The Oslo Affair (Shadows of War, #2) by CW Browning (read after .txt) 📗

she entered, he’d just been sliding a panel into place on the box. It was their little game. He always left something inside the boxes for her to find.

Why would someone break into a house and not take anything? And what kind of vandal didn’t make a mess? Robbie said that Thomas found nothing out of place. As soon as she heard that, warning bells had gone off in her head. Something would have been knocked over, or moved, or been put back where it didn’t belong. Especially if it were kids on a dare. They would have taken something, even if it was just an ashtray, to prove they’d done it. If it was any kind of standard break in, there would have been obvious signs of an intruder. The very fact that there weren’t made Evelyn’s skin go cold.

Rob had no idea that their father was anything other than what they had always thought he was: a diplomat on whom very powerful men counted to keep the precarious balance between ambassadors and politicians. Rob, her mother, Thomas...even the police had no reason to believe there could be anything more to this break in. But she knew differently. And she knew that if she mentioned it to Bill, he would realize the same thing she had.

Someone had been searching for something specific, and they were careful enough not to leave a trace of their search. Too careful, as it turned out.

Evelyn eyed the box in front of her. When he gave it to her, her father had said it was a special box. She’d thought it a strange thing to say at the time. Weren’t all puzzle boxes special? What if it wasn’t the box that was special, but what was inside it?

She reached for it.

Chapter Thirty

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Evelyn laughed as Rob threw his cards down disgustedly.

“I swear I don’t know how you do it,” he complained. “That’s the third straight hand you’ve won.”

“Well if you insist on broadcasting your every move, how am I not to?” she asked, gathering up the cards.

“Are you having difficulties, Rob?” Bill asked, looking over from where he was pouring himself a drink. “Never say your sister is trouncing you.”

“I am, and she is.” Rob got up to walk over to the mantel to retrieve his forgotten cigarette case. “Miles, come and even the field, will you?”

Miles looked up from where he was playing dance tunes on the piano in the corner.

“And ruin the fun watching you squirm? Not a chance, old boy.”

“Well I’m not playing another hand with this shark. She’ll have me bankrupt before I go to bed.”

“I’m sure your luck will change,” Evelyn said with a twinkle. “It’s bound to.”

“Aha! See? That’s what all the sharks say! The next thing you know, you’re wandering home at dawn without a farthing left!”

Evelyn stood up and stretched, then moved across the drawing room to join Bill at the drinks.

“I do think you’re being a bit dramatic, Robbie dear,” Mrs. Ainsworth said from the couch where she and Marguerite had been happily ensconced together since they all moved in from dinner.

“Is he?” Bill asked Evelyn, setting down the brandy decanter.

“I did take him for quite a bit that last hand,” she admitted with a grin. “I couldn’t resist. It was too easy!”

Bill chuckled. “That’s my girl,” he said under his breath. “What would you like, my dear?”

“I’ll have some of that wine, thank you.” She watched as he poured it into a glass. “Did you know that the study here was broken into last month?”

They were far enough away from the others that they wouldn’t be overheard, but she lowered her voice anyway. Bill glanced at her sharply.

“No. When?”

“The beginning of November. Robbie told me earlier today.” She took the glass from him. “The window was forced in the middle of night. Thomas saw the light on and went to turn it off. It was the next morning that he saw the broken latch.”

“What was taken?”

“That’s the interesting part. Absolutely nothing. And nothing was out of place.”

Bill’s brows snapped together in a scowl. “Nothing at all?”

“No. The police think it was a couple of kids. Mum’s had all the locks on the first floor replaced and nothing’s happened since.”

“Then they may have found what they were looking for,” he murmured. “Damn! Robert was always careful never to bring anything here that would expose him, or any of us. But last summer he told me he’d come across something that was too important to leave anywhere. I never did find out what it was.”

“He didn’t tell you anything?”

Bill shook his head.

“No. He said he needed to confirm the information and that was the last I heard of it.” He lifted his brandy glass to his lips. “I completely forgot about it until after we received word of his death.”

Evelyn frowned. “What made you remember?”

He hesitated for a moment, then sighed.

“I suppose there’s no point in keeping it from you now. His office in London was ransacked a few days after he died. His assistant was blamed and discharged, but I wondered at the time if it was something more ominous. Now you’re telling me that a few weeks later, someone went through his study here.”

Evelyn’s heart sank. Her suspicions were correct, then. It hadn’t been a simple break in. While she’d known it couldn’t be, a small part of her had been hoping that Bill would have another explanation. Instead, all he’d done was confirm it.

“Well, there was nothing for them to find,” she finally said, sipping her wine. “I can assure you of that.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Because I’m fairly confident that whatever my father may have had in there was given to me a week before he left for Poland.”

Bill stared at her. “What?”

She shrugged. “I can’t get to it at the moment, but I will eventually.”

“What do you mean you can’t get to it?”

“It’s inside a puzzle box.”

The confusion on Bill’s brow cleared and a slow smile crossed his face.

“The