Candy sat curled in the chair in her mother’s room when Gary arrived home from work on Monday evening. At her feet sat a stack of books and a couple of journals of notes, and she had obviously dozed off while reading over a third. Removing the wire bound notebook from her limp fingers, he lay a blanket across her and let her sleep.

They had only kept Lanelle over night at the hospital, and she had been home in her own bed by Sunday afternoon, giving Candy a few hours to finish her rewrite and cram for her exams. The hardest one had been earlier that day, and he hoped that she had done well enough to at least pass the course, for her sake.

Turning to the bed, he could see that Lanelle’s clear blue eyes studied him as he fawned over his wife. “How do you feel?” he whispered, leaning closer so she could hear.

“Better,” his mother-in-law replied, turning on her back so he could sit on the edge of her bed. “You’ve been so good to us, Gary. Candy is so blessed to have you in her life. We all are.”

Taking the seat, he clasped her small fail hand with his and rebuked her gently, “Nonsense. You’re my family and I love you all.” Standing, he leaned over and kissed her forehead. “Get some sleep, and we’ll help you out to sit at the table for dinner if you like,” he offered warmly.

“Yes, sir,” she grinned up at him as he switched off the light and closed the door on his way out.

In the kitchen Caroline stood over the stove, where she had been preparing their dinner for the oven. “How long before we eat?” he asked as he washed his hands and dried them on a towel.

“About an hour,” she replied with a smile. “Any news on my case?” she asked in return, hoping they had made at least some headway.

“I wasn’t able to be there for the meeting,” he informed her as they moved to the living room to watch Dakota play. “Tom was scheduled to meet with Ben at four, and Ben will call me tonight and give me the details.”

“I hope he can do something for us. This is so nerve wracking, feeling like something could happen to me… or any of us, really, at any moment,” she sighed as she took one end of the sofa beneath the front window.

Stoking the fire, Gary threw on a few more pieces of wood. “There’s something else I’ve been meaning to ask you,” he stated calmly as he took the chair that shared the end table next to her. “The other night, you said you weren’t sure how they knew to come after you. But there had to have been something you did that gave yourself away. Someone you talked to who warned them that you were on to something.”

Watching him adjust into his seat, Caroline felt sick. She had hoped she had gotten past that tidbit of poor judgement, but apparently Gary wasn’t going to let it slide. “I made a mistake,” she finally admitted in a quiet voice. “I really didn’t want to talk about it in front of Ben and Candy, either.”

“So, what did you do, exactly? It’s just us, and Daks isn’t going to tell anyone,” he chuckled, indicating the boy on the floor with an open palm.

“I know, Gary,” she sighed, brushing at her leg as she tucked her feet beneath her. “It was stupid. I didn’t think about the consequences when I did it; what it could cost me. As it turns out, it cost me everything,” she sniffed, obviously disturbed by the realization.

“Just spit it out,” he reassured. “But be quick before we get interrupted.”

“I made a fake email account, and I sent Harvey Waters a demand for fifty-thousand dollars,” she said in a rush.

Her words sinking in, Gary’s jaw dropped, and in his silence, she gushed on, “I don’t even see how they knew it came from me. I used a fake name to create a gmail account and even sent it from the office instead of my home computer.”

“When did you do this?” Gary managed, sitting forward in the chair, obviously disturbed by the news.

“About three months ago,” she confessed. “I just sent it the one time, and then logged in every once in a while, to see what he replied, but he never did. As far as I know, he never even read the email.”

“Well, obviously he read it,” his voice grew louder, “he sent someone to search your place. Carol, you should have told us about this at the beginning! There can’t be any doubt that Harvey did this!” Leaping to his feet, Gary fished his cell phone out of his pocket and made a call while heading to his office. Inside, he shut the door and listened to the ring before Ben’s answering service picked up. “Sorry, wrong number,” he clipped before he hung up.

Turning on his heel, he swung the door open to find Caroline standing in the hall. “I need Ben’s cell number,” he demanded loudly. “Now, Caroline!”

Not about to argue, she stepped past him and scratched it onto a notepad for him with a pen from the desk. “I’m sorry,” she whispered as she handed it to him. “I was ashamed of what I had done, and I still don’t see how he knew it came from me.”

“The IP address,” he dropped casually as he dialed and placed the device to his ear. “It wouldn’t have been hard for him to trace it back to you with his skills and connections. You probably didn’t even bother to use a different computer.”

“I used the one at my desk,” she admitted as her face flushed. “Oh my God, Gary! Do you think they will do something to Ben?”

The man in question answered the call at that moment, “Hey! Wasn’t expecting to hear from you tonight.”

“Ben, we have a problem,” Gary informed him without preamble. “If you’re still at work, you need to get out of there, and don’t come here. I’ll meet you at your place instead,” he suggested, while tapping the note pad as in indication for her to provide him with the address.

“I’m not at the office,” Ben replied. “In fact, I’m only about two blocks away right now.”

“You’re coming here? Why would you come here?” Gary panted, struck by near panic.

“Relax, it’s nothing like that. I’ve got great news, and I wanted to share it with you both at the same time,” Ben laughed.

“Fine, we’ll see you in just a minute,” Gary snapped, ending the call abruptly.

“He’ll be here any second,” he informed the girl next to him. “He said everything was going to be fine, but with your latest bombshell, I’m scared to death at what might happen next,” he growled as he pushed past her and headed for the back porch to await his arrival.

The crash came as a loud boom that seemed to roll through the air, tumbling over the houses and crushing Gary’s family home under its weight. Frozen, staring at one another, the pair had stopped breathing as they waited, listening to the silence. Then suddenly, Gary leapt into action.

Spinning, he fled the office and double-checked the front and back doors, finding both to be secure. Then back in his office, his hands shook as he dug in his briefcase to retrieve the flash drive he had created storing all the documents they had put together on the case.

“What are you doing?” Caroline whined when she finally found her voice. “Was that Ben?” her voice cracked and a tear rolled down her face.

“I can’t say without going to look, and I can’t leave you guys here alone,” he informed her as his computer booted. “Right now, I need to drop this file in as many mailboxes as I can reach.”

“What is that? And how is that going to help?”

“I scanned your evidence when I made my copy. I hid my copy with instructions how to find it, in case anything happened. And, I kept the digital copy in case I needed to share it with anyone else, which is exactly what I intend to do,” he explained in a rush. “Please go watch out the window and yell out if you see ANYTHING or anyone set foot on this property.”

“What about Candy?”

“Let her sleep. There’s not a lot she can do except worry at this point, and I’d rather let her get her rest.”