Chapter 4 - THE FOURTH BOY
For several seconds, Julian did not breathe.
He enlarged the photograph.
Marcus moved beside him.
Adrian remained seated.
Evelyn stared at the stranger’s face.
There was something familiar about him.
Not the scar.
Not the gray hair.
The eyes.
She had seen those eyes somewhere.
Long ago.
Adrian looked at Julian.
“Can you trace it?”
“Already trying.”
Julian typed rapidly.
“The image metadata is stripped.”
“The message bounced through multiple servers.”
Marcus asked.
“Can you still trace it?”
Julian gave him a flat look.
“I said I’m trying.”
Evelyn leaned closer.
“Show me.”
Julian handed her the phone.
She studied the man.
Her fingers trembled.
“I know him.”
Adrian stood.
“From where?”
“Not as an adult.”
Marcus frowned.
“You remember a fourth boy?”
Evelyn shook her head slowly.
“No.”
Then she looked toward the baby shoe.
“I remember a photograph.”
She opened the leather ledger.
The first pages contained ordinary-looking entries.
Donations.
Food costs.
Staff signatures.
Then the numbers changed.
Children became transaction codes.
Cities became initials.
Prices appeared beside new surnames.
Evelyn turned pages with increasing dread.
She stopped near the middle.
A photograph had been tucked between two sheets.
Four boys stood in front of a chain-link fence.
Adrian.
Marcus.
Julian.
And a fourth child.
The fourth boy was taller than Marcus.
Thin.
Dark hair.
A cut above one eyebrow.
Evelyn stared at him.
“That’s him.”
Marcus took the photograph.
“You’re sure?”
“Look at the eyes.”
Julian compared the old image to the new one.
The resemblance was undeniable.
Adrian pointed toward writing beneath the photograph.
The ink was faint.
SAMUEL ROURKE.
Marcus looked up.
“Rourke?”
Evelyn’s face tightened.
Thomas’s warning returned.
Do not go to Captain Rourke.
Julian started searching.
Within seconds, a profile appeared.
Samuel Rourke.
Age forty-three.
Officially deceased.
Marcus stared.
“Deceased?”
Julian turned the screen.
According to state records, Samuel Rourke died in the Mercer House fire.
Adrian’s jaw hardened.
“Just like us.”
Julian nodded.
“But unlike us, there is no later identity trail.”
Marcus looked at Evelyn.
“Why would Captain Rourke’s son be at Mercer House?”
Evelyn shook her head.
“Rourke never mentioned having a son.”
Adrian looked toward the ledger.
“Maybe Samuel wasn’t his son.”
Julian searched deeper.
He found an adoption certificate.
The document had been sealed by court order.
But an index survived.
Samuel Rourke had been adopted at age six.
Petitioning parent.
Captain Gideon Rourke.
Approving attorney.
Silas Vane.
The room went cold.
Marcus whispered.
“Vane gave Rourke a child.”
Evelyn closed her eyes.
“Payment.”
Adrian looked at her.
“For what?”
“For looking the other way.”
Julian’s phone buzzed again.
This time there was text.
YOU HAVE THOMAS HART’S TAPE.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
Marcus scanned the room.
Julian typed.
WHO ARE YOU?
The response came immediately.
THE BOY YOU LEFT BEHIND.
Marcus’s face changed.
“I don’t remember leaving anyone.”
Another message.
YOU RAN.
I FELL.
THEY CAUGHT ME.
Julian went pale.
A memory surfaced.
A railroad fence.
Rain.
Someone screaming behind them.
He gripped the edge of the table.
Adrian noticed.
“What?”
Julian’s breathing became uneven.
“I remember.”
Marcus turned.
“What?”
“There was someone behind us.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“Who?”
Julian pressed both palms against the table.
“A boy.”
His eyes were distant.
“He climbed the fence after me.”
“His jacket caught.”
Marcus whispered.
“Sam.”
Julian nodded slowly.
“I heard him yell.”
Adrian stared.
“Why don’t I remember this?”
“Because Pike’s men were coming.”
Julian looked sick.
“We kept running.”
Marcus’s voice became defensive.
“We were children.”
