Chapter 4 - THE MAN WITH FLOWERS
Wade did not board the plane.
The pilot refused to depart after learning that the passenger’s identification did not match the name on the charter agreement.
Wade drove away before deputies arrived.
Inside the airfield office, investigators found a duffel bag he had left behind.
It contained $84,000 in cash, forged trust documents, Cassidy’s laptop, and two passports.
One belonged to Wade.
The other belonged to Patricia.
There were no passports for Cassidy, Lydia, or the baby.
At 10:40 that morning, Cassidy woke.
I was beside her bed.
Her first word was Lydia.
“Safe,” I said.
“The baby?”
“Alive. In intensive care.”
Her eyes closed.
A tear moved toward her ear.
“What happened?”
“Emergency surgery. You lost a lot of blood.”
“Wade?”
“Police are looking for him.”
Her hand tightened around mine.
“He’ll come here.”
“He won’t reach you.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I understand more than I did yesterday.”
I told her about the flash drive.
She began crying.
“I should have told you sooner.”
“You told me when you could.”
“I kept thinking he would stop.”
“That was his responsibility.”
“Lydia saw everything.”
“She also saved your life.”
Cassidy looked toward the door.
“I taught her the emergency button because Wade threw a glass last month.”
I had visited two weeks after that incident.
Wade told me the broken cabinet came from dropping a bowl.
Cassidy wore long sleeves.
I had noticed.
I had accepted the explanation because asking more felt like accusing my daughter of lying.
Silence is not always ignorance.
Sometimes it is cowardice wearing manners.
At noon, Wade entered the hospital lobby carrying flowers.
He had changed clothes.
Combed his hair.
Prepared tears.
Security stopped him before he reached the elevators.
He told officers he had returned voluntarily after calming down.
He said he loved his wife.
He claimed Cassidy had fallen while trying to strike him with a lamp.
Detective Ruiz met him near the information desk.
I watched from the second-floor balcony.
Wade saw me.
For one moment, the grief disappeared from his face.
He looked angry that I existed.
Then he called upward:
“Robert, tell them this is a misunderstanding.”
I gripped the railing.
“You left her on the floor.”
“She attacked me.”
“Where is the injury?”
“She missed.”
“Then why did you run?”
“I was afraid of what she would say.”
“You were right to be.”
The flowers slipped lower in his hand.
“We’re family.”
“You remembered that after the private plane refused to leave.”
His face changed.
Detective Ruiz asked him to turn around.
As officers secured him, Patricia appeared through the main doors.
She had come to support her son.
Instead, an investigator served her with a preservation order and informed her that Bison Peak’s accounts were frozen.
She pointed at me.
“You did this.”
“No.”
I looked toward Cassidy’s floor.
“Your son came home angry because my daughter refused to hide what you did.”
Patricia’s voice dropped.
“You don’t know how business works.”
“I know a heater cannot be inspected by a man who never entered the state.”
She stepped closer.
“Those workers survived.”
“That is not your defense. That is their luck.”
Wade twisted toward her.
“Mom, stop talking.”
May you like
The command came too late.
Hospital cameras recorded everything.
