The Ellsworth Case (A Markham Sisters Cozy Mystery Novella Book 5) Read Online Free PDF

was a vague shrug from Peter.
    “I guess I just need to know what you’d like
for breakfast, and an approximate time that you’ll be down,” Joan said finally.
    “Oh, I was, that is, I’d rather not, oh,”
Paula said, looking at Peter.
    “We’d rather not commit to much of
anything,” Peter told Joan.   “We’re on
holiday, after all.   We both have
very high pressure jobs and we were looking forward to not having to plan a
thing for the next week.”
    Joan nodded and smiled, but Janet could tell
the smile was forced.   “Of course,”
Joan said.   “Breakfast will be
available any time between eight and midday.   After that you’ll have to find somewhere
for lunch, I’m afraid.”
    Peter nodded.   “We don’t mean to inconvenience you,” he
said tentatively.
    “It’s no problem,” Joan insisted.
    “Thank you,” Paula said quietly from where
she’d sat down on the side of the bed.
    Joan nodded, and then she and Janet walked
out into the corridor.   Joan pulled
the door shut behind them.   It was
barely closed before they heard raised voices coming from the room.
    Janet took a step closer, but resisted the
urge to push her ear to the door.   She could tell the couple was arguing, but she couldn’t make out any of
the words.
    “They definitely need a holiday,” Joan
murmured as she pulled Janet away from the door and towards the stairs.
    “Where have the Ellsworths come from?” Janet asked when the sisters were back in the sitting room.
    “Let me check my records,” Joan said.   She disappeared into her suite for a
short time and then returned.
    “Oddly enough, according to the letter they
sent requesting a room, they live in Derby, too,” she told Janet.

 
    Chapter Four
    The house always seemed different to Janet
when they had guests.   Feeling as if
both sets of new arrivals were rather unusual, Janet took herself off to the
library, the room where she felt most at home.   She shut the door behind her and turned
in a slow circle.   The space was
just about perfect, being filled completely with bookshelves that stretched
from floor to ceiling.   Every shelf
was full of books and ahead of her Janet had the wonderful job of sorting them
all out.
    Having been working on cleaning the room for
the last several months, she had only a single set of shelves left to clean.   The shelves on the back wall had revealed
two hidden panels.   The sisters had
managed to open one, which was where they’d found Piggy, with the key and
coins.   They hadn’t yet found a way
to open the second panel.   Now, as
Janet turned her attention to the last shelf, she wondered what might be hidden
behind that second panel.
    She wasn’t surprised, but she was excited,
when she discovered yet another hidden panel behind one of the last set of shelves.   After carefully piling that row of books
on the floor, Janet tried pushing, then sliding, the panel.   For a moment it seemed quite stuck, but
then, suddenly, it slid open.   Janet
shouted for Joan and then forced herself to wait until her sister appeared
before looking inside the small hole in the wall that had been revealed.
    “What’s wrong?” Joan asked, slightly out of
breath.
    “I found another hidden panel,” Janet said
excitedly.   She switched on the
torch that she’d dug out of the desk while she’d waited for Joan.   “Let’s see what we’ve found.”
    The light lit up the small space.   “It’s an old oak tantalus ,”
Janet said as she reached in and picked up the object.   “There are crystal decanters and
everything.   And it’s very heavy.”
    Joan took it from her and turned it slowly
in her hands.   “It’s beautiful,” she
said after a moment.   “And, as you
say, very heavy.”
    Janet laughed as Joan quickly set the object
down on the desk in the corner of the room.  
    “It must be an antique,” Janet said.
    “I don’t understand why it was tucked away
inside a hidden compartment,” Joan told her.