“I know.”
“We would have been caught too.”
“I know.”
Julian looked toward the photograph.
“But he was caught because we didn’t go back.”
Evelyn spoke firmly.
“You were eight.”
Julian said nothing.
“You were eight years old and starving.”
Still nothing.
“You do not carry a grown man’s guilt for what a terrified child did.”
Julian’s eyes glistened.
Adrian looked at the phone.
“What does he want?”
A new message appeared.
MEET ME ALONE.
MIDNIGHT.
OLD MERCER PLATFORM.
Marcus immediately said.
“No.”
Julian said.
“I’m going.”
“No.”
“Marcus.”
“No.”
Adrian looked at both of them.
“He wants us divided.”
Julian stared at the message.
“He says alone.”
“Then he doesn’t get what he wants.”
Evelyn looked at the clock.
10:41 p.m.
“You are not meeting anyone tonight.”
Julian turned.
“Mrs. Hart—”
“Evelyn.”
He stopped.
She folded her arms.
“If we’re apparently family, witnesses, and targets together now, you can call me Evelyn.”
Adrian looked at her.
The word family hung in the air.
Julian nodded.
“Evelyn, this man may know what happened to Rebecca.”
That silenced her.
Marcus looked at Adrian.
“He’s right.”
Adrian turned toward Evelyn.
“We have to go.”
Evelyn stood.
“Then I’m going too.”
“No.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Adrian corrected himself.
“I would strongly prefer that you didn’t.”
“Better.”
“But still no.”
Evelyn picked up the leather ledger.
Adrian reached for it.
She pulled it away.
“This is why you need old women.”
Marcus almost smiled.
“Why?”
“Because people assume we’re harmless.”
She tucked the ledger into a cloth grocery bag.
“And because all three of you have the subtlety of a marching band.”
Julian looked at Adrian.
“She’s definitely your grandmother.”
Adrian almost laughed.
They left the bank through a private rear exit.
Julian changed vehicles twice.
At 11:48 p.m., they arrived near the abandoned Mercer rail platform.
The place had been closed for decades.
Rust covered the overhead beams.
Weeds grew between tracks.
No city lights reached the old freight yard.
Julian parked beneath a concrete overpass.
Adrian turned to Evelyn.
“You stay in the car.”
Evelyn reached for the door.
Adrian sighed.
“Of course.”
Marcus checked his phone.
“No signal.”
Julian looked around.
“Jammer.”
Adrian’s expression darkened.
“Expected?”
“No.”
They moved toward the platform.
Julian went first.
Marcus followed.
Adrian stayed beside Evelyn.
The wind moved broken plastic along the tracks.
Midnight arrived.
Nothing happened.
Then a figure stepped from behind an old ticket booth.
Gray coat.
Scar on chin.
Samuel.
Julian stopped.
Samuel stared at the three men.
His expression held no warmth.
No relief.
Only exhaustion.
“You came together.”
Adrian answered.
“We don’t leave people behind anymore.”
Samuel’s jaw tightened.
“That supposed to be funny?”
“No.”
Samuel looked at Evelyn.
Then at Adrian.
His eyes narrowed.
“You found her.”
Evelyn stepped forward.
“Samuel.”
He looked at her.
“Do I know you?”
“No.”
“But your husband knew me.”
Evelyn swallowed.
“You knew Thomas?”
Samuel laughed quietly.
“He saved my life.”
Julian stepped closer.
“What happened after we ran?”
Samuel looked at him.
“You really don’t remember.”
“Not enough.”
Samuel’s eyes hardened.
“They dragged me back.”
“Pike locked me in the basement.”
“Rourke came that night.”
Marcus asked.
“Your adoptive father?”
Samuel gave him a bitter smile.
“He never let me call him that.”
Adrian frowned.
“What did he call you?”
“Collateral.”
Evelyn flinched.
Samuel continued.
“Rourke told Pike the fire had to happen before sunrise.”
Julian stared.
“You heard him?”
“I watched him pour accelerant down the hallway.”
Marcus’s face tightened.
“You were inside?”
Samuel nodded.
“So were seven other children.”
Evelyn covered her mouth.
