Chapter 36 - the third key
We went through the old court binders until three in the morning.
Spread across Claire’s dining table were hundreds of pages of police reports, bank statements, and legal exhibits from seven years ago. Most of them were mundane—receipts for the padlock, grocery store footage of Claire buying baby formula, photos of the cellar door taken by forensics.
Then I found Exhibit 44.
It was an inventory of items seized from Julian's apartment during his arrest. Item 12: *One set of brass safety deposit keys, tagged Wilmington Commercial Bank.* Item 13: *One notary seal bearing the name Evelyn Cross.*
"Who is Evelyn Cross?" I asked, tapping the yellowed sheet.
Claire squinted at the page. "I don't know. Julian’s office had five or six freelance notaries they used for real estate closings."
I pulled out my phone and searched the state bar association directory. No active attorney by that name. I searched the state notary registry. There she was. Commission renewed two years ago. Registered address: an office park in the same town as Lily's university.
A chill crept up my spine.
I opened the university faculty and staff directory on my laptop and typed in the surname: Cross.
A profile popped up immediately.
*Dr. Evelyn Cross. Associate Dean of Student Affairs, Housing and Residential Life.*
Her office was located on the ground floor of Brewster Hall.
May you like
She was the administrator who had personally approved Lily's room transfer four hours earlier.
My hands began to shake as I stared at the professional headshot on the screen: a woman in her late fifties, smiling warmly behind tortoiseshell glasses, wearing a silver pendant shaped like a bird in flight.
