Black Single Dad Went Looking for Work on a Farm — He Didn't Know a Millionaire Would Make Him Rich
Chapter 17
Theme:
Font Size:
24px
Luke heard the way the deputy said it: not the woman who does the hiring, not the farm manager—Miss Vance, ma'am, the way a county deputy speaks to someone who owns the land he is standing on.He turned and looked at Clare. "You're not the manager," he said. "You own this place.""I do," Clare said. She met his eyes without flinching. "All of it. I should have told you this afternoon. I'm sorry I didn't." Then she turned to Boyd, and her voice went cold. "There was no meeting at the bank, Ray. Gordon Pierce has been in Richmond since Wednesday. His assistant had no idea what I was talking about. Somebody called me pretending to be him just to get me off this property for two hours."Wade shifted his weight from one boot to the other."Miss Vance," Luke said, "there's something in my back pocket you need to see."Clare reached into the pocket of his soaked work pants and pulled out a coiled length of black hydraulic hose. She turned it over in the headlights. The cut through the outer wall was perfectly straight."That came off your tractor this afternoon," Luke said. "Somebody cut it while it sat by the diesel tank. That's the exact spot where my son drew a man in a red cap."Clare looked at the hose. She looked at the drawing in Boyd's hands. Then she pulled her phone from her jacket."Two weeks ago, after my feed flooded, I had security cameras installed in the farm office and both barns," she said. "I didn't tell anyone. Not my lawyer. Not my foreman." She turned to Wade. "Especially not my foreman."She opened the app, scrolled back through the afternoon, and held the screen out to Boyd.The footage was clear. At 5:42, while the barn camera showed Luke stacking bales high in the loft, the office camera showed Wade Harland walking out the office door with a gray metal cashbox under his rain slicker. A third camera caught him crossing the yard, opening the passenger door of the old Dodge, and sliding the box beneath the seat.Boyd watched the whole clip in silence. When it ended, he handed the phone back to Clare. He did not look at Wade; he looked at Luke.Then he took out his key and unlocked the handcuffs."Mr. Callahan," he said, "I owe you an apology."Luke rubbed his raw wrists. He did not say anything bitter; he did not need to. He simply nodded once.Wade had started backing toward the barn."Hold it right there, Wade," Boyd said."Ray, come on. That camera's fuzzy. You know me.""I thought I did." Boyd held out his hand. "Your phone."Wade hesitated. As he pulled the phone from his pocket, the screen lit up with a new message. Boyd took it and read it aloud: