“I taught Lily how to sew them.”
Then Margaret said something that made everyone in the room go silent.
“There were three on every piece.”
Detective Bennett turned toward Noah.
Noah’s stomach tightened.
The discovery was no longer a strange coincidence.
There was now a direct connection between Lily and Harold’s bedroom.
But that raised an even more frightening question.
Why would Lily’s clothing be hidden beneath her grandfather’s mattress?
—
## The Notebook
Officers began searching the bedroom.
They checked drawers.
Closets.
Boxes.
Old furniture.
Every possible hiding place was documented.
Then one officer discovered an old pillowcase tucked inside a cabinet.
Something was inside it.
A notebook.
Brown.
Worn.
Its edges were curled from age.
Detective Bennett opened it carefully.
At first, the pages appeared to contain nothing more than ordinary notes.
Dates.
Names.
Short sentences.
Numbers.
But after reading several pages, the detective’s expression changed.
She stopped.
Then she turned another page.
Her face became increasingly serious.
Noah watched her.
“What is it?”
She didn’t immediately answer.
Instead, she looked toward the bedroom window.
Then she looked outside.
“There is a shed in the backyard.”
Daniel frowned.
“Yes.”
“How long has it been there?”
Daniel hesitated.
“I don’t know. Probably decades.”
Detective Bennett closed the notebook.
“Let’s take a look.”
—
## The Shed
By midnight, officers were working around the old shed.
The structure was barely standing.
Its wooden walls were warped.
The roof had several holes.
A heavy padlock hung from the door.
The lock was cut.
The door creaked open.
Inside were old tools, boxes, broken furniture, and gardening equipment.
Nothing immediately appeared suspicious.
Then an officer noticed something unusual about the floor.
One section of wooden planks looked newer than the rest.
Detective Bennett crouched.
She ran her hand across the boards.
“These don’t match.”
The officers carefully removed them.
Beneath the wood was another layer.
Then another.
Finally, they discovered something that hadn’t appeared on any property records.
A concealed door.
Noah’s father stared at it.
“What the hell is that?”
Nobody answered.
Detective Bennett reached for the handle.
It was locked.
Officers forced it open.
A dark opening appeared beneath the shed.
And then they saw the stairs.