Drop of Doubt

by C. L. Stone

  I touched the finger pad lightly.

  A glow slid across as a sensor read the screen. A red light lit up on the left. Error? It didn’t work? At least the safe didn’t blow up or make a noise.

  I lifted my finger and tried again, pressing further down on the putty against the scanner.

  The scanner slid by again. This time a green light lit up.

  I guessed that meant go. I replaced the egg, stuffing it into my bra top. I put the button light between my lips again, found the edges of the safe and raised the lid.

  The safe opened, but the lid was heavy. I had to hold on to it to keep it open. I hovered over, squinting at the contents.

  Inside, I caught the edges of objects against the soft gray backdrop. In the back I identified the trigger and handle of a gun. The sight of it had my heart stop cold. If there was a gun downstairs, there was easily another gun upstairs, too. If I had a gun, I wouldn’t keep the only one in the house locked in the office desk drawer downstairs.

  The other two objects were rectangular and very similar in size. I lifted one, drawing it up and turning it over in my hands. It took me a moment, but I realized the weight was much too heavy for a camera. When I tilted it, there was a slight rattle like metal against metal jingling. I guessed there were bullets inside.

  I replaced that box and picked up the other object. There was a distinct circle in the middle for the lens, and I felt the buttons of the camera.

  I slipped it, like the phone, into the crest of the cami top opposite the egg. I bit at the light to keep it in my mouth and to shut it off, and held the key in my fingers as I slid the drawer shut.

  Only, at the last edge of sliding the drawer in, the drawer rocked, and the back edge of the rail inside the desk gave away. The drawer rocked back hard in a thunderous crash. It tilted and settled onto the wood base.

  I halted everything. Someone should have heard that.

  There was a creak above my head, like someone was sitting up in bed. Silence followed. Whoever heard was listening, trying to determine what the noise was and where it’d come from.

  I slipped the key into the lock, twisting it. The drawer was shut, but I could feel it angled sharply in the back, so the face was jerked out of place. Anyone looking at it would notice. I couldn’t stay to fix it and try again. I didn’t know what was wrong. It felt like the back of the drawer had given away under the weight of the safe inside and chose that moment to give up.

  Creaking footsteps echoed to me from upstairs. Someone was coming to investigate.

  I jumped up. I leapt to drop the key back on the top shelf. I zoomed for the door, shoved my back against the frame.

  In my hurry, the cami top snagged against the metal plate’s jagged edge. Luke grasped my arm, yanking me away, but my skin caught on the plate.

  I bit back a cry as I felt the metal biting into my skin like a knife blade. My lungs burned for air. I was too scared to gasp and held my breath as Luke propelled me forward through the downstairs hallway, opened a door and pushed me through.

  I felt cool tile against my feet and the scent of soap from the bathroom we’d ducked into. Luke pushed me behind the door, but he held the door half open. His fingers found my lips and he pressed himself against me, again as if trying to mask me from whoever was coming.

  Thudding sounded on the stairs. Someone moved past the bathroom.

  A light flicked on down the hall from the office. Time seemed to stall for an eon. Whoever was there, I imagined, was wondering if what he’d heard was real, or if he’d been dreaming.

  Luke pressed his hand into mine and started signing. “Will distract. Run.”

  I wanted to sign back for him not to do it, but he’d already pulled away. The suddenness of him being there and then him disappearing caught up with me and I nearly moaned. Fear threatened to take over, but I swallowed it back. I had to focus. The show wasn’t over yet.

  Luke, the quiet thief, was noiseless for as long as it took him to go beyond the stairwell and the hall and toward whatever was beyond it in the opposite direction, what I was guessing was a living room or perhaps a kitchen.

  My heart nearly exploded when I heard the thud of what sounded like a book against a carpet echoing in the house.

  The footsteps left the office. I shrunk back behind the bathroom door. A hand reached in, snapping a wall light. A soft glow started up from above, catching the empty tub and fell along the wall. My heart thundered as the moment lasted forever, and I was sure I was going to get caught. He’d check behind the door.

