Chapter 9 - THE MAN MICHAEL LOVED
Michael did not react the way Daniel expected.
He did not demand Voss's arrest.
He sat in the hotel bathroom with the door locked.
When he came out, he said, "He taught me to ride a bike."
Daniel snapped, "He stole Grandpa's life."
Michael shouted back, "He also sat with me in the ER when I broke my arm."
Walter stopped Daniel before he answered.
"Both can be true."
Michael looked at Walter with gratitude he did not want.
Voss contacted Michael that evening.
COME ALONE.
Michael agreed without telling them.
That was his mistake.
Daniel discovered the message and followed.
Walter followed Daniel.
Their attempt at secrecy became three cars and an angry federal surveillance team Raymond had quietly contacted.
Voss waited inside an abandoned bowling alley.
He was eighty-one.
Thin.
Oxygen tubing beneath his nose.
He looked nothing like a mastermind.
Michael slapped him.
Voss accepted it.
"You don't get to call me son."
"I know."
"Did you kill Thomas?"
"No."
"Did you steal his life?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
Voss answered, "At first, to hide."
Michael's face twisted.
"At first?"
"Then because you loved me."
The cruelty of the answer was that it sounded true.
Voss admitted June discovered the impersonation within months.
She threatened to expose him.
Then she learned Thomas was alive but hiding.
Thomas refused to return.
June chose stability for Michael over truth.
It was not noble.
It was not forced.
She chose.
Michael whispered, "She let me call you Dad."
Voss began crying.
"So did I."
A shot cracked through the building.
Voss fell.
The bullet struck his shoulder.
The shooter escaped.
Voss survived.
May you like
And suddenly someone was willing to kill an eighty-one-year-old man to keep 1982 buried.
