“I don’t blame you,” Lorinda laughed. “Naturally you were curious after I tried so hard to keep you away. Would you like to see the cottage again?”
“Indeed, yes!”
“I’ll get the key,” Lorinda offered.
She vanished into the house and was gone so long that Penny wondered what could be delaying the girl. When she finally appeared on the veranda, her face was as dark as a rain cloud.
“The key is gone!” she exclaimed. “It’s always been kept in the top drawer of the dresser in my stepfather’s room. I couldn’t find it anywhere.”
“Perhaps he took it with him that last day he went to the bank,” suggested Penny.
“Possibly,” agreed Lorinda, though without conviction. “I hope nothing has been stolen from the cottage.”
Alarmed at being unable to find the key, the girls walked hurriedly along the wooded path to the trophy house. From afar, Lorinda saw that the door was open a tiny crack.
“Either the place has been ransacked, or someone is there now!” she declared excitedly.
They approached swiftly but with noiseless tread. Lorinda suddenly flung open the cottage door.