Chapter 5
The police stayed for almost three hours.
I sat at Robert’s kitchen table with a blanket around my shoulders while Daniel made phone calls.
Lawyer.
Bank.
Police investigator.
Someone from the county records office.
Every call made his face harder.
Every answer seemed worse.
Robert sat across from me, staring at the half-shredded trust amendment sealed inside an evidence bag.
Finally I said, “Are you mad at me?”
His head snapped up.
“What?”
“You look mad.”
“Oh, Caleb.”
He pushed the document aside.
“No. Never at you.”
“Everything got bad when I came.”
Robert leaned forward.
“Everything was already bad.”
“But nobody knew.”
“That doesn’t make it good.”
I thought about that.
Adults liked hidden things.
They called silence peace.
Mom never did.
She used to say quiet and safe were not the same thing.
Daniel came back into the kitchen.
“The county has no matching death record.”
Robert stood.
“For Caleb?”
“Yes.”
“What about the certificate Vanessa gave me?”
“Fake.”
Robert closed his eyes.
Daniel’s laugh was bitter.
“She didn’t even file anything. She just created a document convincing enough for two grieving idiots to believe it.”
“You were twenty-four.”
“I was old enough to ask questions.”
“You had just lost Sarah.”
“I thought I had lost Sarah.”
Daniel looked at me.
“And then I thought I lost him.”
He sat beside me.
“Caleb, there’s something we need to do.”
“What?”
“A DNA test.”
I looked at him.
His face immediately softened.
“It isn’t because I don’t want you.”
“Then why?”
“Because we need proof no one can challenge.”
“Vanessa?”
“Vanessa. Lawyers. The trust. Everyone.”
I touched the metal tag.
“What if it says you’re not my dad?”
The question hurt to ask.
Daniel looked hurt hearing it.
“Then I will still help you.”
“Help me?”
“Yes.”
“Would I have to leave?”
He hesitated.
That hesitation scared me.
I pulled my hand away from his.
Daniel saw it.
“No. Listen.”
He crouched.
“If somehow I’m not your biological father, you are still Sarah’s son. And Sarah mattered to me more than anyone I had ever known.”
I stared at him.
“But I believe you’re mine.”
“Why?”
He smiled through wet eyes.
“Because you make the same face I do when you don’t trust someone.”
Robert laughed unexpectedly.
It was the first good sound in the house all day.
Daniel looked at him.
“What?”
“He does.”
I tried not to smile.
For a few seconds, the room felt different.
Then Robert’s phone rang.
His attorney.
The good moment ended.
Robert went into the hallway.
Daniel made me another sandwich.
“I already ate.”
“You ate half.”
“I’m not hungry.”
His eyes narrowed.
“Are you sure?”
I nodded.
Truthfully, I was hungry.
But I had learned to save food.
Daniel saw me wrap the sandwich in a napkin and slide it toward my pocket.
He stopped moving.
“What are you doing?”
“Saving it.”
“For later?”
I nodded.
“There will be food later.”
I kept wrapping it.
Daniel slowly sat down.
“Caleb.”
I looked at him.
“There will be breakfast tomorrow.”
I said nothing.
“And lunch.”
My fingers stopped.
“And dinner.”
I stared at the sandwich.
Daniel’s voice became quiet.
“You don’t have to hide food here.”
My eyes started burning.
I hated that.
Crying made adults uncomfortable.
Mom never minded, but she was gone.
“I’m not hiding it.”
“I know.”
He didn’t take the sandwich away.
Instead, he opened a drawer and gave me a clean plastic bag.
“Keep it if you want.”
I looked at him.
He smiled sadly.
“Just know there’s more.”
I put the sandwich in the bag.
“Thank you.”
That night, Daniel took me back to his house.
Robert wanted us to stay with him, but Daniel refused.
“I need time with Caleb.”
Robert nodded.
Then he hugged me before we left.
I froze again.
He pulled back.
“Sorry.”
“No.”
I stepped forward and hugged him myself.
His breath caught.
“Goodnight, Grandpa.”
The word came out before I thought about it.
Robert started crying.
Daniel looked away.
I think he was crying too.
At Daniel’s house, he showed me a bedroom upstairs.
It had gray walls and a large window.
“This was my office.”
There was no desk anymore.
Only a bed he had assembled while I showered.
New sheets.
New pillows.
A lamp.
“Tomorrow we’ll get whatever you need.”
“I don’t need much.”
“That’s okay.”
