Page 39 of Exposure of Murder

“Here we go,” Adam said, turning on the flashlight. “It stinks in here.” He scrunched his nose. “Smells like mold and mildew.”

Dust motes danced in the flashlight’s beam. They walked farther in and saw an old sofa and chair in one corner. Adam moved over to a cluttered desk by the window and sighed.

Adam sat on the desk chair and started opening drawers. “There’s a lot of crap here,” he said as he rifled through papers.

Ethan moved toward the kitchen. Stale food and garbage irritated his nose. A refrigerator sporadically hummed in the background. He sure wasn’t opening that.

The cabinets, countertops and floor screamed 1980s. He needed to find out Sheila’s whereabouts or if she was still alive. Opening a few drawers, he found a typical collection of utensils and odds and ends.

Adam walked in, holding a stack of mail. “Bills, junk mail and…” He handed Ethan a crumpled piece of paper with a list of initials and numbers on it.

“Might be something. Bag it,” said Ethan.

They continued their search, moving methodically from room to room through the house. When they reached the main bedroom, they found it cluttered and the bed unmade. An oldwooden dresser stood in one corner. Ethan opened the drawers, finding clothes and personal items and … a locked box.

As he dug deeper, he found a set of keys that were too small for the locks in the drawers, but one key fit the box perfectly. Inside were pictures of Thornton through the years with family and friends. Happier times. But among these were pictures of business associates—men in dark suits with hard faces, looking more like gangsters than friends. He put it aside to bring back to the station.

“I wonder what other items these keys go to?” he mused aloud. “Adam, do you see a journal or a diary anywhere?”

Adam looked under the mattress and bed. “Not in here.”

They looked in the second bedroom and bathroom, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

A door led to the basement; Ethan opened it. Shined the flashlight around. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling. The floor was dirt and looked like no one had been down there in years.

“I really don’t want to go down there,” he said. “But maybe we’ll find something.”

Adam laughed. “Why don’t I revisit the rooms in case we missed something?”

“Coward.”

“I hate spiders,” Adam replied.

“Damn. It looks like I’ve got to take one for the team.” Ethan glanced around, spotting a broom tucked away in the kitchen corner. He used it to knock down most of the cobwebs, then sneezed. “Crap.”

Cautiously walking down a very old set of stairs, he got to the bottom and shined the flashlight into the abyss. Lots of loose pieces of flooring were against one wall, looking a little worse for wear, since the basement was damp and the dirt floor wet. An old furnace was in one corner, pieces of discarded furniture in another, and remnants of moldy blankets were stacked on them.

Ethan poked around, but everything fell apart in his hands. “Argh, nothing here.” He walked upstairs.

Adam looked at him and laughed. “You look like you escaped from a spider’s web.”

“Fuck.” Ethan furiously brushed cobwebs off his body. “Anything?” he asked Adam.

“No. Nothing new, just the keys and the piece of paper. I don’t think Thornton spent a lot of time here.”

“Would you want to?” Ethan asked.

“Hardly.”

They got back into the truck and headed toward the office. The sun was setting, casting long shadows on the desolate road. Ethan couldn’t shake the feeling they were missing something important and wondered if they’d ever find out what Thornton was up to.

Twenty-Two

“Love you too.” Jane hung up the phone.

She always loved talking to her mom and missed her a lot. Her parents were planning on coming up for Thanksgiving, as well as her stepsister Grace, her husband and their three boys. Grace was a journalist in Black Pointe, Florida, while her husband, Luke McBride, was a former detective but now worked in security protection at KnightGuard Security. It would be fun to pick his brain for ideas if she ever decided to write again.

Tonight, Jane was having a group of her new friends over to the farm. Leah was coming, as well as Claire, Emily, Lily and Olivia Metcalf, who was a journalist at theBeaver Creek News.She wished Savannah was here, but she promised to come down the next weekend.

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