Chapter 8
Officer Ramirez left the apartment within five minutes.
Not because she wanted to.
Because she had to.
If Detective Sarah Miller had any connection to Michael, the investigation had a problem inside the police department.
Before leaving, Ramirez looked me directly in the eyes.
“Do not contact Sarah. Do not respond if she contacts you.”
“Was she involved in Emma’s case?”
“No.”
“Could she access it?”
Ramirez hesitated.
“Potentially.”
My blood ran cold.
“Could she know where I am?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly.
She knew it.
So did I.
“Potentially?” I asked.
Ramirez’s expression tightened.
“This location is restricted. I’m notifying supervisors now.”
Restricted.
Not impossible.
She left.
Within an hour, two state investigators arrived.
The case had suddenly climbed above the local department.
One introduced himself as Special Agent Marcus Bell.
He spoke quietly.
Carefully.
He told me Detective Miller had been placed on administrative leave pending investigation.
“Does Michael know?” I asked.
“We don’t know.”
“Were they having an affair?”
“We have evidence they had a personal relationship.”
The phrase sounded sanitized.
I laughed bitterly.
“A personal relationship.”
Bell didn’t react.
“For how long?”
“We’re working on that.”
“Did she help him escape?”
“We’re investigating.”
“Did she tell him I was at the hospital?”
Silence.
That silence frightened me.
“She did.”
“We don’t know yet.”
“But it’s possible.”
“Yes.”
I stood and walked toward the window.
The blinds were closed.
I suddenly hated windows.
“How did Michael know what Emma said?”
“We’re examining access logs.”
“Was Sarah at the hospital?”
“No.”
“Then someone told her.”
“Possibly.”
I turned.
“Was she working today?”
“Yes.”
“What division?”
“Investigations.”
Of course.
Michael hadn’t just run.
He had someone who understood police procedure.
Someone who knew how investigations worked.
Someone who may have known what evidence officers had.
I remembered his message.
Paper can’t protect you.
Maybe he had been more confident than desperate.
“What happens now?”
“We find Michael.”
“And Sarah?”
“We find out what she did.”
“What about Diane?”
“She’s talking.”
My head snapped up.
“What did she say?”
Bell looked at his notes.
“She claims she knew Michael was seeing Sarah.”
“For how long?”
“Approximately eight months.”
Eight months.
I expected heartbreak.
Instead I felt numb.
Eight months of lies barely registered next to everything else.
“Did Diane approve?”
Bell looked almost uncomfortable.
“She says Sarah was useful.”
I stared at him.
“Useful?”
“She allegedly helped Michael look into old records concerning Robert’s disappearance.”
There it was.
Everything connected back to Robert.
“Why would Michael suddenly care about his father after twenty years?”
Bell leaned forward.
“Because Robert may be alive.”
The room disappeared.
“What?”
“We found activity linked to his identity.”
“What kind of activity?”
“A medical claim filed six years ago under the name Robert Hayes.”
I stared.
“Where?”
“Montana.”
“Six years ago?”
“Yes.”
“Did Michael know?”
“We believe he learned recently.”
I sat down.
Diane had claimed Robert disappeared.
The family assumed he died.
But what if he escaped?
What if he changed his life and stayed hidden because he feared them?
“Have you found him?”
“We’re trying.”
My mind raced.
“If Robert is alive, why bury his wallet?”
“Possibly to make people believe he was dead.”
“Who buried it originally?”
“We don’t know.”
“But Michael dug it up and reburied it yesterday.”
“Correct.”
“Why?”
Bell’s eyes sharpened.
“That is one of the questions we need answered.”
My temporary phone rang.
Everyone froze.
Only a few people had the number.
Lauren.
Ethan.
Police.
Teresa.
I looked at the screen.
PRIVATE NUMBER.
Bell held out his hand.
“May I?”
I gave him the phone.
He answered on speaker without identifying himself.
A woman spoke.
“Rachel?”
My heart stopped.
I knew the voice.
Not well.
But I had heard it twice before.
At department charity events.
Sarah Miller.
Bell signaled for silence.
“Rachel, I know you’re listening.”
Nobody spoke.
“I can explain.”
Bell muted the line and began tracing through another device.
Sarah continued.
“Michael lied to me too.”
I almost laughed.
Apparently that was contagious.
“I thought he was trying to find his father.”
Her breathing was uneven.
“I didn’t know about Emma.”
My fists tightened.
“You accessed the case,” I said.
Bell looked at me sharply but allowed it.
Sarah went quiet.
Then, “I checked a call log.”
“You told Michael.”
“He said his daughter had been injured and his wife was accusing his mother.”
“You told him what Emma said.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“No.”
“You don’t understand.”
I almost screamed.
Everyone kept saying that.
Diane.
Michael.
Now Sarah.
Apparently understanding was a magical door that turned betrayal into innocence.
“Then make me understand.”
Sarah started crying.
“Michael told me Robert abused him for years.”
“That’s what Diane says now.”
“He showed me medical records.”
“Real ones?”
Silence.
“You’re a detective, Sarah.”
“I know.”
“Were they real?”
“I don’t know anymore.”
Bell wrote something down.
Sarah continued.
“Michael said Robert resurfaced and was blackmailing Diane.”
“For what?”
“For what happened twenty years ago.”
“What happened?”
Another silence.
Then Sarah whispered, “Robert didn’t disappear voluntarily.”
My blood ran cold.
“What does that mean?”
“I thought Michael killed him.”
Bell leaned closer.
Sarah continued quickly.
“That’s what Michael told me. He said he was seventeen. Robert attacked Diane. Michael intervened. Robert fell.”
