. CHAPTER 4 — The Music Box in the Coffin Room
The chapel had a private room behind the altar where the family had been told Randolph’s personal effects were displayed: medals, photographs, cuff links, the kind of objects wealthy families used to make grief look orderly.
Daniel led the way with Noah beside him. Beatrice followed slowly, leaning on her cane. Vanessa walked behind them, her black veil pulled down, her mouth set so tightly it seemed carved.
Several guests tried to follow. Daniel stopped them.
“Family and legal witnesses only.”
Vanessa snapped, “Then the boy should leave.”
Beatrice struck her cane once against the marble. “The boy stays.”
Noah looked at her in surprise. Beatrice did not soften, but her eyes rested on him with something that felt almost like recognition.
Inside the private room, a long table held Randolph’s belongings beneath dim yellow lamps. Near the center sat an old wooden music box shaped like a miniature garage. Noah had seen it only once, locked inside Randolph’s study.
Vanessa moved toward it. “That is private.”
Daniel caught her wrist before she touched it.
“No,” he said. “Not anymore.”
Noah’s hands shook so badly that Beatrice took the string from him and placed the tiny key into his palm more firmly.
“Slowly,” she said.
The key fit.
When Noah turned it, the music box gave a tired mechanical sigh. Then a melody began: soft, broken, a lullaby with missing notes. A wooden panel on the side clicked open.
Inside was a small black drive, wrapped in a ribbon.
Noah stared at it. “Grandpa said the song would open the truth.”
Vanessa whispered, “This is illegal.”
Daniel looked at her. “You do not know what it is.”
“I know Randolph would never—”
“Never what?” Beatrice asked. “Protect himself from you?”
The room chilled.
For the first time, Vanessa looked afraid of the old woman.
Daniel removed a laptop from his leather case. “Randolph delivered sealed digital evidence to my office last month. It required a matching file to unlock. I did not know where he hid it.”
He inserted the drive.
The screen went black.
Then Randolph Lee appeared.
He was sitting in his study, thinner than in life, his voice rough but clear. The date in the corner was six days before his death.
“If you are watching this,” Randolph said, “then Vanessa has tried to bury more than my body.”
Noah’s throat tightened.
Vanessa backed toward the door.
Daniel stepped into her path.
May you like
On the screen, Randolph lifted the wooden toy car into view.
“This car belongs to my grandson, Noah Lee.”
