Bennett

“Let’s go over the facts,” Sebastian suggested, opening up his glove compartment and pulling out a manila folder. He dropped it on my lap and returned his hand to the wheel. “These are the files I’ve collected.”

I flipped through the folder. Lee’s medical files, Brandon’s accident report, financial reports, his father’s personal bank statements… “Is it legal to have these things?”

“I didn’t get them through illegal ways.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

He gave me a sideways glance. “Not as illegal as what our parents are doing.”

“Fair enough.”

“Let’s start with what we know. Lee steals and crashes a car. Your mom arrives on the scene. Brandon happens to be around and inebriated. Your mom contacts the police. The police arrest Brandon. Lee somehow disappears from the crime scene, but not before sustaining injuries from what appears to be a front-end collision. That’s what happened the night of the accident.”

I waited for him to continue, but he stayed quiet, frowning. “What?” I asked.

“Saying that out loud has me thinking. Your mother had to have been the one to call the police. She wouldn’t have left it to someone else. So, there should be a police report somewhere with her as a witness, shouldn’t there be?”

“You’re right, she would have made the call,” I agreed. “Is that something we could access?”

Sebastian shook his head and scoffed a little. “Why didn’t I think about this before? Accident reports are public record. There should be a public record of any accident that happened that night. How could we have missed this?”

“She might not have put her name on it.”

“She had to have if she called the report in. She might be able to pay the general public to keep their mouths shut, but not with law enforcement.” He was silent for another moment, mouth twisting down again. “At least I hope.”

“It’s worth investigating,” I said. “Anything would be helpful at this point.”

Sebastian tapped his fingers along the steering wheel. “Right. Let’s keep reviewing. So, my father takes on Brandon’s case and intentionally sabotages it, resulting in Brandon getting charged in place of Lee. Lee, meanwhile, is checked into the hospital the same night as the accident. We don’t know how he got his injuries. I have theories, but… well, they’re not pleasant.”

I shuffled through the papers again until I picked up Lee’s medical report. The date was the same night as Brandon’s accident— Lee’s accident? The thought made my stomach turn. How could my mother do this to some innocent bystander? “What do you think happened, then?”

Sebastian chewed on his bottom lip. “Well. Lee could have accidentally stepped into traffic right after crashing the car. It’s… plausible. However, if someone had hit Lee they would have stopped and there would have been a separate report. Even if they hadn’t stopped, it would’ve become a hit and run. And if it had been a random person, your mother definitely wouldn’t have let that go. So that’s why I think this theory is wrong.”

“And your other theory?”

“As you know, Lee wouldn’t have let this happen. He wouldn’t let the blame be placed on anyone else. Your mother knew this and in an attempt at keeping him silent…”

The discomfort in my stomach grew. I knew it before he even said it. It was dancing at the back of my mind. Since it was first hinted at. It made sense. It made so much sense it made me feel nauseous. I’d come to the conclusion, too. I’d…

I cracked the window in the car.

Stay calm, Bennett.

“I don’t think her intention was kill him, but I think she achieved her goal,” Sebastian said simply. “And if she brought Lee to the hospital herself, she could easily spin whatever tale she wanted to so the police wouldn’t have to be involved, and so no one would know Lee had been at McKellan’s that night. And then she ships Lee off to California and puts it behind her. The cherry on top of the cake? Lee doesn’t remember anything.”

I swallowed, the motion difficult as a consequence of my dry mouth.

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I managed.

Sebastian put his hand just above my knee and squeezed it. “We’ll settle this, Bennett. The things that have transpired are terrible, but we’re making it right. Remember that.”

“I know. I am. My mother doesn’t deserve any compassion, anyway.”

Sebastian made a humming noise deep in his throat. “Well. Something made her the way she is. I think she’s needed help for a while now, but no one has attempted to help her.”

“She doesn’t deserve help after what she’s done.”

“Everyone deserves help. But paying the consequences for your wrongdoings is something else. Forgiveness is also something else. I’m not saying that she doesn’t deserve what will be coming to her nor do you have to forgive her for what she’s done, but there’s something causing her to act like this.”

