Chapter 3 - The Tin Box Beneath Caleb’s Bed
Roman read the message three times.
Romy.
His mother had called him that when nobody else was listening.
Not his father.
Not Dominic.
Not even the servants who had raised him after her death.
Nora watched his face.
“You know who sent it.”
“No.”
“But you know the name.”
Roman locked the phone.
“We’re going back.”
“My brother is there.”
“And whoever has him wants me emotional.”
“He’s nine!”
“I know.”
“No, you don’t.”
Roman turned.
Nora’s voice broke.
“You don’t know what it’s like to be the only person a child has.”
Roman’s expression went empty.
Dominic looked away.
Nora realized immediately.
Roman said quietly, “Actually, I do.”
His mother died when he was fifteen.
His father had been alive another nine years.
But alive and present were not the same thing.
Nora lowered her voice.
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You didn’t know.”
He looked toward Pier Nine.
“We prepare first.”
At the mansion, Dominic assembled maps, personnel records, security footage, and every surviving Calder document connected to the harbor.
Nora sat beside Roman’s desk.
The tin box remained between them.
“You said Caleb had been saving money,” Roman said.
“Yes.”
“For what?”
“He wouldn’t tell me.”
“Could someone have given him the phone?”
“Maybe Mrs. Adler.”
Dominic checked.
“She says no.”
Roman examined the box.
“May I?”
Nora hesitated.
Then nodded.
He emptied it carefully.
Coins.
Notes.
Baseball cards.
Toy dinosaur.
Phone.
A brass key taped beneath the dinosaur.
Nora stared.
“I’ve never seen that.”
Roman removed it.
Stamped into the metal:
9-C.
Pier Nine.
Nora whispered, “How did Caleb get it?”
Roman opened one of the notes Nora had written.
Eat everything.
Remember your lunch.
Mrs. Adler will knock at seven.
I love you more than all the stars.
He folded it again.
“What did Caleb mean when he said he didn’t tell them about the key?”
“He must have hidden it before they took him.”
“In the box.”
“Yes.”
Roman looked at the phone.
“Which means whoever gave him this phone probably gave him the key.”
Dominic entered.
“We recovered school footage.”
He played it.
Caleb exited the school.
A woman approached.
The camera showed only her back.
She wore a gray coat.
Caleb did not resist.
He looked surprised.
Then happy.
Nora leaned closer.
“He knew her.”
The woman bent and said something.
Caleb hugged her.
Nora stopped breathing.
“I don’t understand.”
Roman paused the footage.
“Who would he trust?”
“Mrs. Adler. His teacher. Me.”
“Family?”
“No.”
“Friends of your mother?”
Nora thought.
Then remembered something.
A birthday card.
Every year.
No return address.
Always twenty dollars.
Always the same sentence.
For the stars.
“I need to go home.”
Roman drove her himself.
The apartment door showed no forced entry.
Nora rushed to Caleb’s room.
His shoebox of notes remained beneath the bed.
Beside it sat eleven birthday cards.
Roman examined them.
Same handwriting.
Same message.
FOR THE STARS.
The earliest had arrived when Caleb turned one.
Nora whispered, “I thought they were from someone my mother knew.”
Roman opened the latest envelope.
A faint watermark appeared beneath the lamp.
C.S.
He looked at Nora.
“Charles Sterling.”
“Evelyn’s father?”
“He died twelve years ago.”
“Caleb is nine.”
“Exactly.”
Nora sat down.
Roman searched the envelope.
Something hard was hidden beneath the lining.
He tore it carefully.
A photograph slid out.
Sarah Hayes stood beside Roman’s mother again.
This time they were inside a hospital room.
Between them was an infant.
On the back:
HE MUST NEVER KNOW WHICH FAMILY SAVED HIM.
Roman stared.
Nora saw his hand tremble.
“Is that you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Roman.”
He looked at her.
It was the first time she had said his name.
Neither commented.
“My mother gave birth to me at home,” he said. “According to my father.”
Nora pointed to the photograph.
“That looks like St. Agnes.”
Roman recognized the old hospital emblem.
“Yes.”
Nora searched through her mother’s belongings.
At the bottom of a drawer she found Sarah’s nursing badge.
Behind it was a number.
9-C.
The same number stamped on Caleb’s key.
Roman’s phone rang.
Evelyn.
She was being held in a secure room at the mansion.
He answered.
“What?”
“You found the cards.”
Roman looked at Nora.
“How do you know?”
“Because my father sent them.”
“Your father is dead.”
“No.”
Roman said nothing.
Evelyn laughed softly.
“That’s the first lie, Roman.”
“Where is he?”
“You think I kidnapped Nora because I was jealous.”
“Didn’t you?”
“I hated her. That part is true.”
Nora heard.
Evelyn continued.
“But I didn’t order her death.”
“Who did?”
“My father.”
Nora’s blood chilled.
Roman’s voice remained controlled.
“Why?”
“Because Sarah Hayes stole something from him twenty-two years ago.”
“What?”
“You.”
Roman went silent.
Evelyn spoke slowly.
“Your name isn’t Roman Calder.”
The call ended.
Nora stared at him.
Dominic swore under his breath.
Roman called back.
No answer.
Again.
Nothing.
Then the mansion security system sent an alert.
The room holding Evelyn had opened.
From the inside.
Roman looked at Dominic.
“How?”
Dominic was already calling his men.
No response.
The estate cameras went dark one after another.
Roman’s phone displayed the final live image from the corridor outside Evelyn’s room.
A man stood before the camera.
Gray hair.
Expensive coat.
A face Roman recognized from a funeral portrait.
Charles Sterling.
The dead man looked directly into the lens.
May you like
Then he raised one finger to his lips.
The feed died.
