The door handle rattled, then someone pushed against it. “What’s going on here? We can’t get into this room. Isn’t this the room of the girl who is still missing?” a voice questioned from the hall.
Robert opened the door a smidgeon and answered, “Police business. We’ll be through in a few minutes. Feel free to check out the son’s room in the attic.” Grumbling could be heard, but Robert kept his foot firmly planted in front of the door.
Hurried footsteps could be heard headed to the steps. “You’d better hurry; the natives are getting restless.”
She felt for a piece of molding and pushed it, then turned it. The long, detailed piece of decorative molding popped loose. Barbara swung it open on its tiny hinges. In the narrow space, they saw a bright pink diary.
Jake knelt beside her and peered into the hiding place. He nodded to Robert.
“It looks like a diary.” Barbara started to reach for it.
“Don’t touch it. Jake, take my place.” Excitement tinged his voice. He moved to her side and placed his hand on Barbara’s shoulder. “Show me how it works.” She reversed the process, then unlocked it again. He kept his voice calm, even though his heart raced with the possibilities the diary might hold. Could Kelly have named her killer?
“I’ll bet she wrote all the details in it,” Barbara whispered.
“We’ll buy the desk and take it home. I think Elizabeth needs a desk, don’t you?” Jake nodded. Loud knocking and Tom’s voice were heard from the hall. “What’s going on?”
Barbara closed the secret door and sat on the edge of the desk. Robert gave Jake a nod, and he moved his foot from the door. It flew open to a hallway filled with people. Tom and Maggie stood there with confused expressions. Robert smiled and motioned them in. “Sorry, we were looking at maybe getting a bed for Jake’s daughter’s room. We settled on a desk. The bed can wait a few years.” He moved away to the door inviting the Bormans in. “I’ll help you carry this downstairs, Jake.”
The two managed to push the crowd from the door and get the desk down the stairs. Robert paid for the desk, then turned to look for Barbara, but she wasn’t with them.
“Hang on, Jake. I’ll go look for Barbara.” He headed up the steps and found her in Karl and Debra’s room. She stood looking at a tall, narrow dresser.
“You interested in that old thing?” he spoke from the doorway.
“Yes, and you should be too.” She looked over his shoulder to see if anyone stood behind him.
He looked too and came into the room to stand beside her. “What’s going on?”
“This family had a lot of secrets. Karl must have been a cabinetmaker besides an electrician.” She spoke in a low tone.
“What?” He eyed the funny-looking dresser. It had a set of narrow drawers on top of a bank of larger drawers below. “What did you find?” he asked.
“The second drawer down has a false back. I opened it, and there’s a cash book in there. I didn’t take it out. We need to buy this one too.”
“Really?” Robert asked, wondering what he’d do with this piece of furniture and the desk.
“Yes.”
“All right. I’ll go down and make arrangements to get a truck to pick the furniture up.”
She grinned. “I already did.” She pointed to the phone by the bed. “It’s still working. I called my cousin, Ted, with a moving truck. He’s on his way over now.”
Robert put his arm around her shoulder and hugged her. “You’re one amazing woman.”
“I know.” The smile stayed on her face as she walked away from him to the door.
“I think I’ll talk to you if I find any more dead bodies. You seem to have a lot of connections.” He laughed.
She arched her eyebrows, “It’s the truth.”
The desk fit in the large truck along with the dresser. Ted slammed the door and jumped in the cab.
“He’s taking these to my house, and we’ll put them in the garage,” Robert told Jake. “Barbara’s riding with her cousin to show him the way to my house. We’ll meet them there. Do you want to call Lorene and see if she wants to come over for Chinese tonight?” Robert asked.
“I’ll call when we get to your place.”
They arrived just as Ted backed the truck into the driveway. Jake went inside to call Lorene, while Barbara watched Ted and Robert put the two pieces in the garage.
After Barbara retrieved the books and reclosed the secret space, she told Ted goodbye and followed Robert into his house. Barbara smiled as they went through the kitchen.
“What’s funny?” Robert asked her.
“Thank you for letting me help you restock your kitchen. Because the insurance company has paid off, it’s been fun shopping for all your necessities.”
He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her ear, “I had fun with you too. Normally I hate shopping.”
She laid her head against his shoulder as they passed to the living room where Jake was hanging up the phone. “She wasn’t at home. I called her mother, and she told me Lorene and her sister took the kids to the park. They should be back in an hour, and she’ll tell Lorene to come over here.”
“I’ll wait a bit and order Chinese.” Robert replied and then joined Barbara on the couch.
Chapter 21
Jake came into the kitchen with bags of Chinese to-go boxes. Lorene and Elizabeth followed. The two women pulled the new plates and utensils from Robert’s kitchen and set them on the table. When they’d filled their plates and were sitting around the coffee table, Barbara held up the cash book and the diary. “I hope this is worth buying the desk and the dresser. My guess is that is why Karl put the false back into the pieces of furniture. Who would think to look in a woman’s underwear drawer?”
“Not me. I’d never think to look back there. From now on, I’ll check every drawer.”
Barbara opened the cash book, reading descriptions of the family’s cash flow. “Carl made pretty good money; there’s nothing outstanding. There are regular deposits. It looks like he kept a small amount of cash from each paycheck, about twenty dollars. He paid out to the utility companies and the oil company for gas for his car. There are mortgage payments and a Meier & Frank charge account, but it has no balance. There is a dentist bill, and look at this.”
She held the book open for the others to see. “There is a paid doctor bill of ten dollars. Lucky for us he even wrote the doctor’s name and phone number. Right after that in small letters, he wrote ‘Kelly.’ I guess we have a match here. We need to call the doctor and verify she was tested.”
“I’ll do that when we get to work,” Barbara volunteered, “I might get more information as a woman when I talk to the receptionist. I might even take a drive over to Vancouver and ask personally.”
“Good idea, but one of us should go with you. Robert, you have Thursday off, don’t you?” Jake suggested.
Robert and Barbara looked at each other and smiled. “I think that is a great idea, don’t you, Barbara?” He winked.
“Sure, that’s a great idea; I don’t know why I didn’t think of that,” she replied, tongue-in-cheek.
Jake looked up at the two, realizing he was being razzed. “You guys, knock it off.”
“Only after you do,” Robert responded quickly. He picked up the pink diary with gold leaf on the edges of the pages. It was locked with a small, brass clasp. “We don’t have a key.”
“Here.” Jake took the diary from Robert; with a quick snap, he had the lock open.
“How’d you do that?” Robert, Barbara, and Lorene looked surprised at the open lock.