Page 50 of The Lady and the Footballer
There were a few doors off the corridor, and it took them a few tries to find the office they were looking for.
“This must be the main office,” Lily said as she took in the room that looked so much like that in her father's mill that she thought the same man had built and decorated both.
“We are becoming fairly practiced at this, are we not?” Colin said, raising a brow, a bit of his usual jovial self returned, likely with the intrigue of the night’s venture.
“I’d say so,” she said. “If all else in our lives falls to ruin, perhaps the two of us can become detectives.”
He snorted, and through unspoken practice, they each moved to one side of the desk, beginning to sift through the drawers before them.
“What if he keeps club business separate?” Lily asked into the silence of the room. “What if there is nothing here?”
“Then there is nothing here and we keep searching,” Colin answered. “Here is one of his ledgers, but it all appears to be warehouse business. Nothing to do with the club or personal matters.”
“Understood,” Lily said, looking up at him. “All of his personal business could be at his home?”
“Then we go there next, I suppose,” he said. “Do they live close to you?”
“Yes, in the next square,” she said.
She moved to a small cabinet on the other side of the room. On top was a decanter, likely filled with brandy, a few glasses beside it. She took care not to knock into either of them as she looked through the papers stacked behind the doors.
“Colin,” she said excitedly, looking up at him as her fingers tightened against the leather binding of a ledger. “This might be something.”
She hurried to his side, placing the small bound book in between them in front of the lantern as they took care not to move too close to the window that overlooked the factory floor lest anyone might see that someone was in the offices who wasn’t supposed to be there.
“The names here,” she said, pointing a finger down the list. “These look like player names on the team, do they not? There is a first initial, but most last names match.”
“They do, and beside them are written various amounts,” he murmured his agreement. “But look, here I am with numbers written beside my name when I haven’t accepted any bribes.”
“Perhaps this isn’t what he has paid in bribes but what he is trying to demonstrate you are taking? Do you think he could be the one trying to frame you?”
“I’m not sure,” he said. “What I do know is that this is all a mess.”
The lantern on the table began to flicker, signaling that its current fuel source was running out.
“We should take this and leave,” Lily said. “One of us could take it home to study it further and make sense of it.”
“I’m not sure about that,” he said. “What happens when Montgomery misses it?”
“Then he believes he misplaced it, and eventually I can place it somewhere that he finds it. Maybe in their home.”
“I do not want you going into a house where Lord Nathaniel might be,” he said through gritted teeth, his anger flaring again, but Lily enjoyed that it was directed at protecting her.
She touched his arm, feeling the hard muscle even through the layers.
“Thank you, Colin.”
She kept her hand on him as they walked back down the corridor to the outside door.
He put his hand on the doorknob, pulling it toward him, but the door didn’t budge.
He tried again, rattling it a few times, but it was useless.
“What’s wrong with it?” Lily asked.
“It’s locked,” he said grimly.
“Can we unlock it again?”
