to the walls,” Miranda said, “or they would probably have pulled them over as well.”

“What in the world could they have been looking for?” Lee asked.

“One guess and I say the letters.”

In Lee’s room the patio door stood open about a foot.

“It looks like they came in and probably went out through this door.” Lee inched over to it peered around the curtains and could see outside. “Look quick, Miranda, someone is running into the woods.”

Miranda jumped to the open door.

“Did you see him?”

Miranda shook her head, “He was too fast. I didn’t see him.”

Lee and Miranda stood at the door staring into the night. In the distance they heard the roar of an engine, listening as it faded into the night.

                                 
CHAPTER 26

                                          Present Day

M
iranda walked from room to room shaking her head.

“Oh Lee, it’ll take hours to clean this up, of all the times for Adrian to be gone.”

Detective Mann took notes as he walked around the house surveying the mess.

“Lee, show the detective where we think the intruder broke in.”

“Come with me. We think the interloper went out through these doors, into the woods and followed the path through the trees.” Lee pointed in the direction of the woods.

“Patrolman Jones.” Jones was soon standing at the detective’s side. “I want you to take your flashlight and go into those woods out there.” He pointed to the back of the property. “Follow the path through the trees and see where it goes.”

“Yes, sir, right away.” The patrolman pulled a flashlight from his belt and hurried out the door.

Lee watched Jones make his way to the woods, then disappear as he walked into the black forest. Every couple seconds Lee could see the light flickering between the trees, then even that was gone. The detective turned toward Lee.

“We’ve had a rash of burglaries in this area in the past few weeks,” Detective Mann said. “We think its kids hunting for drugs or money or both. Whoever it was probably won’t be back. Can you tell if there’s anything missing?”

Miranda cast a glance at Lee and back to the detective.

“I can’t tell right now, but I’ll call you if I find that anything has been stolen,” Miranda said.

Ten minutes later the patrolman was back.

“Did you find anything?”

“The path led to a power line clearing on the other side of that stand of trees. There were four wheeler tracks on the blacktop road going south toward town.”

“Okay, thank you, Patrolman,” the detective said. “Since there’s nothing more we can do here tonight we’ll be going now.” The detective moved toward the door.

“Lee and I appreciate you coming out and investigating,” Miranda said.

Detective Mann held her gaze. He looked like he was going to say something, but didn’t. Lee followed Miranda as she showed the detective to the door.

“Have a good evening, Miss Witherspoon, Mr. Perkins.”

Lee thanked the detective again as he closed the door.

Miranda turned, shaking her finger at Lee.

“Do you think that detective was like one of the crooked police Lilly talked about in her letters? Why do you think they were after the letters? If the letters were what they wanted or it could be an enemy I made while working for the FBI. Would they just now be coming after me? No,” Miranda said second-guessing herself. “I still think it’s the letters they were after.” She crossed her arms and stood in front of Lee, tapping her foot. He could tell she was thinking, as he interrupted her thoughts.

“That’s my guess, but why?” Lee moved over to the windows staring at the night. Then he turned to Miranda.

“Where did you put the letters after I gave them back to you?” Miranda moved back to the computer room, stopped at the wall beside her desk, then in one quick move she kicked the baseboard just below the snow scene painting. Two sections of the hardwood floor moved sideways, and a metal safe started to rise from below the floor. She stooped, opened it, and pulled out the letters waving them in the air. After putting the letters back in the safe and tapping the baseboard, in a smooth silent motion it disappeared into the floor keeping its contents safe.

“You sure are full of surprises, aren’t you?”

Miranda turned and walked toward Lee, stopping two inches from his face.

“You don’t know the half of it.”

Lee nodded. “Ooh, sounds intriguing. Come on Kid, I’ll help you put this place back together.” He started to pick up books placing them back onto the shelves, nodding and listening to Miranda.

“Lee, I appreciate your help, with the two of us working on putting this house back together it shouldn’t take long.” Miranda started to put the room back in shape.

“This is for the most part my fault,” Lee said, “nosing around in this town asking questions about the murder. I’m afraid your life is in danger because of me, so until we find out who we can and cannot trust, we need to watch each other’s back.”

“I agree, but I’m the one who found the letters, then told a lot of people about them, not thinking that anything like this would happen. So in many ways a lot of this is my doing, not yours.”

Lee was stacking books as fast as he could. “This is just the beginning,” he said. “Our ad is coming out in tomorrow’s paper what kind of interest will surface then? Or what kind of visitors will we get? I don’t understand why this fifty-year-old murder would stir up such a hornet’s nest or that anyone would even remember it.”

Miranda finished with the computer desk and helped Lee with the books.

“I don’t either, Lee, but it’ll be interesting to see who comes out of the woodwork and why.”

