Helen shook her head.
"The date is earlier. But the statement mentions a second case involving a child born to a woman connected to Arthur Vale."
Colton opened his eyes.
"Who?"
Helen looked at the page.
"The name has been removed from this copy. But the case number is seventeen."
The same number written on the photograph.
Rebecca stepped backward.
"No."
Colton turned toward her.
"What?"
She stared at the photograph of the newborn.
"No. That cannot be right."
"Tell us what you know," Mara said.
Rebecca shook her head.
"I thought that case had been closed."
"What case?" Colton demanded.
Rebecca looked at the papers.
"Arthur had a daughter before you were born. A child from another relationship. The mother disappeared shortly after the birth. Arthur told me the baby had died."
The room went silent.
Colton stared at her.
"Arthur had another child?"
"Yes."
"Who was the mother?"
"I never met her. Her name was Elise."
"Elise what?"
Rebecca pressed a hand to her mouth.
"I don't remember her surname. Arthur said she had left the state before the child was born."
Helen looked at the file.
"That does not match the records here. Case seventeen concerns a child whose identity was altered after birth. The child was not recorded as deceased."
Rebecca began to tremble.
"Then Arthur lied to me."
Colton almost laughed at the absurdity of it.
"Apparently, lying is a family tradition."
Mara gave him a sharp look, but she did not disagree.
Helen examined the remaining papers.
"There are references to a transfer authorization. The receiving guardian's name has been blacked out, but the signature is still visible."
She turned the page toward the light.
Colton leaned closer.
The signature was short, elegant, and unmistakable.
Rebecca Hayes.
For a moment, Rebecca seemed unable to breathe.
"I never signed that."
Helen looked at her.
"Are you certain?"
"Absolutely."
"Could it have been copied from another document?"
Rebecca stared at the signature.
"Yes. Someone had access to my files. Arthur had access to everything."
Colton looked from the signature to his mother.
"Are you saying he forged your name?"
"I'm saying I never authorized the transfer of that child."
"Then what happened to her?"
Rebecca shook her head.
"I don't know."
The answer did not sound like a lie.
It sounded like fear.
Helen photographed the signature and placed the page into an evidence sleeve.
"We will need handwriting analysis. We will also need to identify the child and determine whether the transfer was legal."
Colton looked again at the photograph.
A newborn child.
A woman he had never met.
A file number.
A name that had been removed.
The past was opening beneath their feet, and each new discovery seemed to reveal another corridor leading somewhere darker.
He thought of Arthur's words on the phone.
You were not the only child whose identity was changed.
Perhaps Arthur had meant that Colton himself had been part of the medical program.
Perhaps he had meant Lila.
Or perhaps there were children whose lives had been altered so completely that they had never known what had been taken from them.
Colton looked at Rebecca.
"Did you ever investigate Elise?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"Because Arthur told me the child had died, and I believed him."
"You believed him without proof?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Rebecca looked at him with exhausted honesty.
"Because I wanted to believe him."
The admission was becoming familiar.
Every terrible decision had begun with someone wanting to believe the easiest explanation.
Colton turned toward Helen.
"Can we identify the child from the records?"
"We will try. There may be other copies of the file. There may be hospital records, adoption documents, or witnesses who remember the transfer."
"And if the child is alive?"
"Then we will need to establish what happened and protect that person's privacy."
Colton nodded slowly.
Another person might be living with a false identity.
Another family might have been told a child had died when that child had been taken somewhere else.
The investigation was no longer only about Nora.
It was about everyone whose life had been shaped by Red Mesa's secrets.
Helen secured the documents.
"We have enough evidence to justify an expanded search of the property. We will preserve the archive, examine the remaining files, and determine whether the missing records were removed recently."
She looked at Rebecca and Samuel.
"You will both need to provide full statements."
Samuel nodded.
"I will."
Rebecca looked at the folder containing Nora's statement.
"So will I."
Colton watched them.
He did not believe that either of them had suddenly become honest simply because the evidence had cornered them.
But perhaps honesty did not begin with a change of heart.
Perhaps it began when a person finally ran out of places to hide.
As the investigators continued their work, Colton stepped into the corridor with Mara.
For a while, neither spoke.
The hum of the generator filled the silence.