Chapter 16 - The Night Thomas Died
The old accident report was only fourteen pages long.
Ryan read every page.
His father's car had left a wet road shortly after midnight.
The vehicle struck a tree.
Thomas died at the scene.
No other cars were reported nearby.
Police concluded he had been driving too fast.
The case closed quickly.
But the reopened file revealed details Ryan had never known.
Thomas had planned to meet a divorce attorney the following morning.
His luggage had been found in the trunk.
Inside was Ryan's passport.
Two train tickets.
And copies of financial records involving Evelyn.
Ryan stared at the photographs.
His father had not been driving home.
He had been leaving.
A retired mechanic who examined the vehicle twenty-seven years earlier was located in Indiana.
He remembered something unusual.
The brake line had been damaged.
At the time, investigators believed the damage occurred during the crash.
The mechanic had disagreed.
He had written a note.
That note never made it into the official report.
Officer Ruiz asked who had handled family communication after the accident.
The answer was Gerald Mercer.
Maya sat beside Ryan when Ruiz told them.
Gerald had been twenty-eight at the time.
He worked directly for Evelyn.
He had arrived at the crash scene before some members of Thomas's family.
Ryan felt numb.
"Was my mother there?"
"No evidence of that."
"Did Gerald damage the brakes?"
"We don't know."
Ruiz spoke carefully.
"But he knows more than he has admitted."
Gerald initially refused to cooperate.
Then prosecutors presented evidence from Claire's kidnapping.
His confidence disappeared.
Forty-eight hours later, he requested a deal.
Ryan was not permitted to attend the interview.
He waited with Maya in a courthouse conference room.
After nearly four hours, Ruiz entered.
His expression gave nothing away.
Ryan stood.
"Tell me."
Ruiz closed the door.
"Gerald says Evelyn knew Thomas intended to leave."
Ryan's hands tightened.
"He says she ordered him to follow Thomas."
"And?"
Ruiz paused.
"Gerald claims he did something to the car."
Maya inhaled sharply.
Ryan did not move.
"What?"
"He says he loosened a brake connection."
The room seemed to tilt.
Ryan gripped the edge of the table.
"Did she tell him to kill my father?"
"Gerald says she told him to stop Thomas from leaving with you."
Ryan stared at him.
"That's not an answer."
"No."
Ruiz's voice softened.
"It isn't."
Gerald claimed he expected Thomas to discover the problem before traveling far.
He claimed he never intended a fatal crash.
He claimed Evelyn never explicitly ordered a killing.
But afterward, she paid him.
She promoted him.
She made sure no one reopened the case.
Ryan sat down.
For twenty-seven years, he had mourned an accident.
Now he had to consider the possibility that his father died because he tried to escape the same woman Maya had tried to escape.
Ryan looked at Maya.
She understood without him speaking.
May you like
Evelyn had not changed.
Only the people she was trying to control had changed.
