Chapter 2 - THE MAN WHO KNEW MY NAME
I did not sleep.
The photograph lay on my kitchen table beneath the yellow light. Caleb
looked older than I remembered, but not different. Same narrow smile.
Same expensive jacket. Same eyes that always seemed to be measuring what
a person could give him.
On the back, someone had written three words.
ASK HIM WHY.
I called the police first. Then I called the number Daniel had given me
for the DeLuca family’s attorney. I did not call Roman. I wanted one
night in which I could make my own decisions.
By eight the next morning, a black sedan waited outside my building.
Daniel stepped out.
“Mr. DeLuca asked me to bring you to the mansion.”
“Did he ask, or order?”
Daniel considered that. “He asked. I was instructed to accept no answer
other than the one you give.”
“That sounds like an order wearing a nice coat.”
A small smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. “You may tell him
that yourself.”
I went because the photograph had been taken from the street outside the
mansion. Whoever sent it wanted me to know Caleb had been close.
Roman was in his study when I arrived. He stood behind a desk covered
with folders. Elena sat near the window with a blanket over her knees.
I placed the photograph on the desk.
“Your security team missed him.”
Roman studied it. “This picture was taken yesterday afternoon. The gate
camera recorded a man matching his description, but he never approached
the property.”
“He knows where I work.”
“He knew before you worked here.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
Roman slid a folder toward me. Inside were public business filings,
collection notices, and a photograph of Caleb entering an office
building.
“Your ex-husband worked for a company that provided bookkeeping services
to one of our legitimate businesses,” Roman said. “He left shortly
before you reported the fraudulent loans.”
I felt the room tilt.
“He told me he did accounts for a construction company.”
“He may have. The company was a subcontractor.”
“Are you saying he stole money from you?”
“We’re saying he may have used employee information to open credit
accounts. Yours was one of several identities flagged in an old internal
audit.”
I stared at the pages. My name appeared beside two others. One belonged
to a woman I had never met. The other was listed as an elderly man from
Indiana.
“Why didn’t anyone tell me?”
“Because the audit was incomplete. The records were moved between
companies, and the people responsible disappeared.”
I thought about the envelopes. “The eight hundred dollars?”
Roman shook his head. “I didn’t send them.”
“Do you know who did?”
“Not yet.”
Elena reached for my hand. “Maya, I’m sorry.”
I looked at her. “You didn’t do this.”
“No. But I recognize the photograph.”
Roman turned. “What?”
Elena’s eyes were fixed on Caleb’s face. “He came here once. Three years
ago. The night after the accident.”
Roman went very still.
“What did he want?”
“He said he had been sent by someone from the hospital. He wanted to
know whether Mother had left me anything.”
Roman’s face hardened. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because I was medicated, frightened, and you were trying to keep the
whole family from falling apart. You told me not to speak to strangers.”
“That was to protect you.”
“It also meant I stopped telling you things.”
The words landed between them.
I looked at the photograph again. “Caleb was here the night your mother
died?”
Elena nodded slowly. “I remember his voice. I remember the ring on his
right hand.”
Roman opened another file and pulled out an old security still. The
image was grainy, but the man at the gate wore the same ring.
Roman’s voice dropped.
“Caleb didn’t come here for money.”
May you like
He turned the photograph over.
“He came looking for something my mother hid.”
