“You were only twelve years old. What would your parents’ motivation be for wanting you dead?”
Marcus and Grant finally had time to sit down and talk about what Grant was dealing with in Boston while sitting on the front porch of Marcus’s cabin and enjoying the finally somewhat cool fall air. The rain had stopped and the leaves were changing colors. It was a beautiful place to relax, but unfortunately Grant hadn’t been able to do that in a while. While Marcus was on his honeymoon, Grant had gone home to Boston to revisit his haunted past. He’d visited with his father and brother and a lot of old ghosts, but he was still missing part of the puzzle, a crucial piece if he was going to save his brother’s life, and the anxiety was building.
Grant shook his head. “I don’t know for sure, probably money. Everything was about money with him. I’m sure it was him. I always knew it wasn’t Duke, even though I was in denial for a long time. It was easier to believe my brother had snapped rather than my own father wanted me dead. Duke is facing a murder charge now and I finally had to admit that despite all the things my brother has done in his life, I don’t believe that he’s a murderer. That leads me back to my father.”
“So how does proving Duke didn’t try to kill you help him with this new charge?”
The DA is trying to use this old charge against him and if he’s successful with getting it in front of a jury, I don’t think they’ll have any choice but to convict. It’s a similar situation. My brother has always had an uncanny ability to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I know he’s a screw-up, but I don’t believe that he’s capable of harming a child.”
“Okay, tell me about the new charge.”
Grant hated talking about it. It made him sick to his stomach. The very idea that anyone could hurt a child was unfathomable to him. He swallowed the bile in the back of his throat and said, “The boy’s name was Becker Davis. His father used to work with our father when Duke and I were kids. Davis also owns a shipping company. I don’t believe his company was any more legitimate than my father’s. His son, Becker, was just born about the time all of this was going on for us. He turned fifteen a few weeks ago.”
Grant had to stop talking. He thought about all the things the kid had probably looked forward to in his life that would never come true for him now. He shuddered and thought about how close he had come to being in the same position at twelve years old.
“Anyways, he fell or was pushed out of the attic window of their home. They found Duke’s fingerprints in the attic. Becker’s father claims that some of their priceless antiques—jewelry, vases, etc.—are missing. The police think Duke snuck in to steal and the kid caught him so he killed him…the same way he supposedly tried to kill me all those years ago.”
“What is your brother’s explanation for his fingerprints in the attic?”
“He admits to being there and this part of the story they both agree on. Martin Davis and Duke ran into each other at a bar in Back Bay several weeks before all of this happened. Martin remembered him from when he was a kid. Martin said he felt sorry for him after all our old man had put him through and he invited him to stay in one of the empty rooms in the west wing of his house.”
“The west wing?” Marcus raised an eyebrow.
Grant smiled. “Yeah, it was a big ass house.” Marcus lived a simpler life than anyone Grant had ever known. Grant envied him for that.“Anyways, my brother is always looking for a freebie and he took Martin up on the offer. He was in the house for about two weeks when this happened. He still hadn’t found a job and Martin claims he had already asked Duke to leave, which only added fuel to the fire.”
“Did he have an explanation for being in the attic?”
Grant rolled his eyes. “My brother claims he just got bored one day and went exploring. Once again, I’m not trying to claim Duke is a good guy, because honestly, he’s not. I’m sure he was up there looking for something to steal and if it turns out that he pawned anything that Davis claims is missing, it’ll just be another nail in his coffin. But, Marcus, I don’t believe he killed that kid and I don’t believe he tried to kill me. I can’t prove he didn’t push Becker out that window, but if I can prove he didn’t push me…maybe that will help.”
“What did your father say?”
“He’s worthless. He’s a pathological liar and the only way his story will ever change is if it will benefit him in some way.”
“How much time is he serving?”
“His sentence was fifteen years. Because he was on the run for five years before they caught up with him, the judge denied the eligibility for parole. That means he has just about two more years to serve and he’ll be a free man.”
“And that’s part of this, too, right? Not only do we help Duke, your father might finally have to pay for what he did to you?” Grant nodded. “What about statute of limitations?”
“That’s why this is suddenly so urgent. The statute on attempted murder in Massachusetts is ten years, but if the person is on the run, out of the state, or the country that statute doesn’t begin until they return. The ten years he has been back in Massachusetts will be up in eight weeks.”
