Page 16 of Home Again

5

Gianna used her phone’s flashlight to make it downstairs to the kitchen and grabbed the screwdriver that Sebastian had returned to the junk drawer, then headed for Lazar’s study. When she got there, she closed the door and turned on his two desk lamps. His study was huge; when she really looked around she realized it must have been another living room or drawing room at some point, and Lazar had turned it into his office. Figured. The man had an outsized ego, so he needed a humongous office that would fit his head.

She went around the desk and sat down in the old leather chair. It creaked with age. The desk didn’t have any kind of paperwork on it, just a leather blotter and four pictures in overly ornate frames. She already knew who everyone was because Lazar had told her. One was a picture of Lazar’s parents on their wedding day. That would be Sebastian Lazar Durand the First and his wife. They looked so stiff and solemn. Gianna hoped, for their sakes, that it wasn’t a precursor to things to come. Then there was a picture of Lazar and his wife Lorraine Beauregard, the typical Southern Belle. Lazar had told her all about Lorraine; that is to say, all about her bloodlines as if she were some kind of prized heifer that he had purchased. When Gianna had asked what she was like, what kind of mother she’d been or how she’d spent her days, Lazar had looked like Gianna was crazy. Just another reason she’d come to despise the old man.

The next picture was of Sebastian the Third. No wedding photo for him—he’d gotten a divorce, so his wife didn’t deserve any kind of remembrance. Jada had provided a lot of information about his murdered wife Pamela, including a picture. She had been a beautiful woman, both inside and out.

The last picture was of Sebastian the Fourth. It was his high school graduation photo, and he looked so young and solemn. She could see hints of the man he was to become, but life had definitely hardened him. She reached out and stroked his face.

“What happened to you?” she wondered.

Enough of this. She needed to get to work. She started to open drawers. Most of them were unlocked. They were mostly empty. She found cough drops, stamps, envelopes, paperclips.

“Ewww…”

She snatched her hand back when she realized she’d touched a treasure trove of used tissues. Seriously, he had a trashcan underneath his desk. Then there was the flask. On the right-hand side of the desk was a locked drawer. She looked at the screwdriver that was resting on top of the desk. If she used it, it would be pretty darned obvious that Lazar’s desk had been broken into. How could she explain that?

She took her phone off mute. “Jada.”

“What?”

“Can you google how to pick a lock? I have a screwdriver and could force the desk drawers open, but that would be kind of obvious.”

Jada sighed. “Facetime me so I can see the kind of lock we’re dealing with.”

Gianna pressed the Facetime button and pointed the phone at the lock.

“Come on, Girly, I need light.”

“I don’t want to turn on the overhead lights. It’s bad enough that I have the desk lights on,” Gianna complained.

“Do you want me to do this, or not?”

Gianna huffed and marched over to the door and slammed the switch to turn on the overhead lights. Then she went back to the desk and squatted down.

“Now can you see?”

“Yes, that’s much better. Shit, how old is this desk anyway?”

“How should I know? Old.”

“Okay, I’m googling. Are there other file cabinets that you could be looking at in the meantime?” Jada asked.

Giana turned on her heels and peered around the chair. “Yeah. But do you need me to still hold the phone?”

“Nah. Just put the phone down while I do the search. I’ll holler when I’ve got something, you go look around.”

Gianna turned around to the credenza and found the drawers locked, but the cupboards were unlocked. She sat down cross-legged in front of them, then started pulling out manila file folders. She’d been right—he was old-school, the man was totally into paper files.

The first dozen were all about household accounts, which were useless. Then she found one titled Ophelia, and she found papers dating back thirty-two years.

“You cheap lint-licker!”

“What did you say?” Jada yelled through the phone.

She crawled over to the desk and grabbed the phone, then went back to the credenza. “I just found all of the files on Ophelia and a bunch of cashed checks. Not only is Lazar a lech, he’s robbing Ophelia!”

“Calm down,” Jada demanded. “What are you talking about?”