Chapter 12 - GRANDMA’S HOUSE
Lucas was in the police car before anyone could stop him.
“My grandma is alone!”
Ortiz caught the door before he slammed it. “You are not going inside.”
“I’m going with you.”
“You’re going behind three patrol cars and staying there.”
Evelyn climbed in beside him.
The ride took nine minutes.
Lucas did not speak once.
His grandmother’s apartment building sat above a closed laundromat in a neighborhood far removed from the chandeliers and marble of the gala.
Preston’s black sedan was parked in the alley.
Police surrounded the building.
Ortiz entered with the first team.
Evelyn held Lucas in the back seat while he shook with rage.
“He knew,” Lucas whispered. “All this time, he knew.”
Evelyn did not tell him to calm down.
Some anger deserved air.
A window on the second floor shattered.
Lucas jerked forward.
Then his grandmother appeared at the building entrance wrapped in a robe, supported by an officer.
“Grandma!”
Lucas ran before Evelyn could grab him.
His grandmother clutched him to her chest.
“I’m okay, baby. I’m okay.”
“Was he here?”
She looked toward the police.
“Yes.”
Preston had entered through the back stairwell and demanded Rachel’s remaining papers. Lucas’s grandmother, May Bennett, had stalled him until she could trigger the medical alert pendant around her neck.
“He called your mother a thief,” May said.
Lucas’s eyes burned. “He’s my father.”
May closed her eyes.
That reaction told him everything.
“You knew.”
“I promised Rachel.”
“You knew and you never told me?”
“She wanted you to grow up without him.”
“I got slapped by him in front of two hundred people!” Lucas shouted. “Was that better?”
May began to cry.
Evelyn stepped back, giving them space.
Ortiz emerged from the alley.
“No Preston,” she said. “But he left something.”
On May’s kitchen table police found a single gala photograph.
It showed Lucas carrying the wine tray.
Across his face, Preston had drawn a black X.
May you like
On the back he had written:
MIDNIGHT TOMORROW. CROSS MEMORIAL PIER. BRING MY SON.
