Chapter 6
I didn’t go downstairs alone.
I wasn’t that desperate.
But I almost was.
That scared me.
For one second, after Daniel said he knew what Michael planned to do with Ethan, every protective instinct in my body overpowered common sense.
I wanted answers.
Immediately.
Ortiz saw it on my face.
“No.”
“You don’t even know what he wants.”
“I know he’s trying to isolate you.”
“He knows something about my son.”
“So do we. And we’ll find out without handing you to him.”
Daniel remained beside the SUV for another minute.
Then he drove away.
Ortiz sent officers after him.
They lost him six blocks from the hospital.
Of course they did.
Rebecca watched from the bed.
“He knows I talked.”
“You think?”
“Sarah.”
“No. Stop.”
My anger returned.
“How many times did Daniel contact you?”
“Sometimes.”
“How many?”
“A few dozen.”
Dana closed her eyes.
“A few dozen?”
“He was usually the one who gave me account instructions.”
I stared at her.
“You told me Michael made you do everything.”
“He did.”
“But Daniel knew.”
“Yes.”
“And Daniel helped threaten you?”
“Not directly.”
“What does that mean?”
“He never threatened Lily.”
“He just delivered Michael’s orders?”
Rebecca nodded.
I paced.
“Did you ever wonder why Michael trusted him?”
“They’d been friends forever.”
“That means nothing to Michael.”
I knew my ex-husband.
He didn’t trust people because he loved them.
He trusted them when he owned something they feared losing.
“What did Michael have on Daniel?”
Rebecca looked away.
“I don’t know.”
“You do.”
“I suspected something.”
“What?”
“He once told Daniel that if he ever betrayed him, ‘Rachel would finally learn the truth.’”
Rachel was Daniel’s wife.
We had celebrated holidays together for years.
Their daughter Ava had played with Ethan since preschool.
“What truth?”
“I don’t know.”
Ortiz interrupted.
“We can investigate Mr. Price. Right now I need a complete statement from you.”
Rebecca nodded.
She looked terrified.
But for the next three hours, she talked.
Every account she remembered.
Every transfer.
Every company.
Every time Michael had threatened her.
Every conversation with Daniel.
By noon, federal agents were searching Michael’s business office.
By one, the story was already leaking.
I saw Michael’s company name appear on a local news site.
FINANCIAL INVESTIGATION AT CARTER DEVELOPMENT GROUP.
No mention of Ethan.
Thank God.
At 1:34, my temporary phone rang.
Dana had arranged it.
Unknown number.
I almost ignored it.
Then I answered.
“Sarah?”
Rachel Price.
Daniel’s wife.
She sounded terrified.
“Rachel?”
“Where are you?”
“I can’t tell you.”
“Is Daniel with you?”
“No.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“No.”
She started crying.
“I think he’s going to do something stupid.”
My pulse jumped.
“What do you mean?”
“He came home this morning and emptied the safe.”
“What was inside?”
“Cash. Documents. A gun.”
I looked at Ortiz.
He immediately took out his notebook.
“Rachel, are you safe?”
“I don’t know.”
“Where’s Ava?”
“With my mother.”
“Good.”
“Sarah, what is happening?”
I looked through the glass at Rebecca.
She was talking to an agent.
“How much do you know about Daniel and Michael’s business?”
“Nothing. Daniel never talked about work.”
“Did he ever mention my father?”
Silence.
That was enough.
“Rachel?”
“He told me once that your father hated Michael.”
“When?”
“Years ago.”
“Why did Daniel know that?”
“I don’t know.”
“What truth did Michael threaten to tell you?”
Another silence.
Longer this time.
Finally, Rachel whispered, “Daniel had an affair.”
I closed my eyes.
“That’s it?”
“What do you mean, that’s it?”
“I’m sorry. I mean, would Michael be able to control him for years over that?”
Rachel began crying harder.
“The woman died.”
Everything stopped.
“What?”
“Five years ago.”
The same year my father died.
My stomach tightened.
“Who was she?”
“An employee.”
“Name?”
“Melissa Grant.”
I knew the name.
Barely.
She had worked in accounting at Michael’s company.
Young.
