Chương 6
Claire stared.
“Why today?”
Ethan did not answer.
She stepped closer.
“Why today?”
“I got a message.”
“When?”
“This afternoon.”
“From whom?”
“Unknown number.”
“What did it say?”
Ethan looked at his phone.
Claire opened messages.
There was nothing from an unknown number.
“Deleted?”
“Yes.”
“Of course.”
“I screenshot it.”
“Where?”
“Photos.”
Claire opened the gallery.
Ethan told her the date.
She found the image.
NO MORE KEEPSAKES. FRANKLIN. 8 PM. COME ALONE.
Daniel read over her shoulder.
“What the hell?”
Claire looked at the timestamp.
3:16 p.m.
“Did you reply?”
“No.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“No.”
“You came anyway?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
Ethan looked at her.
“Because whoever sent it knows about the ring.”
Claire stared at the empty garage around them.
It was 7:51.
Nine minutes before eight.
Daniel’s expression changed first.
“We need to leave.”
Claire agreed.
Ethan shook his head.
“If we leave, we lose them.”
“We are not conducting a sting operation.”
“I need to know who it is.”
“You needed to know eleven months ago.”
“Claire—”
She handed him the phone.
“Call the police.”
Ethan stared at it.
“You call them.”
“I’m not the one who concealed evidence.”
His face tightened.
Daniel said, “Call.”
Ethan did.
The dispatcher told them to move to a safe location and not confront anyone.
They agreed.
Then did not move.
That was the first mistake they made together.
Claire would think about that later too.
How people imagine important decisions as moments of clarity.
In reality, nobody said, We are choosing danger.
Daniel simply looked toward the ramp.
Ethan looked at the clock on his phone.
Claire watched both of them.
Eight o’clock came.
A vehicle climbed toward the fourth level.
Headlights washed across the concrete ceiling.
Daniel stepped behind the pillar.
Ethan stood beside the sedan.
Claire moved toward the passenger side.
A silver SUV appeared around the turn.
It slowed.
Ethan whispered, “That’s it.”
Claire looked at him.
“The same one?”
“Yes.”
The SUV stopped twenty feet away.
The driver did not get out.
The windows were dark.
For several seconds, nothing happened.
Then Ethan’s phone rang.
Unknown number.
He answered.
“Hello?”
A woman’s voice came through the speaker.
“You brought people.”
Ethan looked toward the SUV.
“Who are you?”
“You were told to come alone.”
“Who are you?”
The call ended.
The SUV reversed.
Daniel stepped out.
“Wait!”
The SUV accelerated backward.
Ethan ran after it.
Claire shouted, “Stop!”
He did not.
The SUV swung around the corner.
Ethan disappeared after it.
Daniel followed.
Claire stood alone beside the sedan for half a second, furious at both of them.
Then she ran too.
By the time she reached the ramp, Ethan had stopped.
The silver SUV was gone.
Daniel leaned over with both hands on his knees.
“I’m forty,” he said between breaths. “That was stupid.”
Claire would have laughed on any other day.
Instead she said, “Did anyone get the plate?”
Ethan shook his head.
Daniel said, “Partial. Seven-K something.”
Claire looked toward the ceiling.
A camera pointed at the ramp.
Ethan followed her eyes.
“That one works.”
The police arrived nine minutes later.
The first officer listened, asked them not to touch anything else, then requested another unit.
Within half an hour, the garage level held four officers, an evidence technician, and a detective who introduced herself as Lena Ortiz.
Detective Ortiz was in her late forties, wearing a rain shell over plain clothes. She did not look shocked by anything they told her.
That made Claire trust her slightly.
Ortiz photographed the ring in Daniel’s hand before taking it into evidence.
Daniel resisted for a moment.
“It’s my wife’s.”
“I understand.”
“No, I mean legally. It’s mine.”
Ortiz looked at him.
“And right now it may also be evidence in your wife’s homicide.”
Daniel opened his hand.
Ortiz bagged the ring.
Claire watched the plastic close around it.
A year of grief reduced to a labeled evidence pouch.
Ortiz interviewed them separately.
Claire sat in Daniel’s truck while rain struck the roof.
When it was her turn, she told the truth.
Including planting the ring box in Ethan’s jacket.
Ortiz stopped writing.
“You did what?”
“I wanted to see whether he recognized it.”
“You removed potential evidence from your home, handled it, transported it, placed it in another person’s clothing, then confronted him with it.”
“Yes.”
“That was a bad idea.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you call police?”
“I didn’t know if it was really Natalie’s.”
“You called Mr. Reed.”
“Yes.”
“But not us.”
“Yes.”
Ortiz studied her.
“Mrs. Morgan, do you understand that if this ring proves significant, your actions complicate the chain of custody?”
Claire’s face became hot.
“Yes.”
“I’m not saying it destroys anything. I am saying you need to tell me every time you handled the box and ring.”
Claire did.
Ortiz wrote it down.
The humiliation was useful.
It cut through the adrenaline.
Claire was not solving a mystery.
She was a frightened woman who had made a reckless choice because she wanted certainty before authority.
That distinction mattered.
When Ortiz finished, she said, “Do not go home with your husband tonight.”
Claire looked up.
“Why?”
“Because I don’t know what he’s involved in.”
“Do you think he killed Natalie?”
“I think he concealed evidence in a homicide investigation.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“I know.”
Claire looked out at the rain.
“Where am I supposed to go?”
“Friend. Hotel. Family.”
“My mother lives in Arizona.”
Ortiz waited.
Claire hated that she had no immediate answer.
Eight years of marriage had quietly reorganized her life until nearly every practical thing pointed back to Ethan.
Shared apartment.
Shared insurance.
Shared bank accounts.
Shared friends.
Even her emergency contact was him.
“I’ll get a hotel,” she said.
Ortiz nodded.
“Use a card he can’t access if you have one.”
Claire looked at her.
“That sounds like advice from experience.”
“It’s advice from cases.”
Not the same thing.
Still.
May you like
Claire checked into a hotel near the airport at 11:43 p.m.
Daniel drove her.
