A Matter of Trust (16 page)

“A copy is all we need.” He reached for them
and then lifted his reading glasses from his pocket, shoving them
on and shuffling through each paper, reading. He let out a deep
breath and pulled off his glasses. “We have a place to start. Do
you know who sent you these?”

For a moment, she wondered if he was asking
her a question or already knew the answer. “His name is Rick,” she
said. “He’s the one who told me when Ben was arriving.”

Her father gave nothing away as he took a
breath and then handed her one of the papers, pointing to the top
margin of the letterhead. “Rick Stillwell, Vice President—and son
of the CEO, Peter Stillwell.”

Carrie read the names under the company
letterhead, with Ben’s listed above Rick’s as president. How could
it be that easy?

“Think about it, Carrie. The one question
you need to ask is who has the most to gain from Ben’s
downfall.”

“But why?” she said.

“Honey, sometimes greed doesn’t need a
reason.”

Ben could hear Julia down the hall, scolding
the girls to get into bed, but they were trying to negotiate
another hour of TV. It was nice, being here with Logan and his
family and the girls. At any other time, he would have loved
horsing around with them. They were fun and bright tricksters, and
he loved being Uncle Ben. Logan was going to have his hands full
with those two when they were old enough to date and the boys came
knocking on the door. It wouldn’t be long, either. If anyone could
keep a tight rein on those girls, though, it was his brother.

Logan hung up the phone, shaking his head.
“Jordy is working on getting those documents, or at least a copy of
them. I have a friend in the Boise crime lab. We’ll send them to
him. If it’s a forgery or it’s been altered, he’ll find it.”

“May not be that simple, Logan. We need the
original documents, and who’s got those, do you suppose?” They both
already knew: the Feds, Peter Stillwell, or whatever federal ethics
committee oversaw these kinds of cases.

“Hey, of all of us, you’re the one who’s
done everything you set out to,” Logan said. “Don’t lose faith.
We’re going to beat this.” He grimaced and set his hand on his leg
as he hobbled to the table.

“Your leg bothering you again?”

Logan just shook his head and pulled out a
chair to sit down, stretching out his leg and squeezing his thigh.
“No more than usual.” He leaned back, leveling a hard look on Ben.
“Mom called before I picked you up. She saw the news.”

“Yeah, I guess I should have called
her.”

“She and Dad are worried. Joe, Jake, and
Samuel called, too. Everyone wants to come, you know.”

That was the last thing Ben wanted, to have
his parents and his brothers here right now. He needed a moment to
breathe, to figure things out. “We should talk to Samuel, at
least,” he said. “We may need his legal mind. It helps having a
lawyer in the family.”

Logan knew that, and he knew his brothers
would drop everything and come.

“Remember when we were kids, and Dad left?”
Ben said, watching Logan as his lips tightened and his face
appeared to darken.

“What made you bring that up?” Logan didn’t
sound pleased.

“I don’t know. Been thinking about it a lot,
lately. Guess that’s why we’ve always come to you, like I am
now.”

Logan nodded as if he understood.

“Couldn’t have been easy on you,” Ben said.
“You were still a kid yourself, but all of a sudden, you were who
we depended on. Even after Dad came back, it was still you we went
to.”

Logan glanced up for a second. Ben wondered
if he was uncomfortable. “Dad had another woman,” he said.

“What?” Ben snapped. Of every scenario that
had gone through his mind, that hadn’t been one of them. “Did Mom
know?”

Logan took a breath and rested his flattened
hand on the tabletop, flexing his fingers. “I don’t think so. I
think she wondered.”

“So how do you know?” Ben could tell by the
sudden coldness in Logan’s eyes that there was way more to what had
happened, and he’d been holding on to it all these years.

“I caught him, where he was staying, Mom
sent me over with some of his things, a shaving kit he’d forgotten.
He was staying in this old house a mile down the road. I walked up
the steps, and he was doing her on the kitchen table.”

Ben couldn’t believe it. He found himself
thrust back into the mindset of a young boy with his world being
torn apart. How disillusioned he was with his father. “And Mom
never found out? You never told her?”

