My Spy 6: Private Eye

Snoop

As if to spite Ryan, my phone suddenly pings and it's my mother. I smirk at him as I read her text. "She's going the Blackwood's to look at our float and then to Darla's to get our costumes. We have our window!" 

***********

When we get to my mother's, Ryan darts upstairs to shower. Austin said he wasn't ready to face her today, so we decided to go work on our house. I am left alone in the foyer and even Celia is out, driving my mother around. 

I have lived in this house my whole life but suddenly I am seeing it in a new light. I wonder how many secrets this place holds and I suddenly think of my father's office. Ryan only takes ten minutes to shower and get ready, so I figure I'll snoop while he's busy. I cross to the back of the house, to the room hidden by dark, foreboding French doors. I jostle the handle and push the door open. This room is never locked since this is the room that holds the liquor. 

I see my father's bar to the right and glance around the bookshelves that line the room. I remember the frame that hid the safe at the Wellington House, so I quickly peek behind the landscape paintings adorning the walls, seeing if there are any secrets tucked beneath. Only more wainscotting is discovered, so I quickly move on to the desk. I have sat here countless times while using the computer but had never thought to rifle through any drawers. I quickly pull the supplies drawer open, looking for a key or an obvious ah ha! moment. Only pens and envelope cutters lay within the thin drawer, so I pull open the drawers on the right. The first one holds my mother's letterhead paper and fancy fountain pens and stamps. Ink and stamp pads lay neatly next to the stationary so I move on to the next one. A square drawer stuffed with neatly labeled file folders catches my attention. I finger through the files but they seem to be categorized by mother's clubs and the organizations she is a member of. Where are all my father's things? 

I am shutting the door when Ryan's voice startles me, making me jump sharply in my seat. My hand flies to my chest as he says, "Didn't mean to startle you." He crosses into the space and looks around, just as I had. 

"I didn't find anything," I start. "I mean, I don't actually know what I am looking for. I don't know what proof of another family looks like."

"Do you think your father would leave anything here though? Seeing that he's hardly here?" Ryan asks. 

I shrug as I slump back into the seat, "I don't know. I feel like I need to see it for myself. I know Whitney has what she thinks is proof but I need to be sure. I need evidence that doesn't come from someone I despise." Ryan nods but doesn't add anything. I don't know everything he saw. He glances to the bookshelf to his left when I ask, "You're F.B.I. Where would you start looking for evidence."

"All the obvious places. Like you, I would have started in the office, places he spends time." Ryan says as he strides over to the tall gun safe, which is hidden when the door is open. He points to it, "Who has the passcode to this?" Ryan touches the steel wheel that protrudes from the door as I cross over to him. I laugh, "I went straight for the desk when this literal vault is right in front of me."

"I've been in here a handful of times and haven't noticed it," Ryan says as we stare at the keypad. 

"It's put behind the door on purpose," I tell him with my hand on my hips. "Austin may know the code. I doubt my mother has any need to get into the gun safe."

"She still may know the code," Ryan suggests but I look to him. 

"Hi, mother what is the code to the gun safe? I am just curious in case I wanna borrow the shotgun someday," I say sarcastically. He frowns to me and his eyes tell me he isn't thrilled with my sarcasm, "Let's ask Austin first and go from there." He pulls his phone out and goes to text Austin. I look around the room but don't know where else my father would trust his secrets.