A sudden gust of wind rattled the old house. Candy glanced uneasily up at the ceiling, then back at Maggie, making a face that communicated her disbelief. “You can’t be serious.”
“I’m totally serious! The evidence is right here. This must have been their secret love shack!”
Candy’s response was a muted half laugh. “Do you know how crazy that sounds? I mean, come on! Cameron’s barely eighteen. What would he ever see in Sapphire? He’s much too young for her.”
“She’s a cradle robber! I always knew she was creepy!”
Candy shook her head. “I don’t believe a word of it. There must be some other explanation. Maybe…”
But she gulped down her words as they heard a door open and then close somewhere downstairs.
For a moment Candy and Maggie stared at each other in shocked silence. Then Maggie hissed, “Someone’s here!”
“Douse the lights!”
“We’re trapped!”
“Shh. No one knows we’re up here. Just keep cool and we’ll be fine.”
They switched off their flashlights, drifted back into the low corners of the room, and waited.
They could hear footsteps walking through the house two floors below.
“Should we turn out that other light?” Maggie whispered from her hiding place, motioning to the floor lamp.
“No, just leave it on.”
“The trap door’s still open!” Maggie started toward it, but Candy urged her back.
“Just leave it alone! Don’t make a sound.”
Maggie edged back into her corner, crouched, and waited.
Heavy footsteps were coming up the stairs, two at a time.
“They’re coming up!”
“Shh!”
Maggie shushed, though Candy could hear her whimpering quietly. They both waited nervously. The footsteps were closer now, turning into the bedroom below. Candy’s heart thumped in her chest and blood rushed through her ears. What if it was someone dangerous? What if the person who had killed Sapphire-not Ray, but the real killer-had come to kill them?
Candy looked around for a weapon as she heard the footsteps enter the closet and pause just below the trap door.
She spotted a camera tripod near her, tucked into the corner. Carefully she picked it up and held it in her right hand, ready to swing if necessary. It wasn’t the best weapon in the world, but it was metal and it was hard and it would do in a pinch.
And they were definitely in a pinch.
She heard someone climbing the ladder, slowly, cautiously. Candy shrank back into the shadows as far as she could go, her gaze riveted on the opening in the floor not six feet from her.
A shaggy head popped up. “Is someone up here?” a nervous male voice asked.
For a moment there was no answer. Then Maggie said in disbelief, from the other side of the room, “Cameron? Is that you?”
“Mrs. Tremont?” He was halfway up the ladder. Only his head and shoulders emerged through the opening, but it was enough.
Maggie stepped from her hiding place and gasped. “It is you! I can’t believe it! What are you doing here?”
“What are you doing here?” Instead of sounding surprised, his tone was accusatory.
“What do you think we’re doing? We’re snooping around.”
“We? Who else…?” His head swiveled around and he saw Candy. A dark look came to his eyes. “Who said you could do that?”
“We’re trying to find out who murdered Sapphire,” Candy said, sounding apologetic.
“I didn’t do it!”
“No one said you did.”
“Then why are you…?”
But before he could finish, Maggie cut in. “Are you sleeping here?” she demanded to know, pointing to the bed.
At first he seemed surprised by the question, but then his face grew hard. “What if I am?”
“Cameron…” Candy set the tripod down and took a step toward him. “We’re just trying to find out what’s going on here.”
“Well I don’t know,” he said stubbornly.
“But your things are here. Your clothes.”
“Were you and Sapphire Vine having an affair?” Maggie asked hotly.
“What?”
“You heard me, mister! Answer my question. Were you and Sapphire fooling around?”
His head shook furiously and he glared at her. “You’re crazy!”
“Don’t you talk to me in that kind of voice, young man.”
“I can talk to you any way I want! You’re not my mother.”
“Cameron, I want some answers and I want them now!”
“I’m leaving!”
“Don’t you dare…”
But it was too late. Cameron had dropped back down the ladder. Candy could hear his footsteps retreating back across the bedroom, out into the hall, and down the stairs.
“Cameron! Wait!” Maggie dashed to the opening and started down after him. “Don’t you run away from me!”
Candy heard him shout something back at her, but the words were muffled. A few moments later the back door opened again. Maggie’s shouts could be heard as she ran out into the backyard after him.
“Oh boy. What a mess.” Candy shook her head in disbelief, knowing the neighbors might have heard all the commotion. “Time to get out of here.”
She started toward the trap door but turned back, her mind working furiously. She didn’t want to leave anything here that might incriminate them. She spotted her tote bag sitting on the floor near the desk, right where she had left it. She crossed to it, picked it up along with her flashlight and gloves, and started to leave.
But she turned back again. She looked at the files on the desk. She should put them back into the filing cabinet, she thought, just in case someone else found this place. She could try to get a look at them later.
But immediately she reconsidered that. Who knew when she would have a chance to sneak in here again? And who knew if the files would be here if she made it back?
Better, she thought, just to take them with her. No one knew they were here anyway, she rationalized. No one would ever know they were missing.
She tried not to think about the consequences of removing evidence from the scene of a crime. Before she changed her mind again, she stepped back to the desk, picked up Jock’s and Herr Georg’s files, and stuffed them into the tote bag. Then she added others-files for Amanda and Cameron, Mrs. Pruitt and Hobbins, and tall, handsome Ben. They fit snugly, but she got them all in.
Her gaze darted across the desk. She grabbed the address book too and tucked the Rolodex under her arm.
Before she left, she spotted one more thing she decided she wanted to take with her-the photo album with Susan Jane Vincent’s name on it.
That was all she could carry. After a last look around, she quickly dropped down the ladder, pulling the trap door closed after her, and dashed down the stairs. She pulled on her shoes by the back door and ducked out under the police tape. Then, pushing the lock button on the door knob and shutting the back door tightly behind her, she raced out into the dark backyard.