My heartbeat thundered.
“Fell where?”
“Down an embankment near the river.”
“But there was no body.”
“He said the river carried it away.”
“Then why do police think Robert may be alive?”
Sarah started crying harder.
“Because Michael found out too.”
“When?”
“Three months ago.”
“Then his story was a lie.”
“Yes.”
“So what really happened?”
“I don’t know.”
“You helped him investigate Robert?”
“Yes.”
“You used police databases?”
Silence.
Bell’s face hardened.
“Yes,” Sarah whispered.
“What did you find?”
“A new identity.”
“What name?”
“I can’t—”
Bell unmuted himself.
“This is Special Agent Marcus Bell. Detective Miller, you need to tell us where you are.”
Sarah hung up.
Bell cursed under his breath.
Officers immediately moved.
Calls were made.
Locations checked.
Ten minutes later Bell returned.
“The call originated near the county line.”
“Is Michael with her?”
“We don’t know.”
I rubbed my forehead.
“Did she find Robert?”
“Based on what she said, probably.”
“Do you know his new name?”
“We’re reviewing her database access.”
Another agent entered.
He handed Bell a tablet.
Bell read.
Then looked at me.
“We may have him.”
“Robert?”
“Yes.”
My heart stopped.
“Where?”
“Wyoming.”
“Alive?”
“We’re confirming.”
I stared at the floor.
Twenty years.
Diane told everyone he was dead.
Michael grew into a man haunted by a father who may have been living three states away.
And somehow my five-year-old daughter had ended up paying for secrets created before I even met them.
“What name is he using?”
“Robert Hale.”
Hale.
My maiden name was Cole.
There was no connection.
I almost expected one.
Nothing felt coincidental anymore.
“Can I speak to him?”
“Not yet.”
“Does he know about Emma?”
“Probably not.”
I looked toward the bedroom.
“She deserves to know what this family did.”
“She deserves safety first.”
He was right.
I hated how often investigators were right about the things I wanted to rush toward.
At three in the afternoon, Bell received confirmation.
Robert Hayes was alive.
Sixty-one years old.
Living outside Casper.
Working as a mechanic.
No criminal history under his new identity.
No contact with Diane or Michael for almost two decades.
I stared at the photograph Bell showed me.
Older.
Gray hair.
Lines around his eyes.
But unmistakable.
Michael’s father.
Emma’s grandfather.
Alive.
“Why did he leave?”
“Agents are speaking with him now.”
“What did he tell them?”
Bell waited for authorization.
Then told me.
“Robert says Diane tried to kill him.”
My skin prickled.
“Not Michael?”
“Both were involved in the confrontation, but Robert says Diane planned it.”
“What happened?”
“He discovered the missing business money and threatened to report her.”
“The video.”
“Yes.”
“Then?”
“According to Robert, Diane drugged him that night.”
I felt sick.
“He woke in the back of a car. Michael was driving.”
My breath caught.
“Michael?”
“Seventeen years old.”
“And Diane?”
“In the passenger seat.”
“What were they doing?”
“Taking him to the river.”
I closed my eyes.
“Did they try to kill him?”
“Robert says he escaped after the car stopped. There was a fight. Michael believed Robert fell into the river.”
“But he didn’t.”
“No. Robert was injured but survived. He hid nearby, then eventually left the state.”
“Why didn’t he go to police?”
Bell’s expression changed.
“Because Diane had something on him.”
“What?”
“Financial fraud.”
I stared.
“He was stealing too?”
“Robert admits he had falsified invoices in his business. Diane apparently knew.”
“So they were all lying.”
“In different ways.”
I laughed once.
It sounded hollow.
This wasn’t a family secret.
It was a family system.
Blackmail.
Fear.
Violence.
Lies layered over lies.
“Why would Diane keep Robert’s safe-deposit box active?”
“We asked Robert.”
“And?”
“He says Diane didn’t know what was inside.”
“Then why pay for it?”
“He believes she was afraid that if the bank closed the box, its contents might surface.”
That was Diane.
Control the secret by keeping it exactly where it was.
“Did Robert know about Michael’s behavior now?”
“No.”
“And Emma?”
“No.”
I thought of how complicated this would become.
A grandfather she had never met.
A father running from police.
A grandmother facing charges.
Then Bell’s phone rang.
He answered.
His face changed.
“Where?”
He stood.
“When?”
Then he looked at me.
“What happened?”
Bell ended the call.
“Sarah Miller has been found.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s alive.”
Relief came unexpectedly.
“Where was she?”
“In her car.”
“Was Michael with her?”
“No.”
Bell’s jaw tightened.
“She says he took her service weapon.”
My blood froze.
“So now he has two guns.”
“Yes.”
“And her police identification.”
Bell didn’t answer immediately.
My stomach dropped.
“He took that too?”
“Yes.”
I looked toward Emma’s room.
Michael now had money.
Weapons.
Police credentials.
A desperate plan.
And one demand he had repeated from the beginning.
He wanted our daughter.
Then Teresa suddenly called from the bedroom.
“Rachel?”
Something in her voice made me run.
Emma was sitting on the bed.
Pale.
Terrified.
She held an old cellphone in her hands.
I stared.
“That’s not mine.”
Emma started crying.
“Daddy gave it to me.”
My entire body froze.
“When?”
“Yesterday.”
“Why?”
“He said I should hide it.”
The screen lit up.
One new message.
I grabbed it before Emma could read.
It was from Michael.
Hi, princess.
May you like
Another appeared.
Daddy is coming to get you.
