Chapter 16 - The Maintenance Building
Police surrounded the cemetery maintenance building.
Jake listened from the command trailer through a radio speaker.
“Child located visually through side window.”
Jake bent forward.
“Is he okay?”
No one answered him directly.
The radio crackled.
“Male suspect inside. Holding what appears to be a metal tool. Child behind him.”
Jake’s stomach dropped.
Dana grabbed his shoulder.
“Stay with me.”
He barely heard her.
A negotiator called Todd’s phone.
No answer.
Called again.
This time Todd picked up.
The negotiator spoke calmly. “Todd, my name is Sergeant Mills. We need to make sure Ben is safe.”
Todd shouted something too distant for Jake to hear.
Then Ben screamed, “I want my dad!”
Jake stood so fast the chair fell over.
“Let me talk to him.”
“No,” Dana said.
“He’ll listen to me.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know he hates me more than anyone in that building.”
Sergeant Mills heard the argument over speaker and asked, “Jake, can you stay calm?”
Jake looked at Grant.
Grant nodded once.
Jake took the phone.
“Todd.”
Silence.
Then: “Happy now?”
“No.”
“You got the court. The money. Everybody thinks you’re some hero because you learned to say sorry.”
“I’m not a hero.”
Todd gave a broken laugh.
“No, you’re not.”
“I’m the man who put your sister through four years of hell. You want me to say that? I’ll say it.”
The trailer went quiet.
“I made Rachel carry things I should have carried. I missed birthdays. I missed first days of school. I earned every night I spent in prison.”
Todd’s breathing changed.
“But Ben didn’t.”
No answer.
“Whatever you want to punish me for, punish me with the truth. Don’t punish him by making him afraid of every person who says they love him.”
Jake heard Ben crying.
Then Todd said quietly, “She died mad at me.”
Jake closed his eyes.
“What happened?”
“I asked her for the money again. She said no. I called her selfish. Two days later the drunk driver hit her car.”
Jake’s anger shifted into something colder and sadder.
“You didn’t cause the crash.”
“I stole after she died.”
“Yes.”
“I forged the papers.”
“Yes.”
“I can’t fix it.”
“No. But you can stop making it worse.”
Long silence.
Then metal clanged on concrete.
Todd had dropped the tool.
Jake heard Sergeant Mills shout, “Hands where we can see them!”
A door opened.
May you like
And through the radio came one sound Jake would remember for the rest of his life.
Ben crying, “Dad! Dad, I’m okay!”
