Steel Glances (Rocky Mountain Novella Series #1)

by Rory Chambers

  Chapter 8

  By the time Kristen awoke, she was starting to feel really sleep deprived. Although she had been trying to get enough sleep the last couple of nights, much of it was spent tossing and turning.

  As usual, Kristen had to have her morning coffee before she could function. It was her one vice. Her body needed lots of caffeine, and sugar to come to life. She had tried to quit once, but the headaches that came with depriving herself of the hot black liquid just weren’t worth it.

  She sat at the bar in her kitchen and looked up the closest locksmiths as she enjoyed not just one but two cups of her overly creamed and sugared coffee.

  Once she was dressed and presentable, she checked to make sure she had the key on her and headed out to her car. If she hadn’t have been so busy, she would’ve saw on the news that a cold front had moved in overnight. It went from being beautiful and cool to downright freezing in only a few short hours.

  “Come on!!!” Kristen yelled as she turned the key in her ignition but the car refused to start. It was a fairly new car, but for some reason anytime it got below forty degrees, it wouldn’t crank. She had the battery checked, but the clerk at the auto store told her it checked out fine and didn’t need replacing.

  Kristen stepped out of the car and checked to see if any of her neighbors were outside and getting into their cars so one of them could give her a jump. It was already well past the time they all left for work, though. And, with the frigid temperatures, no one at all was outside.

  Not wanting to disturb anyone, Kristen pulled the car insurance card from her glove box. “I get free roadside service, so I may as well use it,” she muttered to herself. She sat in the frozen car to make the call for the tow truck. It was only at the end of the call that she realized she was home and could’ve been inside the whole time, wrapped in the warmth of her cozy home.

  The day was not off to a great start. Kristen waited for the tow truck and wondered if life would ever get back to normal. All she wanted was one stress-free day. To her surprise, the tow truck didn’t take very long, so that was a plus.

  “You know it can sometimes be your timing belt,” the tow truck operator said with a slight lisp. He was a white man, with balding brown hair and a protruding belly. His name, Jared, was stitched on his shirt.

  “I’ll get that checked out,” Kristen promised even though she didn’t know how a belt could affect her car starting up. She stood back and watched as Jared attached a portable jumper to her batteries negative and positive posts. As if nothing was wrong, the car cranked right up.

  “Just let it run a few minutes so your battery can charge,” Jared told her before returning to his truck to fill out the form he would need signed for reimbursement from Kristen’s insurance company.

  After Kristen signed the service slip, she thanked Jared and immediately turned the heater on in her car. Her hands were frozen from just standing outside a few minutes. While the car warmed up, she returned to the house to see if she could find a pair of gloves.

  Two hours after she had woken up, she was finally on her way to the locksmith’s. When she arrived, there was only one employee behind the counter and he was helping another customer. As Kristen waited, she looked around, checking to see if she saw any keys that matched the one she found at her fathers.

  “Can I help you?” the young clerk behind the counter asked once he had finished helping the previous customer.

  “I hope so,” Kristen answered and smiled. The great thing about being a reasonably attractive female was that a smile could go a long way with the opposite sex. “I’m hoping to find out what a key goes to,” she explained as she grabbed the keys from her purse and removed the one she needed information about.

  The clerk was appeared to be a college student, probably just a year or two over eighteen. Kristen hoped he was knowledgeable enough to have some answers for her. If not, she would go to as many locksmiths as it took to get answers.

  The kid took the key from Kristen and examined it before saying anything. When he did speak, he confirmed that it was manufactured by the company she had read about on the internet. That made Kristen feel better. At least he knew that much.

  “Beyond that, there’s not much I can tell you. It’s a standard copy of a key. It could go to anything…a padlock, a house, a lockbox,” the kid elaborated.

  Deflated, Kristen thanked him and proceeded to a different locksmith shop. There she received basically the same exact information. After visiting five different places, the story at each one was the same. No one knew what the key went to. Unless it went to a lockbox at her father’s house, Kristen felt she may never know what the significance of the key was.

  On her way back home, she decided to stop back by her fathers and do a quick search for anything with a lock. Maybe she would luck out. She looked in every room but was unable to find anything with a lock. There were no lockboxes, visible or hidden safes, or anything else the key could unlock.

  Before leaving, she stood in place and just did one final turn to see if anything stood out to her as odd or out of place. Nothing did, but she did notice just how many boxes she had accumulated. She had brought the box containing the picture and Thomas Cadbury paperwork with her, so she decided she may as well grab a few more and put them in storage on her way home. At least that way, when the movers came, she would already have the unit rented and ready.

  In between her father’s house and her own, there was a storage center that advertised the first month for just one dollar, so Kristen pulled in. She noticed as she stepped out of her car that even though the sun was getting ready to set, the weather had actually warmed up a little.

  “Hello?” Kristen called out as she tried the office door and it was locked. There was a buzzer though, so she gave it three short rings.

  Within seconds, an elderly man entered the office through a door in the back and let Kristen inside. “How can I help ya, little lady?” he asked. He wore overalls and seemed very friendly. Kristen imagined that he was the owner of the storage facility.

  “I need to rent a storage unit,” Kristen answered. She had never rented one before and didn’t really know what she was doing.

  “Well, what size do you need?” the elderly man asked. Kristen looked at him like a deer caught in someone’s headlights. She had just assumed they came in one size. Seeing her confusion, the elderly man, who introduced himself as Jimmy, began asking a series of questions to determine what she needed.

  “Well, it’s for basically an entire household of furniture and belongings,” Kristen answered when he asked what was going to be stored in the locker. “My father died,” Kristen added and then looked down. It was still hard to even say out loud.

  Jimmy suggested Kristen get the biggest locker available and began to ring her up in the computer. “Do you have your own lock?” he asked. Kristen didn’t, so he showed her some options. It was then that she noticed one that came with a key identical to her own.

  “Does this look like a key that could go to one of these padlocks?” she excitedly asked Jimmy. It wasn’t concrete, but it was the first lead she had and she was overjoyed when he confirmed that the key probably did go to a storage unit. Kristen was so happy she could’ve kissed Jimmy. Had a counter not been separating them, she probably would have.

  After sharing with Jimmy the number she had found on the picture, he was even more sure that the key definitely went to a storage locker. But where? It could be anywhere, even in another city.