Page 56 of Lost Cause
“Could be. I’ll remove the shelves, and we’ll see.” He struggled to free the first one, but then quickly removed the others. Feeling along the wall, a catch came loose, and the wall popped open. The opening was door-sized, likely the reason for such deep shelving. He held up his flashlight, revealing what appeared to be another closet, this one bigger and deeper.
“What is that?” Abby slipped into the opening before he had a chance to determine if a threat existed.
Just in case, he lifted his sidearm, but the closet contained only an old steamer trunk.
Abby put on disposable gloves and dropped to the floor to tug on the tarnished metal hasp. “It’s locked. Can you get something to break it?”
He’d love to comply, but… “We don’t have permission to open the trunk or a search warrant giving us carte blanche.”
She flashed an irritated look up at him. “Victor said to do whatever we had to do.”
“In regard to checking the doors. Nothing more. Technically, we shouldn’t even have lifted up the loose board by the fireplace or opened the closet door.”
She stood and planted her hands on her hips. “Thankfully I’m no longer a sheriff. Private investigators don’t have to abide by those rules.”
“You’re forgetting. You’re a deputy now, and youdohave to abide by the rules. So we do nothing but wait for Victor.”
“Wait for Victor to do what?” The deep male voice came from behind Burke.
He spun to find Victor watching them, his eyebrow raised. “What’s going on here?”
“Sorry for the mess.” Abby shifted her weight, but continued to hold the older man’s gaze. “We remembered seeing an outside door covered in ivy and couldn’t figure out where it went. Today we realized it led to this closet and discovered a hidden door.”
“Sorry for tossing everything aside,” Burke said. “I got caught up in the hunt and was in a hurry to find out what was behind the shelves.”
“And what did you find?” Victor’s pointed gaze burrowed into Abby’s eyes.
She didn’t back down. “An old steamer trunk. It’s locked, and we need your permission to open it.”
“Let me look at it first.” He slipped past them, his limp more pronounced and his weight heavier on the cane. He stopped in front of the trunk and released a long, drawn-out sigh holding a good measure of sorrow. “Belongs to Estelle. I last saw it in the attic. When she disappeared, I searched up there, but it was missing just like she was. I assumed she took it with her. Looks like she simply had it moved down here.”
He ran a hand over his head, and his whole body shuddered. “Do you think because it was left behind, it means someonedidtake her, and she didn’t leave voluntarily?”
“Could be.” Burke rested his hand on Victor’s shoulder for a moment. “Abby and I can move the trunk to the library, and we can look through it together.”
Victor gave a solemn nod. “There’s an extra key for the lock with Estelle’s jewelry. I’ll get it while you move this.”
“Thank you.” Abby smiled at him. “And thank you for agreeing to open the trunk. I hope the contents give us answers.”
“After all these years, I’ve about given up on learning what happened to her.” Tears formed in his eyes. “And now the time is here when I might actually learn something, and my feet feel like they’re made of lead.”
Abby moved closer to him. “Would it help if we prayed about it with you? I know you really don’t believe in prayer, but remember we prayed in the boat, and we weren’t harmed.”
He rubbed his hand over his mouth. “You have a point. Maybe thereisa God, and I should look into this more. For now, go ahead and pray.”
Burke respected Abby for offering to pray with Victor at this time, especially when the guy once told her he didn’t believe in prayer, calling it mumbo-jumbo. But maybe, just maybe, she’d planted a seed of faith and was nurturing it to grow.
Could he apply this to his life? After Tiffany left him at the altar, he’d figured he could only trust himself. He learned to rely solely on logic and intuition to see him through. But maybe he should try to strike a better balance. Seek God’s direction first andthenutilize his own abilities and strength.
Was it time to end this impasse with God once and for all? He sure thought so, but it wasn’t as simple as just realizing what he needed to do. He had to let go of her betrayal and trust again. That was the tricky bit. The hard part. The part he still didn’t know if he could manage.
Sitting on the sofa next to Victor, Abby held her breath as Burke knelt by the trunk and lifted the lid. A pungent mothball odor wafted from inside the fabric-lined leather trunk. Victor reached out to clutch her hand. All three of them had put on disposable gloves so they wouldn’t disturb any evidence Sam might recover, but even through the latex, his hand felt cold.
The trunk revealed women’s clothing from the past. At the top lay a lightweight cotton dress, soft taupe in color, with a small floral print. And a big rusty brown blob stained the chest.
“Blood! Is that blood?” Victor whipped his hand to his heart and clutched his dressing gown.
“Looks like it,” Abby said, though she didn’t want to confirm it to a grieving husband.
