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Nothing had changed from the night before. Each box contained a small piece from Lou’s grandmother’s interesting life. She clearly loved two things, traveling and her books. The two seemed to overlap. But none of it revealed the clue Lou and I hoped she had left.
After a lot of hours and getting halfway through the boxes, I began to consider that she hadn’t left a clue for Lou to find. Maybe this was all a wild goose chase. Even if she had left something in one of the boxes, how was I supposed to recognize it? In that case, how was Lou supposed to?
I paused considering that. If his grandmother had left a clue for him, how would he recognize it? If she intended for him to find something, she wouldn’t have buried it, would she? She wouldn’t have.
At the same time, she wouldn’t want anyone else to stumble upon it. If a clue was out there, it had to be hidden somewhere personal. Maybe there was somewhere the two of them went together. Didn’t Lou say that some of his best childhood memories involved heading into town? Could she have left it there?
No. That would be too hard. And anyone could have stumbled upon it. If there was a clue, it had to be in this house. Or, at least on this estate. It had to be somewhere that Lou might think to look.
Where would a mystery author leave a clue for her favorite grandson? In a book. She would leave a clue in a book. It wasn’t in this mountain of boxes, it was in her library.
Scrambling to my feet, I worked my way through the stacks to the bedroom door. Pressing my ear onto it, I listened for footsteps. It was quiet. Lou had said that his family never came up here. I had to rely on that. So, unlocking the door and slowly pushing it open, I eased my head out.
No one. At least not standing outside the door. Opening the door further, I checked the halls. Nothing. Slipping out and closing the door behind me, I looked over the railing. The second-floor balcony and the space around the first floor’s stairs were empty.
Moving as quietly as I could, I circled the balcony on my floor keeping an eye on everything below me as I did. The door to the library was closed. Opening it as slowly as I had the last one, I peeked through the crack. The room was empty. Slipping in and closing the door behind me, I scanned the room. There were thousands of books.
Heading to the nearest shelf, I began reading titles. There were a lot that sounded like mysteries. Some of them listed Agatha Armoury as the author. I pulled out one and flipped through it.
“When one describes a cold and stormy night, it must pale in comparison to the one Emma Miller suffered the night of her birth,” I said reading the first line aloud.
I put it back and pulled another. Returning that, I pulled another. There was nothing special about any of them. She might have left Lou a message written within a book’s text. But, which one? And how would she have gotten him to open it?
It was as I thought about it that I saw a book that Lou had told me about, ‘The Velveteen Rabbit’. It was the book she had read to him when he was a child. If he were feeling nostalgic, wouldn’t that be something he might pick up? Hadn’t he already picked it up thinking about her?
I made a move to cross the room when a creak sent terror cutting through me. The sound was coming from the hallway’s aging wooden floor. There was someone outside the door heading this way.
Abandoning my path, I spun around looking for a way to get out. Finding none, I looked for a place to hide. There were bookshelves and a desk. That was it. I could hide under the shallow desk or I could…
There was a gap. It was between two of the standing bookshelves. It was where two perpendicular walls met each other. There wasn’t much of a space between them, but I could get in. It offered me a shadow to hide in. But if someone looked in that direction, they would see me.
It wasn’t great, but I had no choice. If I didn’t try, I was going to be discovered. I needed to at least try.
Compressing my chest against the bookshelves’ rounded edges, my body filled the gap. The shelves rocked back into place. I didn’t have time to consider if all of me was in. It had to be. The door was opening.
As I watched, a distracted man with grey hair entered and retrieved a book from a shelf. It was a mindless gesture. He had to have done it a dozen times. When he had it, he pulled out the desk’s chair and took a seat.
For two hours, Lou’s father sat lost in whatever book he was reading. Throughout every second of it, I stood watching him. On the other side of him, I could see the book I had reached for. Now that it was on my mind, the children’s book was all I could see.
During every moment that passed, I expected Lou’s father to see it too. How could he not retrieve that one next? I was sure the secret to everything was in it. And as I thought about it, my stomach growled.
‘Shit!’ I thought bracing myself for the man’s reaction. He didn’t budge. Could he hear it? How loud had it been?
Sure, it had been a long time since breakfast, but it couldn’t have been that long. Of all times, why now? When would my stomach growl again?
I didn’t have to wait long. With a tightening of my gut, my intestines rumbled echoing the sound of my doom. He heard that one. Snapped from his reading, he looked up. If he turned, he would see me. Trapped, there would be nothing I could do.
About to turn my way, he quickly spun back to the window. I heard it too. It was a car pulling into the driveway. That prompted him to get up and return the book. Without a word, he walked to the door and left.
I fell onto the wall of my tomb and closed my eyes. My heart beat louder than my growling stomach could ever be. I had made it. I was free.
Pulling out from between the shelves, I crossed the room and retrieved the book that had haunted me. Exhausted by standing as long as I did, I fell into the desk chair. It was warm. I didn’t care.
Opening the book, I found an inscription. As I read it, the door flung open behind me.
“Titus, what are you doing in here? Anyone could come in and see you,” Lou said entering and locking the door behind him.
“How long has this been here?”
