Chapter 6 - The Dog They Stole Twice)
Emma had been angry before.
Now she was dangerous.
Roman recognized the difference.
She did not shout.
She did not cry.
She stood in the empty veterinary room staring at Titan's blanket and asked one question.
"Who took him?"
Leah described the men.
Two uniforms.
A transport van.
Corporate badges.
Paperwork bearing Roman's signature.
"They knew the procedure," she said. "I called the number on the form. Someone answered from Calder legal and confirmed it."
Roman looked at Elias.
"Inside access."
Elias nodded.
"High level."
Emma picked up Titan's blanket.
"He trusted me."
Roman stepped closer.
"This isn't your fault."
She looked at him.
"Don't."
He stopped.
"Don't tell me that because you don't know what I'm thinking."
Roman waited.
Emma folded the blanket.
"I'm thinking I promised him nobody would touch him without letting him choose."
Her voice shook once.
"And then I left."
Roman looked toward the empty kennel.
"So did I."
That was the first moment Emma understood something about Roman Calder.
Power had protected him from many things.
It had never protected him from regret.
Elias traced the van through traffic cameras.
It crossed the Tobin Bridge.
Then disappeared near an industrial district.
No license plate.
No company markings.
Roman's lawyers attacked the transfer order.
It led nowhere.
The legal office denied issuing it.
The phone confirmation had been routed through an internal system.
Someone inside Calder Global had authorized the abduction.
At four in the afternoon Emma's store manager called.
"There's something here."
Emma returned to the pet store with Roman.
The store had reopened, though reporters waited across the street.
Inside, Emma's manager handed her a padded shipping envelope.
No return address.
Inside was Titan's broken leather harness.
Nothing else.
Emma turned it over.
The electronic components had been removed.
Roman inspected the inside.
"They sent this to scare us."
Emma disagreed.
"No."
She ran a finger along the seam.
"This isn't the same."
Roman looked closer.
"It looks identical."
"The stitching is different."
Emma carried it to her workbench.
She cut the inner lining.
A small folded piece of paper dropped out.
Roman stared.
The note contained only a six digit number.
Elias entered it into several databases.
Nothing.
Emma tried reading it as a date.
Nothing.
Roman looked toward the shelves.
"What would Nora do?"
Emma turned.
"What?"
"You found her ledger because you thought like someone who works with animals. What would this number mean in a kennel?"
Emma looked again.
Six digits.
She wrote spaces between them.
22 07 14.
"Animal ID?"
Elias searched.
Nothing.
Emma reversed it.
14 07 22.
Then she remembered the photographs at Northbridge.
Each dog had a letter and a number.
Titan was T-17.
"Try inventory."
Elias accessed a foundation database through archived files.
The number matched a microchip.
Not Titan.
A dog named Jasper.
Transferred from Northbridge fourteen months earlier.
Destination listed as Blackwater Property 6.
The same place on the shipping manifest.
Roman leaned over the laptop.
"Address?"
"None."
Emma looked at the packaging.
"Maybe the harness wasn't sent by Victor."
Roman looked at her.
"Who else has Titan?"
"Someone inside wherever they took him."
Elias searched vendor records linked to Blackwater.
One rural property in Massachusetts had utility bills paid through a shell company connected to the foundation.
Two hours west.
Roman was already reaching for his coat.
Emma caught his arm.
"If this is a trap, running into it is exactly what Victor wants."
Roman looked at her hand on his sleeve.
She released him.
"I thought you wanted Titan back."
"I do."
"Then we go."
"Not like him."
Roman understood.
Victor solved problems with force.
Emma was telling him not to become Victor simply because he was frightened.
They waited.
Elias contacted a state investigator Roman trusted.
Leah provided veterinary documentation.
Emma copied every file from Titan's card.
By midnight they had enough evidence to request a search warrant, but not enough to guarantee immediate approval.
Roman stood at Emma's store window.
Across the street, rain began again.
"Friday is tomorrow."
Emma joined him.
"If they still need Titan for the gala, they won't move him far."
Roman looked at her reflection.
"You think he's alive."
"I know he is."
"How?"
"Because Victor needs him frightened."
Roman closed his eyes briefly.
Emma immediately regretted the sentence.
But he only nodded.
At 12:17 a.m. Emma's phone rang.
Unknown number.
She answered.
No voice.
Only breathing.
Then a sound.
A dog whining.
Emma gripped the phone.
"Titan?"
The whining stopped.
A tiny electronic chirp sounded.
Titan cried out.
Roman turned sharply.
A man's voice whispered.
"Friday night."
The call disconnected.
Emma stood frozen.
Roman reached for the phone.
She pulled it away.
"No."
"We can trace it."
"No. Listen."
She replayed the voicemail automatically saved by her security app.
At first there was only Titan.
Then the chirp.
Then the voice.
Then something else.
Three soft tones in the background.
A station announcement.
Emma increased the volume.
Elias listened.
"That's a rail crossing."
Roman shook his head.
"No."
He had heard something else.
A bell.
Then a horn.
Not a train horn.
A ship.
Roman walked to Nora's ledger and flipped through the copied pages.
One shell company name appeared repeatedly.
Harbor Blackwater Holdings.
His finger stopped.
"I know Property 6."
Emma looked at him.
Roman's eyes hardened.
"It's not west of Boston."
"Where is it?"
May you like
He looked toward the dark harbor.
"It's on an island."
