Evelyn did not move.
Neither did Mara.
Outside the storage room, the man waited.
Mara could hear his breathing through the door.
“You have ten seconds,” he called.
Evelyn looked at Mara.
“Take the photograph.”
“What?”
“Take it.”
Mara grabbed the picture from the table.
“Why?”
“Because if we don't leave this room now, you may never get another chance to learn what happened.”
Evelyn pulled a second key from her pocket.
“There is another exit.”
They moved to the far wall.
Mara had mistaken it for shelving, but Evelyn pushed against a wooden panel, revealing a narrow staircase descending into darkness.
“You have a tunnel under the shop?”
“It was once used for deliveries.”
“When?”
“Long before the boutique became fashionable.”
The knocking above became louder.
“Mara.”
She followed Evelyn down.
The staircase smelled of damp stone and dust. Their footsteps echoed beneath the boutique.
At the bottom, Evelyn switched on a small electric lamp.
A narrow passage stretched beneath the neighboring buildings.
Mara stared.
“This goes under the street.”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“To the old courtyard behind the bakery.”
Mara almost laughed from disbelief.
“You've been hiding this for twenty-eight years?”
“I've been surviving.”
They hurried through the passage.
Mara kept the photograph pressed against her chest.
“Who is Julian Vale?”
Evelyn continued walking.
“A businessman. He owned half the properties around this square.”
“And Amelia?”
“She worked here.”
“At the boutique?”
“Yes.”
“As what?”
“Seamstress.”
Mara remembered the old photograph.
“She made that dress.”
“She made most of what we sold.”
“And my grandmother?”
“Your grandmother worked here for six months.”
“Doing what?”
“Alterations. Repairs. Whatever needed doing.”
Mara frowned.
“So why were they friends?”
“They weren't supposed to be.”
That answer made Mara slow.
“What does that mean?”
Evelyn stopped beneath an arch of stone.
“Amelia was engaged to Julian.”
Mara stared.
“But she loved your grandmother.”
Evelyn nodded.
“How do you know?”
“Because I watched it happen.”
The passage seemed to become colder.
“Julian knew?”
“He suspected.”
“And what happened?”
“Amelia wanted to leave him.”
“Why?”
Evelyn looked away.
“Because she had discovered something.”
“What?”
“A ledger.”
Mara thought of the locked room.
“Money?”
“People.”
Mara's expression changed.
Evelyn nodded.
“Julian's company had been buying old properties through false names. Families were being pressured out. Documents disappeared. Debts appeared where there had been none.”
“That sounds illegal.”
“It was.”
“Did anyone report him?”
“Someone tried.”
“Amelia?”
“Yes.”
The pieces began to shift.
Mara looked down at the photograph.
“Then why did she disappear?”
“Because the ledger vanished.”
“Did she take it?”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Evelyn stared at Mara.
“Your grandmother.”
Mara stopped breathing for a moment.
“Eleanor stole it?”
“She took it to protect Amelia.”
“Then why would Amelia disappear?”
“Because Julian thought Amelia had the ledger.”
Mara closed her eyes.
“She was blamed for something she didn't do.”
“Yes.”
“And my grandmother knew.”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“She hid the ledger.”
“Where?”
Evelyn looked at the red coat.
Mara's fingers tightened around the fabric.
“The coat?”
Evelyn nodded.
“Your grandmother sewed a hidden pocket into it.”
Mara immediately remembered the strange inner seam.
She had always assumed it was part of the original design.
“Why did I find it in a secondhand shop?”
“Because your grandmother gave it away.”
“When?”
“Years later.”
“Why?”
“Because she believed someone was searching for it.”
Mara looked at her.
“Who?”
“Julian.”
“He's still alive?”
“Yes.”
A terrible silence followed.
“How old is he?”
“Seventy-eight.”
“And he came to the shop tonight?”
“This morning.”
Mara turned.
“You knew he was coming?”
“I suspected.”
The sound of footsteps echoed faintly through the passage behind them.
Both women froze.
Evelyn lifted the lamp.
“Did he follow us?”
Mara whispered.
“I don't know.”
They continued.
The passage opened into a small courtyard behind the bakery.
Morning light flooded over the stone wall.
Mara stepped outside and breathed deeply.
Evelyn remained in the shadows.
“You need to go home.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“You said my grandmother hid the ledger in this coat.”
“I said she hid something.”
“You didn't deny it.”
Evelyn sighed.
“Look inside the lining.”
Mara pulled the coat open.
At first she saw nothing unusual.
Then she felt along the inside seam.
Her fingers found a slight ridge.
There.
A concealed opening.
She looked at Evelyn.
“Why didn't my grandmother tell me?”
“Because she was protecting you.”
“From Julian?”
“From what the ledger could prove.”
Mara carefully opened the hidden seam.
Inside was a thin metal key.
Not a ledger.
A key.
Her confusion deepened.
“What is this?”
Evelyn's face drained of color.
“I've never seen that key before.”
“You're lying.”
“No.”
“You knew everything.”
“I knew about the coat. I knew about Amelia. I knew your grandmother hid something. But I never knew what she hid.”
Mara examined the key.
A number was engraved on it.
17.
“What does seventeen mean?”
Evelyn stared at it.
Then she whispered, “The station.”
“What station?”
“The old railway station.”
Mara's stomach tightened.
“It has been closed for years.”
“Yes.”
“What's there?”
“Locker seventeen.”
They returned to the boutique through the back entrance.
The shop was empty.
The front door stood open.
Evelyn approached the counter slowly.
A folded envelope lay on top.
Her name was written across it.
Mara watched her open it.
Inside was a single sheet of paper.
Evelyn read it once.
Then again.
“What does it say?”
Evelyn handed it over.
Mara's hands shook as she read.
You should have destroyed the photograph when she asked you.
There was no signature.
Mara looked toward the front window.
A shadow moved across the glass.
Evelyn grabbed her arm.
“Don't go outside.”
“Who is it?”
“I don't know.”
“You're scared.”
“Yes.”
That honesty frightened Mara more than anything else.
Then she noticed something on the floor.
A tiny brass button.
It had fallen from the man's coat.
Mara picked it up.
There was an insignia stamped into the metal.
A black horse.
Evelyn stared at it.
“Julian's family crest.”
Mara closed her hand around the button.
“So he was here.”
Evelyn nodded.
“And he knows I have the key.”
A car engine started outside.
Mara looked through the glass.
A dark sedan pulled away from the curb.
She could not see the driver.
But she could see the license plate.
Evelyn whispered the numbers under her breath.
“Why do you know that plate?”
Mara turned.
Evelyn's face had gone completely still.
“Because,” she said, “that was the car that followed Amelia the night she disappeared.”
Click Here to continue read next: PART4: Locker Seventeen Holds More Than a Ledger, and Mara Must Decide Whether the Truth Is Worth Breaking Her Grandmother’s Final Promise
She Had Been Told the Boutique Was Closed, Yet the Woman Behind the Door Was Waiting for Her
Part 3 of 16