He put a folded T-shirt and sweatpants on the bed.
“They’ll be big.”
I looked at them.
“Are they yours?”
“Yes.”
I smiled.
“I like them.”
His eyes softened.
“Bathroom is across the hall. My room is at the end.”
“Okay.”
He walked toward the door.
Then I asked, “Can you leave it open?”
He stopped.
“Of course.”
“And the hall light?”
“On.”
He nodded.
“Anything else?”
I wanted to ask him not to go away.
I didn’t.
“No.”
He left.
I lay in the bed staring at the ceiling.
It was too soft.
Too clean.
Too quiet.
I couldn’t sleep.
Every time a car passed outside, my body tightened.
Around midnight, I heard Daniel talking downstairs.
I slipped out of bed.
Robert had come over.
Their voices carried from the kitchen.
“The bank froze the trust,” Robert said.
“Good.”
“Vanessa tried accessing another account.”
“When?”
“Tonight.”
“Can she?”
“No.”
Silence.
Then Robert said, “Daniel, there’s more.”
I stood on the stairs.
“What?”
“Vanessa wasn’t alone in this.”
Daniel’s chair moved.
“How do you know?”
“My lawyer found payments.”
“What payments?”
“Eight years ago. Monthly transfers from my personal account.”
“To who?”
“A private investigator named Miles Crane.”
Daniel went quiet.
Robert continued.
“The payments started two months before Sarah disappeared.”
My hand tightened around the railing.
“What did he investigate?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Who authorized the payments?”
“Vanessa.”
Daniel cursed under his breath.
I took one step lower.
The stairs creaked.
Both men looked up.
Daniel immediately came toward me.
“Hey.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
He looked guilty.
“How much did you hear?”
“All of it.”
Robert stood.
“We weren’t trying to hide things from you.”
“Who’s Miles?”
Daniel and Robert exchanged a look.
“A man Vanessa hired,” Daniel said.
“To find Mom?”
“Maybe.”
I swallowed.
“I know Miles.”
Both men froze.
Daniel crouched in front of me.
“What do you mean?”
“Mom knew a Miles.”
“What did he look like?”
“Big. Beard. Tattoo here.”
I touched the side of my neck.
Robert pulled out his phone and searched.
He turned the screen toward me.
A photograph appeared.
Older man.
Heavy shoulders.
Gray beard.
Snake tattoo on his neck.
My stomach dropped.
“That’s him.”
Daniel went still.
“When did you see him?”
“A lot.”
“How much is a lot?”
“When we moved.”
Daniel’s face changed.
“He helped you move?”
“No.”
I shook my head.
“He came after us.”
Robert whispered, “My God.”
Daniel took my hands.
“Caleb, I need you to think carefully.”
“I am.”
“What did your mother say about him?”
“She said if I ever saw him, I had to hide.”
Daniel’s jaw tightened.
“Did he ever hurt her?”
I remembered a bruise around Mom’s wrist.
A broken window.
The night we left our apartment without packing.
“Yes.”
Daniel closed his eyes.
Robert turned away.
“What did he do?”
“He grabbed her once.”
“Did you see it?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“She hit him with a lamp.”
Daniel almost smiled.
“That sounds like Sarah.”
Then I remembered something else.
“He said she couldn’t run forever.”
Daniel’s smile disappeared.
Robert picked up his phone.
“I’m calling the detective.”
I grabbed Daniel’s sleeve.
“There’s something in Mom’s blue box.”
“What?”
“A picture of Miles.”
“Why would she have his picture?”
“She wrote on the back.”
“What did she write?”
I tried to remember.
Mom made me read it once.
She said if anything happened to her, I needed to remember.
“It said, ‘This man works for Vanessa Harper.’”
Robert lowered his phone.
Daniel’s face turned pale.
“Where exactly is this box?”
“At Miss June’s house.”
“We’re going tomorrow morning.”
I shook my head.
“What?”
“We can’t.”
“Why not?”
“Miss June’s nephew changed the locks.”
Daniel stood.
“I’ll call him.”
“No.”
Something in my voice stopped him.
“What is it?”
I looked at both men.
“The box isn’t inside the house.”
“Where is it?”
“In the shed behind the house.”
Daniel nodded.
“That’s easier.”
“No.”
I remembered the last day I had gone back.
The broken lock.
The open shed door.
Mud on the floor.
Things moved around.
“My box might be gone.”
Daniel’s face tightened.
May you like
“What makes you think that?”
“Because somebody had already been looking for it.”
