Chương 10
“Ethan’s father was involved in the shipping operation.”
Arthur went still.
“Name.”
“Samuel Keene.”
The investigator wrote it.
Arthur knew the surname.
“Keene Logistics.”
Vanessa nodded.
One of Hale Meridian’s former freight contractors.
“Samuel was Daniel Keene’s son.”
Daniel Keene had died eight years earlier.
Arthur remembered him as a loud man with an addiction to expensive watches.
“Where is Samuel?”
“Dead.”
“When?”
“Six years ago.”
“How?”
“Officially? Overdose.”
“Unofficially?”
“I don’t know.”
Arthur did not believe her.
She saw it.
“I really don’t.”
“Did Margaret love him?”
Vanessa looked surprised.
Perhaps she expected every question to concern evidence.
“Yes.”
Arthur looked away.
He had known almost nothing about his daughter’s life before she died.
Or did not die.
He forced himself back.
“Why did Margaret disappear after fourteen months?”
Vanessa’s face changed.
“That’s the part you’re not going to forgive.”
“There are several candidates.”
“She discovered the medical foundation accounts were being monitored.”
“By Benton?”
“We believed so.”
“So?”
“She wanted to go public.”
“With what evidence?”
“A drive.”
Arthur’s pulse quickened.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“Convenient.”
“I never had it.”
“Who did?”
“Margaret.”
Arthur leaned closer.
“And she vanished.”
“Yes.”
“Leaving her son with you.”
Vanessa nodded.
“For six years.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you bring him to me?”
Vanessa looked directly at him.
“Because Margaret told me not to.”
Arthur’s anger sharpened.
“Margaret was missing.”
“She left instructions.”
“What instructions?”
“A letter.”
“Where is it?”
“Safe-deposit box in Boston.”
Arthur’s laugh was bitter.
“Of course.”
“I can give investigators access.”
“Why now?”
Vanessa’s expression hardened.
“Because I am tired.”
Arthur stared.
She continued.
“You think cruelty means I enjoyed every day of this.”
“I watched you throw a six-year-old toward a mountain platform.”
Her eyes dropped.
“I know.”
“You told him he was a mistake.”
“I know what I said.”
“You grabbed him hard enough to bruise him.”
“I know.”
Arthur’s voice became quiet.
“Do not ask me to care how tired you were.”
Vanessa’s jaw tightened.
“I’m not asking.”
“Good.”
She looked up.
“But if you want to know why I took him from you, it wasn’t because I wanted him gone.”
“Then explain the terminal.”
Vanessa said nothing.
Arthur waited.
Her attorney shifted beside her.
Finally Vanessa said, “Benton’s man was coming.”
“Who?”
“I don’t know his real name.”
“You expected me to believe that?”
“He used Julian Moss.”
“Doing what?”
“Security consulting.”
“For whom?”
“Several shell companies connected to Benton.”
The investigator asked, “Why meet him at the terminal?”
“I wasn’t meeting him.”
“Then why were you there?”
“I was trying to get Ethan onto a service cable route to a lodge on the opposite ridge. There was supposed to be a vehicle.”
Arthur stared.
“In a blizzard.”
“It was the only route not watched.”
“You kicked his mitten outside.”
Vanessa closed her eyes.
Arthur leaned forward.
“You dragged him toward an exposed platform.”
“He wouldn’t move.”
“He was terrified.”
“Yes.”
“So you terrified him more.”
Vanessa opened her eyes.
“Yes.”
There was no excuse in the answer.
That unsettled Arthur.
She looked toward the table.
“I heard a vehicle outside. I thought it was Moss. Ethan kept calling for you. I needed him quiet. I said something unforgivable because I wanted him to stop believing you were coming.”
Arthur stared at her.
“But I did.”
“Yes.”
For the first time Vanessa’s composure broke.
Not into sobbing.
Her eyes simply filled.
“That was the problem.”
Arthur sat back.
Vanessa continued.
“I spent six years convincing myself I was keeping him alive. Then he met you and started asking why he couldn’t live with his grandfather. He wanted ordinary things. A school. Friends. A room where he could leave toys out. You gave him those in weeks.”
Arthur said nothing.
“I hated you for how easy it looked.”
“Nothing about this was easy.”
“I know that now.”
“No. You don’t.”
Vanessa’s mouth tightened.
“I also knew bringing him near you might draw Benton out.”
Arthur stared.
“There it is.”
She looked away.
“You used him.”
“Yes.”
The word filled the room.
Arthur’s fingers curled.
Vanessa spoke faster.
“I told myself I could control it.”
“You used a child as bait.”
“Yes.”
“And when it went wrong, you tried to take him again.”
“Yes.”
Arthur stood.
His attorney touched his arm.
Arthur ignored him.
Vanessa looked up.
“You wanted the truth.”
“I wanted a reason.”
“That is the reason.”
“No.”
Arthur’s voice remained low.
“That is a sequence of choices.”
He walked to the door.
Vanessa said, “Arthur.”
He stopped.
“Margaret’s letter says she never wanted Ethan raised by you.”
Arthur did not turn.
Vanessa continued.
“She loved you. But she was afraid you would turn protecting him into owning him.”
Arthur’s back stiffened.
“Read the letter before you decide what kind of grandfather you’re going to be.”
Arthur left.
He hated her most for making that final sentence matter.
The safe-deposit box was opened under warrant.
Inside investigators found cash, three passports under false identities, medical records, a small digital storage device with no files on it, and a sealed envelope addressed to Vanessa.
The letter was seven pages long.
Margaret’s handwriting.
Arthur knew it immediately.
He was not permitted the original at first, but investigators gave him a copy after determining it contained personal material relevant to Ethan’s guardianship.
Arthur waited until Ethan was asleep.
Then he read.
Margaret had written the letter twelve days before she disappeared.
Most of it concerned Ethan.
His allergies.
His sleeping habits.
The songs that calmed him.
A birthmark on his left shoulder.
The way he would not fall asleep unless someone touched his foot.
There were instructions that felt painfully young and ordinary.
Do not give him strawberries before checking them because he stuffs too many in his mouth.
He likes being bounced more than rocked.
He cries when men sneeze loudly. No idea why.
The last two pages concerned Arthur.
May you like
Vanessa,
If my father finds him, he will love him. I need you to understand that first. He will love him completely. That is part of what scares me.
