Page 61 of Capturing You
She’d plopped down in the middle of the floor. This room had no windows, no natural light at all.
“Comfortable?”
“Oh, yeah.” She pushed to her feet. “Best seat in the house.” Was her voice shaky? Surely she wasn’t afraid of the dark.
“Does your phone not have a flashlight?”
“The battery died.” She brushed off her pants. “I’ve been meaning to ask you to borrow a charger, but…” Her voice trailed.
He guessed she was the kind of person who let her phone die regularly.
“Thanks for coming for me. Another rescue mission! You’re like one of those lifeguards onBaywatch.”
Like it was 1995.
She added, “Sans the Speedo, of course.”
What was he supposed to say to that? He came up with zero responses. “What were you doing in here?”
“Cleaning.”
He scanned the room again. His flashlight skimmed the bottle of Pledge and the rag but landed on a spiral notebook in the middle of the desk. “What’s that?”
“I found it. I thought you might want to see it.”
He crossed to the desk and flipped the top open. It was a ledger of some kind, filled with Father’s handwriting. Beside it were a couple of cassette tapes.
His heart thumped. How had she come across this? He’d searched this room already, and law enforcement had searched the entire house.
Which meant…
“Where?” He spun to face Brooklynn, accidentally flashing the light in her face.
She squinted and took a step back.
He lowered the beam. “Where did you find it?”
“Um…” Based on the wavering single word, she was nervous to tell him. “The desk drawer had a false bottom. Once I figured that out, it was just a matter of finding the way in.”
“How did you know?” He was tempted to flash the light in her face again, to judge her expression as she answered the question.
No need for her to feel like she was being interrogated, even if she was.
“It’s just that the house has some secrets, so I thought maybe there were more.” When he said nothing, she continued. “I didn’t mean to pry. I just… I was curious.”
“I specifically told you not to snoop.”
“I wasn’t snooping. I was?—”
“Cleaning? You were worried the secret compartment might be dusty?”
She shifted her feet but said nothing.
“Come on.” After grabbing the ledger and tapes, he marched to the door and down the hall to the family room, the whisper of her footsteps following. He pushed the door open and stepped aside so she could precede him.
When she passed, she didn’t look up. Was she embarrassed or frightened? Maybe a little of both?
He didn’t want to frighten her, but she needed to quit nosing around in his business.