I rolled the window back up, placing my hands in my lap. Sebastian was the most rational person I’d ever met. He proved it time and time again. It still didn’t stop the tightness in my chest. Wrong. It felt all wrong to give my mother any kind of sympathy after all she’d done. She did this to herself. She pushed Lee into wanting to end his life. She caused so much stress in mine. She all but ruined Brandon’s.

But she was my mother. I couldn’t hate her. But it was wrong, wasn’t it?

A bead of sweat slid down my face and I wiped at it, deciding to crack open the window again.

“Let’s continue,” Sebastian said. “So, Lee is in California and Brandon is in jail. My father uses his account to pay off some random person in Poughkeepsie. Who would that person be? Where do they fit in?”

I was glad to have something else to focus on. “The owner of the stolen car? Isn’t that what we said?”

“I thought so at first. But they testified in court against Brandon. So why would my father send them money? They weren’t outside at the time of the accident. They wouldn’t have known who actually crashed their car.”

“Unless maybe they do know something.”

“Yes. That’s possible, but there could be something else. It’s something we have to investigate. We’ll have to pay them a visit.”

“Are we allowed to do that?”

Sebastian gave me another look. “We’re allowed to do anything. And we’ll attempt to do it as legally as possible. I admit it’d be easier if Henley had hired me as a lawyer so I could have more means of collecting evidence, but I can make this work. I grew up with my father, after all.”

“As much as it helps us now, I’m glad you’re not like him.”

My comment left a small smile lingering on Sebastian’s lips for the rest of the way to his parents’ house.

When we pulled up to the gates, Sebastian paused to type in the passcode to open them. I briefly wondered what Henley would think of that, but the thought was dismissed as Sebastian threw a wary glance back at me. I watched as he pressed a couple more buttons on the keypad, but the doors didn’t open. He halting put out a hand to type it again, hesitating.

I leaned over and rolled down the driver’s side window so he could hear me. “What’s wrong?”

“They changed the passcode.”

“What?”

He folded his arms over his chest. “If I put it in wrong again they’ll get an alert on their phones.”

I surveyed the gate in front of us. “Can’t we just climb over?”

“I suppose, but we wouldn’t be able to enter the house without triggering the alarm, which again, they’d be alerted to.”

“Can you just call them and say you’re picking up something?”

Sebastian lifted an eyebrow. “If my father is hiding something and is aware of the connection between you, Henley, and myself, chances are he’ll immediately get suspicious.”

My shoulders sagged. “That’s true.”

Suddenly his face brightened. “Oh. I do know what would work though. You’re lighter, so you’ll have to go in first.”

Before I could even question what was happening, Sebastian was pulling me out of the car, and hoisting me over the gate. He easily pulled himself over and guided me toward the back of the house. With a precisely aimed kick, he knocked out the small cellar window on the far left of the house.

I stared at the thin opening. “You want me to climb through… there?”

“You’re much slenderer than I am. My shoulders wouldn’t fit.”

“My shoulders are wide too!”

Sebastian took a step closer to me and scanned me right from left, using his fingers to mark how much broader his shoulders were compared to mine. “This is why you should work out, Bennett. You don’t have to be the first one through cobwebbed windows.”

Feeling heat rise to my cheeks I took a step back. “Fine. Whatever. And for your information, I do work out.”

“When’s the last time you visited the gym?”

“Well—”

“Trick question. Our joint membership expired three months ago and you still haven’t noticed. Now go, we want to be quick.”

He shuffled me toward the window and I turned my nose up at it even as I lowered myself to the ground. I slid my feet in first and angled them down, trying to find purchase on anything, but feeling nothing. Gripping the edge of the window I slid in all the way to my chest and still couldn’t find support.

“How high up is this window?” I grunted.

Sebastian smiled a little and shrugged. “I don’t think you’ll break anything.”

“Pull me out.”

“Come on, Bennett. Do it for Henley.”

Sucking a breath through my teeth, I propelled the rest of my body through the window, closing my eyes for the intimidating three seconds it took for my feet to reach the cellar floor. The impact buckled my knees, but I managed to stay upright. It was pitch black, the only light coming from the one window.

“You need to shut off the main breaker. That way the security system will go out fully,” Sebastian said, his voice muffled.

“And I’m supposed to know where that is?”

“In the far-left corner. You’ve seen one before, haven’t you?”

