Chapter 5 - A Dead Man at Pier Nineteen
Roman did not touch the computer.
He stood so still that I could hear rainwater dripping from the broken stockroom window behind us.
Mason leaned closer to the screen.
"Sir, the timestamp could have been altered."
Roman nodded once.
"Yes."
But his voice did not sound convinced.
I enlarged the photograph.
The man near the SUV was partly turned away from the camera.
His face was blurred by darkness and distance.
Still, there were details that seemed too specific to dismiss.
He wore a long black coat.
His left shoulder sat slightly lower than his right.
A silver watch flashed at his wrist.
Roman stared at that watch.
"Gabriel wore that every day."
"Your brother's name was Gabriel?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Could someone else have had the same watch?"
"It was our father's."
Roman's eyes stayed on the image.
"One of one."
Mason straightened.
"Where is it now?"
Roman looked at him.
"It was buried with Gabriel."
A slow cold sensation moved across my shoulders.
I turned back to the photograph.
The timestamp read 02:13:44.
Three days after the funeral.
Pier Nineteen.
A dead man.
Or someone who wanted Roman's sister to believe a dead man was still alive.
I opened the file information.
The image had been uploaded by Isabella Vale five years and eight months earlier.
That was several months before her own death.
"She knew," I said.
Roman's jaw tightened.
"Knew what?"
"That something about Gabriel's death didn't make sense."
"You don't know that."
"She hid the photograph in a dog adoption archive and left instructions saying to contact me before Calder Security."
I turned to him.
"Your sister was afraid of somebody inside your security organization."
Roman's eyes went flat.
"Lucian didn't work for me when Gabriel died."
"Who did?"
Mason looked uncomfortable.
Roman answered anyway.
"My father ran security then."
"And where is he now?"
"Dead."
The word landed like a door closing.
I folded my arms.
"Your family has a lot of dead people in this story."
Mason shot me a warning look.
Roman did not.
"Yes."
That was all he said.
I searched the archive for Isabella Vale.
There were four results.
Three were adoption forms.
The fourth was an email attachment with no subject line.
I opened it.
The document contained a single sentence.
HE REMEMBERS WHAT PEOPLE FORGET.
Below it was another number.
19-4-11-3.
Mason frowned.
"Coordinates?"
"Too short," I said.
Roman looked at Titan.
"Kennel code?"
I shook my head.
"The rescue didn't use numbers like that."
I wrote it on a receipt.
19-4-11-3.
Then I looked at the sentence again.
He remembers what people forget.
Titan had remembered me.
He had remembered Lucian.
Maybe Isabella had trusted that memory deliberately.
"Did Titan ever react strangely to people after Isabella died?"
Roman considered it.
"For the first few months he reacted to almost everyone."
"After that?"
"No."
"Never avoided a particular person?"
Roman looked toward Mason.
Mason's eyes lowered.
That was answer enough.
"Who?" I asked.
Roman's voice sharpened.
"Mason."
Mason exhaled.
"There was one."
"Who?"
"Damian Calder."
Roman's head snapped toward him.
"My cousin?"
"Titan never liked him."
"You told me Titan didn't like his cologne."
"That's what Lucian said."
Roman stepped closer.
"You accepted that?"
"At the time, yes."
"How many times did it happen?"
"Three that I saw."
"And you never told me?"
Mason's face tightened.
"You were dealing with Isabella's estate, the board fight, and your father's final hospitalization."
"Lucian said Titan had become scent-reactive after the crash."
Roman stared at him.
"You decided not to bother me."
"I decided it didn't look like a threat."
Roman's voice became dangerously quiet.
"Everything looks like a threat after tonight."
Titan stood and moved toward the office door.
He sniffed the air.
Then he returned to me.
I scratched behind his ear.
"Who's Damian?"
Roman did not answer immediately.
"My father's younger brother's son."
"He runs Calder Hospitality."
"And?"
"And he has wanted my position for most of his adult life."
"That's not exactly proof of murder."
"No."
"But it makes him interesting."
Roman looked at me.
"You sound like Reeves."
"Maybe Sergeant Reeves is smart."
"He is."
That answer surprised me.
"You like a police officer?"
"I didn't say that."
"You called him smart."
"Those are not the same thing."
Under different circumstances I might have laughed.
Instead I looked at the unknown number again.
NOW ROMAN KNOWS WHERE YOU ARE.
"What if that message isn't a threat to me?"
Roman's eyes narrowed.
"Explain."
"What if it's a warning?"
"From who?"
"Someone who wanted me hidden from you."
"Why?"
"Maybe Isabella didn't trust you either."
The air changed.
Mason took one step backward.
Roman did not raise his voice.
"Careful."
"I didn't accuse you of anything."
"You implied my sister feared me."
"She told an animal rescue to contact me before anyone from Calder Security."
"You are Calder."
"Maybe she separated you from the organization."
Roman's anger did not disappear.
But he listened.
"If Isabella believed someone inside your company was dangerous, she may have hidden evidence outside your reach."
"Me, the rescue, Titan."
I pointed at the file.
"And whatever 19-4-11-3 means."
Roman's phone vibrated.
He glanced at the screen.
For the first time that night, he looked genuinely surprised.
"What?" Mason asked.
Roman turned the phone so he could see it.
Mason went pale.
I stepped closer.
The message contained a photograph.
A man sat in a wooden chair with his hands bound behind him.
His head was lowered.
Blood darkened one side of his white shirt.
I recognized Lucian.
Behind him, someone held up a piece of paper.
Three words were written across it.
BRING THE DOG.
Beneath that was an address.
Pier Nineteen.
Roman stared at the image.
"They're not asking for money."
"No," I said.
"They want Titan."
Mason looked at Roman.
"It's a trap."
"Obviously."
"Then we don't go."
Roman's eyes stayed on the photograph.
"Lucian betrayed us."
"Yes."
"He also knows who put the receiver in Titan's harness."
Mason's jaw tightened.
"And whoever has him wants you at the pier."
"Not me."
Roman looked at the message.
"The dog."
I felt Titan's shoulder against my knee.
"You're not taking him there."
Roman looked at me.
"No."
I blinked.
"That was easier than expected."
"I'm not taking him."
He slipped the phone into his pocket.
"We're taking a decoy."
I stared at him.
"We?"
Roman picked up his coat.
"Someone installed access equipment in your store before Titan ever escaped."
"Someone texted you the moment I connected you to Isabella."
"Someone knows you're part of this now."
He looked straight at me.
"You can stay here and wait for them to come back."
"Or you can come with me and find out why my dead sister left your name behind."
I hated that he was right.
I hated even more that Titan stood the moment Roman moved toward the door.
Not to follow Roman.
May you like
To follow me.
