Chapter 5 - The Turning of the TideThe woods were a blur of branches and thorns. David ran until his lungs felt like they were bleeding, ignoring the cuts on his face and the burning in his legs. Ethan was completely silent, his arms wrapped in a death grip around David’s neck.
They hid inside an abandoned drainage pipe until nightfall.
David sat in the dark, shivering in his damp clothes, holding his sleeping son. The reality of his situation pressed down on him crushing him. He was broke, framed for kidnapping, hunted by armed men, and married to a serial killer.
He couldn't outrun her forever. She had money. She had the law on her side.
So I have to operate outside the law, David thought, his eyes narrowing in the darkness.
At 11:30 PM, they crept out of the woods and made their way to the old boathouse. Sarah was already there, pacing nervously in the moonlight.
"Thank God," she breathed, rushing forward to hug them both. "I was terrified they got you."
"We're fine," David said, his voice completely devoid of the panic he had felt earlier that day. A cold, hard realization had settled over him. "Did you find the Oregon files?"
"Yes," Sarah said, pulling out a thick manila folder. "I hacked into the county records. Evelyn Thorne’s stepdaughter... they said she slipped on a polished floor. But the autopsy photos... David, the bruises are identical to Ethan's."
David closed his eyes. The rage was a physical living thing inside him now.
"I also found something else," Sarah continued, her voice trembling slightly. "Evelyn has a partner. The private investigator who originally 'cleared' her in Oregon? His name is Marcus Vance. He's the one hunting you right now. He's an ex-cop, dirty as they come."
"She pays him to clean up her messes," David realized.
"David, we have to go to the FBI," Sarah urged. "This is too big for us. If we give them this file..."
"No," David said sharply.
Sarah stared at him. "What? Why not?"
"Because Claire—Evelyn—will know," David said, looking out at the dark water of the river. "She has people everywhere. The second we walk into a federal building, she’ll empty her accounts, burn her identity, and vanish. She’ll get away with it. Again."
He turned back to Sarah, his eyes catching the moonlight. There was no fear left in them. Only a predator's focus.
"She tried to kill my son. She made him scrub a roof in the rain and watched him slip. She tortured him in my own home." David's voice was a deadly whisper. "Jail isn't good enough for her."
"David... what are you saying?" Sarah asked, taking a step back.
"I need you to take Ethan," David said. "Take him to your sister's cabin in Vermont. Keep him off the grid. Do not use your credit cards. Do not use your phone."
"And what are you going to do?"
David took the burner phone out of his pocket. He turned it on.
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"She wants a desperate, broken man," David said, pulling the slide back on a heavy metal object he had taken from the unconscious hitman in the woods earlier. The metallic click echoed in the silent boathouse.
"I'm going to give her exactly what she wants. I'm going home."
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