Chapter 10: The Tin

Clara's POV

The side door of Joan's house stuck in wet weather, and I knew exactly where to lean on it.

The kitchen was empty, and the clock over the stove said ten past ten.

On the counter sat the casserole dish I had carried over, and I set it down beside the sink so that anyone who walked in would see it.

"Brooke?" I called softly.

Nobody answered.

Upstairs a floorboard creaked once, and then the house went still.

Brooke had told me about the sewing room once, as a joke, over dishes.

"Aunt Joan's secret lair," she had said. "Nobody's allowed in, not even Kyle."

I went up the narrow stairs in my socks.

The sewing room was at the back, over the garage.

It held a machine under a quilted cover, a dress form, and a tall cabinet with a brass key left in its lock.

I opened the cabinet.

On the bottom shelf, behind a stack of fabric, I found a round blue cookie tin.

I lifted the lid.

The first thing I saw was a yellow button, small and cloudy, the size of a thumbnail.

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