Chapter 9 - The Key Under the Crust
Jake walked into the garage office and shut the door.
“Ben, don’t say anything that gets you in trouble. Just listen. Can you see a road sign?”
“I don’t know.”
“Look outside without making it obvious.”
A muffled voice sounded in the background. Todd.
Ben lowered the phone.
Jake held his breath.
Then the boy came back.
“We passed a sign with a bird. And a number. Twenty-seven.”
“Highway 27?”
“I think.”
“Where did you get the phone?”
“Mom’s old one. I found it in the blue box. It only works when there’s Wi-Fi, but Uncle Todd stopped for gas and the store had internet.”
Jake almost laughed at the impossible luck of it.
“Good. That was smart.”
“Dad, he says we’re going to Kentucky.”
Jake’s blood went cold.
They were one county from the state line.
“Ben, listen to me. Do not jump out. Do not argue. Keep the phone hidden. I’m calling the police.”
“I don’t want to go.”
“I know.”
“I have something for you.”
“What?”
“The sandwich.”
Jake blinked.
“What sandwich?”
“The one from the prison. You dropped it when Uncle Todd came. I picked it up. I put the brass key inside the bag because I thought he’d search my pockets.”
Jake looked at his own pocket.
The key he had taken to the bank was there.
“Ben, I have the bank key.”
“No. The other key.”
Jake’s heart thudded.
“There were two?”
“One was taped under the box. One was under the paper inside the lid.”
“What does it look like?”
“Small. Silver. It says 17.”
Jake grabbed a pen.
“Where is it now?”
“In the sandwich bag. At school.”
“Why at school?”
“I hid the sandwich in my cubby because Uncle Todd said to throw it away.”
The call began to crackle.
“Ben, what does the key open?”
“I don’t know. But Mom wrote ‘Sloan - 17’ on the tape.”
The line died.
Jake called Dana, then Margaret Sloan.
When he said “silver key” and “17,” Margaret went silent.
“Oh, Rachel,” she whispered.
“What?”
“My old office had locked client drawers. I closed that office after a flood last year. Drawer seventeen is in storage.”
“What’s in it?”
“I don’t know.”
Jake was already moving.
“Where’s the storage building?”
Margaret gave him the address.
Ray tossed him his truck keys.
“Take mine.”
Jake shook his head. “My parole—”
“Then I’m driving.”
Twenty minutes later, Jake, Margaret, and Dana met at Maple Ridge.
Ms. Alvarez opened Ben’s cubby.
May you like
Inside sat a flattened peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich in a plastic bag.
Taped beneath it was a silver key stamped 17.
