Chapter 10 - Uncle Tom
Dana answered on speaker.
"Hello?"
A man's voice said, "Linda?"
Ryan stepped closer.
"Tom?"
The line went quiet.
Then the man whispered, "Ryan."
It was the way he said it that changed Ryan's face.
Not surprise.
Recognition buried under thirty years.
"Where are you?" Ryan asked.
"Not on the phone."
"My mother hurt my son."
Tom swore softly.
"Then Frank was right."
"Right about what?"
"That she never changed."
Tom agreed to meet at a twenty-four-hour diner in Plano with two deputies nearby.
He was sixty-eight, thin, and carried an oxygen tank.
When Ryan saw him, he stopped walking.
Tom had Frank's eyes.
"Dad said you were dead."
"He needed you to believe I was gone."
"Why?"
Tom set a manila envelope on the table.
"Because I was the one who called 911 the night Anna died."
Ryan stared at him.
Tom continued.
"I came by after work. Anna was crying. Linda was furious. She forced the bottle into her mouth, then poured the rest over her when she spit it out. Anna choked. I pulled her away and called for help."
"Why didn't you testify?"
"I tried. Linda told police your father and I had been drinking and fighting. Then she told you to say we hurt Anna."
Ryan pressed both palms to his face.
Tom slid the envelope toward him.
Inside was a copy of a police interview.
Subject: Ryan Mercer, age 7.
One sentence was underlined.
MOMMY SAID IF I TELL THE OTHER THING, DADDY WILL GO AWAY TOO.
Ryan began to cry.
Then Tom said, "There is one more thing Frank never told you."
May you like
He looked directly at me.
"Linda didn't come to your house this week to help with Noah."
