The Lie Bear Carried
Chapter 06 - The Lie Bear Carried
Bear closed the storage unit door before speaking.
Nine years earlier, he had been driving home after midnight when he saw Daniel’s truck outside a roadside bar.
Daniel was arguing with Grant Harper.
At the time, Grant had been Daniel’s friend and business partner.
Bear parked across the road.
He watched Grant take the keys from Daniel.
Daniel climbed into the passenger seat.
Grant got behind the wheel.
“I should have stopped them,” Bear said. “Danny looked angry, but he wasn’t drunk. Grant was.”
Mack’s face went still.
“The police said Daniel was driving.”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell them?”
Bear looked ashamed.
“Because Grant came to me the next morning.”
Grant claimed Daniel had switched seats after they left the bar. He warned Bear that the club was already under investigation and that placing a member near the bar would bring police attention to everyone.
Bear had believed the truth would not change anything.
Daniel was dead. Grant was injured. The truck had burned badly enough to destroy most physical evidence.
“So you stayed quiet,” Mack said.
“I was afraid.”
“My son was buried as a drunk because you were afraid.”
Bear accepted the words without defending himself.
Mack wanted to hit him.
Instead, he turned away.
Daniel’s letters lay inside the storage unit. His unfinished life surrounded them in boxes.
Bear spoke again.
“There’s more.”
Two weeks after the funeral, Grant brought Daniel’s leather jacket to the clubhouse. He said it had been recovered from the truck.
Bear noticed the jacket smelled of gasoline, but it had no burn damage.
Grant ordered him to throw it away.
Bear kept it because something felt wrong.
“Why was Grant wearing Danny’s jacket?” Mack asked.
“I don’t know.”
Mack remembered something from the police report.
A witness had seen a man in a black leather jacket walking away from the wreck before emergency vehicles arrived.
The report assumed the witness had been confused.
Perhaps she had not been.
Mack took out his phone and called Lena.
She answered on the second ring.
“Did you find Sarah?” he asked.
There was a pause.
“Yes.”
“Where is she?”
“County detention.”
Mack gripped the phone.
“For what?”
“Grant reported prescription medication missing from his company clinic. Sarah’s fingerprints were on the cabinet.”
Mack looked at the letters.
“When was she arrested?”
“Yesterday morning.”
Eli had been left alone with Grant for nearly twenty-four hours.
May you like
Then Lena added something that made Mack’s blood turn cold.
“Sarah says the drugs were planted, and she says Grant is trying to get her declared mentally incompetent.”
