The Key in the Backpack
Chapter 06 - The Key in the Backpack
The key was no bigger than Adrian’s thumb, tarnished at the edges and tied to a red thread. To everyone else, it looked ordinary. To Adrian, it looked like childhood.
There had been a cabinet beneath the Holloway music room, a narrow drawer where Elise hid unfinished compositions, letters, and small treasures she called “proof that I existed before they owned my name.” Their father had thrown away half her notebooks when she refused the conservatory deal. Elise began locking everything up after that.
Adrian had not seen the cabinet key since the night she disappeared.
“Where did you get that?” Vanessa asked.
Nora stepped back. “My mom gave it to me.”
Vanessa reached for it, but Adrian moved his cane between them. The silver handle struck the marble with a sharp crack.
“Don’t,” he said.
The word was quiet, but the ballroom felt it.
Vanessa lowered her hand and laughed for the cameras. “Adrian, you are emotional. Anyone can copy a key.”
“Then you won’t mind if we open the cabinet.”
Her smile vanished.
A murmur spread through the crowd. Donors leaned toward one another. The gala photographer lowered his camera as if he had accidentally walked into a crime scene. At the back of the room, two security guards exchanged uncertain looks, no longer sure who they served.
Nora looked up at Adrian. “There’s a letter too, but I couldn’t read all of it. It got wet when we moved shelters.”
“Where is it?” he asked.
“In the lining of my backpack.”
She turned the old canvas bag over and pulled at a loose seam. Hidden between the fabric layers was a plastic sandwich bag, cloudy and creased. Inside lay half a letter, a hospital bracelet, and a photograph of a young woman at a piano, smiling with one hand on her pregnant belly.
Adrian took the photograph.
Elise.
His sister was older than in his memories, softer, but unmistakable. On the back, in her handwriting, were four words:
For Nora, when ready.
Adrian’s throat closed.
Vanessa whispered, “That proves nothing.”
But she was no longer speaking to the room.
May you like
She was speaking to herself.
The red thread around the key had been tied in the same crooked knot Elise used as a girl. Adrian noticed it and nearly lost his balance. Some evidence convinced the mind, but tiny familiar things reached deeper and punished the heart.
