As Jensen left, I dialed Daryl's number, hoping to catch him before he took off for Pennsylvania. I'd thought about that storage unit all night and didn't want him rummaging around in it, an unfeeling stranger rifling through Nina's mother's things.
"Tristan? How are you this morning?"
"Plans have changed. I want you to keep an eye on Cal instead of heading out to Plymouth Meeting. Text me address of the storage facility."
"You sure you want to do that? You usually have me do the dirty work."
At that moment, Rogers appeared in my bedroom doorway. "Daryl, you stay in the city. And call me if you see anything I might want to know about."
"You got it. Enjoy your day trip."
I put away my phone and turned my attention to Rogers. "Jensen will have a package for Nina. Make sure she gets it as soon as she gets up. I want you to give her this note also."
"Will you be going out of town, Tristan?"
Looking up from my letter, I shot Rogers a glare. "Taking to eavesdropping now?"
"Not in the least. I just happened to hear part of your conversation, sir."
I wasn't in the mood for his attitude this morning, so I ignored his use of sir again and read over my letter to Nina.
Dear Nina,
You looked so cute lying there all curled up in bed that I didn't have the heart to wake you up, but I had to leave on an emergency business trip. I hope you like your new phone. Text me when you get this letter, and I'll call you this afternoon.
Think about me. I'll be thinking about you. Miss you already.
Love,
Tristan
Folding the note in half, I slipped it into an envelope and handed it to Rogers. "Make sure she gets this."
"Are there any other instructions?"
I put on my suit coat and adjusted my tie in the mirror. "I don't know if I'll be home in time for dinner, so make sure Nina gets whatever she wants. I expect to hear that she was happy. Are we clear?"
Rogers' expression showed his hurt at my comment. "I would never do anything to foster Nina's unhappiness, Tristan."
I didn't entirely believe that, but I wasn't going to stand there and debate the issue with him. "Just make sure, Rogers. I'll call you to let you know if I'll be home for dinner."
As I walked past him to leave, he asked, "Is she allowed to leave the grounds?"
Sighing in frustration, I stopped and turned toward him to see that same hurt expression still on his face. "She's not a prisoner here, Rogers. I've had enough of this. I'm doing my best to make things right. Just give me a break."
I didn't give him a chance to respond. I didn't care what he thought. I didn't care what anyone thought but Nina. She was the only one I owed any explanation to.
Daryl had texted me the address of the storage place right before I left, and less than two hours later I pulled up in front of U-Store on Chemical Road in Plymouth Meeting. The clerk behind the counter was barely out of his teens and still working through an acne phase, so he was easy to get by. He also didn't seem to have any knowledge of the law whatsoever, so all I had to do was tell him I was Joseph Edwards' son and I'd lost my key to my mother's unit and he was happy to oblige.
We walked past a dozen green garage doors until we reached the last one in Row 8. The clerk unlocked the door and turned to me with a smile. "If you need anything else, Mr. Edwards, just let me know."
I looked in and saw the 10 x 10 unit wasn't packed to the ceiling, thankfully. Stacks of boxes four high lined the three walls, but it was organized so someone could walk easily through the middle around a few chests and belongings that weren't in boxes.
Now that I was standing in the middle of Nina's mother's things, I suddenly realized I didn't even know her name. All I knew was that she was the woman who'd given birth to the one person I loved in the world and she'd died when Nina was young. Her life was now only memories and her things stored in a dark storage unit.
A feeling of guilt came over me as I looked at her entire life around me. I was an intruder, a stranger about to search her things for something that had never had anything to do with her. It was like I was ransacking a grave for my own benefit.
I had to remind myself that I wasn't there just for me. If I didn't find the evidence of my father's actions that Karl and his friends were sure Joseph Edwards had hidden somewhere, they'd never leave Nina and me alone.
The first box I chose solved the mystery of what Nina's mother's name was. Written on the box were the words Diana's Clothes. That one had nothing but clothes in it, so I moved to a second box filled with pictures. I stood there as the photographs I looked at told the story of her life. Her in a 1960s bikini at the beach. When she was pregnant with Nina's sister and sitting at a picnic table on a beautiful sunny day. Diana at an art show standing next to a sculpture with a blue ribbon on it. Nina's parents kissing under the mistletoe at a Christmas party.
