Page 48 of From the Darkness

She was prepared to use her lock picks. But that wasn’t necessary.

Inside she switched on the flashlight. But she soon found out that merely getting inside the office was going to do her little good. There was some kind of night lock on the phone that it made it impossible to lift the receiver. Maybe she could wrench it off. But she was pretty sure she couldn’t get it back on

It flashed through her mind that maybe she should let them think the ghost had done it. The idea of the prank made her grin, until a more sobering thought struck her. The Sterlings had sounded pretty stressed out. Maybe more ghostly shenanigans would push them over the edge. And she didn’t want to find out what would happen in that case.

That worry meant the phone was useless to her. With a silent prayer, she played the flashlight beam on the computer.

It had been turned off for the night, and she’d have to reboot. Setting down the flashlight on the desk, she flipped the power switch. The machine started through its opening routine—then stopped.

“Enter password.”

Oh great. Just what she needed. Of course, she didn’t know the password. Was it something Troy had been using—that the Sterlings had appropriated? Or was it something that they’d entered into the computer. If it was the latter, she didn’t have a chance in hell of figuring it out.

She made several tries. Ravencrest. Helen. Their birthdays. Dinah. The child’s birthday. None of them worked.

And another worry began to nag at her. Was there some kind of alarm attached to the machine? Would it sound after a certain number of wrong guesses?

She stopped, knowing she had to take a different approach. Maybe the password was written down.

She pulled out the middle desk drawer and felt around on the underside, hoping to find a piece of paper taped to the thin wood panel.

There was no paper, but she found something else—a small, flat piece of metal that felt like a key.

It was taped securely in place, and she had to work at it with her fingernails. Finally, it came free, and she had just picked up the flashlight to look at it when the doorknob turned—and the door burst open.

Chapter Eleven

Bree clutched the little key in her palm as she whirled to face the door, pushing the drawer partly closed with her hip.

She thought she’d be confronting Nola or Abner again. Instead, Mrs. Martindale stood in the doorway.

“Oh my,” she said. “I didn’t expect to find you here.”

“I . .” Bree mentally scrambled for something to say. Finally, she settled on a version of the truth. Falling back on her ditz-brained southern blond persona, she fluttered her hands and said, “Ravencrest makes me so nervous. And I’m so homesick. I was hoping to talk to one of my friends. But the phone is locked up. So I thought maybe I could send some e-mail. But the computer asked me for a password. So I can’t do that either.”

Mrs. Martindale’s face twisted. “Yes, Nola doesn’t want unauthorized phone or computer use. She says it’s an economy measure.”

“Why? Is there a financial problem here?”

The housekeeper sniffed. “You’ll have to ask her about that.”

As the woman spoke, Bree casually slipped her hand into her pocket, leaving the key tucked out of sight.

After a silent debate, she said, “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t tell Mrs. Sterling I was in the office. I don’t want to get on her bad side.”

Mrs. Martindale made a tsk sound. “I understand. She can be quite trying.”

“How did she happen to be in charge here?” Bree asked.

“She’s a relative of the Londons.”

“Oh. Yes,” she responded once more.

The conversation had wound down, but the housekeeper remained standing in the doorway, and Bree got the definite impression that she wasn’t going to be left alone in the office. Leaning back, she closed the drawer the rest of the way with her hips.

“I see you borrowed the flashlight again. If you’re finished with it, I’d like to have it back.”

“Of course. I . . . uh . . . didn’t want to bother anyone by turning on the light in here.” She knew the excuse was lame, but it was the only thing she could think of.

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