The Waiting Game by Unknown Read Free Book Online Page A

and sketching a totally unrelated subject. She remembered once having coffee with him in a restaurant and discussing her growing dissatisfaction with her latest job. Lowell had carried on a detailed and logical conversation while making comical character sketches on a napkin of the people in the next booth. "What do you suppose whoever did this was looking for?"
    "That’s something we can’t even guess until Lowell shows up."
    "Except that we know it has something to do with our so-called wedding gift," Sara muttered in growing annoyance. "What in the world could Uncle Lowell have been talking about?"
    "If he’d wanted us to know, he would have told us."
    "You’re awfully casual about this, Adrian." Sara glared at him over her shoulder.
    "I know your uncle very well, Sara," Adrian said. "He doesn’t want us getting involved."
    She ignored that, her sandaled foot tapping impatiently under the desk. Thoughtfully Sara stared out the window toward a stand of fir. "He said he’d already gotten the gift. Now he has to protect it."
    "Something like that." Adrian reshelved another batch of books.
    "So whoever did this must have been looking for whatever Uncle Lowell calls our wedding present."
    "Are you going to give me a hand cleaning up the kitchen?"
    "You know, Uncle Lowell once told me he believed in the old theory that the best hiding place was the one that was in full view. People really do tend to overlook the obvious. He says answers are always quite clear when you know where to look." She glanced around the room with narrowed eyes. "He’d had some experience along those lines. He ought to know what he’s talking about."
    Adrian went into the kitchen. "If whoever made this mess didn’t find what he was looking for, the odds are you won’t find it, either. It may not even be here. Or Lowell might have removed it and hidden it somewhere else. Or this chaos might really be the work of casual vandals who happened on an empty cabin. A coincidence. Sara, we don’t have a clue. There’s no point beating our heads against a stone wall. Let your uncle take care of his own business."
    Sara heard water running in the kitchen sink. Reluctantly she put down the stack of insurance papers and got to her feet. Adrian was right. They should clean up the kitchen first.
    "Uncle Lowell said he was thinking of putting in a fancy alarm system. Too bad he didn’t get around to it in time to prevent this," she commented.
    "I know. I was going to help him install it," Adrian said from the kitchen.
    Sara took a step forward and her toe brushed a thick sheaf of papers that had been lying on the floor beside the chair. The pile of neatly typed pages was still bound with a rubber band. Automatically she leaned down to pick it up. Halfway down the first page a single word, underlined, leaped out at her.
    Phantom.
    "Adrian! Here’s a copy of your manuscript," she called, aware of a surging sense of interest in what she held. Curiously she flipped through a handful of pages.
    "I think I mentioned that I had given a copy to Lowell," Adrian said softly from the doorway of the kitchen.
    "Would you mind if I…?" Sara’s request to read the manuscript died on her lips as she looked at the penciled sketch in the right-hand corner of the first page. There were other doodles at the bottom of the page, but it was the one at the top that made her grow cold.
    The drawing had been done hurriedly, but Lowell Kincaid’s talent lay in the quick character sketch.
    Strong, simple lines defined the figure in only a few brief strokes. It was the head of a wolf.
    "No," Sara whispered as she stared at the drawing. "Oh, no."
    "Sara? What’s wrong?" Adrian tossed aside the sponge he had been holding and came toward her, his expression one of grave concern.
    Feeling decidedly unnerved, Sara sank back down into the desk chair and looked up at him. "See that drawing on your manuscript?"
    Adrian glanced at the page and then back at her strained face. "What about it?