Richard visits his daughter to celebrate his eightieth birthday with her, but she opens the door in tears and sends him away. Richard suspects trouble and finds out he’s right after peeking through her windows.
Richard nervously drummed his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove. Deidre used to visit every year for Thanksgiving, but that stopped after his wife died four years ago. Now, they only had weekly phone calls.
Richard spread his arms wide as Deidre appeared at the door. “Surprise!” he called out.
“Dad? What are you doing here?” she asked, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I came to celebrate my birthday with you… it’s the big eight-oh!” Richard replied, but the joy in his voice quickly faded. “What’s wrong, honey? Why are you crying?”
“It’s nothing; everything’s fine,” Deidre quickly wiped away her tears and managed a small smile. “I… I wasn’t expecting you, and it’s really not a good time right now. I’m sorry, Dad, but I need to focus on my work. Look, I’ll call you. We’ll have dinner later, okay? Sorry.”
Deidre closed the door, leaving Richard hurt and confused. Something was terribly wrong. Was Deidre in trouble?
Richard stepped back from the front door but didn’t leave. He walked past the short, blooming shrubs along the path and sneaked around to peek through the windows.
Two rough-looking men were in the living room with Deidre.
“Who was that?” one of them asked in a gruff voice.
“Nobody,” Deidre lied, her voice trembling. “Just a neighbor’s kid… ringing the doorbell and running off.”
“Then back to work,” the second man said. “You’re six months behind on your loan payments, Deidre. Mr. Marco is getting impatient.”
“I just need more time. Business will pick up again in the winter,” she pleaded.
“Time is the one thing you don’t have, sweetheart,” the man replied, pulling out his gun. “People who owe Mr. Marco money don’t have a long life expectancy and end up feeding the fish in the lake…” He pointed the gun at her.
Richard was frozen in terror. But soon, the man stepped back with a disgusted look and tucked the gun into his waistband.
“Look around this place and see if there’s anything valuable we can take to Mr. Marco, Danny,” he ordered. “She’s a businesswoman, so there must be a computer or some kind of equipment here.”
“But I need those things!” she screamed. “I can’t make money without my equipment!”
The man tapped the grip of his gun. “Hoo-hoo. I can change my mind, you know. Don’t be ungrateful now.”
The men searched her home before storming out, leaving Deidre crying on the floor.
Nothing made sense to Richard because Deidre’s business was doing well. At least, that’s what she had told him. But now, Richard could sense that something was wrong. Deidre needed his help.
The men loaded several pieces of equipment from Deidre’s house into their vehicle.
When they finally left, Richard followed them.
The men stopped at a two-story brick building downtown that looked like a bar. Although it was closed, the door wasn’t locked. No one from the staff stopped Richard as he entered the building.
The men were sitting at a large table where several other rough-looking men were seated. One of them stood up and walked confidently toward Richard.
“The club is closed,” he growled. “Come back later.”
“I’m here to talk about Deidre’s debt,” Richard announced.
“Oh?” The man at the head of the table stood up and stared at Richard. He looked like a gentleman except for an ugly scar over his left eye. Richard estimated that he was Mr. Marco.
“How much does she owe you?” Richard asked.
Mr. Marco grinned. “A good Samaritan, huh? Deidre took out a business loan of $80,000 from me. She was supposed to repay me from her monthly profits, but she never made any.”
“I have about $20,000 in my savings,” Richard swallowed anxiously, shaken by the amount Deidre had borrowed.
“That’s only a quarter of what she owes us.” Mr. Marco sighed. “But there’s something you can do to make up the difference.”
Richard didn’t like it, but he had to do whatever it took to get his daughter out of the mess she had created.
“What should I do?” he asked.
Mr. Marco grinned at Richard and beckoned him closer to the table.
“My partner and I recently started a small business importing cars to Canada. But some of the paperwork got delayed, so we’re having trouble getting the… ‘merchandise’… across the border. A nice, harmless-looking grandfather like you shouldn’t have any trouble crossing the border in one of our cars.”
Richard had no choice but to agree. Later that night, he drove to a gas station near the border town to use the restroom and parked next to a police car.
“Jesus!” he gasped as the German Shepherd in the back of the police car began barking and scratching at the window.
Dogs trained as service animals should not bark without cause unless… Oh, man.
He quickly got back into the car, a Valiant, and began backing up while the police dog went crazy.
Two policemen burst out of the gas station store and shouted at him to stop as they looked at him. The GPS app gave directions, but Richard put it in his pocket to silence the annoying thing.
He drove the Valiant to its limits as he wove through traffic, leaving a trail of irate drivers behind and narrowly avoiding collisions. The sirens wailed behind him.
Richard soon spotted a narrow, unmarked gravel path leading into the woods. He turned sharply, leaving the road behind, and raced into the forest. The muddy trails were terrible to navigate, but Richard pushed on.
