The hidden painting chapter 7

Cindy’s search for the opening to the attic didn’t take long. She found it on the corridor to the right of the main, vast bathroom, its marble tiles matching the biggest bath tub she has ever seen.

‘I could so see myself taking a soak in that!’ she says to herself, before going into the adjacent bedroom to grab the dressing tables stool to reach up to it. ‘Wow!’ she says when she see’s the queen sized bed and is in awe of the fact that she actually remembers the floral wall paper. It is the room that was once occupied by her parents.

When she drags herself out of nostalgia, she lifts the stool and puts it under the hatch to stand on it. It’s a reach, but as she pulls she realises the hatch is locked. She tries the three keys on the Minnie Mouse’s keyring Jasper had given her, but as she had presumed, she has no luck.

The search for the key underway, she goes into each of the six bedrooms and, as assumed, has no joy. Knowing she had only a limited amount of time before Jasper returns, she runs down the stairs and opens the door to Jasper’s office. She searches each of the six drawers, three on each side of his thrown, and in the last drawer she looks, finds a bunch of keys on a massive keyring which she grabs, and runs back upstairs. The lock looks as though the key would be small, but instead of running the risk of trying one of the keys twice, she tries every single one, but to no avail. She runs back downstairs to put them back where she found them, just as she hears a car pull into the driveway. She quickly runs upstairs for the final time to replace the stool to its proper home, trying not to leave a trace of evidence of her search.

As she hurries back to her office, she hears keys jingling in the front door and slams the office door closed as the front door opens. Out of breath, she sits in her swivel, office chair, begging her breathing to regulate before a knock makes her jump out of her skin. It was Jasper.

She gets up, her breathing still laboured and opens it, the squeak of the hinges hiding her last fast, deep breath.

‘I hope you didn’t feel like you had to join us for lunch!’ Jasper asks curiously.

She just shakes her head.

‘My sister can be very persuasive!’ he adds.

‘It was nice to talk about books for a change!’ she manages to say, thankfully without panic in her tone. ‘My last boyfriend, Mike, thought them to be a waste of time!’ she adds.

‘Are you and this, Mike guy, over then?’ he probes.

She goes into detail as to how when she moved in with Mike, he treated her like a lodger and not a girlfriend.

Jasper sympathises. ‘My last girlfriend, Mary, was the same!’ he hangs his head. ‘She couldn’t get over how a man of my wealth didn’t have every digital device available to read them from. She just didn’t get the satisfaction of turning an actual page!’

‘Mike couldn’t grasp how I get emersed in them at all! He thought them to be a waste of time altogether because he had Netflix and could watch the ones they made into a tv series. He actually thought that ‘Jack Ryan’ only investigated the cases that were televised. When I tried to watch the series with him, I was disgusted at how much detail was missing! He got pissed at me and just went to bed! It was the same with Harry Potter!’ she explained.

‘Yea, like those movies depicted the true story!’

She nods.

‘I mean, yea, they broke the seventh book into two movies, but what about the quidditch world cup, and the magic that the transition from book to movie lost!’ He hung his head, shaking it from side to side.

‘And the lord of the rings!’ Cindy added. ‘Where was the battle the Hobbits fought to get the Shire back after they destroyed the ring in Mount Doom!’

‘I know right!’ he looks me in the eye and smiles his pearly whites.

Cindy felt herself beginning to really like Jasper and didn’t want him to see! ‘Well, I had better get back to Arthur Waldron!’ she announces reluctantly.

Jasper nods. ‘I must do the same!’

The chemistry between them lingers as they lock eyes for a second before looking away and Jasper begins to walk in the direction of his office.

Cindy shook her head in disbelief and felt a pang of guilt for going behind Jaspers back to look for the key to the attic door. She dawdles at the squeaky door for longer than necessary before closing it, the lock clicking into place.

‘I’d really better go and do something to show I’m taking this work seriously!’ she tells herself and makes herself comfortable in the chair, opening what still looks to her as a complicated program that Jasper has created to share notes.

To her surprise, there was only two pages of notes on the man, both put there by Jasper. She probes into them to realise that they are just a summarisation of what is available on Wikipedia.

Once comfortable, she goes onto Amazon and finds that the book she had quoted in her interview for the job, wasn’t the same Arthur Waldron as Jasper was writing a biography of. The author Jasper was writing about, has written novels rather than the factual book she first thought. Had she not read Jaspers notes, she would have never realised, and would have been researching the wrong man!

