Hello Stranger (The Ravenels 4)

Ethan regarded her without expression, but after a moment she saw a glint of humor in his eyes. Bending his head over hers, he murmured, “It’s probably best for both of us, acushla, if you never find out what’s beneath my evening suit.”

Garrett had never been the kind of woman who blushed easily, if at all, but she found herself turning as red as a beetroot. Looking away from him, she tried to bring the rampant color under control.

“How can you hate an entire family?” she asked. “They can’t all have done something to you.”

“’Tis not important.”

Obviously that wasn’t true. But Helen hadn’t mentioned a word about any conflict between the Ravenels and Ethan Ransom. What in the world could have made him so hostile? She decided to take the matter up with him in the future.

They lingered in the refreshments room until most of the crowd had departed for the double salon, and they drifted out with the last few stragglers. Lady Tatham’s voice could be heard in the distance, announcing the first of the entertainers. The serene piano notes of Chopin’s Polonaise in E-flat Major rippled into the hallway like the cool, soothing water of a brook. Instead of heading toward the music, however, Ethan took Garrett along a hallway to the other end of the house, and down a set of private stairs.

“Where are we going?” Garrett asked.

“Tatham’s private study.”

They proceeded to the ground-floor level, crossed the entrance hall, and went along a quiet hallway. They reached a door near the end, and Ethan tried the handle. It refused to budge.

Lowering to his haunches, Ethan examined the lock.

“Can you open it?” Garrett asked in a whisper.

“A pin-and-tumbler lock?” he asked, as if the answer should have been obvious. He fished a pair of slender metal tools from an inside coat pocket. Meticulously he inserted an instrument with a crook at the end into the bottom of the keyhole, and used the other pick to work the pins inside, lifting them one by one. Click. Click. Click. In no time at all the barrel turned, and the door opened.

After guiding Garrett into the dark room, Ethan took a tiny steel match case from his pocket and deftly lit a batwing lamp that extended from the wall. A short, wide sheet of flame filled the glass bowl shade, spilling a white glow through the room.

Garrett turned to view her surroundings, and started at the sight of an Irish setter sitting calmly by the hearth before she realized the canine had been stuffed by a taxidermist. The study was bursting with an abundance of decorative objects: peacock feathers sprouting from a crane-necked vase, bronzes, figurines, and ornamental boxes. Most of the walls were covered by towering black walnut cabinetry with drawers and shelves, some of them with locks built into the front. What little wall space remained was filled with paintings of dogs and hunting scenes, as well as small artifacts and oddments displayed behind glass-fronted frames. Beyond the swags of velvet drawn back from the windowpanes, embellished iron bars and scrollwork formed a protective cage around each casing.

Ethan had gone behind the desk and was running his fingers lightly over a section of wall paneling set at dado height.

“What are you looking for?” Garrett asked in a hushed voice.

“Account ledgers.” He pressed a length of framed molding and released a hidden catch. The paneling swung open, revealing the front of a rather astonishing object, a massive steel sphere affixed to an iron pedestal.

Garrett came up behind him. “What is that?”

“A cannonball safe.”

“Why isn’t it shaped like a rectangle?”

“More secure this way. You can’t blow the door off: there’s no place to insert explosives. No bolts, rivets, or screws to pull out, and no joints to force wedges into.” Lowering to his haunches, Ethan examined a curious brass dial with numbers and notches at the edge. It had been attached to the center of the faceplate.

“A keyless lock,” he murmured, before Garrett could ask. He reached into his coat and pulled out a brass disk. A brief shake and the instrument extended into a narrow cone. It was a collapsible telescopic ear horn, the kind many of Garrett’s elderly patients used. She was mystified as he hooked the wire earpiece over his ear and bent to listen intently as he rotated the brass dial.

“I need to find the sequence that will open the lock,” Ethan said. “The clicks of an inner drive wheel will tell me how many numbers make up the combination.” Returning his attention to the task, he rotated the dial and kept the ear horn pressed to the door. “Three numbers,” he said eventually. “Now for the hard part—figuring out what they are.”

“Is there some way I could help?”

“No, it’s—” he began, and stopped as a thought occurred to him. “Do you know how to plot markers on a line chart?”

“I should hope so,” Garrett said, lowering to a crouch beside him. “I could hardly maintain my patients’ records properly otherwise. Would you prefer the markers connected or left scatterplot?”

“Connected,” Ethan said. He shook his head slightly as he glanced at her, the hint of a dimple appearing. Reaching into his pockets, he pulled out a small notebook, the pages printed with a faintly inked grid. He handed the book to her. “Starting position numbers are on the horizontal axis. Contact point numbers are on the vertical axis. As I test numbers on the dial, I’ll tell you which ones to map out.”

“I had no idea safecrackers used coordinate paper,” Garrett said, taking a tiny pencil from him.

“They don’t. Yet. At the moment, I’m probably the only man in England who can get past this lock. It’s a mechanical device with its own set of rules. Even the craftsmen who make it can’t do it.”

“Who taught you, then?”

Ethan hesitated before replying. “I’ll explain later.” He bent to his task, setting the ear horn back against the safe. As he gently manipulated the dial, listened for clicks, and murmured sets of numbers to Garrett, she plotted them out efficiently. In no more than ten minutes, they were finished. She handed back the book and pencil. Ethan studied the pair of jagged lines on the chart, and drew crosses at the points where they converged. “Thirty-seven . . . two . . . sixteen.”

“What order do they go in?”

“That’s a matter of trial and error.” He dialed the numbers from largest to smallest, with no result. Next, he tried from smallest to largest. As if by magic, a smooth mechanical sound reverberated from the innards of the safe.

“How very satisfying,” Garrett exclaimed triumphantly.

Although Ethan was trying to maintain his concentration, it seemed he couldn’t hold back a grin. “You have the makings of a fine criminal mind, Doctor.” He rose to his feet and wrenched the top handle of the safe downward. A circular door, at least seven inches thick, soundlessly pivoted open to reveal the interior.

Somewhat anticlimactically, the contents consisted of a simple stack of files and ledgers. But Ethan’s breath had quickened, and a notch of concentration had appeared between his thick brows. Garrett could tell that his thoughts were in a ferment of activity as he pulled out the stack and set it on the desk. Searching through the materials, he found a volume he wanted, and spread it flat. He began to thumb rapidly through the pages, his gaze taking in dozens of entries at a time.