She went back upstairs to the table in the foyer and grabbed both of his key rings from the drawer. There were about a dozen keys between the ring with his truck and house keys and the one for work. None of them were labeled Secret Basement Room.
Back downstairs, she took her time fitting each one into the lock. But none of them opened the door. On tiptoe, she felt along the top of the doorframe, but came up empty. She checked his truck in the console and glove box and found nothing.
She returned to the kitchen, spinning the key ring on her finger. Where would he keep a key to something he didn’t want easy access? God, she hoped he hadn’t buried it somewhere.
She might need some backup brainpower. Harper grabbed her cellphone and dialed Hannah’s number.
“Hey, H! What’s up?” Her friend’s chirpy voice always made Harper smile.
“I’m about to go all out crazy person here and I either need talked down or walk-through.”
“Okay, shoot. What’s the sitch?”
Harper quickly filled Hannah in on the situation. “So first of all, am I nuts for desperately needing to know what’s inside? And secondly, how far can I go to get inside without being a completely crazy?”
Hannah snickered. “I think it’s perfectly reasonable to want to know what’s behind door number one. But I wouldn’t go clawing through the drywall if I were you. I’d try to find a minimally invasive way to get in there. Depending on what’s in those boxes, you might not want him to know you know.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s not dead bodies or used sex toys.”
“Maybe he’s just a hoarder and it’s every report card he ever got?” Hannah offered.
“I know it’s something big. Something that he doesn’t want to deal with. He built literal walls around it and locked it all away.”
“So maybe he’s not hiding something per se, but keeping it separate.”
“That’s what I’m thinking, too,” Harper agreed.
“Maybe it’s mountains of cash?”
Harper snorted. “He already has mountains of that. So I already tried all the keys on his key rings and didn’t hit the jackpot.”
“Well if it’s something he doesn’t want to deal with, he wouldn’t put it on something he uses every day, right?”
“No, he’d put it somewhere he doesn’t run across it all the time. Have I told you lately how super smart you are, Hanns?”
“No, but all is forgiven if you tell me what you find!”
“You got it. I’m going to go dig through places Luke doesn’t go in the house.”
“It’s going to be really disappointing if it’s just a bunch of old office paperwork.”
“No kidding.”
They hung up and Harper drummed her fingers on the counter. Where would it be? Someplace close, but not visible.
She perked up. On a hunch, she hustled up the stairs to the second floor. A walk-through of the three empty bedrooms revealed nothing new. There wasn’t a stitch of furniture in them.
Harper stood in the doorway of the master bedroom and let her eyes roam the room. The dresser was used nearly every day, as was the closet. The table under the window housed Luke’s electronics when they weren’t in use, and its narrow drawers were practically empty.
She turned and faced the bed. The drawer of her nightstand had slowly filled with books and magazines and a box of tissues. But his? She couldn’t remember Luke ever opening his.
Harper slid the drawer open. It appeared to be empty at first, but at the very back something caught her eye. A single silver key.
She snatched it out of the drawer and held it up. Could this be it?
Harper ran down two flights to the basement and slid the key into the lock. The knob turned easily in her hand and she pushed it open.
The room was long and skinny with two shelving systems pushed up against the wall. The boxes and totes were all unlabeled and looked as if they had been untouched for years. Her fingers itched to dig in, but where to start? She decided to be methodical and go from left to right, starting with the far shelf.