The newspaper had reported eleven dead.
Samuel’s expression remained flat.
“Thomas Hart came before they lit it.”
Evelyn whispered.
“Thomas was there?”
“He broke a basement window.”
“He got me out.”
“What about the others?”
Samuel looked away.
“He tried.”
Evelyn’s eyes filled.
Samuel continued.
“Rourke shot him outside.”
The world seemed to tilt.
Evelyn grabbed Adrian’s arm.
Adrian’s expression turned to stone.
“You saw that?”
“Yes.”
“Thomas’s car accident happened three miles away.”
“They put him in the car.”
Evelyn shut her eyes.
Thirty-four years of uncertainty collapsed into one sentence.
Samuel stared at Adrian.
“Thomas gave me something before Rourke took him.”
Adrian looked at the key.
“What?”
Samuel reached inside his coat.
Marcus stiffened.
Samuel slowly removed a folded piece of oilcloth.
He opened it.
Inside was half of a metal police badge.
Evelyn recognized the number.
Thomas’s badge.
She began to cry.
Samuel held it out.
“I kept it.”
Evelyn took it with both hands.
“Why didn’t you come forward?”
Samuel laughed without humor.
“I was ten years old.”
“Rourke found me two days later.”
“What happened?”
“He put me in a juvenile psychiatric unit under another name.”
Marcus stared.
“For how long?”
“Six years.”
Julian looked sick.
Samuel continued.
“When I got out, Rourke told me if I ever went near any of you, he would make sure the next fire had no windows.”
Adrian’s jaw tightened.
“Rourke is dead.”
Samuel looked at him.
“Gideon Rourke is.”
A pause.
“His son isn’t.”
Marcus frowned.
“His son?”
Samuel turned toward the shadows.
“Police Commissioner Daniel Rourke.”
Evelyn’s face went pale.
The current commissioner.
The man who had shaken her hand at a neighborhood safety event last winter.
Samuel looked at the grocery bag in her hands.
“You brought the ledger.”
Adrian stepped between them.
“How do you know?”
Samuel’s eyes moved toward the platform roof.
“Because we’re not alone.”
Julian turned sharply.
A red laser dot appeared on the concrete near his shoe.
Then another.
Then a third.
Samuel whispered.
“Get down.”
The first shot shattered the glass behind them.
Adrian dragged Evelyn behind a concrete pillar.
Marcus dropped beside the platform wall.
Julian rolled behind a rusted vending machine.
Samuel disappeared into darkness.
More glass exploded.
Evelyn clutched the ledger.
Adrian covered her with his body.
“Are you hit?”
“No.”
“Stay down.”
Julian shouted.
“Two shooters, west roof!”
Marcus yelled back.
“Exit?”
“Blocked!”
Adrian looked toward the tracks.
A maintenance tunnel opened beneath the far platform.
Samuel suddenly reappeared beside them.
“This way.”
Adrian stared at him.
“You brought us here.”
Samuel’s face twisted.
“I brought you here because I thought the jammer would protect us.”
Another shot struck concrete.
Samuel grabbed Evelyn’s arm.
“Move!”
They ran.
Evelyn stumbled.
Adrian lifted her almost completely off the ground.
They reached the tunnel.
Julian entered last.
He slammed a metal service door behind them.
Darkness swallowed them.
Evelyn leaned against the wall.
Her lungs burned.
Marcus turned on his phone flashlight.
Samuel stared at the grocery bag.
“Open the ledger.”
Adrian frowned.
“Now?”
“Page 118.”
Evelyn opened it.
Her fingers found the page.
At the bottom was a list of names.
One had been circled in red.
REBECCA HART.
Beside it was an address.
Marcus read aloud.
“Saint Catherine Recovery Residence.”
Evelyn stared.
“That place still exists.”
Samuel nodded.
“Under a different name.”
Adrian’s voice became urgent.
“What are you saying?”
Samuel looked directly at Evelyn.
“I’m saying your daughter didn’t disappear.”
He turned toward Adrian.
“And your mother didn’t die.”
Evelyn stopped breathing.
Samuel finished.
May you like
“She has been alive in this city for thirty-four years.”
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