Chapter 9 - The Man in the Woods
Rachel couldn’t move.
Neither could Leo.
The man stepped closer.
Six years changed a face.
But not enough.
Leo had seen hundreds of photographs of his father.
The crooked smile.
The scar beside his left eyebrow.
The eyes that matched his own.
“Dad?”
Michael Bennett dropped to his knees.
Leo stood frozen.
Michael didn’t reach for him.
Maybe he understood he had no right.
“I’m sorry.”
Leo’s voice came out hard.
“You’re alive.”
“Yes.”
“You were alive the whole time?”
Michael looked at Rachel.
“No.”
Rachel slapped him too.
Harder than she had slapped Henry.
Michael took it without moving.
“You let me think you were dead.”
“I had no choice.”
“There is always a choice.”
“Not when someone threatens your wife and five-year-old son.”
Leo’s anger stopped for half a second.
Michael looked at Henry.
“He told you?”
“Some.”
“Then we need to move.”
Victor stepped forward.
“Why should we trust you?”
Michael laughed.
“You’re asking me?”
Henry cut in.
“Enough.”
Engines roared closer.
Michael led them through the woods.
“There’s a service road fifty yards east.”
Rachel walked beside him but refused to look at him.
Leo stayed between them.
His whole life had just split open.
Every birthday without his father.
Every Father’s Day school project.
Every night his mother cried quietly because she thought Leo couldn’t hear.
All of it had been built on a lie.
They reached an old pickup.
Michael unlocked it.
“Get in.”
Victor frowned.
“You’ve been staying nearby?”
“For three weeks.”
“Watching us?”
“Watching Henry.”
Leo turned.
“You knew Grandpa was alive?”
Michael nodded.
“I was trying to find him.”
“Why didn’t you call us?”
“Because I didn’t know who I could trust.”
Leo hated that answer.
Adults in this family seemed to have an endless supply of reasons for lying.
They packed into the truck.
Michael drove without headlights for the first quarter mile.
When they reached the main road, Rachel finally spoke.
“Where have you been for six years?”
“Mostly Canada. Then Arizona.”
“Doing what?”
“Trying to build a case.”
“Against who?”
Michael glanced in the mirror.
“Your family’s company.”
Henry stiffened.
Michael continued.
“I traced the missing money further back than Henry did.”
Victor said, “You told Dad it started with internal accounts.”
“I was wrong.”
He looked at Rachel.
“It started with Henry’s business partner.”
Rachel frowned.
“Samuel Crowe?”
Henry whispered, “Samuel has been dead for nine years.”
Michael shook his head.
“No.”
Henry stared at him.
“What do you mean, no?”
Michael slowed the truck.
“Samuel Crowe didn’t die.”
Victor laughed nervously.
“This family needs to stop doing that.”
Michael didn’t smile.
“The body buried under Samuel’s name belonged to somebody else.”
Leo looked at the adults.
“So where is he?”
Michael’s hands tightened on the wheel.
“Running Caldwell Manufacturing.”
Henry’s face went white.
“That’s impossible.”
Michael looked at him in the mirror.
“No, Henry.”
“It isn’t.”
“Samuel Crowe has been pretending to be your chief financial officer for eight years.”
Henry whispered a name.
“Thomas Reed.”
Michael nodded.
Then a pair of headlights appeared behind them.
Fast.
Too fast.
Michael looked in the mirror.
May you like
“They found us.”
A black SUV slammed into the back of the truck.
