Page 57 of Artful Deceit

“You’re at his place?”

“Yes. I thought maybe Silas was stashing stolen goods in the tree, but he’s not. I was about to leave when you rang.”

“What were you saying about an open window?”

“I was thinking I could nip in and have a quick look around, but the window’s high, and I’ve done as much climbing as I can manage today. I don’t think I’ll make it up the drainpipe.”

“If only you knew a guy with a ladder,” he said mockingly.

Lily’s mind raced. With a ladder, it would be easy to get inside for a poke around.

“I assume no one is there?” Len asked.

“No, they’re painting on a beach somewhere.”

“Do you know when they’re due back?”

“From what Martha said, I guess not for an hour at least. Maybe two.”

“Plenty of time then. I’m on my way now. I’ll be five minutes.”

Lily started to speak, but the line had gone dead. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to say anyway, but she had her thoughts in order by the time Len’s van pulled onto the drive.

He got straight to work getting the ladder off the roof, then carried it on his shoulder round the back of the house while Lily limped along beside him.

“I’m not sure about this,” she said.

“I thought it was the only place you hadn’t looked.”

“It is, but climbing in through an upstairs window seems like crossing a line. Usually, when I sneak into places, it’s through unlocked doors, or onto boats and stuff. This feels like taking things too far.”

“It won’t take long. We can be in and out before anyonenotices. And if Gideon happens to come back, I can say I got confused about my cleaning schedule.”

“I don’t know.” She swallowed hard while he lined his ladder up beside the open window.

With a hand on a rung, he turned to look at her and flinched.

“Blooming heck, Lily. What happened to you?”

“It’s nothing.”

“It doesn’t look like nothing. It looks as though you…”

“Fell out of a tree?” she suggested.

“That wouldn’t have been my first guess, but now that you mention it.” He smiled sympathetically. “Do you need to see a doctor? We can give up on this plan, and I’ll drive you to the medical centre.”

“No. I’m okay. I don’t know if we should break into his house, but I don’t need a doctor.”

“You might be right that we’re going too far. Did I get carried away?”

“I think so. Which is weird because it’s usually me that dives headfirst into these sorts of crazy schemes.”

He nodded repeatedly. “I think I just got caught up in the idea of catching the thief.”

“It’s probably not Gideon anyway. He has no motive for robbing locals.”

“Apart from being resentful that he has to live here and entertain wannabe artists instead of living an artist’s dream in London as he’d like to. But if you don’t consider that… and his bitterness that no one here buys his artwork… set all that aside and I can’t think of any motive whatsoever.”