The Second Life of the Malicious Colonel's Daughter novel · Chapter 24 of 24
Chapter 24: The Key
Marva stood in the alley behind the shop with her hands on her hips and a rope in her fist.
Behind her the front of the building was hidden by a blue tarp.
A ladder leaned against the wall.
At the top of it the young man in the canvas jacket was wiping his hands on a rag.
He did not look at me.
He had painted the frame green and the sign white, and for two weeks he had come every evening after work and never said why.
"Go around front," Marva said.
"Why the alley?"
"Because I wanted you to walk the whole block."
We went around.
A dozen people stood on the sidewalk in the December cold.
The waitress from the diner held a coffee pot.
The man in the feed cap had his hat in his hands.
Marva came up behind us and pulled the rope.
The tarp slid off the front of the shop and slumped in the street.
The old sign over the door had been repainted, white letters on dark green.
BETTIS & BURRIS LOCK AND KEY, it said.
I read it from left to right, and then I read it again.
Under it, on the glass of the door, someone had lettered the same two names in gold.
It was the pane where red letters had run down four times since spring.
The glass was so clean I could see the whole street in it.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–12 of The Second Life of the Malicious Colonel's Daughter are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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