Page 5 of Savage Throne
Duck ran his hand over the surface, feeling for anything—a latch, a hinge, something that would give us a clue. “There’s got to be a mechanism somewhere.”
Hu slammed his hand against the wood as he knocked harder. “It's hollow but damn it, how do we open it?”
We tried pushing on different sections of the wall. Hu slammed his shoulder into it at one point, hoping brute force would do the trick but the wall didn’t budge.
All it did was leave a faint smudge on the surface from the force of his hit.
“Maybe there's a lever.” Duck suggested. “Some hidden catch?”
I scanned the closet, looking for anything out of place.
But there was nothing.
Just clothes, shoes, and shelves like any other damn closet.
Duck started yanking at the clothes rod thinking it might trigger a mechanism, but it stayed solid in his hands.
Hu ran his fingers along the edges of the closet.
Nothing.
I kicked the wall, all it did was make a dull thud.
No give.
No sign that it was about to budge.
“We’re wasting time.” My mind kept flashing to Moni, stuck somewhere deep in this house or in the East with my father.
God only knew what kind of sick game he was going to have her play.
I knelt down, inspecting the bottom of the wall now trying to see if there was any shift in the baseboards, anything that could give us a clue.
It looked seamless.
Too perfect.
Duck sighed and turned to TT. “Are you sure this is the right spot?”
“Yes,” TT checked her watch. “I can tell you now.”
I rose and looked at her. “Tell us what?”
“Tell you how to get in.”
Goddamn it. Of course she would know.
It was clear that I would have to get used to the fact that TT was a smart-ass kid. This meant that the first thing we did should have been to see what else she knew.
She checked her watch again and then lowered her hand. “Uncle Leo wanted me to wait ten minutes for you to come in and then five minutes before telling you how to open the wall.”
“He taught you how to open it?”
“No but I saw how he did it.”
He knew you would remember without him having to show you.
“Leave the closet and let TT through.” I headed out.
