Stolen by Jordan Gray Page B

emanated from the colored glass.
    During the time she’d been at the mansion, Molly had been a guest here as frequently as Iris had been at the mainhouse. They had a lot in common, although both kept their personal lives private and were comfortable with that.
    Molly had grown curious about Iris, but never enough to pry. Whenever someone Iris had known from years ago talked about her, though, Molly always listened for tidbits of the woman’s past. There were still large gaps in her personal history that she didn’t know.
    â€œWhen we got back, we investigated the main house.” Iris calmly stroked the cat and it purred audibly in pleasure.
    â€œNone of you thought to come back here?” Paddington scanned the mess that started just inside Iris’s door and continued throughout the rooms.
    â€œWhy would we? The only disturbance we knew about was in Molly’s office, and that was bad enough.” Iris shook her head. “This…this is reprehensible.”
    Several of her photo albums had been flung across the floor. Photographs lay abandoned but Molly thought it looked like someone had been through them.
    â€œSo why did they only search your and Mrs. Graham’s rooms?”
    â€œI’m hardly an expert when it comes to the criminal mind, Inspector.”
    One of the uniformed crime scene investigators moved slowly through Iris’s quarters, taking snapshots with a digital camera. Molly’s heart went out to Iris. Having her office torn up was one thing, but Iris lived in these rooms. That invasion of privacy cut much deeper.
    â€œCan you tell if anything’s missing?”
    Iris shook her head. “I’ll have to do a proper inventory.” Then she focused on the couch and frowned slightly. “There is something missing. I had a box beside the couch. I don’t see it anywhere at the moment.”
    â€œA box?” Intrigue stamped on his face, Paddington stepped inside the room. “What kind of box?”
    â€œCardboard. It once held envelopes for the post.” Iris followed the inspector and Molly trailed after her.
    â€œWhat does it hold now?”
    â€œPhotographs that Molly and I gathered from different residents of Blackpool. Dozens of them.”
    Noticing Iris and Molly on his heels for the first time, Paddington sighed, then directed them out of the room again. “Please, ladies.”
    â€œIt’s not like we’re going to do any more damage than has already been done.” Iris’s tone was sharp and Molly put her hand on the older woman’s shoulder.
    â€œNo, Mrs. Dunstead, you’re not,” the inspector said. “And I apologize for my behavior. I don’t mean to act so callous, but we have to maintain the integrity of the scene.”
    â€œAnd I’m quite sure the Blackpool police force has better things to do than investigate a simple case of breaking and entering,” Iris said.
    â€œWe do.” Paddington’s eyes glowed with an inner heat. “But it’s fairly clear that this was not a simple forced entry.”
    Molly was convinced it wasn’t, but she didn’t want to voice her opinion. That would give it too much strength and resonance, place it too deeply in her and Michael’s lives. As well as Iris’s and Irwin’s. The very thought stripped away precious feelings of safety and security.
    â€œWhat was so special about those photographs?” Paddington waited patiently. “What had you and Mrs. Graham collected?”
    â€œThey were all from around the time of the train robbery.”
    â€œAh.” The inspector nodded ponderously. “I thought as much. You’ll have to admit that, in light of the murder only a short time ago, this crime takes on a whole other aspect.”
    Â 
    W HEN M ICHAEL WOKE THE NEXT morning, he rolled over to an empty bed. He glanced at the clock on the nightstand and saw the time was 10:14 a.m. Sleeping till the late