Chapter 5 - The Black Flash Drive
Detective Sloan returned within ten minutes.
I showed her my mother’s messages.
She read them without changing expression.
“Do you know where this drawer is?”
“Yes.”
It was in my parents’ kitchen.
Third drawer beside the refrigerator.
My mother kept batteries, scissors, old receipts, and random keys inside it.
Sloan called another detective.
I listened as she requested officers remain near my parents’ house.
Then she looked at me.
“We cannot simply enter without consent or a warrant.”
“My mother can give consent.”
“If your father allows us to speak with her.”
I hated how helpless everything sounded.
“My husband may have given her evidence before he died.”
“I understand.”
“No, Detective.
My father knows she called me.”
Sloan’s eyes narrowed.
That changed things.
She stepped into the hallway to make another call.
Twenty minutes later, my mother called again.
This time Sloan activated speakerphone.
“Mom?”
Her voice trembled.
“Claire, your father left.”
“Where?”
“I don’t know.”
“Is Mark there?”
“No.”
Sloan spoke.
“Mrs. Hale, this is Detective Rebecca Sloan.
Are you safe?”
A pause.
“For now.”
“Did Ethan Walker give you a flash drive?”
“Yes.”
“Do you still have it?”
Another pause.
“No.”
My stomach dropped.
“What happened to it?”
“Richard took it.”
“When?”
“Just now.”
I closed my eyes.
Of course.
My mother continued.
“He saw the drawer open.”
“Did he know what was on it?”
“No.
Ethan never told me.”
Sloan leaned closer to the phone.
“Why did Ethan give it to you?”
My mother was quiet for several seconds.
“Because he thought Richard would never suspect me.”
That sentence told me more about my parents’ marriage than I wanted to know.
“What did Ethan say?” I asked.
“He came after midnight.”
Her voice became distant.
“He looked exhausted.”
“He asked whether Richard had ever talked about your children.”
My skin prickled.
“What did you say?”
“I told him your father had been strange for months.”
“How?”
“He kept asking whether twins complicated inheritance.”
Margaret looked at Sloan.
My mother continued.
“He asked what would happen if something happened to Ethan before the babies were born.”
I felt sick.
“Mom, why didn’t you tell me?”
“Because Richard said Ethan was becoming paranoid.”
“And you believed him?”
“I wanted to.”
I looked away.
“What else?”
“Ethan gave me the drive.”
“He said if he called me and said the word Yellowstone, I was supposed to take it directly to the police.”
“Did he call?”
“No.”
My heart sank.
Then Mom whispered, “But someone else did.”
Sloan leaned forward.
“Who?”
“Mark.”
The room became completely still.
“When?” I asked.
“The morning Ethan died.”
“What did Mark say?”
“He asked whether Ethan had left anything with me.”
I could hear my mother breathing.
“I lied.”
“I told him no.”
For the first time, she had protected Ethan.
Too late.
But she had.
Sloan asked, “Where is Richard now?”
“I don’t know.”
Then my mother said something that made every hair on my arms rise.
May you like
“But he took his passport.”
*
