Chapter 16 - Uncle Ray
No one moved.
Police were stationed two houses away.
Ray knew that.
That was what frightened me most.
He was not sneaking.
He wanted us to know he was there.
“Mark,” he called again. “I just want to talk.”
Mark stood.
I grabbed his arm.
“No.”
“I’m not opening it.”
Ray laughed from the porch.
“You always were smarter than your dad.”
Owens had instructed us never to engage.
I called 911 anyway.
Ray continued talking.
“Victor’s finished. Ross is finished. You know who gets blamed next?”
Mark’s face tightened.
“Me.”
Ray heard him through the door.
“Exactly.”
Police sirens approached.
Ray did not run.
Instead he slid a thick envelope under the door.
Then he walked into the street with both hands raised.
Officers arrested him without a struggle.
Inside the envelope was a key.
Another bank key.
And a note.
Your father should’ve burned it.
Mark stared at it.
Owens arrived minutes later.
“Do not touch anything else.”
Ray refused to answer questions without an attorney.
But the key number led to a bank in Cincinnati.
The box had been opened twice in the previous month.
By Raymond Bennett.
With forged authorization papers.
He had removed most of the contents.
Most.
One envelope remained because it had slipped behind the box liner.
Inside was an old cassette tape.
Mark laughed when he saw it.
“My dad recorded everything on those.”
A technician digitized it.
Michael Bennett’s voice filled the room.
“If anything happens to me, Ray knows why.”
Mark closed his eyes.
Then another voice appeared.
Younger.
Sharper.
Victor Dane.
“You’re going to forget those invoices.”
Michael answered, “No.”
Dane said, “Then your son pays for your principles.”
The tape ended.
Mark sat completely still.
His father had been threatened in exactly the same way he had.
Then Owens received a message from the lab.
There was more on the cassette.
A second recording.
Made years later.
After Michael Bennett supposedly died.
Mark stared at her.
“That’s impossible.”
Owens pressed play.
May you like
Michael’s voice said:
“Ray, if you’re hearing this, you already know I survived.”