He turned onto a narrow path going downhill. Then he turned onto a slight incline and immediately regretted it.
The car was now stuck precariously, balancing on a narrow ridge over a wide river. Richard tried to put it in reverse, but the tires slipped without grip.
Indeed, the car slid closer to the water.
“No!” Richard desperately pulled the handbrake, but it didn’t work.
The front of the car slammed into the water with a loud splash, sending a wave of dark water over the hood. Richard pushed open the car door, desperately trying to escape the sinking vehicle.
The pressure of the water began to push the car door against Richard’s legs. Richard flailed around in panic as the river filled the inside of the car.
As the water level reached his face, he tilted his head back, took a final breath, and submerged.
Richard squeezed out of the opening and pushed himself to the surface. He took a deep breath and swam to the riverbank.
When Richard reached the shore, he realized how close he had come to death. He was breathing again, but he still needed to deal with the $80,000. So Richard thumbed a ride home.
“I need to mortgage my house,” he told the bank clerk. “And I need the money quickly in my bank account.”
Richard waited impatiently as the bank clerk processed the paperwork. He was startled when Deidre called him.
“A few thugs from a local gang were just here asking for you, Dad… What’s going on?”
“Tell them I’m coming soon. I’ve arranged to pay off your debt. I don’t understand why you didn’t come to me first, Deidre, but now is not the time to talk about it.”
Richard ended the call and signed the paperwork. He didn’t want to give up the home where he had made memories with his family, but it was the only way to help Deidre.
A few hours later, he drove a rental car to the club’s parking lot and walked to the front door.
“Dad, wait!” Richard looked back as Deidre ran toward him.
“I’m not going to confront these thugs alone,” she said. “I still don’t understand how you found out about this mess or how you managed to come up with the money to pay them off, but the least I can do is stay with you while you save me.”
Richard looked at the determined look in Deidre’s eyes and knew he couldn’t convince her to leave. As they entered the club, they were led to a table by the thugs.
Richard placed his sports bag, which contained the cash he had withdrawn after the mortgage, on the table.
“Here’s the $80,000 Deidre owes you, plus an additional $15,000 to cover the costs for the car. I, uh, ran into trouble, and the car ended up in a river.”
Mr. Marco’s mouth twisted in anger, and he slammed his fist on the table.
“You have the audacity to offer me a measly $15,000? After coming in here and telling me that you sank the $100,000 shipment hidden in that car? That doesn’t even come close to covering what you owe me now.”
The gangster grabbed the sports bag and tossed it to one of his goons.
“You know, Deidre, I really believed in you, but sometimes in business, you need to know when to cut your losses.”
He pulled a gun from his suit jacket and pointed it directly at Deidre’s forehead.
Richard pulled Deidre behind him. “No, please! It’s all my fault! Don’t punish her!”
“Well, you made a good point.” The gangster shrugged, and in the next moment, Richard was staring down the barrel of the gun.
But suddenly, they heard police sirens outside.
Mr. Marco turned and ran to the club’s back exit as loud shots rang out, shaking the place.
Father and daughter crawled under the table. The club was in chaos, and as Richard looked into his daughter’s frightened eyes, he knew he had to get her to safety, no matter what it cost.
Richard and Deidre pushed one of the tables over and barricaded themselves in a corner. They stayed hidden there until the police came and took them to safety. Fortunately, Mr. Marco was arrested.
“Are you sure you don’t have any heart-related health problems?” asked the paramedic in the ambulance.
Richard swallowed hard as the police detective spoke to him.
“Sir, what were you and your daughter doing at that club today?” asked the detective sternly.
Richard explained Deidre’s loan and how they had come to the club to repay it. He hoped to avoid mentioning the car he had sunk in the river.
The detective glanced at Deidre. “If we hadn’t found a car full of smuggled goods in the river, we wouldn’t have been here to rescue you. You shouldn’t be taking loans from such shady people, Miss.”
“A car in the river?” Richard asked nervously.
“It was registered to Mr. Marco’s cousin, which was exactly the clue we needed to bust this gang,” the officer replied.
Richard breathed a sigh of relief. He was in the clear.
The police let him and Deidre go after they gave their statements.
“I owe you a huge apology, Dad. I dragged you into this whole mess,” Deidre apologized as they walked to where Richard’s car was parked.
Tears filled her eyes. “I didn’t know how to tell you. How do you tell your father that you’re a big failure?”
“You’re not a failure!” Richard placed his hands on Deidre’s shoulders. “Maybe your business idea didn’t work out the way you hoped, but you tried, Deidre.
I wish you had felt comfortable enough to tell me what’s really going on in your life. Damn, I wish you’d feel as close to me as you do to your mother,” he continued. “I don’t think you’ve been ‘okay’ for some time now.”
Deidre broke down in tears, and Richard put an arm around her. “It’s okay, sweetheart,” he whispered soothingly. “Everything will be alright.”
