Chương 4
“Ray believed her.”
“Ray also waited four years to tell anyone he believed my brother killed my son.”
“He was scared.”
“So was everybody.”
“That doesn’t make it okay.”
Nathan looked at him.
“No.”
The word surprised both of them.
A distant siren sounded somewhere beyond the river.
Nathan instinctively reached for the pocket where his phone should have been.
Nothing.
“How did you know I’d be here?”
Eli looked at the water.
“Ray left me instructions.”
“Before he died.”
“Yes.”
“Why you?”
“Because my mom was already in jail.”
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“He didn’t trust anybody else.”
“You’re eleven.”
“I know.”
“That should have disqualified you.”
“Tell Ray.”
Nathan almost laughed again.
It hurt too much.
“What instructions?”
“He gave me a key and told me where to find a bag if anything happened to him.”
Nathan glanced at Eli’s empty hands.
“What bag?”
“Hidden.”
“Where?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“You dragged me out of water and accused my brother of murdering my son.”
“I didn’t accuse him.”
“You just spent ten minutes doing exactly that.”
“I told you what Ray said.”
Nathan pressed his fingers to his temples.
“What was in the bag?”
“Compass. Papers. A cheap phone.”
“What phone?”
“One Ray kept turned off.”
“With what on it?”
“Messages.”
“From Lucas?”
Eli nodded.
Nathan stopped breathing for the second time that night.
“Show me.”
“It’s not here.”
“Where?”
“Safe.”
“Eli.”
“Ray said not to bring everything together.”
Nathan stared.
The man had been frightened enough to plan like that.
“Were there messages from my son?”
“Two.”
“To Ray?”
“Yes.”
“What did they say?”
Eli hesitated.
“One said he needed help getting something out of the boathouse without Daniel seeing.”
“And the other?”
“Ray deleted it.”
Nathan frowned.
“Then how do you know?”
“Because deleted stuff isn’t always gone.”
Nathan looked at him.
“Ray knew how to recover messages?”
“No. My friend’s sister does phone repairs.”
Nathan rubbed his face.
The absurdity was almost comforting.
“What did the second one say?”
Eli spoke from memory.
“‘If he finds out I copied it, he’ll come after Dad too.’”
Nathan’s eyes moved toward the SUV.
A metallic click sounded again.
This time closer.
Eli rose immediately.
“We have to go.”
Nathan pushed himself upright.
His legs worked better now.
Pain radiated through his left side, but nothing felt broken badly enough to stop him.
“Where?”
“There’s a maintenance path.”
Nathan looked toward the SUV.
“Who is over there?”
“I don’t know.”
“You said the person who put me here.”
“I said they were waiting.”
“You saw them?”
“I saw someone moving.”
“Then we need police.”
“With what phone?”
“My vehicle has an emergency call button.”
“Which is why they’re near it.”
Nathan swore softly.
Eli started walking.
Nathan caught his arm.
The boy spun around.
“Listen to me. If somebody tried to kill me, you do not get to be the brave one.”
“I’m not trying to be brave.”
“You came here alone.”
“I didn’t have anybody else.”
The sentence shut Nathan up.
Eli pulled his arm free.
“Follow me or don’t.”
Nathan followed.
The maintenance path ran behind a line of pillars and up a sloped strip of cracked concrete toward an old flood-control gate. Water reached Nathan’s ankles, then his shins.
Halfway up the slope, headlights came on behind them.
Nathan looked back.
The SUV’s headlights blazed white through the rain.
The engine started.
Eli whispered, “Run.”
Nathan ran.
Pain stabbed through his ribs.
The SUV reversed, tires spinning in mud, then swung toward the service lane.
Nathan and Eli reached the flood gate.
A chain-link access fence blocked the path.
Eli slipped through a gap at the bottom.
Nathan could not.
“Go!” Eli shouted.
Nathan grabbed the fence.
The SUV accelerated.
Nathan looked left.
A rusted steel maintenance cabinet stood beside the gate.
He yanked the door.
Locked.
The SUV was thirty yards away.
Nathan hit the cabinet with his shoulder.
Nothing.
Twenty yards.
Eli scrambled back through the fence.
“What are you doing?”
Nathan grabbed him.
“Get over.”
“You can’t.”
“Get over!”
He lifted Eli and shoved him upward.
The boy caught the top rail, swung one leg over, nearly slipped, then dropped to the far side.
Ten yards.
Nathan turned.
The SUV came straight at him.
At the last second, Nathan stepped sideways and threw himself behind the concrete base of the flood-control mechanism.
The SUV clipped the fence.
Metal screamed.
The impact tore one section sideways.
Nathan hit the ground.
The vehicle stopped.
For one second nothing happened.
Then the driver’s door opened.
A man got out.
Nathan could see only his shape through the rain.
Medium height.
Dark jacket.
Cap.
The man looked at the broken fence.
Then at Nathan.
Nathan stared back.
“Who are you?”
The man moved toward him.
Eli shouted from behind the fence.
“Hey!”
The stranger turned.
Eli threw something.
A chunk of concrete struck the SUV’s windshield.
The man flinched.
Nathan charged him.
It was clumsy and ugly.
No clean punch.
No heroic tackle.
Nathan hit the man chest-first. They slipped together in the mud and slammed against the SUV.
The man drove an elbow into Nathan’s injured ribs.
Nathan nearly blacked out.
The stranger shoved him away and ran.
Not toward the road.
Toward the river.
Nathan tried to follow.
His legs failed after six steps.
The man disappeared behind the pillars.
Eli crawled through the bent fence.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Eli.”
“No.”
Nathan looked at the darkness under the bridge.
Then at the child.
He stopped arguing.
They reached the SUV together.
The driver’s door remained open.
Nathan leaned inside.
The dashboard recognized his key.
His key was in the cupholder.
He stared at it.
“I had this in my pocket.”
Eli looked at him.
Nathan picked it up.
He remembered leaving the city after a dinner at Caroline’s house.
He remembered Daniel pouring him bourbon.
One glass.
Maybe two.
He remembered the highway.
After that, fragments.
May you like
Pulling over because he felt sick.
A text from Daniel asking if he had made it home.
