Chapter 8 - ONE PHONE CALL
Four officers stood outside.
Ethan recognized three.
The fourth was a lieutenant named Mercer.
Mercer smiled.
“Cole. You’re coming with us.”
Knox blocked the doorway.
“Order number?”
Mercer’s smile faded.
“You questioning command?”
“I’m asking for the order number.”
“Move.”
“Not without verification.”
Mercer stepped closer.
“This isn’t your problem.”
Knox looked at Ethan.
“That’s exactly why it’s my problem.”
For several seconds nobody moved.
Then Warden Briggs appeared behind the officers.
“What the hell is going on?”
Mercer turned.
“Transfer order.”
Briggs frowned.
“From who?”
Mercer hesitated.
That hesitation saved Ethan.
Briggs pointed.
“Take Lieutenant Mercer’s radio and badge.”
Mercer stepped back.
“Sir—”
“Now.”
One officer obeyed.
Mercer exploded.
“This is insane!”
Briggs looked at Ethan.
“Get him somewhere secure.”
Knox nodded.
Mercer shouted as they took him away.
“You think this ends with me?”
Ethan stared after him.
No.
He didn’t.
An hour later, Ethan was allowed one phone call.
Claire answered before the first ring finished.
“Ethan?”
“Hey.”
“Oh my God.”
Her voice collapsed.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
“Don’t lie to me.”
“I got jumped.”
Claire went silent.
“But I’m standing.”
“Who did it?”
“Doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me.”
“I know.”
Rosie babbled somewhere in the background.
Ethan closed his eyes.
“Is she there?”
“She’s right here.”
“Put me on speaker.”
A rustle.
Then Claire said, “Say hi to Daddy.”
Rosie squealed.
“Dada!”
Ethan gripped the phone.
“Hey, bug.”
Rosie started laughing.
His chest hurt.
He wanted that sound in his house.
He wanted Cheerios crushed into his carpet.
Crayons on the wall.
2:00 a.m. screaming.
Anything.
Everything.
“Claire.”
“Yeah?”
“Don’t come back tomorrow.”
Silence.
“What?”
“Stay home.”
“No.”
“Claire.”
“No.”
“Somebody threatened me inside.”
“And somebody threatened me outside.”
Ethan froze.
“What did you say?”
Claire told him about Ray’s call.
The rabbit.
The photograph.
The text.
Ethan felt pure fear for the first time that day.
Not for himself.
For them.
“You go to your mom’s.”
“I’m already here.”
“Lock everything.”
“I did.”
“Call the police.”
“They have a deputy outside.”
“Keep him there.”
Claire’s voice softened.
“Ethan.”
“What?”
“The video proves it.”
He closed his eyes.
“You watched it?”
“Dana did.”
“What’s on it?”
“Ray handing Marcus the gun.”
Ethan’s legs nearly gave out.
Three years.
Three years of people telling him memory could be unreliable.
Three years of being told anger might have distorted what he remembered.
Three years of waking up wondering if somehow, somehow, he had missed something that night.
But no.
He remembered correctly.
He had always remembered.
“Ethan?”
“I’m here.”
“The judge scheduled an emergency hearing tomorrow morning.”
His heart hammered.
“Tomorrow?”
“Dana thinks you could come home.”
Ethan looked around the concrete room.
Home.
The word felt dangerous.
“Don’t tell Rosie.”
Claire laughed through tears.
“She’s one.”
“Still. Don’t promise her.”
“I won’t.”
“Claire?”
“Yeah?”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
The call disconnected.
Ethan handed the phone back to Knox.
“What now?”
Knox looked uneasy.
“What?”
“Your wife said the hearing’s tomorrow?”
“Yeah.”
Knox glanced toward the hallway.
“That’s not what I heard.”
Ethan’s stomach tightened.
“What did you hear?”
Knox answered quietly.
“The judge moved it up.”
“To when?”
May you like
Knox looked at the clock.
“Twenty minutes ago.”
