Kyle shook his head. “I have no idea. I’ve never been able to figure it out.” He walked over to the spot from which the noise seemed to originate, and it was the same as before. Only this time, one of the bricks in the wall seemed to be protruding slightly more than the others. He tried to recall what in the bank was directly on the other side of the wall from where they were standing, but couldn’t quite remember.

Hadn’t it been an empty section of wall? Between a water cooler and an unoccupied desk?

On impulse, he walked out the front of the store and peeked in the window of the bank. It was hard to see with the late afternoon sun reflecting off the glass, so he cupped his hands on the sides of his eyes and pressed his face against the window. Desk…desk…potted plant…water cooler…cabinet.

Cabinet?

He didn’t remember that.

It was square and vaguely European. Antique looking. Like something a wealthy collector would have in his house. Above it was a framed photograph of…someone. He was pretty sure neither had been in place the last time he’d visited.

“Hey, you! Get away from there!”

He pulled away to see a security guard waving at him from in front of the bank’s door.

“It’s a public sidewalk,” Kyle told him.

“And that window’s private property.”

“And my store is right here. And you’re an asshole. So I guess we’ve covered just about everything.” Kyle turned away and walked back into Brave New World. Why would a bank have a cabinet like that? he wondered. Just for decoration, probably. But the fact that it was located in the exact spot where the tapping seemed to originate caused him to think. It was definitely big enough to hide a person inside. That made no sense, though. Would someone sit all day in a box just to periodically knock on the wall?

Nothing about this tracked, and he conceded to himself that he was wasting time trying to find a logical explanation where none existed.

At home that night, he brought up the idea of moving to another city. Nick was immediately receptive, and Kyle couldn’t remember the last time he’d seen his son grin so broadly. “Yes!” he said. “I vote for New York or L.A.”

“We don’t have the money for that. We may not have enough money to move at all. But if we did, it would probably be Mesa or Tempe, maybe Glendale or Peoria. Somewhere in the Phoenix area.”

Anita was already shaking her head. “We can’t afford to move. I don’t think I even have a job anymore after…what happened.”

“All the more reason,” Kyle said. “It’ll be a lot easier to find a job in a metropolitan area than it will here in Montgomery.”