“Of course you can, dear,” said Megan, who appeared a lot brighter now. “First, let me fetch you some tea and coffee the way you like it.”
Once they had finished, at around seven-thirty, Adrian asked Lenny to drive him to the food superstore in Llandrindod Wells.
“Are you sure you want to cook?” asked Lenny as they pulled out of the pub car park.
“Absolutely. I was going to make dinner last night, remember? Least I can do is cook for you tonight.”
“And as much as I appreciate the gesture, that’s not part of your contract.”
“Neither is sharing your bed. But I’m still keen to do that, too. And anyway, more to the point, what contract?”
Lenny tipped his head back and laughed.
“Good point. I never did get you to sign anything, did I?”
“Your word is good enough for me.”
The comment had been made lightly, but Lenny became quiet. After driving along an empty lane for a few moments, he reached a hand across and squeezed Adrian’s thigh. Adrian placed his hand on top and laced their fingers together.
“How did I ever find you?” asked Lenny.
“I think we found each other.”
* * * *
With the food shopping done, they arrived back at the house at ten o’clock. As Adrian collected the food bags from the back seat, Lenny opened the glove compartment and pulled out a small wooden box. Intrigued, Adrian stood and watched him, and Lenny lifted the lid to display a keyring with over thirty ornate-looking keys of all shapes and sizes.
“For the dresser,” he explained to Adrian, before heading for the front door.
“I thought when you mentioned a skeleton key, there’d be one master key that opened everything. Like they use in every television crime drama series I’ve ever seen.”
“For some modern locks there is. But with antiques, the carpenter could have used any number of styles of lock, which means the keys will also vary. But I’ve pretty much got them all covered here, so it’s just a case of trial and error until we find the right one. To be honest, I could probably pick the lock—I’ve got a small tool that I’ve used before for that—but this way, we get to see what key has been used and I can get replacements made.”
“I’ve got no patience for that kind of thing,” admitted Adrian. “Let me put the food away, and while you do that, I’ll carry on with the list of outstanding jobs Toni left me.”
“Sounds like a bossy so-and-so, this Toni.”
“She’s the best in the business. Thorough and professional. Think yourself lucky she was free.”
“I do. I’m only kidding. I think myself lucky to have both of you. I’ll give you a shout if I manage to get any of the drawers open.”
Adrian set about his mini-tasks—sanding down the wall in the kitchen, readying for Toni to complete the wiring and plastering, checking floorboards downstairs and marking with chalk any mismatched or damaged ones and replacing the broken floorboard in the alcove where they’d found the dresser.
With Lenny huffing over at the dresser by the front window, he began prising up the floorboard. Tony had cut out plywood and covered the area to ensure nobody stepped onto the faulty board. Within minutes, Adrian had the old board pulled up and found a replacement from the spares they had removed from the kitchen. Lenny had decided to lay flagstones in dark-grey limestone to delineate the kitchen from the main living area. Cutting the board into place, Adrian heard Lenny again, cussing softly, keys jingling on the keyring. As he passed Lenny, he leant in and pecked him on the cheek.
Almost by accident, when Adrian went to check the area for the new floorboard, he peered into the floor space and spotted something in a small dusty sack with a drawstring around the top. Using his gloved hand, he lifted out the item. When he pulled the drawstring open and tipped the bag up, three bronze keys clattered into the palm of his other glove. Unable to stop the burst of laughter, Lenny looked over.
“Look what I found buried in the floor," said Adrian, holding them out. “Any idea what they might be used for?”
“You’re kidding me? They’ve been there all this time? Bring them over here and let’s give them a try.”
Adrian handed them to Lenny and stood by, curious to see if they had found anything.
“These look right. I’m guessing the smaller key opens the three drawers and the larger ones are for each of the cupboards. Do you want to do the honours?”
“No, Lenny. This is your property and your family. You go ahead.”
A mood of anticipation surrounded them as Lenny unlocked the first drawer. Surprisingly, the drawer opened smoothly, but all they found inside was an old newspaper lining the bottom. The other two drawers proved stiff and more difficult to open, but neither revealed anything of interest—a button in one, a couple of rusty screws and drawing pins in another.
