Chapter Ten
Andrea shivered as Hannah parked at the end of Vera Olsens’ alley. “Are you absolutely sure we have to do this?”
“I’m sure.” Hannah shut off the engine and checked her watch. It was seven o’clock and Lucy should be in Norman’s dental chair by now. “Get a grip, Andrea. There’s no way we can stand by and let Lucy get away with extortion!”
“I guess not.” Andrea shivered again. It was a cold morning, and the wind was whipping up, but Hannah suspected that her sister was more scared than cold.
“Come on, Andrea. We don’t have much time. Norman can’t keep Lucy in his office forever.”
“You’re right. Let’s get it over with.” Andrea pulled her knit cap down over her ears, and opened the passenger door. “I’m glad Tracey spent the night with Grandma. I don’t want her to find out that her mother’s a criminal.”
“You’re not a criminal. I take full responsibility for any problems that might come up.”
“What problems?” Andrea grabbed at Hannah’s arm as they started to walk down the alley. “You didn’t say anything about any problems when you called me last night.”
Hannah winced. She should have kept her big mouth shut, but it was too late to swallow her words. “I really don’t expect any problems”
“How about problems you don’t expect? You’d better tell me, Hannah.”
“Well.” Hannah stopped speaking and sighed. She’d opened a real can of worms, and they were a long way from a fishing hole. “I guess it’s possible that we could get caught. If that happens, I’m going to tell Bill that I dragged you here and you didn’t know what I was planning to do.”
“Oh, sure. And Bill will believe you. I’m beginning to regret this, Hannah.”
“Would you rather stay in the truck and wait for me?”
“No. I said I’d help you, and I will.” Andrea walked a little faster. “Hurry up, Hannah. We don’t want anyone to spot us.”
“Nobody will spot us. And if they do, they won’t know who we are. That’s why I told you to wear Bill’s old parka and a cap.”
The entrance to Lucy’s apartment was off the alley, and Hannah knew the chance of anyone seeing them was slight. There was an outside staircase that was exposed to the elements, but a large evergreen with bushy branches would hide them from the neighbors’ view.
When they reached the base of the staircase, Andrea hesitated. “What if she canceled her appointment, Hannah? What’ll we do then?”
“We’ll knock first. If Lucy answers, I’ll say I just dropped by to give her some cookies for her birthday.” Hannah held up the bag in her hand. “We’ll stay for a while, then we’ll leave.”
“Lucy’s birthday is today?”
“I don’t know when it is, but it’s a good excuse.” Hannah led the way up the wooden stairs. “I can always claim that someone gave me the wrong date. But Lucy’s not home. Norman told me she’s never missed an appointment, and she’s always on time.”
“Then why did you bring the cookies?”
Hannah sighed, wishing her sister wasn’t so alert in the morning. “Because it never hurts to be prepared.”
When they reached the landing, Hannah knocked on the door. There was no answer, even when she knocked a second time. She turned to Andrea. “See? I told you Lucy wasn’t here. Hold this bag. I need to use my credit card.”
“Why?”
“To break in. You just slide it between the doorjamb and the lock and wiggle it around until the latch clicks back.”
“That won’t work. Lucy’s got a dead bolt. See that second key hole?”
Hannah frowned. Andrea was right. There were two locks on Lucy’s door. “I don’t know how to pick a dead bolt.”
“They’re not pickable. Bill says a properly installed dead bolt is a homeowner’s best defense against burglary.” Andrea leaned out, over the rail, to examine the window that was to the right of the door. “Of course a dead bolt doesn’t do much good if you forget to lock your combination windows.”
Andrea pulled off her gloves and stuffed them into her pocket. She unlatched the storm window panel, slid it up next to the screen, and placed her palms flat against the inside pane. She pushed up, the window rose, and she turned to give Hannah a triumphant grin. “I’ll wiggle through. I’m smaller than you are. You hold my parka, and I’ll be inside a second.”
Hannah watched as Andrea straddled the rail and grasped the windowsill. She slid forward until her upper body was inside, then braced her feet against the rail and snaked the rest of her body inside. Hannah heard something fall with a crash and a few moments later, the door opened.
“I told you I could do it.” Andrea smiled proudly. “But I sure wish Lucy hadn’t stacker her dirty dishes in the sink. We owe her a plate and a coffee cup.”
Lucy’s attic apartment, under the sloping ceiling, consisted of a kitchen, a bathroom, and one large all- purpose room. Andrea and Hannah started with the tiny kitchen and made short work of that. After they’d opened all the cupboards and checked the stove, the refrigerator shelves, and even the inside of the freezer, they headed to the bathroom to search there.
The bathroom took even less time than the kitchen. There were only four drawers in the vanity to search, and they found nothing in the medicine cabinet except Lucy’s makeup, a toothbrush, a half-used tube of toothpaste, and an outdated bottle of aspirin.
“Hold on a second.” Hannah stopped Andrea as she was about to leave the room. “We didn’t check the toilet.”
“The toilet?”
“I saw it in a movie once. If you put things in a waterproof package, you can hide them in the tank.”
Andrea watched while Hannah lifted the lid and peered inside the tank. “Did you find anything?” she asked.
“Nothing but water and the insides of the toilet,” Hannah reported. “I guess Lucy didn’t see that movie.”
The large, all-purpose room was next. It served as Lucy’s living room, office, and bedroom, and Hannah knew they had their work cut out for them.
“Where does that door lead?” Hannah asked, pointing to a door on the wall next to Lucy’s bed.
“That’s the original attic door,” Andrea told her. “Vera brought me up here once when I was in high school.”
“Why?”
“We were looking for props for the senior play. Vera had lots of things that belonged to her parents, and they were stored in this attic. Where do you want me to start, Hannah?”
“You take the closet, and I’ll search Lucy’s dresser.”
Andrea had turned to head for the closet when they heard a tapping sound. Both sisters exchanged startled glances and Andrea whispered, “What’s that?”
“Someone’s knocking at the door,” Hannah whispered back.
“What’ll we do?”
Hannah could see that her sister was frightened and she reached out to pat her arm. “We won’t answer. Relax, Andrea. If they had a key, they wouldn’t have knocked.”
The knocking went on for several more moments. Then there was silence. Both sisters held their breath, listening for footsteps going back down the stairs, but there was no sound at all. They waited, in an agony of suspense, but then the knocking began again.
“He’s really persistent,” Andrea whispered.
“I know. You’d think his knuckles would be sore by now.” Hannah motioned Andrea down on the edge of Lucy’s bed. “Lie low, Andrea. I think I can see the top of the landing from Lucy’s kitchen window. I’m going to take a
