Chapter 6 - What David Did
“Yes.”
David’s answer was barely audible.
Mom stepped away from him.
“David?”
He looked older suddenly.
Not huge.
Not frightening.
Just tired.
“I found Aaron.”
“When?” Ramirez asked.
“Two years ago.”
My pulse hammered.
“Before Dad supposedly died?”
“Three days before.”
Mom stared at him.
“You told me you hadn’t seen Thomas in years.”
“I hadn’t.”
“But you saw Aaron.”
“Yes.”
“Who was he?” I asked.
David sat down.
“Aaron Pike worked for your father.”
“What kind of work?”
“Accounting.”
That surprised me.
“He wasn’t a construction worker?”
“No. Aaron managed invoices, payroll, vendors. He knew where Thomas’s money moved.”
Ramirez crossed her arms.
“Keep talking.”
David rubbed his face.
“Aaron called me because he found my name in old court files. He knew I had tried to expose Thomas years earlier.”
“What did he want?”
“Protection.”
“From Dad?”
“Yes.”
The word hurt every time.
David continued.
“We met behind a diner outside town. Aaron was terrified. He had copies of records proving Thomas had created shell companies and stolen millions.”
“Millions?” Mom whispered.
David nodded.
“He wanted to go to federal investigators.”
“Why didn’t he?”
“Because Thomas found out.”
The room went quiet.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
David looked at me.
“But two nights later, Aaron called again. He said someone had been following him.”
“What did you do?”
“I went to his apartment.”
David swallowed.
“The place had been torn apart.”
“Was Aaron there?” Ramirez asked.
“Yes.”
My hands clenched.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“What happened?”
“He was injured.”
Mom closed her eyes.
David’s voice became rough.
“He kept saying Thomas was going to kill him.”
“Did you call police?”
“No.”
Ramirez’s expression hardened.
“Why?”
“Because Aaron begged me not to.”
“That wasn’t your decision.”
“I know.”
“Then what did you do?”
“I drove him to a motel under a false name.”
My mind flashed to the photo of Dad and David outside a motel.
“Was it the same motel from the picture?”
David looked at me.
“Yes.”
“So Dad wasn’t standing there with you six months ago?”
“No. The photo was manipulated.”
Ramirez took my phone.
She enlarged the image.
“Two different lighting patterns.”
Dad had built the lie carefully.
Not perfectly.
Just carefully enough for an angry seventeen-year-old.
“What happened to Aaron?”
David looked at the floor.
“He disappeared the next morning.”
“You left him alone?”
“For twenty minutes.”
“Why?”
“To buy food.”
“When I returned, the room was empty.”
“Blood?”
“A little.”
Mom whispered, “Oh God.”
“I searched for him.”
“Why didn’t you tell police then?” Ramirez asked.
“Because I knew how it looked.”
“That seems to be a pattern with you.”
David accepted the criticism.
“Yes.”
I felt anger boiling.
“You could have stopped all of this.”
His eyes met mine.
“I know.”
“You knew Dad was dangerous before I was even born.”
“Yes.”
“You knew Mom tried to leave.”
“Not until later.”
“You found a terrified witness and hid him instead of getting help.”
“Yes.”
I stood.
“So maybe Dad’s right about one thing.”
Mom touched my arm.
“Marcus.”
“No. Everyone keeps lying because they think they’re protecting someone.”
I looked at David.
“You don’t get to decide what truth I can handle.”
“You’re right.”
His answer stopped me.
No defense.
No excuses.
Just two words.
“You’re right.”
David stood.
“I spent years believing I could fix my brother quietly. Every time I avoided the police, every time I kept something secret, Thomas gained another weapon.”
He looked at Mom.
“I’m sorry.”
Mom stared at him.
“You should have told me about Aaron.”
“I should have.”
“You should have told me about the gun.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t protect people by controlling what they know.”
David closed his eyes.
“I know.”
The sentence hit me.
That was exactly what Dad had done.
And in smaller ways, everyone around him had learned to do the same.
Ramirez’s phone rang.
She answered.
“Yes?”
Her expression changed.
“Where?”
We all waited.
“When?”
Another pause.
“We’re coming.”
She ended the call.
“They found Rebecca.”
Mom nearly collapsed.
“Alive?”
“Yes.”
“Where?”
“A roadside motel twenty miles north.”
Mom hugged me.
Then she turned toward Ramirez.
“Was Thomas there?”
“No.”
We drove behind Ramirez.
At the motel, Aunt Rebecca was sitting inside an ambulance with a blanket around her shoulders.
Mom ran to her.
“Rebecca!”
They collided.
I hadn’t seen Aunt Rebecca in almost four years.
She looked thinner.
Older.
But alive.
When she saw me, tears spilled down her face.
“Marcus.”
I hugged her.
“What happened?”
She glanced at Ramirez.
“Thomas came to my apartment yesterday.”
“Did he hurt you?”
“No. He scared me.”
“What did he want?”
“The original insurance claim.”
Ramirez stepped closer.
“Why?”
Aunt Rebecca looked at all of us.
“Because there was something in the file I never showed Elaine.”
Mom froze.
“What?”
Rebecca looked ashamed.
“I thought I was protecting you.”
Mom let out a broken laugh.
“Apparently that’s contagious.”
Rebecca reached into the ambulance.
She removed a plastic evidence pouch.
Inside was a folded document.
“When Thomas was declared dead, his employer submitted dental records.”
Ramirez nodded.
“We know.”
“What you don’t know is that I noticed a discrepancy.”
“What discrepancy?”
“One tooth.”
We stared at her.
“The remains had a root canal on the upper left second molar.”
“So?” I asked.
Rebecca looked at me.
“Your father didn’t.”
My heart accelerated.
“You knew the body wasn’t Dad’s?”
“I suspected.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?”
“I told my supervisor.”
“What happened?”
“They ordered a second comparison.”
“And?”
“The records suddenly matched.”
David cursed quietly.
“Someone replaced the file.”
Rebecca nodded.
“I copied the original.”
Mom stared.
“Where is it?”
“That’s why Thomas took me.”
She held up the evidence pouch.
“He thought I kept the copy at home.”
Ramirez looked at the paper.
“But you didn’t.”
Rebecca shook her head.
“I kept it in a safe-deposit box.”
For the first time, we had evidence Dad might not be able to explain away.
Then Rebecca said something even bigger.
“The dental chart isn’t all I kept.”
“What else?”
“Aaron Pike emailed me the day before Thomas disappeared.”
David stepped forward.
“What?”
Rebecca nodded.
“He knew Thomas was planning something involving the insurance policy.”
“What did the email say?” Ramirez asked.
Rebecca looked straight at me.
“It said if Thomas Reed died, we should assume he was still alive.”
My stomach twisted.
“Why?”
“Because Aaron had discovered Thomas purchased a second identity.”
“What identity?”
Rebecca swallowed.
“Daniel Mercer.”
David went pale.
Ramirez immediately reached for her radio.
But Mom whispered the name first.
“Daniel Mercer.”
I looked at her.
“You know it?”
Tears filled her eyes.
“Yes.”
“How?”
Mom stared at me.
“That was the name of the man who rented the house across from your school for six months after your father died.”
My blood went cold.
May you like
Dad hadn’t just survived.
He had been watching me for years.