I decided not to grace him with an answer as I pulled out my phone to use as a flashlight. The floor was made out of cement and the walls showed their support. It was odd that the room wasn’t finished, considering the rest of the basement was. This room was completely bare. Still, it made breaker easy to locate. I flipped the switch and then returned to the window. “It’s out.”

“Okay. Stay there while I slip inside and see what I can find. It’s better if I go alone in case the app notifies them of a power outage and they send the police to check it out.”

“What? No, let me out first.”

“Be right back.”

I heard his footsteps walking away and I stuck my hand out the window to try and stop him. “Sebastian! Help me out first! Sebastian!”

Grinding my teeth, I retracted my arm from the window, swiping my flashlight around the room again. Spider webs stretched across the ceiling and I absently scratched at my head and arms, wondering if anything had gotten on me as I slid through the window.

There was a door that I assumed led to the furnished part of the basement, but I didn’t go through it, deciding Sebastian was probably right. The police could show up if there was a security alert, even if it was just an outage. I could imagine my mother doing the same thing. She’d probably fly home to investigate herself. Especially if she was hiding something.

I turned back to the window, nearly tripping over a box in the corner I hadn’t noticed initially. The force of the impact of my foot knocked the top off and I crouched down to fix it, pausing as I noticed manila folders. It seemed like a suspicious place to keep them. Tucking my phone under my chin, I picked one up and opened it, scanning the papers inside. It appeared to just be records of old cases.

Setting the file back down, I picked up another. This file held another case, but I paused as I read over the name of the client. Castrilli… I flipped the folder shut again, seeing Cecil Castrilli written on the front. I stared it for a long moment. While it wasn’t too strange to see a familiar name working with Sebastian’s father, it felt oddly coincidental.

I shuffled through the contents again. Cecil seemed to have trouble remembering to pay parking tickets, but other than that, there was nothing too incriminating. Just as I reached the last document, a slip of paper floated to the floor. I snagged it in mid-air, nearly dropping my phone in doing so.

Taking my phone from its position under my chin, I held it over the paper. Cecil’s bank account details were written on it.

“What a great thing to leave around,” I said dryly. “Very professional.”

“Okay Bennett, flip the switch back and let’s go.”

Sebastian’s voice startled me and I nearly dropped the folder. “Already?”

“Why, you want to stay down there longer? I told you I’d be quick.”

“No. I found a box of files down here. There’s one that belongs to Cara’s father,” I told him, walking back to turn the power on, and then going to the window. “Even though it’s all parking ticket misdemeanors, I found Cecil’s bank account details.”

Sebastian crouched down, but I still couldn’t see his face. “Is that so? That’s strange. Why would it be hidden down there?”

I stared at the paper in my hand. “Do you still have the account details of the person your father transferred money to?”

“Yes. Wait, are you thinking—”

“I don’t know, help me out first.”

The thought was preposterous. It would be too coincidental. Too precise and planned out. It’d be too cohesive.

My forehead slammed against the corner of the window and I shouted out in pain. “Sebastian!”

“Again, it’s not my fault you have no upper body strength. My arms barely fit through that window.”

With much more struggling, I somehow managed to make it back through the window. Sebastian had a paper bag in his hands and he jerked his head back toward the driveway. I followed him quickly. Once we reached his car, I slid into the passenger’s seat, opening the glove box where he kept the other files he’d copied.

“Are you comparing them?” Sebastian asked me. “I found some more financial reports, but I don’t know if anything will be useful.”

“What’s the paper with the transaction?”

Sebastian reached over and plucked one from the pile. “This one.”

I inspected the paper until I found the account numbers and then held the paper right next to them. When the first numbers matched up, my heart stuttered. When the next numbers matched up, it stopped completely. And when the final numbers stayed on par, it took off at an incredible pace. “Sebastian. These match.”

“What?”

“The account numbers. They’re the same. Your father deposited money to Cecil.”

Sebastian pulled the papers from my hand and I watched as he double checked. “Why would my dad be paying Cecil…?”

My thoughts swirled. We had assumed that whoever Sebastian’s dad had paid off must of have been the other person involved in Brandon and Lee’s accident. If it was Cecil… where did that fit in? I would have recognized him. My family had known his for a long time. My mother used to go out to McKellan’s with him, a habit Lee and I had picked up…

“We need to go to McKellan’s,” I said.