“Maybe it’s not so much about Bert Grayson as the letters. Or maybe both. Lilly may be right about the murder. Maybe the killer is still out there,” Lee said as he finished filling the first bookshelf. “Miranda, what are you doing with all these books? Have you read all of them?”

“I love the smell of an actual book, not an e-reader. There’s something about touching the paper in my fingers, turning the pages and the satisfying feeling of finishing a story. Yes, I have read every one of them.” She nodded at him. He wasn’t paying attention to what she said.

“Jane is still alive,” he said, “so there’s no doubt in my mind that there could be a lot of people from that time period hibernating in Bridgetown with the information they thought was safe. I believe the children are protecting the secrets of their mothers and fathers. It’s only a matter of ferreting out who they are, and exposing them so they open up with the information they have or think they have about the murder or Lilly.”

Thirty minutes later Lee placed the last book on the shelf.

“What about the guy who tried to buy the letters and was killed that night in the car train accident?” She said.

“I doubt if we’ll ever find out why he wanted the letters,” Lee said. “Why does someone take a chance breaking into a house looking for we think but aren’t sure if it is the letters? The information in them must be of value to someone, but who could that someone be? We must be missing something important in the letters.”

“This is all so crazy and dangerous, but don’t worry I can protect you Lee.”

He stood and held his arms out in front of him. “Thanks, Miranda, I don’t know what I would do without you. All kidding aside, whoever these people are, they’re not going to give up. I believe we’re getting close and there getting desperate.”

Lee followed Miranda upstairs, in the middle of the staircase, Miranda stopped and turned.

“Don’t get any ideas Lee, we’re cleaning and putting things away. That’s all. Then right back down stairs.”

Lee shrugged and kept walking.

“You don’t have to worry about me. I can take care of myself,” Miranda said. “I’ve been doing it for years, but the important thing is I can run real fast.”

“I’m not blind, you’re in great physical shape, but no one can out-run a bullet.”

Lee helped finish with the upstairs, then down to the kitchen where he stood looking across the room at her. She was so self-confident. Her radiant eyes were staring, but not seeing, looking all around, especially behind her. She jerked her head in the direction of the creaks and groans of an old house getting used to its new body. The unknown was always hard to defend against.

He saw the fear behind her eyes, as hard as she tried to hide it, he could tell deep inside she was scared.

                                
CHAPTER 27

                                         Present Day

A
t 8:00 A.M. the next morning, they arrived in Crooksville, Florida, and rented a car. The bank was opening as they parked in front, it seemed empty except for a few tellers who appeared to be rushing to open their windows. A pinched face young girl about twenty years old walked over to them. “Can I help you?”

“Yes, thank you,” Lee said. “I would like to get into my deposit box number 52.”

“Okay, just one moment, please.” She scurried off and soon came back with a key.

“Follow me please.” She stopped turning toward Lee. “May I have your key please?” He handed it to her and they continued into the vault.

She slid her key then his into the slots turning them together the door swung open, she pulled out a long wide metal box and set it on the table behind them.

“There you are.” She walked out and closed the door. Lee turned to Miranda with the look of surprise.

“Wow, Lee, that was easy.”

“Yeah. Do you think it was a little too easy? Better hurry before they realize their mistake,” he said as he grabbed the lid.

To their great surprise when he opened it the manuscript was on top. Miranda grabbed it, as the door to the vault opened, like a magician she shoved it into her purse. A tall pox-faced man slipped in and closed the door. Lee looked up in surprise.

“Don’t take anything out of that box, the girl who let you in here is new. She isn’t familiar with the way we do things around here. There are rules and everybody goes by the rules. Besides all that, there’s a lot of money that’s owed to the bank for holding your box,” he said as he took it from the table and closed the lid. Lee stepped away from him; his breath filled the room.

“You’ll have to pay the fees to have access to this box.”

Miranda fanned the air in front of her. Lee watched as he slid the box back into the cube and turned the lock. He twirled the key ring around on his finger as he said, “The fee owed on this box is $500.” His crooked yellow teeth showed as he grinned with pleasure. Miranda put her hand on her hip and turned toward the man.

“What? Well, you can keep it then. There isn’t anything in there worth that kind of money.” She poked her chin forward at him.

He raised his hand into the air, turned and walked toward the door.

“That’s fine with me, miss. Have a good day.” With a slight bend at the waist and a sweeping gesture with his arm, he told them it was time to leave.

Lee and Miranda walked out of the bank driving straight to the airport where they waited for their ten o’clock flight. They’d be back in Bridgetown in time to meet with the police chief.

Lee whispered into Miranda’s ear as he looked over his shoulder. “Did you get it?”

She glanced from side to side.

“Yes, it’s in my purse, but I think we should wait until we get back to the mansion to look at it.”

Lee grinned. “For once, I agree with you.”