He went still next to her, a subtle change she might not have noticed had she not been pressed against him.
“The last of the lights have been extinguished,” he murmured. “Time to go.”
CHAPTER38
Saffron and Alexander made their way along the line of trees blackening the east side of the lot under construction. The next plot was nothing more than a patchy field with a handful of trees they darted between until they reached the edge of Number 28’s property. Saffron’s breath came out in tight little bursts of white from her mouth, more from anxiety than exertion.
She led them forward until they were crouched in the darkness of the shrubbery of the dead garden that bordered the patio of the lab. Saffron couldn’t see anything within; the curtains were drawn.
Alexander’s low whisper sent shivers down her spine. “This is familiar.” It was familiar, she realized with a smile. They’d crept around gardens together before.
She darted across the garden and winced when her shoes crunched on the gravel path surrounding the patio. She slowed to hop gingerly across the path, which brought her to the French doors. She attempted to press the handle and push the door, but it was locked. She hadn’t hoped it might be somehow open—she was aware of the additional locks on the interior of the doors—but it would have been foolish not to check. She went window to window next, but they too were locked.
The windows on the rest of the house were too high or too small for them to enter through, so they made for the kitchen door, protected from the eyes of passersby by the unoccupied mews that housed only a cart and crates of supplies for the laboratory and greenhouses.
The kitchen door was locked, naturally. But Saffron had come prepared for that. Slipping a hand into her pocket, she pulled out a pair of hairpins and went to work.
Alexander kept himself pressed to her side, facing outward to the path leading to the greenhouse and the mews. Their breathing and the subtle scrape of metal on metal were the only sounds; the night didn’t breathe even a whisper of wind.
She pushed and pulled, turned and twisted the slender metal picks. She removed her gloves after realizing how much harder it was to pick locks with them on. One pin broke, and she retrieved another from her pocket. Her fingers grew stiff in the cold as she struggled. All her senses told her that she and Alexander would be caught at any moment, and her heart raced as if it might head off a chase.
Alexander’s elbow nudged her. He breathed, “Someone is coming.”
Saffron inhaled sharply. Hand on her arm, he guided her away from the door and into the nearest pool of shadows, a few dozen feet from the door. They eased back into it, their dark clothing hopefully doing its job to hide them.
The sound of approaching footsteps grew louder. Someone wasn’t bothering to avoid the gravel as they had. A figure of a man rounded the corner a moment later. His head was covered by a cap and angled down, but Saffron recognized his uneven gait.
It was Joseph Rowe. He walked to the kitchen door, planted a key inside the lock, and swung the door open. He wasn’t making any effort to be quiet. He shut the door, and a flickering light caught within the kitchen window a moment later.
Suspicion and surprise flared. Joseph had already proven he had no problem breaking into Wells’s house, but he’d just been caught doing so—by the police, no less. Why would he do so again? Perhaps this was a last-ditch effort to get whatever he’d been looking for. But if so—why was he being so obvious about it?
To Alexander, she whispered, “That’s Joseph Rowe. I’m going to look in the window for a moment.”
She slipped away. Her toe caught a rock, sending it pinging away, and she froze. No sound came from the kitchen.
The window revealed a stub of a candle flickering next to Joseph, who stood, knife in hand. Sudden, primal fear gripped her, until she saw what he was doing. He was working the blade into a loaf of bread.
Saffron blinked. He waseating. Had he broken into the Path Lab to eat?
Saffron shrank from the glass as Joseph looked up and over at the window. Knife in hand, he walked purposefully forward. Her mind screamed at her to flee, but she found herself unable to do so. Her fingers clung to the brick of the windowsill as she crouched down. He paused, silhouetted by the meager flame of the candle at his back. He set the knife down on the counter, then filled a mug with water and gulped it down before returning to his loaf of bread.
She was to Joseph’s left, where his missing eye prevented him from seeing her. She eased back until he was no longer in view and crept back to Alexander.
“He ate bread and drank water,” she reported.
“Does he live in the house like the director?” he asked.
“I’ve never heard of it, but I suppose he might. Joseph said Dr. Calderbrook gave him a job, brought him out here to continue on when the lab moved. It seems he’s fond of him.”
They waited in silence until the candle in the kitchen went out.
Saffron rested her forehead on Alexander’s shoulder, sighing. “How long should we wait to try to get in?”
“Not long enough for him to recall he hasn’t locked the kitchen door,” Alexander said. “He’ll likely be getting washed up for bed, making noise. Best get into the lab before he settles down.”
They waited two more minutes, Saffron bouncing on the balls of her feet, before entering the house. The kitchen smelled like smoke and fresh bread, a scent that faded as soon as they stepped into the hall. The rest of the house smelled like soil.
They crept down the long hall. She used her own keys on the double doors leading into the main lab.
