Emily told him about the soup, Victoria, Adrian, Samuel, and the woman with the briefcase.
Ben listened without interrupting, although his expression hardened whenever she mentioned the guests who had laughed.
“We can cover rent for one month,” he said.
“After that, I’ll add shifts.”
Emily shook her head.
“You’re not dropping your classes because a rich woman decided to humiliate me.”
“You didn’t decide to get fired,” he answered.
Emily opened the closet and removed their mother’s blue sewing box.
The box contained buttons sorted into envelopes, scraps of lace, a photograph of a theater chorus, and a notebook with a cracked spine.
Beneath the false cardboard bottom lay a narrow cloth pouch tied with green thread.
Inside was a small cassette tape labeled LANTERN, 11/14/98, plus a folded sheet of paper.
The paper was a list of names with columns marked entrance, exit, and witness.
Several names had been crossed out in dark pencil.
At the bottom, Anna Carter had written a sentence that made Emily stop breathing for a moment.
“Do not let them tell Marion the south door was open.”
Ben leaned closer and read the line twice.
“Who are they?” he asked.
Emily had no answer.
She remembered their mother becoming quiet whenever the local news reported a building fire.
She remembered Anna testing the apartment smoke detector on the first day of every month.
Those habits had seemed ordinary until now.
Ben found an old cassette player among his recording equipment, but its motor was unreliable.
He suggested taking the tape to his professor, who worked with sound archives.
Emily closed the pouch before either of them could damage it.
She wanted to tell Samuel immediately, yet the memory of Victoria’s sudden fear made her hesitate.
Someone had spent years persuading the city that the Lantern Theater’s doors had been properly maintained.
Her mother had preserved evidence suggesting otherwise.
Chapter 8: No One Gets the Tape Yet
Samuel called Emily the following morning from a number she did not recognize.
He asked whether she had arrived home safely and whether she needed help locating an attorney.
He did not ask about the blue sewing box.
Emily appreciated that more than she expected.
She invited him to meet at a public library near Union Square rather than at her apartment.
Ben accompanied her and carried the cloth pouch inside his backpack.
Samuel arrived with Nora, who introduced herself to Ben and asked permission before taking notes.
