White Hot by Elise Noble

Author:Elise Noble [Noble, Elise]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781910954706
Publisher: Undercover Publishing Limited
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 27

THE WINDOW SET high in a basement storage room was big enough for us to climb through easily. Ana went first, moving silently around boxes and a dusty mountain bike to cover the door while Emmy and I slid inside. Rather than stick with our initial plan, which had called for Emmy and Ana to give the house a quick once over while I searched for the keys and letters, we had to waste time clearing each room to start with.

Guns in hands, we stacked up outside the first door, Emmy taking point, then Ana, then me. Then we were through, and Emmy broke left, Ana right, then me left again. We’d spent hours training for this. Blackwood headquarters had a specially built “kill house” behind the main office building that allowed us to practise every scenario from rescuing a hostage to raiding a meth lab. So our moves were instinctive, a perfect flow as we moved from room to room.

Fifteen minutes later, we knew we were alone.

“Time for plan A?” Emmy whispered.

I nodded, and we split up, searching by the light of the full moon and occasionally clicking on a muted flashlight if the need arose.

Ethan said the keys would be in the hallway table, which was covered with black powder where the forensics team had dusted for prints. I reached out a gloved hand and pressed on the front as he’d described. Sure enough, a hidden compartment popped out.

And in it were two sets of keys.

I picked up the first. Those were the house keys, surely? I tiptoed over to the front door and studied the locks. A deadbolt and a nightlatch. According to the police report, the deadbolt had been open when the cops arrived, with only the nightlatch engaged. I tested it with one gloved hand—it was a standard type, one that could be opened from the inside without a key and would automatically lock when the door was pulled shut. I tested the keys, and they both fitted.

A blue Ford logo graced the fob of the other set, and the only car Ethan owned was his Mustang. The one he’d been found in. But if his keys were here, what had been in the ignition? A spare? It must have been. But if he was running for his life from a lunatic, why would he have dug out the spare? Why not grab this one as he ran for the front door?

“Thirty minutes,” Emmy murmured, reminding me we’d used half our time.

I couldn’t stop and think right now. That would have to come later.

The letters came next. Following Ethan’s directions, I found the key to his desk in his pen holder and opened the second drawer on the pedestal. The top folder was labelled “Kooks.” Inside, the first sheet was pink and decorated with little hearts, drawn in felt-tip pen and coloured in red. The overall effect was childlike. The faint smell of cheap perfume still lingered on the paper, a residue of the person who wrote it.

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