Chapter 5 - The Boy Who Saw

Owen backed away from the window. He couldn't have been more than seventeen, with freckles, muddy sneakers, and a fishing line still looped around his wrist. Evelyn hated that their nightmare had found him.

"Go out the back," she told him. "Get to the road."

"I'm not leaving you."

"That's not a suggestion."

Daniel tried to stand and collapsed against the ramp. The stroke had stolen most of the strength in his left leg. Evelyn helped him sit, then heard gravel crunch under Grant's boots.

"Mom? Dad?" Grant called, cheerful enough to make her skin crawl. "Are you in there?"

Owen's phone was recording. He aimed it at the door. Evelyn noticed and gave him one fierce nod.

Grant opened the door slowly. His gaze snapped from his parents to the boy. He recovered almost at once.

"Thank God. I thought we'd lost you." He took a step toward Daniel. "Dad, you're freezing."

"Stay back," Evelyn said.

Grant raised his hands. "I know you're scared. It was an accident."

"I saw you push them," Owen blurted.

Grant's face changed, not into rage but calculation. "Who are you?"

"A witness."

"A kid who doesn't understand what he saw."

Mara appeared behind him, wet hair stuck to her cheeks. She looked at the two elderly people, and relief crossed her face before fear erased it.

"They need help," she told Grant.

"Of course they do. That's what I'm doing."

Evelyn lifted the broken oar. "You threw us in a lake."

Grant sighed. "Mom, Dad's dementia has gotten worse. You're exhausted. Everybody knows."

Daniel forced out the words. "I don't have dementia."

Grant glanced at Owen's phone. Then he reached into the black bag and pulled out a coil of yellow tow rope.

"Put that away," Mara said.

"We can still make it look like a rescue," he told her.

Owen took one step backward. The old dock creaked somewhere outside, and a second vehicle approached the boathouse.

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Grant smiled at the new arrival. "Good. Our doctor is here."

Evelyn's hope turned to ice. Their family physician was the one who had signed Daniel's memory-loss diagnosis.