Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(57)

I turned the knob and pushed through the church doors. “You should see the new Stop-n-Shop. A real work of art.”

His enthusiasm was infectious, and it made me smile.

“Since I don’t see you in church on Sundays, Miss Darker, I’m going to assume this isn’t a sudden crisis of faith,” a voice said as the door closed behind us.

“Father Sanders.” I smiled. Father Sanders had been the priest in our church for as far back as I could remember. He loved going to the park on sunny summer afternoons and telling stories to the kids on the playgrounds. For a priest, he had one hell of an imagination. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m head of the historical department. You’d know that if you and your mother took more of an active interest in this community.” He inclined his head toward Lukas. “And who is this?”

“This is my cousin Lukas. His parents are thinking of moving to town so they sent him ahead to check things out.”

Father Sanders smiled and extended his hand. “Penance is a wonderful place to live. Welcome.”

Lukas took the priest’s hand and gave it a firm shake. “Thank you, Father.”

“So about that active community thing,” I said with a smile. “That’s actually why I’m here.”

“Oh?”

“Mom sent me over to have a look around. You were robbed earlier in the week, right?”

He bristled. “I don’t believe you could consider it a robbery. This is merely a historical landmark. There is nothing on the premise of value to steal.”

“So you’re saying nothing was taken?”

“I’m saying there’s nothing here to take.”

“Are you sure?”

He smiled and shook his head. “Ah, how I’ve missed your stubbornness. I’ve never met anyone with such a disability in regards to the word ‘no’.”

“Well, you know me. I aim to please. Mind if we just have a look around? If I go back too fast, Mom will accuse me of slacking. You know parents. And I totally heart this place. History is kinda my new thing.”

He didn’t look convinced—which made a lot of sense. His sister Ana Sanders was my history teacher last year. I’m sure he’d heard about my many forays into napland during class. “History?”

“Seriously!” I glanced sideways at Lukas and felt the heat rise to my cheeks. “History is looking pretty hot these days.”

OhMyGod…

“Really?”

I nodded, making sure to avoid Lukas’ gaze. I couldn’t believe I’d actually said that out loud! Clearing my throat, I said, “We have a report due, and it’s totally drawn me into the eighteen-hundreds.”

Father Sanders brightened. “We have quite a bit of memorabilia from the mid to late eighteen-hundreds. If you’re truly interested, I can leave word with Kelly at the historical society. I can’t allow you to leave the premises with any of the items, but you’re welcome to browse.”

“That’d be awesome.”

“Consider it done.” He glanced over his shoulder at the door. “I need to speak with Phil about the tulips. Just let me know when you’re ready to leave so I can lock up.”

I nodded and gave him a salute. “Will do.”

With a wave, he turned on his heel and disappeared through the door.

I waited until I saw him pass by the window and head across the grounds toward the tool shed. “Okay. If you were an ancient box, where would you be?”

Lukas scanned the room, frowning. “Not here.”

I contemplated flipping him off but decided the gesture would be wasted. He probably had no idea what it meant. Instead, I went to work. The main room was pretty straightforward. The old wooden pews had been restored and lined either side of the room. The podium at the front showed its age and obviously hadn’t been fixed like the pews, but it was still standing. I thought I remembered hearing something about an upcoming fundraiser for further restorations. Something about an ice cream social. Maybe Father Sanders was right. We needed to be more involved. And hey, if there was ice cream, I could totally be persuaded.

Lukas took one end, and I took the other. By the time I’d worked my way around the room, into the back, I was starting to get discouraged. We’d been searching for over an hour and had zilch. We couldn’t hang out much longer. We’d been there too long already, and pretty soon, Father Sanders was going to get suspicious.

“I can’t even figure out where the heck the box was, much less where it is now.” I leaned back and slid down the wall to the ground. “I mean, it wasn’t just sitting out in the open on a shelf. It had to be stashed away somewhere.”

“You mean in some kind of hidden compartment?”

“Don’t ya think? It couldn’t have been just stuffed in a drawer or box somewhere.”

“Maybe it was. Maybe whoever put it here had no idea what it was.”

“No way.” I shook my head. “I don’t believe that for a second. Why wouldn’t someone have opened it before now? Or thrown it away? No, whoever put it here had to know what it was. They had to have stashed it somewhere—but where?”

Lukas glanced around the room and shrugged. He hadn’t been expecting to find anything, yet he still seemed just as discouraged as I did. “There aren’t many places here to hide something.”