Lost and Found

Episode Three : Tangled Thread

The next morning, the bell above the shop door chimed. A young man, barely thirty, stood there. He was drenched, holding a worn courier bag.

"Are you Ms. Vance?" he asked, his voice hesitant.

"Yes?"

"My name is Elias. I… I think I might have sent you something by mistake. But I was told you are the best."

Elara gestured to the music box on her desk. "That?"

Elias looked at the box, his face lighting up, then turning sad. "My mother passed away last month. She was a housekeeper. She found this in an attic in Surrey. She always said it was meant for someone, but she was too afraid to look for who, and then she was too sick."

Elias looked directly at Elara. "Before she died, she told me that the box needed to go to someone who understood lost and found."

Elara took a deep breath. "Elias, this is a beautiful piece. But there is a photo inside. Of a child."

Elias frowned. "A child? I never saw a photo."

Elara showed him the photograph from her desk. Elias stared at it, then at the music box. He reached into his courier bag and pulled out a notebook, flipping through pages of old receipts and notes.

"My mother… she was a quiet woman. She didn't talk much about her clients." Elias paused. "Wait. She worked for a man named Julian Sterling. Does that name mean anything to you?"

Elara felt the air leave the room. Julian Sterling was a notorious, eccentric collector who had hired Mark for a secret project ten years ago. A project that, it was rumored, had gone wrong.