Chapter 5 - WHAT THE RIVER KEPT
“I was driving,” Caroline said.
Noah sat beside the bed, pretending not to listen.
Daniel remembered rain.
Headlights sliding across wet pavement.
Caroline saying his name sharply.
Then nothing.
“We were arguing,” she continued. “I’d found payments going through the children’s foundation. Vendors that didn’t exist.”
Daniel glanced toward Noah.
Caroline shook her head.
“He knows we ran from someone. He deserves to know why.”
“What were we arguing about?”
“I wanted to take the records to the police. You wanted to talk to Victor first.”
Daniel lowered his head.
That sounded like him.
Before grief had scraped him hollow, he had believed family meant protection.
“The brake pedal went soft,” Caroline said. “I pushed harder. Nothing happened.”
Daniel looked up.
“I tried the emergency brake. We hit the rail.”
For years, Victor had told him Caroline lost control on a wet road.
An accident.
A terrible, meaningless accident.
“Did you tell anyone about the brakes?”
“The doctor. Victor. A man who said he was an investigator.”
“What man?”
“I don’t know.”
Ruiz wrote something down.
Caroline stared at her blanket.
“Victor said blaming the car would make it look like I was avoiding responsibility. He said you remembered everything.”
“I remembered nothing.”
“I know that now.”
Daniel stepped into the hall before his anger frightened Noah.
Martin waited near the vending machines.
“Sir?”
“Find Rachel Shaw.”
“The attorney?”
“Yes.”
Daniel had hired Rachel years earlier during a contract dispute because Victor called her difficult.
Now difficult sounded useful.
When Daniel returned, Noah stood at the window.
“Did you really think I was dead?”
Daniel stopped beside him.
“Yes.”
“Did you have a grave for me?”
Daniel swallowed.
“Yes.”
The boy considered that.
“What did you put on it?”
“Your name.”
“My whole name?”
“Noah James Mercer.”
Noah’s eyes widened.
“Mom calls me Noah James when I’m in trouble.”
Daniel pressed a hand over his mouth.
The boy watched him for a moment.
Then, awkwardly, he leaned against Daniel’s side.
Daniel didn’t move until Noah did.
Across the room, Caroline wiped her cheeks.
That afternoon, Ruiz called from the records office.
“The original crash file has a problem.”
“What kind?”
“The report says your wife and son were positively identified.”
Daniel turned toward Caroline.
May you like
Ruiz continued.
“But the medical examiner’s office has no record of receiving either body.”
