Ornate keyhole with skull on chest

The trunk came off the 4.10 from Crewe on Tuesday with its brass corners dented and a ticket still tied to the handle, and I have kept it in the back office ever since because nobody in Shrewsbury can open it. Your father's name is on the label, so I am writing to you rather than to the police, who would only ask me the same questions twice.

The lock is a fine piece. It is an ornate keyhole, scrolled like the ironwork at Hodnet Hall, with a small skull sitting in the crown of it and fleurs-de-lis down the bottom where the bolt goes through. Mr Haines from the forge says it is older than the trunk, and that whoever made it meant the key to be the hardest part of the box. He tried three blanks from your father's bench and none would turn. The opening itself is black as a cellar, so you cannot see past the first inch.

Your father wrote on the back of the consignment slip that the key was where the skull looks. I have been turning that over since Tuesday. This afternoon I held a candle to the dark of the keyhole and found that the wards are not cut into the brass at all. They are the teeth of a small skull, grinning at the bolt.

Come and fetch it before the Thursday porter sends it to the sale room. Bring whichever of your father's keys you have never been able to place. I believe you will know which one to try.

Yours sincerely, Edith Quarrell, Left Luggage, Shrewsbury Station