The Electrician's Code by Clarissa Draper

he actually took the company to new heights, expanded the business. Now the company is international, we have companies using our steel products in Italy, France, and Norway, and of course China.”
    “And Doc didn’t feel the company should have come to him?”
    “I’m not sure he cared. Honestly, I’m not sure anything really bothered or worried him. He hid his emotions well.” Suddenly, she sat forward. “I have been going through the attic, cleaning it out. There are sixteen rooms in this house and we only occupy two. I was thinking of opening a bed and breakfast. We have some horses and I was thinking of stocking the pond again.”
    She looked at them blankly for a moment before she remembered what she wanted to say. “Anyway, I found some albums. There were some photos of Doc, would you like to see them? Yes, come, come.” She stood up and walked from the room.
    Theo and Dorland quickly chased after her. In the hall, the housekeeper met them with a tray.
    “Take the tea into the library,” Diane instructed her. The housekeeper complied, and Diane led the officers down the hall and into the large dining room. The walls and furniture were a mahogany color and the table sat at least twelve. Dorland stopped by one of the chairs and leaned down to examine a place setting.
    “These are very beautiful. They must be very old,” Dorland remarked. He ran his finger across the face of the plate and then rubbed his fingers together. “And there’s no dust.”
    “This is a very beautiful dining room,” Theo agreed.
    “Yes, my mother loved this room. She once gave grand dinner parties in this room. All us girls couldn’t wait until we were of age and could attend those parties. The dresses we wore.” Diane looked up at the ceiling and pursed her lips together. “Oh yes, those parties.”
    “Did Doc ever attend those parties?”
    She squinted. “I don’t recall. I know as a child he would sneak into the room and hide under the table. Why? No one knows. He would lift up the women’s dresses or tickle their legs and run out of the room. Eventually my mother had to lock him in his room during parties. We don’t eat in here anymore. It’s just my father and I now. Come, I want to show you those albums.”
    The opulent library shelves were filled floor to ceiling with books and priceless antique tomes. Very different from Doc’s drawing room. She motioned them to the Empire chairs that flanked an English Regency table in the center of the room. On the table in front of them lay five cloth-covered albums. She pulled the third album from the pile and slowly flipped through the delicate pages. Theo examined the black and white photographs that covered the black pages beneath.
    “How many years ago were these taken?” he asked.
    “Oh, I’m not sure. Ages.” She waved aside the question with her hand and instead, she pointed to a large photo that took up a whole page. “This is one of the six girls. We were visiting the seaside, that was. Those swimsuits, look at them. They don’t make them like that anymore.” She continued to flip through the pages. “Ah, here is one of Doc. I believe he was four or five, in school uniform there. As soon as Mother could, she shipped him off to boarding school and fired the nannies. Until holidays, that is. He’d be back for holiday, and to make up for his absence, he wreaked havoc throughout the house. One of my sisters stayed away on holidays because she didn’t want to deal with the tension in the house at that time.”
    The housekeeper brought in a tray of tea and laid it on the table. One by one she poured the officers a cup, asking each one about the milk and sugar.
    “This is one of Doc deer stalking. Of course, that day all he brought home was a pheasant. He was really good with deer. I think it was the only thing my father liked about Doc—that he came home with meat. My father eventually bought him a few shotguns and gave him a Land Rover. I don’t know how