  The light snapped off quickly and footsteps faded down the hall and toward where Luke had made the noise.

  I wanted to stay where I was, afraid to move without Luke. The only thing that made me go was the threat of knowing the man could return, and the possibility that he had a gun in his hands. He hadn’t stopped to open his drawer, and he went off to face the noise without going for the gun in the drawer. That meant I was right. He did have another one if he thought to use it.

  A second gun.

  My eyes opened wide when I realized Luke might not know about this gun. He may not have known about the first one. What if he was caught?

  I crept toward the stairs, not wanting to take that risk. I had to protect Luke now that he gave me a chance to escape unseen. He couldn’t get caught. The bedroom doors upstairs were all closed. I didn’t want to risk waking anyone else, especially a kid.

  I was formulating a plan of maybe dropping something else on this side of the house when I stopped in front of the upstairs bathroom. The light was still on, and my eyes fell on the toilet seat just inside the door.

  I leaned in, dropping the silver handle to make the toilet flush.

  Footsteps sounded from near the stairs. I dashed for the guest bedroom, closing the door behind me enough that there was only a crack, so Luke could enter if he needed.

  I faced the window we had entered from, realizing now my mistake. I was on the second floor. Luke had helped me in. How were we going to get out from here?

  I climbed onto the window seat, peering out into the grass. The drop down was taller than I expected, but the ground below it was soft with grass that needed a trim.

  The footsteps were on the stairs. I had to go now.

  I moved the camera from my top, repositioning it into my underwear at the back to give it some hold with the waistband of the shorts. I didn’t want to lose it in the grass. I grabbed Luke’s shoes, stuffing my feet in and tied the laces quickly. They were big, but I just needed them to stay on my feet until I could get down. I tucked the egg and the button light into the shoes, too.

  I eased my legs out the window, sitting on the ledge. I shifted around until I was on my stomach, half out the window and lowered myself down until I was hanging by my hands.

  I used the wall to kick off away from the house, so I wouldn’t hit it on the way down, and let go.

  The drop wasn’t far enough to require a roll, but I tucked in and dropped to my side as I landed with a soft thud. The grass was cushiony enough that I was up on my feet after.

  I waited for a moment under the window, but felt too exposed. I wanted to wait for Luke, but I didn’t know if he was the one on the stairs I doubted it. If he was anywhere still in the house, he was probably still downstairs.

  I started away from the house, away from the windows. I needed to get out of sight. I dashed toward the garden wall, and leapt over it, ducking for cover.

  With things being so quiet, I peeked over, hoping to find Luke. A light sparked on from the upstairs, from what I guessed was one of the bedrooms. Whoever was home was waking someone else up.

  I realized I’d left the top window open. I didn’t have a way to close it. If someone went in, they’d know.

  I pressed myself against the wall, watching and waiting while holding my breath.

  Fingers caught me over my mouth and a soft cry almost escaped my lips before it clamped down. An arm wrapped around my waist, tackling me and smashing me to the groun
d.

  Only the scent of sweet vanilla stopped me from sinking my teeth into Luke’s hand. He dropped down on top of me, his body pressing mine into the grass. His lips found the crest of my ear. “Don’t move.”

  Don’t move? We should run! I struggled with my lips, but he stuffed his fingers against my mouth. I wanted to sign with my hands, but he was pressing almost his full weight down on me against the ground, and my hands were trapped.

  A shot rang out through the silence, and I jolted underneath Luke. He doubled down on top of me, pressing me further into the ground until my lungs released the last of my air and I couldn’t breathe.

  I willed myself to stop reacting. I stopped fighting Luke and instead focused on listening. Being outside was driving my senses wild. The wind would mask footsteps until it was too close.

  Voices started up in the house. At the sound, Luke picked himself up off of me. “Crawl,” he said. “Fast.”

  I got up, gasping in a lungful of air, and stayed low to crawl against the wall. It provided some protection from the view of the windows, but it wouldn’t take someone long to run around to us and see we were there.

