Husband With Benefits-Chapter 575: Locker

Gabe and Autumn sat across from Mr. Emerson, the elusive owner of the L & K , in his dimly lit office. Mr. Emerson continued to fidget with his pen, avoiding their gaze. "I must admit, I’m still hesitant to disclose the details of the locker. It’s not just any piece of furniture, you see."

Gabe sighed. They’d been going around this topic for almost an hour. The man had been adamant in his refusal first due to the past incidence. Then, once they’d proven that this would not be a repeat, the man was still hesitant...and dawdling over providing them the details.

"There is a reason our patrons prefer coming to us. They want to protect their privacy. I am willing to show you the locker but I will not disclose the key’s design. Only if you bring the locker to me, then I can show you the key."

With that, the man stood up and walked to a bookshelf, "Here. This is the file."

Gabe pulled the file and immediately studied the requirements that had been stated by Autumn’s mother and frowned. The locker commissioned was quite small. He exchanged a glance with Autumn before turning the page, to study the picture of the locker.

As expected, it was small and made to look like a figurine that could be displayed. Something you would use to hide things in plain sight. But... he’d never seen something like this in Autumn’s home. He turned to look at Autumn and sighed. Yep. There it was. The same look of confusion.

Still, he asked, "Do you recognise it?"

She shook her head, disappointed, "I’ve never seen it."

Gabe nodded and was prepared to coax Mr Emerson for the key as well when he noticed the man staring at his hand.

He raised an eyebrow at that and tapped his fingers before asking, "Mr Emerson, are you sure you cannot show us the key?"

Mr Emerson cleared his throat before sighing, " Yes, big you must know, Mr Frost, I did not make a key for this locker."

Gabe frowned at this, "You did not make a key? Then how does this..."

"Actually Mrs Savoy was one of my earliest customers. At the time, I was personally doing everything so I had another option for my customers. They could bring me the key and I would make a lock for it."

Autumn frowned. What did that even mean. Seeing their bewildered expressions, Emerson explained, "For this particular figurine, the key is something that was close to Mrs Savoy. So it is not a traditional looking key. But something like a puzzle. Only when the piece that Mrs Savoy chose as the key is fitted into the mechanism, the mechanism will move."

"So, unless you bring this locker to me, I won’t know what the key is."

"I see, the figurine looks quite delicate Mr Emerson. Wouldn’t it be easy to simply break the piece and get whatever is hidden inside.." Gabe asked,still studying the picture. He was sure that he’d seen it somewhere. Just not at Autumn’s house.

"That is the beauty of my work, Mr Frost. It won’t be so easy. You see,only the outside is delicate. The inside is made with steel and cement. Almost impossible to even cut through. And breaking the figurine will only reveal the locker not the mechanism to open it."

Gabe nodded while Autumn asked, "Mr Emerson, did my mother ever mention what she planned to keep inside it? Or what she planned to do with it?"

Emerson frowned and shook his head, "Miss Autumn. I’ve made thousands of such lockers since I started. How would I remember..."

"But you’ve written things about the locker haven’t you?" Autumn pointed at the strange hand written symbols that could be seen in the picture along with the locker. The man looked at Autumn in surprise, questioning, "You understand this?"

Autumn shook her head, "I know this is some type of a shorthand but I don’t know what you’ve written."

The man nodded and gave another look to the two, "You’re quite astute. Those are my reference notes. Basically what the client told me when she commissioned the locker."

"So?" Autumn prompted him when the man didn’t continue and Emerson sighed, " It mentions here that she wanted to hide something really small in it. She planned to gift this to her daughter for her safekeeping and that..."

Emerson hesitated again before continuing, " What I have written next is not something that she wanted to tell me. She just muttered it to herself. She said that...she hoped her daughter never had to use this. But if something were to happen to her, this thing would work as her protection. This is why I refused to show this to the police or that man who came here. When I saw this note, I had to refuse... But I do find it odd that she did not give the little locker to you. From what I understand she intended to give it away."

Autumn had no explanation for this question and simply thanked the man and left with a picture of the locker.

The two people however did not notice the look of concentration that Emerson had as he watched them walk away while he murmured to himself... "They have the key but not the locker... How decidedly odd." freēnovelkiss.com

As they walked out of Mr. Emerson’s office, Gabe felt a persistent itch in the back of his mind. The image of the small figurine locker kept resurfacing, tugging at a memory. He’d definitely seen it somewhere and quite recently...Autumn seemed equally lost in thought, her brow furrowed as she kept trying to figure out where the locker could be.

"I’ve seen it somewhere, Autumn," he muttered, more to himself than to her.

Autumn turned to him, hope flickering in her eyes. "Where? Do you remember where? It seems familiar to me too but I know for sure I’ve never seen it with Mum."