Quiet.
She left suddenly.
Michael told me she moved to another state.
“How did she die?”
“Car accident.”
I looked at Detective Ortiz.
He saw my face.
“What?”
I covered the receiver.
“Another car accident.”
His eyes sharpened.
I put Rachel on speaker.
“Tell Detective Ortiz what you told me.”
Rachel panicked.
“Police?”
“Rachel, if Daniel took a gun, we need help.”
She breathed rapidly.
Then she told us.
Daniel had admitted the affair after Melissa’s death.
He said Melissa threatened to tell Rachel.
He also said she had been stealing from the company.
Michael convinced Daniel not to report anything because “the problem was over.”
“What problem?” Ortiz asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Did your husband ever say he caused the accident?”
“No!”
“Did he believe Mr. Carter did?”
Rachel stopped crying.
“I don’t know.”
“Think.”
A long pause.
Then she said, “After Melissa died, Daniel started having nightmares.”
“About the crash?”
“He would say, ‘I should have stopped him.’”
My skin prickled.
Stopped him.
Not saved her.
Not called her.
Stopped him.
“Rachel,” I said. “Did Melissa know my father?”
“I don’t know.”
But Ortiz was already typing.
Ten minutes later, he had an answer.
Melissa Grant had died four days before my father’s fatal heart attack.
Her accident occurred on a rural road.
Single vehicle.
No witnesses.
Official cause: excessive speed.
Then Ortiz found something else.
Melissa had called my father six times during the week before she died.
I sat down.
They had known each other.
“What did they talk about?”
“We don’t have recordings.”
“My father was investigating Michael.”
Ortiz nodded slowly.
“Maybe Melissa was helping him.”
A federal agent entered the room.
He spoke quietly to Hale.
Hale turned toward me.
“We found something at your husband’s office.”
“What?”
“A hidden compartment behind a filing cabinet.”
My entire body tightened.
“More records?”
“Photographs.”
He handed me a folder.
The first photograph showed my father leaving a bank.
The second showed him entering his warehouse.
The third showed him sitting in a restaurant with Melissa Grant.
I felt tears fill my eyes.
Someone had been following them.
The final photograph was of me.
Pregnant with Ethan.
Walking into my doctor’s office.
“What does this mean?”
Hale didn’t answer.
Then I noticed handwriting at the bottom.
Sarah – 31 weeks.
The handwriting was Michael’s.
I knew every curve of it.
Every letter.
“He was following me too?”
“Maybe not personally.”
I remembered that pregnancy.
Michael had been attentive.
Protective.
Almost obsessively so.
He insisted on knowing where I was.
He checked my mileage.
He called constantly.
I used to think he was nervous about becoming a father.
Now it looked different.
Everything looked different.
The hospital doors opened again.
An officer rushed inside.
“Detective.”
Ortiz stepped away.
They spoke.
Then Ortiz looked at me.
“We found Daniel’s SUV.”
“Where?”
“Abandoned near Carter Development.”
“Daniel?”
“Gone.”
“What about Michael?”
Ortiz’s expression hardened.
“That’s the problem.”
“What?”
“We attempted to locate Mr. Carter at his registered address.”
My chest tightened.
“He’s gone too?”
“Yes.”
For a moment, nobody spoke.
Then I remembered the fake passport.
The Cayman account.
Michael asking about taking children out of the country.
“Where’s Ethan?”
Dana answered immediately.
“With the child advocate and two officers.”
I grabbed my coat.
“We’re going to him.”
Hale nodded.
“You should.”
As we entered the hallway, my temporary phone rang again.
This time the number was blocked.
I answered.
“Hello?”
Michael.
His voice was calm.
Too calm.
“You turned my whole life into a police circus.”
“You did that yourself.”
“You always needed someone else to save you.”
“Where are you?”
He laughed softly.
“Did Rebecca tell you about your father?”
“Yes.”
“She left out the best part.”
My heart pounded.
“What part?”
“Your father wasn’t trying to save you from me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“He was trying to save Ethan.”
I stopped walking.
“From what?”
Michael’s voice dropped.
May you like
“From finding out who his real father is.”
The line went dead.
