Boss, Your Wife's a Whole Detective novel · Chapter 20 of 24

Chapter 20: Lake Forest

Lionel's man took our phones at the door of the Lake Forest house and put them in a velvet bag.

"Bring nothing," Lionel had said. He meant it literally.

Rowan walked in with his hands open and empty, past the man's shoulder, and did not look back at the bag.

It was a dinner for four at a table meant for twenty.

Lionel carved a roast with his left hand, with both gold anchors flashing at his wrists, and talked about Rowan's father.

"A brave man," he said. "He'd have hated the way this has gone."

"My father hated very little," said Rowan. "He never hated anyone who was in the room."

Lionel laughed, delighted.

Lorna sat at her father's right hand and did not eat. Under the tablecloth, her ankle touched mine twice.

Between the roast and the cheese she stood.

"Mrs. Garvey hasn't seen the library, Daddy. I'll show her."

"Of course, my dear."

His eyes followed us out, warm and brown and quite certain of everything.

The study was on the ground floor, behind the library, a small square room with a leather desk and the smell of a good cigar.

Lorna locked the door behind us and stood with her hand on it.

"Left of the window," she said. "Behind the barometer. The numbers were on the second page of the form. Four, nine, one, one, six, zero."

I opened it without breathing.

A hat box stood on the safe's lower shelf, squared to the edge.

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