Page 57 of From the Darkness

She had just made her escape when the door she’d first entered eased open.

She didn’t know who had come in until she moved to one of the windows and peered cautiously over the sill. It wasn’t Graves. It was Abner Sterling, and he looked wild-eyed and frightened. Maybe Troyhadtried to stop him from coming in, she thought as she watched Abner struggle to catch his breath.

After a few moments, he began going through a routine very similar to her own—opening drawers and poking around on shelves.

With only a part of her face showing at the grimy glass, Bree stayed where she was, ready to duck if the man looked like he was going to turn in her direction.

He was searching for something, and she was pretty sure he hadn’t found it. He straightened, standing with his hands on his hips in the middle of the room. His gaze flicked to the DVD, and he strode toward it, pressing down on the play button without bothering to check the disk.

When Rod Stewart blared out, he stared at the machine with narrowed eyes. So, had he heard Rod Stewart up in Troy’s room? Or had Nola told him about it?

As she watched, he pressed the stop button, opened the top, and removed the disk, which he slipped into his pocket. Apparently, he didn’t care whether or not Graves knew the DVD was missing.

He spent several more minutes searching the workshop, being careful to put everything back where he’d found it.

She had a bad moment when he looked toward the door where she’d exited, perhaps considering going out that way. But he turned and went back out the other door.

Bree waited where she was, wondering what she was going to do. She hadn’t found any keys. But she wasn’t going back in there now. She’d made a lucky escape once, and she didn’t want to risk meeting anyone else here.

She sighed, thinking it was long walk into town—too long for Dinah.

Back at the house, she entered the dining room to find Nola looking impatiently toward the door.

Dinah was at the table, hunched over her cereal bowl.

“Where were you?” Nola snapped.

“I went for a walk before breakfast. Do I have to clear that with you?”

“No,” Nola conceded. “But we didn’t know where you were. Mrs. Martindale says you changed bedrooms.”

“Yes, I wanted to be closer to Dinah,” she said, smiling at the little girl who was watching the exchange from under lowered lashes. Then Bree turned her attention back to Nola. “Did you need me for something?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. Mr. Hirsch from the School Board called. He wants to make sure that Dinah’s studies are conforming to the county curriculum. Are they?”

“As far as I can ascertain,” Bree answered.

“Well, he’ll be out here at two this afternoon to inspect the schoolroom, look at your lesson plans, and interview you.”

“Oh. Isn’t that rather short notice?”

“That’s the point. You’re supposed to be prepared.”

“Right,” Bree agreed, wondering if she really was in compliance. She hadn’t been here very long, and all she had to go on was the material that the previous teacher had left.

Lord, something else to worry about!

“I’d better make sure everything’s ready,” she said, then turned to Dinah. “When you finish your breakfast, come up to the classroom.

“Aren’t you going to eat?” the child asked.

“I’ll just grab something and take it up.”

She poured herself coffee, added milk and sugar, then set a piece of toast on a larger plate. After adding apricot jam, she set the coffee saucer on the bigger plate, using it as a tray to carry the hurried breakfast upstairs.

She should have looked at the local curriculum requirements, she thought as she began searching through the supply closet shelves, trying to locate thick, notebook-sized manuals.

“Why didn’t you warn me about this?” she muttered, speaking to Troy as she scrambled through stacks of materials. “You could at least show me where the stuff is.”

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