I sucked in a breath, recognizing the pattern of numbers.
Bray shot a glance at me, and I discreetly shook my head, silently saying I’d tell him later.
When he entered the numbers, the box made a clicking sound and popped out half an inch. Another quiet gasp leapt from my lips.
Bray smiled before he turned around to Jasmine. “Can we have a minute please? There are rather personal effects in here.”
“Of course,” she said with a polite nod and stepped out. The door shut with a thick thud behind her.
Bray exhaled a breath and slowly pulled the narrow box from its slot like he was defusing a bomb. The top was covered, I assumed to keep any dust from accumulating on its contents. My hands grew tacky at the thought of seeing it again. The most beautiful jewel I’d ever seen. I could already feel its weight in my hand. Bray moved the box to the table in the center of the room and set it down with a slight shake in his hands. I gripped his arms in nerves, excitement, relief.
The solution to my problems was right in front of us.
“You guys have gotten way too quiet,” Ramesh said. “What’s going on? Do you have it yet?”
Bray grinned at me. “Would you like to do the honors?”
I grinned back, thrilled and nervous in equal measure. With a shake in my own hand, I reached for the lid and lifted it. I held my breath as the velvet interior became visible, and lying on top of it was …
Nothing.
“What?” Bray asked and shoved his hand into the empty box. “How is this possible?”
“What happened?” Ramesh asked.
I was too shocked to respond. How had we been wrong?
“It’s empty,” Bray told Ramesh. “There’s nothing in the box.”
“What?” Ramesh said. “Are you sure you opened the right box?”
“Box 237,” Bray said. “And it would be pretty wild if we somehow got it wrong and that combo happened to work on another box in here.” He spun around to look anyway, like the answer to this new mystery would jump out at him.
I was still too numb to say anything. My hope of ending this game of cat and mouse collapsed like a building in front of me. “God damn it, Wallace,” were the first words to leave my mouth.
Bray swiped a hand through his hair. “So what does this mean? What do we do now?”
I shrugged in defeat, suddenly very tired and feeling the fact I’d hardly slept in the past few nights. “I don’t know,” I muttered. “Back to square one.”
“Which is what?” Bray asked.
I looked around in dismay. “Getting out of this creepy room of secrets would be a good start.”
Bray replaced the box with a sigh and met me at the door. “Look sad,” he reminded me.
“That’s not hard,” I muttered.
Jasmine greeted us with a kind smile on the other side and led us back to the front of the bank.
Soon, we were back outside standing on the street corner, at a total loss. A light wind blew and ruffled Bray’s hair. The busy sidewalks teemed with people going about their daily business, none the wiser that our plan had just imploded in our faces.
Bray scuffed his foot against the concrete. “What’s the significance of the combination?” he asked me.
“What?”
“Inside, when Ramesh read off the combo, you gasped like it meant something.”
“Oh. It was the date of the night my father got arrested. The night I met Wallace. May 18, 2016.”
