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Wednesday - September 15

Claire looks at Aunt Ruth and eagerly says, "Absolutely!" She releases Aunt Ruth's hand and begins to make her way to the opened section of the fence.

The chauffeur leads the way through the hole, holding the fence back, as everyone makes their illegal entry without getting snared. Claire looks at the storage units and notices that all of them have a number painted on the door. The numbers aren't in numerical order. Maybe each number may have been assigned to the renter, or a number that they chose themselves.

Claire and Aunt Ruth start walking down the middle of the snow-filled driveway. By the looks of things, it looks like no one has been here for a long time. Hand-in-hand, they walk down row one without seeing the number twenty-eight painted anywhere. They reach a point where a side road veers off to the left. Claire nods her head and motions Aunt Ruth to continue.

After passing fourteen units, they finally reach storage unit number twenty-eight. Claire takes a deep breath and says, "Well, it has a padlock, Aunt Ruth. Do you think the key will open it?"

"Go ahead and try it, dear," Aunt Ruth replies.

Claire reaches into her pocket and pulls out the box with the key. With her hands shaking from the cold and fright, she carefully removes the key and inserts it into the padlock. Slowly, she turns the key, and then hears a click. The padlock unlocks. Not too surprised that the key works, Claire removes the padlock, and places it and the key into her coat pocket.

Releasing a deep breath, which is exposed by the chill of winter, Claire orders the chauffeur to open the door. He grabs the doors handle, and with one swift movement, he raises the door to expose what has been hidden for over forty years.

Looking around for a light switch, and not locating one, the chauffeur pulls a lighter from his pocket and flicks it. There are boxes stacked up along both sides of the wall and along the front of the unit. But there is a small pathway leading towards the back of the unit. Claire asks for the lighter, and begins to make her way through the cramped storage, hoping that what she's searching for will be here.

Carefully checking the storage's contents, Claire stops in her tracks, turns around, and whispers sharply to Aunt Ruth, "It's here, Aunt Ruth! Daddy's car! It's here!" Claire goes to her dad's antique 1956 Triumph TR3. The car is partially covered by a tarp, but the trunk is not. Claire hopes that no one else has been here. Trying to figure out how to open the trunk, the chauffeur steps in and opens it for her. When the chauffeur begins to raise the trunk lid, Claire places her hand on it and says, "I need you to step outside to keep an eye out for anything, or anyone. Okay?" Without question, the chauffeur nods his head yes, and steps outside the unit as ordered. After Claire sees that he's gone, she opens the trunk and begins to search for the package. Seeing nothing, but a spare tire, Claire turns around to Aunt Ruth, and in disgust says, "Nothing."

Aunt Ruth says, "Are you sure, dear? Maybe it's under that tire."

Claire shrugs her shoulders saying, "Maybe."

While using all of her might to move the deflated tire, Claire let out a small grunt, successfully achieving her goal. Breathing much harder than normal, she dusts the dirt off of her gloves, and once again says, "Nothing."

Aunt Ruth says, "Here, dear, let me look." Aunt Ruth has Claire step aside, and while the aged and fragile woman begins to move the tire around, she accidentally bumps the tire onto the trunk lid. When she does, a folder drops from the inside of the lid, which she catches with one hand. Aunt Ruth turns around smiling at Claire.

"What? Did you find something?" Claire asks.

With her hands tightly gripping the folder, Aunt Ruth carefully hands it over to Claire, who anxiously takes it. Carefully looking around making sure that the coast is clear before she opens it, Claire says, "I wonder what secrets it holds, Aunt Ruth."