Westmoreland, Jamaica Friday, October 29, 2021
THE PORT OF SAVANNA-LA-MAR WAS A THIRTY-MINUTE DRIVE FROM Negril. Avery sat in the front seat as Walt drove the Land Cruiser toward the ocean. A week earlier Walt had accepted receipt of the sailboat at the small marina there. The slip had been rented for a month, paid in full and in advance. It only took three days to spin through the checklist of repairs the boat needed after making the long journey from Sister Bay. Over the last three days they stocked the vessel with nonperishable food, water, and everything else someone might need to spend weeks on the water.
Christopher’s goal was to disappear for a year to make sure no one was looking for him. By then they would be certain that his escape had, indeed, been flawless. The only worry was that their father, facing the rest of his life in jail, might mention to the feds that he believed his son was still alive. Neither Christopher nor Avery believed that their father knew the truth. Still, it was safest for Christopher to take to the sea while their father was prosecuted. There was no telling the extremes he might go to to lessen his sentence. That his own daughter had betrayed him and turned him over to the feds was surely a bitter pill Garth Montgomery would not swallow easily. But it had been part of the long game Avery concocted the moment her father’s postcard arrived in the mail. The final details had come together with Walt’s help. The best way, Walt had told her, to make sure the eyes of the FBI were off the airports, borders, and ports was to divert the agency’s attention. And the apprehension of one of their highest targets was the best way to do it.
In a year, when the coast was clear, the plan was for Christopher to return to Jamaica and start his new life. His job at Hampden Estates distillery would be waiting for him, and there were worse ways to spend time as a free man. Holed up in a cabin in Sister Bay, Wisconsin, working at Connie Clarkson’s sailing camp had been a temporary arrangement that had run far past its course of practicality. Here in Jamaica, Christopher Montgomery—aka Aaron Holland—could truly be free.
Avery stared through the windshield as Walt pulled into the marina’s parking lot. The masts of other sailboats poked into the sky, but she recognized Christopher’s boat immediately. Avery led the way with Walt and Christopher following. She walked down the dock and stopped when she came to the stern of the boat. The name was printed in cursive, and Avery was thrilled with how it turned out. Connie had done a spectacular job.
She felt Christopher’s arm wrap around her shoulder.
“I’ve told you before, but I just want to make sure you know how grateful I am for everything you’ve done,” he said.
“I know.”
“I’ll pay you back somehow.”
“No you won’t.”
He smiled. “Probably not.”
“But when things calm down, you can show me the Caribbean on this gorgeous boat.”
“Deal.”
“You think you’ll be okay?”
He nodded and continued to stare at the boat. “I’ll be fine. Is it hard to get used to a new name?”
“Depends on why you changed it.”
“To find freedom.”
“Then it’s easy. You’re Aaron Holland from now on. You live on a sailboat and sail the Caribbean. Every few months you come back to Jamaica to work at a rum distillery. There are worse things than that.”
“I’m worried about the money. I don’t feel right taking it from you.”
“It’s already done,” Avery said. “Too late to worry now.”
Her contract from HAP News had been finalized earlier in the fall. It named Avery as the host of American Events for the next five years. Dwight Corey had negotiated tirelessly and Mosley Germaine and David Hillary had signed off on the final details of the contract that would pay Avery $3 million a year for five years. Even at that number, Avery argued that she was undervalued. The show’s most recent numbers had proven she was correct. The Victoria Ford special, which spanned three episodes, had brought the second highest ratings in American Events history. That Avery’s investigative reporting, and the new evidence she unearthed, had spurred the re-opening of the Cameron Young investigation only added notoriety to her already powerful name. Cameron Young was back in the news, and serious questions were being raised about who had killed him. The evidence that had once so clearly pointed at Victoria Ford was now being questioned. The idea that the blood and the urine had so clearly been manipulated and planted came under immense scrutiny. The Innocence Project had even gotten involved, promising to continue the crusade to prove Victoria Ford’s innocence.
The American Events special had not named names as to who might have planted the evidence, because to do so was a liability the network was not prepared to take. And it had never been Avery’s goal to solve the case. She’d made just two promises. The first was to Emma Kind that Avery would do her best to show the world that Victoria was innocent. The second was to Natalie Ratcliff that, in exchange for Natalie’s help, Avery would stay silent on the truth about Victoria’s disappearance. She had made good on both.