Time Thieves (15 page)

“That’s not a bad idea.” She peered in the direction of the flashlight shining on the bare wood wall. “Is that the second door? Open it.”

Another heavy grating noise sounded. “Whew, I don’t think this one has been used in a long time.”

He shone the light into the other side of the door. “It’s another bedroom.”

“The spare room?”

“I don’t know.” He crawled through and finally stood up. Sari had to crouch down to come out the doorway. She stood up straight and stared in surprise at her parents’ old bedroom. “Really?”

“What?”

“This is the master bedroom. Why would there be a secret door from their room to my room?”

“In the olden days, the master of the house often had a secret passageway to his current mistress that might have been a maid or someone visiting.” Sari wrinkled up her nose. “That’s just wrong. With his wife sleeping right here? How would he hide what he was doing?”

Ward grinned. “I don’t know. I can’t imagine it happening at all, but men have always found a way.”

“So true. Still, it’s an odd space. Let’s go into the attic and see how Madge might have opened the door from her end. I certainly hadn’t seen a doorway when I was in there.”

With a last glance at the still-full bedroom, Sari followed Ward back into the short passageway and stood up on the other side. She glanced around, but everything appeared to be the same as before. “It looks the same.”

“Stand over here.” Ward stood on the other side of the ladder. “You’ll see how the doorway blends perfectly into the wall.” She walked over to join him and turned around to take a look. True enough. “I would never have seen that from this side. That’s also exactly where I found Madge. She was curled up at the base of the door.”

“It might have opened up under her weight if she’d been leaning against it. It’s hard to know. It still doesn’t explain how she got into your house in the first place, but it does explain how she made it to your room.”

Sari shook her head. “I wonder if my mother knew about this passage. Or my father?”

“I don’t know. Ask her.”

“Yeah, later. She’s not happy with me as it is.”

“Oh, more problems?” Ward opened the hatch door and dropped the ladder. He slipped down and waited for her to join him.

“Not really. The same ones. Just the things he’d asked her to keep safe in case anything happened to him. I showed you his watch already.”

She was rambling. It took a moment for the odd silence to filter in. She glanced up at Ward. “What?”

“He gave her some items for safekeeping in case anything happened to him?” At her confused nod, he continued in a controlled voice, “And when he disappeared, without a trace and with no explanation, she didn’t think she should tell the police about it?” His control broke, his voice rising slightly at the end.

Sari grimaced. “This is my mother we’re talking about here. She thinks differently than you and me. She didn’t think the items would have anything to do with his disappearance – she had enough to deal with at the time, so I’m sure she never gave it a thought.”

He glared at her. “And you? Did it ever occur to you to mention it?”

She rolled her eyes. “Give me a break, I haven’t had time to breathe, let alone fill you in on my mother’s odd behavior.”

“Maybe you should take a closer look at what she gave you.”

She sighed, hiding her grin. She’d really like a chance to do just that. “Now, I suppose?”

He smiled. “Now that would be the smart thing to do.”

*

“They are over
here.” She led the way to the bookshelf where she’d placed her father’s books.

Ward watched her stretch. “Do you need help?”

“No. I just put these up yesterday. I was going to look, but I needed them back where they belonged.”

“Those books were part of what your mother was keeping safe?” And why would that be? It wasn’t like anything important enough to kill over would be in there. He didn’t see how it could be. He walked over and held out his arms to help. She gave him two books and reached for the third. As she was pulling it down, one flap opened and papers fluttered to the floor.

“Damn.” She bent down and carefully picked up the loose pieces. Straightening, she sighed. “I haven’t had a chance to go over these notes yet. I can’t imagine why he’d have asked her to keep them safe, too.”

“Was he a collector? These books might be valuable.” Ward looked down at the spines of the two books in his hands. The leather-bound editions might be valuable first editions. The monetary value could be what her father had meant.

“I hadn’t thought so, but I haven’t had a chance to research them. They are old, but I’m not sure they are collector’s items. After the appraisal, my mother deemed them worthless.”

“What’s the possibility that her concept of worthless and mine are different?”

“I’d say they are miles apart.”

“Is this all your mother handed you?” He almost missed the fleeting look crossing her face. He waited a moment. She hesitated. “This is most of it along with my father’s watch, that you saw yesterday and his ring.” She stared down at the sheafs of paper in her hands. “It’s all valuable to me just because it was his.”

A gentle silence filled the air, then Sari walked over to desk and placed the papers and books down. She pulled out a chair and motioned for him to sit. “Let’s see what’s here.”

Ward sat down and put down the first book. The second one he opened. “
The Art of Time Travel
.”

Sari laughed. “Yes, my father’s pet hobby. It used to drive my mother nuts.”

Her laughter was so infectious. He grinned. “An odd interest.”

“Not really. His specialty was timepieces after all.” She held up the spine of the book in her hand. “
Delving Into Time
.”

Glancing at the book he’d placed down, he read the title. “
Beyond Time
.” He shook his head. “Wow, who’d have thought?” He looked up at the full bookcase. “Surely those aren’t all the same?”

