Chapter 5 - My father chose to disappear
I wanted to hate Elaine immediately.
That would have been easier.
Instead, she cried when she saw Mom.
“Evelyn.”
Mom slapped her.
Hard.
Elaine accepted it.
Then I asked the only question that mattered.
“Where is my father?”
She looked at me.
“Dead.”
The room became colder.
“When?”
“Five years ago.”
Not six.
He had lived almost a year after Route 9.
Elaine explained.
Dad knew Cain Industrial was connected to old military fraud.
The documents he found behind the diner showed payments linking Wade Cain's business network to public officials.
Dad planned to give evidence to federal investigators.
Before he could, his truck was rammed.
He survived.
At the clinic, Elaine realized local law enforcement had been compromised.
Dad made a decision.
Fake the death.
Disappear.
“Without telling us?”
Elaine closed her eyes.
“He believed Wade would hurt you.”
Mom's voice broke.
“I buried him.”
“I know.”
“Gloria—”
Mom stopped.
Wrong name.
My mother's name was Evelyn.
Elaine stared.
I noticed.
“What did you just say?”
Mom shook her head.
“Nothing.”
Not nothing.
But Elaine continued.
Dad spent eleven months moving between safe locations.
Trying to identify everyone connected to the Cain network.
Then he developed an infection from crash complications.
Died in Virginia.
Real death.
Elaine had the certificate.
This one looked legitimate.
I sat down.
“Did he ask about us?”
“Every day.”
That hurt more than abandonment would have.
“Then why never come home?”
“Because he found a name.”
“Whose?”
Elaine looked at Mom.
My mother turned toward the sink.
No.
“Mom?”
Elaine answered.
“Evelyn's brother.”
My mother had a brother?
She never mentioned one.
Name:
Caleb Morrison.
Former county planning director.
One of Wade Cain's earliest partners.
Mom had changed her surname when she married Dad.
She told us she was an only child.
Why hide Caleb?
Because he disappeared twenty-eight years ago after being investigated for procurement fraud.
At least officially.
Dad discovered Caleb was alive.
And working through Cain Realty.
That explained Mom's fear.
Not entirely.
“You knew?”
“I knew Wade had found Caleb.”
“Did you know Caleb helped him?”
“I suspected.”
“Why say nothing?”
Mom began crying.
“Because Caleb saved my life when we were children.”
Another loyalty.
Another silence.
I was tired of both.
Then Elaine handed me Dad's notebook.
His final pages contained names.
Harper.
Brooks.
Warren.
Cain.
Morrison.
Then one name underlined three times.
Carol Jensen.
My neighbor.
The woman who sent me the first twelve-second video.
I stared.
“Carol?”
Elaine nodded.
“Your father thought she was the one watching Evelyn.”
My mother looked genuinely shocked.
Carol had lived next door thirteen years.
Brought casseroles after Dad's funeral.
Drove Mom to appointments.
Called me when Travis shoved her.
May you like
Why would someone spying on Mom be the person who alerted me?
Unless she wanted me to come home.
