Chapter 11 - what rick was hiding)
Detective Ruiz refused to let Tyler go alone.
Tyler refused to stay behind.
They compromised badly.
He would approach the property while officers positioned themselves nearby.
Laura called it insane.
Ruiz called it controlled contact.
Tyler called it the only chance they had.
At 3:40 in the morning, a convoy stopped half a mile from the abandoned Bennett property.
Tyler sat in an unmarked car wearing a small transmitter beneath his shirt.
Ruiz checked it twice.
"If Gary tells you to enter a vehicle, you refuse."
"Okay."
"If he tells you to move somewhere we can't see you, you refuse."
"Okay."
"If anything feels wrong..."
"Everything feels wrong."
Ruiz looked at him.
"Fair."
Tyler stepped out.
The summer night was warm.
Crickets filled the fields.
Ahead, an old farmhouse stood behind a line of trees.
His grandfather had owned it when Tyler was little.
He remembered visiting once.
A tire swing.
A red barn.
His father lifting him onto a tractor.
The property had supposedly been sold after Daniel died.
Now it looked abandoned.
Tyler walked toward the barn.
A lantern turned on inside.
"Gary?"
No answer.
He entered.
The black box sat on a wooden table.
Open.
Daniel's watch rested on top.
Tyler approached slowly.
"Where are you?"
Gary stepped from behind an old truck.
He looked exhausted.
Not like Rick.
Not confident.
Afraid.
"Close the door."
Tyler did not.
Gary glanced toward the darkness beyond.
"You brought police."
"You kidnapped a girl."
"Rick kidnapped her."
"You helped."
Gary rubbed his face.
"I helped clean up mistakes."
"That's not better."
"No."
Tyler had not expected agreement.
Gary looked at the black box.
"Your father should've left things alone."
Tyler's jaw tightened.
"What happened to him?"
Gary did not answer.
"What happened?"
"He found out too much."
"Did Rick kill him?"
Gary looked away.
Tyler's hands curled.
"Did you?"
"No."
The answer came quickly.
"Then who?"
Gary pointed at the box.
"Everything is in there."
"Why give it to me?"
"Because Rick is finished."
"You helped him yesterday."
"I helped myself."
Gary paced.
"He kept records. Insurance fraud. Bribes. Payments. Dates. People. Everything."
"Why?"
"Insurance."
"Against you?"
"Against everyone."
Tyler looked at the documents.
"You and Rick knew my father."
Gary nodded.
"Daniel investigated us."
"What happened the night he died?"
Gary swallowed.
"Rick met him on Mill Creek Road."
"Why?"
"Daniel had copied financial records. He said he was taking them to federal investigators."
"Then?"
"Rick tried to buy them."
"Did my dad accept?"
Gary laughed bitterly.
"Your father hated Rick."
Tyler almost smiled despite himself.
That sounded like Daniel.
Gary continued.
"They argued."
"And?"
"Daniel drove away."
"Then how did he crash?"
Gary was silent.
Tyler stepped closer.
"How?"
"Rick followed him."
Tyler felt cold.
"Did he hit his car?"
Gary nodded once.
"Not hard. Rick said he only wanted him to stop."
"Rick said?"
"I wasn't there."
"You expect me to believe that?"
"I arrived afterward."
Tyler's breathing became shallow.
"What did you see?"
Gary stared at the dirt floor.
"Daniel's car was below the embankment."
"Alive?"
"I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"Rick went down first."
"What did he do?"
"I don't know."
Tyler grabbed Gary's shirt.
"You do know."
Gary did not resist.
"When Rick came back up, he had Daniel's watch."
Tyler froze.
"Why?"
"He said it had caught on his jacket."
"And you believed that?"
"No."
"Then why didn't you call police?"
Gary's face hardened with shame.
"Because the box contained enough evidence to put me in prison too."
Tyler released him.
Gary continued.
"We made the crash look clean."
"We?"
"Rick did most of it."
"You helped cover up my father's death."
Gary closed his eyes.
"Yes."
The word struck harder than Tyler expected.
He stepped away.
For eight years, his mother believed rain had taken her husband.
Tyler believed a bad road had taken his father.
Jack grew up without memories of him.
All because two men valued money and freedom more than a life.
"What did Rick want from my mother?"
Gary looked at him.
"Daniel hid a drive."
"What drive?"
"A copy of everything."
"Where?"
"We never found it."
"So Rick married Mom to search our house?"
Gary nodded.
"He thought Daniel might have hidden it somewhere only Laura would keep."
Tyler felt nausea.
Three years of birthdays.
Christmas.
Family dinners.
Rick teaching Jack to grill.
Rick sitting in Daniel's old chair.
Every moment contaminated.
Gary reached into the box.
Tyler tensed.
Gary removed a folder.
"This proves the fraud."
He placed another beside it.
"This proves payments to county employees."
Another.
"This has Daniel's original notes."
Tyler stared.
"And Maya?"
Gary lowered his head.
"She saw Rick moving a man."
"Who?"
"An accountant named Wesley Price."
"Why?"
"He threatened to expose Rick."
"Is he alive?"
Gary nodded.
"Rick beat him and brought him to the garage. I convinced Rick to let him go after he signed over records."
"Where is he?"
"Hospital in another county. He used a fake name."
"Tell police."
"I will."
Tyler looked toward the door.
"Why now?"
Gary laughed without humor.
"Because when Rick shoved Jack into that pool today, I realized something."
"What?"
"He wasn't trying to scare him."
Tyler waited.
Gary's eyes darkened.
"He was trying to see how far he could go in front of witnesses."
A floorboard creaked behind Tyler.
Gary's face changed.
"Get down!"
Tyler dropped.
A gunshot cracked through the barn.
Wood splintered above the table.
Officers shouted outside.
Gary dove behind the truck.
Tyler crawled behind a hay bale.
Another shot.
Then Detective Ruiz's voice.
"DROP IT!"
Silence.
Tyler looked toward the rear entrance.
A figure ran into the field.
May you like
Not Gary.
Rick.
