Free Amish Undercover by Samantha Price Page A

certain that he did not suspect her of being anything other than a maid.
    “I’m looking at an email from an auction and they have the Chez Tortoni for sale. Would you like to tell me what’s going on?”
    She listened as hard as she could, but since he was in the adjacent room, Mr. Starks’ voice was muffled. She knew that Bailey would have the conversation recorded anyway. Starks had taken the bait and it was clear from his reaction that he had something to do with the stolen ‘Chez Tortoni.’ Emma hurried back to clean the silverware as Mr. Brighton, the butler, had ordered.
    Emma did not see Mr. Starks for the rest of the day and at six o’clock she left the house. As always, she had the taxi leave her in town just in case someone was following her. Then she would wait a while, walk a little further uptown and Bailey would come for her in his car and take her home.
    “Well, what happened? Did you hear his conversation? I heard him calling someone but I couldn’t hear what was said.” Emma’s words came out tumbling over one another in her excitement.
    “He’s furious that the painting has surfaced and as we thought, he thinks his might be a fake. He didn’t want to talk over the phone too much, so he’s having them come to his place tomorrow.”
    Emma raised her eyebrows and a twinge of apprehension sent a tremble through her body. “What do you want me to do?”
    “Nothing. Just be there and those listening devices that you installed weeks ago are finally going to come in handy.”
    “I wouldn’t know where they might talk. They could even have a secret room or something. I don’t even know where the man who looks after the car stays – I only see him driving the cars away.”
    “Relax, Emma. As a backup, we’ve got software installed on his cell phone so if that’s in-range when they’re talking, I’ll be recording everything they say – he doesn’t have to be speaking on it. His cell phone will act like one of the recording devices.”
     
    * * *
     
    It was at eleven o’clock the next day that Emma heard the intercom of the front gate sound. The butler buzzed the car through. Emma heard the buzzer, but being in the next room she could not hear clearly who the people said they were. She heard no names, only a man’s voice and that was all.
    Emma was in one of the formal dining rooms and she watched as the car drove up to the front door. She kept dusting as she saw the men get out of the car. It was not her job to answer the door. Mr. Brighton had mentioned it on more than one occasion that it was the butler’s job to answer the door. Emma daren’t go against what the butler told her.
    Once the two men reached the front door, they were ushered by Mr. Brighton, into the elevator. Where they went from there, Emma had no idea. There could be another floor or another section to the mansion that Emma had never seen. There was no more that she could do except hope that Bailey could somehow hear their conversation. Emma was sure that none of the listening devices she had planted would be anywhere near where the three men would be having a conversation.
    All Emma would be able to tell Bailey was that there were two solidly built men, both with dark hair. Emma snapped a picture of their car with her camera. She walked up the stairs to a room at the end of the corridor where she could take a better picture of the car’s license plate. Once Emma had taken the photo she hurried back down the stairs so Mr. Brighton would never know that she had moved from the dining room where she was supposed to be polishing the antique furniture.
    It was moments after Emma got back into the dining room and resumed her polishing that the butler poked his head around the door. “How are you going in here?”
    “Fine. It’s fun polishing this beautiful furniture.” Emma hoped that’s what a true maid would say.
    “I’ve got a food order arriving shortly. I’ll need you to unpack it. I’ll call you when it