Chapter 3 - The Locket Beneath the Floorboards
My mother had left me a silver locket, a box of photographs, and a warning I never understood.
Now dangerous men were hunting me because of it.
"Her name was Evelyn," I told Julian. "Evelyn Whitaker."
"What was her maiden name?"
"Mercer."
His expression changed.
"Evelyn Mercer?"
I nodded.
Julian slowly sat down.
"My father used to mention a woman named Evelyn Mercer. She worked as an accountant for the Dresco organization."
I shook my head.
"That's impossible. My mother was a school librarian."
"She may have become one later."
I wanted to argue.
But the memory of her final days stopped me.
She'd been frightened.
She'd insisted we keep the curtains closed.
And shortly before she died, she'd taken my favorite necklace and hidden it beneath a loose floorboard.
I hadn't thought about that in years.
"Come with me," I whispered.
I led Julian to my bedroom.
The old floorboard beside the radiator still creaked.
I knelt, pulled it loose, and reached beneath it.
My fingers closed around a small velvet pouch.
Inside was the locket.
Silver.
Oval.
With a tiny blue stone.
My mother's initials were engraved on the back.
E.M.
I held it against my chest.
"She told me never to open it."
Julian crouched beside me.
"Then don't. It's yours."
I looked at him.
For a man accustomed to giving orders, he was surprisingly willing to let me decide.
I opened the locket.
Inside was a photograph of my mother holding me as a toddler.
Behind it was a thin strip of folded paper.
My breath caught.
I carefully removed it.
Numbers.
Dates.
And a handwritten phrase.
The garden remembers everything.
I frowned.
"What does that mean?"
Julian stared at the writing.
Then his expression changed.
"May used to say that."
I looked up.
"What?"
"She loved gardening. Every summer, she planted flowers behind our old house."
My pulse accelerated.
"Your sister knew my mother?"
"I don't know."
I examined the paper again.
Then noticed a tiny symbol drawn beneath the words.
A crescent moon surrounded by three stars.
The same symbol engraved on May's necklace.
Julian took a sharp breath.
"That was May's private drawing. She put it on everything."
Suddenly, the apartment door slammed.
We both turned.
Tomas appeared in the hallway.
"Boss. We have a problem."
Julian stood.
"What?"
"Someone broke into the hospital's archive room tonight."
My stomach tightened.
"And?"
"They removed a file from eleven years ago."
Julian's face hardened.
"May's?"
Tomas shook his head.
"No."
He looked directly at me.
"The file belonged to Evelyn Mercer."
My throat tightened.
"My mother?"
Tomas nodded.
"And Boss, according to the hospital's original records, Evelyn Mercer didn't die from cancer."
I felt the floor tilt.
"Then what killed her?"
May you like
Tomas looked grim.
"Her death was recorded as a suspected poisoning."
