Chapter 4 - The object on Harold’s desk
The missing object was a key.
Not jewelry.
Not money.
Not a gun.
A brass key.
Small.
Old-fashioned.
Attached to a rectangular leather tag stamped with a number:
Harold Pierce was sixty-eight.
Retired vice president of operations for a regional credit union.
Widowed.
Large house in Shaker Heights.
He collected antique locks and mechanical puzzles.
That was how the family explained the key.
It belonged to one of his antique cabinets.
According to Harold’s first statement, Jake had been playing in Harold’s study during a Sunday family dinner.
Afterward, Harold discovered the key missing.
He asked Jake.
Jake denied taking it.
Harold searched.
Nothing.
A week later, while Christine and Jake were visiting again, Harold claimed he saw the key fall from Jake’s backpack.
That was the trigger.
Except police later found the key did not open an antique cabinet.
It opened a safe-deposit-style document box inside Harold’s basement office.
That did not automatically make the key sinister.
But it made the antique-story false.
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Why did Harold lie?
That became one of the first useful questions.
