[CHAPTER 10]
The jacket had been missing for weeks.
I had not noticed.
That realization hit almost as hard as seeing it sealed inside an evidence bag.
Blue.
Small.
A stitched horse above the pocket.
Laura had bought it six months before she died.
Ethan loved it.
Claire had told me he lost it at school.
Another lie.
“Why was it in her SUV?” I asked.
Bennett shook his head.
“We don’t know.”
Ethan stared at the bag.
“She took it.”
“When?” I asked.
He looked frightened.
“One night.”
“Why?”
“She said I didn’t deserve Mommy’s things.”
I closed my eyes.
Claire had systematically removed Laura from Ethan’s life.
A photograph.
A jacket.
Stories.
Memories.
Piece by piece.
As if erasing Laura would make space for herself.
Bennett crouched.
“Ethan, did Claire take anything else?”
He nodded.
“What?”
“My box.”
My head lifted.
“What box?”
“The little wooden one Mommy gave me.”
I remembered it.
Laura kept small keepsakes inside.
A silver horse charm.
Hospital bracelet from Ethan’s birth.
A photograph of the three of us.
“Where is it?”
“I don’t know.”
“When did she take it?”
“After she got mad at the picture.”
Bennett looked at me.
“Could Laura have hidden something inside it?”
I thought about the memory card in Ethan’s wall.
“Yes.”
We searched Claire’s SUV.
The wooden box was not there.
But investigators found a motel receipt from two nights earlier.
The motel was forty miles south.
Security footage showed Claire checking in.
Alone.
She left the following morning carrying a backpack.
After that, nothing.
“She’s moving carefully,” Bennett said.
“She knows you’re looking.”
“She also knows we’re getting closer.”
That afternoon, Mark gave a second statement.
This time, Bennett allowed me to hear part of it afterward.
Mark described Claire before Laura died.
Obsessed with money.
Angry that Laura controlled the foundation accounts.
Jealous of Laura’s life.
“She said Laura had everything,” Mark admitted. “The ranch. Daniel. A kid. People respected her.”
Bennett asked, “Did Claire want Daniel?”
Mark laughed bitterly.
“She wanted Laura’s life.”
My skin crawled.
“Did she ever say she intended to kill Laura?”
“No.”
“Did she ask you to sabotage the vehicle?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“She said Laura needed to be scared into backing off.”
“What did you do?”
“I damaged the brake line enough that it would leak.”
“Did you expect the brakes to fail completely?”
“No.”
“Did Claire touch the car afterward?”
“Yes.”
“What did she do?”
“I don’t know. I left.”
“Why?”
“Because we argued.”
“About what?”
“I told her we were going too far.”
“And Claire?”
Mark’s answer was quiet.
“She said I was weak.”
Bennett paused the recording.
I stared at the table.
“What happened after Laura died?”
“Mark says Claire paid him ten thousand dollars and told him to disappear for a while.”
“She paid him with foundation money?”
“We believe so.”
“Can you prove it?”
“We found a matching withdrawal.”
My hands tightened.
“Then she killed Laura.”
Bennett stayed careful.
“We can prove Claire threatened Laura. We can prove she benefited from fraud. We can prove Mark damaged the car at Claire’s request. We cannot yet prove what Claire personally did to the vehicle after Mark left.”
“What if Mark is lying?”
“That is possible.”
“So what happens?”
“We keep building.”
I hated those words.
But every day, the case became stronger.
That evening, I received a call from a number I recognized.
Claire’s sister, Megan.
“Daniel?”
“Where is she?”
“I don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
Megan sounded terrified.
“She called me.”
“When?”
“Ten minutes ago.”
“What did she say?”
“She wants money.”
“Where?”
“She wouldn’t tell me.”
“Did she say anything about Ethan?”
Silence.
“Megan.”
“She asked if he was still at Blackwood.”
My blood went cold.
“What did you tell her?”
“Nothing.”
“You need to call Bennett.”
“I already did.”
I looked toward the barn.
Ethan was brushing Ruby with my mother.
“What else did Claire say?”
Megan began crying.
“She said she wasn’t going to prison.”
My stomach tightened.
“Did she threaten anyone?”
“She said you stole her life.”
I almost laughed.
“She stole mine.”
“I know.”
Megan’s voice cracked.
“I didn’t know what she was doing to Ethan.”
“Did you know about Laura?”
“No.”
I did not fully believe her.
But Bennett could handle that.
Then Megan said, “Daniel, there’s one thing.”
“What?”
“Claire kept a wooden box at my house last year.”
I stopped.
“What kind?”
“Small. Dark wood. A horse carved on the lid.”
Ethan’s box.
“Where is it?”
“She took it three months ago.”
“Did you ever see inside?”
“No.”
“Think.”
“I didn’t.”
“Megan, please.”
Silence.
Then she whispered, “There was an envelope taped underneath.”
My pulse jumped.
“What envelope?”
“I don’t know. But Claire used to check it every time she visited.”
I called Bennett immediately.
He obtained permission to search Megan’s house.
The box was gone.
The tape residue remained on a closet shelf.
Nothing else.
Until Megan remembered an old security camera.
Footage from three months earlier still existed in cloud storage.
We watched Claire enter the guest room.
Remove the wooden box.
Open it.
Take out a folded envelope from beneath the false bottom.
Then she stared toward the camera.
She had noticed it.
Claire walked directly toward the lens.
Before the recording ended, she held up the envelope.
Laura’s handwriting was visible across the front.
To Daniel—Only if I don’t make it home.
I stared at the frozen image.
Claire had possessed Laura’s final letter for three months.
“She read it,” I said.
Bennett nodded.
“She may still have it.”
My phone rang.
Unknown number.
Bennett activated recording equipment and nodded for me to answer.
“Hello?”
Claire’s voice filled my ear.
“Do you want Laura’s last letter?”
My heart stopped.
“Where are you?”
“Wrong question.”
“What do you want?”
“The box.”
“You know police have it.”
“Then get it back.”
“I can’t.”
“You can do anything when money is involved, Daniel.”
Her voice sounded calm.
Almost cheerful.
“What’s in the letter?”
She laughed.
“Something that will destroy you.”
“Then why give it to me?”
“Because I want what Laura stole first.”
“What?”
“The original ledger.”
I looked at Bennett.
He wrote a question on a pad.
WHERE?
“Where do you want to meet?”
Claire was silent.
Then she said, “Tomorrow.”
“Where?”
“The place Laura died.”
My blood ran cold.
“Bring the ledger alone.”
The call disconnected.
Bennett shook his head.
“You are not going alone.”
I stared at the phone.
“I know.”
Then a small voice came from the doorway.
Ethan.
He had heard enough.
“Dad?”
I turned.
His face was pale.
“What did Claire mean?”
I walked toward him.
“What?”
“When she said Mommy stole something.”
I knelt.
“She didn’t steal anything.”
Ethan looked at me.
Then he whispered, “Yes, she did.”
My heart skipped.
“What?”
“Mommy stole something from Claire.”
I stared at him.
“How do you know?”
“Claire told me.”
“What did she say?”
May you like
Ethan swallowed.
“She said Mommy stole proof.”