“Whew, eight weeks to solve a fifteen-year-old crime. We’re good, but…”
“I know. I won’t hold my breath on that part. But we probably have months, maybe even years before they prosecute Duke, so at least there’s that. They’ve subpoenaed me for a deposition and the detective who is now retired that handled Duke’s case back then. To be honest, he never seemed convinced that Duke was guilty so that might work to his benefit…but when my brother confessed, they just stopped investigating.”
“So, why did he confess in the first place? Have you asked him that?”
“Yeah, I asked him. Keep in mind that he was a fourteen-year-old kid, and he was all alone. Our parents abandoned us and we were both scared to death. We were looking at going to foster care and for a while there, I think Duke was so depressed that he was almost suicidal. He didn’t admit that, but he does say that he began to acclimate to jail after a while. He told me that he realized he was more like the people there than the ones on the outside. He felt like he finally fit in somewhere. So, he confessed, so that he could stay where he felt like he belonged. He said that he couldn’t remember a lot of that day anyways back then, so he kind of just convinced himself that maybe he did do it.”
Marcus made a face. “That’s terrible.”
Grant nodded. “Yeah. That was his life, unfortunately.”
“So why is he saying now that he knows he didn’t do it? Did he remember something new?”
“Not that I know of. I honestly think he’s always known he didn’t do it.”
So, tell me your theory about what happened that day.”
“Well, I think the old man planned to kill me and blame it on Duke. It had to be for the life insurance money; I can’t think of anything else it could be. Once I started investigating this I found out there was a policy on both myself and my brother for two and a half million dollars. Who has two and a half million dollar policies on their children? Anyways, I’m guessing that he figured it would be easier to pin a murder on my brother than on me just because Duke was always the ornerier one. I’m sure he even considered that in case they didn’t classify it as a murder, an accident would have been just as good…the only thing they wouldn’t pay for was suicide. The way I fell, according to the detective, it was pretty obvious that I didn’t climb out that window on my own.”
“You said something was going on at the estate that day, an alarm or something?” Marcus asked.
Grant’s mind flashed back to that alarm and he got a chill when he thought about the safe room again. Something about all of this had to do with that room, but he wasn’t sure what it was. He’d never made it there that day, but something about that room still bothered him a lot.
“Yeah, I found out later from the detectives that the reason my parents ran didn’t have anything to do with my accident. The old man laundered some money for a gangster out of Jersey. This guy, Nolan Greer, owns strip joints across the state and card rooms. But where he makes the real money is in the back rooms with prostitution and drugs. My old man was stupid enough to use that money to pay his own bills and think he could replace it later. When Greer found out the money was missing, he came after what he knew the old man had in storage, things that he was fencing…things that belonged to other people. At that point, Greer destroyed his business. No one was going to trust him again and everyone was going to expect to be paid for what was taken. He was probably hoping for an insurance payout before they came calling. The timing was off and I lived, probably to his disappointment,” Grant said bitterly. “His plan was a failure, so they ran. The only part of his plan that worked was that Duke got blamed for trying to kill me. Duke was in prison at the youth authority until he turned eighteen and he hasn’t been able to figure out how to function in society since.”
“It’s a good theory except for one thing. From what I read in that file, your father and mother both had alibis that day and none of the security cameras picked them up coming into or leaving the estate until long after you fell.”
“I know. I don’t know how he did it. There’s a safe room in the house. There’s something about that room. For a long time I thought it was bothering me only because that was where Duke told me to go that day, but lately it plays a more prominent role in my memories and my dreams. I have to figure out why. I also think that Martin Davis must know something about that day. If he didn’t know the truth, then my theory makes no sense. Maybe none of it does, anyway.,” Grant said dejectedly.
“One thing I know is that you have great instincts. I’d stake my life on them. I have, actually, and I will again. Cade is out of town, but he’ll be back tomorrow. I say we talk to him about starting with Davis. He’s the one tangible thing we have to go on.”
“That works for me. I’ve already told Cade I won’t accept help for free. I’ll be paying his regular rates for you guys to work on this with me.”
Marcus raised an eyebrow. Grant knew his friend was wondering how he could afford that. Cade’s team was not cheap. Marcus had too much class to ask, however, so instead he asked, “So you’re okay with Billy and Nate knowing what’s going on too?”
“I’ve kept this to myself because I’m ashamed of my family and my past, not because I don’t trust you guys. I trust you all with my life…and now I’m going to trust you with my brother’s as well.”