The suspense had me on the edge of my seat, literally, and I wasn’t sure how long I’d be able to keep from interrupting his story to ask questions. It was a bad habit of mine—I didn’t have much patience when consumed by anticipation.
“The dam opened nearly twenty-four hours early.”
“Did everyone make it out?” Yup, I knew that wouldn’t take long.
Sadness cloaked his intense gaze as he shook his head. “An entire family went missing, and when people started to question the authorities, they were dismissed. The sheriff’s deputies swore up and down that every building was empty by noon that day. They had records of that particular house being vacant. Except no one could answer why none of them were ever heard from again.”
“Did they ever say why the dam opened early?”
“When questioned about that, they apparently had all kinds of excuses. First, they tried to say it had always been slated for the fifth, but at some point, I believe paperwork was found that disproved that claim. Then they brushed it off by saying the entire town of Chogan had been cleared by the crew, and to prevent any vagrant from wandering into the area, they decided to flood it early…even though they already had provisions in place to avoid that very thing. Eventually, the questions stopped, but the family never showed up.”
“And you think they died in the flood?” At this point, I was pretty much holding my breath.
“To be honest, I have no idea what happened to them.”
My head spun with questions and suspicions and every typical assumption I’d learned from my obsession with crime dramas. Except they were all flying through my head at once, creating a chaos of concerns that made it impossible to concentrate on just one thing. “If the whole town knew the plan, how could they possibly think they could get away with lying about when the dam was supposed to open?”
“Because my grandmother was the only one asking questions…and keep in mind, she didn’t live in the area when this all took place. It’s easier to lie to someone who wasn’t aware of a situation until after the fact.”
That gave me even more to think about.
While I contemplated what he’d told me and tried to make sense of what I could, Drew pulled a restaurant to-go box out of the canvas bag. Normally, I would’ve been over the moon at the sight of bite-sized chocolates, which I assumed came from The Feeder’s dessert menu, but not this time. Instead, I was too busy organizing my thoughts.
Although, that didn’t stop me from indulging in the sweet treats.
“You know how I told you last night that you should never call this Lake Bennett?” After I nodded in response, he sucked his lip into his mouth and dipped his chin for a second. When his gaze locked with mine again, I knew this was something worth listening to. “The Bennetts owned a lot of land in Chogan, which means they practically ran the town. They called the shots.”
“Hold on.” I held up my hand to keep him from continuing until after I could ask my question. “I assume your grandmother is the one who told you these things since you said your dad never lived there. And considering the lack of Chogan residents visiting Black Bird since the flood, does that mean all these stories came from one person?”
“Yeah,” he said with a slow, uncertain nod that made me wonder if I’d offended him. “But she grew up in that town, so she knew who the key players were. It wasn’t like she moved away when she was a kid and didn’t have any knowledge of the politicking that went on.”
I could tell by his slightly raised tone and increased speech that I had upset him, which wasn’t at all my intention. “I’m sorry, Drew. I didn’t mean to make it sound like I doubted what your grandmother said. I was just trying to put the puzzle pieces together in my head. That’s all. Like with the details of that family…was it widely known that they’d gone missing? Or was it just that your grandmother never heard from them and concluded something suspicious happened?”
“No one’s been able to prove anything, but when you have a husband and wife and their three sons who are never heard from again, you can’t help but scratch your head and come up with your own assumptions. They’d bought a piece of farmland about sixty miles from here and were set to close on it on the fifth—the day the dam opened. They never made it there to sign the papers. And considering the sizeable down payment they’d made, a last-minute change of heart isn’t probable. This all can be backed up by public records. I don’t need to hear anyone else’s account to trust that I was told the truth.”
“Okay…I believe you.” And I did. I didn’t say that just to make him feel better—although that was an important reason, too. The last thing I wanted was for my desire to have all the details to come across as doubt. Because that wasn’t it at all. If he said it happened, then it happened.
He waited a moment, acknowledging that I was through with my questions, and then went on to finish his story. “Anyway…the people of Chogan answered to the law, and the law answered to the Bennetts. If they wanted something, they got it. There was even a saying among some people that if you love it, a Bennett will take it, and there wasn’t anyone who could stop it.”
“They sound corrupt, like the mafia or something.”
Drew seemed to be calming down some. His spine was no longer ramrod straight. His shoulders were looser and hung forward more than before. However, the biggest sign that he had begun to relax was the way he unconsciously played footsies. It wasn’t much, but even the slightest bump of his shoe against mine was able to settle the air between us.
“Many people believed they were corrupt, yes. The problem was that no one could do anything about it. They seemed to own the officials, and if anyone was willing to stand against them, they would’ve been bankrupted by legal fees before their complaint could even be heard. Apparently, the Bennetts had more money than God.”
It was the apparently that had me stopping him this time. “How do you know how rich they were? Did your grandma know them? Was she a Bennett?”
Evidently, I’d hit a nerve, because at the mention of his grandmother being a Bennett, pure disgust crossed his face. He seemed to be more bothered by that than thinking I doubted her. “No, she wasn’t, but regardless, their net worth wasn’t a secret.”
Holding my hands up in surrender so that he would understand my motives, I asked, “How does she know all these things about the Bennetts then? I mean, is it mostly hearsay, or did she have personal knowledge of this family?”
“She dated the patriarch’s grandson.”
Well, that certainly filled in a few gaps. But there were still more…so many more. And I started to believe that, if it was left up to Drew, it’d take the entire week to complete the story. I wasn’t sure I could wait that long for all the information, so I helped him move it along some. “Were the Bennetts the family that went missing?”
“No. I’m getting to that.” A coy smirk shadowed one corner of his mouth, the flames from the fire flickering in his eyes. And all the while, the movie continued to play; the sounds coming through the speakers were now nothing more than background noise.
“Sorry!” I bounced on my bottom to animate my anticipation. “I’m trying to be patient, but the suspense is killing me!”