What Happened to the Bennetts(25)

I blinked. “What rumors?”

“I don’t know.” Lucinda moaned. “I wish we could tell them we’re in witness protection.”

“No. We can’t. Don’t.”

“What if something happens to them because of us? They should be warned, they could be in danger.”

“We’ll talk to Dom in the morning.”

“Look.” Lucinda started scrolling through the comments, already 175 of them. “Everyone’s worried. Look at these comments.”

I scanned them, and they were mostly parents of Allison’s and Ethan’s friends:

    Judy Wright-Cobb We love you Lucinda and the Bennetts! We hope you are okay and we are praying for you! Please be safe! XOXO

Sally Liatsis What is going on? This is so crazy! I just saw them at the game! What happened? They could have been kidnapped! I’m so worried about Lucinda! She is the best!

Deb Gallagher What if they died in the fire? Did anybody think of that? What if they were asleep when it broke out? They could all be dead!! Why haven’t the police announced anything? #Fishy

April DelVecchio Did you see her studio was trashed, too? She took pics of us two years ago and it’s still my header. This is like a mystery in our own backyard! Connect the dots to foul play! Lucinda, I love you and I’m worried about you!

Ali Choudhoury I’ve been texting and calling Lucinda and she’s not responding. My son Jake knows Ethan and he isn’t, either! I hate to be alarmist, but something must really be wrong. This is not like them. Not at all!



I got the gist. I put an arm around Lucinda, and her laptop slid to the side. “Honey, it’s better not to go on Facebook.”

“It helps me. It’s our life.”

Not anymore, I thought but didn’t say.

“I hate that they’re upset and there’s nothing we can do. It’s a terrible way to treat people. They love us.” Lucinda met my eye, exasperated. “They’re not going to forget about us.”

“They have to.”

“But what will happen? What will they do?” Lucinda shook her head. “The FBI isn’t doing its job. How good can they be if they let the house burn? Your office? My studio? Why didn’t they anticipate that? It’s like they didn’t think it through.”

“You heard him. Their focus is on us, not property.”

“I hope to God we made the right decision, coming here.” Lucinda looked away, and I touched her arm.

“Of course we did. You saw, we got out just in time. They’d kill us, honey. They wouldn’t think twice. You get that, right?”

“Yes,” Lucinda answered, her voice hushed. She slid off her reading glasses, her eyes glistening.

“Ethan will take his cue from us. He didn’t want to get out of bed. He didn’t want to go downstairs. He wasn’t even excited about the laptop.”

“He needs time.”

“We have to make sure he doesn’t contact anybody. If you figured out a way, he might, too.”

“This is just so terrible. . . .” Lucinda heaved a sob, out of nowhere. “I’m trying, I’m really trying . . . but she’s all I think about. . . .”

My heart wrenched. I reached for my wife, hugging her close while she began to cry.

“And . . . she’s so young, just a kid . . . it’s so wrong, that she . . . isn’t with us . . . she’s in some morgue, all alone . . . and now we won’t even be at her funeral . . . I just want to . . . I wish we could change it all . . . go back . . .”

“I know, I know,” I repeated, having nothing else to say.

The only way out of this hell was through, and all I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her until she finally fell asleep at dawn.





Chapter Fourteen



I woke up, put on the same T-shirt and gym shorts, and disabled the burglar alarm, leaving Lucinda asleep. I peeked in on Ethan, who snored cuddling Moonie, so I went downstairs. I opened the front door onto a sunny morning, then went to the laptop in the kitchen without making coffee. I wanted to see if there was any report of our house fire.

I sat at the table and searched online, but didn’t find any. I searched for the fire in the strip mall, but there was no new reporting of that, either. I searched for news about Lucinda’s studio, but it was likewise absent. If the FBI had shut the media down, I wasn’t sure of the point. Our neighbors had seen the fire, and they would wonder why there was no mention.

I thought of my employees, with no word from me. They had to be putting things together. I made a mental note to talk to Dom about getting them severance. I thought of the physical damage to the office fixtures, then realized I hadn’t checked my cloud, which held my office files in Dropbox.

I logged on and onto the screen popped the case files that automatically backed up. The first one, Clennic v. Exxon, was a big antitrust case in which I’d had a deposition on Friday afternoon. Before the weekend, a lifetime ago. Back then, I had been looking forward to the weekend, starting with Allison’s game.

Dad, do we have a chance against Radnor?

Absolutely. You can beat them.

You should get an Academy Award. Best Dad.

I wiped my eyes, feeling raw and empty. My mouth tasted bitter. I knew my life would forever be divided into Before and After. I didn’t know how other fathers survived their own children. I wished I could talk to one, just one. I wished someone would tell me. It wasn’t possible, yet people did it every day. I just didn’t know how.