Chapter 12
“When I got scared,” he continued, “I talked like my uncle. I thought if I could make you afraid enough, you’d stop.”
“I did get afraid.”
“I know.”
“But I didn’t stop.”
“That part I also know.”
She finally smiled.
He reached for her hand, then stopped before touching it.
Marcy noticed.
She turned her palm upward.
He took it.
Linda caught my eye.
There were conversations parents eventually learned not to enter.
We went outside.
For nearly a minute, neither of us spoke.
Then Linda said, “You thought he hurt her.”
“So did you.”
“I wondered.”
“You told me about the bruises.”
“I told you what I saw.”
There was no accusation in her voice.
That made it worse.
“I filled in the rest.”
“We both did.”
I stared across the yard.
Marcy’s bicycle still leaned against the side of the garage, though she hadn’t ridden it in years. I had been meaning to donate it.
Funny what families kept.
Old bicycles.
Holiday decorations.
Versions of one another that had stopped being accurate.
“I almost made things worse,” I said.
Linda slipped her hand into mine.
“But you didn’t.”
“Because Eddie recognized me.”
“Would you have fought them?”
I thought before answering.
Twenty years ago, maybe I would have been proud of saying yes.
Now the thought embarrassed me.
“I don’t know.”
She squeezed my hand.
“Then maybe this is a good time to decide what kind of man you want to be before you have to answer again.”
That was Linda.
Thirty-four years of marriage, and she could still put a mirror in front of me using one sentence.
That afternoon, Marcy called a former coworker named Claire Donovan.
Claire was a forensic accountant at a regional bank. More importantly, she had no relationship to Dustin, Eddie, the gym, or Dustin’s uncle.
Marcy explained the records.
Claire listened.
Then she asked the question none of us had.
“Why would someone stealing money create invoices inside the gym network?”
Marcy paused.
“To make them look legitimate.”
“Or?”
Marcy frowned.
“To make it look like someone at the gym created them.”
Dustin sat straighter.
May you like
Claire continued through speakerphone.
“If the payments really went to the uncle’s companies, that doesn’t necessarily mean he created them. Somebody could be using those companies as a destination because they already handle legitimate payments.”
