CHAPTER 3: Chapter 4 - The Pendant

They searched Isabella's small room on the service floor first, because Leon insisted procedure mattered. The room held two dresses, a worn Bible from Isabella's mother, a box of hair ribbons Maya had outgrown, and no sapphire pendant.
Then Sophia asked to see Leon's cane.
For the first time, his composure cracked. "My cane?"
"You were moving quickly toward the tablet," she said. "I want to make sure there is no weapon or hidden compartment."
The younger officer opened the silver cap. A thin hollow tube slid free from inside the polished wood. Wrapped in a strip of black velvet was a small sapphire key pendant.
Someone gasped.
Leon stared at it as though it had betrayed him by existing. "It was planted."
Isabella looked less relieved than devastated. She knew this was only the visible part of a deeper thing.
Maya touched the pendant with one trembling finger. "Grandma wore it in the painting," she whispered.
Sophia turned it over. The sapphire was not only a jewel. It was the head of a tiny key.
"What does it open?" she asked.
Leon said nothing.
From behind the staircase, Mrs. Bell, the housekeeper of thirty years, answered before fear could stop her.
"The private archive. Behind the east library wall."