I stared for a long time at the picture of Joseph and Diana Edwards, wondering how they'd met and if they were happy. They looked like two people in love. Her hair was long, much longer than Nina's, and darker brown. She was beautiful like her daughter, and Joseph Edwards was a good looking man. A good six inches taller than his wife, he had dirty blond hair. I noticed these things randomly as my eyes remained riveted to that picture.
My phone vibrated in my coat, and I pulled it out to see a text from Nina. I love my new phone! I'll finally be able to call out here. Wish you were here to thank. :) Love you. Come back soon.
Her text made me smile, but as I looked around at where I was, I wondered if she'd still love me if she knew what I was doing. I couldn't think about that, though. If this was what I had to do to keep her safe so we could have a life together like those two people in the picture had, then I'd do it.
I texted back Miss you. Wish I was there with you right now. I'll try to get back tonight. I love you and put my phone away to get back to work, wanting more than ever to get back to her.
Within two hours, I'd rummaged through the three walls of boxes and found nothing that appeared to be related to Joseph Edwards' work or his investigation into anything concerning my father or Stone Worldwide. Turning to the middle of the storage unit, I began to look through more boxes, but these were filled with art materials like paintbrushes and sculptor's tools, along with paints, clays, and stone. Diana Edwards had been an artist like her daughter, but I suspected she wasn't a painter but a sculptor. Stainless steel tools and finished clay and stone sculptures of animals, mythological creatures, and people filled a chest that sat next to an artist's easel.
I wondered if Nina knew her mother had been an artist. That she was very much her mother's daughter. Hopefully, someday I'd get to tell her what I knew without sounding like some crazy stalker guy.
Even though I was sure I wasn't going to find anything I was looking for amongst everything in the sculpture boxes and chest, I inspected each tool and piece of sculpture the best I could without harming Diana Edwards' art. Finally, after I'd looked at every item, I saw at the bottom of the chest sat a wooden box with the initials DE carved into the top. Kneeling on the cold ground, I opened the box and found a set of stone carving chisels. Just as with the other tools, they had no identifying marks or symbols on them, other than the name of the company that made them.
I'd looked through every inch of that storage unit and found nothing. Disappointed, I sat down on the ground next to the chest and hung my head. I'd hoped that I'd be able to find some shred of evidence to give to Karl so Nina would finally be safe, but there'd been nothing. I'd failed.
Diana Edwards' chisel set box was still in my hands, and I traced the outline of her initials as I sat there feeling lost as to what I was supposed to do next. Maybe Daryl had another lead. Maybe there really was nothing to show what Nina's father had found out. I sighed from the weight of this entire thing with Karl and his insistence that there was evidence out there that could do them all in. What had begun as disgust at my father's actions had snowballed into a problem that I thought of day and night and still hadn't figured out how to solve.
As I slowly traced her initials over and over, my finger moved the lid of the box to reveal an inset that could be removed. Tipping the box over, I tapped the lid and the center came out, leaving a small compartment open where a key and a slip of paper sat. The key had no name or clue as to what it opened, but the paper had written on it one word: Fidelity.
Quickly, I typed into my phone the words fidelity and Plymouth Meeting, getting two results that might be useful. There was a First Fidelity Bank and a Fidelity Securities in that very town. Looking down at the key, I saw it had no grooves like an ordinary house key or basic lock key. It was a safe deposit box key.
Had Joseph Edwards left a key for his daughters to find something important in a safe deposit box at a nearby bank in the event of his death? I could only hope that was the answer, but since Nina and her sister were his only children, there was no way I was going to convince a bank to allow me access to the box, even if I had the key. A young kid working part time at a storage unit facility was one thing, but a bank manager was going to be harder to fool.
I stuffed the key and the paper into my pocket and called Daryl. If I could find out more information about Kim's husband, I might be able to get the bank to let me see what was in that box.
"Hey, Tristan, how was your trip to Pennsylvania?"