He introduced himself as Ruben Flores, a maintenance worker who had been hired after the warehouse changed owners.
When Selma asked about old records, Ruben told her his employer kept some archived maintenance reports at a different location.
He remembered finding a painted sign in a storage closet when the new company moved in.
The sign read Northbridge Housing Annex.
“There were never beds here when I started,” he said.
“Just broken folding chairs and boxes of paperwork.”
He described a metal cabinet that had been moved during a roof leak.
A supervisor had sent it to a records warehouse instead of discarding it.
Selma wrote down the supervisor’s contact information and thanked him.
They did not ask Ruben to take documents or violate his employer’s rules.
On the ride back, Caleb wondered why he had expected the investigation to move like a movie.
He had pictured a dramatic room full of hidden evidence.
Instead, they collected phone numbers, old dates, and small contradictions that might survive being challenged.
Selma explained that the truth often emerged in that patient, unglamorous way.
“You don’t want a story that sounds right,” she said.
“You want something that remains true after people with money have tried to take it apart.”
Caleb wrote the sentence in his phone.
That night he made copies of job applications and called his landlord to explain the delay he hoped to avoid.
The landlord granted him an extra week without a late fee.
Caleb thanked her twice.
He had begun to notice the difference between assistance that preserved dignity and help that arrived with a leash attached.
Chapter 9: The Man Who Used Another Name
Lewis Grant had not disappeared in the way the old papers suggested.
He had changed his surname after leaving a rehabilitation program in another state.
A volunteer researcher working with Mara found a public obituary for a woman whose surviving relatives included a man named Lewis Galen.
The age and a past employment history matched several details in the East Harbor intake file.
Mara contacted him through an advocate rather than calling the number without warning.
He agreed to speak by video after learning that Arthur was alive.
Caleb sat outside the interview room while the conversation took place.
He could hear nothing through the closed door.
When Lewis emerged an hour later on the screen, Selma asked whether Caleb wanted to meet him.
Lewis said yes.
He was a lean man with a gray beard and a soft voice.
