Chapter 17 - The Last Crossing
“Down!” Ruiz shouted.
Everyone dropped behind the dock railing.
Richard fired once.
The shot cracked across the lake.
Wood splintered above Samuel’s shoulder.
Ruiz called for backup and ordered Richard to drop the weapon.
He started the small outboard motor instead.
The blue boat lurched away.
Samuel looked at his own skiff.
“No,” Emma said immediately.
“He’ll reach the north road.”
“Let the police handle it.”
Samuel turned to her. “I spent thirty years letting him stay one step ahead.”
“That wasn’t your fault.”
“No. But this choice is mine.”
Ruiz heard him. “You are not chasing an armed suspect.”
Then Richard’s boat motor coughed.
It stalled near the channel markers.
Wind pushed him toward the rocks.
Ruiz took the police launch from the marina with two deputies.
Samuel stayed on shore.
For once.
Emma took his hand.
Across the water, Richard tried desperately to restart the engine.
Lightning flashed far beyond the ridge.
Evelyn whispered, “He hates losing control.”
The police boat closed in.
Richard raised the gun.
Ruiz shouted through a loudspeaker.
“Put it down!”
He aimed—not at police.
At Samuel on shore.
Emma saw it first.
“Uncle Sam!”
Samuel ducked.
The second shot went wild as a wave struck Richard’s boat.
He lost his balance and fell into the lake.
The gun disappeared beneath the surface.
Richard surfaced screaming.
“I can’t swim!”
For one strange second, nobody moved.
The man who had sent a toddler drifting into a storm was now begging the lake for mercy.
Ruiz threw him a flotation ring.
Richard missed.
A deputy dove in and pulled him up.
Samuel watched silently as they dragged Richard onto the police boat and cuffed him.
Emma expected triumph.
She felt none.
Only exhaustion.
Richard coughed water and looked toward shore.
Then he shouted one last thing.
“Ask Evelyn who signed Emma away!”
May you like
Emma turned slowly toward her mother.
Evelyn’s face had gone white.
