Secrets to a Happy Ending

Chapter 24

Feeling vulnerable, Lydia turned on every light in the room, making enough noise that whomever was out there knew that she was in the room. She stopped again listening, the footsteps walked away from the door, she walked over to it, and opened it peering her head round.

There was no one in sight, she crept down the corridor towards the staircase, and looked over the rail she saw the shadow of someone walking away, but could not make it out. The reception desk was still unmanned, so she decided to go back to the room and stick to the plan.

The hours seemed to drag until Lydia thought it was safe enough to leave the hotel room. She opened the curtains slightly to look out onto the street, from what she could make out there were no lights on and most appeared to have retired for the night. She kept watch during the time to see if the villagers may have perhaps been called for another town meeting, but it was not to be. She knew that she would have to leave the car there, and to avoid distraction she changed into the darkest clothing she could find, a pair of skinny dark blue jeans, black boots and a dark red turtleneck sweater. She pinned her hair back, and then grabbed her phone, deciding to leave her bag, but moved her belongings to the room safely, checking her watch, it was just after 12.30 in the morning.

She crept out and walked towards the staircase, never in her life had she ever done anything like this, so her anxiety levels were running on overload. She cautiously crept down the stairs, all was quiet and no one was seen. She went out of the door and headed up the street towards the square.the air was warm and felt thick, the extra layers did not help as she carried on quickly and quietly Once she turned the corner she had the village hall in sight, it was shrouded in darkness, no one to be seen. She breathed a sigh of relief and crept over towards the building and quickly ran around the back.

Once there she put her back to the wall and let out a breath, she could make out the bush ahead of her, where Ronnie was found. She grabbed her phone from her back pocket and switched on the torch feature, and checked the back of the building for an entrance. She saw a large wheelie bin at the side so she pulled it over and hauled herself onto to try one of the windows.

Just then there was the sound of rustling footsteps towards where she was standing, she jumped down to hide behind the bin. The rustling grew louder, Lydia began to feel herself trembling, never had she felt so scared, could the person who beat up Ronnie be coming back? She peered round the bin to get a closer look, at first her eyes shut tight, then opened just a little, when to her shock and surprise she saw Susannah standing, with a torch looking for a way into the building. Lydia stood up which caused Susannah to scream.

"Shhhhhh its ok, its ok its me Lydia."

"What are you doing here?" Susannah asked sternly while whispering

"I might ask the same question, what are you doing here?"

"I need to get in there, I believe that I can get info on Trixie in there, I saw they have an office and the caretaker is being very secretive about it. I wanted to get in the other night so I let off a firework to get the people out of there."

"Wait, that was you, who let off the firework?"

"Yeah I only had one, but it didn't work, and I have been trying to bide my time for a way in since. But I couldn't because there was some celebration going on, and it's going to be busy here again tomorrow. I have to get in there!"

"Ok, ok, keep your voice down. Have you ever done anything like this before?"

"No, not really?"

"Ok i'm going to climb back up on the bin and try a window, keep an eye out for me."

"Wait someone is coming, we need to hide."

Lydia frantically looked around for somewhere to hide, she could hear fast footsteps approaching the back of the building. She looked straight in front of her and saw the bush. Grabbing Susannah they made a leap and hid. Lydia could not find out how to turn off her torch , she covered the light with her hand, hoping it was enough.

Holding their breath they watched and waited to see who it was when a man came around walking his dog. The dog sniffed around then went over to the bush and started sniffing at them, Susannah put her hand over her mouth so as not to make a sound, the dog stood there continuing to sniff, then stood up panting. The owner called the dog and it followed leaving Lydia and Susannah on their own. They waited until the sound of footsteps disappeared and a few minutes more, before they re-emerged from the bush.

"Ok we have to be quick." Lydia said

Susannah nodded in agreement, Lydia climbed the bin and reached up trying the first window, it was locked. She climbed down and then dragged the bin to the next window, which she tried again and it was also locked.

"Can't we just break it?"

"Are you crazy, do you know how quiet it is here, we will wake everyone up."

She climbed back down and went onto the third window, she pushed and it moved slightly, with a great heave, she managed to open it.

"We're in." She said

She lifted herself over the window ledge and dropped over onto the floor, where she looked around. They were in the hall itself, she turned and she found the door to the office. Susannah followed in after a moment and they walked to the door, to try it, it was locked.

"Now what?" Susannah asked.

"I saw John the caretaker lock it when I came last, I never thought about the lock."

Susannah thought for a moment and then looked at the keyhole on the door. It was most likely one of the original doors, therefore the lock may have been original also.

"Look, it's an old lock, do you have a hair pin?"

"You're not seriously suggesting we can unlock it with a hairpin are you? That's stuff you see in films."

"You got any better ideas?"

Shrugging her shoulders, Lydia reached up and grabbed one of the pins out of her hair and passed it to Susannah.

"Shine that torch on the lock."

"Ok but hurry."

Susannah tried the pin in the keyhole, she fidgeted around with it and put her ear to the lock listening, suddenly with a click the door was unlocked, they both looked at each other in amazement.

They stood up, looked at each other, then looked at the door. Lydia reached down and turned the handle, the door opened and they both walked in.