Family Comes First- ASOUE

Chapter 26: Lockpicking

*Violet's POV*

I snuck out of the reptile room and past the kitchen, where I heard Mr. Poe talking to someone at the herpetological society over the phone. I quietly climbed the stairs as quickly as possible and opened the door to my room. Surely I'd be able to find something to make an invention for my idea with. I took a deep breath, pulling my ribbon out of my pocket and tying my hair up. I had realized that although Stephano- Count Olaf, may be a disgusting, horrible excuse for a human being who could make the likes of the Devil themself weep, he was unfortunately very smart, and knew that he couldn't simply leave the murder weapon in his room for someone to stumble upon. He had to hide it, and take it on the go. He'd have probably dumped it into the ocean on the way to Peru too. Lucky for us, I'm smarter and I knew exactly where it had to be.

I just needed a way to unlock the silver padlock on his suitcase.

Yes, I didn't have the key, and yes, I was too scared to attempt to get close enough to Count Olaf to pickpocket said keys, but I had me, my brain, and the environment around me. I could make a lockpick, and I'd be absolutely interrupted, hoping that my family's distraction downstairs worked. Unfortunately, any tools I could use would be in the reptile room, and the butcher paper I tacked onto the wall. I had hoped I could plan out many, many inventions onto it, but the trouble started so quickly that all that was on them were a few smiley faces, flowers, and hearts Izzie had doodled into the corner of it and the sketches I had made at night by the light of the lamp... The lamp!

I hope I shouldn't need to remind anyone of this, but one should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever fiddle with electric devices. Never. There's two reasons why one shouldn't do this; one is because of electrocution, which is quite unpleasant, and the other is you're not me.

I'm one of the few people in the world who actually know how to handle these things. My father taught me how, and he would have been another of the people who knew before the tragedy. I closed my eyes, trying to come up with a small blueprint in my head. A split second after I had a plan in mind, I heard Sunny scream loudly from downstairs and nearly burst out laughing. "Fake as hell..." I giggled to myself before getting to work.

I unplugged the lamp from the socket and looked at it carefully before I began wiggling the prongs out of the plastic casing. I had two metal strips and I took one of the thumbtacks out of the wall and used it to bend the metal around eachother until one was hooked around the other and stuck the tack between the two pieces so the sharp end stuck straight out. I looked over my device carefully. It was a crude lockpick, and it would have been much better if I had the right materials, like an actual lockpick, which would be much more helpful. This would have to do though.

I carefully and quietly ran back down. I heard Mr. Poe spouting nonsense wildly and knew my siblings and the Quagmires must be having a difficult time pretending not to be entertained. I speed-walked out the front door as quickly as possible and to the jeep in the long driveway. I pushed past the other luggage, pausing when I got to mine. My life was so effortless before all this bullshit... So few good things have happened to me since the death of Mother and Father. I wouldn't have even begun to worry about things like being forced into marriage, or my siblings and me being killed by some psychopath, or now a much more recent worry: would we ever be able to be safe for long again? The worst thing I had to worry about before was what grade I got on my exams, but now it was "How do I protect myself, my siblings, and the Quagmires?" Right now, the answer to that question was getting this evidence and proving to Mr. Poe that Stephano is not who he says he is.

I reached for Stephano's suitcase and held the padlock in my hand, carefully inserting my lockpick. It wouldn't turn, so I applied more pressure to it. That was the wrong choice, because it crumbled in my hand. I sighed. Of course it would. Just my luck...

I closed my eyes and focused. I didn't want to go back inside. Did I pack anything I could pick the lock with? No, no... I didn't want to waste any time rifiling through Klaus, Sunny, or the Quagmire's luggage, besides that's an invasion of their privacy. I needed something key-like to shove in there. I remembered Uncle Monty's keys were still in the ignition. I didn't think the car key or the house key would work, but there was a little lizard keychain that I remember catching Sunny chewing on, making the tail just about the right size for the keyhole. Uncle Monty hadn't gotten mad at her for chewing on it, thank goodness. He said he got it at a dollar store, which made me glad it wasn't some souvenir from another country my sister had ruined. He thought the teeth marks on it gave it more personality, and he had promised to provide Sunny with proper teething rings if she wanted something to chew on. The memory of Monty made me smile. He really did want to make up for the misfortune we had experienced and more, and it seemed that he just couldn't be upset with us. I took the keys out of the ignition and wiggled it around into the lock on Stephano's suitcase. I heard it open with a click and I smiled gratefully.

"Thank you, Sunny, and thank you, Monty..." I said proudly as I opened the suitcase. Sifting through the suitcase to find evidence was easier than I thought it'd be. I thought it'd be like looking for a needle in a haystack, which means I'd be looking for one item out of many, but it's more like looking for anything in a haystack, which could include much more than a needle, like bugs, dirt, and farming tools. Soon, I found all I needed to have evidence that Stephano had a weapon, a motive, and one big fat lie.