Chapter 17 - The Driver in Arizona
His name was Franklin Doss.
Seventy-three years old.
Retired mechanic.
Living outside Flagstaff.
Detective Miller flew west with a state investigator.
I stayed home because I had finally learned that charging into every danger personally was not courage.
Sometimes courage meant waiting.
It was terrible.
For thirty-six hours, I heard nothing.
Then Miller called.
“Doss talked.”
I sat down.
“Tell me.”
“He remembers your mother.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“He says the original crash report was accurate.”
My heart sank.
“So Richard wasn’t involved?”
“I didn’t say that.”
I opened my eyes.
“What did he say?”
Miller spoke carefully.
“Doss says a black sedan came up behind your mother’s car at high speed.”
I gripped the phone.
“It followed her for several miles.”
“And then?”
“When Doss approached from the opposite direction, the sedan moved partially into his lane.”
My stomach twisted.
“He swerved.”
“Yes.”
“Into Mom.”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t breathe.
“Did he see the driver?”
“Not clearly.”
“Then how—”
“He saw the license plate.”
Silence.
“Did it belong to Richard?”
“The first six characters matched a vehicle registered to him.”
I stood.
“That’s enough.”
“No. It’s not.”
“It proves—”
“It proves his car may have been present.”
I wanted certainty.
The law wanted evidence.
“Why did Doss change his story?”
Miller went quiet.
Then:
“He received money.”
My knees weakened.
“How much?”
“Fifty thousand dollars.”
“From Richard?”
“From a corporation.”
“What corporation?”
“Henderson Property Strategies.”
I laughed bitterly.
Richard’s first development company.
“He paid him.”
“Doss claims he was told the payment was a private settlement to avoid additional litigation.”
“And he believed that?”
“He says he needed money and was terrified of prison.”
My hands shook.
“So he lied.”
“Yes.”
“What happens now?”
“The state attorney general is reviewing.”
I stared at Grandma’s kitchen wall.
Twenty-seven years.
Richard had eaten Thanksgiving dinners.
Bought houses.
Started companies.
Raised another child.
While Mom existed only in photographs.
A knock sounded.
Tyler entered carrying groceries.
He saw my face.
“What happened?”
I put Miller on speaker.
Miller summarized.
Tyler dropped the bag.
An orange rolled across the floor.
“My dad killed Chloe’s mom?”
“We have not established that.”
Tyler’s face turned white.
“I rode in cars with him.”
I understood immediately.
If Richard had done it once…
“Tyler.”
“He gets angry when people drive away from him.”
Susan appeared behind him.
“What do you mean?”
Tyler looked at her.
“Last Christmas.”
Susan froze.
“He followed you.”
She gripped the doorway.
“What?”
“When you left after the fight.”
“I went to your aunt’s.”
“Dad followed you twenty miles.”
Susan stared.
“He told me he went to the office.”
“No.”
Her hand moved to her throat.
Tyler continued.
“He made me come with him.”
“Why?”
“He said I needed to learn what women do when you let them think they can walk away.”
The sentence poisoned the room.
Susan sat down.
For the first time, I saw not Richard’s accomplice but another person who had spent years slowly adapting to fear.
That did not erase what she had done.
But it changed the shape of it.
Miller said, “Susan, I need a formal statement.”
She nodded mechanically.
Then her phone buzzed.
Unknown number.
She looked at Miller.
“Answer on speaker,” he said.
She did.
“Hello?”
Richard.
“Susan.”
Everyone went still.
“I hear you’ve been talking.”
Her hand trembled.
Miller silently started recording.
Richard continued.
“You always were weak.”
Susan swallowed.
“What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
“No.”
A long pause.
“I want my family back.”
Tyler looked sick.
Susan surprised me.
“You never had one.”
Silence.
Then Richard’s voice changed.
Flat.
Cold.
“Tell Chloe to stop digging into Emily.”
Every hair on my arms rose.
Susan looked at me.
“Why?”
Richard answered.
“Because dead women should stay dead.”
Click.
The call ended.
Miller was already moving.
“That was a violation of his bond.”
I stared at the phone.
May you like
For the first time, Richard had not denied anything.
And before sunset, police were looking for him again.
