The House by the Lake by Ella Carey

Author:Ella Carey [Carey, Ella]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781503934153
Published: 2016-03-29T06:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

Schloss Siegel, 2010

Anna had two options, neither of them very promising. The first was to call Max and ask him if he could remember the exact location of his ring. Option two was to pull up the floorboards in his bedroom. Calling Max was out of the question; he would be asleep. For the millionth time, Anna kicked herself for not having pressed him for more details as to the precise hiding spot of the ring. As for option two—the house was not hers to destroy. It would take hours to remove a floor; doing so was clearly beyond her capabilities, anyway, and probably Wil’s too.

Wil was sifting through a cardboard box that he had brought back with him after the workmen had departed, having removed the layer of old linoleum, inspected the bare floor, and informed Wil and Anna that there was nothing wrong with it at all.

“Okay, Anna,” he said. “This is where we get professional.”

Anna looked up. “Oh?” she asked, unable to stop the smile that was forming on her lips. Wil looked so funny, frowning at tools as he pulled them out one by one. Anna had to bite her bottom lip to stop herself from giggling.

“I borrowed some things from a friend,” he said.

“Handy,” Anna quipped.

Wil pulled out a pair of protective gloves, a claw hammer, and a small black box.

“Scanner,” Wil said, looking impressed with his own words.

“What are you scanning?”

“We run it along the floor to check for pipes and cables, of course.” He grinned.

“Sorry. Of course we do.”

He brandished the claw hammer. “And this.”

“Right.”

“A utility bar,” Wil said, pulling one out of the box.

“I can see that you’re quite at home with this . . . stuff.” Anna’s lips twitched.

Wil stopped and looked at her. “I’m not entirely incompetent with a saw.”

Anna chuckled. “Of course you’re not, handyman. Where do we start?”

“Clearly you can see that I’ve brought all the tools, Anna. You have to be the brains.”

Anna had no idea. She scanned the floor. The boards offered no hint of where to start.

“Well,” she said. “If Max didn’t cut an obvious square out of the floor, which clearly he didn’t, then he would have hidden the ring at the easiest access point.”

“Brilliant,” Wil said. “You see, this is why you are here.” He leaned against the window, where he was framed against the curious old newspaper cuttings that half-covered the glass. The light from the top half highlighted his stunning features.

“So,” Anna said, trying to ignore his pose. He was hardly standing in such an alluring posture for her amusement, was he? They had work to do. Anna moved across the floor, her eyes scanning the boards. “We should begin with one of the shorter boards. See,” she said, stopping in the middle of the room. “Some of the boards are cut in half. You’d think Max would have chosen one of these.”

“You’d also think that the room would have been covered with a rug across its center. Let’s start with a floorboard near the edge of the room.

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