  I raced on my hands and knees, not stopping for the scrapes and cuts from tiny sticker plants and rocks. I curled my toes inside his shoes to keep them on as they threatened to fall off at any moment.

  I’d just made it to the turn at the far edge of the garden wall, when Luke leapt up, pulling me up with him and we ran together toward the woods just as the light from the back yard turned on.

  We disappeared together.

  THE ART OF A THIEF

  Luke reclaimed his shoes a short way into the woods and carried me back to the first house. We were quiet the whole time. I was listening for another gunshot, sure we were being chased and that whoever we had stolen the camera from was coming after us.

  What had I done? I stunned myself thinking of the answer to that. Dr. Green and Mr. Blackbourne had said the same thing: stay out of trouble. Nothing that would get the cops after us. When we first started out, I had no idea. Then I was curious. Some part of me expected this to be a prank, or some form of training. Maybe part of me imagined the house belonged to Mr. Blackbourne. Or Dr. Green. Or some other friendly Academy team member Luke was sent to tease. That wasn’t the case. Now I was terrified. I had just broke the rules. I was going to be banned from the group.

  What I didn’t understand was Luke’s participation and Mr. Blackbourne’s request. He would order the others to swoop in and steal from someone? Even if the camera belonged to them, breaking into the house was still illegal.

  I held back my questions, unwilling to break the silence. Instead of watching where we were going, I dropped my head against Luke’s shoulder. I was happy he was safe. I worried, too, what the camera contained that made him have to go out in the middle of the night into something so dangerous in order to retrieve it. What if I hadn’t come along? If he had brought Nathan or Gabriel, they wouldn’t have been able to fit through the door.

  Luke didn’t seem to need directions this time. We were soon in the backyard of the strange house he had borrowed. He shuffled inside, closing the door behind us.

  I let go of his back, slipping to the floor. I dropped to my knees, out of breath as if I’d run the whole way instead of being carried. I gasped at a sudden sharp pain in my legs, making it hurt to kneel. I dropped back onto my butt. My legs were scratched and cut up.

  Luke bent over, his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He grinned down at me on the floor. “You look like you took on a cactus. And lost.”

  I couldn’t believe he was making jokes now. I sucked in a breath, suddenly remembering the camera. I reached around, fingering at the waistband of my shorts and pulled out ... the cell phone Luke had given me earlier.

  I stared at it, stunned. Had I made a mistake? I pawed at my top, as if I’d missed something. I’d given him his shoes, which had the button light and the egg. He didn’t give me anything back. I’d held on to the camera. I felt around the waist band some more. No. “The camera’s gone!”

  Luke lifted an eyebrow. “What?”

  “The camera. I ... did I drop it?” I curled my fingers around the phone, trying to retrace my steps. I’d given Luke the cell phone. The camera was supposed to be ...

  Luke’s eyes brightened and he started chuckling. He tucked his hand into his back pocket and pulled out the black digital camera.

  My mouth fell open. “How did you do it?”

  “I felt it in your shorts when I was on top of you.”

  “So you took it?”

  “Without you knowing. I’d call it a personal best. First time I ever lifted something out of a girl’s underwear.”

  I huffed, shoving at him to back away so I could rise to stand. “I didn’t want to leave it in my top when I had to jump from the window.”

  “I can’t believe you jumped. I told you to run.”

  “I was heading back the way we came in.”

  “I meant run out the front door. The dude had a gun.”

  I threw my hands up. I couldn’t believe him. I turned around, ready to walk out the door and make him drive back. It was late. I was a mess. I wanted to be between the sheets next to Kota and Nathan and not getting shot at while stealing a digital camera.

  “Whoa, hang on there, short stuff.” He snagged my arm, but held me so he was checking out my back. Fingers brushed against my side. Pain seared through my back. I sucked in a sharp breath, remembering the cut from the doorframe. In my wild frenzy, I’d forgotten, but now the fresh pain was suddenly overwhelming.

