Chapter 2
Callahan opened nothing else until Nathan had every item photographed and inventoried.
That irritated Delphine.
Good.
“You’re turning this into evidence?” she asked.
Callahan looked at her.
“You locked my daughter in a shed containing five years of hidden correspondence from her mother.”
“She needed discipline.”
“Those are two different sentences.”
Delphine folded her arms.
“Evelyn did not want contact.”
Callahan looked toward the letters.
“Then why write?”
Delphine stopped.
Nathan noticed too.
Callahan continued.
“Why send gifts?”
“She changed her mind constantly.”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
Callahan smiled without warmth.
“You were photographed with her.”
“That doesn’t mean I know where she is now.”
“When?”
Delphine said nothing.
Callahan’s patience ended there.
Not violently.
Procedurally.
He called Rebecca Sloan, outside counsel for the legitimate Royce family businesses.
“Preserve everything connected to Evelyn Royce’s disappearance.”
Rebecca went silent.
“Why?”
“She’s alive.”
Another pause.
“Callahan, do not move money. Do not contact insurers. Do not threaten anyone. Give me facts first.”
“That sounds personal.”
“It sounds like I know you.”
Callahan almost smiled.
“Fine.”
He gave her the photograph.
The letters.
The packages.
The shed.
Then he called Maple’s child therapist.
He did not ask Maple whether she remembered being locked inside before.
He did not ask how often.
He let professionals decide how to speak with her.
That evening, Maple asked something on her own.
“Is Mommy really alive?”
Callahan sat beside her bed.
“I think she may be.”
Maple stared at him.
“You said she died.”
“I believed she did.”
“Were you wrong?”
“Yes.”
Children did not need legal vocabulary.
They needed truth they could hold.
Maple’s eyes filled.
“Did she know where I was?”
Callahan looked toward the unopened letters downstairs.
“I don’t know yet.”
That answer hurt her.
It also happened to be honest.
After Maple fell asleep, Nathan returned with the first inventory.
Twenty-three cards.
Eleven gifts.
Seven photographs.
Four envelopes addressed directly to Callahan.
Three packages carried forwarding labels showing they had first been sent to a private mailbox.
The mailbox belonged to Delphine.
That was the first clue.
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Evelyn had not simply entrusted Delphine with random gifts.
Delphine had built herself into the route between Evelyn and the Royce family.
