Page 6 of The Me I Left Behind (Tuckaway Bay #4)

While she figured the crowbar might make quick work of breaking in, she also assumed it would be loud and maybe cumbersome.

She didn’t want the door falling down on her, and she didn’t want to disturb the kids while sleeping, either.

And while bashing in the door with a crowbar might have felt remarkably satisfying, she couldn’t risk it.

So, she started with a thin screwdriver and attempted to pick the key lock, to see if she could get that one open first.

Nope.

What the hell kind of lock had he installed? The kids had locked themselves into their bedrooms, or the upstairs bathroom, many times, and the screwdriver trick always worked. What gives with this fucking lock?

Tossing the screwdriver aside, she stood back and studied the door.

Maybe she could remove the door handle altogether. She’d watched a few You Tube videos earlier in the day showing how. Running her fingers over the lock and the base, she felt for a set screw, or other screws, there. Finding none, she stood back and stared at the thing again.

Even if she could get the key lock open, she had to know the keypad code.

She could guess but was unlikely to guess correctly.

She supposed she could call a locksmith tomorrow to come when the kids were at school.

She hated to involve anyone else in this, though.

Or perhaps she could go for the hinges and try to remove the door that way.

Otherwise, she was going to take a freaking drill and the crowbar to the lock—noise and caution be damned.

Try the hinges first.

After another quick tutorial video, she realized she’d made the right choice. The guy in the clip talked through step-by-step instructions, and in less than fifteen minutes, she had scooted the unhinged door open enough to slide through and was inside Max’s office.

Waiting to flip on a light, she stepped away from the door, and slowly scanned the room looking for anything that might show he’d installed a live camera for security. Her gaze fixed on a small green light coming from the corner.

Maggie promptly dragged a chair over and stepped up on it. She jerked the device away from the wall, hopped down, and smashed the sucker with the crowbar.

Strangely satisfying.

“There,” she mumbled. “Take that, Maxwell Oliver.”

Scanning the room again, she searched for more devices. She found nothing, but did it matter? If Max monitored the feed from his phone, he’d know soon enough that she’d broken into his office.

She had about a day—perhaps twenty-five to thirty hours before he could get home—to do what she needed to do. Max couldn’t get out of Brisbane for another four hours at the minimum, and the quickest route home once he was in the air was a twenty-five-hour-long trip. Lengthier, probably.

Too bad for him.

Time to get to work.

“Mom. Mom. Wake up.”

Someone poked at her shoulder. Carol?

“What?”

“Wake up, Mom. What in the world are you doing in here?”

Pushing away from the pile of papers on Max’s desk, Maggie swiped at her eyes and looked at Carol. Immediately, she panicked. “Shit! What time is it? I fell asleep.”

“Obvs, Mom. Dad will kill you.”

She glanced at her watch. Five-thirty. “The soonest he could even get here is around nine o’clock tonight—at the extreme earliest. I’ll be finished by then.”

“But what are you doing?”

Maggie studied her. “Why are you up at this hour?” Usually, their alarms went off at six.

“I went to sleep early and woke up early. I washed that pair of jeans you got me for Christmas so I could wear them today. They’re scratchy.”

“Oh. Okay.”

“You still haven’t answered my question.” She glanced at the desk. “What is all this stuff?”

Maggie gave a shrug. “Files. Contracts. Shit papers. I don’t know what half of it is or why he saved it.”

“What are you looking for?”

“Anything.” With a sigh, she sat back in Max’s big leather chair and stared at Carol. “He already knows I’m in here.”

Carol rounded the desk and leaned against it. “How?”

“Cameras. He has at least a couple. I found one but not the other one. Look.”

She opened her phone and scrolled to a text from Max. He’d sent a video of her sitting at the desk going through the drawers. Carol took the phone. “Shit. Did you find the camera?”

“No.” She shook her head. “I’ve looked everywhere.”

“He can see us right now?”

“Maybe, but I suspect he’s in the air. Read the message.”

Carol clicked off the video and scrolled, reading the text aloud. “Whatever you are looking for, you won’t find it. Get out of my fucking office or I’ll take your head off when I get home.”

Jerking up, she peered into Maggie’s eyes. “I’m staying home today and helping you find whatever it is you need to find.”

She hated to do that to Carol. “It’s your first day back at school.”

“Fuck school. This is more important.”

“Language.” But she knew Carol had almost as bad a potty mouth as she did. “I don’t want him to blame you, honey. I’d rather he just be mad at me.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing for years, Mom? Taking all the blame for everything us kids did wrong? Not this time. I’m staying and helping. Besides, this affects all of us.”

Maggie blew out a breath. “The first thing we need to do is find the other fucking camera.”

“Yes.”

“And get the littles up and off to school.” Standing, she stretched the kinks out of her back. How long had she slept hunched over his desk? At least a couple of hours.

“Right,” Carol said. “Then we can dig in here.”

She nodded. “I’m going to call Julia and get her advice.”

“Good idea. She might know what we should and shouldn’t do.”

“I think she will say that we’ve already crossed the line.”

Carol glanced about at the messy office. “Probably.”

“Look,” Maggie said. “Go get the littles up and keep them away from this room. Can you fix breakfast? I’ll search for that damn camera.”

“I can do that.”

“Hopefully, I can locate and destroy it before I have to take the kids to school.”

“I can drive them.”

That wasn’t their usual routine, but what would it matter? Chloe’s school was one street over, and Jason’s a few blocks further. She’d had her driver’s license for over a year now. Surely, she could manage a ten-minute drop-off.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded and grinned. “I got this.” Heading for the door, she paused and then turned back. Her gaze met Maggie’s and held for several seconds. “I love you, Mom.”

She left quickly, and Maggie was glad. Carol didn’t need to see her cry right now.