Chapter 6 - The Signature of Fate
"If you sign this," I continued, my voice steady, "I will instruct Detective Lin that I am not pursuing criminal charges for the car forgery, and the bank will drop the identity theft investigation upon restitution. I will take possession of the vehicle immediately. You will have forty-eight hours to clear out of this county. If I see either of you within fifty miles of my home, the police will execute the warrant that Detective Lin is currently holding."
Melissa didn't hesitate. She grabbed the pen from the desk, leaned over, and scribbled her name on the witness and co-conspirator line. She didn't look at Brian. She didn't look at me. She was a rat leaping from a sinking ship, saving her own skin without a second thought.
"Melissa!" Brian gasped, watching her sign. "We’re a team!"
"We were a team when you had money, Brian," she snapped, tossing the pen back onto the desk. "Now you're just an unemployed guy with an angry father and a police tail. I'm out."
Brian stared at the paper. His hand shook violently as he picked up the pen. He looked at me, his eyes begging for the soft, forgiving father he had exploited for four years. But that father had died on my seventieth birthday.
He signed his name. Brian Bennett.
I took the paper, checked the signatures with an auditor’s eye, and nodded to Detective Lin. "Everything is in order, Detective. Thank you."
Lin took the document, reviewed it, and looked at Brian and Melissa. "The car keys. Now."
Brian reached into his pocket and pulled out the key fob, placing it in my open palm. It felt cold, heavy, but it felt like property that had returned home.
As I turned to leave the motel room, Brian called out one last time. "Dad... what am I supposed to do? I have nothing."
I stopped at the threshold, the dog bowl held securely under my arm. I didn't look back at him.
"You have exactly what I had when I started forty-five years ago, Brian. You have your health, you have an education, and you have twenty-four hours in a day. The only difference is, I didn't have a father to bail me out when I failed. Now, neither do you. Find a job."
We walked out into the bright, clean sunlight of the parking lot. The air smelled of asphalt and summer rain, a massive improvement over the stale interior of Room 114.
Detective Lin walked me to the sedan—my sedan. "You handled that well, Mr. Bennett. Most people would have let emotion get the better of them."
"Numbers don't have emotions, Detective. They just show the truth. Thank you for your assistance."
May you like
"Take care of yourself, Walter," she said, giving me a respectful nod before walking back to her vehicle.
I got into the driver’s seat of the car. I adjusted the mirrors, cleared Melissa’s cheap air freshener from the rearview mirror, and placed Max’s dog bowl gently on the passenger seat beside me. I started the engine. It ran smoothly, a quiet, powerful hum that promised a long, steady road ahead.
