“I found a key.”
Owen looked disappointed.
Then Daniel added:
“It was taped inside the back cover of Dad’s 2002 journal.”
Mrs. Parker frowned.
“A key to what?”
“There was a label.”
Daniel read it aloud.
“Music room cabinet. Eleanor knows.”
Mrs. Parker went pale.
“I do know.”
Owen sat upright.
“What cabinet?”
Mrs. Parker looked at him.
“The one that hasn’t been opened since before you were born.”
-END OF Chapter 3–
The cabinet stood behind the old risers in the school music room.
Tall.
Gray.
Unremarkable.
According to Ms. Delgado, it had been there since she began teaching at the school fourteen years earlier.
“I assumed it held broken instruments.”
“Did you never try opening it?” Owen asked.
“Of course.”
“And?”
“No key.”
Mrs. Parker ran her hand across the metal door.
“I remember this cabinet.”
She smiled faintly.
“Thomas hated it.”
“Why?”
“It squeaked.”
Owen pulled the little brass key from his pocket.
