The Blue Music Box
Chapter 10 - The Blue Music Box
The house where Evelyn grew up had been empty since the sale.
North Crescent planned to demolish it and build luxury condominiums. A construction fence surrounded the property, but the back gate had not been secured.
Evelyn, Mara, and Thomas entered just before sunrise.
The rooms smelled of dust and old wood. Evelyn moved through the kitchen where her mother had made pancakes on Sundays, past the wall where pencil marks still recorded her height from age six to sixteen.
The attic stairs groaned beneath them.
The blue music box sat inside a cedar chest under a stack of quilts.
Evelyn lifted it with shaking hands.
When she turned the key, the tiny mechanism played the first notes of “Moon River,” her mother’s favorite song. Nothing appeared unusual until Mara noticed that the velvet lining was raised at one corner.
Beneath it was a memory card wrapped in wax paper.
Thomas found an adapter in his bag.
The card contained scanned reports, photographs of condemned buildings, and a recorded statement from Richard Hart.
Evelyn pressed play.
Her father appeared on the screen, younger than she remembered, seated in a city office.
“If anything happens to me, Malcolm Mercer is responsible for hiding structural failures in six residential buildings and bribing inspectors to approve them.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Richard continued.
“I have placed evidence where my daughter will find it one day. Evelyn, if you are watching this, I am sorry I was not brave enough to leave sooner. Your mother believed I abandoned you. I let her believe it because Malcolm threatened both of you.”
Evelyn began to cry, but quietly, as if loud grief might erase his voice.
Mara placed a hand near hers without touching.
Then the floorboards creaked below.
Someone had entered the house.
Thomas closed the laptop.
Victoria’s voice traveled up the stairwell.
“You always did love that song, Evelyn.”
She appeared at the attic entrance holding a leather folder.
Behind her stood a man in a city inspector’s jacket.
Victoria smiled.
“You found your father’s little insurance policy.”
Evelyn held the memory card tightly.
Victoria opened the folder.
May you like
Inside was a court order bearing Evelyn’s name.
“You are under investigation for financial fraud,” she said. “And this house is now a crime scene.”
