She was studying the room with an historian’s eye. “My guess is that it was made in the nineteen twenties, and it doesn’t seem to have been changed since then. It’s yet another time capsule.”
“Whose was it?” He was speaking to Kate but she didn’t seem to hear him.
“Two boys,” Sara said. “There’s two of everything and no dolls anywhere. I think the duplications were someone trying to stop brotherly wars.”
Jack looked at the truck in his hand and his eyes filled with sadness. His half brother, Evan, had been killed in a crash. InJack’struck. He put the toy down.
“Kate, do you know whose room this was?” Sara asked.
She came out of her reverie and looked around. “Maybe Mr. Lachlan’s son? Dad might know.”
“Might know what?”
As often happened, Randal Medlar had arrived and no one heard him. He was a man for whom the term “silver fox” was created. He was in his sixties, very handsome, and built like the gym instructor he was. Women, young and old, stopped and stared at him.
“Took you long enough,” Sara said. She wasnotin awe of her brother.
“I was all the way over by the Galleria.” He looked around the room. “This certainly brings back memories.”
“Want to share them?” Sara asked.
“Kate and I came here with Mrs. Meyers. That was an exhausting week! Every woman here thought I was her personal butler. I was running from dawn to midnight.”
“So you left your young child alone and she played with a meat cleaver?” Sara said.
Randal wasn’t bothered by his older sister’s criticism. “Trying to control Kate was like holding on to a greased eel. Besides, she was adored by every one of the guests.” He looked at his daughter with fondness and she smiled back. “So Billy is putting the place up for sale?”
“Who is Billy?” Jack asked.
“I guess you’d call him the caretaker. His older brothers gave him this place to look after. He said it was to keep him out of their hair. He was a wonderful conversationalist. He—”
“Who is ‘the man’ Kate mentioned?” Jack asked.
“That would be—”
“Look!” Kate said. “There’s Reid’s toolbox and—” She gasped. “It’s my dog!” She bent down to pick up a little wooden dachshund on wheels, but the string disappeared under a door and couldn’t be pulled out. She tried the knob. It turned but the door didn’t open. “It’s stuck.” She looked at Jack, eyes asking for help. “It’s a door to a closet with some old clothes in it.”
He went to her and examined the narrow door. “Somebody’s put caulking around it and sealed the door shut. That’s odd.”
Kate was still bent over the toy dog.
“We could cut the string.”
“Jack!” Sara sounded disbelieving.
He gave her a smile to let her know he was kidding. On the floor to his left was the wooden toolbox. “I’ll rescue the critter in seconds. Stand back.” His tone was exaggerated, teasing.
There was a chisel in the toolbox, pitted from years of lack of use, but serviceable, and a ball-peen hammer. It took him a few minutes, but he went around the whole door and chipped away the old caulking.
Still teasing, he looked at Kate. “Ready for the big reveal?” Like a game show host, he turned the knob and pulled the door open in front of him. “It’s all yours.”
When the other three didn’t move, he looked from one face to another. They were staring at the inside of the closet. Color was draining from their faces. Jack saw Kate’s face grow pale, and he stepped forward. “Are you okay?”
She stood up straight. “No, I’m not,” she whispered.
Jack still had his back to the closet and he looked at Randal, who nodded toward what Jack had just exposed. He turned toward it.
Inside was a skeleton. It had on the remnants of a tuxedo and was being held upright by hooks over the suspenders.
