CHAPTER 7: The Brown Case Opens

Preston reached for the suitcase before Caleb could.
That was his mistake.
Two drivers stepped down from the outer trucks and moved closer with the calm of men who had spent their lives settling problems on shoulderless roads. Preston’s hand stopped in midair.
Caleb lifted the case and set it on the hood of the sedan.
Inside were not clothes, not medicine, not the confused belongings of an old man removed from his house. There were ledgers, carbon copies, a sealed thumb drive, and a folded photograph of Elias standing beside the first Mercer truck in 1969.
At the bottom sat one envelope marked: Caleb, if the road is the only place left.