She twisted to look in the direction he was. “No, most of those are on timepieces. He collected a lot of specialty books.”

“Makes sense.” He nodded to the papers. “Is there anything important in there?”

She picked up several pages and turned them to try and read them. “This one isn’t in English and this one appears to be notes on a repair job.” She frowned as she picked up the other papers and shuffled through them. “They all appear to be the same. His handwriting, but some of it nonsensical.”

“No idea why they were singled out?”

“No, chances are he thought they would be a nest egg for Mom. He was dreaming.” And that gave her an odd adult look into who her father was. Maybe they were valuable. But maybe he was just dreaming, hoping they were.

“How did you survive after leaving here? I’d have thought she’d have sold the house in order to re-establish herself somewhere else.”

“My grandparents. They were delighted she went home. They were wealthy and she was an only child.”

“Ah, I see.” And he did. The money would have been a big inducement for a woman suddenly alone with a child to support and no marketable skills. And the wealthy parents would have been only too happy to use money to bring to their child home.

She shrugged. “Besides, she could never sell the house – it was in a trust for me.” A flicker of anger crossed her face. “It became mine when I turned twenty-five, but she didn’t let me know. I found out when a lawyer contacted me.”

Ward watched as she flicked through her father’s items, a melancholy look on her face. “You still miss him, don’t you?”

“There’s no closure.” She closed the book in her hand and leaned back. “I have no answers, no body to bury. Nothing to prove he’s gone.”

He could understand that. She wasn’t alone. Any family with a missing person went through the same issues. “I’m sorry.”

She motioned to the books. “Now you can see why my mother didn’t bother the police with these.”

Standing up, he nodded. “True enough. Do you want me to put them back up?”

“No. I’ll do a bit of research. See if I can find out more about them.”

“Okay. I’m heading back to the office.”

“Thanks for coming and checking out the passage for me.” She stood up and walked him to the front door. “This house has to be out of secrets by now.” She grinned. “It was good to see you again.”

“I’m here a lot lately. Glad you came home and enlivened my world.”

She laughed. “Not exactly the way I’d have liked to. Aren’t we supposed to be doing dinner soon?”

“Absolutely. It was supposed to be tonight, but I presume we were going to push it back due to a lack of sleep.” She looked so cute standing there he couldn’t resist. He leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her cheek.

“Hey.”

He looked at her in surprise. “What?”

“You could at least do that right.” She smirked, then grasped his face with both hands and kissed him properly.

After the initial surprise, Ward stepped closer and wrapped her in his arms. Her lithe frame snuggled closer. He deepened the kiss, forgetting that he was standing on her front doorstep, forgetting that he was on his way to work and forgetting all the years they’d lost. She was here. In his arms. And she’d gotten there herself.

It took a moment to sense her withdrawal. He fought the urge to hold her closer, knowing it wasn’t the time.

He stepped back and grinned. “Now that’s a goodbye kiss.”

“Actually, that’s an ‘until I see you again’ kiss.’” She smirked and stepped back. “Have a great day.” She closed the door in his face.

Ward turned, unable to wipe the silly grin off his face.

Damn, he was glad she’d finally come home.

A
s soon as
Ward drove off, Sari walked back inside her shop. She didn’t know what she’d found, but she hadn’t wanted him around while she figured it out. She hadn’t determined what to tell him yet.

The notes from her father were some kind of formula. She didn’t know for what, but she thought the numbers and figures looked familiar. Locking the front door, she headed to her desk and computer. She had to wonder what her father had been up to. She also hadn’t solved the issue of the last timepiece.

She’d seen the same markings on her father’s notes and maybe inside the one book. She went to her safe and removed the last few items she’d gotten from her mother.

It was long past time to solve the mystery.

An hour later, she had no idea what to do next. She’d confirmed the same markings on her father’s watch; however, there were different markings there as well. What could the markings mean? Or had her father not had a chance to record the other markings? She got up and went to the kitchen where she put on the teakettle. She needed to sit down and read the book.

An hour later, she found it. She read the material out loud as if that would clarify its meaning.

“The markings determine the time period the watch can travel. Understanding the markings is imperative to determine the final location of the owner of the watch. If the watch changes hands, there is grave danger to the new unsuspecting owner. There have only been two watchmakers known to have the ability to write the language of time dimension into their pieces – Tooley and Dunne, who were partners for forty years until Dunne disappeared without a trace from his shop in 1803.”

And that was it. Nothing more.

Yet it was a hell of a lot.

She went to her computer to look up Tooley and Dunne. The one name sounded familiar, but she couldn’t place it. The whole time concept it hinted at was too unbelievable. She grabbed her father’s notes and studied the odd lettering. Latin, maybe? She opened up a web page and as best she could, she typed one of the sentences into Google. There. A historical watch society out of England had several old manuscripts uploaded containing detailed diagrams of some old watches, timing mechanisms, and common repairs. She loved the site. It was full of information. Further searching found a contact email.

She quickly fired off a message asking for more information.

Feeling somewhat better, she sat back and took a sip of tea.