Page 47 of One Last Step

“Or what?It’s not going to hurt my family.”

“Really?When I tell everyone what we’ve been doing and send the police the texts we’ve exchanged?Or maybe I’ll send them to Interpol.”

“Don’t threaten me,” Lukas replies darkly.

“Or what?You’ll endanger your son?Stop being an idiot.You need this money, and I need those photographs and those letters.Let’s help each other, and then when this is over, we can feel free to never see each other again.”

I look through the window in the door and see the two of them.They’re dressed rather comically in black bodysuits with balaclavas.Margot is holding a flashlight while Lukas opens the compartments of the automata clock that Sophie is so fond of.

He forces one open with a small crowbar, grunting with the effort.“You’re sure it’s in here?”

“That’s what your son said, right?”

I gasp.Margot flinches.“What was that?”

She turns toward the door, and I duck and clamp my hand over my mouth.For several seconds, the only sound I hear is my thumping heart.Then Lukas says, “That was nothing.Probably air moving through the elevator shafts.”

They resume working, and I try to process what I've just heard.Luc has been spying on the museum too?Oh no.Oh, poor Sophie.Poor Luc.Clearly his father is using him.

“You think he might have lied to us?”Margot asks, “to protect Sophie?”

“I doubt it,” Lukas replies, jimmying open another compartment.“He doesn’t like that we’re stealing from Elena, but he doesn’t think we’re going to hurt anyone.”

“What if wehaveto hurt someone, Lukas?”

“We don’t have to hurt anyone.”

“But what if wedo?”

He sighs and looks at her.“We don’t.Will you relax?No one’s going to catch us.We planned this well.”

“They could come down at any minute.”

“But they haven’t.”

She scoffs and rolls her eyes.“Whatever.Just hurry up.”

I turn my phone to silent and begin recording the two of them.I dare not call right now, or they’ll hear me, but I can send this evidence to the police later.

“Lukas, no one can find out about this,” Margot says.

“Why do you keep bringing this up?”he asks, irritably slamming another cabinet closed.

“Bequiet.Because if someone catches up, we need to make sure they can’t tell anyone else.That means making it so they can’t talk to anyone.”

Lukas stops and stares up at her.“If you’re going to talk crazy, go home.What we’re doing now is bad enough.Do you want to be a murderer too?”

“What we’re doing now is making things right,” Margot protests.“I gave Elena a chance to do the right thing, but she refused.And she threatened me.I can’t have this out.Not with the Galilee merger happening next month.”

“Well, let’s getthisdone then, and you won’t have to worry about it.But stop talking about silencing people.It’s very ghoulish.”

She sighs.“I don’twantto.I’m just…”

"You're worried.That's understandable.But you need to keep a cool head.Otherwise, you'll make mistakes, and making mistakes is how people get in trouble."

“Words of wisdom,” Margot says drily.

Lukas digs through the last cabinet, then sighs.“Well.It’s not here.”

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