Chapter 9 - Richard Comes Home
Richard returned before they found Evelyn.
At 2:07 a.m., the cabin alarm screamed.
David jumped from bed. Samuel was already in the hallway with a flashlight.
The back door stood open.
Rain blew across the kitchen floor.
“Emma!” David shouted.
“I’m with Leo!”
Samuel saw movement near the cedar chest.
“Stop!”
A man ran through the living room.
Richard.
He looked older than the photograph, heavier around the face, but Samuel recognized the eyes immediately.
“You son of a—”
Samuel lunged.
Richard shoved him into a table and bolted for the porch.
David chased him outside.
“Richard!”
The two men crashed into the wet grass. Richard swung first. David ducked and tackled him at the knees.
Emma appeared in the doorway holding Leo, horrified.
“Dad!”
Richard looked at her.
For one second, he stopped fighting.
“Emma, listen to me. Samuel is filling your head with lies.”
“You put my son in a boat.”
“I was trying to protect you.”
“By drowning him?”
“I knew someone would see him.”
Samuel stared at him. “That may be the dumbest thing you’ve ever said.”
Richard kicked free of David and ran toward the trees.
Deputies arrived less than three minutes later, but the woods were thick and dark.
Richard disappeared again.
Back inside, Emma noticed the cedar chest had been opened.
The letters were scattered.
One thing was missing.
The third cassette.
Ruiz arrived and examined the floor.
“He came for evidence.”
Samuel nodded.
Emma stared at the empty space in the box.
“What was on the third tape?”
“I don’t know.”
Ruiz shined her light toward the broken back door.
Then she stopped.
A small white envelope had been pushed beneath the refrigerator.
On the front, in Evelyn’s handwriting, were three words.
SAMUEL — LAST CHANCE.
Inside was a photograph.
Evelyn stood outside a brick building, older, thinner, alive.
May you like
The photo was dated 2016.
Two years after Richard signed her out of Westbrook.
