Chapter 8 - Uncle Robert
Robert Hale had always been the easy one.
Margaret's younger brother was the uncle who brought fireworks on the Fourth of July and slipped Ethan twenty-dollar bills at Christmas. After Thomas died, Robert helped manage the family company's finances.
Now his face was frozen on a police screen behind the wheel of a vehicle tied to a threat against Ethan's newborn daughter.
"Call him," Brooks said.
Ethan did.
No answer.
Again.
Voicemail.
Brooks sent two officers to Robert's house.
By noon, they found the front door unlocked and the kitchen sink running. Robert's wallet was on the counter. His phone lay smashed in the garage.
He was gone.
Ethan and Claire relocated that afternoon to a hotel under a different reservation name. Brooks insisted. The no-contact order against Margaret meant little if someone else was willing to do her work.
In the hotel room, Lily finally slept.
Ethan sat on the edge of the bed.
"I should've seen this."
Claire looked at him. "Seen what?"
"All of it. The way Mom talked to you. The way she took over our wedding. The way she kept asking for a key to the house after Lily was born."
Claire's eyes softened, but she did not rescue him from the truth.
"You should have."
He nodded.
It was painful. It was also deserved.
"I'm sorry."
"I know."
"No, Claire. I don't mean sorry like I forgot an anniversary. I mean I made you prove your pain before I believed it."
Her chin trembled.
"I kept thinking if I was patient enough, she'd stop seeing me as the enemy."
"She never wanted peace," Ethan said. "She wanted obedience."
For the first time since the nursery, Claire leaned into him.
His phone buzzed.
A text from Robert.
COME ALONE. OLD HALE CABIN. 9 PM. I HAVE WHAT NOAH HID.
A second message followed.
DON'T TRUST BROOKS.
Ethan stared at the screen.
Claire read it and immediately said, "No."
"If he has Noah's records—"
"It's a trap."
"Probably."
"Ethan."
He looked at his sleeping daughter.
Then at his wife.
"Which is why I'm not going alone."
At 8:42 p.m., Detective Brooks saw the message.
May you like
Her face changed.
"You need to understand something," she said. "Robert Hale used to be a confidential informant for my department."