 

Cindy realises that she should actually read some of his work before she writes one word about him. She grabs the empty duffle bag she had thrown in the corner as Jasper arrived back from the airport, and opens the squeaky door to hit the local library. She was sure her work would keep her there for days, if not weeks, so she decides to hit the local discount store to purchase some more clothes.

Before leaving, she passes Jaspers office, but can hear through the door that he is talking to someone on the phone and didn’t want to disturb him. She exits the mansion and crosses the road to her car, driving the six miles to the discount store. She is spoilt for choice, but didn’t want to get too many items in case she gets her hands on the painting and bolts before she gets the opportunity to wear them.

At the register, she threw her purchases into the duffel bag and asks the cashier where the local library is. She is met by a blank stare.

‘I don’t think there is one!’ the young woman in her twenty’s answers, blowing bubbles with her gum.

‘Ok,’ Cindy smiles, ‘thanks anyway!’

 

Once back in her car, she googles the words, ‘library’ and ‘Wakerley’ together, and finds that not only does Wakerley have a library, but that it is on the other side of town.

She drives straight there, and looks around the pokey, two roomed excuse for a library.

‘If this was mine, I’d definitely expand it for those who were illiterate, like Mr Godfree did!’ she finds herself thinking. She realises then how comfortable she is in the small town from which she was plucked out of when she was three.

She discovers three books by the novelist, all of which have been obviously read a number of times, the pages dog eared, and the paper yellowing. She went up to the desk that is situated at the entrance to the library and approaches the elderly woman, with grey curly hair, who’s voice is shaky when she talks.

‘Do you have a library card?’ the woman asks, looking over her half mooned spectacles.

‘No, I’m only in town for a job and…’ Cindy began to explain.

‘You need a library card dear!’ the woman points out bluntly. She looks Cindy up and down carefully before reaching into the top drawer to retrieve a form for her to fill out.

Cindy smiles as she takes the piece of paper and the pen she is handed, and takes them to her car as the librarian held the books for her. She could see no other place she could complete them in the two rooms which were packed with books from floor to ceiling.

She flew through the questions, skipping over the one that said, ‘address’, until last. She toys with the idea of putting the motel’s details in, but shakes her head and puts in the mansions address instead. After all, it is where she foresaw her spending most of her time during her stay in Wakerley. She sees the box where she was asked to tick the form of identification she is going to provide, and ticks ‘driving licence’, after checking her purse that she has it on her.

With all the T’s crossed and the I’s dotted, she returns to the elderly woman, who’s name is ‘Angela’ and hands her back the application form and the pen.

Angela looks her up and down once more before inspecting the document. She scans through it and stops when she reaches the question, ‘address’.

‘So,’ she says, raising her glasses with her left fore finger. ‘You reside in the old Devereux house then!’

‘Yes,’ Cindy answers seeing her way around the question. ‘Frank Devereux was my father!’

‘You’re that Cindy?’ Angela says with surprise. ‘You’re Cindy Devereux?’

‘Well, I go by my mothers maiden name now!’ Cindy answers honestly.

‘I used to work in the crèche you went to when you were a toddler!’ Angela smiles. ‘It always bugged me that I didn’t see you grow up!’

Cindy returns her smile. ‘Yup,’ she says, ‘that was me!’

‘You always were a lovely girl, even before you could speak!’ Angela grins. ‘Even when you had only a handful of words you always said please and thank you!’

Cindy is touched to know this new information.

‘I can’t give you a proper library card now dear,’ Angela begins, ‘I have to wait two working days for that!’

Immediately Cindy visibly deflates, and her smile turns into disappointment.

‘I can, however, offer you a temporary one until then!’ Angela beams.

As the smile on Cindy’s face grew, Angela took a small piece of yellow paper from her drawer and wrote Cindy’s name on it. Cindy watches as she turns it over and stamps both the three books by Arthur Waldron, and the temporary library card, handing them to her and wishing her to have a nice day.

‘Thank you!’ Cindy says.

‘You’re so welcome dear!’ Angela replies with what Cindy thought to be a rare smile.

She takes the books to the car, smiling to know that she is remembered, and drives back to Jasper’s mansion.

 

As she turns the key to the lock in her office, surprise fills her as the pull-out couch, tub chair, and shelving unit sit inside.

