I was going to steal some of the mail, but I didn’t exactly have a place to stuff it, and wasn’t sure how helpful it would be. I did find a cell phone bill, which was interesting and ironic. I guess you couldn’t own an underground cell phone service and fake having a normal cell phone. I grabbed the bill, hiked up my dress, and stuck it in the waistband of my underwear. Maybe tracking that phone number would help. I’d have to get it to Corey somehow.
The rest of the floor didn’t hold anything interesting. The core wasn’t on this floor.
I pursed my lips, glancing back toward the main stairs. They were they only way up to the third floor. I’d have to use them without alerting the guards. Sneaking around wasn’t my area of expertise. Plus, I wasn’t sure how much time I had left, and worried Brandon might do something stupid and chase after me. I should have told him twenty minutes.
I slipped the heels off my feet.
I couldn’t imagine what Brandon was doing. It unnerved me that he was out of sight. It was how I had lost Axel and Marc. Still, he was in the middle of a crowd. It’s not like Alice could get her thugs to knock him out and cart him off. Not even Eddie would risk it.
Alice did manage to get Axel and Marc out of the aquarium, though.
I already didn’t like not knowing what I was hunting for. It made it more difficult to steal. Or break into.
I did my own version of tiptoeing down the hall, crouching when I got close to the stairs to avoid being seen. I contemplated how I would sneak up the stairs, but then, I decided it was probably best to not make it look like I’m sneaking around. Best to just move as quickly and quietly as normal.
I peered over the line of sight where the guards were downstairs. I waited until I was sure they weren’t looking and started heading up.
I was on the start of the third stair, turned and then just when I made it to the third step I heard a male voice.
“Hey!”
I started to dash upward a couple more steps. Whoever it was, maybe he wasn’t talking to me.
“You! Hang on a second!”
I stilled. Curses escaped my mouth. I should have been better. I could have gone faster. I was going to get kicked out. Brandon will have to find a way. At least I was pretty sure the core was upstairs.
I turned, ready to face a guard, holding the flute of champagne to my lips, ready to pretend I was drunk and lost.
I focused on the first set of stairs, but the guards had their backs turned, looking bored. Had they said something to someone else?
From down the hallway on the second floor came a man. He was in his thirties, with dark hair, a lighthearted grin, and wearing a dark suit, but different from the attendants. It was much more formal. A partygoer?
He looked at me inquisitively. I supposed he must have been the one to ask me to stop. Instead of answering at all, I stared back.
He approached the stair, stopping at the first step. “You’re Janet’s daughter, aren’t you? Little Angela? God, I haven’t seen you in years. When did you grow up?”
My lips parted. He was mistaking me for someone else? It was a better excuse than I could come up with. “Oh,” I said slowly, and then forced a smile. “You remember me?”
“You don’t think your Cousin Ethan would forget about you?” His smile broadened and he opened his arms wide. “Come give me a hug.”
My spine rippled. Ethan Murdock. One of the kids. This was way deeper into the lie than I wanted to go, but it was way too late now. Angela must have been a good enough likeness that I could get away with playing that role, but it wouldn’t take too many questions from him to prove I wasn’t her.
I faked a smile and slowly moved down the steps, spreading my arms a bit.
Cousin Ethan hugged me tightly around the middle. I tried to return the hug but it was awkward I gave him a little pat.
He released me, looking at my face. “Were you exploring? You always did run off to poke around the house when you were younger, too.”
“I...” It was on the tip of my tongue to say something else, but I changed my mind and nodded. “Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.”
“No need to be shy,” he said, coming up the steps ahead of me now. He gestured to the top of the stairs. “Have you seen the observatory? I think it’s my favorite.”
Did he live here? This could be extremely dangerous if he did own this core.
Might as well...
I hopped up the steps beside him, forcing my eyes wide and trying to look curious. “I saw all the windows,” I said. “Can you see far?”
Ethan nodded. “I hate to say, you can peek into the neighborhood. Just be careful where you look. You’ll get way more than an eyeful.” He made a gross face and then laughed. “Did you graduate from high school yet? How’s Aunt Janet?”
“She’s fine,” I said, going with the flow, and also feeling a sink in my heart. I realized now that if the owner was Ethan, and if Ethan was willing to let little cousin Angela into this observatory, then it probably wasn’t where this core was either. I was wasting time. “I shouldn’t take too long, or take you away from the party.”
He waved his hand. “What? Like they can’t handle themselves?”
Or they might try to sneak in and steal your stuff. I shrugged and followed. If Brandon came to look for me now, then maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Ethan seemed friendly.
We cleared the stairs to a third-story landing. This one was just a small foyer-like space, with walls all around and a single door.
The door had a security pad next to it.
Bingo! It did have security. The core must be here! He’d let me in? Wouldn’t he want to keep the core a secret?
Ethan went to the security pad and then typed in a number. I watched, memorizing the sequence in my head, repeating it again and again to remember it.
Ethan opened the door and stepped in and then to the side to allow me space to enter.
The observatory was big. I didn’t know what an observatory was supposed to be. I could only picture a Clue game board and I wondered where the candlestick was.
The foyer area we left was the only walled off section of the third floor. The rest of the space was an open floor. The room was designed to give ample viewing of the large windows surrounding us. The room itself was mostly seating arrangements overlooking every possible angle. Low sofas, and coffee tables were clustered together. The air was cooler up here, reflecting the temperature outside. The light was minimal, and across the floor in low lamps.
The view was impressive. While I’d seen higher up over Charleston at the apartment, the house overlooked the ocean, some of the neighbors’ homes, and over the trees to look out toward John’s Island.
I surveyed the area. There were telescopes positioned near different windows. Among the clutter of furniture, I looked for a computer, a server, a locked safe. Anything.
Ethan moved ahead of me to one of the telescopes. He pointed the eyepie
ce and then gestured for me to come closer. “Come take a look,” he said.
I couldn’t get out of it. If I got the dime tour done with quickly, he’d have to go back to his party. Or maybe if I stayed up here long enough, and acted interested, he’d give me a chance to snoop around on my own. Nothing in the room looked like a core. No electronic doodad computer that Corey could fiddle with. Wouldn’t a core need a huge server to store data? Or to operate at all? Alice presumed Corey knew more about this, but I wasn’t sure even Corey would have been able to figure out exactly where this thing was. I was starting to wonder if it was even up here at all.
Then why have a security panel on the door?
I moved to the telescope and looked through it. It was pointed at the ocean. There was a ship out in the distance, and a couple of stars off the shoreline. The moon peeked out from behind a cloud.
“So what are you doing these days?” he asked while I was looking. “Going to work for your cousin, aren’t you? Come work for me?”
“I don’t know what I could do,” I said. I stood, finding Ethan standing nearby with a light smile. I felt a pang of guilt since I was lying to him, plus here to steal his core if I could. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know why he started the core, or why it had to be illegal and underground. He was showing his little cousin the observatory during a wedding reception he was hosting. Despite what I might have been thinking, he didn’t seem that bad. He didn’t look like a bad guy or a killer. Maybe I didn’t know what a core looked like, but I could read people, and Ethan Murdock was a good guy.
Still, if he had a core at all, I just needed to know so I could steal it, or use it to trade to save lives. Hopefully when the dust cleared, Mr. Murdock wasn’t going to get into trouble.
“You’re the artist,” he said. “We’ve got an advertising department if you’re interested.” He motioned to another of the telescopes, one looking out across St. John’s. “Want to see the other ones? That one’s probably my favorite.”