Chapter 3 - The Recording Device
Police arrived eleven minutes later.
Walter suddenly became a different man.
Calm.
Concerned.
Almost grandfatherly.
“It was a misunderstanding.”
Claire stared at him.
“A misunderstanding?”
One officer photographed the chain.
Another bagged the padlock.
Lily stayed pressed against Claire’s chest beneath a blanket from the patrol car.
Walter pointed toward the porch post.
“The chain was never tight. She couldn’t get hurt.”
Claire’s voice shook.
“You kicked food away from her.”
“I was playing.”
“You called her a dog.”
Walter smiled sadly at the officer.
“My daughter-in-law has been under enormous stress.”
Claire almost slapped him again.
Instead, she handed over the microphone.
“This was inside Lily’s coat.”
Walter stopped smiling.
The officer examined it.
“Do you recognize this?”
“No.”
Claire did.
Not the exact device.
The brand.
Ethan used the same wireless microphones for work presentations.
Claire called him.
Straight to voicemail.
Again.
Voicemail.
She opened their family-location app.
Ethan’s phone showed Boston Logan Airport.
But Claire had just seen him running through a suburban backyard hundreds of miles away.
She showed the officer.
“His location is fake.”
Walter laughed.
“Or you imagined seeing him.”
Claire looked at him.
“You’re afraid of him being found.”
“For God’s sake.”
Then Lily started fussing.
Claire carried her inside while paramedics examined her.
Mild cold exposure.
Red marks from the chain pressing over the padded coat.
No serious physical injury.
Claire cried when the medic told her.
Relief and rage came at the same time.
As she adjusted Lily’s coat, something fell from the inner lining.
A tiny memory card.
Claire stared at it.
The microphone had local storage.
An officer inserted it into a department reader.
There were multiple audio files.
Not just today.
One from three days earlier.
Another from two weeks before.
Then Claire heard Ethan’s voice.
Clear.
Close.
“If she reacts the way we expect, make sure the camera gets everything.”
Walter answered:
“And if she doesn’t?”
Ethan said:
“Then push her until she does.”
Claire felt the room disappear around her.
The officer stopped playback.
“Mrs. Hale?”
Claire couldn’t answer.
Her husband and her father-in-law had been planning something.
But what?
Then the officer opened another file.
Walter’s voice:
“Once Claire loses custody, we control Lily’s trust.”
Claire looked up sharply.
May you like
“Trust?”
She had no idea Lily had one.
