Chapter 13 - The Driver's Confession
Mason's heart pounded against his ribs. The memory of the Highway 26 crash had been the catalyst for his entire life's journey, but to sit face-to-face with the man who drove the tanker sent a jolt of shock through his system.
"You're the driver?" Mason asked, his voice low and controlled despite the adrenaline surging through his blood. "The police searched three states for you after the crash. You vanished."
"Vance Sterling's men smuggled me across the border to Mexico that same night," Thomas Drake said, tears welling in his tired eyes. "They told me if I ever returned to Oakridge, they would execute my daughter. For fourteen years, I lived in hiding in Tijuana, working in salvage yards, terrified of every shadow."
Thomas pushed the brass locker key across the wooden table toward Mason.
"Why come back now?" Mason asked.
"Because I saw the news," Thomas replied, his voice breaking. "I saw Vance Sterling in handcuffs. I saw what you did for this town. And I knew the only way I could ever earn God's forgiveness before I die of this lung cancer is to tell you the final, unspoken truth."
"What truth?"
Thomas leaned in closer, his voice dropping to a harsh whisper. "Sterling didn't hire me to dump chemicals that night. He hired me to stage an accident to eliminate Daniel Brooks because Daniel was getting too close. But there was someone else on the city council who funded the whole operation. A silent partner whose name was never in the federal indictment."
Mason's jaw tightened. "Who was it?"
Before Thomas could answer, the glass front doors of the cafe rattled violently as a cold gust of wind blew into the room.
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Outside, a black town car with heavily tinted windows sat idling at the curb, its headlights glaring straight through the window into the corner booth.
Thomas panicked, knocking over his cider. "They followed me from the bus terminal! They know I'm here!"
