Chapter 10 - The Recording
The biggest break came from my father.
Not because he suddenly became brave.
Because he became afraid.
He asked Detective Reed for a private interview.
Then he asked for me.
I almost refused.
But I went.
Dad sat in the interview room looking ten years older.
“I didn’t know everything,” he said.
I remained standing.
“You knew enough.”
“I thought Jason could fix it.”
“By stealing from me?”
Dad lowered his eyes.
“Your mother said you’d understand eventually.”
I laughed once.
“Of course she did.”
He pushed his phone across the table.
“There are recordings.”
I looked at Reed.
He looked equally surprised.
“Recordings of what?”
“Jason.”
Dad rubbed both hands over his face.
“I started recording him after he asked me to sign the house papers.”
“Why?”
“Because I got scared.”
Not when they stole from me.
Not when they forged my signature.
When Dad realized he might lose his house.
Still, evidence was evidence.
Reed connected the phone to a speaker.
Jason’s voice filled the room.
“You already burned through retirement. What difference does another loan make?”
Then Mom.
“Laura cannot find out.”
Jason laughed.
“She won’t.”
Dad’s voice:
“What if the bank calls her?”
Jason:
“Then tell her it was rent.”
My stomach turned.
Another recording.
Mom:
“She has almost forty thousand.”
Jason:
“Then we take it before she moves out.”
Dad:
“That’s her school money.”
Jason:
“She’s a nurse. She can make it back.”
Silence filled the interview room.
Then the final recording.
This one was older.
Jason:
“What about Patricia’s investment account?”
Mom:
“Martin locked it.”
Jason:
“Can we change the beneficiary?”
Mom:
“I tried.”
I closed my eyes.
There it was.
My mother had tried to take Patricia’s money before Patricia died.
Reed stopped the recording.
Dad began crying.
“I’m sorry.”
I looked at him.
For years, I had imagined what it would feel like if my father finally admitted he had failed me.
I thought I would feel relief.
I felt nothing.
“You’re sorry because you got caught.”
“No.”
“You watched them pack my suitcase.”
His face crumpled.
“You watched Jason throw it outside.”
“I was ashamed.”
“Then why didn’t you stop him?”
He couldn’t answer.
I picked up my coat.
“Laura.”
I stopped at the door.
“I love you.”
I looked back.
“Then you should have acted like it when it cost you something.”
May you like
I left.
Three hours later, Jason Bennett was arrested.
