Chapter 10 - ERIN’S FATHER HID THE EVIDENCE IN A BIRTHDAY GIFTErin stared at the message.
“He said I know?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t.”
“We believe you.”
She paced.
“Then what does that mean?”
Wade asked:
“What did Raymond give you before he disappeared?”
“Nothing unusual.”
“Birthday?”
“Mine was two months earlier.”
“Christmas?”
“No.”
“Anything he told you to keep?”
Erin stopped.
Then laughed.
A strange, frightened laugh.
“My clock.”
Wade frowned.
“What clock?”
“My dad repaired old things.”
She looked embarrassed.
“Radios. Watches. Cameras.”
Two weeks before disappearing, Raymond gave her an antique mantel clock.
No reason.
He said he had found it at an estate sale.
Erin didn’t like antiques.
She put it on a shelf.
After he vanished, she kept it because it was one of the last things he touched.
They went to her house.
The clock sat in the living room.
Wood.
Brass face.
Heavy.
Investigators photographed it before opening anything.
A technician removed the rear panel.
Inside the normal mechanism was a small memory card taped beneath the base.
Erin began crying.
“Oh, Dad.”
The card contained everything.
Not just charity theft.
Raymond had built a complete investigation.
Bank transfers.
Volunteer assignments.
Robbery dates.
Photographs from North Coast.
Company registrations.
Screenshots of messages he had obtained from a former employee.
Mason to Darnell:
Celia has yellow envelope. $12k.
Another:
Raffle bike goes to Holloway. Give him two weeks.
Another:
R.K. copied records. Need drive before he goes board.
Raymond.
Then Wade.
Sent three days before his ambush:
Mercer is asking about weekend gap. He has screenshots.
Darnell:
Cop Mercer?
Mason:
Off duty. Ride night. Phone only. Make it look normal.
Darnell:
Bad idea.
Mason:
$15k.
Wade read it twice.
Darnell had understood the danger.
Mason offered more money.
Then:
No serious damage. Scare him.
Lena looked at Wade.
“You okay?”
“No.”
The message hurt more than expected.
No serious damage.
As if Mason had been merciful.
As if sending five people to ambush him on an empty road became acceptable because Mason preferred Wade not be badly injured.
Erin watched.
“I’m sorry.”
Wade looked at her.
“For what?”
“You were his friend.”
“Yeah.”
“So was Dad.”
That hit.
Mason had betrayed both.
Then they found Raymond’s final audio recording.
Date:
The day he disappeared.
Recorded at 7:12 p.m.
Raymond speaking alone.
“If anything happens tonight, Mason Drake is responsible for the pressure surrounding these records. I am meeting him because he says he wants to resolve it. I do not believe him.”
Erin covered her mouth.
The recording continued.
“I have copied everything. Erin has one copy. She does not know.”
Then:
“I am not stealing from the Relief Fund. If Mason says I did, he is lying.”
Erin broke.
Wade wanted to stop the recording.
She shook her head.
“Keep playing.”
Raymond’s voice softened.
“Erin, if you ever hear this, I’m sorry I made you part of something without asking. I thought not knowing would keep you safe.”
She sobbed.
The same mistake again.
Adults protecting people with silence.
Then the final line:
“Mason once built something good. That is why it took me too long to admit what he turned it into.”
Wade closed his eyes.
That was exactly what Wade had been struggling with.
Mason had done good things.
Real ones.
Families had received help.
Hospital bills were paid.
Funerals covered.
Liam’s widow had survived the first year because of money Mason raised.
None of that disappeared.
Neither did the crimes.
People wanted morality simple.
Good person.
Bad person.
Reality was worse.
Mason had built something good, then used the trust it created to do terrible things.
The complete evidence gave prosecutors what they needed.
Arrest warrants were prepared for Mason and Darnell.
But Mason disappeared before officers reached him.
His house was empty.
Garage office cleared.
Phone turned off.
Passport missing.
A security camera captured him leaving before dawn.
Travis Boone had apparently warned someone.
Or Mason had sensed the walls closing.
Wade stood inside Drake Customs later that afternoon.
The garage had once felt like home.
Liam’s photograph hung behind the counter.
Mason and Wade at charity rides.
Years of smiling people.
Thank-you letters from families.
Wade stared at one photograph.
Mason had his arm around Raymond.
Both laughing.
Taken a year before Raymond vanished.
Lena came beside him.
“We’ll find him.”
Wade nodded.
Then noticed something on Mason’s desk.
A framed photograph was missing.
Clean rectangle in the dust.
“What was there?” Lena asked.
Wade remembered.
A photograph from the first Liam Mercer Memorial Ride.
Mason.
Wade.
Liam’s widow.
And Mason’s teenage son—
Eli.
Wade’s pulse changed.
“Where’s Eli?”
Lena frowned.
“Mason’s kid?”
“Twenty now.”
“College?”
“Supposed to be.”
They checked.
Eli Drake had withdrawn from Ohio State three months earlier.
Nobody on the charity board knew.
His phone was off.
His apartment empty.
Wade felt dread.
Mason had not fled alone.
He had taken his son.
May you like
And if Eli did not know what his father had done—
Mason was about to drag another innocent person into the consequences of his lies.
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