Page 19 of Alibi for Murder
“I did.” He’d suggested a thorough search of her office when they first started. Even though she had been the one to set up all the furniture and the other odds and ends of her workspace, she’d done so while her grandparents were still alive. One or the other could have hidden something there later. In some distant part of her brain, she’d considered as much before Steve mentioned the possibility, but she hadn’t really wanted to believe either of her grandparents would have hidden anything from her. The very idea was ludicrous.
This whole situation was ludicrous. She eyed the man standing in that doorway…except for him. He was the one thing keeping her grounded amid this ever-escalating madness.
Pushing aside the worrisome thoughts, she considered that whatever she had believed about the past and her grandparents, here she was in a total state of uncertainty about both. Clearly many things had been hidden from her.
Whatever else she believed at this point, Allie was completely certain her grandparents only did whatever they did to protect her. Red had said as much, but she hadn’t really needed his confirmation. Her grandparents had loved her. She had absolutely no question about that.
“Let’s go at this room,” Steve suggested, surveying the twelve-by-about-fourteen space that had been her parents’ bedroom, “from a different angle.”
Allie was ready for just about anything as long as it helped solve this mystery. “Tell me what you mean.”
“Let’s consider that your parents hid something specific for reasons other than what Red suggested—that they were protecting you.”
She made a face. “I’m confused. I thought we were looking for anything they’d hidden for whatever reason.”
He shrugged. “We’ve been looking for anything hidden, yes. But what if this was some sort of insurance for them? At the time it was hidden, they may not have realized that you might be in danger as well. Any move or decision a person makes is always motivated by some necessity. Each move or decision is different based on the immediacy and/or the necessity involved.”
Allie thought maybe she got it now, though she wasn’t entirely sure. “You’re saying that they may have hidden something differently if it was related to a more immediate need the two of them had versus some future need I might have.”
He smiled. “Precisely.”
Made sense.
They started with the ceiling. There were no ventilation registers in the ceiling, and only one light fixture which was actually a ceiling fan. Steve rounded up a ladder and checked the tops of the blades to ensure nothing was tucked there. He examined the main part of the fixture as well. Nothing but dust.
While he examined the curtains and blinds on the windows, Allie studied the walls. She looked behind framed items hanging there. She scrutinized every single crack in the plaster for possible openings. She removed the covers from electrical outlets, including the light switch, to ensure nothing was hidden in those either.
Piece by piece, they moved the furniture away from the wall and inspected the backside, the underside—including those of the drawers. It wasn’t until they pulled the bed from the wall that they found a possibleformerhiding place.
“This—” Steve pointed to a spot in the wood on the back of the headboard “—is a place that was once covered. Maybe by a label of some sort or by something taped there.”
The spot wasn’t very large. About the size of a postcard. She traced it, felt a sticky residue. She nodded. “It may have been nothing more than a manufacturer’s label. But there was something stuck there.”
He pointed to an actual label on the opposite side. “This is larger. Why have two labels on the same piece of furniture when the others by the same manufacturer and in the same set we’ve already examined do not?”
He was right. The bedroom suite’s matching dresser and side tables only had one label each, always posted on the back of the item.
“Whatever was hidden here is gone now.” It felt very much like they were grasping at straws. Playing a guessing game. What if? Maybe this…
He smiled, though the expression looked as weary as she felt. “We are reaching. And it’s frustrating. But we’re trying, and until one of my resources comes through, it’s the best we can do.”
“Beats sitting around waiting for the other shoe to drop.” Allie would openly admit that she was one of those people who needed to be focused on something most all the time.
“Always,” he agreed.
Then they checked the floor. Each board of the hardwood was touched and examined for looseness and the possibility of being removed, along with the floor registers and the duct work leading up to those registers. Still nothing.
They had moved everything. Looked in, on and under everything.
Allie lay on her back on the floor. There was nowhere else to look.
Her gaze shifted from the bedroom door to the closet door. They had examined by hand each of the doors, smoothing their palms over the surfaces. The closet door was different from the main one leading into the bedroom. Not original, she decided. The door that led in and out of the room was like all the rest in the house. Paneled insets with wood stiles and rails. The usual type found in homes of this age and style. The closet door was similar in that it looked the same, but it wasn’t. Allie rolled onto her hands and knees and made her way to it. The inset panels weren’t really panels with stiles and rails. Each side of the door was molded to resemble a paneled door to create a “fake” paneled door.
Had the original door been replaced because it was damaged?
Steve crouched next to her. “This door is different. Newer.”
She sighed. “Still no place to hide anything as far as I can tell.”