“To look at the video recordings.”

It wasn’t a question. Sebastian was probably way ahead of me, anyway. As he drove, I tried to think through it rationally. My hands formed fists on my lap. This was insane. If Cecil was involved… it was too intertwined. Everything was tangled up too much. My mother couldn’t have plotted all this. It was an incredible mix of coincidence and sly groundwork. How could the world set things up for such a reprehensible crime?

But, like all things so far, it made sense. It made sense why my mother was so adamant about me dating Cara all of a sudden. It’d never been brought up in the past, even though our families had known each other for years. Never once. So why out of the blue had my mother decided she was the one for me? Cecil was always close to us, but never close enough. Never even considered for our family to merge with for any matter or reason.

“Ugh.”

Sebastian hummed his agreement. “You might have found the missing piece.”

“This isn’t possible.”

“It is. If Cecil is connected, your mother is a lot scarier than I thought.”

“No, even she couldn’t have planned all this. She just has some sick type of luck. Luck that made it all fell into place for her. If we see Cecil in the footage it’s what it has to be. If he was there that night…”

“Then I suppose we will have to pay him a visit, won’t we?”

“If he’s involved what will happen to him when we bring this all to light? Hush money is illegal, isn’t it?”

“In his case, yes. If he was persuaded by my father and your mother to lie about what happened that night, then that is illegal. Hush money isn’t always illegal though.”

“I see.” I turned to gaze out the window. If this was true… perhaps it was for the best. Everything would fall into place. I wouldn’t have to worry about my mother anymore, or Cara. We wouldn’t be forced into marriage. Cara could be free. I could be free.

At McKellan’s, Wilson greeted us cheerfully. “Here’s a sight for sore eyes! It’s been dead here. What can I get you two?”

“Oh, we’re not here to drink,” I said, feeling a little bad.

“Oh?”

“Do you still have the recordings from the night of Brandon’s accident?” Sebastian asked. “And perhaps the day as well?”

Wilson nodded. “Yeah, I kept the files. Never know when we might need them. Like now, for example. I’m assuming.”

“Sorry to bother you.”

“Don’t be sorry at all. If you guys can find something no one has yet to find, it’s worth it. Poor Brandon doesn’t deserve all this. Lee, either. Or you or Henley. It’s all a big mess, isn’t it?” He sighed, leading back to the office and unlocking it. “I just hope it can all be solved.”

After logging in and pulling up the files, he stepped back so Sebastian and I could view the monitor. Sebastian slowed the playback speed and started from when Wilson opened up the pub. Lee and I hadn’t arrived until much later, but there was no telling when Cecil could have arrived. I leaned closer to the screen, hovering over Sebastian. He had to be here. He had to be. If this could help us… if we could just have one break.

“There’s Brandon,” I said as I watched Henley’s brother appear at the bar.

“Wow. He really was scrawny,” Sebastian commented. “He looks like you.”

I scowled. “I’m not scrawny. I’m lean.”

“You guys have the same build in this video. No wonder Henley mistook you for Brandon. You had the same hair style, too.”

“What? When was that?”

“Back when we came back from Hawaii.”

“Wait, that’s why she was so mad?”

Sebastian glanced at me briefly. “Didn’t you two talk about it?”

“She never told me it’s because she thought I was involved.” I folded my arms across my chest. No wonder she acted the way she had. I was a stranger to her. Of course, it could be a logical conclusion.

“I suppose that was my fault. I told her not to tell you because, you know. How you acted about Lee.”

“Well we’ve learned that keeping things to ourselves doesn’t benefit anyone. I hope you won’t do it again.”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t hide anything anymore.”

“Good— wait, is that Cecil?” I leaned closer to the monitor, my stomach churning. “I think it is. It’s him.”

“You’re sure?”

“Can we zoom in more?”

Sebastian obliged and even though the screen became grainy, I could identify Cecil. He was there that night with what appeared to be some coworkers. They all stood around the bar, sitting only feet away from Brandon. I almost couldn’t believe what I was seeing. All that would happen after this moment, with Brandon having no idea… It was insane.

It was our big break.