At breakfast, Robert is shocked to see Cleo back in the cafeteria and quickly realizes Cleo is filthy, exhausted, and has been crying. When Robert asks whether Redbone was released from the Box, Cleo refuses to answer. Crutcher abruptly pulls Robert away, and Marian Hamilton takes him to the band room to tell him the truth: Redbone, whose real name is August Montgomery, died in the Box after a fight during the night.

Robert first clings to disbelief, then is overwhelmed when Mrs. Hamilton makes clear that Redbone is truly dead and will be buried that day. When she says Cleo claimed self-defense, Robert rejects the official story and insists Boone and Haddock arranged Redbone’s death by turning Cleo against him. Robert also tells Mrs. Hamilton that boys are being killed at the Reformatory and that the ghosts haunting the grounds are proof, but Mrs. Hamilton can only confirm the injustice, not the supernatural truth.

Mrs. Hamilton comforts Robert by sharing that her own husband was murdered after returning from war, and she tells Robert that justice will not be found inside the Reformatory. She urges him to survive, not provoke Haddock, and to honor Redbone instead. To help Robert say goodbye, she offers to teach him taps so he can play at Redbone’s burial. While Robert takes up the trumpet, a small key falls out; he secretly kicks it under the bass drum and angrily rejects Blue for not preventing Redbone’s death.

Robert spends the day practicing taps with desperate intensity, using the music to contain his grief and rage. Crutcher and Boone come to the band room to remove him, but Mrs. Hamilton shields him and openly questions Redbone’s death, the lack of notice to his family, and the brutality of the Box. Pushed by grief, Robert blurts out more of the truth, naming Henry Jackson, the boys from the fire, and Haddock’s jar for trapping spirits. Boone backs off outwardly but warns that boys at Gracetown bury their friends and should learn from it.

After band, Robert retrieves the key from beneath the bass drum and hides it in his sock. Redbone’s death hardens his purpose: on Friday he will break into Haddock’s office, unlock the drawer, steal the photographs and the haint jar, and run away with the evidence. Robert is no longer thinking only about escape; he wants to protect Redbone’s spirit and expose the men he now sees as Redbone’s true killers, even if he dies trying.