His brother shook his head, his lips tight,
holding on to all of those secrets. “She didn’t need to know that.
It would have added to her hurt.”

“So you kept Dad’s secret. Does he know?
Well, of course he does. I wondered what went on between you two.
When Dad came back, there was always something between you—and then
you left us and enlisted.”

“I never left you. I’ve always been here for
you! You know that. Dad…yeah, we had it out. I hit him, tried to
knock his teeth out, and he never fought back. He knew he’d never
have my respect again, or my trust, after what he’d done. He also
knew I’d never told Mom he slept with someone else. He asked me
about it, and I told him straight out that if he ever hurt Mom like
that again, I’d kill him. He believed me, so I had to go. Mom loved
Dad, and she wanted to make it work. She may have forgiven him, but
I couldn’t.”

Julia wandered into the kitchen. “Logan, the
girls are watching TV. Can you tell them to shut it off in half an
hour? I’m going to take a bath.” She stood behind Logan and slid
her hands over his chest, leaning down and kissing him.

“You gave in,” he said to her as he reached
up, running his hand up her arm, pulling her in for another
kiss.

“Hmm, they’re excited that their uncle is
here and swear they can’t sleep.” She gestured to Ben. Her smile
was so pretty.

“I’ll get them to bed,” Logan said. “You
go.”

Julia kissed him once more and strode out of
the kitchen.

“She looks good,” Ben said, watching the
easy smile that lit up his brother’s face.

“Yeah, I’m a lucky man,” Logan said, but Ben
wanted to add that it was Julia who was lucky to be married to
him.

“Logan, Uncle Ben is on TV!” Trinity called
out from the living room.

Ben started into the living room, his
brother right behind him. He stopped in front of the TV screen, and
there was Carrie on the front steps of KKO, surrounded by
reporters. Cameras were clicking, and there was a microphone in her
face. The side of the screen bore Ben’s picture again.

He wasn’t sure what he’d missed, but it
appeared she’d given a statement already. He reached for the remote
and turned up the volume.

“So are you telling us that Ben Wilde did
not
falsify reports and order second-grade equipment?” a
reporter asked.

She looked right into the camera, and he
could see fear and something else he’d never seen before in her
eyes. “The information that was emailed to me came from a source
who has been providing our group with inside information against
this oil pipeline project. That source is Rick Stillwell, the vice
president of Kootenai Kounty Oil. He’s the son of founder and CEO
Peter Stillwell. What we know now, after obtaining the original
email from the pipeline manufacturer in China, is that the
communication was between Rick Stillwell and the Chinese
authorities. Mr. Wilde’s name and signature was used to replace
Rick Stillwell’s in the documents sent to me.”

Ben gave Logan an uneasy glance. Logan
watching him, arms crossed, and then took in the girls, now
standing beside Ben, awed by the media frenzy. Trinity slid her
hand into Ben’s as if offering her uncle support.

There were a barrage of questions from
reporters to Carrie, and then Jack appeared beside her, putting his
arm around her shoulders. “My daughter acted on the information she
was sent, and she is humbled at the idea that she may have
destroyed the career of a man who’s innocent of all these
allegations.”

“Is the oil pipeline project still going to
go through?” another reporter called out.

“As of this morning, we’ve received word
that the project is on hold pending the outcome of this
investigation,” Jack said as cameras flashed.

“I would like to add my deepest apologies to
Ben Wilde,” Carrie stated. She paused and looked down. When she
glanced back up at the camera, there were tears glistening in her
eyes. “Ben, if you’re watching this, I’m so sorry. Can you find it
in your heart to forgive me for not believing you? I regret my
actions and whatever pain I’ve caused you in hurting your career
and your name. I wish I could go back and change what happened. You
didn’t deserve to be crucified by the media the way you were, and I
deeply regret my part in this scandal. All of you out there, please
know that Ben Wilde is a good, honest man, and he had no part in or
any knowledge of the duplicity of the company he worked for.”

“Ms. Richardson, how can you stand there and
say he didn’t know?” another reporter yelled out.

