Chapter 16 - The River
The boat shot away from the dock before Torres reached me.
“Stay here!” she shouted.
I did not.
A harbor patrol officer had just pulled alongside the marina. I jumped onto his boat as Torres yelled our direction.
Caleb’s running lights bounced across the black water ahead of us.
Rebecca was on the rear deck now, still tied at the wrists.
“Rebecca!” I shouted.
She turned.
Caleb grabbed her hair and pulled her down.
The patrol officer accelerated.
Wind tore at my face.
Caleb fired once toward us.
The shot went wide.
The officer ducked and swung the boat left.
“Get down!”
I dropped behind the console.
When I looked up again, Rebecca was standing.
She had somehow worked one hand free.
Caleb lunged for her.
She shoved him.
The boat swerved.
Then Rebecca jumped.
Her body disappeared into the river.
“Stop!” I yelled.
Our boat turned hard.
For several seconds there was nothing but black water.
Then a hand broke the surface.
I reached over the side with the officer and pulled her in.
Rebecca coughed violently, shaking from cold and terror.
“Where’s Caleb going?” Torres shouted over the radio.
Rebecca grabbed my sleeve.
“The family office.”
“Why?”
“He has another copy of everything.”
“What everything?”
“The accounts. The forged policies. The videos.”
I stared at her.
“You knew?”
“Not all of it.”
“You knew enough to drug me.”
Her face crumpled.
“Yes.”
I pulled my arm away.
She did not ask me to forgive her.
That was the first decent thing she had done all day.
“The office has a records incinerator in the basement,” she said. “Caleb installed it last year for secure document disposal.”
Lena’s voice came over Torres’s speaker from the command vehicle.
“Ethan, the family office alarm just went offline.”
I looked toward the riverbank.
“Send units there.”
“Already moving.”
Rebecca started crying again.
“There’s one more thing.”
I turned.
“What?”
“Caleb doesn’t just have your forged signature.”
She swallowed.
“He has Henry’s.”
My blood went cold.
“Henry is eight.”
“I know.”
“What could he possibly sign?”
“Nothing now.”
Her voice fell to a whisper.
“But Caleb prepared documents for when he turns eighteen.”
“That’s ten years away.”
May you like
Rebecca shook her head.
“No, Ethan. The documents are dated ten years from now.”
