Aa
After dark, Daniel went down to the basement with the old floor plan in his pocket. He counted the doors as he walked, then checked the back wall near the boiler room.
Behind the boiler room, he found a steel door. Someone had scratched out the number 7 on the metal.
He put the brass key into the lock, and the door opened. Daniel understood at once that the key had been made for this hidden room.
Inside was a narrow storage room, not an apartment at all. Old boxes sat beside a metal filing drawer and a blue tin case.
Daniel opened the blue tin case and found letters in Lena Carter’s handwriting. They were dated from years earlier.
The first letter said Lena had left the building on purpose, not because someone forced her out. She wrote that she had been afraid of the owner, Harold Wynn.
Lena said Harold had been making tenants sign false eviction papers and hiding the paper trail. Before she left, she had copied proof.
A second letter said Ellis was Lena's father. It also said he had helped hide the proof and keep Daniel safe.
The letters said Daniel had been left with relatives so Harold could not reach him. As he read, Daniel realized the missing woman in the news had been his mother.
He opened the filing drawer and found photocopies of forged leases and rent receipts. Harold’s signature was on papers that did not match the tenants’ real names.
Daniel also found a photo of Lena holding a small child outside the building. The child was Daniel as a baby.
Ellis came to the doorway of the hidden room and saw Daniel holding the files. He admitted that he had left the brass key and the note.
He told Daniel that Harold planned to clear the basement files on Friday during the renovations. Daniel had to find the evidence before the cleanup crew arrived.
Then Ellis said that Lena was alive under another name. Lena had asked him not to reveal her new identity until Daniel was safe.
Daniel was angry that Ellis had kept silent for so many years. Ellis answered that he had promised Lena he would wait until Daniel could handle the truth.
In the end, Daniel and Ellis agreed to keep the evidence and expose Harold. Daniel left the room with the letters and copies, but not the original files.