Chapter 5 - I WALKED INTO IRON FORGE
I did not enter the gym to fight Dustin.
That distinction became important later.
Rebecca had already sent a preservation demand covering security footage, training footage, membership records, internal messages, and any reports involving Emily or Kayla.
Emily finally agreed to seek a protective order.
Police were reviewing the hospital evidence.
There was no legitimate reason for me to confront Dustin.
Then he created one.
He posted a video.
Not Emily's old sparring clip.
Me.
A photograph from my retirement ceremony.
He had found it online.
The caption said:
Grandpa's apparently coming to teach me manners. Somebody tell him this isn't boot camp.
Emily showed me.
“Don't.”
“I haven't said anything to him.”
“He wants you angry.”
“I know.”
Then another message arrived directly from Dustin.
Bring whatever Marine tricks you remember.
I handed the phone to Rebecca.
She sighed.
“You are not twelve. You do understand that bait remains bait even when you know it's bait?”
“Yes.”
“Good.”
Then Ray called me.
Not Emily.
Me.
He said he wanted to end the conflict before reputations were damaged.
That sentence bothered me.
“Whose reputation?”
“Everybody's.”
“My daughter was hospitalized.”
“And Dustin says she attacked him.”
“So preserve the footage.”
Silence.
I repeated it.
“Preserve the footage.”
Ray's tone hardened.
“You don't know this world.”
I looked at the framed photograph on my wall.
Twenty-three Marines standing in the dust outside a training facility in California.
Some still serving.
Some retired.
Two dead.
“No,” I said. “Maybe not your world.”
Ray made the mistake of laughing.
“Come see for yourself.”
Rebecca told me not to go alone.
So I didn't.
I told Emily.
I told Rebecca.
And I told Detective Aaron Lewis, who had started reviewing the case.
Lewis said:
“You understand I am not authorizing a confrontation?”
“Yes.”
“Do not touch him.”
“I won't.”
“Do not threaten him.”
“I won't.”
“Why go?”
“Because Ray asked me to.”
That was true.
It was not the entire truth.
I wanted to see Dustin when he believed he controlled the room.
People often reveal more in places where everybody already knows their version.
May you like
So the following afternoon, I walked into Iron Forge MMA wearing my red-and-black plaid shirt, olive trousers, and work boots.
And Dustin laughed the moment he saw me.