  “Aw,” Luke said. He poked more tenderly at the area. “Battle scar. And you ripped the shirt.”

  I moaned, the scratch was starting to itch horribly and I didn’t dare rub at it because it hurt. “How bad?”

  “You don’t need stitches, I don’t think.” Luke’s hand slipped around my good side and he guided me toward the inside of the house. “Come on. There’s got to be a medical kit here somewhere.”

  “Whose house is this?” I asked him.

  He gave a small smile. “Mrs. Fredrick’s house?” He said it like he was almost sure, but not totally positive.

  “How do you know?”

  “Because that’s the name on the mailbox out front.”

  “How do you have a key?”

  “There’s a lot to that question, and the others following it, that either aren’t important, or I can’t tell you.” He tried one of the doors down the short hallway. It opened to a bathroom. He patted the sink counter and pointed at me. “It’s my turn to play with Sang in the bathroom.”

  “What am I supposed to say now when Mr. Hendricks asks me what I might know that would get you kicked out of the place?”

  “You tell him everything Mr. Blackbourne tells you.”

  I blew out a sigh.

  Luke’s fingers curled under the lower hem of my shirt, slowly lifting up and away to expose my back. He sucked in a breath. “Aw, sweetie. You’re all cut up. The others are going to kill me.”

  “You don’t think they’d be mad finding out I went with you even without the scratches?”

  “If I brought you back without a hair in the wrong place, I might have not been yelled at too much. Now I’ll be scalped and my internal organs sold on the black market.” He found my hand bringing it to my shirt. “Hold it up. Let me wash it.”

  He ran back to the kitchen to find paper towels so we didn’t ruin any of Mrs. Fredrick’s towels with my blood. He dug through cabinets to find medical supplies. He pressed hydrogen peroxide against the area. I bit my tongue, resisting the urge to complain.

  “You know,” Luke said softly as he allowed the cut to breathe as the peroxide stung me. “You were pretty awesome back there.”

  My lips felt glued together, but I peeled them apart. “I didn’t know what I was doing.”

  “But we got out with the camera. What happened at that last part though? What was that loud noise? It sounded like you slammed
the drawer back or something, but I didn’t think you would.”

  “The drawer broke,” I said. “I was pushing it when it tilted in the back like it fell off the rail.”

  “You mean we got shot at because his furniture was shoddy? That whole place was a nightmare. That door to the office was swollen. You couldn’t open it all the way without it rubbing against the frame. I was lucky I brought you so someone could get in.”

  “Luke?”

  Luke ripped open a packet of gauze and started pressing it on me. “Yeah?”

  I stared through the door at the hallway outside the strange bathroom. “Are we going to get the cops called on us?”

  He started applying tape to hold the bandage in place. “No, sweetie.”

  “Is that guy going to come after us?”

  Luke sighed, pressing his fingers around the tape against my back, but more like he was massaging the area rather than just making sure it was sticking. “He doesn’t know you were there. He won’t come after you.”

  “Will he come after you?”

  “I don’t think so. I doubt it.”

  “But he could?”

  Luke gently took my elbow, turning me slightly on the counter until I was facing him. He smoothed his palms over my cheeks until I was looking at his brown eyes, eerily serious. “Sang, the camera was in a fingerprint lock box with a gun. Normal people don’t put cameras in lock boxes like that. Right?”

  My cheeks heated against his palms. What did I know about normal? “I suppose.”

  “So will you trust me when I say I was sent there to fetch the camera, because whatever is on the camera needs to fall into better hands than a loony who would fire a gun in the air trying to scare us off with his wife and kids in the house?”

  “I thought he was shooting at us.”

  “He didn’t see us. He didn’t know we were still there. He was angry and he was shooting at random, trying to spook us out like hunting dogs scaring out a fox. If I’d been someone else, maybe a robber with a gun who was trying to run away quietly, and he made the first shot, a robber might have shot back, and there would have been a fire fight.”