Page 25 of Possessive Mechanic

Astrid

“Will somebody please tell me what’s going on?” I ask as I make my way to where my dad and Axel are standing after I’ve just finished giving a police officer my statement.

“Let’s go, honey,” Dad says, holding the door of his Suburban open as the cops continue doing their thing.

“Axel? He’s going with us?”

He nods, stepping into the row of seats in front of me. I’m not sure if it’s because dad doesn’t want him to be next to me or behind me, because if he’s behind me he would still be able to make contact with me. I really just want to figure out what the heck is going on. That’s all.

Dad’s driver pulls away from the scene, multiple cop cars still there as Ronny is helped into an ambulance.

Not a word is said until fifteen minutes later when we pull up to what appears to be a…racetrack?

Sure enough, it’s some kind of night racing league. My observation is confirmed when I see the ARCA Menards Series sign and overhear some other fans talking about how great this series is, and how it’s a feeder series for NASCAR.

“What are we doing here?” I ask, my dad all casual as he gets some popcorn and proceeds to lead the two of us up to the top row of the bleachers.

The sound of cars flying by is a buzz almost so loud you can’t hear without raising your voice, but it’s not. As a matter of fact, it’s perfect, which I then realize is why we’re here.

No way there are any microphones up here. It’s a junior circuit of a racing league that’s not particularly popular where I’m at. Not to mention it’s night. Big time car racing is usually during the day.

“What did you tell the cops?” Dad asks, taking a handful of popcorn.

“Exactly what happened.”

Dad nods. “Good.” He chews his popcorn and at least a full minute goes by.

“Seriously, I’m leaving if I don’t get some answers soon.”

“Here’s the thing,” my dad begins, still cool as a cucumber. “Seems Ronny had this planned out for a while. Right down to killing you and framing Axel.”

“But why?”

“He wanted to have his way with you, but he wasn’t going to stay true to his word. Never was. When he perceived that you…you weren’t living up to your part of the bargain…he got mad and just decided to skip the sexual parts and go right for the kill shot.” Dad pauses before continuing. “The dumb ass even had a 911 call prepared and had paid some down on their luck homeless guy to call it in from nearby. This is a pretty tough part of town so finding someone looking to make a hundred bucks to place a call wasn’t that difficult. Well…that guy lived up to his end of the deal. He made the call at the time he was supposed to. Problem was, Ronny thought he was going to be long gone by then, everything neatly wrapped up and he’d have an alibi, but seems your new friend here made sure it didn’t really turn out that way.”

“My new friend? Ronny?”

Dad shakes his head and scoops in another handful of popcorn. “Him,” he motions with his head toward Axel.

“You’re so mad at him you won’t even say his name?” Neither man says anything so I continue. “You trust him with a business deal but not with your daughter? You barely know him.”

“Oh, I know him all right. He’s my best friend,” my dad says as casually as giving someone on the street the time of day.

I push my hands into the bench seat below us, watching the cars whizz by as I try and make sense of my dad’s last words. Did he say that right? Was that an absolute verbal bomb he just dropped or am I losing my mind?

“How could he be your best friend? He’s been in prison for years.”

“Because of me,” Dad says. “Because of something I did.”

“What?” I ask, my expression completely pinched as I shake my head in disbelief. “That can’t be.”

“You wanna finish this?” Dad says.

“Better you tell her. I don’t want to look like I’m trying to bring attention to what I…what happened.”

“All right then,” Dad says. “Going into our junior year of college together,” he begins, my head spinning in complete disbelief, “Axel and I interned at a big engineering firm together. I was the hotshot at the time and talked our boss into making us the lead for a portion of a big project our company was working on. It wasn’t a tough sell. Axel and I had interned there the year before and really crushed it… making the company gobs of money. Now was our chance to show what we could really do.” Dad breathes in deep and lets it out. “So I’m the lead on a bridge we’re working on. Axel is pulling all-nighters making sure the physics of it all works out. A month goes by and we’re into construction. We’re the talk of the town. Two college kids being given this big budget to build not just a bridge, but a design bridge. Something cool, futuristic, and not realizing it until later…well out of our realm of technical expertise. Well, mine at least. So one night Axel comes to me and he’s freaking out. Says the computer-aided drafting program had a glitch and miscalculated. A part of the bridge can’t support what we’re expecting it to support. I rerun everything, account for the computer software error, and realize it’s going to be okay. Not as good as we thought, but everything will be fine. Well…it wasn’t. During construction, the thing snaps and a bunch of the workers fall. Thank God it was in a gorge and they landed in the water, so nobody drowned. But…a bunch of people got hurt. Bad. Most eventually made full recoveries, but some didn’t. So OHSA and a bunch of other government agencies that go by acronyms come knocking, wanting to know where things went wrong. They find all kinds of errors…including incorrect financials. Money was moving in a lot of weird ways, unbeknownst to either of us, but we were already on our way down with the accident so guess who the corporate bigwigs blamed? Yeah. You guessed it.”

I’m still shocked that they know each other let alone that they have a history together.

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