Read Online Silver Bracelets: A Loveswept Contemporary Classic Romance by Sandra Chastain - Free Book Online

worthless. It’s just that I only have a week to—I mean I have an appointment next week and I need to know. Could you hurry, please?”
    “Look, Mr. Grimsley. There’s no way I can possibly open this safe in a few minutes. I’llhave to study it. It may take days, even weeks.”
    He looked stricken. “I’d hoped to have it open by tomorrow. Couldn’t you try?”
    Sarah looked at her watch. It was late and she was tired. She wanted nothing more than to get home and think about what had happened in the last eighteen hours. Still, she couldn’t just walk away and leave the old man. It was obvious that he was worried.
    “I tell you what. Let me take it home and work on it the rest of the weekend.”
    “Take it home? I’d hoped to keep this confidential. I’d planned to stay with you as you worked on it.”
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Grimsley, but I have no way of knowing how long it will take. I promise you, it will be safer with me than here in the shop. I’m personal friends with the deputy sheriff,” she said, trying to reassure him.
    “Sheriff?” This time there was no mistaking his distress. “Oh, but—” Then he seemed to resign himself to her plan. “Well, I guess I don’t have any choice. You’re my last hope. And maybe it would be safer there.”
    Sarah bent down and lifted the safe. Lincoln Grimsley was right. It wasn’t that heavy. After she got the safe into the back of the van, they returned to the shop. He promised to check back in the morning to see whether Sarah had been successful.
    “You’ll keep this confidential, won’t you, Miss Wilson?”
    “I promise. If you’re worried, I could give you a claim ticket.”
    He started. “Oh, no, that won’t be necessary. But if you do get it open, you won’t disturb the contents, will you? I mean I can trust you to leave everything just as you found it?”
    “Certainly.”
    But that didn’t seem to satisfy the man. In fact he was becoming even more agitated. “Your friend, the sheriff, won’t bother it?”
    “Of course not. Who sent you to me, Mr. Grimsley?”
    “A police officer down at City Hall, an Officer Martin, who let me into the house. He said that I could trust you completely.”
    “Give me until Monday, Mr. Grimsley, and I’ll see what I can do. Otherwise, you’re welcome to take the safe back with you.”
    “No. That wouldn’t be a good idea. I’ll leave it.”
    “Can I drop you somewhere?” Sarah asked in an attempt to coax him out the door.
    “No thanks.” He peered once more out the window, then quickly slipped out. By the time Sarah had pulled the blinds, turned off the lights, and locked up, he was gone. She didn’t know how he could have disappeared so quickly. She didn’t even know how to reach him.
    Sarah shook her head. There were a lot of strange people in the world, and locksmiths ran into many of them. But Miss Lois’s great-nephew? Sarah found it odd that she’d neverheard him mentioned before. Older people often rattled off their family history at the drop of a hat.
    But apparently he’d checked with City Hall for permission to enter the house. They wouldn’t have let him inside if he wasn’t who he said he was. Anyway, if Paul had sent him over, he had to be all right.
    It was getting late. She was tired and dirty. No wonder the old man had asked if there was someone else around. If she’d come into the shop she wouldn’t believe that she was a locksmith either. As she drove away, Sarah tried to concentrate on the safe in the back. She couldn’t. All she could think about was a stern, lean figure who loped in measured strides.
    When she reached the barn Sarah backed the van directly below the hayloft. She ran upstairs, opened the second-floor doors, and lowered the old iron grate she and her father had fashioned into a dumbwaiter for lifting equipment. Later, when Sarah had turned the loft into her living quarters, she’d been grateful for the setup. With it, she’d been able to pull building