Chapter 15: What the Workshop Was Built to Hold
June explained that the Lantern Room had been a traveling production with scenery designed to fold into a compact storage space.
Mrs. Hartwell had volunteered her workshop as a place to repair costumes and store damaged sets.
The theater’s most elaborate scenery included a false hallway that could be rearranged between scenes.
During rehearsals, the children used colored floor markings to navigate when the lights changed.
June had painted the circle and three strokes to identify the safest route through the movable walls.
“I borrowed the idea from an old stage manual,” she said.
“I wasn’t trying to create a secret sign.”
Elena described the symbol she had drawn years later.
June studied the tattoo and shook her head in amazement.
“People who solve the same problem sometimes draw the same answer,” she said.
Peter asked about the night he disappeared.
June sat down before replying.
“The scenery wasn’t secured,” she said.
“A crew member moved a hinged wall before the blackout rehearsal.”
“Who moved it?” Peter asked.
“I never found out.”
June explained that a small rehearsal courtyard lay behind the warehouse.
The courtyard was used for storing equipment and was not part of the audience route.
A gate at the far end led to an alley.
Peter’s description of a brick-walled space matched it.
“Why didn’t you tell the police?” he asked.
“I did,” June answered.
“They inspected the courtyard, but they never saw the hallway because the scenery had already been removed.”
Elena asked who removed it.
June looked toward the window.
“Lorraine organized the volunteers who cleared the stage that night.”
Peter stood so quickly that his chair scraped across the floor.
June raised a hand.
“That does not mean she meant to send you outside,” she said.
“It means she knew which pieces had been moved.”
Elena remembered the curved marks on her workshop floor.
“The scenery is still at the Hartwell house,” she said.
June nodded slowly.
“Then somebody has been moving it again.”
Chapter 16: A Test in Daylight
Elena did not return to the workshop until Officer Shah could accompany her.
June agreed to come as well, and Peter followed them in his own car.
Felix Moreno met the group at the property with a tool bag and a portable work light.
Shah asked everyone to remain outside while she inspected the building for signs of forced entry.
The white door showed fresh scratches around the latch.
Inside, the shelves had been disturbed since Elena’s previous visit.
A roll of canvas lay across the workbench, although Elena had not put it there.
Shah photographed the room and allowed Felix to examine the newer floorboards.
He loosened two screws and lifted a narrow section of flooring without breaking it.
Beneath the boards lay a shallow wooden track.
June knelt beside it.
“That’s a runner for the folding scenery,” she said.
“The panels used to slide along it.”
Elena traced the track toward the wall where the old cabinet had stood.
The floor marks now made sense.
Someone had been moving heavy scenery panels back and forth, perhaps trying to reach something stored behind them.
Felix removed a second board and uncovered the edge of a painted wooden flat.
A black circle with three strokes appeared beneath a coat of white paint.
Peter stopped breathing for a moment.
“That’s it,” he said.
“That’s what I saw.”
June looked at the symbol without touching it.
“The paint is new,” she said.
Shah examined the scraped edge of the panel.
“Somebody wanted this hidden recently,” she observed.
Elena stared at the white paint on the workshop door.
The same color covered the old symbol on the scenery.
The vandalism at her house had happened on the very day she moved in.
Whoever feared the workshop had expected the property to remain empty.
Now Elena understood that the attack might have been an attempt to drive her away before she unpacked enough to notice what was changing behind the house.
She looked toward Lorraine’s home across the street.
A vehicle was parked in the driveway, but the curtains remained closed.
Then June noticed a small metal label on the exposed scenery track.
She brushed dust from its surface and read the name of a company that had never worked for the Lantern Room.
“Northfield Storage and Display,” she said.
“They didn’t build our sets.”
Peter asked why their label was attached to the track.
June shook her head.
“I don’t know,” she answered.
“But that company was supposed to collect everything after the theater closed.”
Shah took a close photograph of the label.
Elena watched her carefully.
“If they collected everything,” Elena said, “why is their equipment still underneath my workshop?”
No one answered.
From the open doorway, a car engine started across the street.
