Chapter 16 - The People Who Stay

At the hospital, Ellie refused to let go of Claire's hand, even when a nurse needed to check her pulse.

"I'm not going anywhere," Claire promised.

"That's what Daddy said before the van came."

Claire sat on the edge of the bed. "Did he help them take you?"

Ellie considered the question with the terrible seriousness children learn when adults fail them.

"He came to the room," she said. "He told the mean man to let me go. They yelled. The man said Daddy owed him because of the fire. Then Daddy said he'd fix it."

Claire's throat tightened. Ellie had seen a bargain, not necessarily a betrayal. There were still things Ethan had done that no explanation could clean up. Claire didn't need to settle all of them tonight.

A woman in a rain-soaked trench coat knocked on the open door. She showed a badge.

"Special Investigator Alicia Torres. Illinois Attorney General's office. Nina Patel sent me the recordings. We have Damon Pike in custody."

"And Margaret?" Claire asked.

"Missing. We've put an alert out for her car."

"My husband was inside when the roof fell."

Torres checked her notes. "No body has been found. Dive teams are searching the river."

Claire held out Ruth's silver phone. "This is the original device. Don't let anyone connected to Vale Development touch it."

Torres slipped it into an evidence bag. "You did the right thing."

"I pushed an alarm because nobody was listening. I don't know if that's the same thing."

"Tonight, it was."

After Torres left, Nina sat with Ellie while Claire stepped into the corridor. She found Lena leaning against a vending machine, a bandage taped over her forehead.

"You're hurt," Claire said.

"Not bad. Your daughter called me a superhero. I didn't correct her."

For the first time all night, Claire smiled.

A hospital security officer hurried toward them carrying a tablet. "Mrs. Bennett? Investigator Torres asked me to show you something."

The screen displayed a traffic camera near the river, timestamped twenty minutes after the warehouse fire. A black car stopped beneath an overpass. Margaret got out. Then a second figure emerged, wrists bound behind his back.

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It was Ethan.

Margaret shoved him into another vehicle and disappeared into the rain.