Chapter 6
Claudia denied everything.
Naturally.
“Anna hated me.”
I looked at her.
“She was married to Mark.”
“And suspicious.”
“Was she wrong?”
Claudia smiled.
“About what?”
Good move.
Make me name the accusation.
I did not.
Instead I asked for the brass key.
She laughed.
“I don’t have it.”
Ethan was brought to the doorway because he refused to stay upstairs without me.
He pointed immediately.
“Necklace box.”
Claudia’s face went still.
“What necklace box?”
He looked toward the hallway.
“Blue one.”
We found it in her dressing room.
Inside were earrings.
Pearls.
Two rings.
And Anna’s brass key.
No explanation survived that.
Mark looked at it as though he had been struck.
Claudia recovered.
“Anna gave it to me.”
Ethan shook his head.
“Mommy said Claudia took it.”
I stared.
“Ethan, when did Mommy say that?”
“Phone.”
Today.
Anna knew Claudia still had the key.
That meant Anna knew more about this house than someone who disappeared eleven months ago should know.
I turned the key over.
One side had a tiny engraved W.
Whitaker.
The other had a number.
Not a jewelry box.
Old Whitaker estate rooms used numbers.
Room 27 had once been a servant archive.
Closed for decades.
I remembered where it was.
Basement west corridor.
Claudia moved before I did.
One step toward the door.
My men blocked her.
I looked at her.
“You suddenly remember what it opens?”
May you like
She said nothing.
That was answer enough.