Carrie actually grabbed the microphone close
to her. The way she shook her head, Ben could see the sizzle of
anger from her. “Are you serious? I can tell you with absolute, one
hundred percent certainty that Ben had no knowledge of any of this.
He’s a good, honest man—and I love him!”

“Do you want to explain that?” Logan
asked.

Ben glanced at the two pairs of very young
eager ears that were listening.

“Off to bed, you two,” Logan said in a tone
the girls didn’t dare argue with. They paused once in the doorway,
and Logan just pointed to the hallway. They filed out quietly. “Out
with it,” he said in the next breath to Ben.

“Long story,” Ben said. “Pain in the ass.
Difficult woman. I think I love her.”

Logan just shook his head. “Well, you better
call her, because she just announced to the entire world that she’s
in love with you, too.”

“Actually, can you get me back to the
airport?”

“You know I will. What are you planning to
do?”

“I have unfinished business. What I need to
say to Carrie needs to be said face to face.”

Logan reached over and gripped his shoulder.
“Get your things together. Let me go tell Julia.”

Ben stood in the living room alone, watching
the words that flashed over the screen:
Rick Stillwell under
investigation in Pacific Gateway scandal.
He knew with
certainty that even with his name cleared, he no longer had a
career in this industry. With this type of scandal, there would
always be whispers and rumors questioning his role, questioning
whether he really had known. That dirt would always stick to him
and follow him wherever he went. No, it was time for a fresh start,
time to see Carrie. From there, he’d decide where to go and what to
do.

“I don’t know, Alice. This time I really
screwed up,” Carrie said. She found some comfort sitting at the
table in her father’s house with Alice. After hearing her father
tell his sordid tale, she should have hated him, but she couldn’t.
For the first time, he had opened up to her, and she realized that
he’d allowed her to think the worst of him and Alice.

Her father was a mystery. After his story,
he had picked up his phone and made a call to someone. She still
didn’t know who it was other than that his name was Chris. Then the
documents had appeared, first by email, then courier. When she
asked her father who the man he’d called was and how he had been
able to obtain something no one else could, Jack had said nothing.
She had watched him and the look he had, and, for the first time in
her life, she had understood that there were some things she didn’t
want to know.

Alice reached across the table and patted
her hand, stirring her from her thoughts. “It’s going to be okay.
Drink your tea.”

Carrie put her elbow on the table and rested
her chin in her hand, looking over at a woman who’d never for one
day treated Carrie as horribly as she had been treated. She wished
she could go back in time and take back every horrible thing she’d
said. “I’m sorry, Alice.”

“For what?” She looked truly surprised.

“For how I’ve treated you and Dad.” She
flushed in embarrassment. Alice understood clearly what she was
trying to say; Carrie could tell by the way she glanced away, as if
not knowing how to respond.

“You have no idea how I feel, watching you
now with your dad,” Alice finally said. “He’s always wanted a
relationship with you, Carrie. He just didn’t know how to go about
it. Thank you for letting him in. You've eased some of his
burdens.”

The way she said it, Carrie wondered whether
Alice knew what her dad had done in the past. Even though Carrie
didn’t know all the details, she wanted to ask Alice—but something
inside her made her hesitate. It was her father’s secret, and
hadn’t she done enough over the past few days by opening her big
mouth, especially with Ben?

“I don’t know how you and your father got a
hold of those emails and papers to clear Ben,” Alice said. “I’m
just grateful. I like Ben. I just couldn’t believe he could do
something like that.”

“Yeah, I should have trusted him. I should
have listened. I just wish I could tell him how sorry I am. I don’t
know how he could ever forgive me.”

Alice glanced toward the window. “Ah,
there’s your father now.”

Carrie could hear his truck. Alice got up
from the table and went out the door to see him. She could hear
voices and footsteps, but she just stared in her teacup at the
leaves floating in the bottom.

“Carrie.”

She jumped when she heard his voice. When
she turned around, Ben was standing in the doorway. Her father was
talking with Alice as they went into the kitchen. Ben looked so
good even though he had that scruffy look going on, as if he hadn’t
shaved. He wore his leather coat and dark blue jeans.