Her warning was directed at me.
“I understand.”
She gathered the documents for evidence, allowing me to photograph each page first. Before leaving, Lewis paused near the front door.
“There is something else,” he said. “Yesterday, before Mrs. Gable took Emma into the hallway, she received a message.”
“From whom?”
“I could not see the sender. But I heard her tell Halloway that the Carter girl had found something.”
I looked toward the kitchen.
Emma was still drawing, unaware that three adults were discussing a secret she had carried home in her pocket.
“What could she have found before entering the storage room?” I asked.
Lewis shook his head.
“That is what frightened them.”
After they left, I sat beside Emma.
“Did you find anything at school before Mrs. Gable punished you?”
She stopped coloring.
For several seconds, she said nothing.
Then she opened her pencil case and removed a small brass key taped beneath the inner flap.
“I found it in a library book,” she said. “The book had Mom’s name inside.”
I took the key.
A tiny shield was engraved on one side.
A school badge.
“Which book?”
Emma swallowed.
“It was about a girl whose mother left clues for her. Mrs. Gable saw me reading it. She asked where I got the key, but I said I didn’t know what she meant.”
