The Letter

As the security guards were in charge to watch the exterior of the house, for any possible intruders, the interior was not guarded, so Jo planned to sneak inside and see how many people she had to deal with. She tiptoed around the rose bushes and hid in a foyer, two guards were passing by. After she couldn't see them anymore, she looked at the plan and aimed for the west window of the kitchen. That gave her a wide view of any people inside. She lifted herself on her toes to snoop inside, but it was past 11 a clock at night and most of them probably finished their shifts already.

Jo crouched down in the bushes and pondered for a few seconds, for another way around. She remembered that this house employed a Butler, she knew already that it's master wasn't residing here, but she didn't know about any other members of the family. Then realization fell upon her, a Butler must hold a ledger and a log book. If she could find those documents, she could then learn how many people lived in the house.

Jo looked at the plans for clues and saw that there was a little room on the ground floor called "The Butler's Study". She hoped that this guy wasn't that secretive and kept his paperwork unlocked.

The surveillance cameras inside the mansion were everywhere, so if she didn't held Harry Potter's invisible cape she won't be able to enter the house unnoticed. Yet again technology and her knowledge learned from her job, could save her again in this situation.

Jo pulled out the phone and entered the website of the brand of the surveillance cameras installed in this house, she then went on the trades sub-page and logged in with her password and user. Everything they used nowadays in Europe came from China, including the security systems... she had to install the same one, several times for her clients, it was one of the bests.

The trades page, was different from the official page that could be accessed by any user, Jo inserted the serial number of the cameras bought for this house and pressed the update button. Two seconds later, a notification popped up in the screen, saying "update 1 out of 1639". She waited to see how fast it would go and realised that it was quite slow, great, maybe it was the first time it got updated. Jo knew that while the cameras were updating, they would switch off automatically.

In the control room the operator observed how all the cameras turned off and a window popped up on the computer screen "updating from factory".

Jo used the staff door and entered the mansion, the Butler's study was the third door on the right. There was no one around, she approached the door quietly and pressed the handle. The door was locked, Jo cursed to herself "for f**s sake!!!" She looked at the phone... "update 429 out of 1639" there was still time left, she quickly went to the kitchen and took a butter knife, then returned to the study door. Jo unscrewed the hinges of the door and entered the study, luckily on the desk the log book was neatly opened and next to it there was a leather notepad. The girl opened it and realised it was the ledger. She quickly took photos of the log book and then ruffled the leather notepad to look for the staff members page. An old decayed letter fell on the floor, when Jo ruffled the notepad, she picked it up and skimmed quickly the contents with raised eyebrows, then she stuffed it in her pocket.

In the middle of the night Butler Gu suddenly opened his eyes "The letter!..." he murmured to himself and got up swiftly from his bed, took the robe from the ottoman put it on and stormed towards his office. He took out the key from his pocket and unlocked the door, the swing of the door made a strange noise and seemed to be slightly wobbly, also there was a whiff of fresh air in the room, he furrowed his brows and sat down in the chair at his desk. He took the leather notepad and untied the string around it, then he ruffled it to the las page. Shock filled his eyes, the letter was gone!!! He ruffled again and again... nothing. Who took it?

In the little hut, Jo had 7% battery left on the phone, she always forgets to do something... in her adventure inside the house, she forgot to take a charger, well but then she had to unscrew a door with a butter knife and put it back in place. She hadn't realised how handy her job was until now... haha it truly could save people's lives!

Jo quickly scrolled through the photos and understood from the log book, that beside the usual staff and the unusual self, there were no other people in the house. Also from the ledger she understood that this Butler, had absolute power over everyone in the house, when the master was away. So, if she could control this Butler, she could basically control everyone in the house, including the security guards. Well... with this letter... hadn't heavens teamed up and rooted for her, from up there?! Jo snickered almost loudly and then laid her head on the pillow, plotting her next move for tomorrow.

The next morning at 10 to 6, in the control room, the computers screens were black again displaying "update from factory: 1 from 1639" The operator spit his coffee from his mouth and cursed to himself

"WTF!! Again?!"

Jo, dressed in the emerald green maid dress, strolled casually towards the house. She entered again through the staff door, pulled the butter knife out and unscrewed the butler's study door, setting it aside, then she sat in his chair and waited form him to start his shift.