Lily shot him a glance, as if sharing the thought. Shadows underscored the apprehension in her face. But that didn’t stop her from continuing to another room, hands splayed, ready to give it a go herself.
“Hold on,” he cautioned. He needed to assess it first.
Not waiting, she gave the window a shove and brightened when it rose an inch.
She was driving him batty—for more reasons than this. But he couldn’t think about those now.
Fortunately, the space was vacant, another classroom resembling the first.
He stored the flashlight in his coat pocket, and they shimmied the pane upward, one side at a time, until the gap was large enough to climb through. Lily grabbed hold of the windowsill. It was too high to pull herself up, but her reluctance to ask for his help was evident.
His inclination to offer was almost as strong, in spite of any good sense. “Here, I’ll give you a boost.” He formed a step by lacing his fingers. Given the constraints of her work skirt, he squatted to an accommodating height.
What other options did they have?
After slipping out of her heels, she again grasped the sill. On his linked palms, she placed her foot, slick in a silk stocking, and pushed off. He averted his eyes from the length of her body, just inches from his face, as she stretched over him and into the room.
His turn to go.
He heaved himself up, wary of rattling the glass panes overhead. A low bookshelf aided his landing. Safely on the floor, he righted himself, just as his flashlight slid out.
Clunk. He swiped it up.
Breath held, they stared at the half-open door. It seemed to slowly swing wider on its own. A trick of vision at night.
Silence stretched out long enough to suggest they were in the clear.
With ragged sighs, they proceeded past orderly rows of school desks and chairs. Lily peered into the hallway before tiptoeing out. Ellis followed, still listening for signs of other movement. Three doors down, she stopped before the office—identified through the glass of the door—and gave the knob a twist. She looked at him, her worries magnified.
Locked.
Ellis wasn’t as troubled. Having a father who preferred tinkering with machinery to conversation came with a few benefits.
He handed her the flashlight. At her confusion, he put a finger to his mouth to quiet her. Then he reached over her shoulder and slid two hairpins from her updo. Her auburn locks unwound, falling loose around her neck. By then, she understood and scooted aside. She trained the white beam on the door.
On one knee, Ellis inserted the pins into the knob. It was a basic one, the sole reason he ventured to try. Besides a dumb impulse to impress her.
He needed to concentrate. It had been years since he’d done this—back in his rebellious period, on a dare to pick the lock of the door separating the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms. He was a hero among the fellas until the shrieks broke out.
Just like then, he maneuvered now by feel, despite rising doubt that he’d forgotten how. But then a mechanism moved, sliding free, and the lock lightly clicked. He turned the knob fully, and Lily smiled. For an instant.
She crossed the room and delved straight into a stack of folders on the desk. Ellis closed the door and nabbed the second pile. It didn’t take him long to finish. Most in his batch were related to utilities and permits and other regulated business.
Lily, meanwhile, fingered through records of children. She was slowing down, her attention lingering on their photographs. Notes of their circumstances were surely heartbreaking. Ellis gave her forearm a squeeze, a begrudging reminder that there wasn’t time for that. Not now.
She gathered herself and increased her pace. She was almost at the bottom.
There had to be more.
An upright file cabinet drew Ellis to the corner. He tried the handles on the three drawers. A lock at the top secured them all. Was the staff really that afraid of burglars? What the devil were they trying to protect?
That was when it struck him. All these locks—on the windows, the office, the cabinets—were used because of the children. To keep them inside but any links to their past out of reach.
“He’s not here,” Lily whispered before noting Ellis’s find. “Can you pick it?”
He shook his head. Even if he knew how, it was too small for the pins. “The key’s gotta be here somewhere.”