‘I hope you don’t mind, but I let them in when you were gone!’ Jasper says, making Cindy jump out of her skin.

‘Thanks,’ she beams back at him when she regains her composure, her three books in the crook of her arm.

‘Oh,’ he points towards her door, ‘I put the WD40 on the hinges! I hope that isn’t an intrusion!’

‘Not at all!’ she shakes her head, and their eyes lock once more. She can’t help but feel butterflies in her stomach. She points to the books with her free hand, to which he smiles and nods.

‘Now you have somewhere comfortable to read them!’ he says before walking away.

‘Yes, I do indeed!’ Cindy says to herself as she admires the grey coloured pull out couch from afar,  and closes the now silent door, hearing the lock click as she does so. She walks over to the couch and flops her body onto it, the yellow, temporary library card falling to the floor. ‘Now this is comfort!’ she says as she places two of the three books on top of the temporary library card and positions one of the fluffy cushions under her head, the other under her knees, ready to dig into the first book she has ever read by Arthur Waldron.

Cindy can’t help but keep turning the yellowed pages, passing the first dog eared marker with ease. She is finding the book to be interesting, the characters all believable, and the storyline keeping her entertained. As her eyes become heavy, she refuses to put the book down. Eventually, sleep catches up to her.

 

Cindy wakes to a knock on her office door. She scrambles to find her phone to see what time it is and when she realises its gone nine, she jumps off the couch, the cushions falling to the floor, and opens the door with haste.

‘Good morning sunshine!’ Jasper says, two cups of strong, black coffee in his hands, and offers her one.

‘Thank you!’ she says groggily.

‘I saw your car outside and presumed you were here!’ he adds. ‘I didn’t know how you took your coffee, so I just made two how I like it!’

‘Its perfect!’ Cindy smiles, graciously taking the second cup from him and notices that today his t shirt has the superman logo. ‘You really do like comics, don’t you!’ she says, pointing to it.

Jasper leans in and whispers, ‘don’t tell anyone, but my real name is Peter Parker!’

‘I thought he was Spiderman!’ she says looking at him, confused.

‘Oh!’ he looks down at his shirt, realising that he has mixed up the franchises. ‘Well,’ he smiles, ‘that just proves I like to be incognito!’ and giggles along with Cindy.

As she takes a sip of the coffee, she lets out the sound, ‘ahh’, unbeknownst to herself. She notices for the first time a dimple on his left cheek as he smiles a smile she hasn’t witnessed before. She still happens to be holding the book she stayed up reading in her free hand, a big chunk of it already read.

‘Wow!’ Jasper says when he notices. ‘Either you are a very fast reader, or Arthur Waldron can actually write!’ he chuckles.

‘Both!’ she beams up at him. ‘Did you know, not only is he from here, but his novels are based in this town!’ she offers, quickly followed by, ‘he doesn’t call it Wakerley though, he calls it ‘Summersbe’!’

‘That I did not know!’ Jasper looks at her with surprise.

‘Have you not read any of his books?’ she asks.

‘Honestly,’ he pauses, ‘no!’ and lets out a nervous laugh. ‘There is just so much of the man I know nothing about!’ he admits.

‘How could you agree to do a biography of the man and not read any of his books?’ she asks with curiosity.

‘I was asked as a favour to write it!’ he divulges. ‘I knew he was from here and I wanted the town to be impressed by me, but I only agreed to it literally a week ago and just haven’t had the time to invest in him yet!’ He hangs his head, looking up at her as he does so.

‘Well, I’m impressed!’ she grins. ‘You’d think that would be the first thing you would do!’

‘I ordered them off of amazon!’ he says trying to redeem himself, ‘but they were out of stock and aren’t coming until next week!’

‘Did you not think of the library?’ she asks.

‘I didn’t know there was one!’ he grimaces with one eye closed.

‘Well, now you know!’ she grins. ‘I’ll give you this one when I’m finished!’

He begins to nod his head, ‘that would be a great help!’ and rubs the back of his neck with his free hand. ‘Well,’ he nods his head in the direction of the book, ‘I’ll leave you to it!’

Cindy nods. Jasper turns on his heels and walks back in the direction of his office. She closes her eyes, feeling proud at the fact she knew a great deal more than Jasper, the man who is actually writing the biography, and takes another gulp of her coffee before closing the door, and returning to her book.