Chapter 7 - Locker 214

Blue Bird Laundry had become a self-storage facility called Harbor Lock.

The clerk at the desk was twenty-two, bored, and unwilling to open anything without paperwork.

Mara lied.

“My mother prepaid the unit.”

The clerk chewed gum. “Name?”

“June Bennett.”

He typed.

His expression changed.

“Unit 214 is active.”

Claire leaned over the counter. “Active?”

“Autopay.”

“From what account?” Mara asked.

“I can’t tell you that.”

Mara put the brass key on the desk.

The clerk stared at it. “That’s an old gate key. We switched locks like ten years ago.”

Mara’s hope sank.

Then the clerk added, “But 214 still has the original cylinder. Owner requested no upgrade.”

“Who’s the owner?”

“June Bennett.”

June had been dead eleven years.

The clerk finally let them through after Claire found a death certificate and old storage receipt in the box from home.

Unit 214 smelled like dust and machine oil.

Inside sat three plastic bins, a broken lamp, two banker boxes, and an old blue suitcase.

Mara opened the suitcase first.

Clothes.

Her mother’s clothes.

A green sweater Mara remembered burying her face in when she was little.

She sat on the concrete floor and cried into it.

Claire crouched beside her.

Neither said anything.

After a while, Mara opened the banker boxes.

Cross Meridian invoices.

Canceled checks.

Photocopies of signatures.

A cassette recorder wrapped in a towel.

Claire whistled. “Mom was building a case.”

“No. She was building insurance.”

The distinction hurt.

Mara found an envelope labeled MARA—IF PREGNANT.

Her hands began to shake.

Inside was a handwritten letter.

Mara,

If Charles’s family ever finds you and if you are carrying a Cross child, do not let them control your doctor, your money, or your transportation. The trust was built to expose them, but exposure makes people dangerous.

Mara stopped reading.

Claire whispered, “She knew you might meet Daniel?”

“No.”

Mara kept reading.

Then she reached the final line.

Teresa will tell you about the first baby.

Mara’s breath caught.

“The first baby?” Claire said.

A metal door slammed somewhere down the hall.

Footsteps.

Slow.

Coming closer.

Claire stood.

“Mara.”

The overhead light outside Unit 214 went dark.

Then Daniel’s voice came through the thin metal wall.

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“I know you’re in there.”